Al Roderigues (Assistant Coach) -

Evan Romero -

As the bus dropped us off in the heart of Venezia, we had the pleasure of being led by Big Al himself. Thankfully for us, his knowledge of the town made the 45 minute journey to find San Marcos Square took over an hour and a half. However, the views, shops, and even the pigeons were a sight to see. Many of us went up the tower in the heart of San Marcos and were able to see all of Venezia. The day was full of pleasant (and also unpleasant) surprises. Some of the pleasant experiences include buying sweet masks, Ian trying to catch a pigeon (unfortunately he was the ONLY PERSON that was unsuccessful), and a few more that I'm sure will come up when we get back and share our stories. However the most unpleasant would have to be losing touch with half the time. The group lost touch with the coaching staff, which in the end meant that all the players waited at the train station for over 2 hours. As if 17 American giants walking through Italy wasn't touristy enough, we also looked like homeless men sleeping on each other on the pavement next to the train. But hey, it gave us the true European Vacation experience...and best of all, this all happened on our FIRST DAY!

Evan Romero -

At night we played our first game in Italy, and overall it was very successful. We won 27-25, 27-25. In the second game, we were down 8-2, but came back strong and tied it at 13-13, and pulled it out in the end. Everyone got to play for a little and we were happy to be able to come home with a victory!

John Kosty -

Jordan Inafuku -

Because our match tonight wasn't until 9pm, we had the entire day to ourselves, and a bunch of us decided to make the trek back to Venezia. On the train ride over, the person sitting next to me and Cameron, a nineteen year old Italian male, started talking to us. It turned out he was on his way to his first day of school at the University of Venice, so we had a lot of things we could talk about: school, sports, American politics, and Venice. He gave us a map of Venice and some advice about traveling around, and both proved to be incredibly useful.

This trip to Venice was much different than the one two days prior. Instead of being tired and whiny and looking only to get to a bed after twenty hours of flyings, we were alive and awake and looking to have a good time in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It's amazing how a different attitude changes your experience. While Ian searched for a cool Italian mask and a painting of Venice, the rest of us went back up the tower at St. Marco Square, which was originally built back in the twelfth century and from which you can see the entire island of Venice. We even had time to enjoy some delicious pizza, calzone, and wraps for lunch. Jarod, Cam, Brandon, and I then went across the bay to the island off the shore of Venice to walk through the Guggenheim Museum. For just five euro we saw some of the coolest statues and sculptures in the outdoor exhibit and an interesting array of paintings done over the past few centuries. We made it back just in time for the train to Pordenone, thanks to some incredible navigating by Cam and Brandon, and got back to the hotel with enough time to take a short nap before our pregame meal and the busride to our match.

We played a better Italian B1 team tonight and couldn't quite finish off some of the games. We lost in four games and then played a fifth game for fun. The Italian team was pretty cool and we got nice gifts from them and even ended up going to dinner after.

Shout outs to our parents, Miki, and the incoming freshmen. See you all soon.

Evan Romero -

Today we traveled into the Dolomite Mountains of Italy. It was about a two hour drive, one in which, I admit, I deserved an award for being the biggest whiner. Being from Miami, I'm not to used to driving up narrow winding roads in the back of a bus. The last time I had gotten that motion sick was when I was 12 years old deep-sea fishing off the coast of New England, (it wasn't THAT bad, but our ten minute break an hour and a half into the trip was much needed, and not only for me, at least I hope not).

We thought it would be a very scenic drive full of trees, mountains, rivers, and other beautiful sites, and guess what, it didn't disappoint. There were some truly remarkable views, an impressive dam, and a very cool town atop the mountain named Cortina. There we took pictures in front of giant Pinocchio statues, Jesse bought some sweet Nikes, and Ian cracked "Ian like" jokes that made us all laugh. This town was home to the Winter Olympics in 1956, and was kept very nicely with some nice shops and cozy restaurants.

