Wednesday, May 20 - Modica, Sicily
Christina Kaelin - Rising Senior - Louisville, Ky.

Today was our first full day in Italy! After a great night of sleeping it finally feels like we are on Italian time. The team enjoyed a low-key day of fun in the sun followed by a competitive match against Modica's top club team. It was a great way to start off our Italian tour.

The day began on a high note for both myself and my roommate, Kim Kristoff. We enjoyed a European style continental breakfast of meats, cheeses, croissants, lattes, and (drumroll please...) Nutella! We have both enjoyed Nutella in the States on anything from crepes to strawberries, but there's something about Nutella at breakfast in individually wrapped packages that filled us with excitement. It's the little things in life that Kim and I really enjoy!

After the perfect first breakfast we headed off to the beach to spend our morning recuperating from our long day of travel. The beach was gorgeous and the weather was ideal! Our coaches were probably annoyed by the amount of pictures that the team asked them to take, but no one wanted to waste a photo opportunity! While some chose to just relax in the sun, most of our team joined in on a pick-up soccer game with some local men. It was a blast and we ended up winning, even though Kristen Dealy scored a goal for the other team! I decided to take a walk down the beach to explore a small rocky plateau that protruded out into the Mediteranean Sea. The eroded rocks were filled with small tidal pools occupied by hermit and larger crabs, snails, and oceanic plants. Again, we took a LOT of pictures!

After lunch at the hotel our team was free to do what we wanted for an hour. I chose to go to the hotel pool with most of the team. I had to enjoy the picturesque day outside in Italy for as long as I could!

We then had a casual press conference with two other teams in the tournament, Modica and Malta, as well as the tournament directors. It was interesting to say the least since "Notre Dame" was about the only word I could understand from the speaker who obviously spoke in Italian.

It was then off to our match against Modica, a team that featured players aged from 17 to 28. I guess there is no real age limit here in Italy! We were all really psyched for our first good competition. The first game we started out really strong with our passing being near perfection! This really helped out the offense and gave our setter, Beth Wildermuth, a lot of options. We won the first game pretty handily, although the second game was a closer as our passing and defense wasn't as stellar as we started off. Game three was plagued with many lead changes, but down the final stretch Notre Dame was trailing 23-19. We sided out to put Kristen Dealy in the serving position where she fired off five great serves that caused as many as three over passes. I was very proud of our team for pulling out the nail bitter! We passed really well and hit over .400 as a team with only four hitting errors in the entire match!

We rounded out our first day in Italy with pizza, pasta, and gelato! I chose coffee flavored gelato that I think rivaled the Starbucks carmel frapaccino. It was yummy. One thing I didn't choose to eat was the pizza topped with squid (Frenchy Silva, who is usually a picky eater, enjoyed a slice) or the hard boiled egg, eggplant and ham combination (that Jamel Nicholas and Tara Enzweiler split). It was a great first day and I cannot wait to see what adventures come our way tomorrow! Ciao from Italia!