Category Archives: D-III overseas

Augie in China: One last stop

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Augustana senior Kyle Nelson and his teammates took a summer trip to China. He will be blogging regularly on D3hoops.com about the team’s journey.

Augustana players and coaches on the Great Wall

Our last day overseas. The most amazing trip of our lives is finally coming to a close. To close out the trip we had a forced layover in Japan, due to having a connecting flight to Chicago the next day. That allowed us a little bit of time for some sightseeing. We traveled into downtown Tokyo and made our first stop at Tokyo Tower. This is the largest free standing steel structure in the world. It had an observation deck to go up in. Immediately we could see why Tokyo was the most populated city in the world with about 37 million people. It was huge! The city stretched beyond what we could see from the tower and it was truly an impressive sight.
 
Next stop on the Tokyo-in-a-day tour was the Imperial Palace, located in the center of the city. This Palace is where the Emperor and his family resided. The current Emperor is part of a family that has been in the Imperial Palace for 125 generations. That is an incredible amount of time. Currently, however, the Emperor of Japan serves no purpose other than being a figure-head for the country. All political power has been removed from that position and resides elsewhere within the political system. The Palace was closed on this particular afternoon so we were not able to go inside, but we got a view of part of it from across the moat that surrounded the compound.
 
We made a brief stop at a Buddhist Temple (Asakusa) before heading to our meal. This meal was easily the best of the trip. Each table had its own little grill on it and there was a buffet of at least fifteen different kinds of raw meats that you could choose yourself and cook yourself. I’m pretty sure that everyone ate way more than they could handle, but it was good none the less.
 
At dinner, we had a special guest waiting for us. His name was Phil Hoffman and he was the Minister-Counselor of Public Affairs for the United States Embassy in Tokyo. He also happened to be an Augie grad (1974) and an ex-student for Dr. Moline. Phil spent about half an hour talking to the group about what he did overseas and how his Augie education has really helped him in his job that has taken him from Greece to India to Nepal and to Japan among other places. He was really an impressive and well-spoken man and his stories were truly one-of-a-kind because no where else could you experience what he had gone through.
 
Our flight to Chicago leaves in and hour and a half. One more blog coming when we land back home!
 
Kyle Nelson

Case in Brazil: Snorkel, hammocks, boat

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The Case Western Reserve men’s basketball team is in Brazil, and blogging about the experience as well. Tim Maleski writes:

Day number two in Paraty started out in an unusual way to say the least, as Reid, Ryan, Alex, and I woke up to the fresh smell of rain after spending the night sleeping in the hammocks located outside the rooms. Our group originally started with six members, but Brian slept inside after failing to fall asleep after an hour lying in the hammock and Colin left due to his constant fear that he was definitely going to fall out.

We were set to leave for our boat ride on the Atlantic Ocean at 9:30, but due to inclement weather that we have been getting a great deal of lately, we had to push our ride back to 11:00. So once the time came, we walked to the bay to board our boat. The first place we stopped allowed us to get in the water for the first time. We swam, jumped off the boat, and snorkeled. We tried to catch fish with a three reals bet that we couldn’t. Unfortunately, we had no success with this with endeavor.

Case on a boat in Paraty, Brazil

Our second stop on our boat trip landed us close to a beach. After swimming into shore, we spent the next hour jumping off rocks, playing a game of soccer, and diving into the water in our attempts to catch a soccer ball. The highlight of our trip to this spot was our dancing. With techno music blaring from another boat in the background, the twelve of us did the famous “Party Boy” dance on Coach Gorski. We though it was hilarious, but the same couldn’t be said for Coach Gorski. Not only did he almost drop his prized iPhone, but he also came out of the dancing with a bruised lip.

After we pulled up our anchors there, we sailed a few more minutes and settled down on the boat for lunch. Upon finishing lunch, we headed to our final destination. It was here that we searched for turtles and jumped off the boat to catch soccer balls. From the boat we watched a local man climb a twenty foot high tree and throw coconut after coconut down to a group of girls. Chris even went on a solo adventure to the shore. He said he was looking to grab a coconut, but the rest of us knew he just wanted to talk to the group of girls. Lucky for him, he did manage to come back with a coconut full of juice, but we knew it was just an excuse. Most importantly, our entire team had a really impressive feat catching the soccer ball that can be seen with the videos.

We headed back to the dock to end our boat trip. Feeling both fatigued as well as sunburnt, we were ready to go back to the hotel and relax for the rest of the night. Our time in Paraty was coming to an end, and tomorrow we will head for the mountains.

Augie in China: Pick and roll comes in handy

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Augustana senior Kyle Nelson and his teammates are in China. He will be blogging regularly on D3hoops.com about the team’s journey.

Currently at a comfortable cruising altitude of 32,000 feet, I think back about what we saw on our last day in China. Our final day was dominated by a seven hour trip to the Great Wall. We boarded the bus and took the two hour drive from our hotel to the far outreaches of Beijing where the Mutainyu section of the Great Wall is. This part was built over 600 years ago during the Ming Dynasty.  Driving up we were able to catch glimpses of it on the tops of the mountain range.

Once there we prepared ourselves for the long climb up more than one thousand stairs to finally reach the wall. We figured this hike would be some good training for the upcoming 2 mile. The hike took a while, but once it was done it was definitely worth it. The Great Wall was a sight to see. It seemed to go on forever. Just walking around on it gave you a great sense of pride just for being up there. We were on the Wall for at least an hour and a half, snapping photos and just looking out onto the mountain range.

After spending time up there we took the cable cars down and got ready to eat our final Chinese meal as a team. By now we were pretty used to the food served at these places; baked fish, eggplant, cabbage, pineapple chicken, spicy beef and egg drop soup. However, that doesn’t mean that were not thinking about having some good American food once we get back home.

