Our goals are to educate the girls on tour about playing in Europe, get them as much exposure as possible in Spain, to play as many teams in Spain as possible that have Americans currently on the team, and also to place as many players as possible for the following season. As usual, the March Tour is a high level Exposure Tour for players with recent collegiate experience and some aspirations of playing overseas. Our coach will be Erikka Gulbranson, an exper ienced BIP Tour and USAV Coach.

Today was the day all of the girls left the United States for Spain. We had all scheduled our own flights, so everyone came into Madrid at different times throughout Friday. My specific flight from Omaha was late getting started, so by the time I reached Chicago O’Hare, I was running through the terminals trying to catch my long flight to Amsterdam. The 7 hour flight went alright except for the guy from India I was sitting next to felt like he could take over my seat as well as his own. When I arrived in Amsterdam, I met two of the other girls who would be on the tour, Sam and Kristina from Northwood University. We made our way to Madrid where we would eventually meet up with Addie who came in on a flight right after ours.

The beginning moments of Madrid were not the best for us. Addie and I both did not receive our luggage, and trying to communicate with the ladies at the luggage counter was interesting enough in itself. Next, we decided instead of paying 60 Euro for a taxi, we would brave the public transportation system with the metros (we figured we would have to figure the system out sooner or later). We had our directions from Tim in hand and started out on our journey. Little did we know it would take us 2 1/2 hours to get to “Aristos”, the place we would be staying. I would have to say the only good part about having our luggage lost was that we didn’t have to drag it around for that amount of time! When in the trains, we made sure we were careful about keeping an eye on our bags, for we had heard pick-pocketing is a pastime of the locals. Sure enough pick-pocketing does happen. Once we arrived at the “Aristos”, we heard that Emily had a little boy take her make-up case, which he probably thought was a wallet. We were tired by the time we made it, but I really enjoyed getting to know the three girls during our journey.

Walking up to “Aristos”, we saw Jennifer and Shannon getting out of a taxi (oh how good the thought of a taxi sounded by now!) We met TK at the door; he gave us our room key and told us we would be training in 10 minutes. We went up and checked out our small rooms and came back downstairs for the first training session.

Addie in our tiny room. (Monday morning after we had finally gotten our luggage)

Walking into the gym for the first time was a little shocking.  The facilities here aren’t exactly what you expect, mainly because it’s not what you see in the USA.  Many times the gyms had cement type floors, not necessarily wood floors.  We had about 7 or 8 balls to train with, so shagging balls became important.  Training wasn’t bad at all; the goal was to get some touches on the ball: serve and pass, and a lot of hitting (trying to connect with the setters).  Another goal for many of us was to know the names of all the girls and where they were from.

After training, we ate in the cafeteria at “Aristos”.  They had food already set up for us: bread, meat, “tortillas espanolas” (not what you expect, made of egg and potatoes), pasta salad, and fruit.  This was a very typical meal of what we would be eating in Spain for the next 10 days.  After eating, we headed for the gym to play a match against MC’s team (Mary Clare Coughlin, MC, is an American from Towson University who plays in Madrid).  We sat around waiting to go to the gym and decided to go check out MC’s apartment before the game.  She lived with three other people, all of which smoked.  Overall it seemed to be a decent place to live.  MC’s team was a Primera/3rd Division Team.  We stepped out on the court and played fairly well considering we had practiced together once.  This made us look forward to future competition; little did we know how much we would struggle in the days to come.  After the game, we stopped to order pizza and had it delivered to “Aristos”.

Day 2, Saturday, March 11

Today we woke up and went down to breakfast before training.  Eating cereal with milk that was room temperature took some getting used to.  Morning training was very similar to Friday; a lot of serve and pass and hitting drills.  We then played a lot of six on six games.  Games were very competitive and it was fun to play with a bunch of talented girls! 

After practice, we had time to go shower and get ready before we were to go out into the city of Madrid.  I once again checked the front desk to see if any luggage had come from the airport, and still the same answer, NO!  The girls were great about lending me anything I may need.  Let’s just say this particular day, the only thing I wore that was my own were my tennis shoes.

The whole group took off by bus and ventured into the city.  We walked around in search of the Prado Museum, but ended up at one of the main shopping areas. 

All the girls on the tour

This is when the group broke off into smaller groups and did their own thing until we were to meet back up at the given time.  Many found interesting places to eat; some tried more traditional Spanish food, while others went to Subway. 

Dana, Ashley, and Sam eating our first “real” Spanish meal

After eating, some continued shopping while others checked out some of the sights such as the Cathedral and the Palace of Madrid.  We met back up with the whole group and took off to go watch a match against MC’s team and another Primera team (Leganes).  Tim left us directions to get to the match, which we followed pretty well except we came to one spot where we didn’t know we had to pay to get out of the metro.  It was a good thing we had Jennifer who was able to ask directions.  We sat and watched the match while at the same time talking to Tim and asking him questions.  After the match, we took the metro to find something to eat in the area where we would be Sunday for the Jack Johnson concert.  After supper, some of the girls decided to go out while others went back and just hung out and talked.

The Cathedral

Day 3, Sunday, March 12

Today was another pretty laid back day.  Not a lot goes on in Spain on Sundays.  Many of the stores are closed because it is considered a holiday.  Once again, we had training in the morning.  The same drills, however this practice was interesting because Shannon broke the net with her powerful hitting!   She took a swing that tapped the net and the net came crashing down.  The padlock that held the net to the pole snapped.  We had to adapt for awhile until another padlock could be found.  It was all pretty amusing!
         
After practice, some of the girls decided to go back into the city and find the Prado that we had missed the day before, while the other girls just wanted to stay and sleep and hang out at “Aristos”.  Those of us that went to the museum, spent about an hour looking at the artwork, and by the time we were done, it was time to head to the Jack Johnson concert.   We met up at the Cafeteria we had eaten at the night before and just chilled until it was time to go into the concert.  The concert was a ton of fun and a few of the girls made their way towards the very front. 

Dana, Lindsey, Shannon, Cassie, Emily, and Erin before the Jack Johnson concert

Jack Johnson

After the concert, many of the girls went out, while a couple of us were exhausted from the day and went back to hang out. 
         
Much to my surprise when I got back to “Aristos”, my luggage had been delivered.  I have to say, other than the Jack Johnson concert, this would have to be one of the major highlights of the day!  No more inconveniencing the other girls and just in time to leave for Avila in the morning!