Volleyball and camping?

For the past months or so I've been having volleyball practice every week with the teachers from one of my schools. I did not sign up for this, but found myself having been signed up by the team captain. He seemed very confident in my volleyball skills that he signed me up for the "Attack number 1" team, or, the A-team, or, the team that were playing to win (compared to "Receive number 1" who were only playing for fun). How was the poor team captain supposed to know that the last time I played volleyball was in a 9th grade P.E. class? I am not exaggerating when I call my skills non-existent...

Anyway...

Last weekend we had a "warm-up" tournament that did not go too well (we totally lost). The odds (and the expectations) were not great as we walked into the gym of the school hosting the "big" tournament earlier this morning. We were off to a good start though, we managed to win our first game! Encouraged by our victory, spirits were high as we began our second game, only to sink again as we lost the game.

When all teams in our group had played their 2 games it was clear however that we all had one win and one loss. This meant that the team with the most won points would advance to the final. I don't know if they calculated correctly, but we found ourselves on the floor, playing against the winners of group 2. It was a very close game, not aided by me getting nervous and missing 2 serves (oops). Despite this, we won the first set, and somehow, the second as well, making the "Attack number 1" team this years winners! We got a huge trophy and 2 bottles of sake, as well as numerous bows and high fives. I have to admit, it felt pretty good!

After the tournament, I hurried home, showered, had some lunch, then packed a bag with some clothes and jumped into my car to catch up with some friends who had gone camping about an hour away. Before I left Chino at about 16.00 I bought a sleeping bag, a bunch of beer cans, heaps of fruit and a few bags of cookies. I got back home about 22.00 after driving for hours trying to find the others...
I managed to catch up with my friend and Japanese teacher Kayo, who also was a bit lost, while searching for the right road, and together we spent about 2 hours looking for them before we gave up, went to dinner and after that drove back home...At least I'll be sleeping on my futon tonight instead of uneven ground in a tent, but I think that is the one good thing about missing out on the camping party...Damnit! ^^