Bienvenidos a Argentina!

Hola from Salta, Argentina!
After 36 hours of travel, we finally made it to Salta, Argentina where we'll play 5 test matches against Argentina's National Team, including Aymar. Some of you might have met Luciana Aymar at the Festival in California this past November. She was named last year's Women's Player of the Year. Tonight is our first test match.

Before we left for Argentina, there has been a flurry of activity on the KaPow front. On Sunday, we kicked-off the KaPow Indoor Hockey Klub, set in Northeastern, PA. The turnout was amazing from all age groups and we hope everyone enjoyed themselves as we had the chance to meet players and parents and play some hockey.

We departed for the airport mid-day on Monday for Argentina. The flight was a 10 hour overnight one from Washington, D.C. to Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was the first time I had seen the team since February, so there was a lot to catch up on including the wedding of Tiff Snow, a center forward for the US team. She got married on the beach and wore sandals! Sounded like a picture-book wedding.

We had a 9 hour layove in Buenos Aires, so we left the airport for a sports club and had lunch, worked out, showered, relaxed, and got on the internet. They served us amazing vegetables-grilled eggplant, zucchini, butternut squash, and then all sorts of beef. It was good to stay awake for those hours so we weren't too jet-lagged once we arrived. The next flight out of Buenos Aires wasn't until 7 p.m. and we arrived into Salta at 9. The Argentinian team was with us on the fligth and on our arrival, there was media present to greet their team. It wasn't until midnight that we finally got settled into our rooms and went to bed for the night. What a day.. or two!

Yesterday was our first full day here. We had two trainings to get used to the turf. The bugs are bad here, so they gave us all a bottle of bug spray for the week. I used it for both trainings, but was unable to escape a few. So we spray bug spray and sunscreen on us before training! Who would have thought? We are staying in a very nice hotel with Wi-Fi internet, which is such a treat in other countries. We feel very spoiled when wireless internet is not available. The food is also very good. Beef is a very popular dish, so each night we have a peice of steak. For breakfast, the milk is not cold so it is a little difficult to eat cereal. Just a little different than what we're used to! But when we're here, it feels almost natural to eat and drink their foods... almost.

Today is our first game, so we have a couple of meetings and an activity to spike our heart rates. It's scientifically proven to be better for it once the game comes around, so we do a little jog and a couple of short sprints to get ready for the game. We'll let you know how the first one goes!
Chau! (goodbye in Argentinian Spanish).