Day 1: 10/23/08

Today was the first travel day!  My flight was at four so I had some time at home to finish packing and say goodbye to my family.  Time flew by and it was time to go!  My parents drove me to the airport where we met Amy Griffin.  Amy and I got our traditional toasted bagel from “Dish D’ Lish” before boarding our flight heading to L.A.  After a quick flight Amy and I got our bags and got on a shuttle to get to a terminal serving Air New Zealand.  Once we got to the ticket counter, we were greeted by Amy, the team coordinator/manager.  While checking my bag I saw Erika Tymrak, from Florida, and we both headed through security.  Once through the unusually fast security line we went to the gate with about 3 hours left to wait for the team and plane.  We ate dinner at a small fast food restaurant accompanied by a few other members of the team that had already arrived.  Not long after, we boarded the plane for New Zealand!  The plane was the biggest I had ever seen, seating ten across with two floors.  I watched a few movies…including “Sex and the City”, “Ratatouille,” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall." They were all entertaining and most importantly, they kept me occupied.

Day 2: 10/24/08

The day was lost due to the long flight and the time change in New Zealand.

Day 3: 10/25/08

We landed in Auckland, New Zealand at about 7:45am.  Once we got off we were escorted into a room with about five or six people who helped us get out of the airport quickly. They took us through customs, through baggage, and on out through the doors onto a large bus.  The weather wasn’t too hot and it was just like the weather at home, rainy!  We rode the bus for about and hour and a half glued to the windows, looking at the beautiful countryside. We rode to Hamilton, where the first few games will take place. Once at the hotel we got our room assignments and had about an hour to ourselves to just relax and get settled before lunch. We met in the lobby to head to lunch in the hotel. The food wasn’t noticeably different than at home and was good to have a meal other than airport food.  After we ate, we had a quick meeting, where Kaz highlighted the points of good nutrition, hydration, and things of that nature.  He also introduced the administration for the trip including Amy, Ozzy, and Mike, on the coaching end; Amy, the manager; Sean, the athletic trainer; Sheila, the team doctor, more commonly known as “doc;” Ally the massage therapist; Aaron, the press officer; Butch, the security guard; and another Mike, who was shooting little videos of us as we traveled.  From then we had until 3:45 to hang out and do homework before heading out for practice on one of the local fields, which was a very nice grass field.  At practice we played keep away and did a lot of shooting.  After practice we raced back to our rooms, changed out of our training gear and went down to dinner.   We had dinner and then had time to do what we wanted before we had to go do bed.  Taylor, Amber and I did some homework while watching Harry Potter before we went back to our rooms to sleep.  It was a crazy day!

Day 4: 10/26/08

Today we had breakfast at 8:00am and it was delicious!  After we ate, we headed up to our rooms to get ready for practice. While we were in the lobby, we saw the Paraguay team, who was also staying in the same hotel with us along with Japan and France.. We left the hotel at 9:45am for a 10:00 practice. At practice we focused a lot on free kicks and corner kicks and then it was time to get back to the hotel for lunch! After the excellent breakfast we were all looking forward to lunch.  Lunch was great and we had some kind of fish that I have never heard of!  After lunch we had about a half an hour to do homework or relax before we were supposed to meet in the meal room to be taught by Mike Dickey in order to acquire our coaching E license.  From then we had a little bit of time to get ready to leave for our second training of the day at 4:00pm.  At practice we had a full field scrimmage after a long warm up.  We then boarded the bus to go back to the hotel where dinner awaited us.  Dinner was at 6:30pm and was just as delicious as the first two meals.  They had the best ice cream and I couldn’t avoid getting multiple servings! After dinner, we were all thoroughly stuffed and ready to put our feet up and just chill out.  Taylor, Morgan, Hayley, Jenn, and myself watched “Kicking and Screaming,” while doing some homework.  We didn’t get through more than half  before we were half asleep and wiped out.

