4th Annual BIP New Year’s Bash, 2007-2008
Team Rico, Entry #2

Molly and Taylor from Orlando, FL

We had to wake up this morning at 9 15, so we could have breakfast before we played. Then after breakfast, we went back upstairs and took a short power nap before we met downstairs at 11 00. We waited downstairs for a little bit before we realized that Rico had already left for the gym. Then we walked to the "bomb-shelter" gym to play. When we got there we warmed up and watched other teams play before us. Once they were done we got on the court and started warming up. The gym was very cold. The first game, we weren't totally awake yet, so we didn't play our best. We ended up losing 25 to 16. The next game we started to come out stronger, but it wasn't enough. Adding to that, the coach on the other side kept adding points to her team that should've been ours. Having a score keeper / coach is NOT right!  We were in this game totally, we passed well and hit better than before. We lost 25 to 20.
           
After playing, we put on all our winter gear and headed out to eat lunch. We ate at a pizzeria and pasta place called Gust. The pizza was really good, and so was the pasta. One of the coaches got a calzone and it was the size of half of a watermelon. After we were done eating, some of us walked around the town looking for cute shops, while others went for ice cream. None of the shops had quite what we were looking for, and the majority of them were closed because stores close early on Saturdays. We were trying to waste some time before we played at 7 30. When we got back to the hotel we still had about 3 hours to waste. We pretty much stayed in our room and watched music videos on the tv. We ended up falling asleep again and taking an hour nap. Three other girls went down to the hot tub, which turned out to be not so hot. We met in the lobby at 6 30 when we headed out once again to play another match. We played a lot better than we previously did. Unfortunately, we lost, but majorly improved in our defense. This team was much better than the team we played in our earlier game. They served really well and tough, mostly jump serves.  Their middle hitter was huge and put up a difficult block for us to hit against, our hitters adjusted but we did not make enough changes to win.  After we were done playing we went back to the hotel to eat dinner and shower.
           
 Izola is a really pleasant town. It is a cute version of l an old 50's town. It doesn't have many residents ( we heard under 4000 people)  which makes it pretty quiet most of the time. The people are very nice, and we usually exchange smiles as we walk by. In one of the stores, the owner was very welcoming and he said a bunch of greetings in different languages because he didn't know where we were from. When we said hello back he figured we were Americans.