Monday June 29th

Well now that the trip has been over for a couple of weeks it was now time for me to start working and building up that bank account for Loyola. We all know how expensive a school year can be. My summer job this week consisted of me coaching 3,4,5, and 6 graders in lacrosse. For people who have dealt with kids before this is no easy task. A fellow classmate, and counselor Chris Hurst can back me up on this. The camp is actually one of the better camps I have done because it is not just out on a lacrosse field all day we break the day up. The first day of camp is always the toughest because this is when the kids are shy and don't really know how to act with the counselors. The morning was kind of boring but the first morning always is. After we did some drills and scrimmages with them the day started to pick up. Around noon we take all of the campers across the street and feed them pizza then off to the dodge ball courts. Now I truly believe that the counselors have more fun playing dodge ball then the kids to because this is our time to get back at all the annoying campers who just would not leave us alone. Chris Hurst's dodge ball game needs a little improvement but he was able to help us out when we needed him. They have a great time trying to beat us (they actually did beat us twice) but when its all said and done its about having fun. After we played dodge ball for 45 minutes we then take them into the pool. I was lucky enough to be "Volunteered" to go into the pool and as soon as I did I was swarmed by 15 little kids possessed on trying to take me down. Once again this was a chance for me to get back at all the little campers that annoyed me in the morning so I took turns launching them in the pool. The kids were having a great time and that went on for about a half hour until I got yelled out by the life guard. After pool time we head back to the field for about another hour of lacrosse. The kids have a great time in the pool and sometimes they don't wanna leave. The whole camp goes from 8am to 4pm and at the end of the week the kids have a great time and get to learn a little lacrosse as well.

Tuesday June 2nd

Today we had a great day, the juniors and seniors basically had the whole entire day to themselves to explore Manchester. Since this was the first day we could really sleep in, most of the team took advantage of it. After waking around 1130 we decided to make our way into Manchester City Center. I wanted to do most of the exploring in a small group so that is what we decided. Me and three other players took the half hour bus ride and found ourselves in a city that looked as crowded as New York City. When we first arrived we got a quick bit to eat at Subway then as we were leaving the food court we saw what looked to be like a gigantic Ferris wheel. My buddies and I decided to pay the 5 pounds that took us on a 12 minute ride were we were able to see the whole city. We were all nervous about doing this but after we really did enjoy it.
We then walked across the street and made our way into a huge shopping center/mall. We all were looking for some football jerseys and were able to find them. This mall was like anything I have seen in the states, it was absolutely huge. We spend the next couple of hours just walking around, shopping, and taking pictures. After this we ended up meeting up with some more of our teammates and going to a local pub for a bit to eat. The food was great and we were able to just relax before catching a bus around 6 pm to head back to the hotel. Once we got back to the hotel all the juniors and seniors went on our coach bus and headed to meet up with the rest of the team who was holding a lacrosse clinic for the Metro Lacrosse Club in Stockport. We all had dinner here as a team and spent a couple of hours just hanging out they showed us some great hospitality here. We then made our way back to the hotel and arrived around 10 pm. Everyone was pretty exhausted so some players got some more food and others went right inside to end their night. This day was a lot of fun because we had a lot of freedom to just explore and do our own thing in Manchester.

Saturday May 30th

Today was an early wake up day, we had to wake up at 7:15 to eat breakfast and then we made our way to the buses around 8:30. We did a lot of sightseeing during this bus trip and we were all able to grab some great group pictures. We made our way to Edinburgh where we took a tour of a castle. This was my first time ever in a castle and I was going to make sure I took as many pictures as possible. After we walked around the castle for a couple of hours it was finally time for us to play our first lacrosse game over here in Europe. We had a nice warm-up and then the game was underway. We played two games against team Scotland and we won them both, the first game was a bit of a blow out but the second game was rather close. Their goalie played a terrific game and it was a absolutely gorgeous day at the Peffermill Sports Centre. After the games everyone was getting a little tired but we were very excited to meet up with the other team for a after match social. This social was a great time for the two teams to meet and talk about the game. Everyone on the other team was friendly and they gave us some food and drinks at the social. We returned back to the hotel around 9:30 pm and we were able to have the night to ourselves. We split up into smaller groups now and the team explored Stirling and got to experience some of its night life.