Global Challenge 2013: Day 5

Well, another 8 hours and we were finally in Pula. I am really starting to hate bus rides. Thankful that we will be here for five whole days and the furthest we have to travel is walking to the gym and back. During the bus ride, I didn't sleep quite as much as usual, and kept myself busy playing games and listening to the Montenegrins. A couple of us (Coach Robby, Madison, her sister Shelby, Genna, Shelly, and I) played 20 questions. Robby and I went first, and I chose Harry Potter. It was really funny to watch them confuse themselves over the answers to their questions. We ran into a little speed bump when they asked if the person was alive or not. I had to ask Layne to explain it to me since I wasn't exactly knowledgeable on the ending to Harry Potter. That confused the rest of the girls even more, since we weren't even sure if our person was alive or not. They ended up not being able to figure it out.

Later, after Robby took a nap in the middle of the aisle, he made his way to where the Montenegrins were sitting on the bus and began to quiz them in math (typical). Then, a couple of girls tried to learn how to speak their language. It's so difficult! Finally, we made it to Hotel Pula, put away our things, explored the beach right outside, and prepared for the opening ceremonies.

Woke up to find Coach Robby sprawled out in the middle of the aisle...whatever works I guess

Literally right behind our hotel!

The beaches are so beautiful!

For the opening ceremonies, we were taken into the city center, built in the 12th century. The ceremonies were right in the middle of it! It was so cool. Lots of music, dancing, and cheers. Each team lined up in front of the stage. The directors of the ceremonies would play a song, and if it was your country's song, then you went up on stage to be introduced, get your picture taken, and have a slide show of pictures of your team shown to everybody on the big screen. Each team had a sign with their name on it, and a flag to represent their country. There were lots of songs I didn't recognize, since they were from countries like Hungary, Czech Republic, Italy, Slovenia, etc. There were a handful of American teams, but some were still easy to pick out like Surfin' USA for the team from California. We were really hoping for Party in the USA for our song, but we were surprised to find out that the song the tournament chose to use for us was....wait for it....In Da Club by 50 cent. Yup, that's right. In Da Club. Needless to say, we danced and laughed our way up on stage to have our picture taken.