Sunday 23 February 2014

Check it out

Finally after 6 months of being here I got to see the northern lights. They have been active all week and so on Wednesday night we drove out to Farmers loop where you can see them from all directions. They dance around alot and sometimes they even go purple.


Of course this photo doesnt do it justice. Heres an article with photos taken from on and around campus.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/uafairbanks/9-beautiful-pictures-of-the-northern-lights-ligv

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Conference Champs 2014

The nanooks came out better than they ever have before. Third place against some really high quality competition is not to be sneezed at. Considering we don't have any divers to score points there is really no way we can beat UCSD or Cal East Bay, so we'll take a third. 



All in all a week in the sun was probably the highlight. I can't say my swims went fantastically. As coach says, you cant fake a mile, or a 1000 for that matter. My training has been hindered for a while, while they try and sort out my shoulder. The last thing I want to be is 'one of those kids with a sore shoulder' but toughing it out and continung to train wasn't working. Its the end of the season now so we can put a real plan in place without having to worry about racing anytime soon. On the bright side I made 'all conference' in two races. The 1000 and 500. If you make A finals (top 8) you are all conference. I also made a B/consolation final in the 200.


We have 4 people basically guaranteed to go to nationals now, and one maybe. I really hope for her that she gets go, we train together a lot and she works hard. And it would also be cool to go to Ohio. School records were broken and even a meet record in the 200 medley relay. Everyone scored points and most people did a season pb. For those of us that are done, its a good way to end the season. For the rest of them theres 4 weeks to fine tune everything before nationals.



Its not all swimming. I got to see mum. She came over for the week and we got to hang out, much needed after 6 months since I left NZ. She got to meet the team, And she got to experince all the american problems I encounter daily ie ordering food and not being understood by shop assistants and people on the phone. Im really glad she came, but its funny not knowing when im coming home next to see them again.



If you want to check out some more detailed results, go the alaska nanooks page where we have also been writing blog posts for each day. Its going to take us all day to travel back to school and then we get back into it at 9.15am on Monday!


Thursday 13 February 2014

"Welcome back to the actual part of the country that matters"

A friendly comment from my American cousin.
Were down in Los Angeles for Conference champs, the final wrap up for the year. Its a 4 day meet with 11 schools and about 300 swimmers. The last chance to qualify for nationals in a month.

We arrived here on Monday evening, via Seattle, where it was raining surprise surprise!



We had a short layover, around 45 minutes. It was just enough time to get a photo by the winning team statue. Go Hawks!



First taste of California since we were here a month ago was rush hour traffic. We made it to the hotel in about an hour, only because the car was red, and everyone knows red cars are faster!
Then we had dinner at a pie place. But no pies for us until Saturday night though!
We are racing today (Wednesday) and you can check up on us from the SwimPhone website.
Also, if you get sick of my blogs, you can check out what the other girls have to say. The media guy has come with us, and so he will be taking heaps of photos and compiling a blog from our adventures.
Alaska Nanooks Swimming Blog

1000 and 800 free relay for me this afternoon.

Monday 3 February 2014

Groundhog Day/ Super Bowl Sunday

So you've all seen the movie Groundhog day? Phil the Groundhog from Pennsylvania comes out of his borrow on the 2nd of February. If he sees his shadow he'll go back in and that represents 6 more weeks of winter. And that's what he did.



Next big day was Superbowl Sunday. Who will be the world champs? Funny since this sport is only played by one country.



So we've got the Denver Broncos vs Seattle Seahawks. I don't want to be one of those people that jumped on the bandwagon, but I did start 'rooting' (in the American sense of course) for the Seahawks after they beat my San Francisco 49ers in playoffs. The Broncos supposedly have one of the best Quarterbacks in the league, Peyton Manning. The poor boy can't play in the cold however, so it was a total walk over 43-8 to my Seahawks. With the Broncos scoreless at half time life was pretty calm at our camp.



Superbowl Sunday is big tradition, some consider it a national holiday. There's food on food on food (im sensing a trend in American holidays) and the halftime show is definitely one of the highlights. Bruno Mars, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and lot of strobe lights.



Congrats to the Seahawks on their first ever Superbowl win.