I thought I could share some other things I do besides skating.  Don’t get me wrong, skating is definitly my full time job, but I do have some things I like to do on the side.  I am currently finishing up my BSc in Kinesiology at the University of Calgary.  I have been chipping away at this degree since I moved to Calgary in the fall on 2000.  I have taken about 3 couses a semester on average and I took the year off for the Olympics in 2005-06.  I really believe that keeping the mind sharp helps with excelling in sport. 

This year, I became the skater’s representative on Speed Skating Canada’s High Performance Committee.  This has proved to be a challenging position.  I am the voice of the athletes when it comes to important decisions being made by the committee.  I take this very seriously because I believe that our sport is one of the most fair and apolitical sports out there.  I really wish to keep it that way and this is not always easy when the Olympics are coming up and competitiveness is at it’s peak.

Another thing I am proud to be a part of is the international humanitarian organization Right to Play.  I have just officially become an athlete ambassador.  The founder of RTP is speed skating olympic champion Johann Olaf Koss.  He is a legend in our sport and I remember watching him at the Olympics when I was a kid.  I have had the opoortunity to meet him and he is a great man. He said that the reason he started this organization was because of something he saw when he was in Africa.  He said that one of the boys in the village was the most popular.  He could not figure out why until he saw that this boy was the only kid with a long sleeve shirt.  That doesn’t sound like so much to us, but if that is the only way you can fashion a soccer ball, then he would be the most popular back here in Canada too.  My husband Arne has been an ambassador for several years now.  In the summer of ‘06 he travelled to Africa to help with their efforts.  It was an amazing experience for him to see first hand what he is supporting back here in Canada.  RTP focuses on children in impovrished and war-torn countries.  They go into schools and teach the children important life skills through games.  It gives the children a chance to play, which they usually don’t get, while teaching them about avoiding diseases like aids and giving them self-confidence to avoid difficult situations that they will be exposed to. 

So, there’s a little bit about what I do in my spare time.  I am off to Changchun, China for the third World Cup and from there to Nagano, Japan for the fourth.  I will keep you posted on my adventures in Asia!

I arrived back home in Calgary Monday evening this week.  I am just in town for 10 days, so it was just too short of time to make the trip out to Yorkton for the event that Nexera was putting on.  It’s important for me to keep continuous training right now, since I am leaving for China on Saturday.  I heard that the event was a hit and I am so happy that my hometown crowd represented!  It was kind of fun doing the video message that they played at the event.  The one thing that I love the most about being sponsored by Nexera Dow AgroSciences is the employees.  The poeple I get to work with are so laid back and fun.  Doing the video message didn’t feel like work and stuff usually doesn’t because of the people. 

This weekend, I did some racing at the CanAm competition at the oval.  It’s not a competition I’ve gotten the chance to do for the past few years because I am usually away at world cups.  This year I am home and my coach thought it would be good to take part since racing is the best training for racing.  I was lacing up my skates before going on for warm-up and there were tons of parents and kids getting skates off from the Saturday morning hockey program.  A man started talking to me and it turned out to be Kim with his son Thomas.  He told me all about the event in Yorkton and we chatted for a bit.  Then, Glenn from AdFarm was there too, with his son Sebastien.  They stayed around a bit and watched me skate a few laps for warm up.  It was really cool to see them there.  A little bit of a pick-me-up since I am not happy with my racing so far this year.  Thanks guys, you made my day and my race a little better!

I’m back in The Netherlands, the mecca of the speed skating world.  The Dutch have been speed skating on the canals here for hundreds of years.  The skating culture is amazing.  The speed skaters here are superstars.  When stepping into the oval, called the Thialf, you can compare it to an NFL game.  The stands are full, the crowd is rowdy and everyone is wearing the team colour - orange.  They wear funny hats and even paint their faces and the Heineken is definitely flowing.  The oval is electric with cheering and singing.

The Crowd at the Thialf

After I raced, I was lucky enough to be able to spend the day with Arne’s aunt Greet and uncle Henk who live in Groningen.  Henk watched my race and then we drove to Groningen which is 45 minutes from Heerenveen, site of the Thialf.  We watched Greet in a choir competition at a church outside of Groningen.  When that was over, Henk and I got on their cruiser bikes and heading into the center of the city.  The city has a population of 200,000.  It is a university city and there were a lot of people hussling and bussling around.  We parked our bikes in an underground parking lot.  Yes, they have parking lots for bikes, only in the Netherlands!  It was Saturday and there where tons of outdoor markets set up.  They were selling clothes, veggies, fruit, cheese, meat and fish.  It is traditional for the Dutch to eat herring.  Here I am eating it the proper way.

Eating Herring

 It was the day that St. Nicholas (Sinterklass in Dutch) came.  There was a marching band and kids everywhere dressed up in Black Pete (similar to an elf) costumes.  The Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas on December 5th.  It is a celebration where gifts are exchanged and lots of goodies are eaten.  Christmas is the same date as here, but it is a religious holiday with no gifts.  After our tour of the town I was invited to stay for dinner and then they brought me back to my hotel.  I felt really lucky that I had some family to visit on the road.  It is so comforting!

Arne and his cake creation

Today is my 27th birthday!  Since I am away for the big day, I celebrated it the day before I left for Germany.  Arne, my sister Jody and two of my friends, Shannon and Ricky, all went to The Sultan’s Tent.  The dinner was delicious and very filling!  We relaxed in the booth while we were given course after course of different tastes.  My favorite was the savory lamb stew and of course the traditional sweet mint tea.  After the dinner we went home and Arne made me a really special cake.  We enjoy watching a show on the food network called Ace of Cakes.   So, when Arne got started on the cake, he promised it would be like the ones on the show.  Was it ever!  I must say, it was a very cool cake and it tasted great. 

Here in Berlin, my teammates are congratulating me on my birthday.  Even a statistician has remembered.  Tomorrow, the races begin.  Training has been going well and I am prepared for the competition.  The weather here has been very dreary and humid, but the spirit of competitors is still high since this is the first World Cup of the season.  You can check immediate results at www.isu.org (which is also a link in my favorite links) or I will be posting them early next week.