On our way back home from the city, we made a small stop at a beautiful lake with impressive mountains in the background. Although very awe inspiring, the true entertainment came from B-Dubbs (Brandon Williams). All prepared with his hiking boots, Dubbs walked down to the shore of the lake, grabbed a rock, and cocked his arm back, ready to fire it out to see how far it would skip. With all of us watching, he threw it as hard as he could............unfortunately it was to no avail because the rock sank the moment it hit the water, making even Coach Kosty's three year old daughter, Sarah, laugh. But Dubbs was determined to make a rock skid across the lake, in fact maybe tooooo determined because he threw an estimated 97 more rocks into the lake, leaving no more rocks for any future visitors.

The little stop was nice and refreshing, and after walking around the small town near the lake, we headed back to the hotel, had a great pizza dinner. After we took showers and went out at night in the city of Pordenone. We all had fun and got to experience a little bit of Italian night life, leaving us with some fun memories.

Jordan Inafuku -

After last night's three hour feast at Miki's favorite restaurant, Kawika and I weren't in any hurry to get up this morning. We delayed that task until almost eleven before walking over to the bus stop about a block away from our hotel. For one euro, Kawika, Evan, Garrett, Ceran, Joe Kay, and I caught a ride into the heart of Miki's hometown of Modena. Since it was Sunday, almost all of the shops were closed, but there were still some cool sites to see. The town square featured some beautiful buildings, a large clock tower, and the second most leaning tower in Italy. The goal, however, was to find some delicious food to eat before our match. We met up with some of our other teammates in the town square, and had a nice sit down meal at a small restaurant. Kawika and I split Modena's famous tortellini pasta as well as another pasta and a costana panini. Safe to say, we were both satisfied and sufficiently stuffed after that meal.

Waiting for the bus back to the hotel, we met up with Kosty and his family. Little Cameron Kosty and his sister Sarah entertained us during the ride. They're lucky they're daddy is a volleyball coach - tons of extra playmates. Especially Cameron, who, for a two year old, can throw, catch, kick, spike, and pass his small squishy ball.

The Groppis, Werners, Foxworths (our manager, Fonaine's family), Henricksons, and Cameron's mom and sister all came to our match tonight against Modena's team. Modena is a legendary volleyball town, and there were quite a few local spectators at our match. We played pretty well, losing the first two games 22-25 before running away with the final three games. Everyone got into the match and contributed to the win, and we had a lot of fun.

The staff of the Modena team joined us for dinner, which again turned into an almost three hour feast of pasta, pizza, meat, and dessert. So far, Modena's meals have been by far the best here in Italy! No surprise there, huh, Miki?

Kawika would like to send his "special aloha" (that's a good thing) to all our parents, friends, Miki and our freshmen. We miss you (especially you freshman cuz we're still carrying equipment)!

Garrett Werner -

Today was a day full of mystery and adventure. Evan and I got out of bed and gave each other a high five, optimistic about the day of learning that awaited us. And, friends, we were not disappointed!

We got on the bus, where our trainer, Dan Ammon, led the bus on a sing-a-long to American Pie by Don McLean, as well as other classic folk tunes. Before we knew it, it was time to get off the bus and take a tour! Our guide was Marco, a mysterious stranger that none of us knew that was on our bus this morning. By the end of the tour, we were all fast friends. His dad is the director of Tec EuroLab, the business that we saw. Their job is to watch the mail every morning for packages. In those packages are pieces of things from various corporations, such as Ferrari and plane companies and screw companies and disk companies. They then take those things and test them. Sometimes they test how hard the thing is, other times they test how soft the thing is. Still other times they test what the thing is made of. Sometimes, all they do is paint the things and see how the paint looks after grinding the paint. Truly, they like to do things.

Another service this company offers is to measure things and compare them to other things that they have already measured.

Once we left Tec EuroLab, we went to a restaurant and had some food with the Tec EuroLab employees, all of whom seemed to be about 27 years old. Since the company was founded in 1990, that means those employees must have been only 9 years old. Holy smokes! Also at lunch I had watermelon!

