Today was our first off day of the tournament. We had the entire day free, no skating or meetings or anything. After sleeping in and getting some breakfast, a group of us walked all around Parliament hill and the market - an area of downtown Ottawa with a ton of shops and restaurants. The weather was really nice so it was a good day to go for a walk. The buildings reminded me a lot of some of the parts of Europe I have visited. After walking around for awhile and getting some lunch we headed back to the hotel and relaxed until dinner.
This would probably be a good time to talk about who all is at the tournament. We have 4 supervisors - Matt (USA), Manuela (Germany), Anna (Finland) and Konstantin (Russia). Obviously I have known Matt for a long time. Manuela was one of the supervisors in Czech last year, as was Anna. Anna also came to the US this summer and helped teach Regional Camp, which is the first of several USA Hockey camps you have to attend in order to be considered for an IIHF license. I made sure to remind her that "Team Kate" beat "Team Anna" in the annual ice ball tournament! Most of the officials here are really experienced at this top level tournament - in fact I think Stephanie, Krissy and I are the only 3 who haven't worked a Women's Worlds before and several have worked the Olympics! The referees include Melanie (Canada), Nicole (Germany), Aina (Norway), Krissy (USA), Marie (France) and Joy (Great Britain). The linesman are Therese (Sweden), Denise (Canada), Stephanie (Canada), Laura (USA), Michaela (Slovakia), Ilona (Czech), Zuzana (Czech) and Johanna (Finland). Everyone speaks really good English so communicating has been easy. Every time I go to a tournament like this I am so impressed with how people speak multiple languages. I wish I could speak a 2nd language half as well as these guys speak English.
Dinner tonight was courtesy of Hockey Canada. We went to a great little restaurant in the market area. At dinner, the group I was sitting with started discussing the various tournaments we have been to in the past. It was fun and really interesting listening to other's experiences. Denise went to a tournament in North Korea so she told us all about how they took her passport and phone and how they had guards 24/7. Joy talked about the two Olympics she attended in Vancouver and Turin. Manuela talked about a tournament in Italy and the Nagano games, Aina and I both mentioned China (we attended different tournaments there) and the list goes on. It really goes to show you how fortunate we all are to be involved with the IIHF and the really cool travel opportunities we all have had.
After dinner a big group of us went to the pool. There are now a ton of kids at our hotel for the provincial tournament (similar to USA Hockey districts) being held in conjunction with worlds. They had basically taken over the pool so we took over the hot tub. All of us are sitting there minding our own business when 3 kids who were probably 10 tried to jump in. Nicole, in her thick German accent, says to the kids "are you 16? you must be 16 to come in here." The kids took one look at her and got out of the faster than they got in! It was funny, Nicole said she was just enforcing the rules like she does on the ice!
Tomorrow games start up again. I have Russia vs Sweden with Joy and Zuzana. It should be a great game, there is a lot on the line for both teams as neither one wants to end up in the relegation round. I found out that all the tournament games are being broadcast on fasthockey.com so if you are bored around 4:00 feel free to log on and look for me! Have a good night!
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