Final Blog Post from Sarah Ammerman, European Tour Guide

When I think about this past trip with you wonderful humans from West Florida, one of the events that stands out the most to me is Summer's lost suitcase. Over the course of 10 days, from the time the team landed in Venice to when they departed, there were hundreds of memories made, lessons learned, beautiful sights discovered and new bonds created. And the lost suitcase ties all of these aspects together.

I have been traveling worldwide for seven years, to about 30 countries and for all kinds of different reasons. Whether for volleyball, pleasure, tourism or something else, it is never easy standing at the conveyor belt watching all of your hopeful flight mates collect their baggage and never seeing yours delivered. That sinking feeling in your stomach as reality hits only grows in size as each day passes without it. From all of my years of traveling, my luggage has been lost twice. But both of those times are enough to make you never want it to happen again and to prepare differently for every trip you have from there on out.

Summer losing her suitcase revealed a lot about this West Florida team, on and off the court. It is one thing to lose your luggage in America, your home country — it is a different ballgame to lose it abroad. Traveling to other cities in America as a team is something you have been doing since your club days in high school, and it's a relatively easy process. Acquiring your passport and boarding a plane across the ocean, also a different ballgame.

Let's start with language: the biggest beast of unfamiliarity. When Summer's bag didn't come out, she had to go talk to a representative that didn't speak very good English to try and figure out what to do next. Throughout the course of the trip, we were calling a foreign number trying to break down the language barrier to understand where in the world the suitcase was. As you all traversed through the various cities, you had to find ways to communicate with people who did not speak English. You had to buy things at stores that were not in your language. Language is the hardest component of travel. It is never guaranteed that you will be able to find someone who speaks English that can help you, and when you don't, you have to problem solve.

Traveling is all about problem solving. When Summer's suitcase didn't come the team had to bond together and dress her for the 8 days her suitcase was sightseeing other airport terminals throughout Europe. As foreigners in a new country, you have to solve problems constantly. What will you eat and drink, where will you get it, how will you survive without automatic air conditioning, how will you read signs to help get you to your next destination, how do you read a map, how do you ask where something is? These are all problem-solving questions you all took on as the trip progressed. And no matter if you succeeded in solving the problem or not, you opened your mind just a little bit more to a new way to live life.

Another lesson the lost suitcase gave us was the importance of laughter and being able to take whatever life throws at you in stride. At first, when you lose a suitcase you are in panic and everything seems scary, the world seems bigger and you feel much smaller without your possessions. But just like anything in life, when you're able to step back from the problem, you are able to see it isn't so bad. And if you are able to take even another step back, you can sprinkle a little humor on the situation to shine some light on it. One of my favorite parts of this trip was by the last day, the amount of jokes that were flying around the team about Summer and her suitcase, and watching Summer laugh along with everyone. Resiliency at its finest. 

I think there is a possibility the suitcase saw more countries than we did on our trip, so if you combine all of them together, you guys rocked Europe more than any other team I've had on tour, in more ways I can count!

From Day 1, when I first met your fiery Brazilian assistant coach in the arrivals terminal, to when we began tackling the lost luggage debacle, to bussing all over Europe, I couldn't have enjoyed my time more with this group!

As you all embark on your new season, remember everything Europe taught you: the good, the bad, the uncomfortable, the new, the unknown, the happy and the uncertain. Everything you have experienced and learned has prepared you for the battles ahead of you.

Don't forget: always pack extra clothes in your carry on and never forget your perspective!

Love you all, thank you for making my job an easy one as your tour guide. I'll be keeping an eye on you, make me proud.

- Sarah Ammerman
 
 
 
 
  

August 7
While everyone else was touring around the castle in Vienna, Austria, Rachel and I hiked up a big hill behind the castle. On top of the hill there was a huge building with a giant pond in front of it. The view from the top of the hill was amazing, as we could see the tops of all the buildings in Vienna. After visiting the castle in Vienna, we got to go back to Venice Italy where we got to ride in a boat back to our bus station and it was the most beautiful sight I've ever seen.

Quote from Monique StCyr:
"The maze bushes were so pretty and made to make people enjoy the view of the castle."

