In the city....

We are now in the city! It is so much different from where we were. Taipei kind of reminds me of New York. Yesterday, we went to go get our IDs so we can get into our games and practices! We saw some of the Russian women's players. There was a lot of tension during that because in 2005, they were the ones that we beat in the championship game. They came in 2nd place. Anyways, it was tons of fun getting our IDs! Our hotel is amazing!! We have a rain shower! I LOVE THE FOOD HERE BECAUSE ITS AMERICAN FOOD!!!! i was so full after dinner last night, it was my first time being full the whole time I have been in Taiwan. Breakfast this morning was delicious, of course! This morning, the women's team went to go work out in the gym at the hotel for a hour and half. Then after lunch, we had a scrimmage against the men's team. We played okay. The men's team have there first game tomorrow morning at 9:30. We won't be able to see it because we have training tomorrow. Then on Saturday, we have a 9:30 game and the opening ceremony that night, i think, all i know its that day sometime. I love Taipei, Taiwan!!! There are advertisements about the deaflympics in the city; on the buses and posters everywhere about it. 

check for more soon. 

GO FOR GOLD!!!!!

no name....

sorry i had no time to be around the computer. yesterday, in the morning we had training, we didn't play that great but the last 7 minutes we played awesome! then we were going to have a scrimmage in the afternoon session but then it got stormy! so the girls, we played ping pong!! i know, how does that help with us? well lets just say nothing! but the men were in another room with coach and they did some drills then we switched with them and they played ping pong as well. so basically, we had free time for the half of practice then the other half, we played indoor soccer in a dance room haha. Today, we had a morning session, the coach decided that we do the scrimmage in the morning because you never know whats going to happen in the afternoon, rain? anywhos, we beat the men's team!!!!!!!!! we were awesome!!! we had so much spirit! we had our heart in the game but then the afternoon session, we had another scrimmage against the men's team, that didn't go so well, they beat us. we don't know what happened with us but we have to figure that out fast because we need the team that beat the men's team this morning! the heat is still crazy! but i am not here to complain, it is a good thing we are getting used to the weather. I am sooo pumped for our games! i may not seem like i am all pumped at practice but i really cannot wait for our games! I love the game but not so much on the practice! haha. tonight, the women's team is going to have a girls night, we are going to have a competition with each other by playing water pong! haha. then after that game, we are going to see whoever goes to the bathroom the most. It will be awesome!! tomorrow night will be our last day before we go into the city. The men's team have there first game on the 4th and we have ours on the 5th. the opening ceremony is on the 5th. 

I love being in the deaf world! i love taking my implant off and not worry about who's calling me. I am learning so much sign language! I love all of my USA teammates including the other teams! they are all awesome! 

check for more soon. 

GO FOR GOLD!!!!

next day....

Well training was definitely the first day of hell! We were suppose to do a fitness test but we never did that because basically that is what we were suppose to do over the summer, stay fit. This week is the only time we can train together before the deaflympics so we are not going to worry about the fitness, well kind of. But the weather is awful!!!! Very humid!!!! When we were finished, I was soaked, like I came out of the pool! No kidding!! One of our players (Shaq) had to stop playing because she threw up and got dehydrated! One of the men's players (Brandon) had to stop too because he got sick. In the afternoon, we played against the boys, well that went o.k. They beat us, 4-0. We have a lot to work on. We really didn't play well as a team but we can work that problem. I played center mid and I did alright. I have been playing forward for my club team so its a big change. Our team also needs to think positve because when we were getting scored on, everybody just kind of gave up so we need to on pushing each other and tell each other to not give up, the game is not over yet and keep going! But guess what, we get to play against them again today for our afternoon session! So yay, revenge time!! We have two sessions a day. We have 3 more days till we drive back to the city for the deaflympics! 

I didn't bring my camera but almost everyone on my team has been taking pictures. So I won't be able to put pictures on here but I will show whoever wants to see them when I get home. 

GO FOR GOLD!!!

First 3 days

Hey ya'll!!! 

