Day 5 – Taiwanese Telstradome

Today we transfered accomodations to Santos Hotel. We took a convoy of taxis for 10 minutes through the city. For a lucky Xanthe, Kat, Karl and Katie, the taxi ride was extra eventfull. The driver seemed rather cheerful however slightly delerious seeing as he sliced open a fresh grapefruit while navigigating his way through the heavy traffic. After ‘pulling his knife’ on them, he shared around the delicacy.

After getting to the fancy hotel we sat around until our rooms were ready. The team amused themselves with card games and rechecking the back of their eyelids. Many Asian tourists found our height amusing as they commented in awe to foreign ears.

Taiwanese Telstradome

After waiting for a late bus we arrived to the Taipei version of the Telstradome. We trained in the National Taiwanese University sports centre, a five thousand seat stadium where the roof seemed untouchable. Even after a gallant attempt by our head coach Jenny Becker to dig the ball to the roof, it still remained untouchable.

When returning to the hotel, a fabulous lunch waited for us to munch on. Seated at tables and chairs that seemed fit for a wedding reception, the team hoed down a large range of asian cuisine. We then slept and laid around aimlessley in our hotel rooms until a team meeting and a a lovely dinner to finish off our day in Taipei.

Caio.

Day 678 (day 4) – The Fun Continues!

We woke up to another beautiful breakfast of pancakes topped with hardened butter and maple syrup.  After an unexpected sleep in, team awesome (aka Team Australia) made our way to training once again.  We pumped the music thanks to our music pro Katty Osadchuck on our way to another sweat fest.  After an intense training session where thankfully we overcame the war against stationery objects (aka exit signs and toilet doors), we made our way back to a hard earned shower and lunch.

During our break we once again scouted the food court to find meals to our liking.  After finding such and somehow ordering it through a massive language barrier, the team disembarked on their own shopping adventure.  This resulted in Loren, Talliqua and Katty setting off multiple alarms at the top of a 13 floor shopping centre.

On our way to the second training, on our fancy double-decker bus, we once again utilised handy-dandy Kat Chen: Translator Extraordinare, who was required to direct the stupid bus driver to our training venue. Unfortunately we may have scared a few local Taiwanese moped drivers as they scattered like ants to avoid the massive bus that decided to drive in their direction. Those lucky few at the front of the bus had a clear view and squealed in fright.  We, thankfully, arrived safe at the training venue for another positive and successful training.

Dinner was enjoyed by all as we ate at a nice, nearby restaurant. After, we decided to roam the streets of Taiwan and ended up in the Taiwan Railway Station, where it appeared to be the “cool” place to hang out. Local kids were having a “dance-off” and, not to be outdone, Katty Osadchuck busted out her moves to the delight of her teammates…

Tomorrow we head off to our official hotel, meeting our official opposition for the first time, and training at the official training venue. Officially it will be finally official!

Catch you tomorrow!

Tsai Jien!

Team AUS

Day 3 – Troubled talls

This morning we had breakfast scheduled for 7am…. on the bright side of things we all enjoyed pancakes that made up for the early start. Our first training as a full team started at 8am at a university a short bus ride away from our accommodation. The team gathered for a briefing from the coaches one player short. A shreek came from the squat toilets as we realised it was Taylor missing from the group. Jo ran to see what was wrong and save the damsil in distress that had become captive in the toilet cubicle. Taylor Vs toilet door lock. Taylor-0 Lock on door-1.

We experienced the fatal temperatures of the asian climate as our first full team training commenced. Pools of sweat trailed us around the court. The battle of the tall blondes continued as Loren, forgetting her height, challenged the low set exit sign to a dual. Resulting in a bruised head. Loren-0 Exit sign-1. After the two incidents the rest of training had a very intense and positive outcome.

With assistance from Kat Chen (our personal translator) we found our way and our meals within a local food court. No one has got the squirts……. yet.

With time to spare before our second training Jenny requested a study hour. THANKS JENNY!!!!

