i say hello, i say goodbye

As a professional volleyball player playing overseas every year there is one thing that you must do every year that does not get easier, saying goodbye. You go there not knowing anybody, not knowing the town, not knowing the culture, and not knowing what the team will be like. But come April you have made many friends, have your facorite places in the town, take some of the culture home with you and have to say gooodbye to your team who has become like family to you. You see them everyday. You go through ups and downs with them. You experience the highs and lows of playing volleyball with them. You win and lose with them. You go out and play wii and crazy card games with them. You make lasting memories with them.

This past season was no exception. Some of the friendliest people I have ever met. The girls and the town were so welcoming and everyone on the team clicked right away. Whenever you walked through town at least one person would say hi or talk about the last game or the games coming up. The support the team had from each other and from the town was a great feeling! I think this is one of the reasons why we did so GREAT this season!
I will miss this team more than any other team I have played for. But I know that I will keep in touch with most of them for a long time to come! From the first meeting of the girls at the practice and trying to remember all thos Finnish names, the "carnival" we had at practice, crazy nights at the best place ever..Cirkus, paintballing in the woods, cider and carpo lonkero and tequilla shots and blueberry shots (yuuuuuuuum!!!), "mita muuja, mika boogie" all the time, hockey games, road trips and bus rides,snow and sauna parties, winning the silver medal and to the friendships made; it was an unforgetable season!


So to the amazing girls and teammates of HPK, the fun coaches, my favorite coaches kid Ville, the amazing announcer, my favorite bartender in Hameelinna who makes the best hot chocolate in town Teemu, one of the nicest guys I have ever met Lasse, to the fun and hot hockey players who had an amazing season, especially #38, to the best basketball team that Hameenlinna ever had, my tall friend Ettu or Eddy, to the amazing town of Hameenlinna, to the wonderful delicious pizza at Koti pizza,to my friends that work at Subway since that was my go to when i was hungry, to the workers who constantly were working in my apartment, to the doctor who reminded us of "teddy" from prison break, to that lil kareokee bar, to that great Apollo bar in Helsinki and to that cute lil reindeer place: thanks for a fun and memorable 8 months!! I love you all and will miss Finland so much!!

more final pics

great fans!!!

here are some of the professional pics from the finals.

The Finals!

We made it to the finals!! yay!! We faced a tough tough team, Salo. We ended up losing in the finals but hey a silver medal is not too bad!At the end of the game we lined up at the endline and recieved our silver medals and roses and then went to congradulate the other team. We had some up and downs during the finals but it didnt diminish what a great season we had. I loved playing with these girls and it was one of the best seasons I have ever had! Even though we lost in the Finals we still had a great time and enjoyed playing our last games as a team together. Here are some of the pics from the Finals.