Coach Newman's Corner

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March 28, 2009

Ashley in Latina & Exploring Rome

Hi Everyone,

My apologies once again about not blogging the last couple days. Megan and I ended up losing our semifinal doubles match 6-1, 2-6, 6-10. We played an exceptional 1st set, it was real doubles. It was 1-1 in the 2nd set and we lost two no ad points in a row to go down 1-3 and I think that was a big momentum shift in the match. Our opponents started getting more comfortable with us both being up at the net every point. They threw in a couple more down the line shots and lobs that kept us off balance. We backed off just a tiny bit and they took advantage and stepped up their game. Going into the 3rd set tiebreaker it was back to all even, but they had a slight edge with the momentum. It was back and forth until 6-6 and they ran away with the next 4 points unfortunately. I’m bummed we lost that match and couldn’t quite close the door on them, but it was high quality doubles overall. Megan and I have the potential to be a great and unique doubles team. Before our doubles match on Thursday we worked on doubles for a couple hours with her coach Kevin. He has plenty of great knowledge and I learned some new things that will help me in my matches to come. I need to get used to certain movements and some plays to run which just takes practice. I hope we can start training more together and play as often as possible.

Megan and I decided to take Friday off and go sightseeing in Roma. It was the first day I’ve taken off since being here so I was ready to have a fun day. We traveled by foot, bus, metro(subway), and train. It took us about 45 minutes to get into the city from Latina. As I say…Rome wasn’t built in a day so we can’t see it all in one day either. We did a good job of seeing as much as we could with the little amount of time that we had. We took the metro to Vatican City first to see St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Peter’s Piazza, and the Sistine Chapel. We wanted to go inside the Sistine Chapel, but that would have required going thru the Vatican Museum also and we didn’t have time for that if we wanted to see the Colosseum. So then we took the metro to the Colosseo district, the heart of ancient Rome. We got convinced into going on an English speaking tour of the Colosseum for 45 minutes. The good thing about the tour was that we didn’t have to wait in a huge line to buy tickets to enter. I think we could have done without the tour because it was kind of crowded and we were so focused on taking lots of pictures. But we did learn a few things along the way. One being, 700,000 people were killed in the Colosseum. It was an incredible sight to see! After the Colosseum we went to Palatine Hill, but it was closed so we couldn’t get in. Then we saw the Roman Forum from the outside because that was also closed. Everything seemed to close around 5 which was a bummer. We also saw The Vittoriano Monument, Piazza Venezia in the Public Square. We walked all around the area taking tons of pictures, going into souvenir shops and eating all sorts of foods. We had a gelato, café, canoli, crepe, pasta and amazing pizza all throughout the day, we were pigs! We had to take advantage while we could, who knows if and when I’ll be back in Rome. The pizza we had was in Vatican City, they had many different kinds and you just point to which one you want and how much. They charge you per 100grams, mine was only a couple euros. We ate on the street like all the locals do. It was the first thing we ate in Rome and we should have had more because it was the best thing we had all day. Oh and we also stumbled upon Fontana di Trevi. The fountain was completed in 1762 and features a mythological sculptural composition of Neptune, god of the sea, flanked by two Tritons. It’s gorgeous, especially at night when we saw it and there were tons of people gathered around to look at it. I wanted to go to The Pantheon and the Spanish Steps, but we didn’t have enough time. You definitely need a few days to take in all the sights. We had a great time exploring Rome and it’s definitely a day we’ll remember.

I better head to bed because tomorrow they spring forward one hour here. So now I’ll be 7 hours ahead of Austin time. I’ll write again tomorrow and fill you in on what I’m doing next. Ciao!

AW

Posted by Jack Newman at March 28, 2009 5:41 PM