July 19-Maribor Day 3, by Eleanor Salkoff

I think everyone would agree that today was one of our best days on this trip so far!  We woke up to clear blue skies (finally) and ate breakfast at the hotel.  At about 10, the team and Kate headed up the gondola to the top of the mountain.  From there, we met with a counselor from a camp at the mountain.  Then we drove for ten minutes to get to the camp which was hidden back in the forest.  From the moment we arrived at camp, we could tell from the kids' smiling faces that we would have a great time.  Coming into it, we didn't really know what to expect because NNJ hasn't done this excursion before; however most of us have experience with little kids and were excited to play and interact with them.  For about two hours we played basketball and volleyball with the kids while some of us made bracelets with them in the shade.  All of the them were adorable (aged 6-18), and some of them spoke good English while others had a harder time with it, but we still were able to communicate and have fun.  After a fun couple of hours with the kids, they sang us a song in Slovene and thanked us for visiting.  Then we handed each of the kids gift bags that we put together after shopping in Maribor yesterday.  It was so great to see them smiling and happy, especially knowing that they all are dealing with difficult situations, and all of the counsellors were warm and welcoming throughout the visit.  

After our trip to the camp, we hiked back to the gondola and took it down to the bottom of the mountain.  From there we walked to the hotel and had a quick lunch before playing our final match against the Croatian Junior National team.  During the first two sets we didn't play our best but in the last set we had some great rallies and we were able to stay more mentally tough throughout the game.  In the end, playing opponents like the Croatian team should make us stronger and challenge us to do better, and we all can work to reach a level of mental toughness that allows us to compete with high performing teams.  We all learned a lot from playing the Croatians and can apply that knowledge to volleyball matches in the future. 

To wrap up the day we all dressed up and drove out to a fancy vineyard for dinner.  The views of the vineyard were beautiful and we were able to take tons of pictures with the sunset.  Overall today was a great day and Maribor has been an awesome, memorable experience.  We're excited for Bled and Pula tomorrow!