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hello :)
Valencia, Spain!
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
6:42:00 pm
This is an intial update, up till race day for now! :) No pictures, YET! Really beautiful place. Long and boring update. Just my thoughts and how everything went. It's for YOU :)
26 May
Airport: Me alone :( Jiwen called! I feel like I was going Laos all over again! With my faithful addidas sling bag and a bomb bag with all my barang barang.
Plane: Rearranged. Sat beside coach and Angie! Watched Le concert. Interesting show. Hard to hear good music cuz of airplane earphones. Alot of focus on violins anw. Squeak squeak? Nah not my cup of tea... But French! Nice to hear all the French in the airplane! Food was awesome! FISH! GREEN BEANS! MASH POTATOES! BAGUETTE! Baguette was awesome awesome awesome! Really good! Then I went to sleep at 1+am and woke up in and out until 6+ and then took some ice cream and sandwich from the back. Leg stretch! Refused to sit down. Angie woke up and we joined Coach behind talking to this French lady outside the toilets. Pretty interesting conversation on life and work. Live life for the moment, while you're still young.
27 May
Yummy breakfast! Bread bread! Hot chocolate! OOooooo! Orange juice!
Surprisingly our transit allowed us to step OUT of the airport! PARIS AIR! We bought train tix to Paris city centre but only had like 20-30mins of gallivanting around Paris before having to sit the 30+mins train ride back to the aeroport. But it was interesting cuz we got to see the city in the train, and the ppl weren't tourists but normal everyday ppl taking the train to work. People watch! Graffiti is really everywhere! But it's like a work of art! Really nice stuff actually!
We were so worried we were gonna be LATE! Boarding time was 0920 and plane takes off at 1005. We got off the train around 0935? And we did a run/sprint to the terminal. It was REALLY funny! Cuz we were all wearing our track pants n top, carrying TYR bags, and running for our lives. Funny too, cuz we're all "sports" ppl so everyone was able to run for that pretty long stretch without dying. We reached and had difficulty getting in cuz we couldnt find the correct gate and language barrier! In the end, they let us thru another way, and the funniest thing was, flight was delayed for an hr! Found out reason was cuz there was a strike by the air controllers or something. But we all agreed we had fun on our mini run! And Angie's bright pink bike box was so outstanding we could easily spot all our bike boxes loading onto the plane hehe.
Food is so expensive here! Reached Spain. Pretty hot weather! Waited awhile before heading to the university for accreditation. Used Ash's handsome face to get AGUA! MORE! 6 pack! We were only able to reach our accomodation area for lunch at 3+++++pm. Time is 6hrs behind, and if you do the math...... that's a really long time without food. Port Saplaya. It's LOVELY! Words won't do it justice. I took pictures. Will upload. Our balcony overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. LOVELY really.
The girls took one apartment with the guys opposite us. We had 3 rooms with 2 beds each. I roomed with Angie. Kitchen with fridge, washing machine, oven, microwave etc! TV, balcony....
It was sooooo windy and cold on the first day! Food was good tho! Salad boxes with every meal. You must be proud of me, I ate tomatoes! Hehe. And Angie's love for olives! Olive donation box.
After lunch and bike unpacking (for the very first time), we went for a run. It was really cold and windy and took some time to warm up. Fun though! The others must think I'm mad because I was so happy! The area's such a quaint little town. Really surreal! Air is lovely. You don't sweat! And most of all, it was really awesome to be able to run with a group of ppl who're ur speed. HOW FUN CAN THAT GET :) By the time all that was done and dusted, it was 8+ and we had dinner at 9+. The sun only sets at...... i dunno.. 10? at 9+ it looks like it's 7+ and 8+ it's BRIGHT! It rained though and so it was cold....... Bed was immediately after!
28 May
Woke up to see dawn on the horizon of the never-ending sea at 6+. It's bright already! Angie is like a mummy! She scolds and sweeps bread crumbs out the balcony. Oh, we like to kope food from the canteen. Especially the bread! Angie's Bakery. So, got into the wet suit (not bad, with some help from Angie and Zhiyun) and out into the water. COLD, OH SO COLD! It's like when your head goes down, it's so hard to breathe! Toes and fingers and numb! After awhile you get a little more used to it. It was really fun swimming with everyone! So easy to float in the wet suit! And the beach is so shallow for so long. You still can stand even so far away. Wet suit is sooo useful. Keeps the body really warm and nice :)
After the swim, we showered and washed the wetsuits and had breakfast. It's really cool cuz everyone has late breakfast too after the morning workouts! It's really nice cuz when you look out, you either see ppl swimming in wetsuits in the water, going out for a bike ride, or run! REALLY cool :)
After breakfast, we changed, pumped tires and went on our bike ride! The guys brought us out into the streets. Pretty fun though slow going cuz of the cars and the bumpy roads. 1hr into the ride we were gonna head back cuz coach needed our passports n matric cards before the next meeting for more verifications. So strict. We were all very sad cuz it was so short and we wanted to go another loop. But....... guess what?
