Melbourne.

Playing against Melbourne was well just wet. It was great to see Kendall. And as you can see in the photo above that was the midfield three from Central Coast last year. We were beasts together. A little sad we all weren't playing together again but nonetheless it turned out to be an interesting game.

It started raining in Melbourne the day before the game when we had arrived. I was thinking with all the rain there was going to be no way that the pitch wouldnt be under water. Guess again? I think the grass is just different or something but you didnt even need to wear screw-ins! The ball would skip a bit but you wouldn't lose your footing ...well at the start.

The first half was ok. We didnt play that great, we gave up a pk, missed a pk, but scored two goals. The second half was worse. With the torrential down pour it made it hard to kick the ball a mere five yards without it getting stuck in puddles. Then to make matters worse the ref suddenly ran off the field, was violently ill, and subbed herself. The fourth official who came on I guess was not paying attention to the entire game had no idea how much time was left and so we played a total of 65 minutes thats without adding the time the ref disappeared, the time their keeper was down ...I'm guessing the entire second half lasted about 75-80 minutes and it was pouring rain!!!! I was so miserable and never wanted a game to end quicker! We scored two more goals making it 4-1 which was a positive.

This is our keeper Demi, who played great despite the nasty weather conditions.

Heres a link to more facebook pictures from the game:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2292207&id=12706129&l=8935585d44

movements.

in the harbour.

Wollongong.

Since I have arrived in Australia the weather has been crazy. It was rainy when I landed, then blazing hot, then hailing and raining again to freezing cold. I guess this is what spring is like here! Good news, Australia is no longer in a drought so we can flush the toilet and drink water!



Well, yesterday was our first scrimmage. I keep saying scrimmage and everyone here looks like I'm saying something wrong. I guess they don't use the word scrimmage ...sounds too much like the rugby word, scrum! Anyway, it was fun to have a game with the girls and to get some of the travel out of my legs. The drive was beautiful coming into Wollongong, as you can see from the picture. We are still missing our national team players who are playing against Germany in a friendly. However, it was nice to see some of the girls that I had played with last year with Central Coast Mariners. Its funny how fast a year flies! We ended up winning 5-1. I scored on a free kick that sneaked in after everyone initially jumped to head it, screening the goalkeeper, I'm guessing. I'm so sore still and I guess 25 hrs on a plane will do that do your legs!

This week we are preparing for our first game against Brisbane. Its the same teams that were in the finals last year so it will be a pretty exciting opening match. We are training at the New South Wales Institute of Sport which has amazing facilities and I'm excited to be able to use all that it has to offer. It has a great weight room, cold tubs, hot tub, sauna, and kitchen/lounge with food!

Well I'm off for make-your-own pizza night! We did this last year and it was so much fun!

I miss you all!
love life choose JOY!
Lydia

Travel day has arrived!

4 days left until Australia.

5 days left until Australia.

Writing.

I have never like writing before. In high school, like everyone else, I was required to take English. Mrs. Thomas was my English teacher. She was very wise, modest yet witty and had a passion to teach. She could be a character in a movie. Rarely showing emotion and always demanding the best from you. Every once in a while you would get a tiny smile but it would quickly fade back into the seriousness of the literature. I wanted to do well in English so I could have a good GPA, so I could impress Mrs. Thomas but other than that I loathed it.

Upon arriving at college I quickly chose a major that had nothing to do with English, writing, essays, literature, or all of that. I chose computer science. See, I love science and math. Ah problem solving. Its great. Little puzzles all day. Learning how to solve a suggested problem while being efficient, resourceful and timely was my job. I loved coding. I also, as an emphasis, studied spanish. I loved, and still do, the culture and have taken spanish my whole life so i wanted to continue studying it. Knowing me I would forget it easily so I had to continue! Anyway, reflecting about my college time I came to the conclusion that I love languages. I learned the ins and outs, library after library of different computer languages, how they're built, syntax, semantics, variables, and functions. What it all comes down to is that I have a passion for language. Naturally the idea of english classes, literature, essays, term papers, and gatherings of ideas all makes me go crazy. However, coming to the conclusion that I'm quite good at languages makes me want to write. Although I hate it. Yes I know. Weird.

Maybe like how your taste buds can change my love for "writing" will change. But as my teammates would say, "dont get crazy" so I wont promise anything. I love blogging when I get inspired. Sometimes I journal. Sometimes I paint. Sometimes I have to draw. Sometimes I get ideas to create businesses. Its this creative bug. I'm not particularly good at painting, or drawing, or writing or any of these but I enjoy it and I feel compelled to do it. For example, I will get a yearning to paint and it wont go away until I satisfy it. Anyway, I dont really know how i got off on this tangent but just some background info on my personality :)

so where were we .... yes, writing. So my friend recently presented me with the idea of a writing prompt. She would chose the topic and we would write about it and then share and read each others reflections. I joyfully agreed then the thought quickly passed into my mind how i dont really like to write. I tried to push those thoughts out of my head and thought that this was a "cool" idea. So a couple days went by and I, to be honest, forgot about the assignment. My friend asked me how it was coming and i smiled and she knew. "You haven't done it yet, huh," she said. She knows me oh too well. So just to prove her wrong I felt the urge to do this. But once again it quickly left my mind. See I have to be passionate about something to write, feel compelled, on fire, with no one to listen so I'm forced to write it down or type it out. Which now leads me here.

Today I decided to blog about this so-called writing prompt. I sit down at my computer. Get a cold summertime Chicago ale out and think this is it. Then I start to think, which quickly gets sidetracked by updating my blog profile, adding new gadgets, etc. Oh the geek in me. Okay! So I start thinking, reflection, pondering, and wondering. This got me to where I am now. Thinking about english and writing!!!!! But its that the point of writing prompts. They give you a direction and you go with it. I just started typing and this is what came out. Maybe next time I'll actually do the writing prompt.