By now you all may already know that I'm no longer in Bulgaria playing basketball. If you didn't already know, I am no longer in Bulgaria playing basketball. I'm sure there are a lot of questions as to WHY this particular adventure was cut short, and the simplest answer I can give you is that there were issues with paperwork enabling me to be in that particular country. It is so crazy to me that I'm back here and back to square one. I also know that everything happens for a reason and God has a plan for me. I understand that chasing a dream involves having to start over a few times. I haven't lost my love of the game. It is a whirlwind adventure but after some rest I know that I'm ready to get back on a team and do my job. How cool is that?
The trip home was very,very long. Actually the trip home was actually a trip to Memphis, Tennessee where my parents were visiting family for thanksgiving. Sophia to Zurich, Switzerland. Zurich to Philly. Philly to Charlotte. Charlotte to Memphis. That was tiring just typing it out. I walked off the plane and didn't initially see my parents, so I figured I'd go and get my luggage and call them up. I don know why I thought they wouldn't be there. I clearly wasn't thinking straight because I turn the corner to go up this ramp to baggage claim and there they were. I guess they couldn't go past a certain point. At that point I was so emotionally drained that all I could do was hug them. On top of that my cousins Midge and Chick and aunt Kate were there too. It was crazy how everything worked out and how I got to go relax and get away with some incredible people in Memphis.
The thought of a nine hour drive back to Kansas City wasn't even bad to me because I got to be in a car with the two people who ALWAYS come through for me. My Mom and Dad were very supportive and still are. I'm sure it's tough supporting someone who's job is to go all over the place and not be anywhere permanent for a long period of time. I'm so blessed to have them and I'm never going to stop saying that. My sister Becca was huge in this whole experience as well. Having a sister be there for me and ALWAYS have my back is a blessing as well. I was blown away by how supportive she has been through everything. It seems like a curse being so close to your family and having a passion that takes you away from them.
I've been laying low since returning to Kansas City. I've just recently begun training again and preparing myself for a potential new team. I've been wanting a dog for awhile, so since I knew I'd be home for a few months I figured now was a good time to get a dog and be here to train it. So my new puppy is a hound mix (I think with Rottweiler, but who knows) and I got her from the same animal shelter that my Dad got Zeke from. It's been pretty exhausting potty training her and making sure she doesn't chew up everyone's shoes (papers, pens, Zeke's tail, her tail, Christmas ornaments..etc). I didn't want to name her with a typical dog name, and really wanted something Irish. Since I'm a huge Jimmy Fallon fan, It only seemed right to name her Fallon! Already she has gotten compliments on her unique name.
Another thing I haven't mentioned but meant so much to me was while I was in Bulgaria I received a package from who I thought was my mom. I open it up and read a card that says that the goodies inside are nothing special, just something to show they were thinking of me. Little did David and Ann Welch know how special that was to me. In the moment that I read this card I felt so appreciative of the family that I have.
I also want to shoutout to the Griffon football team for having an unbelievable season. It didn't end like we all may have expected or wished it to, but that doesn't take away from the fact that they made everyone proud, and put themselves in the history books. I also have been so proud of the Western women's basketball team for doing so well and working so hard. Now that I'm home for a bit I plan on coming to a game up in St. Joe.
Sorry again for not writing in so long. Next time the title of this Blog will be a new country, and that's when the new adventure begins. Thanks to my family and my friends for CONTINUING to be so supportive. This career path is not as easy as it seems, and truly is a "grind."
It is good to back in America, though.
Until next time,
Jess
Friday, December 7, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Lazy Sunday
Lazy Sundays. These days usually entail relaxing in "the cave" (it's what we call our apartment), doing laundry, and resting our bodies to prepare for the upcoming week of practice. I usually turn the tv on and watch some football late in the day (early afternoon games back home). Right now I have the Baltimore and Houston game on. Today was the day, however, that Sue and I decided to make a trip to the grocery store. No, Not the little markets we've been stopping at to get chocolate and 50 cent (I mean stoitinki) plastic cups of coffee.
This grocery store is a bit of a trek from the cave. So we decided we would take our backpacks to put our groceries in for the walk back. It was actually really refreshing getting out and seeing a different area of Haskovo. Turns out there is more to this place than the gym and our apartment. Some of the labels on the food and drinks here have English on them, but most do not. I have enough trouble back home making decisions on what to buy, now I can't even tell what the choices are! It's really pretty easy to see what things are by pictures or by the way it looks though. Big oranges on the bottle? Orange juice. Strawberries on the jar? Strawberry jelly. Lamb on the container? Not gonna buy it.
