2008 UC Davis Foreign Tour Archive
The UC Davis men's basketball team left for its European Tour Wednesday afternoon from Davis. After a lengthy flight from San Francisco, the team arrived in Paris Thursday morning. Our first updates from the tour come from assistant coach Kevin Nosek and junior Dominic Calegari.
By Kevin Nosek
Thursday, Aug. 28
Upon arriving at Hickey Gym this morning, I realized that I haven't felt this energy since heading to Louisville in '98. Preparing for the worst, we left Hickey Gym five hours before our flight from San Francisco. It was smooth sailing and was quite an enjoyable ride listening to everyone talk about what they wanted to do on the tour.
While waiting in line to check-in, a woman from Air France noticed the size of the young men in our program and pulled them out of line to make sure they could get bulkhead seating. This was a very nice gesture as the rest of us suffered through 10 hours of cramped quarters. Personally, I couldn't sleep a second! My excitement overpowered the Dramamine I was pumping into my body.
We flew directly over Paris on our approach and got a great look at the city. We immediately went to grab a bite to eat, Italian in Paris! We were then treated to a bus tour of the city to get our bearings. The highlight of the tour was hopping out at the Eiffel Tour to get a closer look. It is a spectacular sight.
At this moment, it hit everyone that we were here and what this experience was going to mean to everyone. After checking into our hotel, we went our separate ways and did our best to stay awake until after 8 p.m.
A wonderful first day. I am totally exhausted.
Au revoir for now.
-Coach Nosek
By Dominic Calegari
Thursday, Aug. 28
Today was one of the longest days I can remember. I woke up in Davis at 7:45 a.m. to do some last-minute packing before arriving at the gym at 11 a.m. where we would all meet to leave for the San Francisco airport. The bus ride was full of emotions. Whether anxiety or excitement, people could not sit still. Upon arriving to the airport, we got in line at the Air France counter where we were greeted by a very nice and helpful French staff, who proceeded to pick out the six tallest people on the team to upgrade us to emergency exit seats. This proved to be the best gift imaginable.
When we boarded the plane, Mark (Payne), Joe (Harden) and myself headed upstairs on the gigantic 747 to find our seats right next to each other and to have nothing for a good eight feet in front of us. The three of us sprawled out and almost immediately fell asleep. That, mixed with a variety of movies to choose from, made this 10-hour flight as close to pleasant as possible. Not everyone was so lucky, however. After walking through customs in Paris, I heard harmonious complaints about the lack of leg room and sleep that those not so fortunate had to deal with. Overall, everyone was pretty exhausted.
It was 11 a.m Paris time and 8 p.m Davis time and we still had a full day ahead of us. After picking up our bags, we walked outside where our tour guides were waiting for us. They told us we would be on the bus for about half an hour before we reached our hotel, where we would grab a quick bite to eat before we began a tour of the city.
The tour consisted of driving through the city seeing things such as beautiful churches, opera houses, the Louvre museum, Notre Dame, and finally the Eiffel Tower. We were snapping pictures from the bus the whole way until we were able to get out and take some group photos for about five minutes at the Eiffel Tower. The tour lasted about an hour and a half, and as amazing as everything was, we were ready for a nap. Everyone slept for about an hour and a half before we met back up for dinner. The goal of the day was to stay awake until at least 8 p.m. in order to beat the jet lag and sleep through the night, which everyone seemed to accomplish.
All in all, a great start to the trip!
-Dom
