In Almeria we all stayed in a hostal by the ocean front of the Mediterranean Sea. Later on that day we were scheduled to play Almeria’s club team around 7:00pm. Unfortunately, we had to reschedule the time and the place due to refugees living in the team’s gym. From what I was told by the two Americans on Almeria team, these refugees have been living in their gym for the past six weeks. During all of this, the refugees were trying to sacrifice a goat due to their religious beliefs. Therefore, we had to sit around a while until the coach from the other team found us another gym to play in. After waiting around for a half an hour the coach found a gym. We took the bus over to the other gym and begin to warm up quickly. Usually, all the gym’s we played in are very cold and Almeria’s gym was a lot warmer than the others. Almeria’s team was not that tall or athletic but very scrappy on defense. I enjoyed playing this team because it gave me a chance to work on my outside defensive game. We also got to meet the two American girls on the team who were really cool and funny. The good thing about meeting the American’s on the other teams is that we could ask them a lot of questions about playing overseas. We also beat them three games to zero. After the game we all went out to eat and met a couple of guys from other professional volleyball teams in Almeria again. Almeria was a fun time for all of us and we really enjoyed ourselves. I wish playing against them could have been a little more competitive but you take what you can get and move on. I’m really glad that I came on this trip because playing over seas made me realize how fortunate we are in the U.S. These teams over here have a lot of talent that had me overwhelmed. I also realize these girls don’t take anything for granted. Playing over here made me realize this is something I really want to do. I would like to thank all the coaches on the tour who made it possible for me to play and experience this whole trip. (It was Great!)……(Shout out to Morgan State Honey Bears! OOH EHH!)
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