Thursday July 9th

Today we will pack up our stuff and move to the Marina Tel Aviv Hotel. Last night on the way to the Club we drove past the hotel and sow how close it is to the Beach. The hotel looks so cool from the outside....

So we went to bed this morning at about 6:00am. When I turned out the lights the sun was coming up. We called the front desk to get a wake up call for 8:00am so we could pack, get check out and get to the bus by 9:00am. When the phone rang...Aaron, Jeff and myself started getting mad but we all jumped out of bed feeling like a million bucks and get our things together. Every player on the team was packed and eating breakfast by 8:45am. All bags and players were in the bus before 9:00am. Everyone was so on the ball today despite only Kfar Maccabiah again but this time for the closing of precamp and a nice lunch. We get to Kfar about 10:00 and we found that the meeting is set of after lunch and lunch starts at 12:30pm. WE WERE SO MAD!!!!!!

So we did what anyone in our spot would do...we jumped in the pool. We went back to the bus, grabbed our bathing suit and as fast as we could we jumped into the pool.

We were joined by other people we have met since we have been in Israel. Some of the boys were sun bathing with the girls on the soccer team. But before we knew it lunch was about to start.

We walked into the lunch room which was a nice covered patio which looks like something you would use at a very large expensive wedding. Hundreds of tables and lots of food. In the middle of the room was a long table filled with vegetables, salads, and fruit. Past that table against the wall of the room was a 30 food long stretch of desserts. So far we are hooked. And then on both sides of the room, opposite the vegetable table was the main course. Pasta, chicken, potatoes, and green beans. Everything looked amazing...but the food was by far the worst we have had since we arrived in Israel. Oh well....you cant get everything perfect.

After lunch we went to the meeting. At this meeting they announced who was going to be the flag bearers, we were introduced to the American Ambassador to Israel along with the heads of the Maccabi Organization. They talked to us about our responsibilities of being an American athlete in and international competition, our role in the opening ceremonies, and our expectations as the American delegation. It was a nice pump up pep talk and the last time we will see some of our friends in the delegation.

We got back on our bus after saying good by and good luck to our new friends and we headed to our new hotel. We were on the bus with the Table Tennis team, the Beach Volleyball team consisting of 2 guys, and one other team that I can not remember right now. Everyone was dropped off and we were now headed with the Volleyball team to the Marina Hotel.

We finally arrived and checked in. Every futsal team in the tournament except for Russia and Argentina are with us at the Marina Hotel. As soon as we walk in we are greeted by the people in charge of the Futsal tournament (since this is the Futsal headquarters) and they told us we had to get on a bus and go to training. We quickly ran our bags to our rooms and get our gear together for training. We ended up going to Moram Nave which is one of the venues for the tournament...I think we have one game at this location. We ran a few drills got a sweat going and played a bit. We felt very good running around on the court.

We were there for about an hour and then returned to the hotel to rest. Some of the guys went to sleep after we all had dinner. A few guys went to the roof top pool / bar / night club located at our hotel. We were told its a very popular spot...we are so pumped. A few guys went walking around the area to check out whats around us. I went and hung out with a friend of mine from high school who moved out to Israel 9 years ago.

We all found the bed early that evening....we are so tired and run down. Its going to feel good to get some sleep and not have to tour in the morning.