Aug. 24, 2001

By Percell Coles, Freshman

We received a 7 a.m. wake up call to go down to the lobby of our hotel, so that we could walk together over to the coaches' hotel to eat breakfast. After we finished eating, we had to go back to our rooms and pack our bags to leave Rimini. By the time we were ready to leave Rimini for Rome, we were already tired. After last night's big win and victory dinner, everyone was in need of some extra rest. We knew we had a five-hour ride to our destination, and pretty much everyone went to sleep. I slept a lot better knowing that Roberto was the bus driver taking us to Rome. The bus driver we had in Rimini drove like he was the only person on the road.

After about an hour and a half, we stopped in the mountains to get something to eat. The mountains and trees were much different than the beach in Rimini. It was almost like being in another country. We continued on, stopping only for a bathroom break, before reaching Rome at about 1:30 p.m. Everyone was really excited because we would be staying at the nicest hotel of the whole trip. I knew the Westin would be a nice place when I saw all of the nice cars parked in front of the hotel. They really caught my eye.

We all checked in, got our room keys and went to put our things upstairs before meeting in the lobby to go see the Pantheon and the Colosseum. They were really impressive, but we had to walk for a long time before we got to them--and it was hot here again, of course. We divided up in cabs for the ride back to the hotel, because the walk back was too long and uphill. When we got back to the hotel, Coach Mass said that we were on our own for the night. The first thing I wanted to do was sleep, so I went upstairs to nap for a few hours.

When I was rested again, my roommate Pape Badiane and I decided to go to McDonald's. We had to get directions to the nearest one, which wasn't easy, and then went on about a one-mile walk to get there. Along the way, everyone was looking at us, saying "basket, basket," and we would say "yes" laughing. After we finished eating, we went for a little walk to the Spanish Step, which everyone had been trying to find earlier in the day. We finally made it back from our walk at about midnight and went up to the room to get some sleep.