Even though it's Saturday, breakfast times are the same. That means breakfast between 6 and 8:30 ☕️. But that's fine with me since I'm an early riser anyway 😊.
I'm scheduled to have breakfast at 7:45. Luckily, someone from my room leaves earlier and I wake up because I had set the alarm on my watch for 7:00, but I only have it turned on from Monday to Friday 😅.
Fortunately, I notice this around 7:30, so I'm still on time 😇.
To celebrate the weekend, instead of the usual oatmeal with fruit salad and scrambled eggs, I had fruit salad with hard-boiled egg and mini bagel with cream cheese 😸.
After breakfast, we want to check out what we can do today, since there's nothing special on the agenda 📝.
So we walk around a bit. First, we walk to the tennis courts. Along the way, we cross a bridge that makes you feel like you're in the jungle.
After a small left turn, a small right turn, a big left turn, and a big right turn along a kind of pond, you arrive at the tram stop, from where you can continue to the basketball courts, tennis courts, or other places. We then walked along the courts where the optional match play was. Then we passed by the Prince Innovation Center. There, among other things, you can have your racket strung or buy one, and so on.
Next, we wanted to check if we could already go to the pool, as it has opening hours.
At that time, it was around 8:30 and the pool opens at 10:00 on Saturdays and Sundays. So we decided to explore the area a bit more and then play a little match on one of the courts 🎾🏋🏼🏅.
During our 'exploration tour', we also passed by the buildings that I think are meant for families to live in on campus during their time here. The whole thing looks - in my opinion - really cool, as it feels like you're on one of the federal highways in the USA 🚘🚦.
Our further path led us past the Wellness Spa, which is located at the end of the campus but can only be reached from the parking lot, so I assume you can book massages or something similar there for a fee 💆🏼.
We then continued along Bollettieri Way, back to the courts and then took the tram to the dorms.
There, I changed clothes, applied sunscreen, and packed my things for the pool. Then we took the tram to the courts, where we started a match after warming up. We played one set, which I won 6-3 ☺️. After that, we hit a few more balls back and forth. In total, we played for a good hour 🎾. After that, my t-shirt looked like this, but that's already after about 5 minutes on the court 🙃🌞. From the courts, we went straight to the pool. There, we met a few other people who we already knew. 3 boys and 1 girl from France 🇫🇷 and 2 boys from Brazil 🇧🇷. Meanwhile, it got quite cloudy 🌥, so around 11:15, the siren went off again 😂🚨. Since the trams are not allowed to drive us then, we had to walk the whole way, which doesn't really make sense because it takes much longer, buuuut....😬.After unpacking my bag, tidying up, and hanging up my things, we were supposed to be at lunch at 12:30, but we couldn't go out yet because there was no weather clearance 🌚.So everything was delayed until 1:15.One of today's off-campus activities was a trip to the mall. We wanted to go on that, and the bus was supposed to arrive at 3:00. We were there a little early at 2:30, and the bus was already there 🚌. A huge line at the entrance 😁. We still got in line hoping to be able to go.I was the 2nd one who couldn't get on the bus anymore 🙆🏼.But that's how it goes. So we went back to our rooms for a bit and decided to play another match at 4:30 😊.In the meantime, I changed clothes and washed a few of my clothes ⏲.At 4:30, we started warming up again. Then we played a second set from our match this morning.My goal, of course, was to win. But I wanted to win even bigger than in the morning. With calmness and concentration, it worked out exactly like that. After 35 minutes, I won 6-2 😊💃🏼.Then I went to the shower 🚿 and then off to dinner. On the way, I enjoyed the sun again 🌞. And today, I had my dinner outside in the warmth 😍. On the way out, I made a cool discovery. I'm a big fan of spices. So of course, I was really happy to see chili, oregano, and a few other things 🌶🍃. Before going to my room, I sat on a bench in the evening sun in front of the dorms and really enjoyed it ☺️. At 6:30, there was a sunset trip to Manatee Beach, which I initially wanted to do with a few others, but it was too late for me because we would probably only be back at the earliest at 9:30, then I would still have wanted to write the blog and get ready. But I want to start the day tomorrow fit and rested, full of energy for adventures 🤗.By the way, what I'm experiencing more and more often here is that the people here are really friendly and super nice, even if they seem grumpy at first glance. Once you talk to them, they are very open. Everyone who passes or drives by from the staff gives you a smile back when you smile at them ☺️😻😊.After the second match today, João wanted to go to Smoothie King. But the one at the tennis courts was already closed. So we asked the tram driver if he knew if the Smoothie King at the stadium was still open. He wasn't sure but was immediately very helpful ☺️. He asked the other tram drivers over his radio, but unfortunately, they weren't sure either. That's why he temporarily changed his route since he was driving the East tram and drove us all the way to the stadium 😍.Unfortunately, this Smoothie King was also closed. By the way, I totally forgot to post the link to the virtual campus tour. With it, you can track the routes and individual stops that I go through during the day quite well, I think 😊: http://imgcampusmap.com/#!UMAP_2014120304943 Tomorrow, I'm looking forward to another off day and will see what the day brings. I definitely want to explore the campus further. For example, I haven't seen the Fieldhouse and the Performance Center from the inside yet.
'Tennis has to become everything to you if you're going to make it to the top. You have to live it.' Monica Seles
I hope that everyone who has something to do with school at home had a beautiful first day of vacation, and the others had a nice start to the weekend ✨.
Enjoy Sunday and appreciate every single second of life!
'He who does not value life does not deserve it.' Leonardo da Vinci
Ein ganz dickes Lob für deine ausführliche Berichterstattung.
Ich kann mir alles, auch ohne Bilder, wunderbar vorstellen.
Liebe Grüße von deinem Mix-Partner Jona