Our last stop was at two of the largest markets we saw during the whole trip. They were the Pearl Market and the Silk Market; both located in downtown Beijing. These markets we essentially like the department stores we are used to, as they were indoors and were either four or five stories tall. But we were still able to barter with the salespeople at these places. The Pearl market was most obviously known for its extensive pearl vendors and the Silk Market, you guessed it, had practically a whole floor dedicated to silk materials. The popular items continued to be watches, scrolls, and souvenirs, but bootlegged DVDs made their first appearance in a market this trip and were a popular purchase.

We have quite a bit of time to kill on this flight to Tokyo, Japan (about three hours), and I’m sitting next to Bryant Voiles. Here are his thoughts thus far about the trip:

Thus far China has been an incredible experience individually and as a team. Not only have we been able to bond as a team at some of the most influential places in Chinese history and one of the seven wonders of the world, but also places such as the markets, hotels, dinners and night life. For example, in Beijing the silk market had some very determined people wanting to sell their items. On more than one occasion, they would corner someone in their store and block them from exiting until they bought an item. Being the skilled basketball players we are we managed to effectively use the pick and roll on the salesman so that we were able to leave the store.  The person not being blocked in the store would walk up unknowingly behind the salesman and set a back screen, then the person being cornered would run the salesman right into the screen being set free of the trap and both people would then jog away as the relentless salesman yelled at us to come back. I entered this trip with an open perspective on the culture that I was about to embrace anticipating major differences. Looking back I realize that I have earned a greater appreciation for my own culture and even the little things in life that are sometimes taken for granted such as a toilet seat and clean water that can be drunk from the tap.  
Bryant Voiles ( Senior Co Captain)

Kyle Nelson

Case in Brazil: Rio de Janeiro

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The Case Western Reserve men’s basketball team is in Brazil, and blogging about the experience as well. Colin Mulholland writes:

Today began with a 6:40 a.m. wake up call and was followed by a 7 a.m. sprint workout on the beach. As delightful as a beach workout may seem, think twice about running sprints in quick sand. During our workout and in between gasping for air, we witnessed several kids in wet suits riding humongous waves. The locals made the boogie boarding look easy … little did we know.

After the workout, we showered, ate, and made our way to the Christ the Redeemer statue. A brief tour of the city in route to the train stop which all seemed like common procedure; however, if you ask Kevin Carduff, he may tell you otherwise. Kevin spent the majority of the train ride with his head between his legs due to a tremendous fear of heights. He battled and was able to say that he saw one of the modern era seven wonders of the world. From the platforms, we were able to view the entire city. One of the key landmarks was a soccer stadium, which hosted the 1950 World Cup.

After the statue, we were given some time to spend in the hippie market or try our hand at bogey boarding. The cold temperatures and huge waves deterred most of the guys, from the ocean, but Bokan and I had decided to give it a shot. It turns out the other ten guys made the better decision. The current took us a couple hundred yards down the beach in a matter of minutes, and the only waves we caught were not by choice. We were thrown around for about ten minutes until “Scuba Sam,” the Brazilian life guard, in his manly Speedo and flippers decided it would be best if we got out of the water. We agreed.

Later in the afternoon, we were told that we would be in the stadium we saw earlier, amongst 60,000 crazy Brazilian fans watching a tournament game between the fifth seeded Internacionals and the first seeded, host Fluminense. The game ended with the local team from Rio, Fluminense, winning 3-0, but the real excitement was the fans. We were easily picked out in the crowd, but when we found out that screaming and jumping around was encouraged, we were just like everyone else. All in all, it was another incredible day in Brazil. We are headed towards Partay in the morning.

Behrend: Last game

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The Penn State-Behrend men’s basketball team is Brazil. Dom DiVito blogs:

After an early check out on Sunday morning we were off to play our last basketball game of the trip. When arriving to the gymnasium we knew we were in for a competitive game since the court was better kept than most in Brazil. The team we were facing was the best team we have faced thus far. We were extremely excited and ready for the challenge. The fans were surprisingly very loud and were very appreciative towards both teams.

Although we came up short in our game, it was a great learning experience for us and it will really help our team for our upcoming season.

Day 5

We received a shirt and postcards from the opposing team so we tried to make sure every player received some of our Behrend gear in return. It was tough to see a player from the other team wearing our jersey after he just scored 20 points against us … But that’s what it is all about. Russ (the big fella) got hooked up with a uniform that is big even on him.

After leaving the game we had a five hour bus ride to Paraty. During those five hours, most of us were in and out of sleep. If you couldn’t sleep you were lucky to see more beautiful mountains within the forest. Our highly skilled bus driver (Stocko) propelled us on the winding and dangerous roads without a concern in the world.

When arriving to the resort I was truly impressed with how nice the location was. There was a beautiful pool in the back with a river running behind the pool deck. If you are up early enough you can interact with the monkeys that jump from tree top to tree top over looking for bananas from the tourists.

The scenery in Paraty is a different experience from the other resorts we stayed at mostly because of the historical village. Little history lesson: Paraty was colonized by Portugal to be used to export the gold found deeper inland. The result is a beautiful village with stone roads and historical buildings at every corner.

Some of the buildings from the Historical Center were from the 1700s and the road remains the same as it was. Another unique intricacy about the village is that it is located at sea level. This means when the tide is high, some of roads in the historical village get washed with sea water.

I have been extremely impressed with the sites in Brazil and couldn’t expect more. Fernando told us that 90% of the wealth in Brazil is owned by 9% of the population. We have seen the eye opening poverty areas as well as the picturesque areas, and we appreciate the experience from both.