Late May might be the time for students to rest and relax at an exotic vacation spot before they start their summer jobs or internships.
For the field hockey team, late May was the time to go away as well. But its trip was anything but R&R.;
The Quakers traveled to Argentina to train with the country's national team and to play club teams.
As allowed by the NCAA, the field hockey team travels every four years to a foreign country to improve its field hockey skills and participate in a cultural exchange.
"Usually every four or five years I like to take my team to a place that plays good hockey," Penn coach Val Cloud said. "We experience the cultural aspects of different countries. It's fun and a great experience for the kids."
The last time that the Quakers left the country was in 2004, when they visited Ireland.
The squad funds such trips by raising money through alumni donations, as well as through camps and clinics. Current players and their parents also contribute.
While many people associate Argentina with soccer and not field hockey, the Argentinean national field hockey teams - both men's and women's - are quite impressive. The women's squad has won six World Hockey Cup medals, two Olympic medals, five Champions Trophy medals, and six Pan American medals.
"We picked Argentina since a lot of [US] programs have gone there recently," Margaretha Ehret, next year's co-captain, said. "They're known for great field hockey. And it turned out to be great. We are thrilled that we went there. It was different than Europe; it was a totally different experience."
While in Argentina, the Red and Blue trained with women's national coach Pablo Lombi, along with several of his players.
The Quakers learned from the Argentineans since the latter's version of field hockey differs from the standard American version.
"The stick skills and the overall skills are at a very high level because most of them have been playing field hockey since they've been six, whereas we start in middle or upper school," Ehret said.
In addition to training with Las Leonas (the lionesses), as the Argentinean women's national team is called, the Quakers took on four different club teams. These squads are comprised of amateurs whose ages range from 18-25.
Although the Quakers went 1-3 against these teams, overall Cloud was happy with the team's results.
"I was very happy in the sense that I was going down there knowing that it'd be a great learning experience," Penn's coach of 13 seasons said. "We requested that we play at least two teams knowing that they're better than us, one team that we knew we could beat, and one team that we had a 50-50 chance to beat.
"We went with the purpose not to see how many games we were going to win."
Field hockey wasn't the only thing on the agenda for the Quakers. The women did have some downtime and took advantage of the three-to- one peso-to-dollar exchange rate.
"We are girls, so any second we could we did a lot of shopping," Ehret said. "They're known for their leather products, so we bought a lot of leather goods."
In addition to shopping, the team was exposed to Argentinean culture, including the famous equivalent of cowboys, the gauchos.
"The most laughter came when we were at the gaucho ranch," Cloud said. "It was a lot of fun. It wasn't all that crowded, and everyone in our party rode a horse holding onto a gaucho."
Although only one girl had been in the country before, several Quakers got a chance to use their Spanish skills. After each of the games, the Quakers would meet the other side for what's called the "third half" of Argentinean field hockey games. During this time the teams would meet, socialize and eat Argentinean delicacies.
In the end, the Quakers believe they greatly benefited from their trip to the Southern Hemisphere.
"It was an amazing experience," Ehret said. "It was not only awesome to see [Buenos Aires], but we played a lot of great teams. We learned a lot. And it was a great beginning for the upcoming season. It really got us excited for the fall."
