Tuesday July 17, 2007
Day 8 –  Duga Resa - Tuzla
By: Stephanie Kent    
Northern Lights 16-1

            Today we woke up this morning pretty early and went downstairs for an interesting breakfast of hotdogs, ham, cheese, and bread it was a real step up in meals from the day before with chicken paste and bologna. We then all packed up our things and were on the road by 8 A.M which was a real hassle for a few of us on the team. We then packed up onto the bus and were on our way to Tuzla, Bosnia which was about a 5-6 hour drive, about 3 of the hours were on the interstate and 2 ½ hours on smaller roads through the country roads. We had to stop and show our passports on our way out of Croatia and when we entered into Bosnia. We stopped a few times along the way for bathroom breaks and snacks, trying to spend our Kunas before changing our money again.    
          
  When we arrived in Tuzla, we met the head of the OK Jelovica Tuzla Volleyball Club and then had lunch out on the hotel patio, we had pork, French fries, breaded chicken patties, and for dessert we had lots of bars and cookies which were mostly covered in cocoanut. After that some girls went walking into town and others stayed back at the hotel and unpacked and relaxed before our match later that night.

            We arrived at the gym at about 6:45 for our match at 8 against the OK Jelovica Tuzla Volleyball Club which was a local club from Tuzla. Before the match they announced all of our names to the crowd and it was different then the past matches. The first game we played we basically got our butts handed to us 25-13, but we all kept our heads high for the next game. Although they did change there line up to some of the younger girls closer to our age we then won 25-17. It was then a battle after the 4th game because we were tied 2-2 in games so it was all down to that last game, we ended up coming out and winning the 5th game 15-7.  After our match we later found out that some of the girls on that team were 4-6 years older then us, but overall it was great competition and a lot of fun.
           
After our match we went back to the hotel and showered and got ready for the supper and the party after down on the hotel patio. The Tuzla girls joined us for dinner, for starters we had bread and cabbage and then they brought out big plates of  pork, sausages, beef, liver, and some other meats from the country and then they brought out large plates of French fries for all of us as well. After dinner the band started playing and some of the people started dancing which of coarse made all of us girls start dancing. We learned some new Bosnian dances including one called the “Kolo” which was a lot of fun. We were all out there dancing and what not till almost 1:30. It was a really fun day, and it was really great for all of us to experience things that they all got to do.