The Finale

I am on my last flight before I arrive in Vancouver. I have been travelling now for about 15 hours, and I still have almost 4 hours left before I get home. It has been an exhausting day and I am very much looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.

This was a very difficult trip for me, although I must admit, it definitely got better in the second week. It is always hard to be away from home, but it is even more difficult when you are in an environment that is so drastically different from your everyday life and you don’t have your usual support network with you. I like to think that I am a pretty strong person, but it is amazing to realize how much of your strength comes from the people in your life. Fortunately, in the second week I was able to make some very good friends, friends that will be friends for life, and this gave me a huge boost.

Since the reason I was in Serbia, in the first place, was to referee, I guess it is important that I talk about that aspect of my trip. The caliber of soccer was not as high as it was at the U17 World Cup, but there were definitely some very good teams there. Overall, I was happy with my performance in the 3 games that I refereed. I feel that I showed what I was capable of, and the feedback that I finally got, although only in the last 2 days, was that all of my match observers were very happy with me. I also got, and only the last 2 days, some very positive compliments from the assistants that I worked with. As for my appointments, you never really have any control over what matches you are assigned to, but being appointed as the 4th official on the final match is something that I am proud of. It is always a great experience to be part of a final game. The game itself wasn’t very interesting as Korea beat Japan 4-1 and they pretty much dominated the game. The referee was from France, and she did a very good job.

As for the rest of my trip, it was a humbling experience. I have to admit, that when it comes to world events and politics, I’m kind of a bonehead, so going to Serbia, I wasn’t really current on the past events. I had heard bits and pieces of the problems that this country faced but nothing prepared me for seeing it first hand. In the first week, before I really knew any of the locals, I could only make an opinion based on what I saw with my own eyes, and it was sad. There were many buildings that had been destroyed by the bombings and many of them were still standing, in some state or another. Once we started to become friends with the local referees, we began to hear the stories of that it was like from their firsthand experiences. It must have been absolutely awful to be a young child growing up in the middle of a war that you can’t understand. To be playing at the park with sirens and bombs and gunfire going off all around you. I can’t imagine…really I can’t. When they first began to talk, I felt so sorry for them, so sad, but as you listen, you realize…that is exactly the opposite of what they want you to feel. They don’t want your pity, or your sympathy, because they aren’t ashamed. Never before have a meet people who are so proud. They have no hatred in their hearts, they have no resentment, they only want to live their lives to the fullest to enjoy the time they have with their friends and family. They live a very hard life, and money is very very sparse in Serbia, but they are not embarrassed of their situations, it is simply the way it must be, and they don’t complain. Jokingly, one night, I was making fun of a couple of the guys who were 30 and still living at home, but the reality of the situation is that it is simply impossible for them to move out. They don’t make enough to support themselves. The cost of living is very similar to Vancouver, but their salary is less that ¼ of what we make. I can’t imagine, truly, I can’t. The whole time we were there, they insisted on paying for everything…food, drinks, gifts, and I can’t imagine what a financial stress that would have been on them, but they wouldn’t have it any other way. Their one and only goal was to ensure that we all had a good time, that we saw their country in a positive light, and that they were great hosts. I would have to say that they did all of that and more.

At the beginning of this trip I was counting down the days until I would get to come home, and I am still happy to be going home, but I am so glad that I had this experience. Not only did I gain more international experience for my refereeing career, but I learned about a nation of people who are so amazing. They should all be so proud of who they are, and if I am able to live my life, even half as well as they do, I will be a much better person. I am humbled. Thank you to the entire Serbian Football Association and especially to those from Belgrade who gave up their lives to be the best hosts a visitor could have! You should all be so proud of yourselves

I Got Stung By a Bee

Yesterday we went to the lake and I got stung by a bee. That sucked!

