Wait for it to load and go 5 min into the video....
http://ib3noticies.com/20110130_137350-esports-vespre-30-01-2011.html
Monday, January 31, 2011
1/31/11 Ciutadella de Menorca and some pictures!
Hola! Its me again on 1/31/11...
So I woke up this morning and needed to get out of the house and figure my way around this town I live in. I have been here for over 2 weeks and have not seen any of it except for what I see walking to the gym and back, and now the Paula has left and I cant rely on her to show me around. I decided to just go and walk around and hope I wouldn't get lost. I knew the basic layout of the town, as in if I got lost just say "donde esta la hospital" (in my best Spanish accent) and hope they can point me in the right direction. I live right behind it so at least I know where to go if I hurt myself randomly, which I am prone to do, and can find my way home from there if I am lost, which I am also prone to be.
Anyways, I was looking for a place to get my nails done. While I am here in Spain playing I get into a routine that includes: sleep, eat, practice, sleep, practice, eat, sleep. Not a lot of time in there for other activities or even a need to step outside of the apartment sooooo most of the time I am in sweats (its cold right now in Spain, even on an island in the middle of the Med. Sea. Everyone thinks Spain is all warm and fun and exciting. It's not. Especially here. I guess when the warm weather does come though, the whole island transforms into exactly what you would picture when you think of Spain: tourists, beaches, sun, gorgeous men and women, fun, etc. Lucky for me I'll be gone before that time comes. haha. ps I am not complaining at all, just stating some facts) and comfortable clothes. But I digress, the main point I was trying to make was that getting a mani/pedi is the one thing that keeps me feeling girly. Everyone needs to get pampered every once in a while :)
After about 20 minutes of walking around in circles, I found the place I was looking for. I talked to a man outside of a tanning salon that wrote a name and street on a paper and basically made a lot of hand signals and looked at my like I should understand every word coming out of his mouth, which I didn't, but I smiled and said "oh, grassy-ass", sounding totally American. Whoops! Turns out I was walking in circles AROUND the place just didn't realize it. Lovely. So my nails looks great and I was feeling all proud of myself for finding it and decided to walk around some more and take pictures of the town. It is really old and has a lot of historical land marks. I found that out because I walked into a store and the lady gave me a city map and on it they had information about some of the buildings. There is even a museum! I was freezing cold and hungry so I stopped and got a bite to eat before heading home, which I will tell you I found without getting lost OR asking for directions. 1 point for women everywhere.
There is amazing architecture here and I took a few pictures while I was roaming around...
This was all I got done today. Tomorrow I am going to find the museum and take a bunch more pictures so stay turned!
Ky
So I woke up this morning and needed to get out of the house and figure my way around this town I live in. I have been here for over 2 weeks and have not seen any of it except for what I see walking to the gym and back, and now the Paula has left and I cant rely on her to show me around. I decided to just go and walk around and hope I wouldn't get lost. I knew the basic layout of the town, as in if I got lost just say "donde esta la hospital" (in my best Spanish accent) and hope they can point me in the right direction. I live right behind it so at least I know where to go if I hurt myself randomly, which I am prone to do, and can find my way home from there if I am lost, which I am also prone to be.
Anyways, I was looking for a place to get my nails done. While I am here in Spain playing I get into a routine that includes: sleep, eat, practice, sleep, practice, eat, sleep. Not a lot of time in there for other activities or even a need to step outside of the apartment sooooo most of the time I am in sweats (its cold right now in Spain, even on an island in the middle of the Med. Sea. Everyone thinks Spain is all warm and fun and exciting. It's not. Especially here. I guess when the warm weather does come though, the whole island transforms into exactly what you would picture when you think of Spain: tourists, beaches, sun, gorgeous men and women, fun, etc. Lucky for me I'll be gone before that time comes. haha. ps I am not complaining at all, just stating some facts) and comfortable clothes. But I digress, the main point I was trying to make was that getting a mani/pedi is the one thing that keeps me feeling girly. Everyone needs to get pampered every once in a while :)
After about 20 minutes of walking around in circles, I found the place I was looking for. I talked to a man outside of a tanning salon that wrote a name and street on a paper and basically made a lot of hand signals and looked at my like I should understand every word coming out of his mouth, which I didn't, but I smiled and said "oh, grassy-ass", sounding totally American. Whoops! Turns out I was walking in circles AROUND the place just didn't realize it. Lovely. So my nails looks great and I was feeling all proud of myself for finding it and decided to walk around some more and take pictures of the town. It is really old and has a lot of historical land marks. I found that out because I walked into a store and the lady gave me a city map and on it they had information about some of the buildings. There is even a museum! I was freezing cold and hungry so I stopped and got a bite to eat before heading home, which I will tell you I found without getting lost OR asking for directions. 1 point for women everywhere.
