Hello from down under! At this point we have caught up on our tanning, yet a lot of us are currently more sunburnt than tan (whoops). Even after a full week of sunshine, Acai bowls, high-level scrimmages and sightseeing, none of us are close to being ready to leave. This "blob" comes to you from the goalies, or G-Force 2.0 as we call ourselves, Alexis Kieckhafer (First-year) and Zoe Banks (Sophomore).
Yesterday, Monday the 13th, we woke up at 4 a.m. to train against an All-Star team in the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center. Despite the early wakeup call, it was a great opportunity to play at the site of the first women's water polo Olympics. Afterwards, we stopped at a café for some breakfast, or "brekkie" as the locals say, and got a lift in before an exciting day at the zoo.
Upon arrival at the Symbio Wildlife Park, our team flooded the grounds with maps and bags of animal feed ready to go. The first stop was the koala sanctuary, where we took countless photos but eventually moved on to the many other exhibits of local wildlife.
The most popular destination was the kangaroo and wallaby feeding grounds, yet still none of us really know the difference between the two. Far too many selfies were taken, however we are grateful for the abundance of pictures to post (as seen on nearly everybody's social media). We hesitantly stuck our fingers to the mouths of baby goats and violently pecking emu's, accidentally losing entire bags of feed in the process to the hungry animals. Later that night, we scrimmaged against the University of New South Wales women's water polo team. Our improvement over the course of the trip was highlighted during this close match with an experienced high-level Australian team. Overall, it was a great day filled with excitement, laughs and team bonding.
Today, Jan. 14th, we walked the four-mile coastal trek to Bondi beach for the second time, this time in the warm sun. Once we arrived, we were divided into three teams to participate in run-swim-run relays. We faced our fears of the fierce Australian ocean as we threw ourselves into the waves, cheering each other on with laughs when some of us got stuck in tough currents and pummeled by the surf. We were all out of breath and tired, however, appreciative of our unique conditioning opportunity rather than our usual swims in Blodgett.
Once finished with our morning workout, we spent the afternoon snacking in the cute Bondi cafes and soaking up more sun. To finish off the day, we trained with the familiar Drummoyne team, improving and working hard as per usual. That pretty much brings us up to date -- tired, sore and sunburnt, yet still excited for our last day down under.
