a whole lot of nothing...

These past two days have been pretty lazy, hahah seems to be the trend around here.
The practices have been pretty much the same as last week. We started off with running, agilities, abs, etc. and then moved onto volleyball. Today was fun we did some ladder drills and jump training and then did some hitting lines and played six on six. New girls keep showing up at different practices, so we are not quite sure exactly what the team is going to look like, but apparently we are still missing another setter who should be coming in the next couple of days.
I guess we practice tomorrow, then we have thursday off, and weights on friday then possibly scrimmage saturday just against ourselves. And sometime within the next week we should be moving into our permanent apartment!!!! I can't wait i am so excited to see it, unpack, and not live out of a bag.
This week the weather here has been cooling off at night! It finally isn't 100 degrees all the time! During the day it heats up, but there is more of a breeze, but we have to wear sweatshirts and sweatpants home from practice and it feels amazing. Not too cold, but i would say perfect!
We have made friends with the people at the little pizzeria around the corner from us, because they are open when we get out of practice, and its always too late for us to want to cook, so we stop there and order some food and they enjoy us, and even give us a discount on the bill!!!!!
Well off to bed for me, tomorrow we go grocery shopping and learn the streets of the town to the different stores.

Buona Notte!

italian word/phrase of the day: domani, alla stessa ora  "tomorrow, at the same time"

its the weekend...

These last two days have been super chill and we haven't really done anything too exciting.

Disco with our teammates and new friends

On saturday we sat around the apartment, did laundry and then headed to the "disco" with two of our new teammates and their friends. The place that we went was outside, near the beach that we went to in Sperlonga. It was funny because when we got there there was literally no one there, and the girls told us it would get more people as it got later, and man were they right. Around 1am the DJ started playing what we consider "old school" in the states. They played 60's disco music, they plays earth, wind, and fire, they played YMCA, etc. It was really funny. Every once in a while they would play some italian music or a couple more recent songs. But the girls were right, the place got packed, and lots of people crowded the dance floor. It was very fun to watch and experience with our new teammates.



Then today on sunday, we relaxed around the apartment again, decided to rent a movie on itunes and watch it, and cooked ourselves some spaghetti with meat sauce! It was very tasty. It is very interesting because during the day, the town was like a ghost town, we didn't hear very many cars going by, or people walking the streets. Then around 5pm the streets started to get louder and more people started to come out. It has been very interesting trying to figure out the type of hours and things they do around here.

italian word/phrase of the day: divertimento "fun"

Friday!!!

Today we had weights at 3:45pm. I met outside of the gym with the other girls then got a ride to the workout gym, which looked like any ordinary workout place. Lynnea didn't go with us because she had to see the doctor about her toes, they turned black and blue under both big toes. Without her, it made me realize that i am so happy i am not doing this by myself, I missed trying to figure out what people were saying with another person just as lost as me.

We did a total body workout, which is really different from weight lifting in the college. Today we did several leg exercises including squats, several different arm exercises including, bench, fly's, pulldowns, rows, etc, and some abs. After about a 2 hour work out I headed home.

While I was sitting in the my apartment with the windows open, I heard what sounded like a marching band walking past my house. I walked out to the balcony and looked down the street only to notice a crowd of people walking down the street following the band, very interesting. 

After the band went by, Lynnea and I decided to go get some gelato!!! We walked to the center of the city, only to find the squared packed with people. Every little cafe that had outdoor seating was filled with people. We walked to a little gelateria and successfully ordered gelato!!! I got menta and stracciatella which  is mint and chocolate chip!!! It was amazing! 

Italian word/phrase of the day: bravissimo "very well done" 

Sweating this much is rewarding...

Today I woke up and folded my freshly washed clothes, washed the dishes, and waited for Antonio and his wife to come over and teach us how to cook an Italian meal, pasta with fresh tomato sauce. We had a nice lunch with them then they headed back to what they were doing.

