Photos coming soon!
Since Tuesday, the Lady Topper basketball team has been enjoying the Moon Palace Resort in Cancun Mexico, preparing for Thursday and Friday's games in the 2009 Caribbean Challenge. Each of the four Lady Topper seniors will provide a journal entry from the trip, giving WKU fans a look inside the trip south of the border!!
Jessia Magley - Thursday, November 26
Thanksgiving morning.
Kenzie and I are awoken by our 9:30 am wake up call, which is quickly followed by a tardy alarm clock and a back up wake call. Ah yes, thanksgiving. We open the curtains to a glorious morning sunrise over a serendipitous beach scene. In the tradition of American holidays and overeating, room service greets us for breakfast. Buenos Dias to us! To our surprise the cart is full of around nine trays of food. I immediately realize that we might have made a mistake in our method of ordering breakfast. Neither Kenzie nor I have seen so much food delivered to one hotel room before in our lives. Apparently if you mark three on the ordering sheet for breakfast, it translates into three orders of pancakes and not three pancakes. Nine pancakes, two waffles, four eggs, two yogurts, two Special K cereals, orange juice, apple juice, fruit platters, and coffee later, we mound the half empty plates and congratulate each other on a job well done. I make a futile attempt to save a waffle in saran wrap and we prepare to leave for shoot around.
Shoot around is executed as planned and we prepare to play Duke. We leave the separate gym and go watch our motivational movie clips provided by none other than the famous Morgan Shipley, (not to be mistaken for Morgan Freeman.) The clip begins with our American hockey team in the locker room in the film Miracle on Ice. The coach encourages his team by explaining that this is their time. If they played the other team ten times the other team might win nine, but not tonight. Highlight reels from our South Dakota State win following the movie clip. Our pregame meal is in the next room. We head back to our rooms and rest before the game.
After the game we change and head over to another ballroom where we unknowingly walk into a reenactment of a Mayan traditional dance of some sort. We are late to the Thanksgiving dinner, so naturally we are a little surprise to find ourselves in the dark with flashing lights and twelve descendents of the Mayan people in full custom. We welcome the learning experience, grab our dinner from the buffet line, and sit to eat Thanksgiving and observe the customs of people who originally inhabited this land.
We gather for pictures on the stage and head back over to the main building to watch more film. It is time to begin preparing for Arkansas. Around 9:45pm we unlock our doors and quickly fall into a comatose state of sleeping. We just want to play again and take advantage of another opportunity to play to our full potential.
Kenzie Rich - Wednesday, November 25
After being awake from excitement for almost 24 straight hours, this morning we enjoyed sleeping in for awhile. After we get dressed the first thing we do is head downstairs to book our massages that we plan to get later in the day! We grab a quick bite for breakfast and then walk as a team next door to our practice facility. It felt weird at first because the place where we were practicing was a large ballroom with a court sitting in the middle. After a good hour and half practice we head back over to watch film and do a scouting report over Duke's team. After film, Jessica, Caitlin, Teranie and I head down to the pool to eat lunch at a giant hut with a spread of food varying from fresh fruit to grilled ribeye steaks. On the way, Teranie is scared from a variety of birds. I enjoyed a nice steak with French fries and a small chicken taco. After we eat we head up to our rooms to change into our swimsuits and head back to the pool to swim. The only thing ruining our day is the weather. For some reason, it decided to be cloudy with occasional sprinkles all day. We hop into the pool, which almost felt like getting into the cold tank after practice. Caitlin warns us NOT to get her hair wet, but Jessica and I cannot resist. After she is soaked, she gives both of us the silent treatment for at least 15 minutes. Courtney, Lashay and LaTeira arrive down at the pool and we all enjoy swimming together. It's now 5:00 pm and it's time for us to enjoy a nice afternoon at the spa. Jessica, Caitlin, Teranie, Amy and I all meet to ride a golf cart over to the spa. A few minutes later we arrive, check in, shower and find ourselves in the hot sauna. Next we move to the steam room which Teranie and I were not big fans. We both felt like someone had rubbed peppermints in our eyes. We quickly left and hoped into the jaquzzi. Before we knew it we were all receiving our back massages. I felt so relaxed and I wanted it to last longer. It'd be nice to be treated that way everyday! We came back to our rooms and changed so we could watch Kentucky's men play Stanford. The game was very exciting. Kentucky had so many fans there to support them. A lot of them were very supportive of our team as well. The game goes into overtime and eventually Kentucky comes out with a win. The whole team then heads back to our rooms to call it a night. Jessica and I fill out our order for room service in the morning and fall asleep to a movie with the Spanish subtitles at the bottom.
Dominique Duck - Tuesday, November 24
It is 2:25 am and it is finally time to walk over to Diddle Arena to depart for our trip!! I am so excited! I am on my way to CANCUN, MEXICO!!!
We finally arrive in Cancun, Mexico and I am so HOT! The weather is beautiful! It feels like Kentucky in the summer time. I wish I paid more attention in my Spanish classes in high school, because I can not understand any street signs, billboards, or any of the people!
We arrive at the Moon Palace Resort, and it is breath taking! The resort is 4 mile long in walking distance. And to my surprise, there is food everywhere! We do not have to carry our bags to our room; the Bell Boys will bring them to us. So Hope Brown and I our off on our search to find our room. We stop and take several pictures on route and finally after getting lost several times we have arrived. Hope puts the key in the door and we can not believe our eyes!!! We start screaming and jumping up and down like 5 year old girls on Christmas! We have a Jacuzzi in our room!!!! I can not wait to get in there later tonight!
After we showered and got dressed, it is time to explore the resort. First stop is to the pool to get a virgin strawberry daiquiri. Then off to the beach for us to play in the sand. The pool is huge! There are several hot tubs located around the pool and plenty of huts to hide from the sun.
The University of Kentucky's men team is playing Cleveland State University, so we go to support our fellow Kentucky team. Kentucky wins the game convincingly. After the game Hope, Amy, Arnika and I decide to go eat at a steakhouse on the beach. We meet a nice man that tells us he is heading in that direction and that we could follow him to get there. So we walk 5 minutes to a restaurant to find out that that was not the restaurant that we wanted! We walked another 10 minutes across the beach to get to the restaurant we wanted. It was worth the wait. I think I had the best steak in my life! A little piece of heaven in my mind! And I didn't even order steak! I ate a piece of Amy's steak and kept begging for more! I will definitely order a steak tomorrow night for dinner. The service was awesome and the food came right out within 10 minutes. During dinner, we ran into a couple of the Kentucky men's team and they were friendly enough to take pictures with me! Thanks John Wall!! After dinner it was bedtime! I had a long and exciting day. I can not wait to see what tomorrow has in store for me and my teammates! Good night.
