night out with the girls

We had the weekend free one weekend so a few of us girls got together for dinner and for a night out. One of the girls on our team made some pizza for all of us and it was yummy! Then had some ice cream while watching Big Brother Finland. I never watched that show Big Brother at home but here i guess it is quite popular because they have a channel where you can watch it 24/7.

So after the show we headed out and were going to meet up with some friends at one place, then preceded to go to a few other places. The cool thing is that I know one other American that is playing here. She played with the USA national team the same time I was playing there and me and her were actually roomates in the dorms in Colorado at the Olympic Training Center. We lived together for 3 months before she ended up leaving. I havent seen her since we both were playing with the national team. She also played for the team I am playing for last year so she knows alot of the girls and some people in the city where i am. So she came to visit the girls and her friends here in Hammelinna so we all met up and had a great night together. It was nice to meet her friends here in the city because they were really nice and one of the guys works at the coffee place/restaraunt/bar that is right next door to my apartment and he invited me to stop by anytime. Its great to have more friends in Hammelinna!

Here are a few of the girls from my team! I love how everyones hair color is different! Too cute!

Here is my friend Tess, my friend from the states who I roomed with in Colorado. It was good to see her! We play her team this week, which is a really good team so it should be a good game! Hopefully we get the win tho! :)

1-0

Last Sunday we had our first home game of the season. I was excited to start playing and only a little bit nervous. The atmosphere in the gym was great, there were alot of fans there, more than I expected and also they were louder than I expected. They really got into the game. It was a good game with lots of good rallys, it went to 4 sets with the 4th set going to 33-31 points when usually first to 25 wins. We kept going back and forth, point for point for a long time. But in the end we won the battle!! It was an exciting game and definetly fun to play. At the end of the game we lined up at the end line and they announced the Player of the Game and I won it for my team! My prize is a trip to Stockholm on a cruise boat. I am very excited to use my awesome prize! After the game we had dinner altogether which included the womens ice hockey team and the pepole that run the club. They wanted us all to meet and start the season off with a celebration. It was a fun night. Finland is a fun place to play and they really make it an event to go the game. This weekend the womens ice hockey team was playing so since they supported us at our game a few of us went to go watch them play. This season we will have to go work at the games, doing tickets, the music, stats or opening and closing the penalty box. But we just went to watch this time. I am not a huge fan of hockey but I figured Im in Finland so I am obligated to go some games. Our team ended up losing 2-1 in the finally 4 minutes. I couldnt tell you if it was a good game or not because I do not know much about hockey. But it was good to go do something different. After going to the game I am still not a fan of hockey. I was waiting for them to do the flying "V" like in the Mighty Ducks, but it never happened, maybe I will have more luck with that when I go to a mens game! :)

random things

I am back from France and had a good time there, we did good in the tournament and played some tough teams, even played a team where there were 6 americans on it, a few who I played against in college. But thankfully we beat them in 3. :) Today we have the day off to rest up for our first home game of the season tomorrow! Im excited! Sorry I dont have any pictures to post of our time in France, I dont know how many times I said in the van, oops forgot my camera.

So today I decided I didnt want to stay in the apartment all day so I headed out to the store to buys some things and on the way i went to a lil farmers market that was goin on right by the gym. Mainly it had all different kinds of food, mostly fish, but it was cool to walk around and see what different kinds of food they made. They sold other hand made crafts too like baskets, handcarved stuff, paintings and jam.

Now that I am finally settled into my apartment there were some things that I needed to get, so I went to the store, kinda like a target it you will. I finally bought a shower curtain..much needed, always had to clean up the wet floor after i would shower. I usually spend alot of my day on the computer whether it is on facebook, youtube catching up on reality shows, or watching dvds that I brought myself. But just recently I was told about some websites where i could watch movies and tv shows. The movie website costs money, but very very cheap and the website where i watch shows is free! I am very happy about this. Now I can spend hours watching tv shows that I have missed and now will be able to stay caught up! Currently I am on last season of Greys Anatomy and I watched the 1st episode of Glee.

Also during my day off today I decided to scrapbook a calendar. It will serve a few purposes,1.) to help decorate my apartments bare walls and 2.) so I know what is going on during the week. So far today I only did August and September.

On the way home from the store I passed the McDonalds, you can always count on McDonalds for a yummy meal when overseas. So far I have only made the trip to Mc Donalds once in the 2 months that I have been here. So far so good! My goal is to not go there as much as I can, but its right by the gym where I practice so sometimes its just calling my name!

off to france!

