Journal Entry #3

July 21st 8:30pm

This morning I got up at the usual time to head out for my morning exercise. Surprisingly enough, today seemed a bit cooler and I even felt a breeze at two particular times. I couldn’t seem to figure out if this was because I had been in the same conditions the day earlier and now I was more versed towards them, or if it really was cooler.

Today I walked my first lap of the run around the park and it was then that I realized what it’s like to be a minority. I guess it really didn’t bother me the day before because I was weaving in and out of traffic, but it definitely bothered me a bit today. None the less, I went about my business and made it back to the hotel at about 8:00am. After breakfast we headed over the gym (across the street) for practice. We worked on some defensive relationships and responsibilities this morning and ended the day with a drill that I’ll definitely be using with my team this year. It uses 5 players on each side (no middle blocker) and is initiated by a serve. Only one player is attacking from the front row (the left front) but the setter can set that player or anyone from the back row. The front row player can only tip or roll shot, but the back row players can do anything. The team that is serving is the only one that can score on the attack, but a tip or roll shot score becomes a negative 1 for either team. We played for about 25-30 minutes and the score continued to go up and down. Our team ran down some amazing balls and I’m convinced this is a great way to teach a team to avoid getting scored on by a tip or roll shot.

After practice the girls took quick showers and we got boxed lunches from the hotel. We headed off to tour some of the historic parts of the city with Mary Kate and Ashley. About half way to the Saint Paul Cathedral (a cathedral that was built in 1602 and destroyed by a fire in 1835), I took back my thought that it was any cooler today than any of the other days that we were here. None the less, the team trudged on anxiously awaiting our first opportunity to barter. We finally got to try the "name a price and walk away" tactic at some shops right across from the St. Paul Cathedral ruins. There were 4 separate stand alone tourist shops containing all kinds of things from magnets to jewelry to tea pots to ancient dragon figurines (so they say). Ashley Engle found her new calling as she whittled down the storeowner to half of the price he originally said for her "new treasure". She then went on to teach the rest of the team the new tricks of the trade.

After making our way through the old entrance of the cathedral and walking down into the Crypt where the relics of the Martyrs of Japan and Vietnam rest, we walked down into some more shops. Each one of us made our own favorite purchase of the trip today. Mine was an authentic chess set, even though I don’t know how to play chess. I thought it would give me some good motivation to learnJ

About 3pm, we made our way back to the hotel, making a quick stop at the bank down the street to check e-mail. To date, this is the only place we’ve found where we can check and send short e-mails. However, I have yet to find a way to send an attachment. We are trying to work that out through our hotel.

Tonight we had a quick 1 hour practice on the main floor in the gym across the street. We did a few serve and pass drills and some ball control drills just to get used to the new gym (we’ve been practicing in the auxiliary gym). After the practice the girls took quick showers and worked on an exercise in groups that Erikka prepared for them.

Dinner tonight was a whole new level of food experience. All of the teams are now here so we had to eat in the same area that we have been eating breakfast in. Only this time, we had a buffet for dinner as well. There were more than a dozen main course options and that was just the beginning! Each of us filled our plates and then our stomachs. I’m committing myself to a 4 mile run tomorrow!

We had a quick intro meeting about the plans for tomorrow and then everyone headed up to our rooms. All in all, I think this was our best day here and I know we are all extremely anxious for the tournament to begin.