By: Rachel and Bailey of Jacksonville, FL (JJVA)

            This morning, Coach Jody woke Rachel up very early to say goodbye to her brother Blake.  Then she went back to sleep.  Jody woke up the whole team at 7:30 and we went to breakfast.  Bailey ate cheerios and bread.  We then went back to our cabins and dressed for our first match.  To get to the match we went on a very, very, extremely long walk on the rocky, single-laned, dangerous side road (hence, the Death March).  This walk took forty minutes.  During this walk, Jody talked to each individual athlete and told us what we needed to improve.  Also during this walk, we played broken telephone.  Just before reaching the gym, we were called and told we were late so we sprinted to warm ourselves up.  Once at the gym, we hurriedly put on our sneakers and finished warming up.  We played the Marcopoulis Youth volleyball team.  We started slow, but we won the first game with a score of 25-23.  The second game was not our best, and we lost 24-26.  The third game was a victory (28-26). 

We left the gym and returned to Loutraki Sports Center.  We all grabbed some food, for Rachel: ice cream, coke, and an apple.  We peeped at the Juniors Team playing the Marcopoulis Juniors Team.  After one game to 25, we played the Marcopoulis Juniors team.  Number 4 was a very strong volleyball player (that’s an understatement!!!)  We lost L 25-16.  However, afterwards, the coach of the Marcopoulis Juniors told us we were a very good team, but we just needed to practice more. 

After playing came lunch where we were served by the Juniors teamJ!!  We then showered and headed in to Loutraki.  Some members of our team went swimming in the iceberg temperature water.  Others went window and souvenir shopping.  Most shops were closed because it was Sunday.  Rachel and Mariah bought Greek statues to bring home.  We then went back into the water for maybe a second.  We then ate dinner at a pizza restaurant.  However, they only allowed us to purchase three pizzas; other had to order salads and pasta.  We were scared because we thought our food would not arrive in time, but it did!  We ate in about five minutes and then rushed to buy ice cream!  We were all stuffed. 

We hopped on to the bus and reverted to our bunks.  We were told our bed time was 10L.  We came back, some showered and did laundry, and then went to sleep like good little girls (ha ha).  We hung out as a team and had cabin time and Bailey almost had to jump out the window.  Claire decided to dance around in her towel while others laughed at her.  We then wrote this entry into your minds.  All the rest of the night, until 10, will be a mystery!!  Good Night

So today we woke up at like 7:20 and had to be at breakfast by 7:30 because we had a match to play at 9 a.m. at the away gym.  (That would be 2 a.m. back in the U.S.)  We played the Marcopoulis Juniors Team and their number four hitter was amazing!!  The first game we lost 17-25 and the second game we lost 26-28.  The second game was so close and we almost beat them but they kept setting the really big hitter at the end and it killed us.  Then we watched the younger team play and they lost but they did well.  Our bus came and took us back to the Loutraki sports center and we went to the gym to play another team and these weird karate guys were in there practicing. We had to wait until they finished their competition, then when we walked in the gym it smelled really bad!  We played Marcopoulis again and lost.  Overall, we played really well today.  Personally I think we played better than the day before so at least we are improving. 

            After we played we went to lunch where we had to set the tables for everybody for a punishment for staying up too late the night before.  After eating we went back and got showers.  After everyone got pretty we left on the bus at 4:30 to go into Loutraki.  Then we split up into our teams and went to find some food.  We found a cute restaurant right on the beach and ate outside.  The pizza was really, really good and the man who owned it was very nice.  Then we wanted to find sunglasses and ice cream.   We ended up not getting any sunglasses but we walked everywhere and finally found good ice cream.  By then it was time to meet back to get on the bus.  We went back to the place that we are staying and our whole team got together and now we are just hanging out and playing cards.  This is about our third night in a row playing cards.  Kent has been a really popular game with us.  It’s addicting!!:-) Well that’s about it so we talk to everybody tomorrow.  Good Night!!