Ciao! Sarah and Cade are back We are on the eighth day of our trip in Italy and it has gone by extremely fast. The day began with the usual morning practice, this time at 7:30, where we practiced plays for our final games. It was full of six on fives and a good amount of swimming followed by more swimming. Then we had the day to relax and do whatever we wanted to do with our time. Everyone chose to make the trek up to Camogli for lunch and some final site seeing. Unfortunately the weather started to take a turn for the worse, and it has been raining for most of the day. So the girls decided it was perfect day to do homework and rest before one of the hardest games of the week. We played well, better than we have ever played before on this trip, and improvements in the plays we have been working on can definitely be seen in every player’s individual games. The girls on Rapallo Nuoto were nice enough to trade caps and suits for us to bring home. To finish off the day we had a nice bus ride home. And right when we got back to the hotel the lights went off! This scared almost everyone. So far the trip has been very memorable, with new friendships, knowledge, and experiences. Everyone will definitely have many stories to share and keep throughout their lives. Grazie!
Ciao from your girls Courtney Fahey, Jenni Beadle, Brooke Presten and Mackenzie Flath. This morning we woke up exceptionally early for a 6 am practice. We worked more on our half court and 6 on 5 offense. Practice is beginning to be more fun because of our immense improvement from the beginning of the trip. After our practice ended at 7:30, we had a short amount of time to get ready for the day since we were going to Florence. All of the girls were frantically rushing to get ready. We left for Florence at 8:30 and got there at 10:30. The long bus ride allowed us to get some sleep and play some fun games on the way there. We then arrived in Florence and quickly made our way to the Galleria dell 'Accademia where we saw the real Statue of David. We were all so amazed how detailed the statue was and how every part of David's body was in proportion and identical the real human body. However it may have been a little less awkward if he was wearing a diablo speedo. Fun fact; the statue of David that we saw today did not have the same hands that Michelangelo carved. Instead, the oversized hands that we saw today were structured by an unknown artist due to vandalization to the statue in the 16th century. After touring the museum, we made our way into the depths of Florence and bargained for neat goods. Throughout the day we ate multiple rounds of gelato, the team favorite tends to be stracciatella (chocolate chip). After a long and entertaining day, we went to the popping college favorite restaurant; Gusta Pizza where we each ate our own margherita pizza and sat on the steps overlooking the Arno river. We then frantically ran to the bus to make a safe trip home to Recco and spent the ride home showing coach Mo our new treasures and reflecting on the fun day. Ciao Ciao from Courtney Fahey and Brooke Presten on the fifth day of our Italy 2014 trip! The day started out, as usual, with a wonderful display of focaccia, fruit, ham and of course, Nutella. We ate before leaving the Hotel Manuelina to wait for the bus, and as a team we played the game known as "ninja". After a long time of laughing and playing, it was time to get our game faces on as we headed to play in the town of boliasco. However, today was different than ever before, it was the first day we did not have morning practice. The reason we did not have it was because we played a team from Hungary at noon. This was by far our most difficult game of the trip. Hungary is a country that revolves around the game of water polo. The men's Olympic team has won nine titles and the women's team has been very competitive in various international tournaments. The amount of experience the team we played against had was extremely prevalent. They were constantly using us to get up on the counter attacks by grabbing and kicking off of us to score. It took a while to adapt to their style of play but we caught on as the game continued and were able to hold our own. We learned that communication is key and helps us work as a team on both offense and defense. It was a very tough game, but we know that it made us better players. After our game, we had time on our hands and no plan set in stone for us. Most of the girls were lucky enough to get some chiropractic work done by Dr. Johnson because of tight shoulders or legs from playing the whole trip. We had the opportunity to get some homework done (for once) before heading off to Downtown Recco for some Gelato. Once we were all back at the hotel, we ate a delicious dinner, yet again. We hope you are enjoying the blog so far and we are looking forward to sharing with you about our trip to Florence tomorrow. Ciao! Courtney and Brooke P.S. The night ended with massages given to Ann Sharf and Mo by yours truly Mackenzie, Jenni, Courtney, and Brooke Ciao! Happy April Fools Day! We started this morning at 5:30, the earliest practice yet. A practice full of running plays, passing, and shooting. Racing back to the hotel, we only had 45 minutes to shower and get ready for a long day of hiking in Cinque Terre. Our traditional breakfast consisted of Nutella, eggs, pastries, fruit, and a wide assortment of drinks. We all piled into the bus excited for the adventure ahead. After the two hour bus ride, the group was dropped off at the second city in Cinque Terre, Manarola where we discovered that some of the Cinque Terre trails were closed. Due to this, we took a train to Vernazza, the third city, where we ate lunch on the rocks by the water. Followed by lunch, most of us stayed near the water and took many photos while Brooke, Courtney, Mackenzie, Jenni, Mr. Beadle, and Mrs. Price, went on the one open trial, the hardest trail between the cities. Along with the photos, we started to make a music video that will be made throughout the whole trip. Also, because we work out so hard, we ate gelato in every city we visited today, some of us had four gelatos by the end of the day! After Vernazza, the group headed towards Monterosso where we played on the Italian playground and tried skipping rocks on the beach. After our 45 minutes were up, we hiked back up a the hill to meet our bus to go to our game. Having it be April Fools Day, we arranged a prank on our coach Mo at the pool. A few of the older girls pretended to be sick in the bathroom, and the younger girls rushed to Mo explaining to her that the girls "were sick." Unfortunately, Mo did not fall for our trick. After all the fun was over, we got our game faces on and were ready to play the team from Lerici. The game was very physical but we managed to stay tough. The opposing team had a strong set that could turn and shoot exceptionally well. Later on, we learned that one of the girls was on the Italian National Team. We created a