Well let’s just say I officially hate flying over sea! My first flight was to Charlotte (that was not too bad...it was only a hour flight) then my second flight was to L.A, which was about 4 hours. That flight felt long so that basically tells you how did Anna survive on the flight to Taiwan? I had 2 flying buddies, one from my women's soccer team (Felicia) and another from the men's soccer team (Mike). So when Felicia, Mike and I got to L.A (it was about 11 am), we had to find our bus and go to the hotel that we stayed till 1 am for our flight to Taiwan. I had so much fun in L.A because once we got to the hotel; we met the other players from the other USA sports. That day, we had a pizza party at 6 pm with all the USA teams. It was amazing to see how many deaf people there are because I have never seen so many deaf athletics in a huge room. After meeting all these new people, we all became close. Now it was time for our flight to Taiwan, which was a 14 hr flight. That was so miserable!!!! Well kind of. So when we first got into the air, everyone on the plane went to sleep! So that was good for me because I was exhausted! I slept for about 5 hours but I remember moving so much because the seats were sooo uncomfortable! After the 5 hours, I could not go back to sleep, it was too difficult. So I walked around the plane to stretch my legs and some athletics were awake so I started talking to them. What I mean talking, a lot of them were signing and moving there lips at the same time so I didn't have a hard time understanding them but some of them were like me. I met this guy named Danny and he is 6'5" and I assumed he was on the basketball team but it turned out that I was wrong. He is our # 1 fan! I was so shocked that we have a fan who came to just cheer for us. Okay, now here comes the worst part. I hate airplane food! So after seeing them put food on our tray and giving it to me, I got sick immediately! I could not handle the smell; I had to get them to move it out of my face before anything comes out of mouth. So I didn't really eat that much on the plane. They had fruit so that was good for me because I LOVE fruit! Anywhos, I had like no energy! The staff on the plane was so nice; Felicia and I went to go and check out the first class and the staff let us talk to the pilots, which was cool. Our plane had 2 levels, which was neat! Okay, I am going to stop talking about the flight, we finally got to Taiwan which was awesome because when we were walking out to the bus, there were so many reporters and cameras everywhere!! the police had to back them off! It was weird! when both of our soccer teams reached the bus, there were 2 police escorting us out. They were with us the whole time until we got to our hotel. The bus ride was 3 hours! But it didn't feel like that at all because all of us started talking and laughing! it was tons of fun! After the first hour, we stopped for a bathroom break! I went to go to the bathroom, there were over 50 individual bathrooms at this place, half of them had toilets but the other half were holes in the ground. It was interesting. Then we went inside the building to get food. All I got was water. While I was there, I realized if you order pasta, they microwave it, they don't cook it. All they had was Chinese food, I am not a big fan of Chinese food. We got back on the bus and cont. driving. On the bus, some of the players were teaching me how to sign language, that was tough for them because it took forever for me to figure out what they were saying to me. They wouldn't move their lips, all they were doing were just signing so I could learn better. But it was fun learning. So finally we made it to the hotel!!! We got our luggage and went up to our rooms and fresh up for 15 minutes and come back down to get lunch. My team, the women's soccer team, went to go get lunch and we went to the food court at a mall. All I ate was a bagel, they did not have any food that I liked! I was miserable. Then after lunch, we went to go warm up just for 30 minutes. The men's and women's soccer team, we all went on a run then stretched for a long time! After that we went to take showers, I WAS SOOO HAPPY AFTER MY SHOWER!!! i felt so much better, i haven't had a shower in 3 days. by the way, we missed Thursday because we were in the air...weird!!! Anywhos, after cleaning up, everyone (all the USA teams) went to go have dinner in the lobby of the hotel. Dinner was good! i actually ate alot of food. I was starving!! The men's soccer team taught me how to use chopsticks....they were getting frustrated with me. oh well! eventually i got it! after dinner we had a meeting. I fell asleep during the meeting so I had no idea what it was about. oops! then my roommate (Laura) and I went back to our rooms to go to bed. We realized that it was only 730 pm and we were exhausted! we slept for 11 hours straight! oh also i forgot to point out that there beds are so hard! it is like a rock. when Laura and I ran to our beds, we never bounced back up! not cool! but we got to sleep well! this morning, breakfast was very good, they still had some weird, fun-looking food but they had some American food i guess you can say. now in a hour, the women's soccer team is about to go train. then after our morning training we have a scrimmage against our men's soccer team which will be fun because we love playing against them! 

Get ready for more posts soon. 

My Introduction.....

hey ya'll! I have 14 more days left till I go on a 23 hour flight to Taiwan! I am sooo nervous but I am very very excited!! I cannot wait to play against other countries!! I mean its already weird enough for me that I am going to be playing against China and Russia. Also its weird that I cannot wear my implant during the game and in the locker rooms but that's the whole point of the name of the olympics, " DEAFlympics". Anywhos....once I am in Taiwan, I will keep all of you updated and put some pictures. Ya'll will see more pictures once I get back home so no worries. Also ya'll can watch my games on
http://www.deaflympics.tv/
I am #7 on that Team playing Center Midfield. Remember we will be 12 hours ahead. We play our first three games on Sept. 5, 2009 at 9:30 am (Sept 4 at 9:30pm for you), next on Sept 7th 9:30am (Sept 6th at 9:30pm for you), and the next on Sept 9th at 9:30am (Sept 8th at 9:30pm for you.) You can go to http://www.2009deaflympics.org/
to check out all info regarding the future games & times.
Finally I just want to say thank you for all those who donated money to help me get to my amount for Taiwan.
Cannot wait to update ya'll when I am in Taiwan.

GO FOR GOLD!!!

Anna/Smitty