February 27, 2009

My New Hobby

So I have kind of been in a little rut lately with only 2 months left I decided to pick up a new hobby. I have wanted to try out photography for a while and was inspired by how cool Erica's friend Lauren's pics were. I saw some of her work from the Xmas Markets and finally decided I was going to get a camera and try it out. After all I am in a pretty cool place and need to pick myself up and get excited about something, since volleyball just is not doing it lately.

So here are some pics from my first few days with my new camera....




February 10, 2009

Another Upset!!!

We upset another team in the league (N.A. Hamburg)! We have now won 5 straight matches and moved up 3 spots in the league since the new year! We are now the only team that is undefeated in 2009! It was a 5 Set match that took over 2 hours so if you want to see the best part watch the last two sets. :)

> On my computer I have to watch it in Internet Explorer and not
Firefox.

> http://www.sportdigital.tv/show/wmv/11817/NA.Hamburg-1.VC_Wiesbaden

> Log in at the top right corner with WackyJackie5@aol.com and the
> password is badgers.

> Then click Mein Profil. Scroll down to the bottom and our match is
> against N.A. Hamburg. Click Zum Spiel.

>As far as I can tell only one computer can watch the match at a time so if you try to log in and it you have problems it is probably because someone else is watching the match. So just try back later.

>Here is a link to some pictures from the match!
http://www.na.hamburg-volleyball.de/2008-2009/1/17-galerie/1731-hs-wiesbaden/index.html


> Enjoy!

February 3, 2009

Movin' On Up

Hey All,

So we won yet another match this past Sunday so we have now moved up into 5th Place in the League. We are two matches behind the three teams tied for second and 3 matches behind first place. Our team has now won 4 matches in a row!!!

After our match we went to YOURS Sports Bar (the American style sports bar) in town to watch the super bowl. A few of our teammates came with us to watch the game, along with the table tennis team. It was really fun because they all asked us Americans which team we were cheering for. Sheila and I picked the Steelers and Erica was cheering for the Cardinals. The best part of the night was the fact that all of our friends know even less about football than we do so they would hear us starting to cheer and would celebrate. Karo, from Poland,would keep asking if what just happened was good or bad and based on my reaction she would either cheer or booooooo. haha It was super fun. Hong our teammate from China had her first American Cheeseburger and loved it!
It was a really fun time and one of our friends bought everyone this crazy shot that you light on fire and has coffee beans in it!!! I do NOT recommend it because it tasted like liter fluid and Listerine. The funny part was when he was instructing us how to take the shot (without catching fire)... he told us to hold onto the "bones" and chew them after. We were confused until he explained it again telling us to hold onto the "coffee bones".... hehe
Yesterday we had the day off!!! Erica and I drove around running errands and just doing our best to be on top of things. It has been very hard to be motivated the past month since the sun is NEVER out and we have been practicing more and more. However, yesterday was a great day and we got soooo many things accomplished. At IKEA (the proper way to say it is E-K-AH, silly Americans) there was this amazing stir-fry pan for only 5 Euro! We decided it was a necessity to buy and make a stir fry for dinner. It was so fun to make and was twice as delicious. Made me really start to think about that restaurant I want to open one day.

Well, the sun is out and I have a lot to get done before practice today! I hope everyone has a great day. Miss you all!

January 26, 2009

Euro Beer Pong, Chinese New Year, Park Café

So we won another match last night in 4. It wasn't our best performance by any means, but a win is a win. Plus that makes us 3-0 in 2009. Things are going much better for us now. We are still ranked 6th in the league, but some of the top teams have been dropping some uncharacteristic matches... so we hope to be moving on up soon.

As you know our team is from 8 different countries with all sorts of different customs and cultures. Last night was Chinese New Years so we decided to have a party at our house after the match. All of the girls brought CD's of their favorite music, and we ordered pizzas for dinner. The pizza guy is in LOVE with Erica so he brought us two free pizzas and a bottle of this tasty peach liquor. We taught the girls on our team some American drinking games that are pretty traditional in college.

After a fun night at the house a few of us went out to Park Cafe. It is this cool Disco (dance club) that we go to sometimes. It was fun to hang out with the whole team and just enjoy being around each other. I really think this will be good for us, because it brought everyone together.

Today is a free day and we spent the morning cleaning the disaster we call our kitchen and then tonight I think we are going to go out for dinner. Hope all is well back home! Keep posting comments it is so good to hear from all of you! Miss everyone! :)

January 24, 2009

The Looooong Day Is Over...

"Feeling tired
By the fire
The long day is over

The wind is gone
Asleep at dawn
The embers burn on

With no reprise
The sun will rise
The long day is over"

We have been practicing twice a day and it has really started to take a toll on my body. The tendinitis and disk pain has all started up again. Today we had a 1.5 hour serve and pass practice, followed by Kraft Training (lifting) and a 20 minute jog. The gym is on the other side of Wiesbaden and we have to eat lunch as a team after so we had only a few hours before having to get ready for our 2.5 hour evening practice. We are tired and drained. Although we are playing one of the bottom teams in the league I am a bit nervous considering how beat up the team is.

On a better note however Taylor Reineke who I played with at Wisconsin just got signed in Switzerland! She is living only 4 hours away and I was able to see her last weekend! We had Sunday off and Taylor had Monday off so Erica and I drove down to watch Tay play on Sunday night. Well it took a while to get there what with our McDonalds and other fine snacks stops that we were 30 mins late getting into the city. On top of that Tay had only been there for a week and didn't have an adress for the gym, just the street and a name of the gym (the wrong name). So it was dark and icey and we were lost.

Our GPS (Gigi) is a little jerk and tends to go a little crazy at times, while needless to say we followed this narrow icy path that we JUST IN TIME figured out was not a path but a boating DOCK! We were literally on the river dock! Erica realized this not because we saw the water but we saw a boat rocking right next to us. We slowly and as calmly as possible backed up and onto the street again. About 5 minutes later we were on the bike path in the back of the university! The car was fish tailing around and there may have been a few moments where I thought we were going to crash, but Erica is awesome and we made it back to the main street.

By the time we made it to the gym the match was over :( but we went for crepes with Tay to celebrate her first Pro match! After that we drove home to Wiesbaden and Taylor and I went out to YOURS Sports Bar, which is an American style sports bar with an english menu and live feeds from the military base of the NFL! We watched the steelers/ravens game and pretended like we were back home in Madison! It was awesome.

The next morning Tay and I went to Frankfurt to tour around and have lunch. It was so awesome to see her again and just to hang out with someone from home. I am sure we will be traveling around together soon. The pics from when Tay was here are in the Friends and Family link to the left.

Well we have practice in the morning so I should get some sleep, or at least try...

Ciao for now! haha :)