TicketsJune 21, 2006
This spring, UC freshman Lindsey Peterson, along with head coach Reed Sunahara travelled to Argentina as part of a Bring It Promotions tour. Peterson played as part of the All-True Freshman USA Select Team. Here, Peterson shares her experiences through a daily journal.
Day 1 05-31-06 I arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina at about 6:30am along with my coach and two other players. I think we were the second to arrive and had to wait for the other girls to get there until we left for our hotel. After we checked in we ate lunch and hung around the hotel until we had our first practice at 2pm. My roommate was from St. Louis and was pretty much my roommate the entire trip. I was a part of the freshman team, and our practice lasted two hours and then we got to watch the Argentina men's national team practice, which were very good! After that we came back to the hotel, showered and ate dinner in the lobby, where we also had lunch. The food was a little strange but I liked it.
Day 2 06-01-06 We had our first scrimmage today at 2pm after the A team played at around 9am. Both teams lost, them in 4 games and us in 5. The teams were small but feisty, between the ages of 18 and 37. I have never played a team with so many different ages! They were very talented, though. After that we showered and walked along a strip in Buenos Aires, very popular and full of people with cute little stores and McDonald's everywhere! I thought that was interesting. Then we hopped on a 13 hour double decker bus ride to Mendoza! There were big comfy chairs so I got plenty of sleep, but it also gave us girls a chance to bond a little more before our first real match.
Day 3 06-02-06 We arrived in Mendoza at around 11am to our hotel which was a lot nicer than the first one we stayed in. It was four people to a room, so I got two new roommates, one from Ohio University and one from Dayton. We all got ready and went out exploring the town until our match at 7:30pm. The A team and our team won, so it was very exciting! After that we had dinner with the team we played which was really fun. Some knew English and some didn't, so I got to put what Spanish I know into good use! We had steak and it was really good! After that they came in our bus with us back to our hotel and we all got ready. Then, they took us to one of their "pubs" and it was really fun!
Day 4 06-03-06 Today we got to wake up as late as we wanted (but we had to check out at 5pm lol)! We played the same teams at around 7; just the opposite US team played the opposite Argentina team. Both teams won again, so it was good first couple days for us! We didn't end up eating dinner until around midnight, which was pretty much the way it was the rest of the trip! Today was the first day I called my parents; otherwise we had just been going to internet cafes and e-mailing. After dinner we had a seven-hour bus ride to San Francisco.
Day 5 06-04-06 We arrived to our hotel at 12:15pm, they let us sleep in on the bus instead of waking us up when we got there; it was awesome! This time, since their is an odd number of girls, I got a room to myself! I still went to other rooms to hang out, but it was nice since the rooms are so small. Since it was Sunday we didn't go out because everything was closed, so we just chilled until our match at 6pm. It was strange because it is supposed to be winter in Argentina but today it was 70 degrees! Both teams ended up losing today, the A team played the Argentina women's national for the first time and would be playing them the rest of the trip in different cities. They and the team we played were very talented! We had dinner with the national team then came back to the hotel.
Day 6 06-05-06 Today we woke up at 10 and drove about three hours to Nogoya, went straight to lunch with the national team and only had about an hour until we had to go to the gym. Not much time for shopping today, but we would get plenty in later. We won our match, but the A team lost in four to the national team. We then had dinner with the again and would eat pretty much every meal with them the rest of the trip. Nogoya was a very small city with not much going on, but it was cute. I think everyone in the town came to our match! It is so cute when little kids come up to us and ask for our autograph. We are like celebrities here!
Day 7 06-06-06 We left at about 11am and headed for Villaguay, got in around 2pm and had lunch, and then we got to walk around a bit. Again nothing was open so we tried to go to internet cafes but none of them had signals, so I just watched TV. We had a "marienda", which is a snack, at 5:30 and then had our match at 7:30. We won again in four, but the A team lost again to the national team. We had another late dinner, but this time with a DJ/entertainer! It was really fun! He mostly played songs in Spanish, but oddly enough played Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, and a song from Grease! The Argentina girls were having a good time and so were we!
Day 8 06-07-06 We left at 10am this morning for another bus ride to Diamante. We got to shop a little more here since things were open and we had time. Tonight's match was a little different from the rest due to the humidity outside. It made the gym floor very wet and it was incredibly hard to move quickly without slipping. This led to our loss in four. By the time the A team played it was later at night so the floor wasn't so wet, and they won! It was a very exciting five-game match. Tomorrow will be our last day to play!
Day 9 06-08-06 This morning we had breakfast on the bus the headed to Ramallo. Before our matches we went to a press conference, which was not what I expected it to be. It was all set up at a beautiful Estancia (the land owned by the owner of the largest cotton and leather clothing company in Argentina) by the River Plata, which was gorgeous! We sat down for lunch and entertainment including dancers, singers and musicians. We all really enjoyed it. Then we headed to the gym for our last match of the trip, which was a nail-biting five-gamer that we ended up losing. The A team also lost, but we all played very well. Afterwards we had our final dinner with the national team. We all had a great time and didn't end up leaving until about 3am to go back to Buenos Aires.
Day 10 06-09-06 We got in at 7am and immediately went to our hotel rooms and fell back asleep until around 1. Our hotel was right in the middle of everything, so we got to do a lot of shopping! We shopped all day until we went to watch the Argentina men's national team play Venezuela. I didn't get to see who won since we left in the middle of the fourth game, but it was close, both teams were really good! Then we came back to the hotel and got ready for the girls national team to take us to a club called Sunset. It was so much fun! It was filled with people and they were playing really good music, we all had a really good time! It was the perfect way to end the trip.