Greece and Egypt

Ok as of tomorrow morning I will be off to Greece for a few days and then off to Egypt for a few days!! My cousin Alicia Fikse is coming out for the big adventure! I have always wanted to go to Greece and I love to travel so I am super excited!! If you think about it say a lil prayer for us!!!

Boys will be Boys

So the mens team qualified on Tuesday night for the final four of the mens Cup! It is awesome to have both the mens team and womens team in the final four of the Cup! It was a real exciting and close game! They ended up playing the team that my Canadian friends are on. All season they did not win against them but they won when it really mattered! So the next day they decided to celebrate a little since they had 2 days off in a row, a big deal to a volleyball player towards the end of the season! So we went to the beach for lunch and a few drinks. These guys are a lot of fun to hang out with and joke with, it really made the time here more enjoyable and go much more faster. So Avil and his wife and son,Tete, Siso,me and Pablo, who is from Argentina and was on the team that the guys beat, had some fun at the beach. It was a nice windy day and we had fun just goofing off! Me and Avils son, Sander, played hide and go seek and collected some seashells while the other boys...well you can see form the pictures what they were up to!!

hotel living

I figured I would put up some pictures of the hotel where I have been living the last 5 months. It really is a nice hotel,great location and the food is good and the people there are all really nice. Right across the street from the hotel is the beach and i love to go there and relax and also go running on the path next to the water. So beautiful!

CaRnIvAL!!!

The last week of Febuary we celebrated Carnival here in Cyprus. Carnival is like our Halloween,except the trick or treating, instead everyone dresses up in costume and goes to a big party. It really is a big celebration. Every year our volleyball club throws a big Carnival party for the players, coaches, sponsors, supportors and fans. It is tradition for everyone to dress up and have a date to the party so the men from the mens team ask someone from the womens team to be their date. My date for the night was Siso, a mens foreigner player from Venezuala. Me and him have become good friends and we have usually have movie night, and his favorite movie of mine has become The Mask of Zorro. So we decided to go as Zorro and Elena. So I headed to the stores here in search for the perfect Zorro costume and Elena costume. It turned out to be easier than i thought. The first store I went to I found a Zorro costume right away and as for me my friend Andrea let me borrow stuff from her for my costume and i just needed to buy some accessories. I have to say me and Siso were probably the best looking couple in costume there! ha! Other people dressed up as cowboys-cowgirls, flappers, babies, minnie mouse, singers and all sorts of other things. The night started with a dinner and then some dancing. Now here they celebrate Carnival for 2 weekends in a row, so we decided to go out after the party since we were all dressed up in costume, but once we got to the club we were the only ones dressed up! ha! The clubs werent having there big celebrations until the next weekend so we really stood out as foreigners in our costumes ha! Here are a few pictures from the night...

The othe night it was Svetlanas birthday,the foreigner from Bulgary on my team. So instead of celebrating by goin out to a club or something she wanted to hang out here at the hotel. So all of us foreigners, men and women, crammed into her room for some snacks and some drinks to celebrate her birthday. Here in some European countries the rule is that if it is your birthday you must provide the food, drinks or candy. So Svetlana provided us with plenty of snacks and drinks to last about 10 people all night! It turned out to be a fun night with all of us foriegners hanging out and having a good time. It is always fun to hang out with just the foreginers because we are all in the same situation here and we understand what everyone is going through. Here are a few pictures from that night.ok here is everyone....me, Micheal, from russia, siso from venezuala, svetlana from bulgary, tete from venezuala, avil from estonia, batman,his nickname, trainer from bulgary and adrian, svetlanas boyfriend

Soooooooooooooooooooooo for Valentines Day a few of us decided to get out of our city and explore a new city here in Cyprus. We eneded up goin to a city called Agai Napa, which is popular during the summertime for tourist, especially the young ones, but during the winter months it is literally a ghost town. It is known for its beautiful white sand beaches and the bars. There are literally bars on top of each other. I guess that is why it was named the number one party spot in Europe a few years ago. But we just went for the day to see the beaches and walk around and do a lil shopping. There was also a old castle there that we went and explored a bit. We spent about 3 hours there and then drove back to Limassol. We then enjoyed a yummy Valentines dinner at the hotel and we decided to stay at the hotel that night playing cards and drinking some champagne. It turned out to be a great Valentines Day.

living the life

I love playing professional volleyball overseas. I am so blessed with my life. I get to see the world while doing what I love the most. I know many people think it is glamorous living the life of a professional athlete, dont get me wrong I love it and wouldnt trade it for anything, but sometimes it gets a lil boring and repetitive. Here is a typical day for me here in Cyprus.....I usually wake up around 7, and go to breakfeast. Yes I said 7, I know it is hard to believe I get up that early for breakfeast for two reasons, one is to mainly beat the crowd for breakfeast and 2 is that I go right back to sleep after I eat. So I get breakfeast, come back to my room and sleep till about 1030 or 11 and then I go workout or go running on the beach, I come back and shower, go to lunch about 1230 or 1, then it is back to my room for a lil nap, then it is off to practice, dinner, another shower and then watch a movie or hang out in the lobby before I head to bed. This is pretty much what I have been doin since I have been in Cyprus. Some days I head to the beach, the store, walk around and play with some of the kids here. One of the foriegners on the mens team has a 6 yr son named Sander and the trainer for the mens team has a 7 yr old son that I play with. One is from Estonia and the other is from Bulgaria and they both only know a lil english. So they communicate with only a lil english and thru hand motions. They love when I play pool with them, ping pong, love playing games on my phone but mostly love when they run towards me and i catch them and spin them around. Two of the cutest kids and I love playing with them.

Now Cyprus is a popular place for the elderly of England to come and vacation. I have met some really nice old couples who stay here for up to 5,6 weeks on vacation. Now let me tell you this is the place to be for old couples to come and have a fun vacation. At night this hotel is always hopping! Every Thursday night is karaokee night here. These people are not shy, especially with a lil alcohol. I have never seen so many old people a lil tipsy! ha! But they go on for hours singing and I love to watch them. Other nights they have live music and games and other theme nights. One night we came back from practice and the old people were doin the conga line around the hotel lobby and out the doors. It really is a good time for them and it is nice to see so many people still in love and having a great time after years and years of marraige! I know where I am goin for my 50th anniversary!!