Thoughts on a bus.

Yesterday we left Chania and rode a bus with the Greek team along the coast of Crete to the town of Heraklion. We will be playing a four team tournament called the Thetis Cup in the coming days.

The drive was beautiful. The road followed the coast most of the way, making only a slight detour inland, once, over a forested rocky pass before opening back up to the blue Agean Sea and the sparsly inhabited shoreline. I found myself wondering about the houses that popped up here and there. Some were older. Almost worn right into the surrounding rusty red and white rocks. Vines of grapes or olive, creeping along the house rooting it to the spot. Who lived in those houses? Had it been passed down through generations of Greek families? Was it just a summer home or somone who had lived on this island their whole life? Occasionally, a brand new "modern" looking home would be proudly standing on a cliff with the most amazing ocean view, terraced vines planted adjacent to it in a square garden plot. These homes stood out to me. While beautiful and certainly of the calibur of someone's dream home, immediately I thought "Was it a wealthy American who built that?" I hoped that whoever did build it, lived in it and appreciated the amazing setting they had aquired for their home. It would be sad if it were just a possesion for some foreign person to say they have, but rarely use.

I have come to enjoy the atmosphere here on the European islands. While things are worn and used well beyond their intended years......you can tell that the land, homes, cars, churches, everything really, is loved. And that comes through in the locals hospitality and friendliness. For example, most people here do not understand our intrest in the internet. The hotel we are staying at does not have a computer or wireless connections. Things are simple. Bed. Toilet. AC. :) When we asked about internet they simply pointed to the left and said, "But the beach is only half a block away. Why do you need this?" We politely said ok and decided to go on down to the water to cool off before afternoon practice. It is HOT here and they were right, sitting inside is not where we wanted to be! When we got back to the hotel later that night, sitting in the corner of the lobby was a computer all set up and connected to the internet. So while I'm sure the owners of the hotel will never use the computer, for this hotel is what they love, it was incredibly generous of them to make us feel more at home. :)

Lucky for me so I can post while I am here!

Getting connected on the road.

Lately I have had an overwhelming urge to just throw my computer against the wall. Stupid thing is not cooperating. All my teammates are writing e-mails, chatting on IM, posting on blogs or Facebook. While I battle with the Network Diagnostic settings and pray that this time the server will actually connect to the four strong bars of wireless nothing I am connected to. I feel like I have tried everything and am still no closer to my goal of contacting everyone at home.

That wall is looking enticing again. 

I know the flying bits of plastic and computer innards would give me an instantaneous bit of joy, but then I would realize I no longer have my favorite toy and my ridiculous display of aggression had really accomplished nothing. For the internet gods will NEVER tango with a pile of broken computer parts. 

So I bit the bullet. Swallowed my frustration over being unable to master the computer skills I needed to simply connect to the net on my own computer and borrowed my teammate's that is working like a charm. I guess that is the spectacular thing about traveling with 14 friends. There is always someone there to prevent you from doing something stupid. Like throw your computer at the wall. 

We have been on the road for a little over a week now. Last post we had played one game of the Super Final. Loads have happened since then. With the "hit or miss" internet, games and travel I have fallen seriously behind. But here is a short recapitulation of our adventures since then. 

1. Beat Russia, China, Canada, and Spain in the preliminary rounds of the tournament.

2. I turned 30!!!! (On Friday the 13th! It was a great day....no need to think that day is unlucky.)

3. Placed second in the tournament after loosing to Russia in the Final 8-7. :(

4. Visited Puerto De La Cruz, Tenerife. Highlights- black sand beaches and salt water pool resorts!

5. Spent half a day in Madrid, Spain.

6. Flew to Chania, Crete, Greece -where we will train against Greece for a few days.

So that about brings you to right now. I love to post pictures and will do that if I ever get my computer to cooperate with me again. I'll stop threatening to throw it at the wall and see if that helps! Back to training......

Ocean Views

We are staying at a very nice hotel here in Tenerife. And much to my pleasure, when the keys got handed out to all the pairs of roommates, mine belonged to a room facing the Atlantic Ocean. So a deep blue band of water reflects and beckons to us from down the hill below us. We are not located beach side or anything.....but the glimpse of the sea in the morning is a treat. As you look out our window you can see the nice terrarium built full of sun loving plants and cacti, and in the distance the sweet band of blue.

It is hot here during the day. And cools off a bit in the afternoon when winds begin to pick up and bring cooler air from the ocean. Our games have been at 4pm or later every day. Good thing because without the breeze, warm-up (which happens next to the pool under the white tents-see below) would feel like being in a Bikram Yoga Class! But I suppose this is great preparation for being in China,in August. It will be sweltering then!

The pool is just a short walk from our hotel and also has a great view of the ocean!