Next on our itinerary was the Ferrari museum. We went on a guided tour and saw dozens of cars that none of us will ever be able to afford. Featured in the museum was one of the worlds most expensive cars, valued at over ten millions euros. That's 15 million dollars to you and me. Perhaps the most impressive thing about the museum was the incredible history of championships that Ferrari has come to represent.

This afternoon we got a special treat: we got to watch the local professional team practice. Unfortunately, a lot of the olympians were not there yet and it was very warm in the gym. As such, these circumstances led to ideal napping conditions.

Tomorrow we leave Modena for Santa Croce. What adventures and mysteries await us there, no one knows!

It is unfortunate that Coach Kosty gave me the impossible task of topping the team's highlight of the trip thus far: Garrett Werner's first blog. Therefore, I will not even attempt to do so. Today, we traveled two and a half hours via bus from Modena to Santa Croce, the site for tonight's match. Our hotel is located in some beautiful foothills just outside the city and is surrounded by equestrian stables and handball courts. It also contains a pool, sauna, and fitness center, although Dan and Spencer were quite disappointed that it consisted of simply a stationary bike and ab roller.

After a quick lunch in the hotel restaurant, the majority of the team and staff relaxed by the pool for a few hours. It was a gorgeous day that Evan and I desperately needed to restore our diminishing tan.

At 5:45 pm we loaded up and drove to our match against a very good A-2 professional team. Stanford played at a very high level throughout the match, and especially in the first two games. We ended up falling a little short 25-23, 26-28, 15-25, 22-25. I want to praise Jordan, Dobbs, and Matt, the primary passers for most of the match, for a job well done in serve receive. They handled a ton of very difficult and powerful serves very well from start to finish and helped make my job of setting the offense much easier. Kudos, boys!

After the match, we dined at a delicious, local restaurant. The spaghetti, steak, and ice cream cones were big hits and a nice change from the typical penne pasta and pizza that we have been experiencing each night.

All in all, we experienced a bunch of firsts today. We played our first A-2 opponent, ate spaghetti for the first time, and saw Tim, our tour leader, finally smile after 9 days of traveling. Yes, Jason Palacios made him laugh poolside today when he encouraged Brandon to make sure he gets a nice "base tan."

We did, however, also experience some common occurrences today. Garrett Werner complained on the team bus for the 9th consecutive day. Yesterday was the music, and today was the air condition. And Brandon once again modeled his only pair of board shorts at the pool. Dubs, the blue shorts with orange flames need to go. Christmas is right around the corner.

I hope all goes well in the United States. We miss all our friends and family.

Aloha,

Kawika

Hey everyone! Welcome back to the Stanford Mens' Volleyball Italy Tour 2008 blog. I'm sure you're curious of our day's activities... well we'll get right into it.

Today we went to Florence early in the morning. It was a reasonably short bus trip away from our hotel, so we were there before noon and had six hours to explore. Florence might be the largest city we've been to thus far, and it was very crowded as well. There is a lot to see in Florence. The original statue of David is in Florence, but it's about a 4 hour wait to see it, so instead we took pictures with the fake David. Most guys spent their time shopping in the many trendy stores, and the not so trendy street-shacks that Florence has to offer. So if you receive an italian souvenir from your friend on the team, they probably bought it today. Most of the team went to see the famous cathedrals and art the city proudly displays. The large cathedrals are breathtaking; Ian and I lit a candle on the altar for a good blessing on the volleyball court. Florence is amazingly beautiful. When we reconvened at the bus at 5:45, we were honestly tired.

We arrived at the gym soon thereafter for our 7:00 match against the local B1 team. Since we had a little bit of time, everyone laid down in the stadium seats and took a much needed nap. We were rested and ready to go for our game. It was again a very informal scrimmage. We played 4 games, and split with the italian team; 2 games to 2. The highlight of the match was definitely when big Charley hit a quick set right into the face of the Italian teams' libero. The Italian player had to lie on his back for a moment to recompose. It was a fantastic play. After our match, it was another typical night of a long enjoyable dinner and a night at the hotel resting up for tomorrow.

-Garrett Dobbs