Quote from Hannah Beach:
"Even though I was extremely sweaty after, climbing the hill to see the view was totally worth it."
 

August 6
The team arrived in Vienna, Austria the afternoon of August 6th and explored the city. Vienna is a very diverse city with great shopping, wonderful food and gorgeous architecture. We finished the night with a team dinner in the park while viewing clips from the Autrian Film festival projected along the walls of the Rauthaus Parliament building.

Quote from Emily Cosgrove:
"The buildings of Vienna were absolutely stunning and made me feel like I was living back in the 1900s. My favorite moment was walking through the beautiful gardens and lying in the grass with my teammates."

Quote from Kourtney Beck:
"Being able to experience the film festival in the heart of Vienna was such a unique experience and having the opportunity to be there with the team made it so much more special."
 

August 4-5
Quote from Kathryn Torre, Brogan Wallin and Rachel Neblett:
"After leaving Maribor, we traveled to Budapest to have our first Hungarian match where we won all 4 sets. Then on Wednesdaywe went into the city of Budapest and saw the parliament building, important ministry buildings and Europe's second largest Catholic Church. After a little shopping, we played our final European match where ended our tour on a high note with a win and had an amazing dinner with the opposing team after."
  
August 2-3
On Sunday the team had practice and then together rode the gondola and had a wonderful Slovenian lunch at the top of a mountain. After lunch, they rode the alpine sled down the mountain and were lucky enough to be able to ride it twice! We had down time and then a game and won two out of five sets. To end the day we had a nice team dinner where we learned about Slovenian culture.
 
On Monday morning the team was able to walk the streets of Maribor and experience the life of a European. The team returned to the hotel and had down time before their game. They won two out of five sets and had a dinner in the city of Maribor.

Quote from Colleen Starrs:
"It was a great challenge playing a professional Slovenian team. They taught us a lot about different perspectives of the game."

Quote from Summer Seage:
"I really enjoyed the city of Maribor not only for the sheer beauty of it, but for the history associated with it as Slovenia became its own nation, also the coffee is fantastic."

Quote from Katy Kuhlmeier:
"The alpine sled down the mountain was so much fun. We all took the challenge of going down the mountain without using the breaks and led to everyone laughing and having a great time. It was also awesome seeing our coaching staff sled down the mountain!"
  

July 31-August 1
Quote from Cora Bidlack, Corisha Smith and Jade Jones:
"First morning in Croatia started early as many of us rose with the sun. A couple of us were brave enough to take a leap of faith off 50 ft + cliffs into the Adriatic Sea. We then strolled through historic Pula and the beautiful city of Rovinj where we also attained our first win against a Croatian club team. The next morning we explored the beautiful Lake Bled and the church in the middle of the lake. We continued on to Ljubljana where we explored the city and were lucky enough to attend a pro beach volleyball tournament."
   

Thursday, July 30
The Argos travelled to Parco del Castello di Miramare (Miramare Castle) near Trieste in northeastern Italy. After some sightseeing and lunch in Trieste, Italy, the team loaded the bus and took a two hour ride to Pula, Croatia. The team went straight to their beautiful hotel located on the Mediterranean Sea and changed and got ready for practice.

Quote from Tori Martella, Holly Mattmuller and Autumn Duyn:
"We practiced in a gym with no air conditioning and the sun shining in our eyes but it was an awesome experience and got a chance to get accustomed to the European volleyball environment. We went back to the hotel had an amazing buffet meal and off to bed now with an exciting schedule for tomorrow with sightseeing and our very first match!"
   

Wednesday, July 29
The UWF volleyball team had almost four hours to walk around Venice, Italy on Wednesday after arriving in Europe on Tuesday. The team had the opportunity to try several local and traditional foods including pizza, pastries, lasagna and lots of gelato.
 
Quote from Rachel Neblett:
"It was an eye opener getting to see how people live their life away from the shelter of America. No air conditioner, no ice in our drinks, trying to find our way around without speaking in English. Just having to adapt to every situation was very cool. When you're in a foreign place, your teammates are the closest people you have. My favorite place that we visited today was the European Culture modern art exhibit."