improvement

just wanting to share this:

at the beginning of the semester in my kin143 class we performed a 1.5 mile running test (for the europeans, it's 6 laps on the track - 2400 meters).

back in january i ran it in 9 minutes and 45 seconds, which was way above the class average, but just OK by my standards.

today i ran it in 9 minutes 14 seconds, noting a 31 seconds improvement! also i felt i could have done much better as i sprinted last 200 meters flat out.

running is fantastic!

paralympics: ice sledge-hockey III

just some snapshots from canada - japan game.

paralympics: ice sledge-hockey II

wow! not even a day passes since the amazing ice sledge-hockey experience when i get a myseterious e-mail sent from a blackberry: "hi, if you want two ice sledge-hockey semi final tickets, call me. piotr". piotr is a friend of mine whom i acquaintened in the most interesting way i have ever acquaintened anybody and i believe i described it in my blog back in 2006 (if you're interested you can dig into that). so i was sitting at school, studying in between classes and i get an email like that. of course, i replied immediately to see what's going on. it turned out that somebody his daughter knew worked for the paralympics box office and gave her two ice sledge-hockey tickets, but she couldn't go cause the game was at 12pm (a semi final at noon! what a great timing..) and she was working around that time. so i call her and she says: "no probs, you can have the tickets. just pick them up downtown tonight". sweet! now i just needed to find somebody to go with. i called couple of people but they all had classes and couldn't decide to skip them. finally i called jacob, my danish first year from uwc and he says: "of course, i am going to come. fuck class tomorrow!"

so after training, around 23.00 i get the most sketchy crossing of the town (hastings @ main) to pick up the tickets from my friend's daughter who is chilling in the bar nearby. it's quite an interesting place at night i have to say. a lot of weirdos and bizzaros making sounds and doing strange things. some of them bothered me for a ciggie, some bothered me for change, but none were intrusive. bums are so polite in vancouver!! but that's another story. let's go back to the tickets: so i get to the bar, have a brief chat with her and get two paralympic semi final tickets for another ice sledge-hockey game!! canada playing japan! the moral of this story that connections and friendships in town are crucial, perhaps not to your survival, but certainly to seizing great opportunities.. thank you piotr and gabi!!

next day jacob and i go to ubc thunderbird arena to watch the game. a reminder: canada is playing japan. the entire stadium (approx. 7,000 people) is showing maple leaves, but we are sitted right behind the japanese crazy fans dressed in kimonos and bandanas with their national symbols. cool.. :-)

it is a tight game straight from the start, japan is putting a lot of pressure and has many good opportunities to score, but it is canada who's taking the lead in the first period. coming too confident into the second period, japan's endo equalizes and the game gets heated as the players storm into one another and crash themselves into the ice and the bands. what an intense competition! in the last, third period, canada has their chances, but one and only mistake in the second last minute causes them to loose a goal on the counter attack from japan. in a desperate attempt to come back into the game, in the last minute canada pulls out the goalie, but japan defends strong and scores their third goal on an empty net with 15 seconds to go. this blow breaks canada and the japanese fans we were surrounded with explode in happiness. what a suprise score though..! who would have bet on it?

paralympics: ice sledge-hockey

since the olympics are over the town calmed down a little bit for a week or two. no sports on ctv and espn anymore except olympic highlights and recaps. despite all this, the national canadian spirit has been alive though. people went back to work and school wearing sidney crosby's hockey jerseys, waving flags out of their cars' back windows and proudly drinking moslon candian beer and tim hortons coffee. this is because the show was not over. there was more coming and that more was called paralympics.

already during the olympic games we decided that we were going to go to watch ice sledge-hockey game together with my roommates. tickets were cheap, the timing convenient, so almost all of us decided to go. we picked to watch canada, of course, battling apparently no. 1 sledge-hockey team in the world, norway. as two of my roomates are canadian and one of them is norwegian it was going to be an interesting confrontation..

but first of all, i gotta say: i have never seen such amazing athletes live. guys who are permanently impaired from the waist down, sliding on sledges by supporting themselves with two sticks. each stick has a hockey stick end to strike the puck and a sharp end to accelarate the sledge. some of them have only one leg, some have no legs, others are just paralyzed. so what they can't walk or skate on their both feet? they can do it on a sledge! and how they do it! they are mentally sharp and focused, highly competitive and ferocious when fighting for the puck. they crash into each other just like the nhl players do! once they even attempted to start a fight, but the ref separated them.. if you have never seen sledge-hockey players in motion, youtube them, google them, whatever. it's truly amazing!

i was watching the whole event with my jaw wide opened in awe, excitement and respect for these amazing athletes. canada dominanted the entire game and made the UBC Thunderbird arena ecstatic with every goal scored. 5-0! only my norwegian roommate was not too happy about the result.. :-)

below i am posting some pictures taken at the venue during canada-norway game:

olympic flashback: vancouver the-other-way-around

here's some shots of the vancouver skyline from lonsdale quay market. yes, this is where the seabus goes!

olympic flashback: making pierogi

since i haven't posted much during the olympic break, i would like to catch up a little bit, by providing you a series of "olympic flashbacks", mostly in pictures.

on the eve of the games i swore: if małysz wins a medal in ski jumping i will make pierogi (not pierogies) for everybody. he got a silver and i happily bought all the necessary ingriedients in "polonia sausage house" and started making probably the most known polish dish in north america.

oh, and just to add a little tongue-in-cheek, i need to remphazise this over and over again, that małysz won the medal for poland before any canadian athlete owned the podium. this is especially significant in the light of how canada dominated during this olympics. not in ski jumping, eh? :-) enjoy observing the process:

the flour + 2 yolks!
some serious kneading..
..and rolling..
this should be thin enough!

the proper filling.. no cheddar, please!
ready to cook.
ready to serve!
proud presentation.. lara felt the polish spirit too (look at that scarf)! and even though she didn't want to admit she was a little jealous and perhaps upset that the pole came before the austrian.. :-)
tada!

whistler

i am just posting some memorable moments from skiing in whistler with talia, lara and blair last week. (yes, these are the slopes conquered by world class athletes in february!)

dreaming big

an idea that got seeded in my head:

a cross-canada tour from vancouver to halifax.

i keep dreaming big. and working hard for it at the same time.

this summer.

!

the end to the olympic break

as the canadian men's hockey team takes gold on sunday, the streets of vancouver turns mad. maple leaves everywhere: on cars, flags, peoples' cheeks. everybody screams, shouts, cheers, sings "oh canada", laughs. the city, tfu, the entire country is in a state of euphoria. and i bet it will remain so for couple of more days, weeks perhaps. the canadians have a reason to be proud of. team canada won 14 gold medals! nobody has ever gotten so many during the winter olympic games.. if they counted the medals the right way, they'd be leading the medal table. in totals they only sit third, behind usa and germany. poland did exceptionally well this olympics too. with 6 medals in total, we almost doubled our total medal count. and, importantly, justyna kowalczyk won the second gold ever. great stuff. anyhow, today i am already back in school and it is weird not to have the olympics going on anymore. but i am more sad that the break, not the olympics is over. now, i will need to make a serious stretch to pull this semester together, score som decent grades and keep the scholarship. this means only one thing: work, work, work. and that'd be mostly working with my brain (and fingers). but on the bright side of things, i am keeping up with my marathon training program and i am very much hoping to complete the run on may 2nd. these are the two priorities for the coming month: school and training. not too bad, eh?