Surprise! Abby Singer '20 here with a guest blog for day 4 of our team trip to Portugal! Hopefully I can the match the high quality synopses that Karlie has been gracing you all with.
We started our day by sleeping in a little longer than usual and heading down to breakfast at a leisurely pace. After finishing the most important meal of the day, we laid out some beach towels by the pool and we were honored to have our very own Sabrina lead us through a yoga session. I learned that the corpse pose and fetal position are my favorite moves, by far. After getting our minds in touch with our bodies, we jumped into the freezing cold pool for some 80's style water aerobics (tune into the instagram story to see athletic trainer Jaye's moves, it's worth it).
After a whole lot of squats and doggy paddling, (shoutout to my relay team for being doggy paddle champs) we tested our choreography skills by putting together ~synchronized~ swimming routines. At this point, it became very clear as to why some of us should stick to soccer. We exited the water with shivering bodies (either from laughter or the cold, not quite sure which) and had some time to hang out and relax before our next activity.
Next, we had the opportunity to meet some local kids and put on a soccer clinic for them. During the clinic, we taught them some of our favorite drills and the kids showed off their skills. One of my favorite moments was when one of the kids, Alejandro, gave Julie Rebh '22 the "hardest nutmeg of her life" and "rocked her to her core" (Rebh, 2019). All in all, it was great experience and while the kids made it clear that they didn't like Freddie's (Hannah Friedrich '22) taste in music, they said they enjoyed the clinic as much as we did!
After seeing the kids off we headed to a local marina to take in some views and grab some dinner before we headed to the field for our first game in Portugal. It ended up being a beautiful night for a game under the lights and we got to work. The match ended up at 2-2 but gave us a great idea of some things we need to work on for the season.
It's a later night than usual for us but I'm sure after the busy day we had that we'll all sleep soundly. Stay tuned for another blog coming tomorrow, I hope you enjoyed the guest feature!
- Abby Singer '20