After lunch Lynnea and I decided to head out to explore Fondi. We want to head to the supermercato (supermarket) and then look at the little stores around our apartment. We knew that all stores closed around 1pm for about an hour for a lunch break, so we figure 4:30 should be a good time to explore Fondi. Well....not so much, turns out places don't reopen until 5pm, including the super market. So we walked around and looked for the stores we wanted to go in, making a note of them and then heading back to them at 5. After trying on some clothes in different stores we headed to the super market to buy some more food and lots of drinks drinks. I find myself thirstier here then I was in the US, weird.
After that, we headed back to the apartment feeling super accomplished because we successfully bought food and walked around the town on our own.
At 8:45 we headed to practice again, this time we started with a little bit of passing drills, then went into squats, lunges, abs and agilities. After that we headed back outside to the sidewalk to run. Then when i thought it was over, we went back into the court and starting doing some serve receive. Little did I know, i may be in the serve receive rotation every once in a while. hahaha excellent!

Communicating with the girls is getting easier and easier each practice, and we are smiling and laughing at each others comments, discomfort during running, and so on. But i'm pretty sure, I have never sweat this much in my life. My shirt was almost a complete different color, and sweat was dripping off of my legs, arms and face.

Tomorrow is just weight lifting i guess, so a little break. until then, ciao


italian word/phrase of the day: come stai?  "how are you?"

the town square, empty until after 5 apparently 

our practice gym

my shirt after practice

The New Track Team

The final product!!!

This morning Lynnea and I slept in and it felt great!!!

I got up, washed some more clothes and decided to be lazy around the house. We cooked out first meal in our apartment today for a lunch/dinner type of meal. It was halibut which we got from Pronto Freddo, which is owned by our club owner. With the fish, I made a baked potato and a salad!! We felt so accomplished after we made this meal!

After the meal we got ready for practice and headed to the gym. To find out we were doing the same type of running we did yesterday. But this time we only did 2 sets of 8 times running down the block. But before that we did 1 sets of 5 squat holds for 20 seconds and 1 set of 3 squat holds for 30 seconds. Then we did 3 sets of 15 abs both sides and 3 sets of 15 superman abs, and then 2 sets of running around the court, with a fast run on the longer sides of the court and a slow jog on the shorter sides.

Then after all of the running was done, we started to practice again. This practice we did a lot of 3 person passing and setting drills. Then we ended with some hitting. The two middles worked on hitting 1's back to area 1!

Well that's about the extent of todays practice...tomorrow i believe will be the same thing....same kind of running, everything, now starts the mental preparation....goodnight!

italian word/phrase of the day: sono molto stanca  "i am very tired"

Lynnea cooking our dinner!

Exactly what I expected, but not

This morning, Lynnea and I got ready to go shopping around our little town of Fondi, instead we were picked up by Davide and Fiorella and headed to Formia,  a little town about a half hour away. Che sara, sara. We walked up and down the streets of Formia and went into some of the little shops. Around here everything closes at 1:00pm for about an hour and a half. So after the stores closed we headed to the mall in Formia and continued to shop. I am very happy with my purchases!!!!!!!!!! 

At about 4pm we headed back to Fondi. First we drove through a little town, i don’ t know they name, but there is a navy base there, and they wanted to show us! Good to know english is only 30 min. away. On the way back Davide decided to inform us on what was going to happen at practice today. When he said suicides are universal, he really meant it. He also said we were going to interval sprint for 20. Lynnea and I were a little nervous for after he told us that, we did not know what to expect. 

It was definitely everything we thought it would be. Only 6 girls came tonight, and we started with a little fast feet and agilities, moved into a slow jog around the court until he blew the whistle then ran at 70% until he blew it again. 8 times. Then he decided to move the sprinting outside, keep in mind we are practicing at 9pm. It was dark, and the sidewalks are brick, I would say kind of dangerous. So after we ran down the sidewalk 8 times, twice. We went back to the court and did three suicides. It was very interesting. By this point it was about 10pm and we have to play volleyball for an hour! 

