Day 8 – Innsbruck Austria

By Brook Dieter

Today we had an early morning of volleyball, which meant we had to be at the gym around 9:15 for our 10:00 match. The first match we played was against one of the Front Range teams. Many of our girls were looking forward to playing against a few of our new friends on Front Range. Playing two out of three, we won the first two and then we mutually agreed to play a third for fun. Although we won our morning match which allowed us to play for first place, we agreed to play the Slovenian team because we had not played them before.

Before we started our match against the Slovenians we were informed that we would be going out to eat afterwards, giving us the incentive to win as fast as possible, because we were very hungry teenage girls. We beat the Slovenian team in two games and were very pleased with a 3rd place finish in the tournament. After the match the Slovenians agreed to trade jerseys with us, meaning we were able to take home a little souvenir of their country. Excited after winning our match we went to a pleasant restaurant for lunch. We were served Risotto (a new dish for most of us), and everyone who tried it liked it a lot.

After lunch we went back to the gym and all of us took a shower and got ready for our night of shopping! We were allowed to shop for four hours which added to our excitement of winning this morning. Many of our girls purchased sweatshirts that had Austria written across the front, and a puma look alike shirt. We met back at the bus to go out to dinner at the same restaurant we had eaten the past few nights. We were served a dish with an assortment of five different meats which Alicia was obviously unable to eat, so she was served potatoes, mushrooms, and eggs which she enjoyed immensely.

When we got back to our hotel we did what girls do best; talking and doing each others hair. Both teams were able to bond enjoy each others company, Tired from the long day of playing and shopping we went to bed dreaming of the next few days that we will spend in Italy.