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Farewell London, Hello Spain!
August 09, 2015 07:00 PM | Women's Basketball
BARCELONA, Spain – West Virginia University women's basketball sophomore guard Chania Ray blogged about the Mountaineers’ last day in London and the team’s arrival in Barcelona.
Chania Ray Blog
Hey West Virginia fans! Hope everyone is doing well back in the states! I’ll try to give you a quick recap of our last couple of days in London.
After our visit to the London Eye yesterday, we headed north to Barking London to play a team called Barking Abbey for what was our first game together for many of us.
The rules, which are dictated by FIBA, were very different. We played four 10-minute quarters instead of traditional two halves. I really liked that a lot and look forward to change in the NCAA game this season. Another rule change was that teams reached the double-bonus after four fouls in each quarter.
The game was interesting. The beginning was a little shaky, as we expected. In the third quarter, we brought it together. We really meshed well. A lot of our freshmen played a big part in knocking down 3s and playing hard on defense. It was really cool to see how everyone contributed for the first time. It was good to get the first win under our belt.
On Sunday morning, we went to Buckingham Palace. It was very cool because we got to see the changing of the guards. The guards have two hour shifts. It was a really big ceremony around 11 a.m. with horses coming into the palace and the guards switch shifts. There was a big crowd and it was really cool!
We did some shopping because we love to shop. The shopping was pretty much the same as in the United States.
After that, we loaded the bus and went to the airport. Our flight had a bit of turbulence, but it was pretty quick. We landed around 8:30 p.m. Barcelona time.
The tradition here is to have dinner really late. We checked into our hotel and went out to dinner.
We had tapas, which is small plates of food. It was about a four course meal. The food was delicious. It was good to get a cultural feel from a true Spanish restaurant.
Overall, our trip in London was fantastic. I loved it. So far, being in Barcelona is a beautiful place. Our hotel is in the middle of everything. It’s unqiue to see the cultural change going from the United States to London to Barcelona now.
It’s neat to see the lifestyle and how people go about their day! Some places start and end their day earlier, while others start later and end much later. It’s really unique to get the feel on how other people across the world live. It’s really cool to experience that and I look forward to the rest of our tour.
Until next time, Let’s Go Mountaineers!
Schedule Change: The Mountaineers’ game with the Catalan All-Stars on Monday, August 10 has changed from 7 p.m. CET/1 p.m. ET to 8 p.m. CET/ 2 p.m. ET.
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