Nearly time to head home...

Hello SFCC,

I am on my final rest day here in Brussels. The weather hasn't been very nice so we just decided to go shopping and relax in the hotel again today.

On Tuesday night at 8pm, I umpired Spain vs. Belgium in the pouring rain! It rained so much that we almost had to call the game off and we didn't get many photos. It was still very exciting because it was the home team and they had a great crowd cheering them on.

Here is one picture I found from our game that shows you how wet it got!

On Wednesday (once I had dried off), we went on a chocolate tour! It was amazing! The place we went to was called "Concept Chocolate" and they are chocolatiers who work with chocolate (not a chocolate factory where they "make" the actual chocolate). It was very informative and we got to enjoy/taste test lots of their chocolates. We also got to 'work' with chocolate and make our own creations. Here are some photos from the tour:

Last night, I umpired a quarter final between the Netherlands and Spain. The Netherlands won 2-0 and they are through to the semi finals tomorrow.

I umpired with Laurine from Belgium (who was last year's World Umpire of the Year - a great honour to umpire with her) and this is a picture of us before the match.

I found this picture on Twitter - someone was watching on the livestream and screen shotted my face to upload haha

I'm the little green person on the right!

We have a meeting tonight and dinner afterwards and then there's only 2 more match days before I begin my journey home.

Enjoy your holidays.

Love Miss Seymour

2nd rest day today

Good evening SFCC,

It's 8:35pm here on Monday night in sunny Brussels - which means it is about 4:35am on Tuesday morning for you. You only have 2 school days left before holidays ... bet you are all excited!

I have had 2 games since I last wrote a post.

On Saturday I umpired at 8pm - Italy vs. Scotland with Amy Baxter from the USA. Italy won 2-1.

This is us right before the game.

This is a photo I took off Twitter of Amy and I doing the toss with the Italian and Scottish captains.

Then yesterday (Sunday) I umpired at 6pm with my roomie, Amber Church. We umpired the Netherlands vs. China. It was a great, close game and we had a lot of fun together.

Here is a photo taken during the match. The Netherlands are in the grey and China is in the red. You can see me at the back in green.

Amber and I had a photo in front the tournament poster at the end of our game.

There is great food at the pitch!! We got some after our game with Maggie from the USA.

Maggie, Amber and I with Renee (top left), one of the Umpire Managers (and whose place I stayed at in Amsterdam) and Sylvie from Switzerland, who is called the Tournament Director (one of the big bosses of the tournament).

Today was Rest Day #2. We had an early breakfast and then a meeting to discuss the next few days of the tournament, including "Shoot Outs" which is when 5 players from each team have a 1v1 with the goalkeeper of the other team when a game is drawn to determine a winner.

We then did our washing and headed into the city centre for some shopping and a late lunch. For lunch I had a HUGE bowl of Belgium mussels ... it was delicious ...

My next match isn't until 8:45pm tomorrow night so it will be a long day of waiting around at the hotel, especially if it rains like the forecast says it will :(

Enjoy your last 2 days at school!!

Love Miss Seymour

First few days in Brussels

Hi SFCC!!

It has been a crazy week since I last wrote. I umpired my second test match in the Netherlands last Sunday (Australia lost 4-0) and then got straight on a bus with the Australian team to come to Brussels in Belgium. It took about 2 hours on the bus. It was funny to think that I had crossed a country's border without even really knowing it! To get to a different country from Australia, we have no choice but to catch a plane or go by boat and we always have to go through customs. Travelling from the Netherlands into Belgium was as easy as driving from Campbelltown to Sydney.

Here is a picture from after the first match I did in Amsterdam. 

I had to remember to switch from the Dutch language to French (which is what they speak in Belgium - well one of their main languages anyway) ... not that I can really speak either language haha.

Once I arrived at the hotel 'Ramada' in Brussels, I met up with my roomie (the person I will be sharing a room with over the next two weeks), Amber from New Zealand and we joined the rest of the umpires for dinner.

We had fitness and briefing sessions over the next 2 days in stinking hot weather.

Here is a photo of all the umpires after our first fitness session. Starting in the back row from the left is Annelize from South Africa, Frances from England, Amber from New Zealand, me from Aus, Lisa from Australia (she is one of the video umpires). Then in the middle row from the left is Kelly from New Zealand (the second video umpire), Laurine from Belgium, Amy from the United States, Ana from Portugal and Emi from Japan. The two at the front is Irene in yellow from Argentina and Maggie from the United States. Quite a multicultural group!

