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Day 3, December 29, 2005
Orlando Journal
By Case Trimble
Today’s Opening Ceremonies brought dancing and music to many players. There was dancing around the gym in a samba line and music in a foreign language. The mayor of Izola spoke saying how proud she was to host this International Tournament.
Our team won our only game today, beating the Croatians with confidence. This small fishing town is dominated by the fishing industry. We got a chance to talk to a fisherman. He gave us directions to the bank, and a dead seahorse, which my teammate threw into the harbor that leads directly to Adriatic Sea. The town has an open market where the locals purchase meat and vegetables. Some of the houses and shops were undergoing a restoration. It was funny seeing our own state tree (the palm tree), in such a cool climate, where I made a snowball from the snow on the cars! Overall, Izola is a quaint seaside town that we have enjoyed very much. We are looking forward to Maribor, where it has been snowing for the past three days.
Orlando v Novigrad: 2-0
Jacksonville 14’s
By Holland Hoefnagel and Tess Granfield
Today was not very active. Our team only played one game and unfortunately we lost.
We also had the chance to go and look around town. Groups of us went out and had a lot of a fun and many crazy experiences. One group went and had lunch at a pizzeria and had a blast. Another group went to get their ski money exchanged for tolars and had some great laughs. When Kamryn, Holland, Tess, Mariah, Chelsea and Alexia went to get money they had the chance to see how the ATMs work in Slovenia. After it all, Kamryn lost her debit card and Holland, Mariah and Alexia got chased off by a man with a metal can. After our fun times, we went and watched the 16’s team play. They did quite well for the “beast” they played. All in all we had a pretty awesome day. Izola is beautiful.
Jacksonville 14 v Lhubno: 23-25, 15-25
Jacksonville 16’s
By Jessica Burghart
Izola has been such an experience. It is only the second day and I am already in love with this small little Slovenian town. Yesterday I minorly sprained my ankle and was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to play today but I pulled it off. We played a total of two games today. The first game we won, which was awesome!
After the first game we were able to tour the city a little more and found the cutest shops ever. Who would have ever thought the best stores would be in back alleys where no one can find them? We were also able to see some of the “beach” but instead of sand it has rocks. How crazy! Finally after sight seeing we played our last game. We lost but it was still okay because we played awesome, especially since the opponents were 19 year old Croatians who could put it down on the 10 foot line every play!
Even though I love Izola, I am extremely excited to go to Maribor due to the snow. If there is one thing I’ve learned on this trip it would definitely have to be that they have the BEST ice cream ever!
Jacksonville 16 v Strahinga I: 25-20, 25-21
Jacksonville 16 v OK Pula: 13-25, 9-25
Westcoast
By Elizabeth Serra-Hsu
This morning we had breakfast at 8:30, although we didn’t have to play until 12:00. Unfortunately we lost but we played OK. Then we had the Opening Ceremony. That was kind of boring but entertaining at the same time. During the ceremony we noticed a couple of very good looking Croatian boys. After it was over we went and talked to them. They unfortunately did not know English, but that was OK because we were able to communicate with them anyway. After finding out where we were, our coach came up and made us leave. We then went and had lunch at a really good pizza place.
After lunch we went on a walk through the town and along the water. At the waters edge every person on our team picked up a rock to take home. This was so we could look at it and always remember our trip. After walking back to the hotel we had about 3 hours to relax. Most of us slept or just sat around and talked. At 7:00 we set out again for the gym. When we got there the gym was a match behind, so we sat there for about 2 hours before we got to play. Our match went to three games but we pulled out a win, 15-13 in the third game. After our first international win we went back to the hotel, had dinner and went to bed ready to face the next day.
West Coast v Gemonna: 0-2
West Coast v Ljub Thislimja: 24-26, 25-22, 15-13
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