Astrid's Blog Post- Ostia (August 6th)

The words that lie ahead depict the happenings of the third day of our time in Ostia and the beginnings of the highly exciting hours spent sitting in the stands at the pool... This morning we were awakened by the always classy sound of my Rack City alarm at 7:30am, an hour before we were supposed to depart for the pool to watch duet prelims. In theory this is plenty of time to get your ass out of bed and get out the door, but according to the rest of my family it is just enough time to lay in bed for 20 more minutes before being forced out of bed by yours truly. While they were panicking that "time is running out and we NEED to go soon", I was trying my best to keep my comments to myself about lack of organization (especially that of Britta, not gonna lie). To be fair, she hasn't had to experience the precise to-the-second punctuality expected by Jenn Tregale in the synchro world. When I was swimming I know I wasn't always a fan of what I would potentially have to encounter if I was late for practice (especially if we're talking about a 5:30am torture session :) ), but now I can safely say that I appreciate the organizational skills and the ability to drag myself out of bed at inhumane hours. So thank you Jenn!! Back on track... When we finally made it out the door at 8:50am (insert eye roll here), we caught the metro to the pool and settled into the stands where I proceeded to sweat off my deodorant after approximately 5 minutes of sitting in the sun. Throughout the event I became increasingly disgusting and literally had huge beads of sweat trailing down my legs and accumulating between my boobs. Wait a second... What boobs?!? I decided to remove my shirt for the sole purpose of flaunting my abs. Just kidding, I was trying not to drown in my own sweat, although the ab thing sounds far more glamorous so let's just stick with that story. My sweaty plight aside, duet prelims was quite exciting and to top it off Canada killed it and came second. Once duet was (FINALLY) over, we walked back to the metro station and while we were waiting for the train mom read us the "daily update" that was sent out from the national team coaches about their experiences at the competition. They had included the figure draw in the email, and the figures that the girls will be swimming on Saturday are called "side fish" and "albatross". Yeah, I know that synchro figures have stupid names. No wonder people make fun of us so much. Anyhow, Britta clearly wasn't listening to the context of the conversation when Mom read this part out to us, because upon hearing the words "side fish" and "albatross" she exclaimed, "Oh, that sounds delicious!" Let me tell you, I have done synchro for a grand total of 8 years and Britta has been subject to many conversations regarding synchro figures and the like. I can guarantee that she has heard those words tossed around more than a few times and yet she has proven that after all of this time she has learned nothing! To quote Nicki Minaj, what a "stupid ho." (Don't worry, she said I could write that). That aside, her comment was certainly the highlight of the day. :) Upon arriving at the apartment we all had some snacks that we were storing in our mini fridge, including blood orange juice. It's really too bad that this isn't carried in chain grocery stores in Calgary because this stuff is like drinking Beyoncé's tears. The only thing that would make it better would be having the honour of drinking it from between the ridges of each of David Beckham's 6 beautifully defined abs. But seriously people, this juice is incredible. I recommend checking out the Italian store in Calgary to see if you can find it because it is just that delicious. Once we were done eating, Mom and Dad left to go into Rome for a few hours to tour the inside of the Colosseum. Britta and I stayed behind to cool our internal body temperatures down to normal and to be lazy for a while. Mom and Dad returned in time for us to commute to the pool once again for team prelims where Signa was going to be competing in-pattern, not watching from the side. So that was exciting! However, it did mean that I was forced to come face-to-face with my arch-nemesis once again: the sun. The team swam pretty well and I avoided burning myself which was a noteworthy moment for me. Once team was over we ditched Signa with her team and went for dinner near our apartment. This was fairly uneventful except for the fact that when I was drinking my orange juice what seemed like an extra long piece of pulp was sucked up the straw. Upon further investigation I realized that what I thought was a harmless bit of orange was actually a skinny tentacle of some sort. As it turned out this was also harmless but was absolutely disgusting. Now it is off to bed so this queen can get her beauty sleep! ;)