Aug. 16, 2001

This report was filed by Kathya Pretre, a freshman from Corgemont, Switzerland. For other diaries from various players as the trip progresses, click here.

My name is Kathya, and I am from Switzerland (no, not Sweden). My country is in Europe, located between Italy, France, Austria and Germany.

I left my country Saturday, Aug. 4 and arrived at Baylor the same day. The trip was pretty long, It was 13 hours. I was really excited to come to Baylor to learn a new culture and to meet new people, and to live my life in direct relationship with volleyball.

The first thing I observed and that impressed me was the good organization of everything. As soon as I got to Baylor, there were people taking care of me and explaining to me everything that would happen in the two days before the travel to Japan. Everybody was really nice. I met the team and my new roommate, and I realized that they would be like my siblings.

Two days later, I was again in an airplane for a trip longer than my first one but with a new destination: Japan. Before leaving, I had no knowledge of the Japanese culture. I can see that they are very strong mentally. I know this is something on which they focus. During the training, they are not really disturbed by anything. They all speak together during an exercise, and everything seems so natural.

I was also very surprised by the way in which they have accomodated us. They have been wonderful. The team at Tohoku Fukushi gave us a nice party upon our arrival and we mixed with the teams to get to know each other. Some of the players came with us all the time and were treating us like we were very important people.

After a few days, we went to a new city to play and train with a professional team coached by Arie Selinger. It is a good opportunity for Baylor to play with them, and we are learning a lot. The players are really fast in defense, and Arie is very strong with them. For me, this is my first chance to see professional players working because there are no professional teams in my country, not even the players of the national team.

Editor's Note: Kathya arrived in Waco from Switzerland less than 36 hours before the team left for Japan. Over a three-day period, she spent 39 hours traveling (23 hours of that in the air), crossed 20 time zones and did not get much sleep. Upon arriving in Japan, Kathya told me, "It would have been easier for me to have come here from Switzerland."