Summer Recap

Hello my fine feathered friends (and not so feathered)... Oh how I have missed thee. As you know, I normally only write a blog when I am overseas. My friend was telling me the other day that I should be writing a blog while at home, which I thought was just silly. Then I realized my life is just and exciting here as it is abroad and I hate repeating the same stories over and over just as much while living here. Plus...a lot of the people reading this ARE abroad. Weird. Anyways, enough of my attempt to try and convince myself (as well as you), that I am less self-indulgent than every other blogger in boggerspace.

End of Cyprus.
Cyprus ended well, and I was sad to leave our friends and adopted family after season. Amanda and I were ready to get back home to our normal lives away from the over relaxed Cypriot life style. Yes there is a thing as too much beach time and too much down time. I was going a bit stir crazy the last few weeks. I think I potentially developed a mild OCD complex towards the end, purley out of sheer boredom. For those of you that don’t know, I have to be busy. I hate just sitting around and not having a purpose for what I am doing in life. Thus, our house was shimmering spotless.

Nationals!

 I must say that this summer was on of the best summers of my life. Nationals is the week I look forward to every year! This year it was in Phoenix and I must say it was by far the best year, maaaaybe tied with my first year in Denver. I was a bit nervous going into it because it was the first year that I was going to be Captain and unlike most years there were no other returning players. I was playing for the Exterminators again and this year there were a lot of west coast players. The team was AWESOME! We played great on the court together, finishing 2nd in the tournament. We practice double days before the four day tourney and of course do some team bonding exercises while we explore the city. Little to say it is a few months worth of experiences in one week considering how much time we spend together with very little to no sleep. The friendships I made this year are still so special to me. I still talk with 3 of the girls from the team at least once a week. We had so much fun together that we even planned a trip to Vegas a month later in June!

Halo...Guten Tag

The day after I got home from nationals, my friend from Germany came to visit. Julia and I played together my 1st pro season for 1. VC Wiesbaden. Jules is also really good at keeping in contact with friends so it was great to hear all the updates of what was going on with my old teammates. Jules and I did some sightseeing in Chicago, and I actually really liked it. Although I am from there, I have never really felt connected to it. In fact, I borderline hated it. This is probably the reason why our time in Milwaukee and Madison where much more fun and felt like I was really showing Jules my home. I think my favorite part of the trip was the run we took through Milwaukee. We ran from my friends home in the 3rd ward down to the lake front and back up to the public market for a light lunch.





Vegas 1 Wolfpack 0
Did you really think I was going to share stories from Veggers? Ha. We all know that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. I will tell you about my Wolfpack. I absolutely love these girls. First we must start with Kylie Atherstone a lefty rightside from Cal Poly, could potentially be the best RS I have ever played with. She is our fearless wolfpack leader. Kylie is such a free spirit and truly could care less what anyone thinks about her. She is crazy fun and just by being friends with her and spending time with her, my own personal confidence has grown tremendously. Sarah Ammerman is from Texas A&M. STUD outside hitter who can pass and bomb from the backrow. She is super fun and a blast to be around. Sarah is amazing at knowing how and when to by fun and silly, but also a serious sounding board. She is someone I can always count on to call for advise or to tell a new ridiculously hilarious story. Crystal Matich is my Slove aka setter love. It is true that setters stick together. Crystal has an amazing ability to keep me sane. She is extremely talented at making light of what seems like such an intense horrible life moment. She is my reality check. I can honestly say, I handle stress better than I ever dreamed of since being friends with Crystal. Last but not least there is Lindsey Hirzel. Linds wasn't on our team at nationals but was a huge part of our wolfpack. Linds is the mother hen, or more like big sister hen. She is so giving and is always doing things for her friends. I mean heck she even made dinner for her friends on her own birthday. I say big sister hen because mother hen seems overbearing, which she isnt. She is a blast to be around and always has your back. So as I am sure you can tell Vegas or not, I would have the time of my life with this group anywhere.

