seriously?!

So I have been living in my apartment for about 6 months now and I have been dealing with this renovation for about 6 months now. seriously? It is not so much renovating as it is fixing the water system. But whatever they are doing is loud. They are drilling and hammering constantly. For 6 months. Not everyday the last 6 months but it has been going on for that long. But lately it is everyday starting at 7:30 in the morning. seriuosly? And every morning at about 7:30 I get woken up and think Im going to have a heart attack. Seriously,it freaked me out for the first few days, then my body just got used to waking up that early. I would try putting my music on to drown out the noise, hardly ever works. Now I am one who doesnt complain much about anything, my dad will second that, especially after i told him about this little problem and he told me to tell my team to get me a new apartment, but seriously now I have to complain on here. I can live with it for a week, a month but for 6 months...seriously?! ok so the other morning i wanted to show everyone what the drilling sounds like so here you go, you be the judge and see if you could deal with this drilling everyday and morning...seriously?

invincible...or so I thought

After 13 years of playing volleyball I have never had an injury that has kept me out of the game until now. In the first 10 points of the first set of a volleyball game a few weeks ago I went to go hit a ball and landed on the other team's middle blockers foot, which was clearly on our side of the line, and twisted my ankle. I went to the doctor the next day and took some x-rays and found out that I ruptured a few tendons and had a slight hairline fracture. I went and got a second opinion and he said the same thing. So I have been out for about 3 weeks now. I was on crutches for about a week and a half. I sat out 2 games so far and will miss one more and maybe one after that. I am going to try and start practicing light this week and see how it feels. It is still pretty tight and stiff, only a little swollen around the ankle bone and only a little painful. I am hoping that I will be able to play on it soon! I miss playing and I really dont like sitting and watching from the sideline!! So please keep me in your prayers!
Ok caution, I posted a few pics of the ankle, before looking at them Im throwing a caution out there for those who dont wanna see my feet! :) and I thought normal crutches were hard but try walking in the crutches i had in the snow!! It usually takes me about 7 minutes to walk to practice and with the crutches it took 25 minutes!! I am so thankful to be walking on my own two feet again!

more snow...and lots more of it

One morning I woke up and looked out side my window and noticed that it had snowed alot during the night! So I decided to go and walk around the town because the snow everywhere was just so beautiful! The nice thing was that it wasnt too cold outside, maybe only -12 degrees! I never thought I would say that! But it has been amazing living here and experiencing all that a cold and snowy winter has to offer! Before I came here I didnt think I would like it, but I love the snow!!

Wii team party

We started off 2010 with a win! So after the game the team decided to go play some Wii at Thais' apartment and then go out as a team afterward. It was such a fun night! We had a great time playing wii and watching each other swing our arms around trying to beat each other at wii. Definitely some bruises and some sore arms the next day! heres a few videos of the girls playing wii, very entertaining!!



after we were done playing we all headed out to our favorite place, Cirkus!Always have such a fun time with my team!!

New Years Eve 2009 in Helsinki!

I flew back to Finland on December on the 30th and arrived on December 31st. Me and the other foreigner on my team, Thais from Brazil, decided to get out of our small town and head to the big city for New Years Eve. We had decided to meet in Helsinki in the afternoon so we could walk around and sitesee before we headed out for the night. Things didnt go quite as planned. I arrived at the airport at about 2. Took a taxi to the hotel and tried to call Thais to tell her where I was. But my Finnish phone was not working! Thais didnt know the hotel name or address. So I ended up eamailing her a few different times trying to tell her what was going on. I was extremely jet lagged so I took a nap and hoped Thais would find her way here! The phone woke me up at about 8 and it was Thais saying she was at the hotel! yay!! It turned out her Finnish phone wasnt working either and she had to have her boyfriend check her messages for her. But finally we were both at the hotel ready for the night!
We first went to the store to get some drinks and then stopped at the Mcdonalds to get a quick dinner. Once we were all ready we took a taxi and went to downtown. The night was a typical Finnish night, cold and snowing! There were fireworks going off everywhere. We ended up walking around outside when it was midnight but there was plenty of people outside to celebrate with. The first two places didnt really work out for us so then we walked around for a bit and found one place that looked promising. We walked in and from that point on we had a blast!! There was a live band there and so many people! We had a great time!!
The next morning we had an amazing buffet breakfeast at the hotel!! It was perfect! This was both our first time in Helsinki and we both loved it and cant wait to go back!

snow...and lots of it

When I arrived back in Finland after spending the hoildays in California there was tons of snow to welcome me back. And not to mention freezing weather. I believe it was about -20 degrees! Here are a few pictures of the snow in my town. One of the pictures is a few of my teamates walking to the gym.