Let the games begin!

Our first game of the Super Final was today. We played Australia, and won 10-9! (If you would like to read a more
"play-by-play" version of our games, please visit the USA Water Polo Website or Brenda's blog) That style of writing is not my forte.....so I will stick to giving you all the other fun details.

Last night the city of Tenerife hosted an Opening Ceremonies extravaganza at the pool. They announced all the teams to be playing in the tournament this week and then presented a show of the local Carnival dancers. Words will not do these people justice. So you can watch a sampling!!! The energy, the costumes, the dance moves!

AHHHAAAHHH! The video is not uploading right now because the internet is sooooo slow.....check back and witness the spectacular!!!!

:)

28 hour travel day....

LAX to Chicago. Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany. Fankfurt to Madrid, Spain. Madrid to Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. One of our longest travel days to date! But I have never been here and the destination has turned out to be well worth the trip! We have come here to play in the World League Super Final. Which is just the final stage of a round robin tournament that is held every summer, to give the teams from around the world a chance to play against each other. Great place to hold the final....Thanks Spain for hosting it!

Right in the middle of our journey here, while some were passed out on the most uncomfortable of airport seating, the rest of us allowed the delirium to take over. Jamie got out her apple and we had some fun with photo booth.

The only way to get through a travel day like that is to laugh.....uncontrollably....even if everyone stares at you. :)

Bonding Bonfire

Most of our days are filled with little else other than eating, sleeping and playing water polo. I am lucky if i get a load of laundry done once in a while. (A half an hour laying on the couch catching up on a recorded episode of CSI or Survivor seems way more appealing than sitting on a bench in a laundry mat watching clothes tumble round and round. Good thing I have at least 40 t-shirts to cylce through.) With a schedule like that, day after day, for months things can get a little monotinous. So it is imperiative that we stay focused on our goals of playing well come game time. In order to do that we MUST stay together as a group and enjoy what we do and each other. Good team chemisty does not just happen. We have to work at it and spend time getting to know each other away from the pool.

The latest team bonding session was a post practice bonfire. We roasted hot dogs and sausages on skewers, made smores (try an exotic flare and use reeses pb cups or butterfinger instead of plain chocolate!) and we wrapped bananas, with chocolate and marshmellows in the middle, in tin foil and roasted them in the flames! DELICIOUS!  Try it!!!!

I'm a Lenovo Olympic Blogger!!!!

I was recently asked to be a part of the Lenovo Olympic Blogger Program. What is that you ask? 

Well, Lenovo (a Chinese company, based in Beijing, that mainly manufactures personal computers) has asked athletes from all over the world to blog about their experiences leading up to the Olympics. They will feature our posts on their "Voices of the Summer Games" site. So, everything I post here will automatically be posted there as well, allowing people from all over the world to read about my life leading to the Olympics! You can find athletes of many different countries and sports on the site as well. Giving everyone an unfiltered, real life account of what it is like to be an Olympic athlete. 

You can easily find the website by going to the right hand side of my blog and clicking on Summer Games Blogger in the blue box, underneath the Olympic rings. (I also included the link in this post. But for future reference.....) Lenovo also sponsored a web page of all things Olympic. You can find that by clicking 2008.lenovo.com in the bottom of that same blue box. 

I am really excited that my blog may be getting a little bit more traffic....thank all you family and friends who have been faithful readers of my randomness....and, WELCOME NEW FOLKS!!!!!  To get ready for this I decided to enlist my good friend and computer/photo shop extraordinaire, Darcy Couch, to help me spruce up the look of my blog. She helped me....ok, she pretty much did it all...make a new header that looks AWESOME. All I did was offer a few creative ideas and send her the photos. In an hour or so she produced the masterpiece up see at the top of the page. Props to you my friend!!! She is Sports Information Director at USC and let me tell you she is the reason their media guide, websites and all things media are so FABULOUS. They are lucky to have her! 

Thanks to Lenovo for letting me be a part of this! Happy reading to all of you! 

Hello Conor!

Hey there little man! Isn't he just adorably red and squishy! :)
This picture was just after he was born. Sleeping off the exhausting travel he made into this world from that warm and comfy water bed he inhabited for 9 months. I am heading to Seattle to hang out with him and his proud parents this weekend. Meaning there will be many more photos to follow!!! He is definitely a Petri.....look at the size of those feet!!!!!

IT'S A BOY!!!!

My brother, Brandon and his wife, Susanne have welcomed a baby boy into the Petri family today!

Conor Brandon Petri
born at 4:20pm
8 lb 3 oz.
21 inches long
Big hands and feet!
Reddish hair!!!!