Audra Penney
My bestie mc besterson got married to the love of her life this summer. Kirk Penney is also a Badger. He was a stud basketballer for UW a few years before we got to school. He is originally from New Zealand and plays for the national team called the Tall Blacks. The wedding was beautiful and of course had the typical Audra touches. She and Kirk wrote personal notes to EVERY guest that was at their place at the dinner tables. The center pieces were places like Madison or Auckland and had a story with a picture that told a special memory for the two of them at that place. I would expect noting less for Aud.

6-Man

This is one of the most popular tournaments of the year. It is a 6 v 6 sand tournament where the teams dress up in costumes. I have wanted to play in this since first seeing the pictures of it in Volleyball Magazine as a 7th grader. I played on a team with a few of my wolfpack friends. Our team was sponsored by a restaurant in hermosa beach called good stuff. We wore chef aprons and hats that said “this chef only makes good stuff”. We finished well in the tourney losing to Kerri Walsh (and her team, but she was their team)! I got to dig her 3 times! Granted it was because we had a triple block up on her and it forced her to hit around it but still. I had such a fun time that I decided to cancel my flight home and live out in Cali. I stayed for a month playing beach and working camps in order to be able to have money to live. I also met Lindsey’s roommate Em Stockman. She played at Withcita State and moved out to pursue a beach career. Life was good. We played beach everyday sometimes twice a day and I mostly hung out with Em. She is an amazing person. Super loyal and a true friend. These types of friends are hard to find so it was great to have out in cali where I didnt know a lot of people. I miss getting to hang out with her and her insanely crazy friends. In fact, I was so inspired by the insanity that I began writing a book!

North Carolina
This is where I am right now. This is what I started to write this bloggerific blog about. However, I am sick of talking about myself. You my friend are just going to have to wait to find out what I am doing down in this lovely state.

More POWER to you...

From last night…and I quote…
Well, it has been a good run, avoiding this thing I call my blog. However, it has been forced upon me. You see…in the lovely world of professional VB…you get, well – surprised (ALL THE TIME). Like tonight, I was mid-Panini-making delightfulness…when- WHAMO… NO freaking power. I went to check the circuit breaker because we had a major issue with it when we first moved in, but it was fine. I am pretty confident that the power was cut because the bill wasn’t paid. My logic behind this…we haven’t seen a pay check in two months! Now this is a regular occurrence in the euro pro vb season, scratch that... euro pro sports. Our bball team didn’t even finish the season because the player when on strike. We could have gone on strike over a month ago, but in good faith continued to play. However, with this latest development, things could be changing. We will have to see…
Anyway, sitting here at the wonderfully candlelit table, I feel it is time to stop avoiding this ever dreadful blog and get to it. So here goes… (and fair warning I am about to completely plagiarize the first part of this from miss Berkley’s blog, so for you avid berks blog readers… hang in there)
Easter in Cyprus is a huge holiday. The Cypriots spend almost 5 days celebrating the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus so we decided to see what it was all about and celebrated the holiday with our manager's family. On Thursday night, our manager's wife, Theresa, picked us up and we went to church with them at St. Lazarus's Church. We have walked by the church many a time, but have not been inside until Thursday…which reminded me of the love of the Ring Church in Germany. (for those of you that don’t know this, we passed it a few times a day and every time my roomie Erica was like I Love this church and want to go in it before we leaver). Anyway, St. Lazarus was built during the medieval times and was stunning inside. At church we saw Jesus being crucified, he was put up on a cross and the priest walked all around the church. The church was packed, there were no seats in sight, so we stood on top of the stairs and tried to see from afar. I was holding onto the side of the wall and peering around the corner. We arrived late at the service but apparently that is commonplace as the church service is very long. We got there around 8 and the service was to go until midnight. We didn't stay very long because we couldn't understand anything as they were talking in ancient Greek. Even the kids didn’t understand, because they don’t learn ancient Greek in school anymore. (rock on English) Anyways, it was very cool to see and go to a church in a different country.

