Edgewood College women's basketball player Megan Scheele recently returned from a 10-day trip to London, Paris, Bredene (Belgium) and Amsterdam with USA Athletes International. Scheele saw the best of those cities, enjoyed great competition and forged new friendships.
She has been kind enough to share her journal from the trip...
Day 1- May 16th
Today was pretty much a flying day for me. I left Madison airport at 10 am, had a lay-over in Detroit and finally got to Washington D.C at 4 p.m. I was the first girl there, but I did see some guys with our t-shirts on and found out that we were going on this tour with a men's team. So as my teammates arrived we all introduced ourselves to one another, and with the men's team, and then just waited and talked before our flight to left at 9 p.m. The teams got to know each other and tried to figure out everyone's name; there were eight girls on the team and nine guys on the men's team.
At about 8:30 we started to board our flight that would take about seven hours to get to London. We flew British airlines, it was a very nice airline- we had our own TV screen and could watch or listen to anything we wanted to, I watched National Treasurer- The Book of Secrets. The flight was pretty long, but the teams were excited to be in London and start our tour.
Day 2- May 17th
We arrived in London at 10 a.m., 4 a.m. central time. I didn't get much sleep so I was pretty tired getting off, but woke up a little once I got my luggage and went through customs. After everyone got through customs we met up with our tour guide, Martin. Martin was from Austria, but knew English pretty well. The men's team had a game today, so we went straight to the gym where they played and the women's team watched as they won by 20 or so points. After the game we went to the hotel, showered and headed to dinner. Our hotel was outside of London, we stayed in Croydon, about 20-30 minutes from London. We had dinner at a nice restaurant and we had lasagna, bread, and apple pie for dessert. After we got back from dinner we looked around Croydon a little and I bought a phone card to call home. I called home but didn't get an answer, but left a message to my parents telling them that I got to London safe.
It is a little different in London. They drive on the other side of the street then we do, use pounds for money, so we had to exchange our money for pounds, people smoke everywhere and all the time. It's a different culture, but I am excited to see what London is all like when we take a tour tomorrow.
Day 3- May 18th
Today the teams took a tour of central London. It took us about 30 minutes to get from where we were staying and get to the center of London. London was awesome; it is a very busy city, lots of traffic and tiny streets to get around on, but all the sites were so beautiful to see. We got to see Big Ben, The London Bridge, Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guards, St. Paul's church and lots more. I took lots of pictures, but sometimes it was difficult to get good ones because we were in the bus taking them and didn't get a chance to get out and take many.
We got to spend free time and eat lunch in Westminster Abbey and see some more sites. I ate lunch with a few girls from the team and had the best turkey club sandwich ever. We then spent the rest of our free time watching two people doing magic tricks- they made us laugh so hard and we wanted to stay longer but we need to get back to the bus and get going to our first game.
Our game was against a London team and we won 64-58. Our play was a little rough because we have never played with each other and we didn't have a chance to practice, but as the game went on we were getting use to each other and got the win in the end. We ate at the same restaurant as last night, but tonight we had chicken and chips. We had the rest of the night to ourselves, we all just hung out and watched TV and we went to bed early because we were tired.
Day 4- May 19th
We got up and had breakfast at the hotel and ate before we had a long day of travel to Paris. We took the Eurostar train from London to Paris. We got at the train station at 9:50 and the train left at 10:20. We had to go through security and all that jazz, so we almost missed the train, but we all made it. The train ride was four or five hours, so I read some, talked to my teammates, and slept a little. Once we got to Paris, we went straight to the Eiffel Tower. This was amazing- we went all the way up to the top and the view was breathtaking- this was probably one of my favorite spots on the whole tour. The whole trip up to the top of the tower took us about three hours, there were so many people so it seemed like it took even longer. From the Eiffel Tower we went straight to dinner- we ate at Hard Rock and we all had burgers- which were awesome and were something we were us to eating.
Both teams had a day off from games and so after dinner we went to see what our hotel was like. This hotel was the worst hotel we had all trip. It was in the red light district in the heart of Paris and the rooms were gross and small- didn't have a very good experience staying in Paris, but the Eiffel Tower made up for it. The coaches, Ohio girls and I walked around and we went and saw the most beautiful church ever, it was called the Chapel of Paul Abadie. We had to climb 300 steps to get to it, but the view was worth it. When we got back to the hotel; instead of staying in our tiny rooms we all met up in the lobby, which was much nicer and talked all night until we got tired and went to bed.
Staying in London was nice because they spoke English, but being in Paris they speak a different language than us so it is difficult to communicate with people because we don't understand them and they don't understand us all the time. From now on we use Euro for money and not pounds anymore, this was a little confusing to me, because I thought we only need to exchange money once on the trip, but instead we did it twice.
Day 5- May 20th
I got up with my roommate, Lacy, and we went down to breakfast before we left on our tour of Paris. As we go to hotel to hotel I found that a common breakfast food is corn flakes, but they truly taste like corn and don't have any sugar in them. Not very good if you ask me. After breakfast we meet up with the rest of our group and headed to the bus for our tour of Paris. Our tour of Paris was a little better than London because we actually got out and got to see things up close and take some really good pictures of Paris. We saw many things that I would only dream of seeing; we saw Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, Pyramides, Arch. leo Ming Pei, Opera, and lots of many other neat things that I don't remember the names of.
