Visitors!

On Sunday I was fortunate enough to have two lovely visitors from Canada, my baby, baby sister Danya and her boyfriend Braeden. They had been travelling around Europe for almost 30 days now and were headed my direction for a few days. Living over here can sometimes get a little lonely and it is so nice to see familiar faces from home!

They arrived Sunday afternoon and after they were able to get caught up on laundry it was time to head to the Superbowl party! At a local pub called Propeller they were broadcasting the game and serving up a tasty American style Buffet full of ribs, burgers, hot dogs, French fries, and chicken wings. All very tasty but apparently didn’t sit too well in my system. After the game, which was amazing, we headed back to my flat for some much needed sleep since it was 4am in the morning. However unfortunately I wouldn’t be getting much of the sleep as I spent the next 6 hours over the toilet throwing my insides up from what I thought was the greasy food. I was supposed to take Danya and Braeden around the city the next day but I could barely move so they just went shopping at the big mall south of the city.

On Tuesday I felt much better so again we went shopping and did a little exploring of the city. I took them around all my favourite places. The Schlossberg, Herrengasse, into some stores, The Mur and Stadt Park.

It was actually a nice day, not snowing, so it made the stroll around the city enjoyable. The only unfortunate part was that it was really foggy out so we weren’t able to take many pictures of the scenery of the city.

Braeden and Danya with their cute Canadian Olympic gloves

The plan was then for them to leave for Vienna on Wednesday morning. We were out and about in the city and Seisberg all day and when we got home Danya wasn’t feeling so well. So just before dinner she too started throwing up her insides. She went to bed pretty early so she could hopefully be in better shape the next day. But it didn’t matter because the next morning it was Braden’s turn to get sick. He got it the next morning and spent the whole day in bed recovering. And to add to the total of people who got sick my roommate also got it around 2 am in the morning. So what I thought was a reaction to the food I had eaten turned out to be the 24 flu of some sort. After spending the whole day in bed trying to get their energy back up Braeden and Danya were able to pack their bags and head to the train station as I headed to practice. It was so great to have a little piece of home here but so bad that I got everyone sick without even realizing I was doing it. Hope it doesn’t deter them from visiting me the next time they are travelling!

As for the day they left it had been snowing since about 5 am in the morning and didn’t stop until around midnight that evening. This made our trip to training very exciting! Normally we take about 4.5 hours for the trip to and from training but tonight it took almost 5.5 hours because there was so much snow on the roads and everyone had to drive so slow because you couldn’t see more than 10 meters in front of you. I was hopeful that it was going to stop since I had to drive to work the next morning and was not looking forward to crossing the Prabichil if there was 25 cm of new snow. Luckily it stopped snowing during the night and the plows were able to get out and clear the roads. Normally it takes 1 hour 20 minutes to drive to Eisenerz and that morning it took an extra 20 minutes so that was not too bad! After work it was home to get ready for my trip to Deutschland to see Tamara!! I could hardly contain my excitement and just wanted Friday to come!

Styrian Cup

So recently we have been practicing more often than normal and harder than normal as well! I am liking it a lot as it helps make the days go by faster and I also love having something to look forward to doing in the evening!

The first weekend of February we had Styrian Cup. Stiermark is the bundesland that I live in, think of it as a province. So basically it was like our provincial championships. All teams from all leagues could participate and when there were only four teams left they have a tournament day to determine the champion! This year the tournament happened to be in Graz at the ASKO halle where the second division team ATC plays at. They were in one semi final against Wesser Graz II and we were in the other against Gleisdorf a team from the third division in Austria. The first semi was won by ATC 2-1 and we won the second semi very easily 2-0. I played the first 15 points of the game, we were up 13-2, and then I was able to watch for the rest of the match. Therefore we would play ATC in the finals. It was the first time this year that we had an audience at the game and it was quite exciting, not like Villingen but it was still a lot of fun to have the crowd be into the game! We won the match quite handly 3-1. We won the first set in a blowout and then decided to lose game two when we should have won. Like game one we again blew them away in games three and four crowning us the 2010 Styrian Cup Meisters. For our efforts we got a massive trophy that came up to my knees and medals with the lanyard being the colour of the Styrian flag, green and white.

Also, i won the top player of the tournament award, it was quite a surprise considering I barely played in the first match. I got a new sports bag and this massive trophy that comes to the middle of my shin! It’s awesome!

But it is too bad that it is so big because it also makes it very heavy therefore I don’t think that I will be able to bring it home at the end of the year.

Overall the weekend was very positive for us, although we were playing against teams that were below us it was very good for our team to get a few victories and remember what winning feels like again! I know I liked the feeling of it, even if they games were pretty anti-climactic.