There is amazing architecture here and I took a few pictures while I was roaming around...
This is one of the main streets
A fountain with a statue of 2 fat people in the middle (haha this helped me a lot when I was trying to find my way around because everyone knows, as they made a circle with there hands and then water shooting up, "los chicos gordos" fountain.
The bakeries here are to DIE for. You can literally smell them before you see them and they have every assortment of pastries and bread you could imagine. I. Love. Carbs. (...speakin of gordo) ;)
This was an old building that is right on the way to my apartment that I always wanted to take a picture of. Its old. It was on my handy dandy map and said it was historical but that was all. I'll investigate more tomorrow.
Pretty building
These trees remind me of something that should be in a Disney movie or something. Fern Gully comes to mind for some reason...or maybe Pocahontus..? hmm
The roads are all so and small. But so are the cars and people soooooo.....
Pretty sure this is some important political building but there were doing construction in the front so I couldn't get a good look..
This was all I got done today. Tomorrow I am going to find the museum and take a bunch more pictures so stay turned!
Ky
1/31/11 After the Copa...
Hello all!
In my previous post I told you that we played Haro in the semi-finals (we beat Tenerife in the quarters) of the Copa de la Reina. That game was really important to us not only because we obviously wanted to get to the finals in the Copa but also because we had lost to them a few weeks earlier AND the coach of Haro in the news papers was kinda talking smack on our team saying that, "they did not need to prepare and blah blah", any ways we were all kinda pissed about that so we wanted to beat them, which we did! (SO HA!) We beat them in 4 and it was a good match. We played at 530pm and after stayed to watch the next game because the winner of that match would be our competition in the Finals the next day. Murcia was the winning team and they had won the Copa 4 years in a row! We had a quick turn around to play because we played Saturday night and had to play at 12pm Sunday afternoon. It would be a challenging game for both teams, mentally and physically. I will tell you more about the finals after I show you some pics...
This is my hotel room. I got to have my own because there is an odd number of girls. Usually I would stay with the trainer lady, but her boyfriend is our assistant manager so she stayed with him. Loved having a big bed and room all to myself to just relax in after practice and games.
This was my shower. It was ah-mazing.
This is Paula and I in the bus on our way somewhere. She has also been my roomie for the last 2 weeks but she left me this morning to go back to Puerto Rico :(
This was the gym that we played in for the Copa
Neat
Locker room before the finals
Vita and Sabrina (They are like 6'4!!)
Esther, our libero. She is the SH*T. Best libero in Spain and at one point all of Europe. Fact.
Ana y Alba
Okay so we woke up on Sunday and had breakfast and film and left for the gym. I was super nervous and woke up early and couldn't fall back asleep. The Copa is a HUGE deal in Spain and because I am new to the team I really wanted to do my part to help. The crowd was awesome and we had about 30 fan from Menorca come and support us! It was cool to have such a supportive fan base so far from home. They all had t-shirts and obnoxious noise makers. Loved it!
We won the first game 25-21, lost the 2nd game 22-25, lost the 3rd 21-25, won the 4th game 25-17, and lost the 5th game 14-16. It was such an intense match. Both teams made incredible plays and left everything out on the court. The last point we lost because the ref called a net on our side, which was the WORST way to end a final point of a final mach in the Copa, but what can ya do. Either way it was hard for me to feel particularly disappointed about the match. We gave everything we had and everyone played really well. We played with heart and together as a team so we deserved to win but sometimes it doesn't go your way and you have to just learn from it. Plus we will get them at the end of the season when we go to playoffs!
The travel home was long and pretty exhausting but we made it home safe. We now have 2 days off to recover, which is awesome. We played 3 matches in 4 days and our bodies are all tired. Not to mention mentally drained from the games as well. When you put that much heart and emotion into something it takes more out of you than you realize.
I am going to take this time off to walk around the city and take pictures and check out what's around me. I will post a blog and some more pictures as I go. As always, if there is anything you would like to know, feel free to ask!
Ky
Also it was my boyfriends birthday on Jan 29th, so I thought id give a shout out. Happy bday Nate! You're old! :)
Friday, January 28, 2011
1/27/11 COPA DE LA REINA!
Well my 24th bday came and went and it was a pretty relaxed day compared to other bdays I have had.....
We had a double day and were preparing to leave for the Copa de la Reina on Wednesday. The Copa de la Reina is basically the Spanish Queens Cup. The top 8 teams in the middle of the regular season battle it out. Unlike playoffs the playing order is randomly picked. We went into it being the number 1 seed and played the 3rd seed. Tomorrow we play the 5th seed. Also unlike playoffs, this is just 1 match and winner moves on. We played Tenerifi and won in 3. The games were really intense and we had some long rallys. Here is my teams facebook page if you want to follow it because they will constantly post on it about upcoming matches, scores, and the links to watch the games online. Had google translate open if you need help! Thats what I do :)
http://www.facebook.com/voleiciutadella
And here is a highlight of our game against Tenerifi!