We also had a trip into Brussels city for dinner on one of the nights. It was the night of the terrorist attack in Brussels. We had been at the exact train station a couple of hours earlier but we were safe in a taxi on the way home when the attack happened. It was still pretty scary for it to happen so close ...

Some beautiful old buildings from Brussels city.

On the last night before the matches started, we had a welcome cocktail afternoon. In this picture I am with (starting from the left) Emi from Japan, Ana from Portugal, Annelize from New Zealand and Mel who is the Australian Hockey Team's manager.

Breakfast is provided every morning at the hotel and it is super yummy!! Eggs, bacon, cheese, croissants, pancakes, fruit, yoghurt, juice, donuts, lollies, pastries ... the lot!! I have to show lots of self control not to go crazy each morning as I won't be able to run on the hockey field.

I had two reserves (which means I'm the third umpire that sits on the bench in case one of the on-pitch umpires get hurt) on the first match day.

On the second match day, I umpired at 6pm with Emi Yamada from Japan - Spain vs. Malaysia.

My snazzy new shoes. We are sponsored by Adidas so we got to pick a pair of Adidas hockey shoes to wear for the tournament.

This is me getting mic'd up before the match by the tv crew. We wear two packs on a belt beneath our shirt that allows audiences across the world hear us on the tv and it allows me to talk to the umpire on the other side of the field, the reserve umpire on the side line and video umpire in the truck.

Emi and I lining up in the middle of the pitch before the teams run out (I'm the tall one haha).

Joined by the teams - Spain in white and Malaysia in blue.

Yesterday (Friday) was our first of four 'rest days'. We had a sleep in, did our washing and went for a walk down to the local shopping centre.

We went with Emi the Japanese umpire to have some yummy Japanese food for lunch.

This is the majority of the umpiring team walking to the shops.

I have my second game tonight (Saturday) at 8pm (this will be Sunday morning 4am Sydney time for you). I am going to finish writing this post and then get ready to head out to the fields for the 6pm match before mine. I am umpiring Italy vs. Scotland with Amy from the United States.

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

Love Miss Seymour

Day off in Amsterdam

I was pretty tired this morning - we didn't get back from the game until almost midnight so I was a little slow getting up today. Once I was up though we went down to the local markets ... I loved it ... so many cheese and fresh fruit and veggie stalls. I love Dutch cheese!! I bought lots of yummy stuff to share with the people I'm staying with as a thank you for letting me stay.

(Yummy Dutch pancakes ...)

I have to pack tonight because tomorrow is the second test match between Australia and the Netherlands - it's an hour and a half out of Amsterdam so we'll need to allow travel time before the start time of 2pm. I will then travel with the Australian team on their bus to Brussels to start my preparation for the actual tournament.

Renee and Fiona (the ladies I am staying with here in Amsterdam) have 4 cats. 3 of them are beautiful and friendly, the other one hasn't warmed to me at all. Here is my favourite one, Bobby:

This is the view from their backyard - it backs right onto a little river - just beautiful...

Have a great start to Week 8 :)

Love from Miss Seymour

Miss Seymour's first full day in Amsterdam

Friday was my first full day in Amsterdam. After a good night's sleep I headed into the city of Amsterdam with Renee (the lady who I am staying with at the moment).

Here is the world's biggest bicycle parking lot ... crazy!! Everyone rides bikes in Amsterdam. The saying goes that they have more bicycles than people haha.

There is lots of water in Amsterdam and the city is divided by 2 major rivers and lots of canals. Renee took me on a Canal tour ... below are some photos I took:

Amsterdam Central Station -

There are 'house boats' all the way along the canals -

(I did take a couple of videos to show you but they don't seem to be working sorry :( I will have to show you when I return to school)

Apparently lots of bicycles end up in the river so the boat below has a 'crane-like' head and it goes through the rivers and canals digging out bikes -

Such cute buildings along the canals -

We then went up a building which had a 360 degree view of Amsterdam city -

At the very top of the buildings was Europe's Highest Swing - it swung out over the building ... crazy!

Coming down the levels, the lift was like a big disco ...

I then finished off the day with my first test match of the trip - Australia vs. the Netherlands at 7:30pm. It was at one of the local clubs in Amsterdam. We were very well looked after and there was a crowd of over 3500 people there to watch the game!!