lot of opportunities to work on our 6 on 5 and other plays. Even through all of the punches and scratches, we managed to win the game 21-12. We are definitely seeing an improvement in our playing. After the game, our team gave gifts to all the Italian girls. In return, they supplied a buffet of Italian treats and drinks. Just so you know, Diet Coke tastes better in the United States! After a long day, we all piled back into the bus to the hotel to eat dinner very late and finally got to our rooms at 11:30, ciao! Love, Jewel, Katie, Ava Ciao! It's Olivia and Lea here writing to you, all the way from the gorgeous Italia! Today was an exciting day, filled with lots of adventures. We followed our usual routine for the morning-waking up, hopping on the bus, and arriving at the pool for practice. We swam then warmed up with some passing and shooting. We did front court with 6 on 5 and finished off with a couple 5 meters. We arrived back at the hotel and had a delicious breakfast of Nutella croissants and other delicious pastries along with assorted fruits. We quickly got ready to board the bus to Santa Margarita. We drove higher and higher and the view was absolutely breathtaking. Once at Santa Margarita we took a public bus to this secluded beach with a little beach shack. We went paddle boarding and kayaking in the water just outside of the city of Portofino. In the middle of the ocean two groups on the paddle boards changed with the groups on the kayaks. One group switched more swiftly than the other. Not one member got wet in one group, all four members of the other group fell into the freezing cold water. While the players stayed on the beach eating a packed lunch from the hotel and collecting sea-glass the parents hiked to Portofino. We took the public bus back to the square in Santa Margarita and grabbed some gelato before taking our bus back to our hotel to rest before our game. We ate a delicous dinner consisting of pesto pasta and turkey with gravy. We showed up to the same pool as friday expecting to play the same team, but then ended up playing a boys team. We played better that game because we have been practicing our plays during morning practice. This game was much more physical, the boys were faster and stronger than the girls we played before, but we improved throughout the game. It taught us how to play without grabbing suits, we got to practice passing under immense pressure without drawing a foul, and we worked on fronting in the lanes. It was a very different playing the boys but it really helped us improve our skills. After the game the team surprised us with chocolate cake and focaccia bread, it was very good! After eating our share of the food, we boarded the bus back to the hotel to get a good night sleep to prepare for another adventurous day in Italia! Sunday was extremely fun and filled with exciting adventures. We started off with the normal morning polo practice at 7:30. Then we had breakfast and prepared to depart for San Fruttuoso. We had to take a boat to get to this cove, and once there we enjoyed the warm beach and the refreshing water. Most of the players went in the water while the others lounged on the beach. Meanwhile Cade, Ava, Sara S, Sarah W, Jewel, and Lea found two huge frogs among the rocks on the beach. After spending time on the beach we headed back on the boat for Camogli. At Camogli we ate some gelato and began the walk back to Recco. In Recco, we shopped at the local supermarket and the AZ sporting goods store where we looked at some Turbo water polo suits. Then, we had some down time before dinner at 7. Overall it was a good day and we are all looking forward to the rest of our stay in Italy. - Sarah Ward & Cade Johnson Ciao, Lauren Indart and Sara Steingraf here to tell you all about our first full day in Italy! The day started out with a workout at 6 o’clock this morning. At our first practice of the trip, we swam 1000 yards to loosen our muscles and warm up our bodies. After passing we did a fun shooting drill then worked on 6 on 5. Some parents and siblings got in to help balance out the teams. This was an early wakeup call for us players, but it was worth having the whole day ahead of us. After workout we had an amazing breakfast at the Hotel Manuelina full of croissants and focaccia. Then it was time to relax in our rooms until lunch in order to recover from our day of travelling and late night game yesterday, before our lunch. For lunch we had pasta and pork; we are finding that the Italian food is different, but very good. To top off the delicious meal, we got to enjoy a bowl of pear gelato. Next, we walked to Camogli to take a picture for the local newspaper with the Lamorinda boys water polo team. We had gelato there while sitting on the warm pebble beach, looking out into the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. After our time in Camogli, we took the bus into Recco to watch the Pro Team defeat their opponent, Remaggio. Seeing the professional teams play gave us a whole new respect for playing as a team. Their passing was flawless on their 6 on 5 plays and by the end of the trip we aspire to work together as they did. A day full of activity helped us to work up our appetite for dinner; we had penne pasta, a classic Italian dish, and chicken, followed by gelato blanco (also known as vanilla ice cream). We have a busy day ahead of us and an early morning practice to look forward too, tune in tomorrow to hear about our trip to San Fruttuoso. Ciao, It’s Jenni Beadle and Mackenzie Flath here reporting in on the first day of the Italy 2014 trip. It was a day that felt like it was never going to end; and close to it. That being that we managed to stay awake for about 33 hours and still finish our day off with a great game. We started our day off by catching a 4-hour flight out of San Francisco to Chicago at 11:00 a.m. We then frantically rushed over to our connecting flight to Munich due to the delay in San Francisco. In Munich we ate some interesting hot dogs and drank some delicious complementary hot chocolate. Over the course of our 5-hour lay over, we bonded by having dance competitions, playing heads up, and napping. Our last excursion before reaching Italy was a quick 1-hour long flight from Munich to Genoa. Our beloved S.M. Viaggi picked us up at the airport and took us to the Manuelina to get settled in and eat dinner. We ate salmon in the Focacciaria before we had to dash off to our first game! We played a team from Genoa and it was a quick reminder to those who had gone on this trip before and a wake up call to the new girls at how aggressive and skilled the Italians play. After brutalizing one another and giving it all we got, we then exchanged gifts and became the best of friends. After having so much down time on the plane, we had the chance to think about how lucky we are to be on this extraordinary trip. This being our third trip makes us especially grateful for everyone who supports the team and makes the trip a reality. |