CHAWP Water Polo: Europe Trips 2007

MORE NEWS & PHOTOS
received Friday @ 2 PM in Chino Hills
Happy Birthday to Mikey. We will have celebrated milestones of three of our players here: Dylan, Jaime and Mikey. Surprisingly there is no place to buy a birthday cake. The Croatians look at me as if I'm nuts when I ask where I can buy one (or two or three). There are lots of bakeries, but they sell just bread and strudel.

We did hear Jaime's sister should have her baby today, thanks to Sally Olds who is acting as the go-between. We met a man and his grandfather who are from Seattle and it was nice to hear American English. It's actually fairly isolated here. It's a beautiful place but there's not a whole lot to do. We tend to walk a lot so everyone's legs should be in better shape than when they left.

Will send my last blog tomorrow.

Cindy

Friday PM
Well the day ended well for everyone. There's a lot of improvements by everyone as far as water polo goes. The team is looking good and playing hard. There also seems to be an international vocab among water polo players -- a lot of the boys have made friends with players from JUG, the team that hosted us in Croatia.

We ate dinner at a very nice place -- it was nice to have something different other than pizza, yet most of the boys ordered pizza. Go Figure. The food here has been good. The weather has been fantastic. Lots of cliff divers among the team. Don't worry, everyone is fine, no broken bones.

We are not looking forward to waking up at 4:30 a.m. -- actually to being downstairs at 4:30 a.m. for our flight home. This has been a great cultural trip as well as a polo trip and great for team bonding.

Hopefully you get the photos I am sending YES, click here. They are from the 18-U game as well as some from the old city during our tour yesterday.

earlier on Friday the 13th
. . .so far nothing bad has happened as far as bad luck. The 18-U played awesome this morning against JUG's 16-U team. Much more competitive. The Eastern Europeans take their sports very serious-they are on spring break here and are doing doubles daily (two practices a day). No one complains about swimming A LOT either. Their swimming is amazingly quick. Gives our kids something to think about. It's a different game here, much more physical and being Americans a lot of kick-outs aren't called. But it's been a great learning experience.

Tonight the boys will play again and the 16-U will also. The 16-U had a great day of training and working on holding positioning and passing. Vince and Edgar got into the water with them and it really helped. After lunch we had about three hours of free time. Some of the boys went back to the old city to walk around, some walked around the harbor and some went cliff jumping.

Tonight we'll all go out for dinner and then have more games tomorrow. Everyone is fine. No one is even slightly ill. yes, Steven is eating everything put in front of him and liking it.

I should be able to write after dinner as well as download some more pictures. I'll try to get some of the boys to write something, too.

Cindy

Thursday
This morning we are going to Montenegro but first we will play games at JUG. Last night we had a great time watching a pro game and then going out for pizza. Yesterday morning after practice we toured the old town and got a chance to walk around and buy souvenirs. We also had about two hours of free time. Some of us went walking around looking for things to buy, others went to the cliffs and went diving and still others just laid around the hotel.

The boys are understanding the need for stronger legs. The Croatians and the Hungarians have amazing leg strength. Greg worked on that a lot with them in the first practice and then the second practice they worked on shooting.

Everyone seems to have handled the jet lag fine. We celebrated Jaime's birthday yesterday and will celebrate Mikey's birthday tomorrow. We actually have just three birthdays to celebrate on this trip. It is amazing that you can not buy a birthday cake in Croatia! There are lots of bakeries with great pasteries but none have cakes -- let alone a birthday cake.

Croatia on Wednesday
Happy Birthday to Jaime. We will be celebrating four birthdays while we are over here. We already celebrated Dylan's, Jaime's is today, Mikey's is friday and Bobby's is saturday. The boys seemed to have slept really well. The hotel we are at is very nice. The boys are going to have training at 10 a.m. and after the pro game. We are going on a tour of the old city and hopefully find the place to buy turbos (suits) and do some things. Both the 16s and 18s got pretty well schooled last night. They are hoping to do better tomorrow -- and should now that they are well-rested and got to sleep in a bed rather than a bus. The beds are really comfortable.

