Feb. 7, 2011
Well, it's been about a month since I've been in Finland. It's been an exciting one too! I've been having a great experience and I'm so glad I got this opportunity! We've traveled all but one weekend for volleyball, all to places at least a 10 hour bus ride away. But it's not so bad; we have a TV on the bus and watch lots of movies and we can take our internet everywhere, even on the bus so we've got plenty to keep us occupied. Our most recent match over the weekend was great. We really had a breakthrough and won in four. Team chemistry seems to be getting better each day. We've got 3 matches left and they are pretty much do or die. We are fighting to get into playoffs but as we all know, now is the best time to be really coming together as a team and that's what we are doing. We have 2 matches this coming weekend and they are both at home which is great! Home court advantage! And then we've got a scrimmage the weekend after that. I'm really looking forward to everything.
Yesterday, Emily (my roommate/teammate) and I had a Super Bowl party - just us two. We had nachos and chili and lots of other junk food for the celebration. Luckily we were able to access it via the internet from DVR back in Iowa. Technology sure is amazing these days. It felt great to vegetate on the couch and watch football! Neither of us had any real attachment to either team so we each picked one. I picked the loser...boo. I picked them because they are black and gold and I like those colors. I also thought about picking Green Bay because I like cheese a lot, but the colors overruled. Oh well, no big deal.
This week, I've been invited to go to Oulu with one of the sponsors for Paka. We are going to see a men's volleyball match. It is the team from Oulu vs. the team from Rovaniemi. We've met the team from Rovaniema so it will be a lot of fun to watch and the sponsors have a nephew on the Oulu team. It should be a blast. And on our next weekend off at the end of February, we are thinking about traveling somewhere else in Europe (but only if we can find good priced flights). I'm going to cross my fingers!
Now, you're probably wondering what a typical day is like in the life of a "professional" volleyball player? I put it in quotes because I hardly see myself as a professional athlete. I don't feel any different or look any different than before! Well, I'll tell you what a typical day is like. It starts at about 7:30. We get up and dressed for practice, head to the gym and practice starts at 8 and ends usually around 9:30. Then on the days we feel like it, we do a little extra workout which is usually some cardio and light weights. Or sometimes we'll walk from the gym to the market if we need any food or supplies. Then we head home until about 6:45 at night. During the day we take naps, watch movies, get bored, eat, read, eat, take naps, eat and well I've found myself doing a lot of baking. Cookies mostly. Lots of cookies. I usually bake enough to share with the team and it makes my days fly by because I love to bake...and experiment too. Then once 6:45 rolls around, we are off to practice again. We practice 7-9 and then head home to wait until practice the next day. On Monday & Wednesday nights we get a little change-up with weights for about an hour. We try to do mostly explosive moves to help us on the court. And that's pretty much the life we live. Our apartment is nice. We live at the cheese factory and we have 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom a nice little kitchen and a living room. The space is nice and not crowded at all. We live about 5 km outside of Kuusamo so we have a car. A little Volkswagon Golf. Since I've been here, I've learned to drive the stick shift because that's just about what everyone here drives. I must admit it makes me feel a little bit macho to know how to drive a stick. I'm not sure why but it does.
So far I've really been enjoying my experience. My only complaint is that everything here is very expensive! 1.5 liters (not 2 like we're used to) of Diet Coke is about 2.50 Euros, which translates to $3.40 and the equivalent to our 20 oz bottles but actually smaller here is about $2.25 so unfortunately I will be suppressing that habit, which won't be a bad thing. And other things are very expensive here too. I've found that food has been costly for me and gas is pricey too. To fill up ½ the tank in our little car costs us 40 euros! (aka about $55). Luckily we don't drive much more than to town and back a couple times a day. But that's just about everything that's been going on so far. I'll try to update as much as possible so everyone back home can see how it's going over here in Finland.
Take Care, Jules