The Trip from Hell

As I raced up the elevator and ran into my room to get my oversized travel bag filled with too many things, I glanced at the clock at saw that in 2 minutes I would be late for my ride to the field.  It was a Thursday afternoon and we were leaving for our 2nd away trip to Boston, Massachusetts to play Northeastern University Women's soccer team on Friday night at 6:00. Painfully, I dragged my body-bag down the elevator and across the street to the pick-up point that had been decided by the upperclassman who was going to give me a ride to the field house.  Once we got there I ran into the locker room, grabbed my jersey and warm-ups and took me seat on the bus that would not leave for the next 8 hours.

We got to the Marriott in Quincy, Mass. around eleven o'clock and at once fell asleep in our heavenly beds. Most people would consider this a early time to fall asleep, but for the women's soccer team, with practice at 6 every morning, this is insanely late. 

On friday morning we woke up, ate granola bars, hopped on the bus and were off to practice in the pouring rain. Northeastern University is located in the City of Boston but their field is in Brookline, which is a suburb. 45 minutes later we pilled of the bus. Huddled in our rain coats and long pants, we completely our goal, which was to wear ourselves down and get a hour long cold shower before our game later that night. We dried off and went back to the hotel to take a nap before our pre-game meal at 2. A buffet style lunch with pastas, potatoes, and salads. Of course the perfect chocolate covered desserts were there, but the coaches shot death stares to anyone within a 2 foot radius of the table. 

We packed our bags and checked out of the hotel rooms in hurry to squeeze our way through traffic for the next hour until we got to the field. Our coaches left the bus and wander around for an hour without telling us what was going on. To entertain ourselves we sang rounds of many different songs, breaking the parts down by class. The sounds of Row row row your boat, and I like big butts rang clear out of the open windows of the tour bus until we were informed that the field has turned into a pond and fishes and toads have made resides on the artifical surface so it is unplayable until the next day at 4:00. This means that our one night stay would turn into 2 nights and 3 days of Boston Hurricane watching.

We spent the rest of the night eating, and doing homework. We woke up the nest morning at 8, which served no purpose but to deprive us of sleep. At 10 we went to the ballroom to run. This might have seemed weird if someone was to walk through the hallway and look into this marvelously colored room with 8 chandeliers and see 30 girls doing shuttle runs in the middle with the tables pushed to the sides then line up and do stretches all over the food covered floor. When done, we went to our pre-game meal which was early enough to have breakfast. The make-your-own omelets and waffles were perfect and filling. When round two of packing and checking out was done we left for the field. The down pouring rain did not surprise us when we began warming up. Half of the field was flooded before the game began, but we played anyway. After 90 minutes of regulation time, and 10 of overtime, we lost the game 3-2. Not only did we have to stay an extra night to play in horrible conditions, we lost the game and had a 8 hour bus ride to look forward too. It was the trip from hell, all things that could go wrong, went wrong.