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Dear Journal Readers,
Today was a relatively slow day, but nonetheless exciting. After
breakfast, Coach Kniffin headed out of the hotel without telling us
anything. Since we didn't know the plan for the day we started to follow him
on our little walk. After passing by one manure dump and another place that
smelled like one (Editor's Note: Innsbruck still has some rural parts and a
few local farms), we reached the grocery store in Innsbruck. We were given
ten euros to buy lunch with a mandatory two fruits included. The fruit
doesn't sound like anything special but when you have to weigh the fruit and
put a receipt on the bag by yourself, it can get tricky. The best part of
the shopping was the grub sandwiches which were either wienerschitzle
(pounded pork) or cordon bleu.
We then headed out to the train station, which was a difficult trek
because the majority of us were carrying fifteen pound grocery bags full of
water and food, and arrived with a few minutes to spare. As we boarded the
train we had to cram into the compartment because we couldn't find any
seats, so after running up and down the train to find seats together, we
settled for places where two or three of us could fit. We then had the sort
out our food which entailed walking back and forth on the shaking train and
preparing yourself for the impact against the train walls when it shook. The
best part of the train was either watching Will build his Mission to Mars
transforming Lego set or playing movie games in the middle of the train.
We then had to transfer trains which was pretty easy, especially the seat
finding. Soon a squishy ball was being thrown around the cabin occasionally
hitting fellow passengers who were either angry or just laughing at the
"stupid Americans". Soon after the conductor came by to check our tickets
and Kniff, being the sly man he is, told us we had to get off at the next
stop because the ball throwing had gotten out of control. Shocked, we all
grabbed our stuff and shuffled back to the last three cars where we sat in
first class cause there was no room otherwise. Much to our relief, we found
that Kniff had been [sort of] joking and that the train was disconnecting
with the last half going to Slovenia. The train ride ended pretty smoothly
and without a lot of noise.
We were met at the train station by Cory and [his Slovenian wife]
Andreja who were very nice and took us to our hotel but not without a detour
to the longest ski jump in the world. The most amazing thing about this was
the fact that it totally old school. It had a grass landing and wooden sides
which was placed on top of a massive hill. Now I'm not sure when we entered
into Slovenia when we were on the train but the scenery was astounding. Huge
mountains on both sides with forests running up and down them with small
houses, sometimes towns surrounding a lake. The best part of Slovenia so far
was when we were driving to the hotel and Cory pointed out the beginning of
the Alps. It is definitely a site to be seen. Also, we have a very nice
hotel which is actually in the Slovenian Olympic Training center so our
rooms are dorms with wireless internet access which everyone is happy about.
When we walked up to our training center a few hours early, which is
under the dorms, the Slovenian Youth National Table Tennis was playing and
it was an funny site. When we finally got our gym time, we warmed up and
started hitting lines. The Slovenian coach soon came in and started our
practice. When the coach talked to us, we were dead silent which was amazing
in itself and hasn't happened many times this trip (Editor's Note: Thanks
for being so respectful). We started with basic block moves and that
progressed into basic hitting and setting. When those two were added
together we had a quick game going between both sides. The coached ended his
portion of the practice an hour and fifteen minutes into it and we all
thanked him. We finished up the practice with some hitting and blocking then
serving and were greeted by Cory who brought us pizza when we were done, it
was delicious. The training was a good experience because it gave us a
different view on how to do the things that are second nature to us. The
night ended slowly with a few rounds of cards and a good night sleep.
Thank you for reading our journal, I hope it is posted before we get
back...
Sincerely,
Jonathan Bridgeman
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