Sept 5-7
Hello Everyone,
My name is Kevin Ker and I am a senior setter on the Men's Volleyball team. Every couple of days I will be documenting the 14-day trip that we spend in Argentina in four different cities. My blog will consist mainly about the sights and culture that we see here as well as some volleyball along with it.
Day 1: We took a five-hour flight from LAX to Washington Dulles and from there had a 10-hour flight to Buenos Aires. We arrived here at about 9 a.m. (Argentinean time) and got on a bus that will be taking us from city to city. It is actually a double-decker bus, which most of the guys have never been on which and of them were very excited about. We took a 15-minute trip into the city and there were soccer fields everywhere we looked. Some nicer than others but most of them very run down and not taken care of. The city has many big buildings, most of them being apartment buildings. They are also in pretty poor shape too, but not all of Buenos Aires is like this. As we toured the rest of the city, we went to a street that had all different kinds of shops. It kind of reminded me of Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. A couple of the guys bought some souvenirs such as glasses and hats that say "Buenos Aires" on the face.
One thing that is pretty interesting is that every other building, store, or restaurants has the Coca-Cola symbol on the outside and it seems like Coca-Cola is a big part of their selling point in getting people to come into their restaurants. We had lunch back at the hotel and they served us salad and ravioli as our main course and we had a fruit ice cream for dessert. Much of the food we will be eating in Buenos Aires will be Italian food because many Italians migrated here during the 1930's. We had practice later that day in a gym that was very small and dark and our ball bucket was actually a shopping cart! After practice we came back and had dinner at the hotel and after that many of the guys went to bed because we had a really long day of traveling
Day 2: We got up around 9 a.m. to have breakfast. We had an exhibition later that morning at 11 against a Division 1 club team that was very good. We play them again tomorrow but this time it counts towards our record for the tournament we are playing in. After our game we went to lunch at this really nice restaurant called Boca. They served us steak with French fries and the steak was absolutely fantastic. I guess down here they treat and feed their cows very well. As far as the people from the city, they have been very hospitable and nice to us. Many of the people we've met speak English or can understand us for the most part. This makes it much easier for us to figure out where were going. We watched film later that day and right now were getting ready to go take a taxi into Palermo Sojo, which our guide described to us as like a mini-Westwood with many shops and places to eat.
We have our first real game tomorrow which many of the guys are looking forward to and after our game we have a 15-hour bus ride to our next city. I will update everyone on our next couple of days as soon as we get into the next city.
Until next time, GO BRUINS!
-- Kevin Ker
Hello Everyone,
My name is Kevin Ker and I am a senior setter on the Men's Volleyball team. Every couple of days I will be documenting the 14-day trip that we spend in Argentina in four different cities. My blog will consist mainly about the sights and culture that we see here as well as some volleyball along with it.
Day 1: We took a five-hour flight from LAX to Washington Dulles and from there had a 10-hour flight to Buenos Aires. We arrived here at about 9 a.m. (Argentinean time) and got on a bus that will be taking us from city to city. It is actually a double-decker bus, which most of the guys have never been on which and of them were very excited about. We took a 15-minute trip into the city and there were soccer fields everywhere we looked. Some nicer than others but most of them very run down and not taken care of. The city has many big buildings, most of them being apartment buildings. They are also in pretty poor shape too, but not all of Buenos Aires is like this. As we toured the rest of the city, we went to a street that had all different kinds of shops. It kind of reminded me of Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. A couple of the guys bought some souvenirs such as glasses and hats that say "Buenos Aires" on the face.
One thing that is pretty interesting is that every other building, store, or restaurants has the Coca-Cola symbol on the outside and it seems like Coca-Cola is a big part of their selling point in getting people to come into their restaurants. We had lunch back at the hotel and they served us salad and ravioli as our main course and we had a fruit ice cream for dessert. Much of the food we will be eating in Buenos Aires will be Italian food because many Italians migrated here during the 1930's. We had practice later that day in a gym that was very small and dark and our ball bucket was actually a shopping cart! After practice we came back and had dinner at the hotel and after that many of the guys went to bed because we had a really long day of traveling
Day 2: We got up around 9 a.m. to have breakfast. We had an exhibition later that morning at 11 against a Division 1 club team that was very good. We play them again tomorrow but this time it counts towards our record for the tournament we are playing in. After our game we went to lunch at this really nice restaurant called Boca. They served us steak with French fries and the steak was absolutely fantastic. I guess down here they treat and feed their cows very well. As far as the people from the city, they have been very hospitable and nice to us. Many of the people we've met speak English or can understand us for the most part. This makes it much easier for us to figure out where were going. We watched film later that day and right now were getting ready to go take a taxi into Palermo Sojo, which our guide described to us as like a mini-Westwood with many shops and places to eat.
We have our first real game tomorrow which many of the guys are looking forward to and after our game we have a 15-hour bus ride to our next city. I will update everyone on our next couple of days as soon as we get into the next city.
Until next time, GO BRUINS!
-- Kevin Ker
