Thanksgiving in Cyprus

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Although I am in a different country that does not celebrate Thanksgiving I figured I would still get in the Thanksgiving spirit over here anyway. There is not much I can do in the food department because I live at a hotel and they make my food every night, so I cant go to the store and prepare a delicious Thanksgiving meal....I am goin to miss all the food that comes with Thanksgiving, especially the stuffing and the pumpkin pie....mmmmmmm! I cant be with family or friends...I cant eat the good food...I cant really decorate for the holidays...I cant watch any football games...and I cant go shopping the day after Thanksgiving with all the sales...but what I can do is say what I am thankful for!

First off I am very thankful for my family, whom I love very much and miss everyday!! The phone calls and interent talks arent enough! But I am thankful for their support and encouragement whenever I need it and the understanding of my dream to let me go live across the world. You guys are the best! I wish I was there to celebrate the holiday with you guys!

I am thankful for my friends who are always there, even when Im a world away! Thankfully we have skype so I can see your pretty faces whenever I want! :)

I am thankful that God has given me the opportunity to play volleyball overseas. It is a dream come true and a life I never imagined would take me where I am. I am thankful that I have been able to see the world at which He created!

I am thankful that I live in the USA. As I go to all these different places I meet so many interesting people and people that are so different from me. I learn about their lifestyles back home, they way they react to different situations and I see things that they believe in and the way they understand life. I am thankful that I can learn from all these different people, but mostly I learn to be thankful for the place where I live and the way in which I was brought up.

I aam thankful for the small things in life. Whenever I go away to a foriegn country I must adapt to their way of living. Many times it is very different from the life we live in the states. I have learned not to take so many things for granted. I am thankful for the water we have everyday,(here in Cyprus they are goin through a water drought and they must conserve water. Every household gets a certain amount of water per month. Thankfully I live in a hotel where I have water to use everyday.) I am thankful for dryers. Pretty much in every foriegn country I have been to we have to hang our clothes out to dry. I am thankful for my nice, comfy queen size bed at home. I am thankful for an organized driving system, honking the horn is used way too much here. I am thankful for Del Taco and In and Out. I cant wait to get home and wait in line at the drive-thu! :)

I could go on and on of what I am thankful for. I have been very blessed and I am thankful that we have a day to celebrate everything we have in our lives! I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!

Fishing Trip

Along with womens volleyball the city of Limassol has a few men's teams. On the men's team that is associated with my team there are 4 foriegners, 2 from Venezuala, one from Russia and one from Estonia. They all speak English and are fun, nice guys. Usually in the morning me and the other foreigner on my team, Svetlana, practice with the foreigners from the men's team. Most of the time they try not to kill us when they hit. Most of the time. There is another mens team that uses the same gym that we do and they have 2 foreigners from Canada, Steven and Pascal. The first day that I met them they told me they had just downloaded the newest episode of The Office, needless to say we were fast friends. So when Steven's friend came to visit they planned a fishing trip and asked if I wanted to go along. Of course I said yes. Any chance to get out of the hotel and I was goin to take it! So we woke up early and headed out to the docks. We really didnt know what to expect but as soon as we stepped on the boat the captain was really cool. Captain Angelos and his son Gregory made us coffee and we had a lil breakfeast and then we started fishing right away. Ok so I have fished a few times before and figured I would do fine but then when you go fishing with Canadians its a different story. Apparently they go fishing alot. But i was the second one to catch a fish! But they were just warming up. By the end of the day each Canadian had about 15 fish to their name while I came up with 5. Ha! Its a lot harder than it looks. Not only did we go fishing for fish but we also were trying to catch octopus. We ended up catching 4 of them. That was pretty cool to see and to touch the octopus. The captain asked if any of us wanted a tatoo from the octopus, of course we had no idea what he was talking about but then he put the octopus on my arm and the octopus suctioned itself to me and when the captain finally pulled it off, there was long red marks on my arm. I was the only one to have the octopus give me a "tatoo" so I felt a lil bit better about only catching 5 fish. :) The lil guy didnt want to let go of me!!! On the way back to the docks the captain let me steer the boat back into the harbor. Dont worry I didnt hit anything!

When we got back on dry land we decided to go cook the fish that we caught. I was not about to touch the fish, cut the heads off or scale the fish so I let the boys do all the work. We then sat down and watched an episode of The Office while we ate all the fish. The fish turned out to be really good and it turned out to be one the best days here in Cyprus!

Happy Birthday to me!

A few weeks ago it was my 25th birthday. I wasnt planning on doing anything special for my birthday but it turned out to be a great birthday! I woke up that morning with a few texts from friends and family wishing me a happy birthday, so that was a great start. But then for most of the morning and afternoon I went to the beach and relaxed. Then my friend Costas, who is my coach's brother and also grew up in southern California, took me out to get some coffee and tried to teach me backgammon and some card games. We had the day off on my birthday so he said that he would figure out something for us to do. So later that night he came and picked me up and we went to a lil restaraunt and there was the team and some of the men's team waiting to surprise me! They had planned a surprise dinner for me! I was not expecting it and was totally surprised! They had dinner, presents and a cake for me. The cake was delicious!! This is my coach, Gabriel, cutting my cake. The other girl in the picture is our setter, Andrea and my closest friend here. She is from Romania.These are a few of the girls on our team...me, Andrea, Svetlana, Dimitria, Costantinas and Carolina.It really turned out to be a fun and surprising birthday! Thank you all for the birthday wishes!

Cyprus

Hello all!! I took the advice of many and now have a blog so I can keep everyone updated on how things are goin out here in Cyprus! The 25 hours of travel out here were not so bad, I slept most of the way. I landed in Cyprus at about 1 in the morning and thankfully my luggage arrived at the same time too! I had no idea who was goin to pick me up but the president of the club came and picked me up and thankfully he was holding a picture of me so I knew who he was. It was only a half hour drive to the city I would be staying in, Limassol. He dropped me off at my hotel and I crashed for a few hours. The next day I woke up and got to see outside my window and I was right on the beach! Here was the view from my room!


I aslo had my first practice with the team that next night. Everyone was real nice and the best part is that all the girls and my coaches speak English! :) We then had our first game, even though I had only practiced with the team once, but we won in 4! The team is young but we should do well. There is another foreigner on the team, Svetlana, and she is from Bulgaria. We usually practice once a day so that leaves me plenty of time to enjoy the nice weather out here! I have already tried a few of Cyprus' popular foods and I would have to say that I have liked everything I have tried. I do not have a car here but I have a taxi that takes me wherever i need to go. I have met some really nice people here that have taken me for some coffee and have shown me around the city. Everyone has been real nice and has made an effort to make me feel comfortable out here!