Day 5: 10/27/08

Today we ate at 8:00am and breakfast was just as good as the day before!  We left for training at 9:45am for a 10:00am practice at the same field we had been using.  After practice we ate lunch at 12:30pm and then had a little bit of time before we had to meet in the lobby for a meeting reviewing the FIFA rules that the referees would be following in the games.  We met at 2:00pm and walked about a block into a conference room where the meeting took place.  After the meeting we headed into the meal room to sign contracts for the tournament and to get our credentials checked.  From then we had until 6:30pm to hang out.  A bunch of us watched the movie “Miracle” and painted our nails red white and blue.  At 6:30pm we headed down to eat dinner in the meal room in the hotel.  After dinner we watched a bit of tape of Japan playing in the Nike friendlies last year, and then we went upstairs to get our books in time for study hall at 7:30pm.  Study hall lasted about 2 hours and by then we were all wiped out and ready for bed.

Day 6: 10/28/08

Today we woke up at 8:15am for our delicious breakfast! After breakfast we went back until 10:20am when we had a meeting with the coaches.  We watched the first half of a game that Japan played, and then talked about it.  From the meeting we went straight to the bus to head over to practice where we did a lot of shooting and then some keep away.  After practice we went straight to lunch and then met again to learn about coaching.  Shortly after we had dinner and then study hall at 7:30pm and then it was lights out!

Day 7: 10/29/08

Today we woke up at 8:45am for a 9:00 breakfast. After breakfast, which has never failed to be awesome, we went up to our rooms to hang out.  A bunch came to Hayley and my room to watch “The office” and make string bracelets…we get pretty good at it when we are bored!  At about 10:00 we got word of a “code purple,” meaning we were going to get out of the hotel and go to the grocery store to get some snacks!  We called it a code purple because we were supposed to keep it a secret from Kaz! After our secret snack run we got ready for practice and left the hotel at 11:30am.  Today we didn’t practice at the normal fields we had been on, we practiced on the stadium field that we will be playing on tomorrow.  The field was BEAUTIFUL!  The grass was the most perfect I have ever seen it and it was so exciting to be in the stadium getting a taste of what we would be playing on the next night!  The federation only gave us 45minutes on the field so that we wouldn’t ruin the grass, but in that short time, we got a lot done!  From practice we ate lunch and then had some down time.  At 3:00pm we met in the lobby to walk to the mall a block away.  We spent about an hour at the mall, which was pretty small, and then we walked back before dinner at 6:30pm. After we ate, we had time to do whatever we wanted until it was time for bed!

Scroll down for more details from Kate’s World Cup Adventure.

Pictures from the World Cup

Day 8: 10/30/08 Game Day!!
Today we woke up at 7:45am for an 8:00 breakfast in our normal meeting room.  After we ate, we headed up to our rooms to hang out until 9:30am when we got our uniforms! In between breakfast and getting our uniforms we decorated t-shirts with funny quotes and sayings, then it was finally time to get ready for the game!  We got our gold and navy uniforms and everyone was so excited!  It felt awesome to put on the jersey!  After we took loads of pictures, we met in the meal room to go over the line up and how Kaz wanted us to play.  From the meeting, we went straight to the bus to leave for the stadium field.  Once we got there we walked into the locker room.  We had about 20 minutes to hang out and some of us went on to the field to take more pictures; then we were rushed into the locker room.  Shortly after our return to the locker room, one of the refs came in to check our credentials and cleats and then it was time to go out!  It was an exciting game ending in a 3-2 loss to .  They were a very creative team and were very talented, but we were upset with the way we played and of course with the loss.  We met back in the locker room for a last stretch to cool down and then gathered our things and left the stadium.  Back at the hotel we ate lunch at 3:00pm and then had a short meeting with the coaches about the game and following that meeting we decided to have a team meeting with just the girls.  We decided that we needed to step it up and all agreed that we went into the game over confident.  After our little meeting we hung out in our rooms and watched “Mulan,” and finished making t-shirts.  We ate dinner at 7:00pm and then watched a couple of episodes of “The Office.” Before going to bed at about 10:00pm. 

