Sibillini 2007
Journal Entry #2 – Falconara
June 30 - July 1
By Lorelle Schaub, University of Connecticut

Day three of our lovely trip, and we got to sleep in! We did not leave Rome until 11:00am, which left plenty of sleeping time.  We packed up and headed to the bus for a three-hour bus ride to Falconara, up north a little on the Adriatic Coast.  A bunch of girls caught up on more sleep, and a few us went over all we had done and got to know each other a little bit more.  Arriving in Falconara was easy, getting to the hotel on the other hand was not as simple.  Our bus got stuck under a bridge, and we had a few issues trying to take the tight corners of the town in our huge bus.  We finally made it to the hotel, and after an hour of lying low, we were off to the gym.
           
We arrived to the fabulous orange and green gym, got our gear on and started to warm-up.  We had to wait for balls, and as we waited we partook in a great game of elbow tag.  It’s been forever since most of us have played it making it a ton of fun and bringing back memories of the old days.  Next was some regular pepper, overhead pepper, and speed pepper.  Needless to say we had some issues with the speed pepper, but it was a ton of fun to try and go super fast.  We then jumped into some 4 to 4 type drill, where each teams has a middle and a setter blocking, and the outsides are hitting cross court at each other against the two blockers, a libero in left back, a left front, and a middle back.  Team “Red” (my team, Holler!) Took that drill in three game series 2-1!  After our little victory, we did serve receive with two passers, and the middles were hitting slides, then we switched up to middles hitting 31’s (or 3’s).  Lastly we played a game called “press your luck.”  It is the closest thing to gambling we can do as college athletes and it was pretty wicked.  It was normal rally score, but if a team went on a run of 3 or more, and your team stopped them you could gamble that next serve and take those three points from them, but if you lost you lost that many points.  This time the tables were turned and “Team Blue” pulled it out in one game to 15.  Over all practice was a ton of fun and it was good play together a little bit more.
           
After we practice we showered real quick, and were off to dinner.  We ate at this outside restaurant on the beach.  We had a great view of the ocean and the sunset, not to mention a TON of food.  We had pasta, and more pasta, and bread, and pizza and salad.  The food and the meal went on forever but it was good bonding with everyone and spending more time together.  After waiting for a desert pizza that never came, a few of us headed into the town for some pretty amazing gelato.  After walking around and scoping out the best place for desert we decided on the first place we saw when we entered town.  The problem with being in Italy and not speaking Italian is this little thing called communication.  It took us a while to explain what we wanted but it was defiantly worth the work.  We next headed back to the hotel, and after some crazy MTV music videos and a few hours of chatting we were off to bed.
           


The next morning most of the girls headed down to the beach early in the morning.  My roommates and I decided sleep was a little more important and slept in a bit then laid by the pool for a few hours, catching some rays.  By 12:30 it was time to get back on the bus and head for the mountains and the Sibillini Tournament. It was an extremely hot bus ride but good thing it was only a little over an hour and half. 
           
The trip has been so much fun and I can’t believe we still get to spend another week in Italy!  Let’s be serious, the beach, Italy, volleyball, and food, does it get any better for us poor college students? I think not!  There are many more days and many more adventures, can’t wait for the rest of it!

For more information, and some great photos, please see the past years journals: