Italy Tour Journal - James Williams

8/25/06 -- This trip is something we have been anticipating. We were nervous- as a team- on how we would make out with a 10 hour flight (of close to it). But it seemed like an easier flight than going home (3 hours to Dallas). They provide you with TV (movies like Mission Impossible III) and food and lots of flight attendants.

Once we finally arrived you could tell we were the tourists because of the language barrier. The Italians have no clue what we are saying but it’s interesting trying to hold a conversation.

The pace is a lot slower than New York. People are not in as much as rush and it’s a nice change. Not as much about individualism as in the U.S. Havent seen a lot of flash, but instead of ton more style. The style of dress in the airports (Paris, Milan) and the streets of Como are designer but without the ‘bling.”

We – the team- went for a run this evening and people didn’t appreciate us running on their streets. We got some looks and some horn blowing when we didn’t stop and let them drive by. Oh, the cars. So, tiny but they appear more gas efficient. And then the food. Smaller portions, costs more. And none of us can forget, we lost 30 cents to every dollar with the conversion to euros.

We are a lot bigger in America. The lights are low, the beds are small. TV is small. We do things on a larger scale, by far. People seem shocked to see us and even I am considered tall and how strange that is! The girls are very pretty here and even harder to talk to! And we’ve tried. Paska tried to talk to two girls at the pool and the father came up and gave him the ‘evil eye.’

When I was in the airport in NY waiting for the flight here, I read the NEC preview Stacey (media relations director) had with her. We are a lot older and more is expected of us. It seems like yesterday we were just starting at LIU and now we come back with an entire team.

This trip gives us an advantage in the conference. We have 10 days of connecting with each other, enjoying spending time with teaching each other. Practices so far have been good and everyone came back in good shape. Our goal is to win the conference championship.

Tonight we have team dinner – keep in mind, we are six hours ahead – and tomorrow it’s a boat ride on Lake Como. Maybe we will see George Clooney.