So far, so good!
by Dan Ryan '09

Catawba College's Lacrosse Team trip overseas has been anticipated since spring by players, coaches and families. Our first day of travel was one of reunion. All the team's members travelled from various spots in the United States, yet we all managed to trickle in to gate 106a in Newark, N.J., where we were comforted by greetings and smiles.

Everyone was loaded with excitement as we all boarded our flight to London. They served breakfast to us at 1 a.m. our time (E.S.T. or D.S.T.) and shortly afterwards, we landed in London at 7:35 a.m. their time and so the trip began.

I would like to say that we spent the first day getting settled and curing our jet lag, but that would be quite misleading. After exiting the airport, we hopped right onto a tour bus headed for downtown London.

We got to take in all the sights — from Parliament to Big Ben. We also walked around Trafalgar Square and Westminster Abbey. Some of the guys on our team tried to seek out the famous rotary that Chevy Chase gets trapped in, in the movie "European Vacation," but wound up unsuccessful.

Nearing lunchtime, our bodies were running on airplane breakfast and were in need of food. The rumour had it that food in Europe was not going to be up to our standards, but we found then and have since found that it is not bad at all. Some players actually say that they think the food is good.

We were all wiped out and I'm glad to say that we were finally able to rest ... by having practice. This was no ordinary practice, however. We ended up finding some grass in Hyde Park right in downtown London. Here, we played catch and got to run around a bit. The best part was there was no sprints, goals, and in some case, not even shoes. Friendly and unfamiliar onlookers even approached us and asked us about the sport. Who knows, perhaps we will have some fans at our game as we told them the location.

We capped off this long first day with dinner in the hotel and our day of touring and travelling was finished.