The next night, Jess came into town, and we went to check out church again for Good Friday. Theresa picked us up again and we went to St. Lazarus' Church. However, this time there was no chance of getting inside. There were people just packed outside of the church preparing for Jesus' funeral. We waited outside until the military band came out, the "girl scouts" marched by, the high priests, city mayor, and finally Jesus covered in flowers proceeded throughout the entire downtown of Larnaca. The processional goes around the city and stops by other churches who join in and have a ceremony in the middle of the city. After watching the processional at the church, we walked to Theresa's aunt's house to wait for the processional to come by again so we could get a much better look at it. At the house, we had all sorts of food and drinks, and chatted with the family. Finally, the processional came by and it was really cool to see. It was somewhat emotional for some because it was like you were seeing a real funeral procession. Not so much for others like Amanda who said, “I LOVE PARADES” like we were at the 4th of July in Wisconsin and they were going to be through candy out to us in the crowd. After the procession went by, the priests gave Theresa's mother holy water so she put it on our hands and we put it on our faces. So now we are all holy I guess?? The next day, the church takes down all of the black cloth (that is put up all around the church) and there is a huge celebration. Church service basically runs the full day until 1 in the morning. Throughout the whole night there were pipe bombs and fireworks going off. We decided not to take part in this part of the Easter because we went to the beach instead.

On Saturday, we all went to the beach in Agia Napa. We ran into Morgan, her fiancé Matt and their friend Luke (they are the other Americans playing on the island). It was a gorgeous day and we were able to get a ton of sun, play some beach volleyball, and jump off of a 2 story boat. There was this party boat that came close to the beach so we decided to swim out to the boat to see if we could jump off of it too. It took about 20 minutes just to get there and had Morgan not be so set on doing this, I might not have had the strength to swim out, but we followed our fearless leader out and all we did was hop on the boat, go to the second story, and then jumped off. After we jumped off, we swam back to shore. After spending all day at the beach we headed to cape Greco to show Jess some amazing views of the island. (All the pics can be seen from the link on the side of the page that goes to my shutterfly). We got to cape Greco just into to see the sun set. It was fantastic! Afterwards we met back up with everyone at the Mexican restaurant where there were sombreros, ponchos, guns, and bulls. Naturally this all means that we needed to do a photoshot wearing a sombreros and ponchos, holding guns, while riding bulls. After going bull riding, we headed back home to prepare for Easter Sunday and the lamb roast.

On Easter Sunday, we went to Theresa's mother's house for lots of Cypriot food. There was a full lamb roasting, along with pork kebabs, and other crazy meats. There were also some bird heads and meat that were on a table and our manager, Xenios, just took a head, beak and all, and put it in his mouth and ate it. The bird heads were from those normal little birds that you see flying all the time. It was just crazy and I was not about to try and eat a beak. Aside from little bird heads, there was a ton of food to try including lamb, potatoes, pasta salad, and other meats that I wasn't quite sure of what it was. After stuffing our faces with Cypriot food, we talked with most everyone, had desserts, and played with the kids. I played DJ hero with our manager’s son, while Jess and Amanda learned a new game from Aleksandra and Andreas that they had a blast with. It was called pikachu and it was basically like rock paper scissors, except if you lost, you got slapped in the face. I am glad I played DJ Hero… no face slapping involved.
I was super sad to say goodbye to Krista as they left for Greece, where they are now building a hut on the beach to live. No for real they did that! I can’t wait to get updates from her. Jess has since left for DC, and Amanda is now in Athens. We have our last practice tonight and last match tomorrow. We will finish 4th in the league, which was the team’s goal. We lost in 4 Tuesday to Anorthosis, Morgan’s team…the natty champs. We lost the 3rd and 4th set by only two points, so it was a good match at least. After the match on Friday Triin will leave for Estonia…Berks will get back from Athens and it is 2 weeks of beach and sun and relaxation before heading home to the craziness I call summer.