Luckily it was pretty technical things like passing and moving and then some 3 on 3 back row. So not to hard but my legs felt like jello. 

It is getting easier to communicate with the girls, and we could all tell by our facial expressions that we felt the same way about the practice. lol TIRED. We tried to ask how many times a week they do this, and we couldn't really get an answer....sooooooo I guess it will just be a surprise whenever it happens. 

italian word/phrase of the day: mi piace "i like"

my shirt after practice

those who know me, i don't usually sweat through my shirt 

First Practice

This morning when we woke up, we went to the store with Antonio and bought lots of food for our apartment, so we wouldn't have to go out all the time and can cook on our own. We bought a lot of meet, fruit, pasta, potatoes, etc.

After we got back to our apartment, i decided it was time to wash some of my clothes. WOW was that an experience. There are no washers or dryers so I had to use a little bucket with a scrubber and some snuggle laundry detergent and wash them by hand. Then I had to squeeze as much water out as I could and hang them off of our little balcony to dry. Its a good thing the air is so hot, because there was no sun at all shining on our balcony to dry the clothes. I only decided to wash my spandex, sports bras and socks, things that dry fairly quickly. We will see what happens when I decide to wash cotton shirts, jeans and other real clothes. I have a feeling those will take a little longer.

After I washed my clothes, Lynnea and I walked around the city a little bit looking for a bite to eat before our practice. We successfully ordered ourselves some food!!!! Thank you to the little Italian phrases we learned and pointing!

After that, Antonio showed up at our door with lots of goodies! We got 2 practice shirts, a pair of spandex, a zip up warm up jacket, pants to match, and a HUGE bag!!!! Its awesome! Then we walked to practice, which is like 5 min away. We watched the men's handball team finish up practice then we started.

Our warm up was probably like 30 laps around the court, well it was probably more like 15 or 20, but it felt like a million. Then we sat down, stretched and some of the girls did abs, and everyone just kind of got ready in their own way. While we were warming up, our coaches were measuring our height, standing reach, and approach jump. All measured on like the walls and a "mini basketball" hoop.

After that, we warmed up with some hitting lines, which were a little different then in the states. Here we toss our own ball to the setter, which is a little difficult for a middle, but I got used to it and everything worked out.  After hitting lines, we played a little six on six off of a free ball. We started practice around 8:45 and ended around 11. That practice went by so fast it didn't even seem that long.

All of the girls are super nice and I am excited to get to know them better. It is going to be a challenge because none of them speak english, and only a couple of them understand it, so we find ourselves speaking to each other in our native language, using a couple english or italian words here and there, with hand signals and then walking away hoping we each understood what we were trying to say. It was very interesting, but in the end it all works out! So first practice is over, and now i'm not so nervous.

italian word/phrase of the day: ci vediamo domani "see you tomorrow"

Washing my clothes

my clothes hanging to dry

me in my new shirt and spandex! 

End of the "Holiday"

Today we woke up again and headed to the beach! That seems to be the trend, and I mean why not, its right down the road and its very refreshing especially with how hot it has been. At the beach, Fedorica was convinced that Lynnea and I would be playing beach volley, but luckily the beach tennis nets were up.
Beach tennis is an incredible sport, its like volleyball but with a tennis ball and a special kind of racquet. You play with two people, like doubles tennis, but you can't let the ball hit the ground, like volleyball. Its a lot of fun to watch!

After the beach, we met up with Antonio our Director of Sports and we went to dinner with him and his wife. We all had buffalo steak, potatoes and salad! Its really really really really good! I want to try and find some buffalo steaks to cook back in our apartment!After that, Antonio took us to walk around the city center right were we live. At night on the weekends there are a lot of people around at night listening to music and sitting in the little cafes.

Tomorrow we start our first practice. I am super nervous about meeting all of the girls and being able to communicate with them.


italian word/phrase of the day: anche ho "me too"

Day at the beach

Today we got to sleep in because last night we were out super late, around here disco's don't close until 4ish.

