Hello everyone! Or Should I say Hiya, which seems to be the more commonly used way of saying hello here in Scotland.
After a very exciting win over Trinidad and Tobago yesterday our team had a rest day, which started off with a team walk and stretch in the grass area that features a contemporary looking lochness monster.
Immediately after we hopped into the ice tubs where we were expected to sit quietly for 10 minutes. Some of the volunteers even pointed out that we looked very calm for sitting in ice cold water, but when you take an ice bath everyday, your body gets used to it.
This then gave me an idea to present the argument that ice baths are counter productive and that we should come up with an alternate solution for our recovery. Despite this being a genius idea, Elliot our physio, would never go for it because he seems to love the idea of making us sit in ice cold water for lengthy periods of time.
Shortly after the ice baths, a group of us headed into town where we met up with our parents to go sightseeing as we had the entire day to ourselves (Thanks Ian!) Edinburgh was the destination and we were very excited to get some time to explore Scotland, especiallythe Edinburgh castle.
We hopped on a 45 minute train, which had Free WIFI so we could already tell the day was going to be great. The castle was amazing and the views were spectacular but the highlight of the day was definitely having tea and a slice of cake served to us in the castle. This concluded our castle explorations and we continued on down the Royal Mile, which is the street that leads up to the castle entrance.
This street is filled with souvenir shops, cashmere shops and of course Kilt shops, which have all the tartan patterns you could ever imagine! After being super touristy and buying a few things for friends and family, watching a street magic show and taking a ridiculous amount of pictures of random cool looking buildings, we then started searching for a place to eat Dinner.
A big meal, a few more blocks of taking touristy pictures and a 45 min WIFI filled train ride home we have successfully made it back to our rooms in the Village, where I feel like I’ve come home. (That’s how long we’ve been here)
You realize you’ve been on tour for a long time when you begin to refer to the village as home, or when you start to sound and speak like your roommates. I began to miss them a little bit so I sent a text out to my roomies to check in and see what they were up to, and how their day was? Spending a whole day apart was just too long. Teams that dance at rugby games together, stay together.
If anyone would like to see the videos, give my Instagram and Twitter a follow @psandhu10. It’s definitely worth it!
Due to these reasons a rest day was well needed, but now we’re back and ready to focus on the next challenge, which is our game against New Zealand.
Our game vs Trinidad and Tobago was a great display of the positive steps our team has taken, but also highlighted the areas we should continue to work on.
The cool thing about being in an environment like the Commonwealth Games, is that we are constantly surrounded by amazing athletes who inspire us to work even harder. We’ve met so many individuals and heard various stories, which have definitely touched us in one way or another.
As a young team this experience has opened our eyes to what we are capable of and that is an exciting feeling.
Thanks for all the support and kind messages from back home! We really appreciate all the love.
Til next time.