I am just leaving the hotel for the final match where I will be the 4th official. I am really happy about this appointment. It is always an honour to be part of a final and I guess it means that I have not screwed up too much! hehehe. I am excited to be coming home and 1 more sleep before I board my plane. I have to run downstairs for my final gourmet meal...yay...last lunch!

I will let you know how the final game went. I hope all is well at home

A Quick Update

I haven't written for the past 2 game days, but I don't have much time so I will give you only a brief update. On game day 3 I refereed the game between Ireland and France. It was an important game for the group stages as a win would allow either team to go through. The field was in very bad shape, but it held up ok until it started to rain. Then it became a bit of a disaster. Thankfully there was only 10min left. France won the game 1-0.

Yesterday I was the 4th official on the quarterfinal match between Brazil and Great Britian. This was an exciting game as Brazil scored early, and GBR came back to tie it up in the 81st min. GBR won in penalties.

I am sorry that this is so short, but I am running out the door to do some sightseeing, and hopefully to the beach. I am tring desperately to get a tan because I am actually whiter than when I left....I know, unacceptable!

4 more days....yay!

And the Dream Ends...

Last night we went to the opening ceremonies for the 25th Annual Universiade Games. The whole thing lasted about 2 ½ hours and was pretty good. The most painful part was the introduction of all the flags for each country. Luckily for me (being sarcastic here), this was the record-breaking year for the number of participants in Universiade! Yay! There are 145 countries taking part in the different sports, so, for 1 hour (not even exaggerating) I watched a volunteer walk in with a sign for each country, followed by the flag bearer. There must have been a better why to do it…I don’t know, maybe just put the names on a screen somewhere…works for me! The highlight of the opening ceremonies was when Nemanja Vidic (plays for Manchester United) came out at the end to wish everyone good luck. He is soooo dreamy!

Oh, I forgot to tell you, just before we left for the opening ceremonies, there was a knock at my door. I open it to find….my roommate…..yay! Now, instead of my 5x8 foot square, I have been reduced to 2.5x4 feet of pure bliss. It is awful. Seriously, I’m pretty sure that my closet at home has more space than I do. The funniest part is that nobody even knew she was coming, she had no games, and in fact, the tournament had already started. Everything got sorted out, and voila…14th referee. And my dream of having my own rool is over :(

The next morning I got up at 6:30am to get ready to leave for my game. The van picked us up at 7:30am and we were on our way. The stadium was in another village that was pretty far away, which is why we had to leave so early. Problem is, at that time, there is no traffic so we were there by 8:15am for our 10:30 am kickoff. We even beat the volunteers there, who they actually bused in from Belgrade. I have never seen so many volunteers before…there is something like 10 000 volunteers for this tournament. I’m sure that they must outnumber the athletes 2 to 1. Anyways, we arrive very early and go and sit in the restaurant for…you guess it…coffee! I had an orange juice.

The game itself was pretty good. Japan and France are both decent teams and they battled pretty hard. I was busy as a 4th official because there were 6 yellow cards, and each team used all 4 of their substitutions. Also, there were 2 major injuries during the game. The game ended up being tied 0-0 so we had to take penalty kicks which will be used only in the event of a tie-breaker between the teams.

After the game we sat for an hour….again, waiting for the paperwork to be finished and then we headed back to the hotel. After lunch my crew (referee and 2 assistants) took be to visit 2 of the major football stadiums here in Belgrade. First we went to Partisan, which is where the final will be held next Friday. Then we went to the rival club Red Star and had a tour of the stadium and the museum. I have to say, it was very impressive. The number of trophies and pictures, and history in their museum is amazing. They even have a man, whose job is to give tours and update all the stats, etc for the club. He is like a curator (is that the right word?) The president of the Red Star also came up to meet me, and we took a picture with him. It was very nice. After the tour we went to watch the Mens game between Serbia and Great Britain. It was Ok, GBR won 1-0 and Serbia just looked content to lose, which surprised me because they are the host team.