WE GOT LOST!
So the ride was extended, much much hehe. Round and round all the roundabouts, each one looking the same! Till Commando Liang amazingly led us back! So it was close to 2hrs of riding. Practised transition for sometime and watched how Lemin taught Zhiyun what I learnt just a few days before! Pretty cool to see how the things I learnt can be taught in the step-by-step way, compared to the jump-many-steps way of the sister! (Which I certainly didn't mind the least bit actually) It was late by then. (Getting used to the late lunch and dinner times of Spain)
There're SOOOOooo many dogs in Valencia. All sorts! Big, small, tall, short, skinny, fat, hairy, woolly, long body, short legs... ALL SORTS! And there's dog poo EVERYWHERE! They don't clean them up! It's EVERYWHERE!
After lunch, we went to the supermarket to get our AGUA supplies! Important, most important! I love the company of the team hehe :) We were suppose to rest for 1hr to run at 530. But Angie and me ended up talking. And the guys came over to use our TV. So we went out to watch Giro, but the ads were on the big screen for like 10mins+! From 20km left to 10km........ We thought it'll never end.. the ads that is.
Just as the race ended, and we were suppose to run, Coach came back from meeting and gave us our briefing and race pack stuffs. #35 it will be! By the time it was over, it was pretty late and i was clearly dead beat so I gave the run a miss. Showered, packed my stuffs and did laundry instead. It drizzled again and got really cold and windy.
Everyone was getting nicknames! I like to call Zhiyun as Srene. Pronounced as Zhiyun, said very quickly that's all. As for Sumiko, she became Sums, courtesy of Angie haha! At least it's not Miko or Koko, she says. Angie's full of funniness! And she's like a mummy, so naggy, taking care of me! HAHA. And Sumiko too took care of us, and so did Lemin! Nice ppl :)
29 May
Watched the sunrise today. It was dark reddish orangeish! Really pretty! Went for a run with Angie and she brought me to where she ran with Josh and Ben yesterday, away from the boring looping around the apartments. But cuz of wet puddles from the previous day, we took a different turn. Passed by all the farmland. Vegetable patches. Lettuce! Artichokes? Watermelon patches! Ooooo. Morning glorys dotted the surrounding grass bank leading into the river where we saw many ducks! Familes too! Mummy Daddy and baby ducklings! Sooooo cute! I could just run on forever!
After breakfast it was rest time. We had early lunch. Then brought the bikes down for bike check. Which took only a few seconds. Then headed back up to lie ard a little before meeting at 230pm downstairs for our bike recee route. To the race site we went, and all of us were left guessing where was bike in/out run in/out cuz there was no one to tell us anything and no signs! Point here, point there.... Hmmmmm.... Met Sissel who's from the Virgin Islands and is the only one here! SHe rode with us! THe pace was pretty fast. And after the police ride, the others wanted to go another loop so off everyone went before we could figure out what was happening. Our spore grp was a little broken up so in the end we turned back and followed the car bringing us back. The car was sooooo inconsiderate. They were going SO fast! When we went up this bridge thingy the wind was SOOOOOooooo strong I reALLY felt like I was blown backwards. Hardly moving at all! The winds were really strong most of the way. Seems like that every afternoon/evening! Sailing oh sailing!
Back at about 4+. After showering, it was time to report downstairs at 6pm for opening ceremony. Really nice and amazing! Ppl walking on stilts. Juggler. Dancers were amazing! Dinner was late tho! Thank goodness we, being KS singaporeans, hurried to the dinner area and were among the first, so we could eat earlier (8pm), and get back up to pack for tmr. Only slept at 10!
I was so worried I'll get my thing today. But I've been praying and so have my friends and I kept telling myself to trust in Him! Don't keep going to the toilet to check! Just, TRUST!
God's love never fails. Because come race day morning, no, nothing! :)