You know your volleyball world has increased tenfold when, all of a sudden, Facebook is telling you that your mutual friends include Nellie Spicer (UCLA), Cynthia Barboza (Stanford), Diane Copenhagen (USC), and Blair Brown (Penn State). When Facebook tells me to add Karch Kiraly and Logan Tom, I will know I have arrived.
My roommate, her boyfriend, and I went to Lille, France, yesterday to hang out with our (yes, she's MY friend now, too) other Czech friend, Hana, and go to her volleyball game.
Of course, I packed for sunshine, and it started raining about halfway through the drive.
But the highlight of the night was at the volleyball game, where I observed a player from the opposing team with crew socks, ankle braces, and small knee pads...very American, and very refreshing.
Turns out Sammi is definitely American and also with Bring It Promotions, so we had a lot of similar stories and friends. How AWESOME to "run into" another American volleyball player and have the chance to laugh together!
I also tried Wii Tennis for the first time, and it was eerily similar to my "real-life" tennis skills. I think I am even worse at tennis than bowling; impressive, considering my bowling average is in the 60s.
We won our match again today, which is an incredible feat when we reflect on how poorly I performed. Moving onward...
Only 3 of our 8 ceiling lights are working right now, and our ceiling is at least 20 feet high - anyone have a ladder? And to add to the entertainment of every day, our upstairs neighbor either enjoys dropping hundreds of marbles or plays weighted Pick-Up-Sticks at least two or three times a day. I keep thinking I knocked something over, but no, it's noise coming from the ceiling. Awesome.
I have now heard my last name pronounced in every way possible with the addition of "Schwogguttay" today. Thank you, Belgian referees, for your weekly renditions.
Martina and I have added to our team's already redundant cheer to be more inclusive of all the additional nationalities on our team (Russian, Czech, American, Slovak). The original cheer (which definitely took me 5 weeks to finally learn) basically sounds like this: "Sack twa, sagleese, salopet, peschmel boosh, croquet." We only decided to add to it once we found out that the words and meanings are completely random. When your cheer means "Go away, slip/slide, worker's overalls, local beer, tater tots," it's pretty much free game for anyone to embellish. So, we decided to add at the end, "spojka, vodka, bring it!" It ties the whole concept together very nicely.
Friendly Skype Tip #1:
Station one's self close to a neutral and opaque background, such as a wall. If you are in the middle of a room, you never know what may end up in your video feed...