The UK Saga: Part 3

First and foremost, we beat Scotland 13-6. More on the game to come, but wanted to get it out right from the get-go. Also we're now in Limerick.

Before I start any updates I need to make sure I write about the tour rules up to this point. I keep meaning to write them and then I forget each time, so I wanted to make sure I did it this time right away. 1. Each time you enter the common room of Drake you had to do some sort of movement to announce your entrance. This provided a lot of motivation to get into the room early so that you could watch the creative entrances. Some funny, impressive, lewd... 2. You have to eat meals with different people (on a side-note to that one, I think the coaching staff have violated that rule at each meal, and are in for a surprise if they think were letting them off unscathed) 3. No bed head, or bed-face (this can best be described by Ham on the first night we were in Scotland) 4. Fashion-faux pas - need I say more? (Crouse tried to argue that my bright-blue superman tights fell into that category, but it was hard to support when our fine-master had some pink paisley tights she was wearing) 5. No leaving your personal belongings at practice or around in general (Hale managed to leave every article of her clothing in the locker room in Netherdale - wonder what her fine will be) 6. I think the last rule was no sharing of TMI (too much information). This one was most regularly violated by our boisterous Mari and Phaidra. These rules are all fineable (most of the fines will be public spectacle I think).

Okay now that I got that out, I can actually finish the update. So, when last I left it was with going to bed on Friday night. Friday night I decided that I was going to sleep with my earplugs in and almost slept through breakfast. That would have been very sad for a prop :( On Saturday we had a bit of free-time before the game. The non-rostered players went to the gym with Michelle for a little workout. And I am actually quite intrigued by the game they describe as "Tiger Ball". After I packed up all my kit gear, I went over to use the computer to do yesterday's entry and then went and ate lunch. After lunch we loaded onto the bus for our little jaunt down to Galashiels. I get very crazy immediately before games if I spend too much time thinking about the game, so I just spent the game with my mind wandering aimlessly through the guilty pleasure of Maxim magazine (I know it's awful, but it serves it's purpose). Other folks zoned out listening to music, reading, sleeping, etc. When We arrived at Netherdale Stadium we had a bit of time to watch the men's match before getting dressed for our match.

After we got dressed we headed out to a side field to warm-up and then it was back into the locker room for final prep. Everyone was very pumped to finally get this tour kicked off, and the intensity was awesome as we all stood listening to the national anthem play. I actually would not do justice to describing the game, so Iam just going to let usa rugby do it. The game description is at http://www.usarugby.org/cgi-bin/02/press/displayFullAnnouncement.pl?announcementId=265 . I can tell you that it was a sloppy game at times, but a win is a win is a win. I felt pretty good about my tackling, but was definitely frustrated by the fact that I let the ref get into my head and throw off my scrumming for a while early in the match. It gave me an important lesson in learning to adapt in the face of things not going wuite the way you expect. On a side note, Phaidra wound up with a pretty heinous injury (she tore her tear duct) and will need to have that repaired. She was highly entertaining on her pain killers :)

After the match we all showered and headed to the Galashiels clubhouse for a dinner with the Scottish women. It was a good meal and our "percussion performance" went off without a hitch. The Entertainment for us came when our new caps, Claudia, Ham, and Trucano, got their "caps" (tartan berets of sorts), went skipping around the banquet to the singing of the Scottish women's squad (we joined them after we figured out what they were saying) "Skip around the room, skip around the room, we won't shut up till you skip around the room". I personaly thought they were saying "skipper in the room" and had no idea what that meant. So I was glad to have it explained. After that we all boarded the bus to make the journey back up for our last night at the HMS Caledonia. When we got back we all did some packing and tried to clean up before falling into a comatose like sleep.

Sunday morning was really chaotic, as we tried to eat breakfast, clean, pack and get on the road to head to Glasgow. I was really tired so as soon as the bus was loaded and on the road I fell asleep. So I missed the adventure that was us going to the wrong airport first before discovering that there were two airports in Glasgow. The airport we flew out of looked like something that Rainbow Brite would live in and was decorated with the phrase "Pure Dead Brilliant". Does this seem like a wise marketing choice to anyone? Why don't they just name the airlines that flies out of there Crash and Burn Air? Either way the flight was uneventful and we landed at Shannon right around 1pm. Once we had gotten all our luggage, we loaded yet another bus to head to Limerick.

Oh, I almost completely forgot. So, at last writing I think I had mentioned the packing fiasco of possibly mailing things to Ireland, possibly mailing things back to the states. Well, neither of those happened. Instead, it was decided that we would load the bus in Scotland and it would then go via ferry to ireland and would drive down to Limerick with all our stuff. I only remember this detail now because that bus just arrived and we were able to get to all our luggage again. How entertaining!

Once we got to Limerick we checked into our hotel, Castletroy Park Hotel. It is definitely much nicer than anything I am used to. Each room has a double bed and a single bed, so me and my roommates had to figure out a democratic system for deciding who got their own bed. We opted for drawing cards, whoever got highest got the bed. I sunk it with the Ace of Hearts. Whoo hoo! Then it was down to the pool for a brief recovery session, which us tight-fivers turned into noodle-racing, and underwater wrestling. But it was nice and relaxing and just plain fun.

Dinner was at 5pm. It was a real treat, we had an awesome meal with crystal glass-ware, waitresses who put your napkin on your chair when you get up, etc. Definitely happy about that. A fed prop, is a happy prop! After dinner we had a meeting, where we watched last night's match (after some slight technical difficulties - and several downloads of user manuals, etc). Watching the game from the outside really showed some places where we had really not capitalized on huge opportunities. So, I have a feeling we will be working on all that stuff tomorrow. After the meeting everyone scattered to get ready for bed, go get treatment, work online. I hit up Sara for some work on my shoulder that was feeling a bit tender and crunchy from yesterday's match. And then I came to room 133, the manager's den so that I could get this thing all caught up. And now I am! Yeah! I can go to bed and get ready for practice tomorrow (9-11:30, and then again 1:30-4:30)... though I'd be lying if I didn't say that I am very excited about breakfast after the dinner that we got. The way to my heart... Also, the squad for our match against Ireland will be announced tomorrow morning, which I'm sure has everyone antsy and curious and speculative. We'll see how that goes. Alright, now it is time for me to go to sleep in my single bed and put my earplugs in to save my sanity.