After our tour we went straight to the games. Both teams played at the same time, so we didn't get to watch each other play this time. The women's team won by five points and the men's team won by about 20 points. After the game we showered quickly and then went to dinner together. After dinner a big group of us went on the train and saw the light show of the Eiffel Tower; we saw the show at midnight, since we got back from our game and dinner so late. This was totally worth seeing and loved watching it, it was amazing to see and would love to go back and see it again. Since we went to the light show so late, the trains stopped running by the time we got back to the train station and so we had to figure out another way back. Our group decided to get taxi's and head back; this was an experience for me since I have never rode in a taxi before.
Day 6- May 21st
Today was our last day in Paris, so me and a couple of people took the train downtown and went shopping. The few I went with really needed to go shopping because their luggage was lost, and they needed some clothes to wear for the rest of the trip. After a couple of hours shopping in the morning we left Paris to Bredene, Belgium. This took us about five hours on bus to get there- it was a very quiet bus ride because we all slept- which was much needed since we are still getting use to the time change and we stay up way to late looking at everything. We got to our hotel, which was so nice compared to our hotel in Paris. Our hotel was really close to the North Sea. The whole girls’ team went down to the beach and took lots of pictures and just hung out there before we had to leave for our game.
We had our third game today and we won by 30 points. The boys played in the same gym as us at the same time, so we didn't get to see them play at all, but they won by 50 points. After our game it was almost 9 p.m.; we went back to our hotel and both the men and women's team ate with the teams we just played. This was pretty neat because we talked with them about how school/education is like in Europe, how basketball is different and just talked about everyday things. After dinner and talking some people went to the Internet Cafe and then we hung out together and went to bed for the night.
Day 7- May 22nd
Today Betsy, Jessica, Cody, and I went down to the beach one last time before we left Belgium. It was a little different then the day before, the water was further back and we got to see some more beach and rocks that we didn't see the day before. After we got back we all ate breakfast together- once again they had cornflakes. I am so sick of cornflakes, I don't think I will eat them for a very long time.
After breakfast we drove a couple hours and went to the former Concentration Camp Breendonk. This was very shocking to hear all about what happened to people and how they were treated. I didn't know how bad it actually was until I listened to the guide and saw all the equipment that was used to torture people there. We then had a quick lunch and took the bus three more hours to our fourth game. We were an hour late to our game because the traffic was so bad. But we played at a really nice place and played against the Matrixx Magixx. We won by 30 points and had dinner with the team we just played. After we finished dinner we watch the guys play, which was really exciting because it was a close game for them, they won by 6 or 8 points. After the guys ate dinner with the team they played we headed to our hotel and crashed for the night, it was late by the time we got back.
Day 8- May 23rd
We didn't stay long at this hotel, we had breakfast and left for the next hotel in Amsterdam. We drove for maybe two hours and took a tour of a cheese farm. This was pretty neat, we got to see how the cheese was made and got to taste lots of cheese. This reminded me of Wisconsin with all the cheese we saw. After the tour we could buy cheese if we wanted, I think everyone bought some, it was so good. After the cheese factory we drove for about an hour and got to the heart of Amsterdam and got to our hotel; this is the hotel that we will be staying at the rest of our trip. Before our game we had dinner together at a nice restaurant and had some great food. Both teams played at 8 p.m. that night and we both won. Both teams went 5-0 for the trip and had a great time playing against international opponents.
Day 9- May 24th
Today was the last day on the trip before we leave for home. We are all done with games so today was all sightseeing and free time. The first thing the group did was went on a Canal Cruise; this lasted for about an hour and we got to see Amsterdam from every angle. After we went around on the cruise we had a choice of going to the Anne Frank house or go on our own and do what you wanted. A group of use decided to go the Anne Frank house and see what it was like. I am so glad I went, it was very eye opening, and I learned a lot more about the Holocaust and how the Jews were treated then I ever did in history class. After the Anne Frank house Shannon and I walked around and bought some gifts for our family before we headed back to the bus.
The group had dinner one last time together and we gave our tour guide a gift for all he did on our trip. We got back to our hotel at 8 p.m. and just watched TV; we were all tired from walking around that day and were beat.
Day 10- May 25th
The girls ate breakfast together for the last time before we left for the airport to head back home to the U.S. We left for the airport at 11:30; we flew from Amsterdam to London, which took about an hour. Once we got to London we had some free time to exchange money back and buy some last minute gifts. We then got on our plane that took us eight hours to get back to Washington D.C. We got into the airport at 8 p.m. My flight didn't leave until 9 a.m. the next day, so I had to stay overnight in the airport, but luckily two others did also, so we hung out together until morning and then said our goodbyes. I got back into Madison Monday afternoon at about 2 p.m. and was happy to be home and see my family and friends.
I had a really great time on the trip. I met a lot of new people and had a fun time hanging out with them all. Meeting so many people made me open up a lot and talk- I felt like I really opened up and got out of my bubble- which is what I wanted from this trip. Our tour of Europe was amazing, I got to see so many great things that I couldn't imagine. We saw and traveled so much in nine days I still can't believe I went to them all and experienced them first hand.
And for the basketball part of the trip, it is an experience I will never forget. I loved all my teammates and became great friends with them all. They made the trip very enjoyable and were very competitive and made it really fun to play with them all. For me, I thought we played very well together and knew each other after our first game and stepped up and played well. I loved this opportunity to play overseas and play with different people from all over the US and had such a great time I would do it again in a heartbeat.
- Megan