As you can see from the previous blog, I really enjoyed JSB. It was a lot of work but seeing all of my work come into fruition was so worth it. The night, in my opinion, was a beautiful, unforgettable night.
That, however, was not the ultimate in my weekend. Although I was definitely looking forward to JSB, there was something I was looking forward to more—my trip to Guam, U.S.A.
Guam is an island, an American territory in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The island is only 30 miles long and 12 miles wide at its widest point. Only about 150,000 people call Guam home so the island, although the biggest in Micronesia, is quite small. Guam is very famous for its beaches. It also has good snorkeling and diving sites.
Aimee and I were not going to Guam for its beautiful beaches. We were going to Guam because of a soccer trip. You see, Dalat is part of the Asian Christian Schools Conference (ACSC) which has annual girls and boys basketball, soccer, and volleyball tournaments which are held annually at different member schools all around Asia. This year, after training from August to October and then February and March, I was very excited to go to the ACSC girls soccer tournament in Guam, U.S.A. and play against the six other soccer teams that were going to attend. This is the first time that all seven member schools have sent their girls varsity soccer teams to a tournament.
So, the Monday after JSB, I had to get up at about 5:30 to be at school at 6:30. My soccer team of 16 girls, accompanied by our two coaches and a parent, left the school at 6:30 in two vans bound for the airport. Unluckily for us, we had a long day of travel ahead of us. We got on our first flight to Singapore without any hitches. When we got off at Singapore and checked into our next flight however, it wasn't as fast as we anticipated, and we spent a long time checking in. I only had enough time, along with my friends, to have a quick sub sandwich and see the cactus garden they have at the fancy airport. After a few sit-ups competitions, we eventually boarded the tiny, gross, cramped plane to Manila Airport and took off. Three hours later when we got to Manila, it was already pretty late at night. Finally, after waiting in the transfer lounge for far too long, we boarded our last flight to Guam. The final flight was not fun either because it was a "red eye". Flying from 11:00 p.m. to 3:00 in the morning is not pleasant, even if you are with a crazy, awesome group of girls.
We eventually, at 3:00 in the morning, landed in Guam. We crashed at the place we were staying by the time the sun was coming up and we were able to get a short sleep in before we had to wake up for lunch. When it was about 11:00 in the morning our team left for the school that the tournament was to be held at. After lunch we went out onto the field to practice. Our practice, although fun as usual, was very tiring and we attracted quite a bit of attention from the students because the competition was checking us out. Eventually we were able to go back to the place we were staying, which were army barracks, get a snack, and sleep. The long day wasn't over, however. In the evening, we attended the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony was amazing. It was at a hotel right on the beach. We went down to the beach, had an amazing (but maybe not so healthy) buffet dinner, watched some professional Tahitian dancers, watched some not-so-professional Tahitian dancers (our teammates), then watched fireworks on the beach. The fireworks were really cool and quite crazy because it was a big dock in the water where the fireworks were shot off and it was a very long show.
The festivities were short-lived, however, because we needed to get some rest as our games would start the next day. After a nice full night of rest, we got up pretty early to play a game against the team from Grace International School from Chang Mai, Thailand. They ended up being the team that came in last so needless to say, we beat them 3-0 in a relaxing game. Aimee scored a goal. After that game, we went up to the gym, dumped our stuff, and began preparing for the next game which would be against the team which got second last year. Before that game against Morrison Academy from Taiwan, we had a beautiful (that's the only way to describe it) lunch sponsored by Tony Romas. I had plenty of ribs. It was amazing! Eventually, in the last slot of the day, we had our game against Morrison Academy. In a hard fought game we beat them 2-1. Feeling accomplished, we got changed and went to Taco Bell. It also was amazing. I was so glad to have Taco Bell.
The next day we had another two games, one of which started quite early in the morning. We left early from our barracks and went to the school to play the home team. Our game against the home team - Guam - was quite challenging. It was also quite sassy (I guess you could describe it as that) as some of the girls on both teams got a bit feisty. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a goal in, so it was tied 0-0. Then we rested. Luckily, there was another lunch sponsored by Tony Romas ready to revive us. Unluckily, there were not ribs included in the lunch. After resting for a little while, we had to head out to pitch again for a game against Yong San International School from Seoul, Korea. Again, it was a very hard fought game. We were able to score but unable to hold them off as they scored another goal to match ours. We walked off the pitch feeling defeated, even though it was a tied game, after what felt like our second loss of the day (although in reality two tied games). We headed up to the showers to rinse off. Eventually, we left the school and went to the mall. Instead of going to Taco Bell, I, on a whim, tried Submarina, a California sandwich place. The subs there were amazing. After eating a great dinner, we headed over to the movie theater and as a surprise from the hosting school we were treated to the movie The Jungle Book. All the teams came to the same movie and it was quite an enjoyable experience being there together and screaming and being girly together.
