The first week of our two weeks without a match is now half way over. The thought that our coach was going to go easy on us was not smart. After the weekend win and some heavy duty sleeping in, monday rolled around all to quickly. Went to the gym to do our regeneration work out to wake up our bodies from the somewhat lazy weekend. It was clear, the work week was underway. Usually when we have a game on the weekend, most of the team is there during the night practices and usually never the morning sessions because most have either day jobs or school. Instead this week it was the four of us, myself, Nikke (the serb), Missie (fellow CA resident), and Jenni (19 year old Finnish chica). Tuesdays practice was the initial wake up call. I am all about working hard at practice and trying to better myself , so that night we did about an hour and 15 minutes of defense and then hit the weight room and began a new program. It was heavy, in other words more sets, heavier weights, and fewer reps. Needless to say, I could feel how much I needed to get a gym membership over the summer, because running on the beach and following "Self" magazine at home work outs was not enough, lesson learned. Wednesday morning was tough after the previous night weights session but we weren't as sore as we thought we were going to be. However, the soreness caught up to us the next morning, burning our hamstrings and shoulders. Soldiering on is an athletes motto in these cases, push through the wall and you WILL survive. Wednesday night was different since we had 5, lucky for us our setter showed. Thursday was a repeat of Tuesday, thank God Friday was within reach, I was ready for the beating to be over. Our coach was also harder on us, which was what I would have done in this situation as well. Not playing for two weekends in a row definitely does not mean time to slack and be lazy, its time to better yourself and to work on the skills you need to help your team win. Friday came and so did the rest of the team to the night practice. It was a good feeling having everyone there, we needed it. Plus it was only so much fun to have 4 people at every practice. Finally the week was done and Friday night had arrived.....beer me.
Exhausted and aching, I drank some cider, a beer, whooped my friends butt in online gin rummy (at least its not World of War Craft ok) and then passed out around 2am to wake up a few hours later to get ready for a shopping day in the closest city next to us, Jyvascuyla (hour and a half away). The city was also were a lot of the rest of the team lived so we were bound to bump into at least one of them, which we eventually did. Jyvascuyla was adorned with christmas lights and to our luck it was lightly snowing. We must have went to 20 different shops and walked around for hours. My favorite part of the day was posting up at a donut shop with a coffee and a donut to people watch. Almost Everyone here has their own eccentric style and or hair color. But in the end they all look scandinavian to me, I have gotten used to their type of style. I like what they wear too, might be starting to get the hang of it only I think I need to layer a little bit more and buy a couple more oversized striped t-shirts. I have also noticed that a lot of girls have short hair and here is my theory on that. In the winter, girls are constantly wearing scarves and hats. With long hair, it is continuously getting in the way, tangling with scarves and in your jacket zipper. I get it, but I will never cut my hair above my shoulders. Even then thats an iffy situation. However I definitely am in need of a trim, its getting to look like Brooke Shields hair from the movie "Blue Lagoon", jungle like but red.
Tomorrow the other American, her visiting friend, and I will have ourselves Thanksgiving dinner. We were practicing on Thursday night, thus not having time to do the traditional dinner. Not going to lie, I am pretty excited about the dinner, one of the girls has been talked up to being a pretty awesome cook. I was designated to bring the wine and dinner rolls, a perfect job for me :) Being away from home this Thanksgiving was a bit harder then years past. I was able to talk to almost the entire family. In Slovenia I had my ex-boyfriend with me that day, although we didn't have a traditional dinner, it was like family was there. Last year we celebrated a little early because we had a Canadian on the team so we had the dinner between both Canadian and American Thanksgivings. This year it will be late but only by a couple days.
Ok, now I would like to take this moment to commend every single older woman and man in scandinavia. I don't know what their secret is or what they eat in the morning, but through freezing weather and snow, I continue to see active seniors around town, walking, riding their bikes, or skiing along the side walks and foot paths. I finally understand the secret to a long life (although might not be that big a secret), don't sit still, get out and be active. The ones who stay active live longer, fact! I was on my way to practice the other day and this man who looked to be in his 80s was out walking slowly down the side walk in weather that felt like the top of the world freezing over. He looked comfortable and at ease with his own thoughts. He even stopped to try and talk to me. I was freezing my butt off but he seemed to have all the time in the world and didn't look the slightest bit uncomfortable. I on the other hand was wearing most of the clothes I brought with me and my shoulders were intensely pressed to the bottoms of my ear lobes. Of course he was most likely raised in that sort of environment from birth, but even people from this area think its crazy how cold it gets. They aren't dumb, they know this weather is hard to live in but they have had success living in it back then and now, so i say keep on keeping on. Its what they are used to and some absolutely love it, that makes me smile. I love warm weather but experiencing actual seasons has opened my eyes to a lot of new sites, smells, sounds, and people.
Thanksgiving tomorrow, then another week of hard work, a Christmas party, focusing on three more matches, then off to my home away from home for Christmas break. But first things first...sleeping in :)
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