Aug. 19, 2001

Valkenswaard, Holland - The Stony Brook women's soccer team will head to Amsterdam Sunday afternoon to watch Ajax in their home opener. Following the game, the team will tour Amsterdam and have dinner before returning back to Valkenswaard. Today is our last full day in Holland as we take off for Germany around 9 am tomorrow after an early morning practice.

Another beautiful morning to practice today. Perfect weather. The two-hour session just ended and we are getting ready to depart. I walked approximately three miles this morning with a restless Lauren Canino who has yet to resume a full workout schedule.

We attended the festival in town last night and it was quite an experience. It was very similar to an American "Fair" with outdoor music, games, outdoor cafes and plenty of pubs. Most of the team made it to a discoteque at one point and enjoyed few minutes of dancing while they had the dance floor to themselves. Most of the team took their turn. Sarah Greenberg put on quite a performance along with mama Ryan. Kerri McCabe was not too shabby either.

Funny story following the festival. At 10 p.m. we left in two groups. I had the first group along with Stephanie Smyrl, Maggie Haren, Emily Snyder, Lauren Canino, Krisha Zagura, Jenny Fontanetta, Lori Nelson, Brittany Norwood and Megan Healy. Long story short, we took a wrong turn. We got lost. It was now dark, but we did not panic as we stopped to ask for directions. A few conversations of broken English got us going, but finally it was Stephanie who came up big. None of us knew that she can speak German. Fortunately the German language is similar to the Dutch language and this came in handy. Stephanie stepped forward and spoke a few words of German and we were off on her way. The guy told us to take our second right, but we weren't sure if he was counting the street that was right next to us. So when we reached the next right, I stopped the group and asked her to do her thing again. She approached another family who was sitting out on their front lawn. She spoke German and sure enough, that was the turn we were supposed to take. Krisha then thought it would be good to sing at the top of her lungs at this point while we were walking through a residential neighborhood -- "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn was her song of choice. I had to tell her to be quiet after a while so she didn't wake everyone up. Turns out we had to go down a road, take a bike path and there it was -- the pool that was located right next to our hostel. We were home. Coach was up waiting for us as we turned a 25 minute walk into almost an hour! Our little group all shared a big laugh before turning in for the evening. Many of us figured it was a great experience -- finding our way in a foreign land.

Amsterdam awaits. Very exciting. I will attempt to give another update before we leave tomorrow. Our adventure continues.....

Rob Emmerich, Jr.

A note from Lauren Canino Hi mom and dad. I know you are reading Robbie's journal entries - probably on an hourly basis. The trip has been great so far even though I haven't been able to play yet. I went on a 45-minute walk at practice today because I was so bored but that can only last so long. I am excited to see Ajax play this afternoon and look forward to see what Germany has in store for us.

A note from Sarah Greenberg The games have been good, we played a good team yesterday that will help us get ready for the season. Today we found a closer field so we didn't have to walk as far to practice. Practice has been pleasant compared to last year. I got a second workout last night on the dance floor at the Columbus disco in town -- it was fun.