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!