All Canadian Physio House!!!

It took awhile to agree to this housing arrangement but Becks and I have officially agreed to move in with two other Canadians. Tam and KP already live together and will have two free rooms available so that saves us from going through the hassle of looking for a place. The flat is pretty sweet and you can't beat the convenience around it. The thing that closed the deal was the massive trampoline, that's right I will soon have a trampoline in my backyard.

If it seems like I'm trying to convince you that this was a good decision it's because I am. We were a little hesistant because Tam and KP are a little more on the stressful side, if you get my drift. As all of you know I am anything but a stressful person. It'll be interesting to see how I handle this. Don't get me wrong, I think Tam and KP are awesome and amazing people but I just usually diverge away from stress.

When we were trying to make a decision, it totally brought me back to the Waterloo days. When Becks gave me the power to decide for the both of us, this saying immediately popped into my head. That's right, as Shims would always say, "why do I always have to wear the pants in this relationship??" hahaha...Some things will never change...

Now that I've had some more time to think about our decision, I'm excited and looking forward to this. All of my future flatmates are from the West Coast of Canada so I took the liberty of calling them The West Coast Girls!!! It's got a good ring to it eh!

Yah bring on the All Canadian Physio House...

Sweet, more postcards...

I've always enjoyed receiving postcards. It means someone is thinking of you while they are having an amazing time experiencing another culture. I have never received so many postcards until I moved here. Half of them are from Canada but that's besides the point.

This past week I was lucky enough to receive two postcards. The first one I got was from the great city of Toronto. It had a view of lakeshore and a great view of the Expressway. Ahh, the memories of driving back from Waterloo on the Expressway. Love it Shims, Thanks!!!

The next postcard was very cool, from NZ. Have anyone ever heard of Zorbing?? From the looks of it, you're enclosed in this air cushioned ball and you run around in it. I'm not exactly sure how it works but it looks like a lot of fun and some amazing ride. Jaws you're gonna have to explain to me how this zorbing this works. Do you get rolled upside down and in all directions as the ball is rolling or do you stay upright?? I've gotta try it... Thanks for the postcard Jaws!!!

Bike Shop

Awhile back the manager at my rez offered to lend me his bike for the rest of the term. The bike was left outside one of the units for a few days and he took it. No one ever claimed it so it was his. The only problem was that it didn't have any chains, pedals, and no air in the tires. Minor details...I was pretty excited about the bike because they had shock absorbers and I've never ridden a bike with absorbers before.

Well the other day, my housemate and I finally got all the equipment and borrowed all the bike tools to assemble the bike. The bike I got from the garage sale has better tires so we decided to put them on the new bike. Well I rode the new bike to training and damn was it's slow. It might have been the wind but it felt like I wasn't even moving and the bar is so low that I have to lean really forward. Yes, yes I shouldn't be complaining since I was greedy and wanting two bikes. Well now I kinda want to use my old bike again but I don't want my housemate to know since it took us so bloody long to put it together. I'll give it a week or two before I switch the tires back.

Season opener

We had our state league season opener tonight and this was the league I was a little worried about. I look at these players and they're all so good and so sharp. You look at all the teams and there is not one obvious weak player on the team. It's amazing to be part of something that good. Sometimes I feel as though I don't belong and just lucky to be on the team. Originally they told me that there will be 16 players on the team but I found out on Wednesday that there are 13 players and only 4 are outfielders. As a first year player in the state league I was expecting to ride the bench, not start for the defending champions.

My first experience playing softball was a few weeks ago in this state league tournament and I didn't get a hit all weekend long. Hence my worry for tonight's game. The coach changed my normal stance to a wide stance so I don't take a step anymore. It went well tonight. The opposing pitching wasn't fast at all so it helped me get back into it. I made some good contact, bunted on base, it felt good. Unfortunately we lost. There were just a few mental errors that cost us the game. It went into internation tie breaker, which is always exciting. I've waited so long to be part of a tie breaker and since I started the softball season here I've already been part of two. It's something about this country that's given me new and exciting opportunities. First, playing ss and now international tie breaker. Anything can happen...

Tomorrow I have another game but for club. Half of our state team plays for the same club team so it'll be good. And the opposing pitcher is our teammate on the state team. She doesn't have a nasty change-up like Jaws so it's all good.

It's so early in the season and my biceps is killing me already. This has happened before and I use to have to get an arm/shoulder massage to help the pain. There's got to be something to fix it other than rest. Hmm, maybe a shoulder rub down by my fellow physio classmates???? It worked for tonight...

Slowly converting...

