Tuesday, September 3, 2013

The Blondtourage Takes Over In 2013

Hello fans-

You have yourselves new authors for the volley blog! The Blondtourage (aka the blonde version of Entourage) is here to enlighten you with some exciting events from our first road trip of our 2013 campaign.

It all started with looms. We love looming. Let us explain. It’s a little something along the lines of rubber bands intertwined with other rubber bands to magically create a bracelet. Some think that we’re too old for this, but hey, it keeps us entertained. Kayla, Maisey, Maddie, and Myanna (who chooses not to loom publicly for fear of not seeming ‘cool’) are all master loomers. Call them if you wish to pursue your dream of becoming a master loomer.

On the way to the Zoo, Kalamazoo that is, we watched a very inspirational movie, some shed a couple tears (Hannah). It’s actually called “Survive and Advance” if y’all need something to watch, we highly recommend it. Lets get to the food part, because as competitive volleyballers, we are professional eaters. We stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings, where it was $.60 wings, BINGO! Despite having to wait what seemed like decades because all of us could have eaten a cow (really hungry), it was definitely worth the wait. Another highly-recommended area to explore. After we wiped our faces and washed our paws, we all undid one button and got back to our wonderful bus, thank god for the bathroom in the back.

Now the serious part - a very rowdy game of catch phrase. Seniors and juniors vs. the little squirts (sophomores and freshmen). It’s basically charades (for you old folks out there). You are able to describe the word without saying the actual word. Our bus driver must have hated us, because we could have shattered the windows with how loud we were screaming. We might be a little too competitive, if there is such a thing.

Here’s a prime example of a freshman mistake. Our freshman middle, Kaisa, may I add she is from Minnesota (say a prayer for her), had the word cheese. Anyone from Wisconsin would be honored to describe such a perfect word. The way our Minnesota friend described cheese was ‘spoiled milk, and also curdled milk”. Sammi thought it was sour cream (Birthplace: Illinois) Sad to say, we didn’t guess cheese. Better luck next time.

As we arrived at the hotel, our crib-size beds awaited us. But really, Taylor’s feet were hanging off the bed and she is one of the shortest people on the team. But hey, some great cuddling went on, team bonding right? From there we had a pretty intense pool workout - we could have been mistaken for a college synchronized swimming team. Once we got out, the hotel supplied us with what seemed like face towels to dry off our bodies - they must have been on a budget.

Big Apple Bagels awaited us in the AM, a delicious supercharged energy food for our first preseason game of the year. While we didn’t perform as well as we wanted to against Oklahoma, we finally got all the jitters out for our matches against Western Michigan and Northwestern on Saturday. While those matches didn’t go as planed either, we put up a big fight taking both teams to five. A big shout-out to the three freshmen who took on big roles, but didn’t seem like rookies. Another huge shout-out to our fellow friend KP5 (Kayla) for doing wonders once again and making the all-tournament team.

Despite the losses, it was great weekend. We improved a lot and can’t wait to get back into the gym. We will miss the team meals, and will have to fend for ourselves again. We’re excited for next weekend at Akron!

Stay tuned folks,
Han, May & Tay