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.