I can't wait to see the little guy! And I will post pictures as soon as they come in. I'm an AUNT!!!! I am going to spoil him rotten. It is my job. I HAVE to be the cool Aunt. :)

The Year Of The RAT

It is a RARE occasion when a normally scheduled practice is cancelled. So you can imagine my surprise when i get a phone call on my way to practice. Caller ID says it is my coach.....what does he want, mear minutes before I am to arrive at the pool?

Coach- "Hi Pete, There was a rat found in the pool today. They shocked the pool(super chlorinated it) and the health department is here to inspectl, so they have officially closed the pool. Practice is cancelled. Will you call all the girls and let them know. So they don't show up."

Me-"Oh yes, sure. No problem. See you tomorrow then."

I hung up and started screaming. As did my two teammates(we car pool- saving the earth one trip to the pool at a time), yet they didn't know WHY yet. No practice. No practice! A mad dash to grab phone from purses, screams, three conversations at once, a rush of adrenaline- that certainly was not there as were headed back to the pool for practice #2, at the end of the week, of arguable the hardest week in training thus far. A whole three extra hours in our day, where we were not required to do any physical activity! This was a gift. A sign from the spirits.....and hey, maybe the Chinese are trying to tell us something. 2008 is the year of the Rat in the Chinese Zodiac. We needed a rest and the Rat gave us one!

How did I celebrate this monumental occasion? Got a large Pinkberry (green tea with mochi, strawberries and blueberries) and then went home to sit on the couch for a while. Followed by three loads of laundry, a vacum and dusting of my room. Finally, finishing off the day with an episode of Survivor. Exciting I know. :)

P.S. may there be no more rats in the pool because all the chlorine has now burned all the hair off my arms, given my skin a chemical peel and dyed my hair more blonde. i am scared of long term effects.

SoCal Sunsets

100 degrees in April makes me want to move! Then I see one of these.....

The Bean

Prior to my recent trip to Chicago when someone said "The Bean", I assumed they were referring to the glorious coffee chain The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf that sells those delicious things called "Ultimate Ice Blended Drinks". 

I went to Chicago to attend an Olympic Media Summit where we spent 12 hours answering questions for journalists, filming short bits for the NBC Olympic telecast to be aired in August, doing still shots for the media and a few on-camera interviews. I have never done anything like this before and it made my head spin. We had our day scheduled from 7am to 9pm. Which room to be in and how many minutes for each interview/shoot. After fielding the same question (ie. What do you feel about the situation in China and the recent protests surrounding the Torch Relay?) multiple times, I realized that everyone wants you to slip and say something controversial or catch you in an awkward statement they can edit to use as they will. Meaning you had to be on it and focused the whole time. Exhausting! 

Which is why I figured a little adventure outside the walls of our hotel was just what we needed. I googled the area and saw The Bean printed smack in the middle of the park two blocks from the hotel. I was curious. If it wasn't coffee, then what? This is what it is.......

It is a huge metallic structure made of highly polished stainless steel plates and it weighs 110 tons!

I went directly underneath the arch in the Bean and laid on my back, placing my camera on my stomach on timer. This is the result. See me- that tiny star fish shaped thing on the left. Find my reflections on the right. A hand here. Leg there. 

WHO LIKES ICE-CREAM????

I DO! And I am thinking you do too. So get yourself to a Baskin Robbins tomorrow, from 5-10pm for 31 cent scoops!!!!!! AND eating ice-cream is for a good cause tomorrow.....they are lowering prices to honor America's Firefighters! 

This will rival the price of a Thrifty(or Rite-Aide now, i think) ice cream cones when I was little. We would go down to get triple scoops for less than a dollar every sunday night. Those were the days! And lets revist them. :)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Here I Come!!!!

China Slideshow

China Recap

Here is a belated picture montage of our trip to China last month. We went to Beijing to play in the Good Luck Beijing Tournament held in the Olympic venue we will use in a few months. The Chinese people were conducting a trial run of how the Games will be run. To work out the glitches. And we used it as a way to aquaint ourselves with the pool, and routine that we will use come competition time. Plus on days off we got to do some touristy things. We saw the Great Wall and then went on a scavenger hunt which encompassed almost all the rest of the major monuments.

Scavenger Hunt Highlights:
1. Taking out a person on a bike when our taxi pulled over in a bike lane. Opened the door to get out.....oops.
2. The Temple of Heaven is massive. (look for me in the bottom right of the picture....i look like a miniture.)
3. Playing a version of hacky-sac with some Chinese people in the gardens surrounding the Temple.
4. Going in a rickshaw through the Chinese "ghetto".
5. Bartering at the Pearl Street market.

I added a couple pictures of typical chinese things we saw while there.... the potty is just a hole ....the "Bird's Nest" is the stadium built for Track and Field and the Opening Ceremonies.......and does that guy not look like he and his pile of sticks are about to get strewn all over the highway?