After 5 days off we were back to work with a physical practice on Monday...outdoor running (which I huffed an puffed through after doing nothing and being sick all weekend) plus weights with 2 kilos strapped to our ankles for that little something extra, thanks to our strength coach El Jarno. No, he is not Spanish, he is pure Finnish blood, someone started to call him that and it stuck. He doesn't seem too bothered by it...yet. Tuesdays practice was a match against a young "junior national" team. Becca was out from being sick so it was just Lauren and I on the court as the only foreigners. Being away from volleyball for a week really has its negative affects on the mid and body. We lost pretty horribly against them, passing was crap, our hitting was crap, defense was crap, serving was crap....you get it...pretty much everything was crap. Nothing was working for us and it was nothing less then embarrassing. After the embarrassment of "getting back into it" receded and the strong thought of getting a little more then tipsy that night was out of my mind, I looked to the rest of the week for some inspiration and motivation.
Wednesday morning we woke early for the gym, it was time for "Body Pump" with some of the team at Fressi. What "Body Pump" entails is a lot of weight lifting with a bar and free weights to a sound track meant for techno addicts and aerobic maniacs. Our instructor sounded like he was this Australian "Body Pump" expert with high energy techno music to back his loud cries through the microphone of "OK HERE COMES THE BODY PUMP.....TEMPO!!" It was a struggle to keep from busting out laughing sometimes. I snuck a look at Lauren to see I was not alone, she to was trying not to laugh. By the end of the class my 2 1/2 kilo weights on my 1 kilo bar were looking and feeling heavier then ever. My shoulders burned and I was positive I wouldn't have been able to punch my way out of a paper bag if my life depended on it. The instructor said goodbye at the door and asked where we were from. I in turn asked him and he surprised me by saying he was from London! When I told him he sounded like he was an aussie he immediately said "everyone says that!" Next week we do it again, I would honestly rather do the aerobics class over the "Body Pump" but I don't really have a choice here so, moving on.
Wednesday and Thursday nights practices were same old but a lot better then Tuesday. I believe that we need to take this time seriously if we want to stay in the top league. This is the time we need to work the hardest to prepare ourselves fully for what's to come. Even if what is to come is supposed to be easy, we don't know that for sure so we need to be able to cut the other team down and out of the picture from the start and not take any chances with a stupid loss. I just hope everyone else sees it that way too in one degree or another.
Friday Becca and I got intense massages so we were allowed to skip practice that night. After our agonizing beat downs by the talented Jenni, we decided to take a walk up to the tower looking over the city and grab ourselves one of their famous and oh so amazing donuts. The secret ingredient must be crack because they can only be described in one word, "addictive". After fulfilling our cravings and seriously considering just spending the day there stuffing our faces with those donuts, we made our way down to the main street to catch our bus back to home base. As we walked down the hill, however, I noticed a group of snowboarders doing tricks on the steps leading down to the main street. They were pretty talented so we watched them for a second, chatted and were on our way. Once at home, Becca and I exhausted from our massages, had a few beers to ease the pain...it worked. We ended the night at the local bar "The Caroline" with Lauren where we were joined by an overweight guy with a lion on the front and back of his t-shirt accompanied by his friend the "skinny/weird" one. Both were equally as nice and equally as creepy. Regardless we danced with them and had a great time people watching. There were so many different personalities in the bar it was incredible to witness. We went to the bathroom once and this guy yelled that he didn't speak Swedish to us....we never said we had. Assuming he was just really drunk we ignored him. The next day we went to a mens volleyball match where we got to see Kawika and Dustin (both play for the US national team) square off against one another. Kawika's team won, excited for him! Kawika is an amazing setter, every set he puts up is golden. No offense to the setters on our team but sometimes I wish that he would slap on a wig, don some spandex, put on a little rouge and play for our team. Now that I think about it, my setter from last year and Kawika are almost identical in technique...hmmm. Nah couldn't be possible, my setter last year is a lot shorter then Kawika. Anyway, it was a good match and both teams played really well.
That night we went out to the a club in Tampere called Kuuba. The place was packed and the music was so much fun however the majority age was 19-21 on the ground floor and older people but crappy music upstairs. Ok, question, what is it with people just letting their bodily functions go on the dance floor when they are drunk, or not drunk?! There were 4 specific times when I stopped dancing and looked around wondering what the hell was dying in someones pants. If your talking to someone and the smell of a fart creeps in (and you know it was definitely NOT yourself) the person your talking to might think its you or he or she might be the culprit. Either way, someone is embarrassed which makes for an awkward conversation. I guess some people get so drunk that they don't realize they are releasing tear gas/stink bombs on the people around them. Please, if you have stomach problems remove yourself from the dance floor so the rest of us can carry on with our super cool dance moves and refrain from pre mature vomiting.
After the club had closed around 3am we headed to the bus station to catch our ride home. While we were waiting and talking to friends in this crowded outdoor bus station, all of the sudden I turned around to see this chick popping a squat in the middle of a busy sidewalk and start to pee. She smiled and kindly waved at the people who blatantly were staring. It had been almost 2 minutes before she stood up and walked away, again waving at her "fans". To end the night we had to take a 35 Euro taxi home because our 4:20am bus never showed, S.O.B!! I was so happy to be home that I ended up not really caring to much at all about the taxi home.
Woke up late the next morning, made "Linner", watched "He's Just Not That Into You" (great movie), and then went to bed. Pretty boring Sunday but the weekend was worth the late sunday afternoon. This next week coming up is our last "week off" meaning a week not leading up to a match. I am so excited to get this season over with but at the same time I am sad to be leaving this place for the summer. Scandinavia is a place I never thought I would be experiencing at this stage in my life, its a wonderful area of the world even though its a freezing tundra for most of the year. There are so many beautiful things to see here besides snow and I am glad I got to spend another half year in this area of the world. I hope that I can continue to do what I do now for a little while longer, maybe play here again, you never know :) Until another time, take care everyone!
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