Day 9: 10/31/08 Happy Halloween!

Today we woke up at 8:15am for an 8:30 breakfast in the hotel.  After breakfast we hung out until 10:00am when we met to watch video of yesterday’s game.  We watched a bit of both halves and then Kaz went around the room and evaluated everyone on how they played.  At about 12:00pm we were released from the meeting only to have “doc” take us over to the park for a jog and stretch in the center in town.  It was pretty funny, everyone was looking at us like we were crazy with all of the stretches that we did!  After our mini workout we ate lunch at 12:30pm and then had to get ready for an excursion leaving at 1:30pm.  Amy C. told us we were going cave exploring!  We boarded the bus and drove for about and hour before we reached our first cave.  We hiked up a little path in a forest and then reached the entrance of a cave.  Inside the cave was very dark and there were a bunch of stalagmites.  As we ventured through the cave, we got dripped on by the stalagmites and were all muddy by the time we got out of the cave.  After touring the first cave we took a short bus ride to our second cave that we would be exploring, where we could see glowworms.  We walked into the cave, which was a bit darker than the last and were told a bunch of facts about the glowworms, which produced a tiny glowing light.  We were then directed to a boat and were guided through a dark cave on the river, where we saw thousands of lights up above.  It was really cool to see the glowworms and it was a nice boat ride!  After our water adventure we walked back to the bus and took the long ride home.  When we got back, we went to our rooms to put on our costumes!  Courtney, Taylor, Eddy, and I didn’t bring costumes so we just wrapped each other in toilet paper to look like mummies!  We wore our costumes to dinner, which was at 7:00pm, then we went back to our floor where we went trick or treating at each of the staff members rooms.  After we got our fill of candy, we went back downstairs to the meal room and had a party!  After the party we were all wiped out and went to bed!

Day 10: 11/1/08

Today we woke up at 8:15am for breakfast.  We went back to our rooms and got ready for practice, which was at 11:00am.  After practice, we hung out in our rooms until lunch at 1:30pm.  After lunch we did homework and watched TV until it was time for dinner at 6:30pm.  From dinner we had a meeting to talk about the game against coming up and then we had time to do what we wanted until we were supposed to be in our rooms for our 10:00pm curfew. 

Day 11: 11/2/08 Game day!!

Today we woke up at 8:45am for a 9:00 breakfast.  After we ate we went back up to our rooms to hang out for a bit and then put on our jerseys.  We then met down in the lobby for the bus at 11:00am and then we were off to the stadium!  We put on our cleats and credentials to get checked by the ref and then we did a little warm up in the locker room.  A few minutes later we were out on the field passing, shooting, and playing keep away.  After about 20minutes we were sent back into the locker rooms before the walk out.  Both teams walked out on to the field to hear the national anthems.  The game kicked off and by half time we were down one to zero.  In the locker room at half we were not happy, but when the second half kicked off and we played much better than in the first half, winning the game 3 to 1 against .  After the game we got our things from the locker room, boarded the bus, then we were off for the hotel.  We ate a late lunch at 3:30pm and then had until our 7:30pm dinner to hang out and watch the vs. game.  It was an exciting game and played awesome winning 7 to 1.  After dinner we went back to our rooms and watched a movie on TV and packed for our move to Auckland .  We then went to bed at 10:30pm watching “Borat.”

Day 12: 11/3/08

Today we woke up at 7:45am to eat at 8:00.  After we ate we had to pack because we were going to move to Auckland for our last bracket game against .  We loaded the bus and were on the road by 10:00am.  The bus ride took about an hour…but it felt more like two!  After our bus ride we had lunch at the new hotel and then settled into our rooms for a bit before practice.  After practice we ate dinner and went for a short walk on the beach!  The beach was a few blocks away and it was beautiful!  After our walk we just hung out and went to bed.

Day 14: 11/5/08 Game Day!

Today we woke up and ate breakfast in the hotel.  After we ate our meal, sitting next to the French team we were all pumped and ready for the game.

Day 15: 11/6/08