Day 2

I had a very good night of sleep and was instructed at breakfast to not take any naps for the rest of the day and if we did to make it only 30 minutes,  which seemed basically impossible. After breakfast, we had some down time and I couldn't help myself and took a 20 minute nap. It was enough to keep me awake for our first training session, where we played some possession and then finished with some crossing and finishing.

The training facility at La Manga

After our first training we went straight to lunch and our coach started with her individual meetings. She said she would do four a day so I haven't gone yet. Lunch was followed by some more down time. I did the stupidest thing I could and read a book, which made me even more tired. So, after awhile I couldn't physically keep my eyes open and I drifted off into another nap.  Fortunately, it only lasted for ten minutes because we had to leave for training at 4:45. For this training we started with some passing combinations and ended with some more possession, which I love. Dinner was after training; then from 8:30-9:30 we had a stretching session. The coaches purposely planned it late to try to keep us up. The stretch session was a little reminder for us all of how bad our flexibility was. We ended the day on that note and went back to our rooms. I was able to stay awake for a little bit longer before the time change got the best of me.

Day 1

It was a very long day. I left my house for the Cincinnati airport around ten. I said my goodbyes to my parents and then went through security and walked to my gate, only to find out that my flight was being pushed back because the weather was bad in Chicago at O'Hare.  

Once I finally landed at O'Hare, I had to get my luggage from baggage claim and find my way to terminal 3, which turned out to be a million miles away. When I finally got there, I rechecked my bag and had to go through security again. Then I waited with the rest of the team for our flight to Madrid.
The flight wasn't too bad. We got two meals and I slept for about four hours total. The rest of the time I was either reading or listening to music. We landed around 7:00 am Spain time and once again had to go through security and show our passports. Then we waited around for our flight to La Manga. It was only an hour long, but I caught up on some much needed sleep.

We touched down in La Manga and went to baggage claim. I was one of the lucky ones who actually got their luggage. There was 20+ that hadn't arrived and wouldn't arrive for at least another day.
    
After that, we drove to our five star hotel and got our room keys. I got lucky again with my room because it had a beautiful view and balcony looking out into the the pool area and golf course.

View from my balcony!

After we settled in, we ate lunch and then headed to the u23s game against Sweden. The final score was 6-0 the US. The game followed with a nice jog and stretch for us. Then we walked back to the hotel, which was only ten minutes walking distance, and ate dinner. We had to fight the urge to sleep the whole time and that turned out to be very hard. After dinner we had  a meeting with Michelle French, the newly named u20s coach.  She told us about herself and then gave us her expectations for us. It was a nice way to begin the trip.
    
Afterwards, we went to our rooms where we were finally allowed to sleep. I fell asleep immediately. I'd never been so happy to sleep in my entire life.