The month of January

I arrived back on the 2^nd of January after one of the worst flights of my life over. I got sick on the plane and have never felt like such crap in my entire life. And to make things better I left the keys to my house in Williams Lake and my contacts didn’t arrive in the mail before I came back! But the best part of my return was the 3 practices we had for three straight days! That definitely made the return more enjoyable. After the first day I could barely move I was so exhausted from the jet lag, the training was fun it was not fun to tell my body to do something and it not do it because I was so exhausted. As for volleyball in January it didn’t go so well. We had 3 league games and we lost all three of them. Had we won at least one of our matches we would have finished 5^th in league and then we wouldn’t have been matched up against Post Vienna in the first round of playoffs. How our playoffs work is we have the top 6 teams from our league qualify and then the two Austrian teams that play in MEVCA (Middle European league) join us for our playoffs to determine the Austrian Meister or champion. Being that Vienna beat Klagenfurt, the other MEVCA team, we will be matched up against them in the first round of playoffs starting on February 20^th.

To start off January we travelled to Innsbruck to play Tirol. We had beaten them 3-1 in October at home so we were optimistic about our chances against them. However we didn’t play as well as we should have and lost 3-0. It was a big blow and we had 2 tough weeks of practice because of it. But the best part of going to Innsbruck was that I got to go to Mittenwald, Germany to see the Chyzowski family. It was a great 2 days there. I played and played and played with the kids.

My Girl Lucia and I

We played board games, computer games, played hockey, played in the snow and went skiing although I didn’t go the kids did. It is amazing how big they have grown in the past year and half that I have known them and I can’t wait to go back and visit again!!

The next weekend we had a Styrian cup game on the road. After the game our coach took us to the Therme for the evening something my body definitely needed!!

A very fuzzy photo of the Therme. Still haven't figured my camera out after a year of having it.

Then on Sunday Carla came to visit and we went to watch a Canadian, Jeff, play volleyball against the team from Graz. It was nice to have some Canadians around and a great way to relax on my weekend off.

That next weekend we played Dornbirn at home. We had a great first set winning 29-27 but the next 3 sets didn’t go so well and we ended up losing 3-1 putting us in 6^th place and matched up against Vienna. Even though we lost a few of the girls and I went out for a night on the town! It was a blast, rolling into your house at 6am after Kehbab is always the best way to start a Sunday.

Eva and I getting ready to head out

The last league game was in Wels against Wels. We lost a hard fought game in 5. Although we lost it was a good game for our team because we had been training really hard for the past three weeks and we were finally seeing the results. We even had a couple of chances to win the match specifically in the 4^th game when we started the game going down 15-8 and we lost 26-24. Losing was not so fun but the game was a lot of fun to play in. I also stayed that weekend in Linz with Carla and we had a relaxing time together . We did a lot of chatting, eating and most specifically dancing!! It may be the last time that I was going to be there for a while so I figured we better do it up right that weekend! It was a blast for sure but it was also nice to get home to Graz and get ready for playoffs.

Decembertime!

December:

The countdown started early in December for when I got to head home for the holiday’s. I was loving it here in Graz and was kinda sad to be leaving during the holiday season as it is the best time of the year in Europe! But I was also ready to head home for some quality family time. Teaching this month was great! I could see the improvement and confidence that the children had made over the past 6 weeks that I had been with them. The children would come right up to me in the hallway wanting to chat. It was amazing to see their enthusiasm about practicing the language with me. Now I just have to be more like them with my German!

As mentioned about Christmas time in Europe was amazing and Graz was surely not an exception. The Christmas market started in early December and the gluhwein was flowing for the entire month. Michi and I frequented the market regularly for a casual gluhwein once and a while!

Michi and I at the Graz Christmas Market

Carla and I also went to the Christmas market in Vienna. Words cannot even describe how breathtaking it was.

We spent the afternoon walking around, drinking our gluhwein, exploring all the booths and best of all I had a Starbucks for the first time in 4 months.

After that we headed to Graz for Carla’s first visit and the first night at Kololinsky, our new favourite place! That week I also headed to Linz on my Wednesday off to watch a European Cup basketball game. It was such a great experience. The game was Wels vs Tartu (Estonia) which happened to have a Canadian on the team as well. It was a great game with Wels making a late 4^th quarter comeback to win in overtime!

As for volleyball we didn’t win any matches but we did have two very strong matches against the first and second place teams in the league. We lost in five to Hartberg in a game where we were up 2-0 and had a few chances to close it out. It was a tough game to lose but it was great that we were able to get at least one point out of the game. We then had ten days off from games until we played the number one team in our league before Christmas, Linz. Again, we started the match really well and I had my best set of the year to start the match and we almost took the first game narrowly losing 26-24. The next two games Linz picked it up and we just couldn’t keep up with them. It was both a good and bad way to end before the Christmas break.

Canada was a whirlwind trip. It was 10 days, 3 cities, staying with 4 people, 20+ hours of work, daily naps and lots of family time. It was so great to be able to go home for the holidays, seeing family was the most amazing feeling over the holidays!