On the final day of general play, we dragged ourselves out of bed and went to school to play the last two teams which we had to play. First, we played ICS, Hong Kong. The game we played was very challenging and they won a well deserved 2-0 victory against us as we struggled to hold them off. The loss we felt, however, was not in vain; we used it to motivate ourselves for the next game. We had a quick lunch, sponsored by California Pizza Kitchen, and got right back into game mode. The reason for our seriousness about this final game was due to our points. In order to play in the third place / fourth place game, we needed to win this next game against Faith Academy from Manila, Philippines. The only problem was that this team was thus far undefeated by all the other teams. They were, to their credit, a great team but we had to beat them to achieve our goal of third place. We had many pep talks with each other ,then we walked onto the pitch knowing what we needed to do and feeling that we had the tenacity to do it. We scored a goal early in the first half and held them off so deftly that they were unable to match our goal. We came off the pitch overjoyed with our showing against this amazing team. Thus, our season was not over yet; we were going to play for third / fourth place. This was great for our team as we have always come dead last in all ACSC girls soccer tournaments. This was great news. So we went out to the mall, got California subs, went back to the place we were staying, and went to sleep.
The next day was the scary third / fourth place game. Early in the morning we got breakfast, went to the school, and prepared for our game against the school from Korea, the team we had already tied. We prepared ourselves mentally, not allowing ourselves to fail mentally (as Dalat teams famously do often in the last moments of a final game in a tournament (a long story for another time). Eventually we made our way out onto the pitch and began the game. Neither team was able to score in the first half. But early in the second half we scored a beautiful goal. We were able to hold them off for the entire second half, coming so close to a third place finish, but in the last 30 seconds of the game the Korean school managed to get a goal in. Disappointed, we came off the pitch tied, steeling ourselves for a 10 minute overtime. The 10 minute overtime flashed past and neither team was able to score, which lead us to the dreaded penalty kicks. Standing on the pitch, I was so nervous, as was the rest of the team. Having watched all of us perform penalty kicks back at Dalat practices, my coach chose five players, me included, to take a penalty kick against the other team's goalie. Our goalie steeled herself to have penalty kicks taken against her.
Finally, it was the moment everyone was so nervous for. Our goal of third place was right in front of us. All we needed to do was to win the penalty kicks. My friend, the girl going first for penalty kicks, made her penalty kick. The girl going first on the other team made her penalty kick. I was next. I walked across the field from where my team was standing, intensely focused. I confidently grabbed the ball, and placed it on the mark. I backed up, focused, and shot the ball. I watched as it went into the back of the net, overjoyed that my penalty kick had made it in! I went back to my team overjoyed, and prayed and waited as the penalty kicks continued. Despite the goals that my team and I managed to get in the back of the net, by the end of the five penalty kicks our teams were still tied, each having made three out of five penalty kicks. So we had to call on our 6th shooter. Our sixth shooter made it in. Their sixth shooter made it in. So we had to call on our seventh shooter. My sister was chosen as the seventh shooter. She made it! The other team sent their seventh shooter, and the girl walked up to the net, facing off with our goalie. She placed the ball on the mark, stood back, and wham, the ball went just high over the net. We won! We were overjoyed!
We walked off the pitch, ridding ourselves of all the built-up nerves, and showered off to watch the finals game. The finals game was enjoyable to watch. One of the coaches got a yellow card because he yelled at an opposing player. That was funny. And the team we beat 1-0 won against the home team for first place in the tournament. We eventually went up the gym again for the closing ceremony. The closing ceremony was an enjoyable time for us to get the medals that we worked for. Finally, the tournament officially ended. We left the school for the last time and went down to the beach. The beach was really beautiful and really enjoyable. As a team we bonded on the beach and watched the sunset together. When we finished at the beach we headed to Wendy's restaurant for a celebration meal and back to our rooms to sleep after a long day.
The next day, we had to get up very early for our three flights back to Penang. We flew back to the Philippines, had a layover there, waited for a really long time because our plane was delayed, got on the plane, and waited a bit longer. Eventually, after a long and painful flight (I was seated next to a baby), we got into Singapore, the best airport in the world in my opinion. We had an enjoyable but really tiring layover in Singapore. Our last flight back to Penang was also delayed so by the time we got back to Penang it was after midnight. I got back home at 1:30 in the morning on Monday, just in time to go to bed then get up for another day of school. The day at school was very painful. I was very tired.
Overall, the trip to Guam was amazing. It is definitely the most amazing school trip I have ever been on. I am really going to miss the soccer girls that I bonded with but I know that I will have the memories I made forever.
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