When we woke up we got dressed and headed right to the beach with Fedorica, our marketing director for our club. We went to the same beach, but it was a lot hotter then yesterday. The sand was very hot. We laid around and went swimming and met a bunch of Fedorica's friends. They speak little english and we speak little italian so it was a very interesting day of trying to communicate, but every thing seemed to work.
At one point we went into the sea to cool off and I was looking around at the mountains and the town of Sperlonga that surrounded us and I was just so amazed and could not believe that it was going to be our home! It was so beautiful and amazing.
That is pretty much all we have done today, laid around on the beach. Tonight we will head to dinner with Fedorica and her friends and i believe i heard something in there conversation about a pub, so we will see were we end up.

Tonight we went to a town that is close by and there seemed to be everything anyone could imagine in this town. A carnival, gelato stores open at 12pm, clothing stores open at 12pm, newborn babies in bars, dogs in bars, you would be surprised at the things i saw.

On the way back from the beach today, i looked up in the mountains to find that there was a ring of fire burning, when i asked what was happening, they told me that crazy people set those with cigarettes. Didn't seem to be a big deal to them. So then when we left to go eat later on, i noticed that the little ring of fire was getting bigger and bigger, and the flames were quite large. On the way back from the bar tonight, I noticed that there was a large circle of fire in the mountains and it didn't seem to be a big deal to anyone who was from the town. The firemen where at the local hotdog stand getting hotdogs, I am interested to see how big the circle of fire is tomorrow....well thats all for tonight....ciao

italian word/phrase of the day: io ho fame "i am hungry"

The lido, and the city of Sperlonga with the sun setting

io non ci credo

Today we woke up and went to the store with Antonio, our Director of Sports. We wondered around the store trying to find things for our house, and looking at labels not knowing what exactly they were and hoping we were choosing the right thing. Then after that, we ate at a seafood restaurant with Antonio, and Antonio (club owner).

After lunch we got our bathing suits on and headed to the beach with Antonio our Director of Sports. Before the beach he took us up to the top of the mountain to show us the view of Fondi! It was amazing, I can't believe this is going to be my new home. After that we went to a town about 10 min away called Sperlonga, it is right on the beach. We went to a lido, which is a little place on the beach that sets up chairs and umbrellas to be rented out. We swam in the sea and walked up and down the beach with Antonio, while he explained to us what we were looking at. We saw the ruins of Caesars old vacation home, that was really cool.  After the beach, we came home and got ready to go to a barbeque to meet other coaches and owners in the club we will be playing for. There was lots of great food of course. After the bbq we went to a "disco" and danced to european techno music, it was tons of fun. We met our Physio (athletic trainer) and he provided plenty of laughes. I'm pretty sure everyone we met last night he told us was gay, including himself, then he would laugh and say no no...so Lynnea and I didn't really know what to believe. We learned to tell him, io non ci credo, I don't believe you.

Italian word/phrase of the day: io non ci credo "i don't believe you"

view of Sperlonga Beach from a surrounding mountain 

View of Fondi from a surrounding mountain 

Fondi

Today we got up, and packed our stuff and loaded it into, or should i say, onto, Davide's little car to drive to our home for the next 9 months, Fondi!

We spent about an hour trying to figure out a way to tie our large bags to the top of Davide's car. We came up with a way, but Lynnea and I were convinced that we would see one of our bags go flying by our windows while we were driving down the highway. We were preparing ourselves to go shopping for a new wardrobe.

Davide tying our bags to the roof of his car

After that, we drove about 2 hours south of Rome to a town called Fondi, on the way we stopped at a camp ground to meet our other coach, and Sport Director. We then drove to a restaurant, which was on the beach, to meet the two owners, and have lunch with them. Once again, this lunch consisted of large amounts of food, and Lynnea and I are wondering to ourselves how they expect us to stay skinny...haha. The town we are staying in is about 10 minutes away from the Tyrrhenian Sea, has 3 lakes and is surrounded by a Mountain Range, I'm pretty sure it doesn't get better then this!