I came back to the hotel for dinner, and of course after everyone wanted to go for coffee, but I decided to pass…I know, I’m so antisocial….must be because I am shy!

Let the Games Begin…

I am sorry for the delay in updating my blog, I’d like to say that it’s because I have been busy, but it is probably fairer to say that I have just been lazy. Before I get started though, I must tell you about this weird phenomenon that happens to me whenever I travel for soccer. For some reason, and it happens every time, after about 3 days, I am unable to form a complete sentence when I talk. I spend so much time speaking broken English and trying to use the simplest words to explain things, that I completely lose my ability to form a sentence or even use “normal” vocabulary. I find myself speaking with only nouns or verbs. For example, I will often say…you like? Or …is good? Or….is problem, no? Even when I speak to someone who can understand English, or fellow Canadians, I speak in this broken English. I find myself using these words that I never use in my everyday life, but they are understood by people with limited English, so I use them. I’m sure it is actually quite funny to listen to, although it becomes very frustrating for anyone that I speak to back home, because they feel like I talk to them as though they are stupid….so funny! So….if I begin to use bizarre words, or fragmented sentences, please don’t be offended…I know you are not stupid!

Ok then, since we have that cleared up, I will recap the beginning of the tournament. The tournament started on Tues June 30th. We received our appointments on Monday afternoon and I found out that I would referee the game between Korea and Germany. This was a good match for me because I refereed each of those teams twice in New Zealand, so I am familiar with their style of play. My game was at 5:30pm in a stadium called Vozdovaz which was only about 20 km away. I was suppose to leave the hotel at 3:20pm to arrive at the stadium at 4pm. Well….the traffic was so bad that it took us almost an hour and a half to arrive at the stadium. We actually left a bit early, which was good, because we needed all the time we could get! The traffic in this city is crazy! I consider myself a pretty good driver, I know, all women say this, and all men roll their eyes, but honestly, I am a good driver! You could not pay me enough to drive in Belgrade. I can’t believe that there aren’t more accidents, seriously. People are so aggressive and angry. I feel like I am taking my life in my hands every time I get in a car.

Anyways, we arrived at the stadium at 4:30pm, and from there it is chaos. Although, I am learning that in this country, chaos is normal, and yelling is talking. We arrived and people are running around and asking questions, which, of course, are in Serbian, so I just smile. My 4th official and my assistants are both Serbian so they help out, and take care of everything for me…it was great. In terms of weather, I have been really lucky as it has been raining off and on for the past 3 days, so it is a bit cooler than normal. The game itself is good. Korea scored the 1st goal in the 27th min off a free kick. The game stays 1-0 for the rest of the 1st half, and until about the 76th min of the second half when Korea scores a second goal. This seemed to knock the wind out the German team as they allow 2 more goals in the next 10 mins to lose 4-0 to Korea. There were no problems in the match, only 1 caution to each team. I’m not sure what the “delegate” thought of my game. I think it was OK because he smiled and said “good”, but this is all. Maybe he means “good, that is over”…heheh…who knows!

After the game we have to wait an hour for the delegate to fill in the game sheet and type it into the computer. This took forever…it was so painful. There were all these questions and he didn’t know how to answer them because they were in English and the girl who was helping him didn’t know anything about soccer. I was so hungry, seriously, I was about to walk back to the hotel, but I knew that all I would have waiting for me was fish and fries, our typically nightly meal. No need to rush for that! Finally we left the stadium and headed back…but of course, on our way home our driver got lost and had to turn around 3 times. Good thing he is driving the VIPs!

Overall I felt pretty good about my game. Although the level of soccer was not very high, the style was very predictable, which made the game easy to read. The players were there to play, and it was only for me, to call what I needed to…it was good.

The following morning we had a “meeting”. I hesitate to call it a meeting because we literally sat in the room for 5 mins, the head of the Serbian Appointments Committee asked if there were any problems, we said “no”, and then we were finished! Strangest meeting I have ever had! After the meeting the appointments were posted for Game Day 2. I am appointed to be the 4th official between Japan and France. The referee is Daniela, who was my 4th official I am looking forward to this game as it is a chance to watch another official and the game itself should be very interesting.

