Courtney Schwan Shares China Snapshots
July 11, 2016 | Volleyball
Junior outside hitter Courtney Schwan is back in Seattle now, working as a counselor at the Husky volleyball summer camps, having just recently returned from two weeks in China as part of the U.S. Collegiate National Team. Schwan traveled along with Head Coach Keegan Cook, teammate Tia Scambray, and several other standouts from all around the NCAA, competing against professional and junior national teams in China, seeing some sights, and teaching some clinics. Schwan talked about the experience and shared some of her photos with GoHuskies.com.
- "It was a very good experience overall. Because we were in a pack of Americans we definitely stood out. When you were there even other Americans stood out a lot. People always wanted to take pictures with us which was fun. The way people drive there was insane because everyone in China is swerving in and out of the lanes and focused only on the road doing whatever they can to get through traffic."
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- "The matches were really good. It's always fun playing against a team that speaks a different language. We got to talk to them a little bit after the matches and a lot of them actually knew a lot of English. They could have a conversation with us, which was awesome. I just wish that we knew a little bit more Chinese."
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- "We had a great group of girls. I've been on a lot of USA trips and I've met a lot of great girls, but I'd say this trip we clicked together the quickest and we got along super well. We leaned a lot about each other and immediately started having inside jokes and were laughing the whole time. We were always listening to music on the bus and dancing, and the coaches were even in on some of the jokes so it was awesome. Having Keegan thereΒ was kind of calming, because I knew we would be running the same system and I knew what to expect from the coaches, where I've been on other USA trips and you kind of have to adjust to the coaching style."
This was the first kind of touristy place we went in China, it was in Shanghai on our first day. It was a garden and we were walking around, and this actually on a wall with some water below. We were a little risky and a couple of us almost fell in the water. A couple close calls.
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This was on The Bund, a waterfront area in Shanghai. We took a boat ride the same day we went to the garden.
This was outside of our hotel in Lishui. There was one there and one on the other side of the door. The funny part was that climbing up was easy but getting back down was very hard.
At the Great Wall of course, with Abby Cole who plays at Michigan. The Great Wall is massive, you see it in pictures and you think it's really big but then you see it in person and it's amazing. On the way up you can go one of two ways, you can take a hard way, or a harder way, there is no easy way. So we went the harder way because it had less people, but still a lot of people. It was literally like climbing straight up. On the way down you have to hold onto the railings or you really might fall.
Abby was taking a picture of me taking a picture of the Forbidden City. I really did not expect how big the Forbidden City was. You'd go through one passageway and there would be a whole other section, then through another door and there's another huge square, so that was pretty impressive.
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- "It was a very good experience overall. Because we were in a pack of Americans we definitely stood out. When you were there even other Americans stood out a lot. People always wanted to take pictures with us which was fun. The way people drive there was insane because everyone in China is swerving in and out of the lanes and focused only on the road doing whatever they can to get through traffic."
Β
- "The matches were really good. It's always fun playing against a team that speaks a different language. We got to talk to them a little bit after the matches and a lot of them actually knew a lot of English. They could have a conversation with us, which was awesome. I just wish that we knew a little bit more Chinese."
Β
- "We had a great group of girls. I've been on a lot of USA trips and I've met a lot of great girls, but I'd say this trip we clicked together the quickest and we got along super well. We leaned a lot about each other and immediately started having inside jokes and were laughing the whole time. We were always listening to music on the bus and dancing, and the coaches were even in on some of the jokes so it was awesome. Having Keegan thereΒ was kind of calming, because I knew we would be running the same system and I knew what to expect from the coaches, where I've been on other USA trips and you kind of have to adjust to the coaching style."
This was the first kind of touristy place we went in China, it was in Shanghai on our first day. It was a garden and we were walking around, and this actually on a wall with some water below. We were a little risky and a couple of us almost fell in the water. A couple close calls.
Β
This was on The Bund, a waterfront area in Shanghai. We took a boat ride the same day we went to the garden.
This was outside of our hotel in Lishui. There was one there and one on the other side of the door. The funny part was that climbing up was easy but getting back down was very hard.
At the Great Wall of course, with Abby Cole who plays at Michigan. The Great Wall is massive, you see it in pictures and you think it's really big but then you see it in person and it's amazing. On the way up you can go one of two ways, you can take a hard way, or a harder way, there is no easy way. So we went the harder way because it had less people, but still a lot of people. It was literally like climbing straight up. On the way down you have to hold onto the railings or you really might fall.
Abby was taking a picture of me taking a picture of the Forbidden City. I really did not expect how big the Forbidden City was. You'd go through one passageway and there would be a whole other section, then through another door and there's another huge square, so that was pretty impressive.
Β
Players Mentioned
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