Today is Friday and we had a light practice and get to relax the rest of the day. Tomorrow we play Haro which we lost against a few weeks ago. I was not able to play in this match ( I had arrived in Spain the day before) and we lost 24-26,24-26, 22-25. It was a tough match but we are more prepared and are ready to kick some booty!
When we win Friday (see what I did there? Positive vibes!) we play again on Sunday. We play at 530pm Saturay, which is 830am California time, and 12pm Sunday, which is 3am California time....so for all you late nighters if you wanna watch me play that would be awesome! I do not know the link for those matches yet but I promise I will keep you posted!
Just wanted to keep you updated on the schedule and I will talk to you again soon.
Ky
Monday, January 24, 2011
Hola Peeps! 1/24/11
Mmmk....well lets see....
On Monday after I posted that whole blog about my apartment I got SUPER sick. Pretty sure it was just the 24 hour flu but I couldnt eat or sleep for a few days and I was miserableeeeeee. Also I felt bad because I still had not practiced with the team yet, but literally could not get out of bed. We had a game on Wednesday but I was not allowed to play because it was a match from earlier in the year that they had to reschedule. It worked out better for me to recover though.
I was finally feeling better on Thursday and was able to practice and it went really well! The girls are all so competitive and it was fun practicing with them. It was nice to finally start playing again and get used to the gym and team. We left on Friday for a match and I dont know why but traveling from this island is the most difficult thing. We had to take 3 flights and had a 2 hour drive to get to this darn place! Each flight was only like 50 minutes long, so it could be worse BUT still not ideal. We won in 3 and I played and did fine. It was difficult adjusting to the setting because again we had only had a few practices together but it wasnt bad and we got the W so yay us!
We got home on Sunday night, after the same travel schedule as before....blah. And it felt so good to relax! I went over to one of the girls house and hung out with them for the night and it was really fun! I am getting pretty good at being able to understand and communicate with them. My spanish is improving... slowly! But I am dedicated to learning! We had lifting earlier this morning and film and practice later. We only have TWO days to prepare for the Queen's Cup. We travel Wednesday and play Thursday, Friday, Saturday I believe. We play Tennerife first and they are a good team so we need to have a couple good practices. Also I think they are going to be available to watch online so I will keep you updated.
Thats all for now!
If you want to know more leave a comment and I'll make sure I write about it next time!
Ciao!
Ky
On Monday after I posted that whole blog about my apartment I got SUPER sick. Pretty sure it was just the 24 hour flu but I couldnt eat or sleep for a few days and I was miserableeeeeee. Also I felt bad because I still had not practiced with the team yet, but literally could not get out of bed. We had a game on Wednesday but I was not allowed to play because it was a match from earlier in the year that they had to reschedule. It worked out better for me to recover though.
I was finally feeling better on Thursday and was able to practice and it went really well! The girls are all so competitive and it was fun practicing with them. It was nice to finally start playing again and get used to the gym and team. We left on Friday for a match and I dont know why but traveling from this island is the most difficult thing. We had to take 3 flights and had a 2 hour drive to get to this darn place! Each flight was only like 50 minutes long, so it could be worse BUT still not ideal. We won in 3 and I played and did fine. It was difficult adjusting to the setting because again we had only had a few practices together but it wasnt bad and we got the W so yay us!
We got home on Sunday night, after the same travel schedule as before....blah. And it felt so good to relax! I went over to one of the girls house and hung out with them for the night and it was really fun! I am getting pretty good at being able to understand and communicate with them. My spanish is improving... slowly! But I am dedicated to learning! We had lifting earlier this morning and film and practice later. We only have TWO days to prepare for the Queen's Cup. We travel Wednesday and play Thursday, Friday, Saturday I believe. We play Tennerife first and they are a good team so we need to have a couple good practices. Also I think they are going to be available to watch online so I will keep you updated.
Thats all for now!
If you want to know more leave a comment and I'll make sure I write about it next time!
Ciao!
