66 days, A celebration of half way through "the good life"

Its been a really amazing 66 days into the program. On Friday March 16, we reached the half way mark in our program. We celebrated the day with a hike up Mount Finlayson, followed by a Lunch at Jacks up Bear Mountain. It was the perfect day, we can all agree with that. The day started off with meeting the coaches for an activation session at Goude field. Now not only do we have an amazing team, but we definitely have personality. The personality of the day awards go to Andrea Burk and Barbara Mervin who showed up in their Friday best. Andrea Burk looking like she had just parked her skies and strolled onto the field in her very dated two toned fuchsia and purple wind breaker, dressed with a head band and tights. Barbara Mervin graced us with her presence wearing a very flattering Blue with Yellow trim and print track suit, worn by the Kazakhstan team at the 2010 World Cup.
There was talk at lunch the day before of wearing tight and bright as a theme for our hike, but those two decided to get the day started early, and practice that theme for our activation session. Defiantly put some light on what started out to be a very rainy and miserable morning!
After the activation we had a video session in the board room. The video session was followed by a compilation of a lot of our success's in the past year. It was a great compilation made by Sandro. He did a very good job, we truly appreciated that, thank you.
For those of you who may not know Mike Chu, he is the High Performance Director for Rugby Canada. He joined us at the end of our video session to say a few words. You can often find Mike coming around to lunch or a session asking "how you are doing, are you enjoying everything, is there anything we can help you with?" Mike is a very genuine person and we are all very pleased to have him with us, sharing his vast knowledge and driving us forward. Your kind words sending us off to Hong Kong were greatly appreciated by all. Thanks Mike.

Meeting adjourned, and we are off! All wearing tight and bright. Well most of us! It was cold...ish.
We were coming to the end of a tough week physically and mentally. We had done testing the day before, a blow out that morning. Thinking that what they had organized for us was a nice chilled hike up Mt Finlayson, we were all pretty stoked. Then...it began. We all started as a group, chatting away, sharing stories, laughing. Not far into it we started to slowly pull apart and become silent. I know I found myself taking every chance I could to appreciate the beauty, a great excuse for a breather! I think there was alot of mental talk going on. I don't think anyone really wanted to vocalize how they were really feeling, for fear that they might come off as the weakest link. We were all, if not most,  caught our selfs thinking what's with the climb? I really don't know how we didn't see this coming, a hike, up a mountain, just seems obvious. But then again maybe obvious isn't obvious at all! You could hear people saying My calfs are burning, I wont be able to walk tomorrow, I can't decide what on my body was going to be the most sore. Aside from all those thoughts we made it up the Mountain! As tough as it was, it wasn't that bad at all. After a long week, we all welcomed each other one by one with smiles on our faces, to the top of Mount Finlayson!
Up at the top we took a quick minute to take some pictures and take in all that mother nature had to offer us. John lining us all up to take a picture, "not to close to the edge" he says. Then John has us saying macaroni and cheese. What?! Ya, "macaroni and cheese" he says louder. I forgot to mention, 1 hour earlier John had warned us of bear warnings up the Mountain, "stay close, and don't go off alone" he says. Right after he takes his first shot, he takes another, and another and wait...another. Then suddenly we find John pointing behind us telling us there is a bear! We turn around, shrieking and bolting,  to find what we had been startled by, a man in a gorilla suit. A man in a gorilla suit!? "Who is that!?" Taking off his fake mask, Morgan Williams the master of disguise. Morgan had been waiting for 45 min, at the top, dodging dogs and couples, as he hides in the bush avoiding any sort of domestic that may occur if he was to be seen. Morgan calling John about 3 or 4 times "where are you guys?" And the secret word we figure, was macaroni and cheese. What a sport! Thanks Morgan for making that experience extra special!
Here are a few pictures we captured at the top.

Canada on 3...1, 2, 3, CANADA!

It has been a really great 66 days. We have all taken on this challenge and embraced it. This hasn't been easy in the slightest, but a process we are all willing to buy into.

I'm very proud to be apart of something so special.

Here are a few pictures of us going through the process, and taking the time to have a little fun every now and again.

Thank you guys for supporting us through this journey! It has been amazing so far, and in the next 4 years building towards one goal, we will all as a collective do this together. We wouldn't be able to do it with out everyone behind us, so thank you! We are off to Hong Kong on Tuesday so wish us the best. We will be defending out title. Hard work pays off, and we know nothing less. 

Julia Greenshields

I would like to introduce Julia Greenshields.
She is a very fresh new face in the Canadian senior women's rugby scene. She made her first appearance in Barbados with the development team back in November 2011. Julia got into playing rugby in Grade 9. She has two years of club rugby, and 3 years of Provincial rugby in Ontario under her belt. I asked Julia if she has played any other sports previous to rugby, and she replied " I didn't get into playing sports till I was about 12, but I played travel basketball for 4 years and volleyball in highs chool. I still love playing basketball and volleyball, but for fun. I have always wanted to try tennis and skiing!"
Something you might not know about Julia is that when she was young, she use to pretend she was a dog, her name, it was Pepper. Embarrassing? I think not Julia!
You could get away will calling Julia by just a few of her nicknames like Jules, Julsie, jay, ju, hoolia, Julia Goolia, Greens, Greehshields, Jub Jub. Im sure she would happily welcome anyone of those.
Jub Jub can also be found jamming to tunes in the weight room between sets with her parnter in crime Kayla Mo.

