Today was our day off, and although I didn’t play in the match the night before, nor did I do any extra training, it was nice to relax and recover. Obviously the workload has taken a bit to get used to, so taking the breaks when I can!
Having the day off finally allowed me to catch up with Laura Nicholas, who lives in Derry, but is on a scholarship at Quinnipiac University to play football. So we have known each other for 3 years, and now we got to hang out in her hometown. It was great because today there was more boats on the waterfront and all sorts of food, arts and craft stalls all along the waterfront too. So we took a wander down through all the stalls, looked at the boats, chatted away and enjoyed what was the war
mest day I have experienced since I have been here. The food stalls were from all over the world, as the boats in the race were all from around the world too, so it makes for a great few days of different cultures and food. The stalls I felt were very similar to the Saturday markets back home in Nelson. I could happily wander and taste many things on a nice afternoon every weekend of the summer if similar events were on.
Eventually Laura and I parted ways, however I’m sure I will see her again in the next few weeks before she heads back to Quinnipiac for her Senior year! I grabbed some groceries and then headed home.
A quick shower, some food to eat and then Wardy, Jarvy and I headed to Aaron’s place to celebrate his 21st. It was most of the lads from the team there. We had a good time with lots of banter and it was great for me to get to know more of the lads outside of the team 
and training environment. The night led us out to a bar in Derry where Aaron had booked an area for us to hang out in, but also enjoy the bar and dance floor. It turned out to be a great first night out for me in Derry.