It's a little overwhelming walking through a grocery store and not knowing where anything is. Basically just walking down every aisle and seeing if you need anything from there is a little time consuming.. But we had nothing else to do so, why not?
So we jammed our groceries into our backpacks and started home. Once we got back we pretty much assumed our Lazy Sunday positions. I got to have a long chat with my mom and dad over FaceTime which ALWAYS puts me in a good mood. I see the leaves are changing color at their house which is my favorite part of Fall. I've been looking around at the trees here in Bulgaria and the leaves don't seem to be changing from green. There is one that I spotted on the way to practice the other day that has some orange and yellow in it so I'll have to snap a picture of it. It is starting to get chilly here in the mornings and evenings, getting close to winter!!
Tomorrow we have practice at 9 am so I will probably get to bed sooner tonight. I do want to give a shout out to the Western football team for absolutely dominating at Pitt State. I stayed up extra late to listen to the radio broadcast again. Very excited for them, and I REALLY love when they have early games because I can listen.
Anyways, I hope everyone's Sunday was as lazy as mine!!
Thanks for reading..
Until next time,
Jess
This grocery store is a bit of a trek from the cave. So we decided we would take our backpacks to put our groceries in for the walk back. It was actually really refreshing getting out and seeing a different area of Haskovo. Turns out there is more to this place than the gym and our apartment. Some of the labels on the food and drinks here have English on them, but most do not. I have enough trouble back home making decisions on what to buy, now I can't even tell what the choices are! It's really pretty easy to see what things are by pictures or by the way it looks though. Big oranges on the bottle? Orange juice. Strawberries on the jar? Strawberry jelly. Lamb on the container? Not gonna buy it.
It's a little overwhelming walking through a grocery store and not knowing where anything is. Basically just walking down every aisle and seeing if you need anything from there is a little time consuming.. But we had nothing else to do so, why not?
So we jammed our groceries into our backpacks and started home. Once we got back we pretty much assumed our Lazy Sunday positions. I got to have a long chat with my mom and dad over FaceTime which ALWAYS puts me in a good mood. I see the leaves are changing color at their house which is my favorite part of Fall. I've been looking around at the trees here in Bulgaria and the leaves don't seem to be changing from green. There is one that I spotted on the way to practice the other day that has some orange and yellow in it so I'll have to snap a picture of it. It is starting to get chilly here in the mornings and evenings, getting close to winter!!
Tomorrow we have practice at 9 am so I will probably get to bed sooner tonight. I do want to give a shout out to the Western football team for absolutely dominating at Pitt State. I stayed up extra late to listen to the radio broadcast again. Very excited for them, and I REALLY love when they have early games because I can listen.
Anyways, I hope everyone's Sunday was as lazy as mine!!
Thanks for reading..
Until next time,
Jess
Monday, October 15, 2012
First Game/First Win Of The Season
It's almost 5 pm and Sue and I are making the most of our day off today by pretty much just laying around. It's a great day off because we won our game yesterday by close to 20 points over a rival of the club. Judging by the reaction of all of the Haskovo locals after the win I'd compare the rivalry to Northwest and Missouri Western. I think there is a lot of history between the two clubs. It was nice to have such a comfortable lead most of the game.
Okay so I know I'm going to have to talk about how I played eventually. It will be easier for me to talk about it after this game because there really wasn't much good to talk about. Basically I couldn't get the ball to go in that round thing they call a basket. But here's the cool thing.. We won by close to 20. I don't think I remember being so nervous before a game. I'm always nervous before games to a certain extent but it was almost to the point where I felt like throwing up. Hopefully that settles down before next game!! It was fun running up and down that court though and I honestly wouldn't trade that for anything.
Okay enough of that, like I said before the town was very excited about our win. We were playing in Sofia, which is pretty far away from Haskovo, and the crowd was made up of a lot of our fans. After the game a man who grew up in Haskovo, and was some elite referee in the Olympics, came into the locker room because he had something to say. He told us that a long time ago there was a tradition of success in sports in the town, and this is the first time since then that he believes that it's back. The President of the club also came in and was very proud. It was very cool to hear that. I have a feeling this is a lot more to this town than just basketball.
So basically we started the season off on a great note. I didn't individually perform well but as a team we were outstanding. Unfortunately, I think we may have lost our starting point guard to an ACL knee injury in the 3rd quarter of the game. She is just coming back from the same injury on the same knee so it's very upsetting. I don't know what the official prognosis is yet so I'm crossing my fingers that she's okay. Aside from that I'm so excited about what this season will bring and bringing women's basketball back to Haskovo!