I have a few questions for Julia, and they will be followed by a few shared stories and kind words from her peers. If you dont know Julia, you will, and that amazing sense of humor she has. To go with that humor, a laugh  that comes from so deep within, there is no in the middle. Its very much a throw your head back, with an arm flail or a roll on the floor kinda laughter. (directly quoted from your teammates)

Ive been told Julia that you have a very wide base of knowledge on Famous people of all sorts, can you please tell us a little about this?!
"I love reading magazines and watching all the entertainment shows on TV. I blame my sister for this one! She got me hooked on these shows. Also, a great website, Perezhilton.com. Don't judge me. When ever all the girls are talking about celebrities I always know the ins and outs. They usually come to me if they want to know anything about the celebrities. It's a terrible quality."

So what is some of your favorite gossip? Who is hot right now?
"Bieber is always hot...his new single "Boyfriend" released on March 26th, eeeeeks!"

Julia, if you could have dinner with anyone in the world, who would it be and why?
"This is a tough question. So many people I would like to have dinner with. Oh geez...Ellen, she is hilarious! I watch her show all the time. She would make the best dinner date ever. I would mind having dinner with Zac Efron either (drool). Oh, and the entire Kardashian / Jenner family at their house!"

Just a random thought, if you could be any animal, what animal would you be?
"A tiger! For sure, they are sweet. They are tough, aggressive, and gorgeous creatures. One of my rugby coaches took on the task of giving every one of the players on the Western team a spirit animal, he said I was a tiger. Thanks Sennik."

Is there any one that truly inspires you?
"A lot of people inspire me, I cant just pick one! The entire National women's team inspires me, You all inspire me individually in different ways. Your all friggen tough physically and mentally. You inspire me to work hard and never give up on my goals. The positivity is unbelievable. But I must say my biggest inspiration is my dad. Is that lame? He is the one who pushes me to succeed and supports my rugby career to the max! Somehow he always has something so powerful to tell me when I feel down. I wish I could be as powerful as him, he is the smartest man I know. He gives me the greatest advice for every problem I face in life. I want to make him proud. I cant say enough about him."

Julia will you please share some funny moments you have had and or shared with others during centralization so far?!
This was actually hilarious, we joked about this walking to lunch today, but Julia says "I need my own reality TV show." We then joked about how if in the next 4 years her reality TV show with Mo didn't sky rocket her close second in life was going to the Olympics...Joking obviously, that would be first!
"My roomie Kayla Moleschi posted an aerobic competition video from the 80s on my Facebook wall as a joke. Since then we have been looking for more aerobic videos on Youtube laughing hysterically at their hair, make up, costumes, routine and music. So what do we do? We decided to create our own aerobic routine in our living room while no one was home. We pushed the furniture aside and pieced together a couple of sweet moves. Not perfect yet, but we will be posting it on Youtube soon. I think this will help us launch our reality TV show."
"I find a lot of funny moments are when people are laughing at me...."
"Sometimes people laugh with me though."
"I went to the grocery store with Kayla Mack and could not for the life of me figure out how to insert the loonie into the cart, to detach it from all the rest of the shopping carts. I think I was actually holding up alot of people. I eventually got this to work and we classified this as a "learning in Langford" moment. I have had alot of those."

These are a few thing your teammates had to say.
Julia is so full of life and always brings a smile and a laugh to everyone around her!
Julia: great sense of humor.  She is the type of young player you hope sticks around for the long run because you truly enjoy her attitude and company.
Great laugh and sense of humor.
Brave and good instincts.
Julia is a very imaginative and unique individual whom I connected with instantly and we became the two best friends that anyone could ever have!! :)
This past Tuesday she wanted me to go to the show with her and I said yes at first but then I thought about it and turned to her and said Jewels if you clean your room then we can go to the movies....and she said "OMG I can't believe you just pulled that on me, your like my mom!!" and then Today I went to put someones stuff in the fridge and she said "why are you doing that you're not their mom, your mine!" hahaha all in all Julia is a talented rugby player, a great friend and I could not have asked for a better roommate! We are also in the making of our very own TV show starring us and our wonderful teammates, soon to come fun filled comedy skits, aerobic dance competitions (practice up ladies), new hit wonder music videos (Kish you better be working on your rhymes) and much more!! I love Julia shes so much fun and an amazing rugby player to boot!! :D *cross cross HISS* (hand signal).

Quick Question:
Scrunch or Fold?
Scrunch, and then throw on the ground...oops!

Stories of a roommate, by Kayla Mack.

1) Julia is a giggle machine! She loves to laugh....and some times she sure gets us all going. One afternoon, I think she calls it the attack of the Kayla's....we were all goofing off and it ended in Jules being pinned down by the two of us getting tickled past the point of laughing.... you know when your a kid and your mom or dad pins you down and tickles you to the point where you can't even laugh anymore...well that's where we got Jules to...which was followed by a series of wet willies and willies wet! (wet willies for those who done know are sucking your fingers and sticking them in the tortured ones ear, the reverse are willie wets...after the ear goes straight into the mouth, classic)  Definitely on of the most fun afternoons in our living room.

2) Julia Greenshields is a baking machine....how I have not gained 10 lbs out here I do not know. She may make some of the most delicious things I have eaten. I believe she calls them something like Oreo cookie squares....heaven.

\3) Julia and I may be the only 2 people in all of Langford  to rent the green bikes. But I have to say our Saturday morning and afternoon bike rentals and breakfast dates have been some of my favorite times out here!!! We must have biked around all of Langford on our bike dates checking out some awesome nature !!! Its real neat out here!

4) Above all the best thing about Jules is her laugh it is contagious and she is an amazing happy roomie!!! 

Julia you have one of the most amazing attitudes I have seen. You may be facing some challenges right now, but you have the mental toughness that we can all admire. What you bring to the sessions everyday is more then appreciated.  We can all learn something from Julia, and most of us already have. Your dad has given you something special. Dont lose that. Keep caring it with you!
Thanks for doing this Julia, I really enjoyed writing your blog!