Continued...again

Elephants in Munich!
Downtown Munich-Karlzplatz
Marienplatz
Italy
The girls! Eve, Erin, Britt and I in Melschsee Fritt

Long time it would seem with no talk! Sorry about that!

We have been traveling so much lately it has been very difficult to find time to blog!

Right now I am having a day off in Kirchberg. But before going into that let me tell you about what I have been doing lately!

I was in Chamonix for a day and a half. We managed to train slalom, watch the World Junior Womens SG Race (our team mate Steph Irwin came 10th!!) and I was able to get my wrist x-rayed before we left. My wrist has been bugging me since Maria Alm. Slalom is extremely painful and since the pain level was increasing the team doc and the physio agreed it would be a good idea to rule out any fractures. Successful was had and I did not break any bones in my wrist! It seems that I have done something to the ligaments instead which is better!

The hard part about it all was actually getting the x-ray done!! The night we were there I got it checked out by the team doc and we decided to go get it x-rayed after dinner. So by 8 we were on the road to the nearest hospital. When we pulled up we noticed that all the lights were off. It turns out the hospital was only open 9-6. Fairly interesting considering it was in a big ski resort area! So after some deliberation we decided to continue to the next nearest hospital which was about 30 km's away. Some serious windy roads later we arrived at the hospital. It was open! We walked into the emerge area and tried to explain in very broken french that I had hurt my wrist 7 days ago, it wasn't getting better and that the team doc wanted it x-rayed. Let it be said right now that the hospital was completely silent and empty. The attendant at the desk went to get the doctor so we stayed in the triage area. While he was away a lady came in and demanded to know what was going on. We told her that another person had gone to get the doc. She asked if it was "le garcon" and upon hearing it was so rolled her eyes and asked more questions in very broken English. As we were explaining the situation again the doctor came in and shooed the women away. The doctor did not examine my wrist at all she just explained that at this time of night (9pm) it would be very difficult to use the radiology equipement ("you are a doctor you understand" she said to our team doc Dave who is an ER doctor from Thunder Bay) "We are not some private radiology clinic....come back tomorrow morning when it is more convenient" We explained that I couldn't come back in the morning as I was training then leaving. Still the answer was no. It was a interesting experience to say the least to be refused at an empty 24 hr emergency clinic. Obviously the French medical system is very different from our own. So the next day after training in the morning we went to the first hospital and got it checked out. I was told to were a brace and ice to help it out.

That day myself and Eve Routhier left for a few days off in Munich. It took us about 8 and a half hours to drive to Munich. In that period of time we passed through 4 countries (France, Switzerland, Austria and Germany)! Our first day in Munich we completed a VERY important task...we did our LAUNDRY...in an actual washing machine instead of the sink! It is amazing how clean our clothes were and how good they smelled!!! It was a definite highlight! After finishing the laundry we took a bus and the S-bahn train into downtown Munich. We went to Marienplatz and just walked around and looked at the beautiful building and clothes in the shops. We passed four H&M stores within 3 blocks! We went out for pizza and ended up watching our team mates Erin's 2nd run at World Juniors slalom on TV in a sports store. Our second day we went to the zoo were we saw Elephants, Giraffes( we pet ones nose), Gorillas, Snakes, Moose, Chimps, Baboons, etc. It was really fun! When we returned to the hotel we were joined by the Alberta Womens Team and their coaches Mike Necesanek and Chris Mosead (Mosey). THe next day we travelled to a town called Speilberg ( I think that is what it was called!!! We were skiing in a place called Gaal) for 2 GS races. These were not very successful races for myself so I will move on. We then went to a place called Krachauebene (Pronounced Crack-cow-eh-ben-eh roughly). We raced against Maries Schild...and it was only a FIS race. It was an ok race series but my wrist was not doing very well and was really painful. Made it very hard to concentrate on skiing fast when it was all I could do to keep putting my hand up to hit the next gate. For the second day we had to go to a public bib draw for top 15. This was my first time participating in a bib draw. It was preceded by the coaches meeting and a traditional dance from the area complete with the chopping of a log incorporated into the dance!! The dancers were young leiderhosen wearing men who seemed to really take their yodel-howling very seriously. It was quite cool actually to see a traditional dance...not many of those in Canada!! For the bib draw 15 little boys and girls were marched to the front of the room hiding bibs under their coats and sweaters. Our job was to chose the little child which we thought would have a good bib. It was hilarious discussing before hand with the other girls which little kid we thought would have the best bibs...Eve decided to go with a little kid who looked "cool" and drew bib 2. Britt decided to go for one who she thought might otherwise get picked last and she drew bib 11. I decided to go for the short cute factor and came away with bib 13. It seemed the tall kids were the ones with the good bibs. I guess I will know for next time! The second day I starte right after Marlies Schild. I don't think I could have asked for a better visual of the course than that! Hilariously the leiderhosen men from the night before showed up at the race having not yet gone to bed!!! They were smoking cigarettes and drinking beer still but I don't think there was any other part of their brains still working...they were really out of it! Very hilarious but also very smelly to be near. They were getting the girls in the finish line to sign the inside of the flap on the front of their leiderhosen. It was very good entertainment to watch the expression on the girls faces when they asked for them to sign their flaps! From Krachauebene we drove back to Kirchberg! Today was great. I did nothing but go on my computer and go into town for some groceries and coffee. Looking forward to doing that again tomorrow!

Until next time!

Elli

P.S. here is a video I made of the average day in the life of a ski racer in Europe! Enjoy!