GIRL'S SPRING 2007 TRAINING TRIP TO ITALY! Rapallo, Florence & Milan 14/16/18 & U girls + selected chaperones Dates: March 29-April 8, 2007 click to print flyer trip itinerary	2007 Boy's International Training Trip to Hungary, Croatia & Montenegro 14/16/18 & U Boys + selected chaperones DATES: Thursday April 5 – Sun April 15, 2007 click to print flyer click for REVISED trip itinerary
-
LAX 3-29-07 CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM ITALY!	LAX 4-5-07 A few more PHOTOS!
-
Today is Saturday- our last day. AM girls had dry land training. Then we all took a boat to the nearby towns of Portifino and Santa Margherita just north of Rapallo. Beautiful towns along the Italian Riviera. Friday the girls woke up early for breakfast then on the bus for 2 and 1-2 hours to Florence. The girls played in a bubble indoor pool against a team from this area. We spent the rest of the afternoon touring Florence. On Thursday afternoon we drove to Sori (not far from Rapallo) and played against Rapallo for the last time in a beautiful outdoor pool right on the shores of the Mediterrean. Greg has already left for the airport to Hungary and we are spending the last night here in Rapallo. Group has to get up at 4am!!!!! Crazy!!! But they will be home for Easter!!!! Joanne Thursday: The group photo is with Tony Acevedo's sister Kacey. She plays for Italy on the Rapallo Nuoto team. She got in the water with all the girls and gave them some training. Today is April 5 and the girls yesterday had breakfast and dryland training-some went in the 'ocean water' which was cold. They had some free time, lunch and off to the Rapallo pool for scrimmages with the Italians and some training with Kacey Acevado (Tonys sister) then back to hotel for dinner and some free time before bed. Today (April 5 still) had breakfast and they are dryland training again. I'll keep you posted Greg is leaving Saturday afternoon to continue on for the boys trip. We plan on going to Florence on Friday and Portifino on Saturday. A few more games should follow as well. Joanne Wednesday: Its Wednesday and the girls scrimmaged-trained both teams in Rapallo Nuato last night and went to bed. Girls are now dry land training again. I will post an update later to you. Attached are more photos. Joanne Tuesday: Monday we traveled to Varese, which is near Milan, about a 3 hour drive from Rapallo. Upon our arrival we stopped by the lake and enjoyed a great view and also the girls had some Gelato (Italian ice cream) for the first time. After our stop at the lake, we went to the local pizza restaurant. Most of the girls had their own individual pizzas which were about 18 inches round. They were very welcoming here and we had a great lunch before we went on to the pool. There were two games arranged for us: a 16 and under game and an 18 and under game. The scores were both close. We quickly left on the bus to Milan and toured a castle and the cathedral. Got to walk through the famous expensive shopping area and then on the bus back to the hotel for a late dinner. Tuesday woke up a bit later had breakfast and the girls had dry land training (running, push ups, etc). A quick lunch at the hotel restaurant. Practice at local pool. 16 and unders scrimmaged Rapallo's team and then a swim practice for the 18s. Later tonight, after a 7pm dinner at hotel, 18 & under girls have a game against Rapallo. All is well, weather has improved to sunny days instead of some light rain. I hope to send more photos later this week. ciao joanne ford E-mail arrived here on Sunday morning: Friday we arrived safely and checked in to the hotel. Our hotel is very simple but has an exceptional view. We were expecting just to workout at the pool, but the host club had their women's pro team out to play a game. The girls learned quickly how physical Italian water polo is. On Saturday we went to Genoa, which has a pop. of 700,000 (4th largest city in Italy). We had a guided tour of the city that that included the historical center and a visit to the aquarium. Saturday night we had our first match against Fiorentina (a women's pro team from Florence). We play a good first half but the pro team proved to be faster and strong in the second half and pulled away with the game. On Sunday morning we had our second game against Varese with the same outcome. The last game of the tournament was against our host team Rapallo, our girls were very tired and again could only hang around for the first half. We were hoping the girls would be able to see some pro games while we were here, so it was very surprising to find our team playing in them.	MORE NEWS & PHOTOS received Friday @ 2 PM in Chino Hills Happy Birthday to Mikey. We will have celebrated milestones of three of our players here: Dylan, Jaime and Mikey. Surprisingly there is no place to buy a birthday cake. The Croatians look at me as if I'm nuts when I ask where I can buy one (or two or three). There are lots of bakeries, but they sell just bread and strudel. We did hear Jaime's sister should have her baby today, thanks to Sally Olds who is acting as the go-between. We met a man and his grandfather who are from Seattle and it was nice to hear American English. It's actually fairly isolated here. It's a beautiful place but there's not a whole lot to do. We tend to walk a lot so everyone's legs should be in better shape than when they left. Will send my last blog tomorrow. Cindy Friday PM Well the day ended well for everyone. There's a lot of improvements by everyone as far as water polo goes. The team is looking good and playing hard. There also seems to be an international vocab among water polo players -- a lot of the boys have made friends with players from JUG, the team that hosted us in Croatia. We ate dinner at a very nice place -- it was nice to have something different other than pizza, yet most of the boys ordered pizza. Go Figure. The food here has been good. The weather