We are attending the opening ceremonies tonight. I am just excited to be out of the hotel and do something different. So far, all I have done is go for coffee…I swear, these people go for coffee 4 or 5 times a day. I hate coffee.

The Daily Grind

So…here I am, 2 days into my Serbian Adventure. I thought I would share with you a little about my daily routine. It is not glamorous, by any stretch of the imagination, so if you are squeemish, you might not want to read on! ;)

As I said in my last post, the “hotel” we are staying at is very basic. There is running water, and the electricity works, but that is probably the extent of what one would call “amenities”. My roommate has still not arrived, although each night when I go to bed, I half expect my door to open part way through the night, and some strange girl to walk in. Funny thing is….that can’t actually happen because there is only 1 key for the room. Every time I leave the hotel, I must drop my key at the front desk, just incase my roommate arrives because otherwise, she can’t get in. It would almost be a shame if she came now, because I have been slowly spreading out all over the room. When I first got here, I used only half the room, half of the 3 hangers in the closet (I took 2, obviously) and half the counter space in the bathroom. I even put a couple of bags under my bed to conserve space. Now….forget that! I have all the space, used all the hangers, and I have even turned her bed into my drawers. I have a pile for each type of clothing…T’shirts, shorts, long sleeve shirts, etc. It’s working out very nicely.

Let’s talk about my room for a minute. The first time I used the bathroom, I had to run down the hallway to ask Silviu how to flush the toilet. I am not a stupid person, but I have never seen a flusher like this. It looks like a plastic key. I tried to push it in, turn it, pull it out…nope…nothing. Apparently, you have to yank it down hard…ok…that worked! Problem 1 – solved.

Second problem - charging up my computer. There is only 1 plug in my room…I am not kidding you. It is the plug for the TV, the computer, my straightener, my phone (which doesn’t work but I need the alarm clock), my camera, blowdryer…everything. So, I can not watch TV and straighten my hair, or charge my camera…only 1 thing at a time here. Painful. There is a solution though, to this problem...it’s called…suck it up!

Third problem – phone. Like I mentioned, my phone doesn’t work here…so much for an international Blackberry! I have gone to 3 places asking for a phone card, but they don’t actually exist. That’s OK though, because I’m not sure if one would work anyways because I actually have a rotary phone in my room. You remember those ones that your grandparents all have where you stick your finger in the hole and move it around in a circle to dial each number. I’m not sure that a calling card would actually work with one of those phones! I have managed to find the phone number here, but apparently trying to get through is a complete crapshoot because only 1 of the 3 ladies who works downstairs are able to speak English, so when you call, sometimes you will get through, and another times, according to Alain, you will end up waking someone up in whatever room they put you through to. Awesome!

There are also some interesting things about Serbia that I have observed while being here.
1. The doorknobs don’t turn. There are knobs, but they don’t actually turn. In the center of the knob there is a button, and you have to push it to get out.
2. The light switches are level with my knees, ok…not my knees, but definitely my hips. I’m not really sure why that is.
3. The bathtubs are so high. I actually banged my knee the 1st day and now I have a bruise.
4. Everybody smokes, and I mean everybody…and they smoke everywhere. Even in the mall
5. There is no common courtesy regarding cell phones, if you have one, and it rings, answer it – no matter where you are. I got a massage today at the gym and halfway thru, and I am not even kidding you, the lady gets a phone call, and she answers it! I know…not in Canada!
6. The public transit is all free. We were really excited when we got our accreditation and they told us that we could ride for free on the buses and tramps…yeah, great…everyone rides for free.
7. This might be the loudest country I have ever been in. Nobody talks, they yell. When they drive, they honk their horns all the time, and at everything. I can’t sleep at night with my window open because people are yelling all night. It’s crazy!

