Oct. 19, 2004
ATLANTA – As the Georgia Tech women’s basketball team completed its final day of a five-day journey through Costa Rica Tuesday, junior Megan Harpring provided a short recap of the entire trip and how she feels it will lead into the 2004-05 season for the Jackets.
Hola! This is Megan Harpring. Our journey from Costa Rica has come to an end but has left me with many memories that will stay vivid in my mind for days to come. Wow! There are so many things to recap on.
The first day was an exciting day. Straight from the airport we drove to La Paz Waterfall Park. On the drive there, I got a little camera happy. Took pictures of practically everything in sight until I realized my roll of film was done. Hence, I had just taken pictures of houses, cows, roses, and people minding there own business on the side of the road. I was a little disappointed when we drove into the rainforests and had no film with me in my bag. Jessica, who was a seat in front of me, had no mercy and snapped away on her camera like there was no tomorrow. We stopped to eat lunch at Freddo Fresas before the waterfalls. I was very happy we stopped because that meant I could get some film that I had tucked in my bag at the bottom of the bus. I had to go to the restroom so badley and noticed practically every one on the team had to go as well as I reached the long line for the bathroom. The restaurant was made like a cabin surrounded by the mountains. The surroundings of the restaurant was just breathtaking. But back to the bathroom, the bathroom was disgusting. It was dark and the floor was slick from water which the water was a mystery in itself of where it had come from. Anyways, then to add to the disappointment of the restroom, the sink was outside with a bar of soap on the counter of the sink that was embedded with dirt grandulates. Besides that, the food was awesome and the strawberry juice was delicious. Then we arrived at La Paz Waterfall Park. Walking through the butterfly park and seeing the massive waterfalls was fantastic. I definitely took a lot of pictures.
The second day was a day filled of basketball games. A day to put away fun time and get down to business (Yes, we still had fun playing basketball as well). We achieved two victories while also realizing weaknesses we had displayed. But that night we put basketball to the side and went to Hooligans (a club in downtown San Jose). I enjoyed dancing with the girls but especially with Trina (Kentrina Wilson). Trina and I tried to imitate the dances the Spanish girls were doing. I told Trina that I thought with a little practice, I could be one of the dancers. Jessica (Williams) and Kasha (Terry) overheard and thought the opposite. But hey, they just don’t know about me yet.
The third day was a day of shopping. Our driver drove us into town but dropped us off at the most expensive stores. I think he did that because he thought that since we were from USA , we wanted to shop at department like stores. I wanted to the market where I could bargain for items. We only had about an hour so we couldn’t walk to far down the alley of stores. Therefore, I disappointedly didn’t buy anything. That night we won our third game of the season. It felt great to win for I love winning.
The fourth day was the most exciting day of the whole trip. We went to Turu-ra-bi where we zip-lined through the rainforest. Everyone seemed so afraid to zip-line through the trees and over the rainforest but I was all about flying. (Check out our pictures on yesterday’s diary by Kasha!) Heck, I wanted to go sky-diving. Coach Jo and Chioma (Nnamaka) couldn’t stop screaming flying through the trees. It was so hilarious seeing Coach Jo after a couple of times of zip lining because her face was so stressed from screaming the whole time. I mean I really didn’t think the zip-lining was that scary but that is my opinion. After about two hours of zip-lining through the Rain Forest, we ate lunch at the Canopy Tour Headquarters. I had chicken, pork, rice, and beans which is what we have at almost every meal. But the food was delicious. Baked not fried for that is how I like it although many people on my team would think otherwise. Then we had our last game that night. We were expecting to play the best national team in Costa Rica and it turned out that it was the best team. The national team decided to take the best players from the teams we had played and put them together to make this team. We struggled a little bit during the game but we persevered and got a victory. So, we are undefeated as of today until Nov 2 in which we shall still be expected to stay undefeated.
Well, this brings us to today; the plan ride back to Atlanta, Georgia. I have set my mind on school for I have a few tests to study for these next couple of days. So, adios!
