Daily update from University Worlds by women's head coach: July 8
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by Shannyn J.
Bulgaria & Greece
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
And then there was one...one bag left of the missing bags list supposed
to arrive in Thessaloniki, Greece via Denver, Chicago, Vienna, and
Sophia. Team USA flew out of land of the free with all their bags and
today Joan Fulp picked up bag number 8 on the list of bags lost in
Chicago.
Who cares about the last bag? Well, that bag contains the FILA license
that the international federation for wrestling at the Olympic Games
and world championships issues to its member national governing bodies
as proof of membership. This license also acts like a passport or a
certificate for all FILA affiliated international competitions.
More importantly, the last bag belongs to the author who is figuring
out how to make it work with less...sometimes less is more.
Moving on…
Joan, Lee, Sara, Katherine, Chelynne, Trevor, and Shannyn toured
Thessaloniki today and saw many ruins or monuments or very old
buildings and structures dating back 1700 years. For younger USA
readers, this means before anyone wrote about the Americas or claimed
to have discovered the region where we all call home.
I actually took a lot of pictures of churches and these photos will be
online at some point. Many other photos of people wrestling and more
will come too soon. The internet connection here is great and also
slowly uploads photos.
Amazingly, Thessaloniki reminded me of old Europe combined with the
hustle and bustle of most big urban cities like Chicago and New York.
A lot of European cities I've been to have small alleys like NYC does
and many of them have ruins or monuments or old buildings unlike urban
America.
Thessaloniki is similar to many cities in Europe and also has a rapid
bus system that we traveled on and traffic just like I see in Chicago
and New York. Other things in Thessaloniki that reminded me of urban
America were the amount of people driving around similar to the Indy
500 race (even the bus driver), very small vendor stores on nearly
every block, hot and humid weather made more intense by the bricks;
cement; and masses of people, and the diversity of beauty displayed all
around in various forms.
In Marquette, Mich., there are small mountains and many folks out in
Western America call them big hills. In Colorado Springs, Colo.,
there are big mountains similar to the size of volcanoes or what
appears to be earth piercing the sky. In Thessaloniki, Greece, there
are mountains, big hills, and urban land all in one with water
(Mediterranean Sea) connected too via ports. I did not expect this
city to have the range of sights and it was very nice to quickly
explore.
The athletes looked really, really good today in practice and many of
them slept to conserve energy for the events to come after practice.
The freestyle men actually weighed in today and will compete for world
titles tomorrow. The Greco-Roman team will arrive today and begin
final preparations for the World University Championships (WUC)
immediately.
English appears to be a language many folks speak in Europe, Asia, and
Thessloniki. In fact, the organizers of WUC speak some form of English
to nearly everyone who requests help. This is amazing because many of
the countries in Europe Asia are hours from each other and the UK or
England is really close to only a few countries in Europe and no
countries near the former Eastern Bloc or Asia.
Russian is also a language many people speak and luckily Elena (Team
USA) speaks Russian. Between Elena speaking Russian and nearly
everyone speaking English we are able to communicate with the masses
remarkably well on this trip.
Things have changed drastically in the last 10 years or so, especially
when it comes to shopping in Europe. About 10 years ago there were
very few malls and grocery like stores. Now, any USA person can travel
to Europe or Asia to a big city and it may feel similar to the States
because now you or I can simply go to the store or mall and pick up
what ever we left at home. Believe me, this experience is great
especially if you traveled to Europe in the 90's or before.
Really, there are Starbucks, McDonald's, and all types of convenient
stores that sell just about everything under the sun. On my first
trips to Europe, this was not the case and if I forgot to bring
something, it either had to be borrowed or not used on the trip.
Times are changing quickly.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
And then there was one...one bag left of the missing bags list supposed
to arrive in Thessaloniki, Greece via Denver, Chicago, Vienna, and
Sophia. Team USA flew out of land of the free with all their bags and
today Joan Fulp picked up bag number 8 on the list of bags lost in
Chicago.
Who cares about the last bag? Well, that bag contains the FILA license
that the international federation for wrestling at the Olympic Games
and world championships issues to its member national governing bodies
as proof of membership. This license also acts like a passport or a
certificate for all FILA affiliated international competitions.
More importantly, the last bag belongs to the author who is figuring
out how to make it work with less...sometimes less is more.
Moving on…
Joan, Lee, Sara, Katherine, Chelynne, Trevor, and Shannyn toured
Thessaloniki today and saw many ruins or monuments or very old
buildings and structures dating back 1700 years. For younger USA
readers, this means before anyone wrote about the Americas or claimed
to have discovered the region where we all call home.
I actually took a lot of pictures of churches and these photos will be
online at some point. Many other photos of people wrestling and more
will come too soon. The internet connection here is great and also
slowly uploads photos.
Amazingly, Thessaloniki reminded me of old Europe combined with the
hustle and bustle of most big urban cities like Chicago and New York.
A lot of European cities I've been to have small alleys like NYC does
and many of them have ruins or monuments or old buildings unlike urban
America.
Thessaloniki is similar to many cities in Europe and also has a rapid
bus system that we traveled on and traffic just like I see in Chicago
and New York. Other things in Thessaloniki that reminded me of urban
America were the amount of people driving around similar to the Indy
500 race (even the bus driver), very small vendor stores on nearly
every block, hot and humid weather made more intense by the bricks;
cement; and masses of people, and the diversity of beauty displayed all
around in various forms.
In Marquette, Mich., there are small mountains and many folks out in
Western America call them big hills. In Colorado Springs, Colo.,
there are big mountains similar to the size of volcanoes or what
appears to be earth piercing the sky. In Thessaloniki, Greece, there
are mountains, big hills, and urban land all in one with water
(Mediterranean Sea) connected too via ports. I did not expect this
city to have the range of sights and it was very nice to quickly
explore.
The athletes looked really, really good today in practice and many of
them slept to conserve energy for the events to come after practice.
The freestyle men actually weighed in today and will compete for world
titles tomorrow. The Greco-Roman team will arrive today and begin
final preparations for the World University Championships (WUC)
immediately.
English appears to be a language many folks speak in Europe, Asia, and
Thessloniki. In fact, the organizers of WUC speak some form of English
to nearly everyone who requests help. This is amazing because many of
the countries in Europe Asia are hours from each other and the UK or
England is really close to only a few countries in Europe and no
countries near the former Eastern Bloc or Asia.
Russian is also a language many people speak and luckily Elena (Team
USA) speaks Russian. Between Elena speaking Russian and nearly
everyone speaking English we are able to communicate with the masses
remarkably well on this trip.
Things have changed drastically in the last 10 years or so, especially
when it comes to shopping in Europe. About 10 years ago there were
very few malls and grocery like stores. Now, any USA person can travel
to Europe or Asia to a big city and it may feel similar to the States
because now you or I can simply go to the store or mall and pick up
what ever we left at home. Believe me, this experience is great
especially if you traveled to Europe in the 90's or before.
Really, there are Starbucks, McDonald's, and all types of convenient
stores that sell just about everything under the sun. On my first
trips to Europe, this was not the case and if I forgot to bring
something, it either had to be borrowed or not used on the trip.
Times are changing quickly.
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