Sunday, March 30, 2008

More Tennis, More Shopping and Some Cookie Dough


After a wonderful day off to rest, we ended the next day by playing the University of Chicago. We were hoping to have a very close match with them but we struggled under the night lights. The team overall, still competed hard. That night the team ate a lot of cookie dough and s'mores to get over the loss.

The following day we took advantage of the (again) beautiful weather by first going to the men's match against
Souix Falls. Number 3 dubs was, once again, undefeated. After a couple hours we left the match early to shop at the Tanger Outlet mall. This mall had really nice stores like Coach and Juicy Couture. Jackie and Bree spent so much money that the outlet gave them an adorable free tote bag!

After a nice lunch outside and afternoon at the beach, the two tennis team showered up for a nice dinner on the docks of Hilton Head. The women looked beautiful, as usual... The boys... Well, they wore jeans. But we all enjoyed some delicious food and good times on our last night in
South Carolina. The next morning we first drove to a recycling plant and recycled all of our plastic and glass bottles, Coach took three U-turns to get to a Starbucks for coffee, and only THEN did we drive 17 hours back to Oberlin!

It is sad to say that this will be my last day in Hilton Head,
South Carolina with a team as wonderful as this one. Who knows when or if I will ever be back to see this area. Even if I never get to come back, I'll always hold memories of this team and how wonderful the people are. I'll remember Bree's laugh, ridiculous cheering, and feeding the seagulls, Jackie's hilarious faces, Liv's ability to always keep fighting on the court, Jane's "sparkles", Kelly's inability to finish her singles matches under two and a half hours, Sarah's sarcastic comments to Bree's craziness like "I hate you more than anyone..." and her dance when she was asked to guard the kitchen, and Marta's love for all food. We have a great team this year... Not just great players who can compete and always strive to improve but also GREAT people.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Junior Men's Tennis Player David Midler Chimes in as Guest Blogger


The men's tennis team is having a nice spring break. Our dinners have
straight up been off the hook. The first night, the undefeated 3 doubles
tandem, Leo and I, made pasta and bratwurst along with plenty of garlic
bread. The following night, B to the G (Ben Godlove(s those hands) made
his famous chicken-olive dinner. It was fantastic. Best chicken I have
had since KFC stopped using real chicken. Our third dinner probably tops
them all. Dukey, Cpray, made enchiladas and rice. Our fourth night
night, Coach Shoey made a curry dinner that I also ate for lunch today.

Other than that the only excitement in Hilton Head came when Adam had a
"conversation" with the Sargent about whether we rode down in a bus or a
van. It was a heated argument and we got it all on tape. Look out for it
on the Oberlin Men's Tennis Website.

Day Off Involves the Beach, Mini-Golf and more Ice Cream

On our first day off from traveling and playing tennis, the women's
team took full advantage of the free time. Bree got up extra early to
watch the sunrise while the rest of us stayed and slept. Bree found out
that sun doesn't rise on this side of the island....

Anyways, the team finally woke up and headed straight to the beach.
Kelly and Marta went on an adventure to find jellyfish and weird gross
things. After a few hours, the girls all headed back to eat a quick
lunch and head over to the pool to lay out some more.

Coach came over for pizza night! He made his authentic Greek salad.
The pizza burned in the oven but we still ate a bunch of it. THEN...we
took off to play some putt-putt golf.

Things got complicated because other teams (like men's lax and
tennis) bailed on us. So we thought we would go to a movie.
Unfortunately, the movies here don't play past 8 pm unless they are
really poor movies. So, Coach came up with the genius plan to keep
making us fat with ice cream. A weird thing happened five minutes after
we left Marley's; A tree fell over right where we were sitting!

We headed out for putt putt with the men's team and a few guys from
the lacrosse team. Tired from the sun, we all went to bed pretty early.
Tomorrow we play University of Chicago. It should be a great match
for us! We are playing in the evening under lights. I'll try to take
pictures. Until then...

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Ice Cream ... The Lunch of Champions













All the women got up really early this morning to play Depauw, one of the top teams in the region. One a good note, Liv seemed to be feeling better today with her injury. On another note, we competed really well but still lost. However, the Depauw coaches had plenty of positive compliments for the Oberlin team so I feel that we represented well.

After the match, Coach took us all out to Marley's! Marley's is a great ice cream shop that we've gone to every year for the past four years. We were so hungry from the match that we had "lunch" with huge bowls of various ice cream flavors from butter pecan to cookie dough to oreo coffee! Stuffed and tired, we headed back to the house to lay out by the pool and relax for a few hours.

A little later we headed back out to a shopping center off the island. One brave guy, Colin, from the men's team came with us! The shopping was great! There are so many stores like Gap, Nike Outlet, Old Navy, Tommy Hilfiger, Abercrombie and Fitch, Guess, Rue 21, Banana Republic, and... I can't remember. But anyways, we spent way too much, piled back up into the van and rode home to show & tell our findings. Colin quickly left before we could see
what he got.

At this point, Coach was pretty tired so he went home to have some "me" time. But Bree and Liv got right into the kitchen and made up a delicious Mexican night meal! Meanwhile, Jackie, Sarah, and I watched some America's Funniest Home Videos and sent Kelly running around the house to find the last easter egg we left out. FYI, She found it in 40 seconds.

Coach is getting used to our crazy ways... Today we saw him dancing in the van to Akon and other pop songs we blast on our rides around to our matches. We're slowly breaking him in (see picture for proof). Tomorrow we have a whole day free! I'm sure there will be lots of relaxing and sleeping and tanning and eating and other adventures... Tell ya'll about it then!

Monday, March 24, 2008

It was a Long Ride ...

I know many of you have been checking my blog for our updates! I'm sorry it took me a little bit to recover from the trip! t was a long drive down to Hilton Head, South Carolina! It became even more difficult when Coach Constantine started to sing Springsteen songs. However, after over fifteen hours, we made it safe and sound! The condo we are staying in is gorgeous! It has four bedrooms with bathrooms so there are only two people in each room. There is also a large living room area, kitchen, and patio! After reaching Hilton Head we ate at Aunt Chiladas... Like enchiladas. (See picture)

Although it has been a little breezy, the weather has been wonderful with highs in the 60s and 70s. We used the first day our first practice outside! Random people sat and watched us. I guess it was pretty entertaining watching us run around, framing shots, and hitting balls over the fence. In other words, the transition from indoor courts to outdoor was a little rough. Afterward, Bree and Sarah headed out to the beach to play frisbee (Bree's really really great at frisbee) and Liv (Olivia), Jane, and Jackie sat and enjoyed the ocean. It was pasta night and I was amatuer chef! We enjoyed some garlic bread, salad, and pasta with alfredo or marinara sauce. For dessert Master Baker Bree made some fantastic apple pie from scratch! That night Bree, Jackie, Sarah, Marta, and I played PASSWORD (a guessing game Bree taught us) and then watched an old 80s movie called, About Last Night.

I was pretty happy about today's long five hour match against Carleton College. Even with Kelly sick and Liv injured, we managed to still grab three matches... Not bad for our first outdoor match. The sun was beautiful, but it was a little windy which was difficult to play. Nonetheless, everyone fought hard and learned some things for tomorrow's match.

Tonight Jackie and Sarah made some great hamburgers, hot dogs, and fruit salad for dinner! Everyone was pretty tired from all the sun and tennis so we are taking it easy tonight.