Ky
Monday, January 17, 2011
Menorca! 1/17/11
Okay, soooo I was supposed to leave for Menorca on Tuesday, Jan 11th, but the weather on the east coast was so bad all my flights were delayed and were going to be for a few days. I decided to just leave a few days later when I knew that the storms and snow were done and wont risk getting stuck anywhere. I left thursday morning and flew to NY/Newark and from there to Madrid. I landed in Madrid on Friday morning and met the team there because they were coming from Menorca to play Haro, which is about 3 hours away from Madrid. We ate lunch at the airport and headed out. The coaches and team were all really nice when I first met them. I slept most of the way to Haro because I had not slept much the night before on the plane and was exhausted. We played Haro the next day and lost in 3 but the scores were 24-26, 24-26, 21-25. It was a close match and I played for a few points but was really nervous and didn't know the teams system as well as I would have liked but there was nothing I could do. Our coach wasnt mad really because we didnt play bad and we also had a girl that has been injured for 4 months come back for this game too. We left the next morning for Menorca, and got home around 9. We had a little adventure with the Menorcan Police because they had to go through my luggage by hand. Awkward! But they let me go and we took the bus back. I got home around 10 and unpacked my stuff and got settled. Here are some pics :)
This is my loooovely twin bed. It is actually pretty comfortable. (well at least the first night) Notice the bed underneath it. It pulls out! Who wants to come visit?!?!?! :)
This is the other part of my room. Everything was basically already in there....
This is leaving my room. My roomie Helia's room is to the right and this is the bathroom.....
This is the living room. Nice big TV with cable that has some english!! yay!
Kitchen
These stairs go upstairs to laundry room and balcony
again...
Washer on the left, dryer on the right...
Balcony
View of the downstairs from upstairs. Yes that is a bed in the living room because Helia has a 3 ft braces on her leg and it was easier for her to just be in there than have to move around so much.
Left to right: stairs, tv, hall that leads to bed room, hall that leads to another bed room, kitchen, front door
HAPPY NEW YEAR! 1/17/2011
Okayokay, I am a little late on the new year wishes.... but oh well! A lot has changed since my last blog over a month ago (sorry). First off I finished playing with Benidorm on Dec 18th, after we played Menorca, which is the number 1 team in the league. We lost in 4 but played well. I left the next day straight from Menorca to go home. Looooong freakin trip. I think I spent 15 hours total on planes and another 8 stuck in airports, which consisted of RUNNING my booty from my different gates and through customs or sitting bored for 3 hours. Either way I got home that Sunday night and it felt so good to be in my own bed and using my phone again!
I got home Sunday and Nate came to visit me Tuesday. Felt great to finally see him and have him meet the paretnal units. He said he was nervous to meet them and of course was on his best behavior but my parents liked him and saw how happy he makes me. He went home right before xmas to spend it with his family but I got to see him a few days later when I flew to SF to see him and his family and spend NYE with him in Tahoe, which was AH-mazing. It was good weather and I met a lot of nice people. I didnt snowboard (not allowed too) but I got to spend a day relaxing and reading so it was a great trip over all.
I got a Kindle for xmas and I am pretty obsessed with it. I don't think I could have received a better gift. It uploads any books I buy on amazon (I also got a 50$ gift certificate to amazon from Nate along with a scarf I really like!) straight to my kindle so its a 5 minute process for unlimited amounts of reading! This makes me very happy.
Anyways, to make a long process shorter, I wanted to play again for another team and after a few weeks of waiting I got an offer from Menorca! (The team I had last played against with Benidorm) To get a little more on info on Menorca, you can go here to learn about the culture and location of the island.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minorca
or for the volleyball aspect here is the teams website. On the top right are two flags. Click on the first one (which is the Spanish Flag) and then you can translate it if you go to google translate. The other flag is the Menorcan language so when you translate it, it wont make sense....it is similar to Spanish but not the same.
http://www.voleiciutadella.com/
My next blog will be about getting to Spain, the game we had on Saturday, and my new house! Gotta head to practice now!
Ky
I got home Sunday and Nate came to visit me Tuesday. Felt great to finally see him and have him meet the paretnal units. He said he was nervous to meet them and of course was on his best behavior but my parents liked him and saw how happy he makes me. He went home right before xmas to spend it with his family but I got to see him a few days later when I flew to SF to see him and his family and spend NYE with him in Tahoe, which was AH-mazing. It was good weather and I met a lot of nice people. I didnt snowboard (not allowed too) but I got to spend a day relaxing and reading so it was a great trip over all.
I got a Kindle for xmas and I am pretty obsessed with it. I don't think I could have received a better gift. It uploads any books I buy on amazon (I also got a 50$ gift certificate to amazon from Nate along with a scarf I really like!) straight to my kindle so its a 5 minute process for unlimited amounts of reading! This makes me very happy.
Anyways, to make a long process shorter, I wanted to play again for another team and after a few weeks of waiting I got an offer from Menorca! (The team I had last played against with Benidorm) To get a little more on info on Menorca, you can go here to learn about the culture and location of the island.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minorca
or for the volleyball aspect here is the teams website. On the top right are two flags. Click on the first one (which is the Spanish Flag) and then you can translate it if you go to google translate. The other flag is the Menorcan language so when you translate it, it wont make sense....it is similar to Spanish but not the same.
http://www.voleiciutadella.com/
My next blog will be about getting to Spain, the game we had on Saturday, and my new house! Gotta head to practice now!
Ky
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)