December 31, 2008
New Years Ever!
By Jennifer Bonilla & Jane Croson, Sport Shack & Cal Jrs
Yesterday was New Years Eve and after our lovely dinner we hiked up the Pohorje mountain, which to us seemed like it was never ending. Ashley, Molly, and Amy reached the top before everyone else. Jane and Jazmine reached the top last. For the record, it was my first time EVER in the snow and it was awesome! I made my first snow angel with Erica and had my first snow ball fight with Tori, aka “Grande”. I’m not so sure that I wanted my first experience in the snow to be of a hike up the enormous mountain, but it was still amazing and I had a lot of fun.
Here’s the real story: Jazmine and I were last to come up the mountain. First of all, we were wearing UGG boots and it was impossible for us climb up the mountain. While we were hiking, we met a couple of local people and it was very interesting. We met a couple that tried to help us but it was really hard trying to understand them because they didn’t speak English. So the lady told me and Jasmine that we should walk on the ice because it was easier. So we tried it out ... and it DEFINITELY didn’t work at all! We both went sliding almost half way down the mountain. Thank god for the snow making machines or else we would have been screwed! We just wanted to give up until we met another person. He was very nice and according to Jazmine he was HOT! He gave us some tips and told us to walk a certain way. Good thing we met him or else we would of NEVER made it up that thing! This was a great experience and it was LOTS of fun!
Prior to the evening’s festivities we trained in the morning for two hours and started if off with a hard workout. We mostly worked on passing and trying to move our feet more. We started passing 100 balls on each side of our body while moving our feet. Then we passed some more while the middles were working on hitting slides. It was very tiring for the middles because they had to hit constantly. Then we played a little four on four for the LONGEST time, but I thought I was really fun!
After eating pizza for lunch right there at the gym, we had a short training with the Austrian Youth National Team. It was a pretty easy training, and fun because they had different styles of playing. They are VERY nice and speak fluent English so it made it easier to communicate. We worked on setting first and trying to get to know some of their names. Afterwards, we played three on three and it was very fun because that was the first time I’ve ever seen Jim (our head coach) smile so much! Overall it was a great day and I will always have lots of great memories.
