*throws confetti*

And, happy birthday to this site too! KarinaLeBlanc.com turns 1 today!

Comment to leave your bday wishes for Karina!

ETA: Karina’s interview is now archived. Click here to listen. KK’s interview is in Segment 8.

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Heads up as Karina will be a guest on Inside Soccer today, Saturday, March 4th.

To listen to the show, visit their website and click on the “Listen to this Show” link on the right side later today.

Karina will be hosting soccer clinics with the Orlando Falcons from March 15-17, 2006.

For more information about these sessions, please visit this site.

That will be the line, D and I never want to hear again. Our travels home just did not go as expected.

Originally on paper everything looked good, but we can never control what the airlines do can we? We left the hotel just after 7AM, caught the 9AM ferry and that was the last thing that left on time for D and myself. Long story short, I finally arrived home back here in New Jersey at 1PM this afternoon, over a day later. At this point, it is worth a good laugh.

We had arrived at the airport after 11PM approx. I really didn’t check. Most of our teammates were booked on an earlier flight but because of the busy travel time, with Spring Break and other things, today everything was booked. Since we were scheduled to fly the red eye, as much as we tried, we could not get on an earlier flight. Some flights were overbooked by 20 people. So here we are almost 12 hours before a flight and every travel agent we spoke to (which was at least 5) said: ‘You are better of with what you have’.

Lucky for me, my parents are in Maple Ridge so I called them and they came to pick D and myself up. It was great. Mom spoiled us, cooking one of my favorite Caribbean dishes, rice and peas with my mom’s special chicken. She’s also bought my favorite fruit, mango and we created a mango/strawberry/ice cream ensemble for desert. We enjoyed the meal, the company from both my parents and the nap in bed and then we were off for our quick flight to Toronto and then onto Newark…or so we thought. Read the rest of this entry »

Well our camp came to a successful end with us winning against Holland 3-1.

It was a great way to end this series and camp because we got to play in front of a sold out crowd in Victoria on a beautiful, sunny British Columbian winter day. It was so nice to see the turnout and be home again. Victoria really did a great job in welcoming us.

The day prior to our game, Friday, Latham and I went to speak at a school where they had a ‘soccer period’. I’d heard a lot about programs like this and being there to see it first hand showed me how far the sport has come in Canada. These kids for a period each day, go to ‘soccer class’, where they train/learn more about the sport and all the aspects of it. I really wish they had that when I was growing up…way back when. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 1: (courtesy of Amy Walsh and Rhian Wilkinson – the Quebec girls’ experiences)

Today’s travel day today was possibly the worst one I’ve ever endured—and I’ve been to some weird places. You think you’re going to Mexico, just over the border from California, and don’t really worry about the logistics of the trip.

Let me tell you, I will never take travel lightly again, especially where the national team is concerned–I talked to the girls while waiting for our sketchy van transport at Ontario airport, and the guy that books flights for our team sent us on some quality milk runs.

Anyway, I’ll get to the nitty-gritty of the travel: The day started off badly, as Izzy discovered she’d left her wallet in her boyfriend’s car, who was long gone to Laval by the time she realized her mistake. Read the rest of this entry »