Day 5: Practice, lunch, shopping and dinner
The Olivet College volleyball team is on a week-long trip to Grand Cayman for its preseason training. While there, the players will be writing blog posts and sending them back to the U.S.A. to be posted on the website. The home page for the blog, where future posts will be linked to is: www.olivetcomets.com/sports/wvball/2014-15/cayman_blog/
MONDAY, AUG. 11 -- written by Gabrielle Bauer
Another day, another adventure. Today marks day five of the Olivet College volleyball team's Grand Cayman excursion. We started off the day by waking up to a magnificent thunderstorm. Only in Grand Cayman can a person see lightning coincide with the beautiful island sunshine. Our morning consisted of a workout on the beach. We completed circuits that consisted of sprinting in the sand, ball control drills, and core exercises. It took all the strength we had, mentally and physically, for us to complete these drills. They required much focus, which was tough to muster up, because we all had shopping on our minds.
Today was the day coach had given us to explore the island a bit on our own. We all got dressed up and were able to shop in Georgetown, where all the patrons of visiting cruise ships come to indulge in local islander activities. Many shops that sold handmade goods, made by the locals, were just outside of the more Americanized plazas. We all split up into groups, but when it came to lunch, we all ran into each other at a local restaurant called Breezes.
This local eatery was located on the second floor of the shopping mall. It overlooked the harbor. The view we all had was picture-perfect. The food may have been obscenely priced, but the bonding our team did over local cuisine was priceless. Most of us stuck to more familiar foods such as burgers, but a couple of us decided to be a bit risky and try out the seafood. Luckily, everything tasted great.
After lunch, everybody split up into groups of four. This is where the serious shopping began. Many Caymanian shop owners were advertising their businesses by handing out free item coupons. These coupons were for free gemstones and pearls. Us girls love our pearls! Especially free ones. Besides the free items, souvenirs for friends and family members were at the top of our lists when it came to prioritizing our expenditures. Anything labeled with Grand Cayman was a must to buy. What was extra special was the fact that almost anything a person can think of was handmade. Purses, bracelets, clothing, statues, you name it! It was all authentic and made by the locals.
What made this day different from the rest was the fact that our team was able to relax and get dressed up before dinner. Usually we had been going to dinner in our sweaty volleyball attire. Today we were able to dress up, do our hair and makeup, and eat dinner before 10 at night. Our dinner was at the luxurious Royal Palms.
This stunning restaurant was located right on the beach. It offered a vide variety of activities right on its grounds. Since the sun was out, our team decided to take advantage of the moment and have a bit of a photo shoot. Perfect lighting made for a quick, yet successful time taking team and individual pictures. As the picture taking subsided, we all sat down to our special meal. We were not sure if it was the view, but something about the moment, and just being together as a team, made the meal perfect.
Piling into the van, after the dinner, we all began to realize that tomorrow is the last full day of this trip, and also the last time that it will be just us girls. It was bittersweet, but we must live for the now and get excited for the future. Just a couple more days till we all welcome the incoming freshmen and transfers. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!
Click here for today's photo gallery.