Whew, well it has been a whirl wind since I have been here!
My flight to Puerto Rico from Atlanta ,like I said in my last post, had some issues and I didnt make it into San Juan until about 2am, which after getting luggage and driving home it was 3am. I had to shower and unpack a few things and by the time I got to bed it was 4am Puerto Rican time, which wouldn't have been an issue but I had to get up at 8am! So that wasn't ideal to say the least. I had to be up for an appointment with the doctor to look at my shoulder. He was really nice (an spoke English) and was able to determine that from the outside, from what he could tell, my shoulder was right where it should be. He said I have good movement and strength and now is the time to start testing it out.
But before I forget, I will tell you a little about my apartment. Now, you have to remember that I know NOTHING about where I am living before getting to PR. That being said, it is always a toss up of what you are going to get. I have never had a bad place, but there are always more ideal situations than others. For example, last time in PR I was living with 2 other girls on the team, it was a few days after I had been there and I did not yet have a house key. This particular apartment you locked the main door from the inside like normal but the screen door you could only lock and unlock with a key because it was a dead bolt, well me not having a key meant that if someone locked that I was, well, screwed. Can you guess what happened?? Yes, I got locked INSIDE my own apartment. And not for any small amount of time. 8 hours. Now I guess I should count my blessings and be happy I was locked inside and not out, but still.... So that being said, I was holding my breathe. We pulled up to a big house and I was like, "wait a second are we about to "real world" this thing and have the whole team live together because that could mean trouble", but no, I was told that me and my roomie, who is one of the setters AND speaks english (!!!) , would be living in an apartment on the bottom floor, the top was our Owner's mothers house. Now the other about PR is you cant always judge a book by it;s cover, meaning, you cant always see the neighborhood or area, and assume that your house is going to be nice or not. We live right off a main street that you can tell is an older neighborhood, but these houses are very nice and I feel very safe. The apartment is also new I believe, and so is all of the furniture in it, including kitchen stuff! We have a small living room and kitchen, and each have our own room. It is big enough to hold a queen size bed (LOVE THIS) and a dresser and a few night stands, I have a big closet too. (pictures to come soon!)
After my doctors appointment, which by the way I was taken there by our teams weight trainer, Jose Luis, and it is always an adventure given the language barrier. Although my Spanish and his English are both much better this time around, I still can only understand half the stuff he says, sooo we sit in silence for most of the time which suites me just fine! Anyways, he took me to the doctors then to the team manger, Herminio's, work to go get some food because at this point I have no food at the apartment and had no car. It is almost 1 before we get back to the house and I am exhausted. I just wanna lay in my bed the rest of the day until practice..but the second we got home we found out that we had to go get the car, which turns out to be a Honda Fit, and bright teal. hahaha I cracked up when I saw it. But it is small and speedy and gets the job done. I got home at 3 and am pretty sure I was asleep before I even hit the pillow.
I woke up to go to dinner and practice. There are still a few girls on the team that I know so it was nice to see them again, my old roomie WiWi was there and she is really good at english now so its a whole different experience talking to her! We practice daily from about 7-930. Because of my shoulder and the fact that this was the first day since surgery that I had even tried to play volleyball seriously, I was nervous. But the coaches are really understanding and want me to take it slow, so I did everything in practice except for hit. I did warm up my shoulder though, and peppered a little bit, but nothing past that. We wanted to see how my shoulder reacted and then would increase it a little more everyday or as I felt comfortable with. Today I am not very sore in my shoulder and although hitting the ball felt weird, there was no serious pain involved. :) The other "imports" (as they like to call anyone on the team that isnt Puerto Rican) get here tomorrow and saturday, so this coming Monday, everyone will be here and ready to practice as a team.
It is nice to be back in PR and remembering all it is I love about it here. The smells, the weather, the people, everything, are all so unique. Its weird how you look around and everything seems so familiar because of all the American stores and shops, but still everything is so different compared to the culture I am used to being surrounded with. Everyone has been so nice, even the gardener at the house told me he was my biggest fan and if I ever needed anything I had to "only talk" :) Made my day!
I cant wait to progress and see where this season goes. I will keep ya posted and pictures will come soon.
Ky
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