November in Graz

November: It was so nice to finally be settled into my life in Graz. I had finally gotten on a regular schedule of teaching and was 100% confident in driving manual. If you remember last year I wrote about my experience of learning to drive manual. It was disastrous and not so much fun for me. But my teammate Eva here was the best teacher by far! I got it after 20 minutes and was driving around Graz for the rest of the lesson. It was such a relief to know how to drive; it brought this newfound independence to me!

As for volleyball in November we had a pretty good month. It was the month where we won most of our games and we were solidly in 4^th place. Highlights included a Halloween win over Tirol at home in 4. This was a good victory because our starting middle rolled her ankle the night before the game and our back up stepped in and did a great job. Another highlight from this game was when our captain got a yellow card. When she was yelling at the referee about a call he made she told him that she was going to eat a broom. Not 100% sure what the meaning of this was but I found it quite amusing when my teammates explained it to me.

We also had a great trip to Innsbruck. It was a very long weekend as we had 3 games however I only had to play in two of the games. The third game on the Sunday was an Austrian Cup game which I couldn’t play in because I am not Austrian. It was awesome for me because I was able to drive across the border to Mittenwald, Germany to see the Chyzowski family. Although it was only a quick visit for breakfast and some playing with the children, it was great to see familiar faces and I couldn’t wait for my next visit! The craziest part of the trip there was my first time driving up hills that are going straight up into the Alps. Let’s just say that I stalled on the first hill and had a mild heart attack before I put it into first, dropped the emergency break and gunned it up the hill! It was quite the experience to say the least.

All in all November was a busy month where we won a few games, I finally settled into a routine and the next big thing I had to work on was getting my fitness pass!

Better late than never!

So.......I have clearly been way, way behind on keeping up with my blogs this year. Many factors have contributed to that but if you know me it would mainly be procrastination. There has been many times where I have thought, today I should write a blog and then not done it. So here is a quick recap of what has happened thus far.

August: Arrived in Europe and headed to Slovenia to play some ball and hopefully get a contract. Unfortunately that didn’t happen as planned. I went on a couple of tryouts in Slovenia and one to Bosnia. But with money situations and many clubs deciding not to hire players it didn’t go so well. From the 32 or so girls at the camp only about 10 got contracts and only 20 or so even went on tryouts. It was not so good all around this year. So, since I didn’t have a job yet I headed back into Germany and went to visit my friend Tamara in Bamberg. I stayed there for around a week and just waited to hear on a job.

Tamara and I

September: From visiting Tamara I went to Offenburg and trained with the second division team there and also back to Villingen to see everyone and see if there was still a possibility for playing there this season. It was great to see all the girls and it would have been great to be back there but I had a feeling things weren’t going to work out and I needed to distance myself from that place. It was very hard for me to be there. After about a week in Baden-Wurtenberg I headed north to Langen to hang out with my friend Brandon who is playing basketball before I headed to Bayreuth to see Sebastian and Tamara again. It was great being able to go and hang out with friends. Sebastian had a couple of games that weekend, we partied a bit and spent one day at the thermal baths and saunas. It was just what I needed to help me be happy again because the previous week was so emotionally draining and not anything that I would have expected to happen. Having friends I could visit was a lifesaver as I waited for word from my agent about a job. From Bayreuth I headed to Linz, Austria. A friend from university, Carla, is playing there and she said I could come and stay with her for a bit and practice with her team.

Within the first 3 days of being there her coach had called another coach in Austria that was looking for an outside hitter and that first weekend I was there I was off on a tryout! I couldn’t believe that I was actually going to maybe find a job. So after a week of tryouts there I was a new member of WSW Eisenerz/SG VBV Trofaiach!! It was such a relief to find a job! But I knew that it was going to be a lot different than my last year with TV Villingen.

October: In my first 3 weeks there the coach had to find me a place to live. However it was a very unique situation. The team is located in two small villages and I asked not to live there because there would be nothing for me to do. In previous years on this team the import had lived in Graz which is about 75 km south of Trofaiach. It was my first choice to live there as 6 other girls from the team live there and it is a big university town. Now the problem was for him to find a place for me to live. Until the coach was able to find me somewhere to live I lived with a family in Trofaiach. They were super nice and very kind for letting me stay with them. I only had to talk English with their 5 year old daughter which wasn’t too hard for me. After about 3 weeks and near the end of October I moved into my new apartment with a student from the university, Michi. She is a friend of a friend and it was so lucky that she had an extra room! We get along really well and it also has given me a new group of friends besides my team since I am the only import on my team this year.

The season started well we won our first game at home and I was optimistic about how the season would go. Like last season it is always interesting when you play a team for the first time because you have no idea what they are going to be like. We played well in quite a few games but just couldn’t push through to the end and get the points at the end. Overall it is much more fun being on a team where I actually have to try and work hard compared to last season in Villingen where we walked all over most teams and had 4 tough games all season. Each game here is a challenge and I must be ready to play each weekend, sometimes twice in a weekend.

So that's my first couple of months over here. The next couple will be up in the next few days and then hopefully I will be more diligent about posting and telling my experiences like I was last year. Because I definitely have enough time while I am over here!

Tschussy!