Well, that’s all I have for now. We are getting our appointments tonight for tomorrow, so that is something to look forward to.

Travelling to Belgrade

Well….I’m not really sure where to start.

I will start with my trip here. I left Vancouver at 8am on Friday morning and boarded my plane to Toronto. Unfortunately, as this is not an official FIFA tournament, I was not flying 1st class. What a difference, and at this point, completely worth the additional cost, as long as someone else is paying the bill!  I arrived in Toronto at 3:20pm and went to my new gate to board my flight to Dusseldorf, Germany. I meet Silvu Petrescu in Toronto (FIFA referee from Canada), and we travelled the rest of the way together. It was so great to have a travel buddy, especially someone who is 6’4 and about 200lbs….he’s my travel bodyguard! The flight to Germany was 7.5 hours long. On the flight I watched “Confessions of a Shopaholic” and “Last Chance Harvey”. Both were “mediums”…not that great but OK. I tried to sleep, but only managed about an hour.

We arrived in Dusseldorf at 6:30am and had to wait for our flight at 12pm. The hard thing was, because we were so early, nobody seemed to know where we were suppose to go to get our tickets for our flight to Belgrade. We spent about 3 hours walking around, asking people, staring at the flight board, and hoping that there was a flight to Belgrade at 12pm. Our airline was JAT…whatever that is, and nobody had heard of it. Finally, around 9am, our flight information came up on the board and told us which counter we had to go to. That was soooo exciting because it gave us something to do. So…we did it….we walked right over to that counter, which was still closed, and we stood there! First ones in line! We stood on that spot for an hour, until someone came. We checked in and got our boarding passes and went to find our gate. Once we got to the gate, C41 we found out that our flight had been postponed until 1:40pm, another 2 hours to wait. Then they changed the gate 3 times…C41…C35….C40. That was actually pretty funny to watch….everytime the gate was changed, someone would come back and tell their friend, who would just stand up and leave. This created some confusion amongst the others who would then scramble around, trying to figure out what was going on. Once they figured it out, a loud yelling discussion would ensue, which was followed by everyone getting up and leaving. Silvu and I were always the last to clue in, because this was all in Serbian so we had no idea what was happening. It was actually very funny. Especially because this process happened 3 times!

Finally at almost 2 pm, after sitting in the airport for 8 hours, we boarded our flight to Belgrade. Thankfully the flight was only 2 hours long, and we arrived in Belgrade just after 4pm. When you consider the time change of 9 hours, which made it 7am in Vancouver, I had been travelling for almost 24 hours. It was a long day!

Once we arrived at the airport, we were greeted by 2 members of the organizing committee who quickly whisked us through customs, and to get our luggage. Now, as you know, I have not had the greatest luck on my last 2 trips with my luggage. On the first one, my bags were lost on the way there, and on the second, my bags were lost on the way back. So, as I stood there waiting for my bag, I was fully expecting for it NOT to come. But it did! So excited! What a great start to the tournament!

We next went to the Athletes Village to get our accreditation and uniform package from Team Canada, and then we were off to our hotel. Actually, let me put hotel like this….”hotel”. Now, I know I have been a bit spoiled in the past, and I am from a fabulous country, but this is definitely a huge stretch for me. It is almost like we are staying in a dormitory that allows smoking in its rooms. There are 2 single beds in each room, and a 10 inch screen TV that may, or may not work, depending on the day. The one bonus is that there is free wireless internet, but only if you are on the second floor at the front, or in the lobby. I, of course, am on the second floor at the back. My roommate is from South Africa, and has yet to arrive, although someone said today, that she may not be coming. I have no idea, and neither does anyone else.

I know that people think that being an international referee is glamorous, but I can definitely tell you, that is not always the case. This is going to be a very interesting experience…probably a lot more like an adventure than anything else. I will keep you posted.