has been fantastic. Lots of cliff divers among the team. Don't worry, everyone is fine, no broken bones. We are not looking forward to waking up at 4:30 a.m. -- actually to being downstairs at 4:30 a.m. for our flight home. This has been a great cultural trip as well as a polo trip and great for team bonding. Hopefully you get the photos I am sending *YES, click here. They are from the 18-U game as well as some from the old city during our tour yesterday. earlier on* Friday the 13th . . .so far nothing bad has happened as far as bad luck. The 18-U played awesome this morning against JUG's 16-U team. Much more competitive. The Eastern Europeans take their sports very serious-they are on spring break here and are doing doubles daily (two practices a day). No one complains about swimming A LOT either. Their swimming is amazingly quick. Gives our kids something to think about. It's a different game here, much more physical and being Americans a lot of kick-outs aren't called. But it's been a great learning experience. Tonight the boys will play again and the 16-U will also. The 16-U had a great day of training and working on holding positioning and passing. Vince and Edgar got into the water with them and it really helped. After lunch we had about three hours of free time. Some of the boys went back to the old city to walk around, some walked around the harbor and some went cliff jumping. Tonight we'll all go out for dinner and then have more games tomorrow. Everyone is fine. No one is even slightly ill. yes, Steven is eating everything put in front of him and liking it. I should be able to write after dinner as well as download some more pictures. I'll try to get some of the boys to write something, too. Cindy Thursday This morning we are going to Montenegro but first we will play games at JUG. Last night we had a great time watching a pro game and then going out for pizza. Yesterday morning after practice we toured the old town and got a chance to walk around and buy souvenirs. We also had about two hours of free time. Some of us went walking around looking for things to buy, others went to the cliffs and went diving and still others just laid around the hotel. The boys are understanding the need for stronger legs. The Croatians and the Hungarians have amazing leg strength. Greg worked on that a lot with them in the first practice and then the second practice they worked on shooting. Everyone seems to have handled the jet lag fine. We celebrated Jaime's birthday yesterday and will celebrate Mikey's birthday tomorrow. We actually have just three birthdays to celebrate on this trip. It is amazing that you can not buy a birthday cake in Croatia! There are lots of bakeries with great pasteries but none have cakes -- let alone a birthday cake. Croatia on Wednesday Happy Birthday to Jaime. We will be celebrating four birthdays while we are over here. We already celebrated Dylan's, Jaime's is today, Mikey's is friday and Bobby's is saturday. The boys seemed to have slept really well. The hotel we are at is very nice. The boys are going to have training at 10 a.m. and after the pro game. We are going on a tour of the old city and hopefully find the place to buy turbos (suits) and do some things. Both the 16s and 18s got pretty well schooled last night. They are hoping to do better tomorrow -- and should now that they are well-rested and got to sleep in a bed rather than a bus. The beds are really comfortable. Again, I apologize for not sending anything but one email from Budapest (and apparently that didn't even make it to CHAWP). We did not have any internet access nor phone where we were staying. It was primative in that sense, but nice because we had the run of the house. We didn't get to an internet place until the day we left Budapest and that was after about a five-mile hike to a McDonald's. About ten of the boys went with me and feasted on Mickey Ds. To Kyle's parents: He is trying to send you an email and feels bad he hasn't had the chance nor opportunity to let you know he's ok. He should be able to drop you a note tonight. To all the parents: the boys are all fine and doing well and they all will be able to use my computer to send emails -- and of course check their MY Space sites. They are getting along great and having really bonded. Will try to send more photos -- it's a bit tricky. E-mail arrived Tuesday, April 10 We arrived in Croatia after a very long bus ride. Imagine driving from Colony High School to Seattle, WA and then a little longer. No one complained except the adults (are we there yet? which prompted Greg to say "I told you it was going to be a long bus ride"). But it was done at night which made it an adventure to say the least and gives us all something to talk about and remember. Before we got on the bus we had a tour of Budapest. Found the history quite interesting. The boys were more disappointed in not seeing very many girls -- but when we were at McDonald's they had a good time trying to get to know some Hungarian girls who didn't speak English. Needless to say the most they could say to one another was hello and good-bye. The boys are having a great time with polo and gelling as a team. Greg split the group into two teams, mostly 16-unders and 18-unders. the 16-u played JUG 16-U and got schooled. They really learned a lot and played hard. Now they are watching the 18-u get their lesson. Tomorrow they will get up very early and train and tomorrow night we will be going to a pro game. We will probably sitesee and maybe do some training in the ocean like they did last year. Everyone is well. We are wondering if Jaime's sister ever had her baby. The trip has been great. Hopefully you get the pictures I am sending with this email. It's tough to get game pictures, but I keep trying. Cindy
-
click for trip itinerary click for hotel information & photos Rapallo, Italy	Hotel Info: click for Budapest click for Dubrovnik