Off to France!! I am writing this a few hours before I have to wake up and leave to catch the plane ride...we have to meet at the gym at 3 in the morning and then our flight is at 5 in the morning...we are flying to Latvia, then to Belgium and then taking a train to the city in France...its gonna be a long traveling day. We have a tournament this weekend in France and the opening ceremonies are Thursday night and then we start play on friday afternoon and play the rest of the weekend! Its going to be another volleyball filled weekend..lets hope my body doesnt fall apart by the end of the weekend! :)

This is our teams travel shirt. Our team is owned by an organization that also run the mens and womens hockey teams here. We get to go to the womens games for free but mens games we have to pay. Im not a big hockey fan but its the number one sport here so I better not mention that to anyone. The name of the organization is called HPK, which is now our team name. Our colors are black and orange...cant miss us walking in the airport with these shirts! :)

happy birthday!

Happy Birthday to my mom!! She is one of the best!! Wish I could be there celebrating in the fun of her birthday weekend, especially since they went to 2 places that I love, Bennihannas and Disneyland!! But I hope they had fun and she had a great birthday!!! love you mom!!

This last weekend we had our first tournament of the season. Man am I exhausted! We played 6 games in 3 days. I havent done that since college and I forgot what it was like to play that many games in a short amount of time, and of course the last game of the tourney went 5 sets! It used to be fun when I was in college and younger but now my "old" body cant handle it! ha! But it was alot of fun and we ended up 3rd in the tournament. It was good to start playing some real games and see how the team worked together, we played well but still have alot to work on. But I am excited for the season! This week we are off to France for another tournament! We live on Thurs morning bright and early and play fri, sat, and sun and then come home. It is going to be another looooooooong weekend full of volleyball!! :)

home sweet home...for 8 months

On Sept 1st I finally moved into my own apartment! yay! I was so excited, after sleeping on an air mattress for a month and living out of my suitcases I was so happy to finally move and unpack and get a good nights sleep! So after our morning practice my coach and a few of the girls on the team helped me move into my apartment. I actually have some furniture in my apartment! I have a bed and a chair and one of the girls gave me some of her desks to use. Plus a tv with about 4 english channels! :) Some of the shows that are on out here are the Mentalist, Lipstick Jungle, CSI, reruns of Friends, Scrubs,Simpsons, some reality shows and Americas Funniest Home videos when Bob Saget was still the host. So while my coach and I went to go get my stuff from the apartment that I was staying at the girls started getting my place ready for me. When we got back they had done it all! So it was an easy moving day and I was finally at my home for the next 8 months! Its a cute lil place, kinda like a studio apartment, just one living area, a kitchen, bathroom and a walk in closet. I like the place and the only bad thing that I have found is that the key and the door dont exactly work all the time for me, i sit there for like 2 minutes trying to open my door and then the upstaris people walk really really loud but other than that Im happy with it! Now its time to decorate it and make it a lil more like home!

this is what it looks like when you first walk in.

this is the view from the kitchen

My lil scrapbooking table and I already put some pictures up of family and friends for a lil home feeling before I decorate some more. Here is my lil kitchen, as you can see there is a pot on the stove, thats my spagetti dinner that was so yummy!

this is the look on the way out of my place and to that tricky door..the bathroon is right around the corner there and the walk in closet to the left.

on my shopping list : shower curtain and hangers

So now all my apartment needs is some visitors! All you would really need to bring is an air mattress to sleep on! :)

If you can translate it....

The other day at practice the local newspaper from Hammelinna did a story about me playing for the team. They took a few pictures and a guy interviewed me, and thankfully he spoke english very well! Although I do not like doing interviews and stuff this time I did not really mind because I have no idea what the article would say since it was all in Finnish! ha! He asked me typical questions like how am I liking it here, what was my first impression of the team, how do you think the league is here in Finland, what kind of player am I, how do I like living in a small town and if I was excited to start playing. So I hope I answered everything so that he could understand and translate it into his article easily and correctly! Maybe I will have to spend a day on the internet using google language tool to translate the article so I know what it says!

But everything has been going good here. We practice everyday except for the weekends but preseason is about to start and then it will get pretty busy traveling and playing in tournaments. We will play a few tournaments here in Finland and then one in France. It will be fun to go to France again. We do weights on Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning and then practice at night and then on Tuesdays and Thursdays we practice both in the morning and night. Im excited to be doing the weights again with the team, so much easier and better to work out with a team then all alone! I will finally move into my apartment on Sept 1st! Im so excited! I can finally unpack my stuff and settle in and no more sleeping on an air mattress! yessssss! So I will post some pics of my new place when I move in a few days!!