It started with opening an Australian bank account, then a few months later I got a tax file number and a working visa. I'm slowly getting more and more settled in and soon I'll have almost enough documents to pretend to be a permanent resident. The other day Becks and I went to get an Australian driver's licence. We're officially allowed to drive here. The scary thing is that Canadians are exempted from writing a driving test even though we drive on the opposite side of the road and we don't have roundabouts. It seems a little dodgy, as they would say here. I guess everyone does trust Canadians.

What's next?? Maybe we'll start using their endless sayings...Naw, that would require me to actually understand them first. But we did have an urge to go back to our roots so we decided to visit the Canadian embassy. I wanted to get a Canadian flag or something Canadian but they didn't have anything. They're the Canadian embassy. You would think that they would be required to have some Canadian stuff. Oh well, I'll have to get stuff imported here.

How am I still able to move??

I've been riding my bike a lot lately and going to a lot of baseball/softball practices. Doing all of that and the combination of not stretching except for during the warm-ups have made my muscles extremely tight. I've never been the most limber person and have always been borderline tight but it's getting quite embarrassing.

In class we've been practicing doing initial assessments on each other and one of the tests are muscle length tests. Just comparing the results from last week to this week I can feel that my musles have seized up. How is it possible that I'm not walking around like a robot or maybe I am and no one's saying anything...

You know it's ball season when all I talk about is...

It feels like I haven't blogged in awhile. I've been so busy with extracurricular stuff and my internet been causing me problems. When I turn on my computer, I have to move the cable around until I get a connection. It's like moving the antennas of a tv. Hmm, maybe if I wrap foil around the cable it will help my connection...If only it was that easy eh...

Alright so I went from having no ball or very little ball to a LOT. It's great because I finally feel as though I have a lot on my plate and that's when I excel the most. Don't get me wrong, school alone is enough to keep one busy but this just helps me focus.

I'm officially playing for three softball/baseball team and just to diversify myself I'm also playing social basketball on Tuesday mornings. There's A grade softball which is the highest level someone can openly sign up for and then there's this State League team. It's quite an exclusive league because there's only 6-8 teams and you have to be invited to play in this league. Everyone's so good that I feel as though I have to be at the top of my game at every single training session. The softball season doesn't start till next week so we'll see. My teammate told me that there's a huge difference in skill between A grade and the B grades, and also between A grade and state league. I really don't see how because half the state leaguers also play A grade but we'll shortly find out.

Now to my baseball story:

The alarm goes off and it's bloody 6am. The game starts at 9am so naturally we have to be there an hour earlier for warmups. Since I don't have a car and no one lives by me, I have to ride to my teammate's house to get a ride. It's way too far for me to actually ride to the diamond.

Alright 6:40am and I'm all set for my warm-up ride. Two minutes into the ride, still on the campus grounds, and it starts to rain. Just keep riding, maybe it'll pass by. Sweet it stopped raining or at least it felt like it. No wait, it's starting again and this time even worse. All I can think about is how this is some kind of a punishment for betraying my former team and walking out on them. For what it's worth, a wise coach once told me that it's not really the game that's important, it's the people that are on your team. You can play the game anywhere if you really wanted to. It's played all around the world, as I have proved, but you can't always play with people you really gel with on and off the field. That's such a great perspective and so true.

Back to my rainy ride...The worse part is that I might even be allowed to play because I don't have a clearance form which every player needs from their former team if they switch teams. People here are obsessed with paper work and do all sorts of things to make it seem so professional. The ironic thing is that they suck at this admin stuff.

Twenty minutes into the ride and now officially soaked, I decided that the smart thing to do is call the coach and ask if the game is cancelled. My poor used bike can't handle the risk of any more rust. Coach says that games are only cancelled if there is lightening or thunder. He doesn't realize I'm on a push bike.

Fourty minutes later I get to my teammate's house and it stopped raining. See, punishment I tell you and well deserved in my opinion.

We finally get to the game and I find out that not only am I allowed to play, because they never fully registered me last season, but I was also the starting short stop. I had a faint idea that that's where he was going to play me since he never played anyone else there when I did show up for training.

For all you readers out there who know me as a player, you know playing infield is big. Back in Waterloo, I'm not even allowed to participate in infield practice let alone play there in an actual game. To be honest though, I much preferred to have been in the outfield. My teammate from last season was trying to convince him to put me in the outfield because she knows that's where I work best.

Ready for another shock?? Of all places in the batting lineup he puts me in the clean-up spot. This baseball thing is seriously messing with the reputation that I've always had as a softballer. New country, new game in baseball = new player identity...Don't worry I will never change my cocky base running mentality...

We ended up winning 5-3, against the two time defending champions. I still don't think we have a really strong team other than the 4 or 5 of us but hopefully they can prove me wrong. This is so different from softball where every single player could easily be an all-star or MVP for Waterloo.

I have more ball stories, softball ones this time, but I'll leave it for next time.