Surprise! GB in Quimper!

Thursday January 7th-Saturday January 9th

I'm going to take you back 2 weeks time. You may not remember what you were doing on that Thursday the 7th, but I sure do. If I didn't, this blog might be a little boring. A typical thursday usually consists of breakfast 9:30am, French class 10am-11:30am, Training 12-2pm, lunch 3pm, video anaylsis 8pm, Training #2 8:30-10:30pm, dinner 11pm, and then an episode of "Rescue Me".

However, on this particular thursday, the Great Britain National team arrived at the Ibis Hotel in Quimper in preparation for a 3 day training period with my french team Quimper Volley 29.

It was great to see the girls again! I missed them over the christmas training period. I don't know why they thought they had to speak french with me. Anyways, they had arrived safely and full of banter!

We trained the following day in preparation for our "official" match on Saturday evening.

Ok, so now we're to Saturday evening the 9th. We're playing in a brand new gym in Quimper. Our typical home crowd has come, 600 people, "God Save the Queen" has been played energizing team GB, and now we're ready to play.

Great Britian vs. Quimper

Maybe nows the point to mention, I played with Quimper against my national team. Due to having now just 2 middles on Quimper, it was necessary to play with them. Lucy and Rach (my fellow brits on Quimper) played with GB.

It was a challenge mentally that I hope I never have to do again. The only thing I could focus on was...to just play. I was psyched up to play a great game of volleyball and wanted to win. The match went back and forth, lasting 5 sets. I suppose the biggest challenge occurred during the match right after Rachel got a line drive hit smack in the face. She was not being able to see and a time out had to be called. So after this time out, I'm up to serve. As I'm walking back to the end line to serve I'm thinking, "I can't believe I'm about to do this". Do what? Serve Rachel. And that I did.

It's all in the past now. In the end, GB pulled out a better performance in the 5th set, beating us 15-10 (I'm not sure if that's the actual score, but it was around there).

So it was a successful weekend for GB. They won, played competative volleyball for 3 days in France, got to meet the major of Quimper, eat well, and practice their french (ou est la salade?)

The weekend brought lots of excitement for our summer season beginning in May!






(first photo, i'm right behind the libero for GB, maz)
(second photo, about say good luck to #2, lucy)

I'm #15, 2nd top left









The Mayor of Quimper

west coastin

So it's apparent I'm not the best blogger but that''s all about to change. I've set myself the task to blog it once a week. Giving you updates on volleyball, living in France and I may even throw in a funny story or two!

Well since I've last written, much has happened (maybe that's why I haven't written, excuse #1). My season in France is a little more than half way over. We have 9 matches left and are currently tied with 2 other teams for 3rd, 4th and 5th. So in my mind, we are currently 3rd in the league with the ambition to take 1st!

We've had a great new addition to the team. So now not only do we have two Brits (yes I'm a Brit) on the team but we now have a 3rd. To join Rach and I, Lucy's come to run her quick and wonderful offense (no I'm not sucking up to the setter).

Our last match before Christmas was in Lille, 9 hours away. Straight from there, me, Rach and Luc drove to Caille to catch the Euro Tunnel. I definately had someone looking out for me, because we were lucky to catch the tunnel due to the mountains of snow and glacial streets. All it took to get home was a 30 min Euro Tunnel journey, 2 hour drive to London Heathrow Terminal 3, one sleepless night in the airport for 11 hours, a delayed flight, 11 hour flight to LAX, 2 hour wait in LAX because I'd

missed my connecting flight to San Francisco, one 55 minute flight to SFO, 2 giant hugs from Claire and Manolo, and to finish a 45 minute drive to my sister's.

After meeting up with Bogie (Lindsey Bogason, for those who think I'm talking about boogers) in the city for dinner the night after my arrival, Claire and I woke up early the following day to drive down to LA along the 101 (Highway 101) beca

use the grape vine was closed on the 5. Our should be 6 hour drive became a 9 hour drive.

If you must know, by this point I was so tired of traveling. Thank goodness for the next week I was at home with the parents and brother, taking in the greatness that California is.

Had a wonderful time playing Wii, watching the Lakers loose Christmas Day, catching up on movies, driving ar

o

un

d to find starbucks, "Shazzaming", watching the sunset, eating my body weight in mexican food and desserts, midnight mass in spanish and english, and just chilling with the family. Ryan and I slowly learned that when playing Wii Ski Jump, you need to reset the weight on the Wii board, otherwise you just keep falling off and score 0's across the board. The laughter from my mom made that fact that I was loosing a lot more enjoyable.

Having been away from California for so long, I've now picked back up on the slang and really enjoy using "yummy" and "totally" more in my vocabulary. My literary liscense is expanding!