Published: May 11, 2007
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam
St. John's Volleyball
Travels To Vietnam
Good Afternoon Everyone!
Today is May 12, 2007 and it is our first full day in Vietnam.
My roommate Dana [DeMayo] and I woke up at 5:30 a.m. Not because we
had to but just naturally. I went outside on my balcony and saw
that the city was already awake. It seems like I am in an “Asian
Manhattan.”
We went to breakfast at a restaurant on the top floor of our
hotel, which is called the Panorama because there are views around
the entire floor. The view from the windows is amazing – clear
skies, green trees and mountains on the background. We had a
breakfast that was similar to an American breakfast. This made us
very excited. At breakfast, we found out that in international
volleyball, players are not allowed to have numbers on their
jerseys greater than 18, so we had to find a way to make numbers
for three members of the team less than 18, including me.
After the breakfast, we had a couple hours before we had to
leave for practice. I used the time for a nap as did most of my
teammates since we woke up so early. We went to practice at 10 a.m.
for the last time before the tournament starts. We began with a
light warm up and the usual serve/receive, set, attack and block
drill. The first couple times I went up to block were good, but the
next time was not good. I jumped to block my teammate. The
ball was really tight to the net so she jumped really close to the
net. As she came down, she landed on my half of the court and,
unfortunately, I landed on her foot. By the time I fell to the
ground, there was a terrible pain in my ankle. I felt like I
couldn’t move. Our athletic trainer Jennifer [Hamilton] ran to me
and helped me move off the court. She took my sneaker off and to
took a closer look at my ankle. She said that I sprained it a bit
but the picture was promising and I would recover soon. So for the
rest of practice, I kept my ankle raised and did some abs exercises
with Jennifer because I didn’t want to just sit around and do
nothing. But the good thing is I will still get to play in the
tournament!
When we returned to the hotel, I went for treatment and we had
launch. The food was very unusually. I wasn’t as brave as the rest
of the team to try snake meat. Afterwards, we went on a tour of the
city. We got to the center of the city by a taxi and then walked
all the way down to the main street. At the end of the street,
there was an American- Vietnamese museum on the Vietnam War. Half
the team went to the museum and the other half, which included me,
went to a Vietnamese supermarket. It really wasn’t that different
from the supermarkets in America, except the prices and some
products. Most of the food is healthy and most of the cosmetic
products are herbal. As we walked back from the supermarket, we saw
a fast food restaurant, but it was empty. I think people here are
not familiar with fast food like we are in the United States. What
I usually see is people eating outside of their houses on the
streets.
The tour was really exiting! It was our first time outside of
the hotel that did not include going to the practice. We saw
historical buildings that were beautiful. We returned to the hotel
at 5 p.m., so we could get ready for the Welcome Party Dinner. At
the restaurant, each team had their own table. After an
introduction from VTV and the volleyball federation, we were asked
to raise our glasses of Sprite for a toast. However, our team
decided to not just toast ourselves. We decided to walk around and
toast with all the other teams. Some of the teams were really fun
and easygoing, and others were a little shy, which was cute.
On the way back to the hotel, almost everyone fell asleep on the
bus. We were all tired from our first full day in Vietnam. Even
though everyone was tired, you can still see smiles on the happy
faces of people from St. John’s who are glad to be here and
experience a different culture.
Well, I think it is time that I go rest and put my foot up.
Check back tomorrow for another postcard from one of my
teammates.
Valeria Kovaleva #23