Our second training wasnt as eventful as the first but the sweat trails continued. A solid session from all the girls.

With our stomaches rumbling we were lead by the adventurous Karley and Kirsten to a Tepanyaki dinner that they had earlier discovered. With the chef preparing our meals right before our very eyes we indulged ourselves in true asian cuisine. Sticking out like fish out of water we roamed the brightly lit streets of Taipei. Discovering Taiwan’s version of Cold Rock (icecream parlour) our night was fulfilled. Turning into our YMCA accomodation day three was successfully completed.

Day 2 – The Flight Over

Monday 15/09/08

We set off at 8am and arrived at Sydney International airport just before 9am.

Group checked in was pretty painless and in no time we were inside the terminal looking for something for breakfast.

We boarded the plane at 11.30am. We have heard some average reports about our carrier, China Airlines, but the flight was really pleasant.

There were many empty seats so the girls can spread out a bit. Taliqua had 4 seats for herself so she could stretch her long legs very comfortably watching movies all the way through.

The flight took over 9 hours but it seemed so short as there were so many choices of in-flight movies, music and games to select from.

Jenny took the opportunity to just sit back and relax trying to recover from a bout of cold that she was suffering from.

Karl tried to catch up with some needed sleep as I was keeping him awake all night with my snoring which was made worse by the small confinement of the Formule 1 motel room. It was weird because I slept really well that night. Didn’t hear a thing.

We landed in Taiwan around 7.45pm. It was hot and steamy. We were lucky to have missed a typhoon which caused a lot of damage a day or so earlier.

We met up with Jo who had been waiting for us at the airport for a couple of hours after flying in from Saigon after her tour to Vietnam with VTAW in which they finised a creditable fourth.

Kat was given the task to find out how to get the team to our hotel from the airport. But to our pleasant surprise a couple of Taiwanese ladies jumped out of the crowd as we walking through Customs saying “Welcome to Taiwan”. They are Julie and Mandy who had been allocated by Taiwan Volleyball to be our guides for our entire stay here.

We were taken to a red double decker bus for our trip to the YMCA hotel. The trip took nearly an hour and we were all happy to finally reached our destination (for a couple of nights anyway).

The hotel is very nice. The rooms are spacious and clean. All of Jenny’s worries were laid to rest.

We quickly took our gears to our rooms the re-gathered to go out to find something to eat. Karl took us to this restaurant which has all the fake food displayed in the window outside but it was closed. We finally settled for some good old maccas meals as it was getting late and we had to get up early in the morning for our first training session in Taiwan.

~ Chau

Day 1 – Training Day

Sunday 14/09/08

Kat C., Karley, Karl and myself met at Melbourne airport for our early flight to Sydney. Kat, Karley and Karl (the K.K.K) were great spirit as their team Hawks triumphed over Heidelberg the day before in the grand final of the Victorian State League.

One of my bags was over 30kg but the people at Virgin Blue was kind enough not to charge me for excess baggage. I had 4 laptops in that suitcase. You can never have enough laptops I reckon.

We met up with Jenny, Alan and all other girls (except for Jo who was in Vietnam for the VTV Cup, Katie who was about to play in the Sydney league grand final and Xanthe who was making a long trek over from Perth).

Unfortunately Katerina’s luggage was placed on an incorrect flight so Kat, Alan and myself waited around for it to arrive at Sydney airport whilst the rest of the team headed to Randwick Army Barracks for training.

The girls trained enthusiastically. Everyone seemed to be pumped up for the tour.

Xanthe and Katie arrived later on the day and joined the rest of the team for a scrimmage against an Army selection.

We got to our Formule 1 motel in St Peters aound 7pm. The rooms there were so small that Karl and I feared that some of the tall girls in our team might have to have their feet sticking out the window laying in bed at night.

We had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant near by. I guess we were so hungry that anything tasted good.

We had an early night to get ready for a long day ahead.

~ Chau

14th Asian Junior Womens Championships

14th Asian Junior Womens Championships
September 20-28, 2008
Chinese Taipei