Interpretations

It is wierd living in two worlds that are really one and the same.
There is Waterpolo in Hawaii and waterpolo in the Netherlands and trying to do two at the same time was obviously not the best idea. Trying to have serious conversations over the mail is not too smart either, especially when it concerns things you care about. But I guess everyone grows and everyone learns new things by overstepping a line sometimes.

Meanwhile I'm submerging myself in the etiology Abnormal Behaviour and the origins of African Art, but not nearly enough to be up to date with what I am supposed to be learning in lectures in Hawai'i.

Loosing to America wasn't so bad because we knew there was a big chance we would, and we nearly had them! We played well and only because we lost some concentration in the third quarter we fell behind, which really was a shame!
Loosing to Greece the next day however was really worrysome, especially the way it went. It was one of those down-ward spirals that no-one seemed to be able to break though. No matter how hard we tried, no matter what we said, no matter how much we wanted it and had been excited to play well at the start of this game, something just didn't work.

RESET
It is great to have so many Dutch fans to support us, a little orange cloud waving and watching from between the rest of the people. a very difineable sort of people...
The sun decided to shine and people aired out thier heart to one another and found some distracion in things other then waterpolo by roaming around the area.
Possums are rather Q'te animals although they are like pigeons in Amsterdam... used to being fed... This morning everything seems back to how it is supposed to be...

Waking up, grabbing the blue waterfly suit (so nice to not have to think about what to wear), breakfast, a walk around the block, people telling sarcastic jokes about others and catching each other up on gossip and waterpolo at home. We're obviously ready...
We play Kazachstan today, I hope they are too!

Music: Instructions, Neil Gaiman
Quote: "Language is the source of misunderstandings." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!

So Australia it is… I’m not the starting goalie for now, but then I was playing like shit so that made sense. What did not make sense however was that as soon as it was decided I seemed to enjoy the games and practices more and that even though my knee decided to have its own little party I seemed to function better. Wonderful timing! But oh well…
Lots of things going on here, Grand Prix, Saint Patricks day, Worls Champs (obviously) and some big football game for which, I just found out, Australia has different rules then America… I knew it was a weird sport!

Yesterday was the grand opening. Not so grand as I remember Barcelona or Montreal to be but it was still cool. I especially liked the sound simulations from two guys that tried to kill a fly, did a tap dance-off and tried to get rid of a dog by dumping his stick in a taxi. Yeah sounds weird, you should have been there or be part of my family to understand that this was really funny but just trust me on it. Alltogether it took a little long, (important people that needed to talk, a list of famous aussies, and a lot of countries with flags) but it was good to get the adrenaline flowing and to point all our noses in the same direction so to say.

Tomorrow we play against the U.S.A. I think they have a good chance to win World Championships but I think we can make them fight for it really hard. So bring it on!

Music: Permanently my roommates whatever is on a little to loud.

Quote: "Reality is that which, once you stop believeing in it, still exists".

Let my feet, hit the ground. Running!

Dropped my orange shirt on the floor and dug up my comfi and trustworthy once upon a time green pants and my black sweater and went down for breakfast.
This last day I got to run around the area and Amy would come to pick me up.. along with Emily and Kelly. Yay! How homely.. *grins*
As a goodbye comment I got a: “Nieuwe broek gekocht Nooy?” which means as much as: “bought some new pants, nooy?” to which I smiled and let them all walk out the door to go get a starbucks, right next to all the other fun little cafés along that road.

It seems being home did a lot to the Kiwi’s spirits because they were all very excited and smiley.. or do you reckon it was because the got to see me? Or maybe it was because World championships was about to start? Or because waterpolo was fun? You decide..

Went for lunch and then for tea and sat in an entirely orange room on an orange couch! Trying to make a point about this colour guys?? We got to pick from over a hundred kinds of teas and got a big pot to drink from. That’s what I call proper tea. Thank god for the British influence ;)

Then went for a drive to see Emily’s house and drop Kelly off. Couldn’t see Amy’s house at this point so I’ll have to come back for that someday. To messy anyway, right Amy? Instead we went to Piha… which was very much worth the ride. It was rather up and down though something that looked like rainforest but probably wouldn’t qualify.

Piha was an opening between huge rocks where the sea came in rather angry. It was really windy and you could almost lean into the gusts. Didn’t have too much time but ran around a bit and it felt really good to be out and get splashed by the waves (I took the picture right in time ;)). On the way back we got hit by some serious autumn rain. Good rain like the kind that turns the street into a river and makes you barely see the road when driving. I made it home in time for dinner and merged back into shape with the rest of the team again.

Touchdown in Melbourne: 15/03/'07

Music: Evermore, Running

Quote:"How my achievements mock me!" -William Shakespeare

Kiwiland

So New Zealand it is...
I'm sitting here on a bench next to a busstop stealing bandwidth of some unknowing fool.. it's pretty darn fast and pretty fun. Me and my friend Simone decided this was more effcicient then paying a whole bunch for it in the hotel. we are soooo bad!

NEway.. so far so good.. the flight was pretty long, but between the two times 12 hours I think I kept my self pretty well occupied with either sleeping, wtahcing movies, reading (Psychology) and eating stuff. They managed to put me and one ather girl pretty much on the other side of the plain, so not with the rest fo the team. first I was kind of buggered but at least now I only had myself to occupie, and when I felt like being social, the other side of the plain is not that far away!

I saw, Happy feet which was quite a cool movie and hmmm well it was a good movie,...\ LOL but twith chinese or something , undertitles so sometimes hard to follow.

Today we played England, 20-1 and yes that one got scored on my in the last quarter :S (we play two quarters each for now) and then tomorrow against germany and then finally against New zeland... kinda interesting playing against my Hawaii teammates!

Still feel I need to fix 100 things in the way I\play, the level feels slightly above me, but that might be in my head as well.. I think my expectations of me might be even higher than those of others. Anyways.. it is good being back and I'm most definitely enjoying practicing at this lever again!

I hope I have internet in my room in Australia
will be back with more soon!

Oh and the pool here in New Zealand is very pretty!
Good thign we get one day off, hope I get to hang out with Amy and see some more of this country!

"Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."

...he had 10.000 men

he marched them up to the top of the pool and he marched them down again.

Okay it wasn't 10.000 but it was at least 2000 people that came to watch our game against Italy, and I knew and awefull lot of them too!
I got to play the second half, and usually I don't mind that, but by the second half I had worked myself into such a sytate of stress that I couldnlt even swim with my head down because I coudnlt breathe. I know silly.. and definitely a first for me! I played shitty.. (at least I think so but the worst I got form someone else was that it wasn't one of my best games.. shit happens) and then, I could blame it on the jetlag... on playing to games in L.A. and not swmming down before hopping on the plain, on the broken rib or whatever you wanna blame it on. But of course I expected a miracle and one of my best games yet ;)

IT is good fun playing ont he National team again, I'm not having too much trouble fitting in and everythign works so beautifully well! Like defense for example.. I barely have time to call anything because people generally know what they are doing!

Home is great too, although I feel like all I do is sleep here. The local television channel has decided Im interesting filming material so they will come by in a sec and follow me to Zeist (the pool we practice in) Urgh.. I hate camera's!, I had to get a medical check up, and I'm generally kept busy.

Tonight I get to hang out with a good friend, have a breather and then get back on track with washing and packing and I really want to go see some more friends but I'm not sure this trip was meant for that!

It was really hard to leave my team in Hawai'i, but they did win the last game they played which is great! feels wierd to have them play without me though. Glad some of them keep in touch and.. me updated!
I'll be back in April!