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Player Journal: Day 5
Before I get to what we did on Sunday, I have to tell you about the daily Erin Larson story. In addition to all the fun things we do on the court and the sightseeing we've been doing, we've also had some fun back at our hotel. On Saturday, Larson, being the curious person she is, was playing with a knob on the heater in our room. When she turned it a certain way, she was scared to death when it sprayed water all over her and her bed. I couldn't stop laughing it was so funny. It seems that every funny or odd thing that happens to someone on the trip happens to Larson!
Now back to what we did. Sunday was a very calm day. We drove about an hour away from Communanza and went to a beach town - Piscina - for the day. Unfortunately, it was really and windy, and with us being Texas girls now, we pretty much stayed inside and played games while some of our brave teammates played out on the beach for a while before lunch.
We also took advantage of the ping pong table that was there, where (Assistant coach) Tonya (Johnson) beat Sarah (Holloway) pretty badly, and some of our teammates decided to take on Tim (Kelly, team host and founder of Bring It USA, the team's tour's sponsor) and Sarah (Elliott, head coach Jerritt Elliott's wife and former U.S. National Volleyball Team member) on the sand court. I think our team should stick to the court right now until this summer when we'll be able to get out sand legs under us since it wasn't pretty volleyball at all!
Even though it was cold, some people were still out on the sand. But they weren't lying out or swimming. Bethany (Howden), (Assistant coach) Tonya Johnson, (Sarah) Holloway and (athletic trainer) Erika Kuhr had a wrestling match, and from what I heard, Bethany handled Tonya like she was a feather because she used the element of surprise. Erika had to get involved then and got Bethany back while Kalee (Elliott, head coach Jerritt Elliott's daughter) put Bethany in a head lock and gave her a nooggie! For a six-year old, Kalee can hang with the best of them.
But overall, the beach was a beautiful sight and it was fun to experience it with my teammates!
But like all things the fun had to end, so we left the beach, drove
back to Communanza and then it was time for practice, which went well
as far as I could see. Since I sprained my ankle in our first match,
I haven't been able to play since last Thursday. So, I sat and did
some ankle exercises to strengthen and rehab the ligaments I stretched
out.
After practice we went to eat, which seems like one of the only things we've been doing on this trip. For a chance, we had French fries with our meat and pasta, and it reminded us all of home. It's true you never miss something until it's gone, and boy, do we notice that the American food is gone!
Missing food makes me think of Brandy (Magee) and Jessica (Curtis) at lunch naming foods that they miss and it came out of no where. After dinner, though, we had a few laughs and talked about things that were happening, and just really had some team bonding moments, which made it nice to just sit back and relax.
After that, Dariam (Acevedo), Jessica and I started up a game of Monopoly, which was hilarious because it went so long. Dariam went bankrupt and ended up selling her seven pieces of property for $1.00 each. Jessica was on a roll, taking in a lot of money, but the tables turned and I started winning and ended up with all of the $500 bill and all of the important properties, while Jess had to mortgage everything and sell her houses and hotels. The game didn't end until 3 a.m., and it was my first time playing a whole game of Monopoly … and I won!! How fun!!
This trip has been awesome, seeing things that I never thought I would have had the chance to see, getting a chance to play volleyball, and being with my teammates! I can't wait to get to the other countries (Austria and Germany) to see even more!