Sheila and I have another good camp season set up. (Sports Up) Must say- I am very proud to be a small business owner. Although taxes were a pain in the- you know what. Then it will be time to start gearing up for the OHS season (OHS VB) Crazy how fast it all has gone! Anyway, time to go play some cards at our romantic candlelit kitchen with Triin and Josh!
Yasas!

Pafos: Ancient Ruin Climbing

I know that I tend to start ever blog lately with this, but I am sorry for taking so long to post. We have not been doing to much lately except tanning, relaxing, watching criminal minds (a show about the FBI), and hanging out in the "bat cave". This is the name for our room because of the amazing shutters that keep the sun out during the day for Criminal Minds Marathon-ing or late afternoon sleeping! All of this has been in the name of saving money for our trip to Egypt!

Last week however was an exception to our usual week, thus a new blog...

We had a few days off for Cyprus Independence day so Amanda and I headed out to Paralimni to spend a few days with Loizos, Kendra, and their friend Stephanie who is visiting from NC. We had a girls’ night out which meant Loizos was on "little one duty". Something tells me that he didn’t mind this much at all though. :) The girls went out and it was fun to get to know a bit more about Stephanie (she is 21 and goes to Gardner Webb). It is really awesome having another American our age here.

The next day Amanda and I went to the beach to get some sun!! Then we had a traditional Cypriot lunch at Loizos' family home. His mom is an excellent cook, and it was really cool to see where Loizos grew up as well as hear some really intriguing stories from his mom. I was so grateful for this meal, because it reminded me of what I fell in love with when I first arrived to Cyprus. Funny how we lose sight of the amazing things that are right in front of us sometimes.

Anyway... The weekend brought a road trip!!!! We went to Pafos, the birth place of Aphrodite! We stayed at a beautiful hotel and did a TON of site seeing. We saw amphitheaters, tombs of the ancients kings, amazing natural landscapes, beautiful handmade mosaics, everything from the sea to the mountains! I think the coolest part of all was the fact that we went back to the hotel and could look up the places we were visiting in the Bible! So much history it is hard to even fathom it all. The part that is the craziest of all is that they let you just wander around! We were climbing Castles from the 2nd century AD and lying down in the tombs of the kings (which really were not kings, because it was in a time period before kings, but they were really rich people…maybe why it was originally named that?)!

Here are a few of my fav pics from the weekend...

New Pics and Video Up...

http://aekcyprus.shutterfly.com/

"Baxter, you know I dont speak spanish, in English please...:"

So today I got to do what I do best...COACH! It was so much fun! I was a bit nervous going into it (which I never am coaching a new group of people). Why this change? Well, maybe it was because I was going to be along in a gym with 15 kids from ages 10-13 who speak GREEK! Yeah, that’s right...Greek. Keep in mind I speak hardly any. I know my numbers 1-20 and a few phrases. That is about it however.

Well, luckily for me I always coach with a lot of body language and demonstration. I really had to use that today. I didn't even develop a true practice plan because I needed to first asses their skill level. We did some basic ball control drills and games and then, while the girls were getting the balls and on break for water, I decided the rest of the practice.

I was a bit uneasy because there were a group of parents watching the end of practice. I am never a big fan of parents while I am coaching, because I just always assume the worst. I figure it is better that way, because if I get a compliment than it is a pleasant surprise. Anyway, after the practice one of the parents came up and introduced herself. She told me what a great job I had done with the girls today, how they looked like they were having so much fun and learning a lot. Then I heard that one of the kids asked if I could stay as their coach (I am just filling in while their coach is on vacation).

I guess that is a good sign that I am in the right profession, considering that I don't speak the language but was still able to teach. What a new and challenging experience, but it is one I am so thankful for! I loved working with the kids today and can't wait to work with them again tomorrow!