FYI... Pics from thanksgiving will be added soon...
The night before my first practice I went to dinner with my coach to talk a bit about the team and the goals for our season. We went to this amazing restaurant called Stone Grill where you get to cook your own food at the table! I ordered BBQ chicken kabobs and they bring out the raw meat and you cook it on a hot stone that is like a ridiculous temperature. I mean it cooks in 5 mins! NUTS!
I learned a lot about my coach and the girls during our dinner. He is from Cyprus, but he went to college in North Carolina and then coached at Wake Forest. He has to be one of the nicest people I have ever met! His coaching philosophy is VERY similar to mine too which as you would guess makes practice a LOT of fun for me. After my experience last year over seas I didn’t know what to expect working with a coach from abroad, but he is awesome! We even run a similar offensive system! I am hoping to learn a lot from him that I can take back for my season at Oregon HS next fall.
At practice I met the girls who are sooo sooo soooo much fun! They remind me a lot of my OHS team, maybe because they are not much older! The girls are 19-22 so I am the mama bear. Everyone is from Cyprus except 4 of us. Triin (OH) and Krista (Setter) are from Estonia and Alina (MB) is from Belarus. Practices are only 2 hour day which my old beat up body just loves, but honestly it feels like practice is 5 mins long! We have so much fun and laugh a lot. People break out into song all the time, like Andrea our right side hitter got a big kill the other day during our scrimmage and started singing “I’ll take you to the candy shop” ahahha WOW did that bring me back a few years!
The team does an amazing job of translating to me, but honestly I really really want to learn Greek. I plan on staying here for… well EVER… so it is a must! It is such a fun language to listen to, and they tend to raise their voices a lot which I guess most people think they are yelling at each other or angry but everyone here is so nice and fun loving. There is a spirit about Cyprus that I am in love with. I have been to a lot of places and met a lot of people, and I know this is a extremely bold statement, but I honestly think that it is the greatest place in the world! I am in love with it and the people! It seriously feels like one big family. Everyone has been sooo giving and loving…it makes me want to work that much harder in the gym. I want to give back to them, because in only 3 days they have given me so much!
I have not spent a dime on food because I keep getting invited to other peoples homes for meals. I went with our club manger to the volleyball youth director’s house for an amazing meal yesterday. It was so much fun and right when I got there she gave me a big hug and brought me into the kitchen and started to teach me Greek phrases! At lunch they would start speaking and even though I had no clue what was being said I was happy as could be. I told them that I would really like to have a scooter and they are working on that for me!! It will be like Madison again, but to show how much people treat you like family…they were all very nervous at first saying NO NO NO it is sooo dangerous! But my coach assured them that my Madison mopeding experience of 5 years would be fine.
After lunch we went to the soccer game which was super fun! The team lost which was tough and let me tell you… our fans do NOT like to lose!!! After the game we were walking past all the mopeds and our club manger goes…which one do you like?? It is just the spirit here…it reminds me of that song “you can have whatever you like… you can have whatever you like… yeah”
Last night I went over to my teammates house and met their boyfriends. Triin’s boyfriend is also a volleyball player and he is from Australia! It will be fun to go watch his team play. We had planned on going out that night but were enjoying our time together talking and playing a game that is similar to catch phrase so we decided to just stay in. We wound up talking out on the balcony until 7am!!! Oh and by the way… We were in tshirts on the balcony…Randomly I was like, we should go swim in the sea!! So we did!
Today we went to my coach’s house for American Thanksgiving. Triin, Krista, and Josh all came to see what this Holiday is all about! My coach met his wife while in North Carolina (which keep in mind is where my whole family is from). They have been married 3 times! TO EACHOTHER! After 3 days of knowing each other they KNEW they were meant to be together. She said she called her mom and said, I am going to marry him! Later they were married just at the state building then a month later had a traditional American wedding and had their 3rd wedding here in Cyprus, which was a traditional big Greek wedding! The have the most beautiful 3 year old daughter who speaks better English than I do…she will probably be a model! No Joke! A bunch of my coaches friends and neighbors came over and we had turkey, stuffing, sweat potato pie, sweat tea, the whole bit! To show just how nice people are, my coach’s friend is an amazing guitarist and plays all the time at the clubs. When he found out I play guitar he told me I can borrow his acoustic that was his first ever guitar! Just sooo giving, total family atmosphere!! So much to be thankful for on our special thanksgiving day..not to mention… the food was amazing!!! My teammates and Josh had never had a lot of the food we had and Krista was in love with the stuffing! I prepared their baked potatoes because they had never had a loaded baked potato before!
The American guys from the basketball team in our club came with us too! They have been here since August and were soooo happy for American dishes! One of the guys Terrance is from Milwaukee! Small world right??? The other guy, Trent played at Wake Forest which is actually where my coach, taught and coached at while in NC. We even got to watch college football today! So much fun. After lunch we went over to the sea and walked around. We got to learn about what the bball boys now call “The Forbidden City”. It is right on the sea and from a distance looks like it could be Miami or something. Apparently when the Turks invaded years ago, 1970’s I think…it was a refugee camp and now is completely abandoned. It is a legit ghost town that is kind of frozen in time.
Well I need to get to bed, because I am going to go for my physical tomorrow morning. It looks like my paperwork will not have gone through by Tuesday so I wont be able to dress for the game, but it will be a good chance to take in the game atmosphere before having to play next week. Anyway, LG *life’s good!! Which is kind of the way of life here…I was on my way back up to my room and the old man at the desk wished me a pleasant rest so I stopped for a second to speak with him. He offered me a slice of his apple and told me… this life is very special, he said, make sure you live now, live today, you cant worry about the things from before because they are done, and you cant tell what will happen tomorrow or in 5 mins, so smile, live live live… what a perfect way to end a perfect thanksgiving day! I told him about how me and my friend Matt say LG!! for Life is Good, and the man at the desk said YES MY DEAR IT IS!! GOODNIGHT…
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