On our way into Fondi after lunch, we stopped at our club owners Market, and loaded up on some fish, fruit and veggies so we could cook in our apartment! We met everyone who worked there, so they know who we are whenever we go in! After we got our food, we headed to our new apartment.

This apartment we are in, we will be living in for about 3 weeks, because our real apartment is still being used for summer vacation. So once that is ready for us, we will be moving, one last time. The apartment we are in right now is pretty nice, it is one room and bed, so Lynnea and i have to share a bed, but not in the other one. We have a bathroom, a nice kitchen and a random room for storage. Every room is furnished. So this is my home for the next 3 or so weeks.


Italian word/phrase of the day: io gioco al centro  "i play in the center (middle)"

io ho capito

We are still in Roma, and Lynnea and I were taken to see The Vatican City and the spanish stairs. After we woke up we were cooked another authentic Italian meal, and then we went to pick up Fiorella's cousin who came to visit from Milan because it is Fiorella's birthday. He can speak 5 or 6 languages and was very helpful with the translation between us and Davide or Fiorella. From the bus station, we went right to the Spanish Stairs and continued to walk around Rome. We saw all of the name brand clothing stores, like Chanel, Bvgalri, Louis Vuitton, etc. After finding some very good gelato on the way back to the car, we made our way to The Vatican City. We did not go inside but we walked around the St. Peter's Square! After that we headed back to Fiorella's home to celebrate her birthday with her friends and family. We met many people, who spoke some english and we learned several more italian phrases, along with the masculine and feminine endings. I am starting to get it and it is only the 2nd day! Fiorella's sister who knows english says that we are very good at Italian and we will learn quickly, so I am super excited. At dinner we had steak along with some kind of sausage. It was very good, alot of food, again I found myself saying sono piena.

Tomorrow we are off to our new home, Fondi!!!! We are soooo excited and can not wait to meet the president, the manager and whoever else from the club we have to meet as well, and finally move in!

Italian word/phrase of the day: io ho capito  "i understand" and  io non ho capito  "i don't understand"

St. Peter's Square- Vatican City

Me standing in St. Peter's Square

St. Peter's Square again

The Spanish Stairs

Italia, Here we come!

After signing with a volleyball club in Fondi, Italy (Pallavolo Fondi), Lynnea and I hopped on a train and started our journey to our new home for the next 9 months. CRAZY!!!

Our first stop, Rome. We are staying with our coaches girlfriend, Fiorella, or Flo for short, until it is time to make our way to Fondi.  I wasn't really sure what to expect, spending a couple days with a new coach  I did not know and can't always communicate with, but it has been such an awesome experience, and I can probably say I haven't stopped laughing since I've arrived in Rome. Davide and Fiorella are constantly teaching us Italian and Lynnea and I are constantly helping them out with their English, this has provided some very hilarious moments! I can say that I am happy I don't have to drive here, because although there are lanes on the road, cars and scooters don't really have to stay in them and can pass and cut each other off whenever they pretty much want. Lynnea and I have probably seen our lives flash before us a couple times, again providing us with laughs.
Today we walked around Rome with Fiorella and our coach Davide. They showed us the Colosseum (Colosseo), the Basilica di S. Marco and the Trevi Fountain. All of which were amazing sights to see!!! 

These last couple of days Lynnea and I have been learning so many different, and random, words and phrases! From sono piena "i'm full," to the alphabet and numbers, to Vorrei "I would like"! But I must remember to pronounce my "r," "rrrrrrrrr" with a roll of my tongue!! This is going to be interesting and very very fun!







Italian word/phrase of the day:  sono piena   "i'm full"


thats all for today, enjoy a couple pictures of my time in Roma!!!

The Colosseum at sunset!

Me in front of the Colosseum!

In front of the Trevi Fountain!