4th Annual BIP New Year’s Bash, 2007-2008
Blake’s Team, Journal #1

Thursday December 28th
By, Ashley Seal (Orlando) & Elyssa Garfinkle (Birmingham)

We arrived in Venice, Italy and waited an hour to get our luggage because the baggage claim was broken. Then, we walked outside to put our luggage in the bus so we could take the city bus to Venice. Everyone grabbed their warm jackets since it was in the 40s. We got to Venice and walked around with our teams. We stopped to eat at a pizzeria and then we ran into Antonio Banderas. We walked around for a little bit. It was fun listening to the water glass player, but we couldn’t decide if it was real or not. Next, we spotted a gelato shop and stopped to try all the new flavors. It was delicious! We walked around a little bit following our tour guide, but we ended up getting lost. We wandered an hour away from the spot we were supposed to meet back at. Some others on our team had wandered the other direction. We were trying to find San Marco. The others did, but we didn’t. We tried to ask for directions plenty of times, but couldn’t understand. The remaining of us got on a water taxi and tried to make our way back to the meeting spot at bus stop. Then, we met Roberto, our amico. He was flirting with some of the girls on the team, and believed we were at least 20. We stood for at least 30 minutes on the water bus, but it was nice to see all the different views. We reached our destination and met up with all the others teams. We got back on the city bus and went back to the airport to get on the charter bus to drive to Slovenia. We were ordered not to fall asleep because we wouldn’t be able to sleep when it became bed time. The bus ride was about 2 hours. We’re pretty sure everyone dozed off though. We got dropped off at the bus stop, and had to haul our luggage to the hotel which was a couple blocks down. We got our room assignments and the first thing we noticed was how the lights are automatic sensors. We also figured how in order to keep the lights on at all times you have to keep the card to your room in the wall. We came back down for dinner and got to know each other a little bit better. We went back up, showered, and went to bed.

Friday December 29th

We woke up at 8:30 for breakfast which didn’t appeal to most people. Went back up to our rooms and got dressed and relaxed. Then, we met back downstairs at 10:45 to go to the gym. It took 30 minutes on foot. We played our first match, losing by 2 both games.  Then, we went and got burgers and fries with nasty sweet ketchup.  After, we walked to a different gym and played our second match. We lost once again, but played really well both matches.  We are really coming together and having a lot of fun! See you later.