Thanks for reading.. And thanks to those of you that show unconditional faith in me. You keep me going.
Until next time,
Jess
Okay so I know I'm going to have to talk about how I played eventually. It will be easier for me to talk about it after this game because there really wasn't much good to talk about. Basically I couldn't get the ball to go in that round thing they call a basket. But here's the cool thing.. We won by close to 20. I don't think I remember being so nervous before a game. I'm always nervous before games to a certain extent but it was almost to the point where I felt like throwing up. Hopefully that settles down before next game!! It was fun running up and down that court though and I honestly wouldn't trade that for anything.
Okay enough of that, like I said before the town was very excited about our win. We were playing in Sofia, which is pretty far away from Haskovo, and the crowd was made up of a lot of our fans. After the game a man who grew up in Haskovo, and was some elite referee in the Olympics, came into the locker room because he had something to say. He told us that a long time ago there was a tradition of success in sports in the town, and this is the first time since then that he believes that it's back. The President of the club also came in and was very proud. It was very cool to hear that. I have a feeling this is a lot more to this town than just basketball.
So basically we started the season off on a great note. I didn't individually perform well but as a team we were outstanding. Unfortunately, I think we may have lost our starting point guard to an ACL knee injury in the 3rd quarter of the game. She is just coming back from the same injury on the same knee so it's very upsetting. I don't know what the official prognosis is yet so I'm crossing my fingers that she's okay. Aside from that I'm so excited about what this season will bring and bringing women's basketball back to Haskovo!
Thanks for reading.. And thanks to those of you that show unconditional faith in me. You keep me going.
Until next time,
Jess
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Stress
I have decided that in order to do a blog, every post can't just be about the good days I experience here, because that wouldn't be very realistic.
This past week has been mounting in stress leading up to this first game. It's tense at practice, you can just sense it. That's a normal occurrence though. Everybody feels that nervousness before the first game of the season and like it or not it's probably going to be tense during that week. It's not the first time I've experienced that!
Yesterday, however, just started off bad for me. Every night I set my iPad alarm for the next morning. Tuesday night I set my alarm and fell asleep without plugging it in to the charger. I'm sure all of you can guess who DIDN'T wake up to an alarm in the morning. Luckily, my roommate Sue thought it was odd that I wasn't up and moving around so she knocks on my door and asks if I'm ready. At that point I did the normal cussing and jumping out if bed. Luckily we always get there about an hour early so we weren't late by any means, but it did set the tone for that practice AND the rest of the day. Basically I practiced bad (there, Morley.. There's an update for you :)
I can't wait to get our uniforms on and just be in the flow of the first game on Sunday. I'm hoping that will take some of the tension and stress away.
I think about everyone back home everyday. My nephews are already looking older and Hudson is saying legitimate words now. I heard him say "hair cut" the other day. I tell them every time I talk to them that they aren't allowed to forget me!
Thanks for reading, the next post will probably be after the game so stay tuned!
Until next time,
Jess
This past week has been mounting in stress leading up to this first game. It's tense at practice, you can just sense it. That's a normal occurrence though. Everybody feels that nervousness before the first game of the season and like it or not it's probably going to be tense during that week. It's not the first time I've experienced that!
Yesterday, however, just started off bad for me. Every night I set my iPad alarm for the next morning. Tuesday night I set my alarm and fell asleep without plugging it in to the charger. I'm sure all of you can guess who DIDN'T wake up to an alarm in the morning. Luckily, my roommate Sue thought it was odd that I wasn't up and moving around so she knocks on my door and asks if I'm ready. At that point I did the normal cussing and jumping out if bed. Luckily we always get there about an hour early so we weren't late by any means, but it did set the tone for that practice AND the rest of the day. Basically I practiced bad (there, Morley.. There's an update for you :)
I can't wait to get our uniforms on and just be in the flow of the first game on Sunday. I'm hoping that will take some of the tension and stress away.
I think about everyone back home everyday. My nephews are already looking older and Hudson is saying legitimate words now. I heard him say "hair cut" the other day. I tell them every time I talk to them that they aren't allowed to forget me!
Thanks for reading, the next post will probably be after the game so stay tuned!
Until next time,
Jess
Monday, October 8, 2012
Weekend Festivities
Last week flew by. This past weekend flew by even faster. We decided to go out to Stara Zagora yesterday to watch a few men's basketball games again. And once again there was a mall and a McDonald's right across the street so that's pretty much what persuaded us to make the trip. The first game was entertaining but we weren't really feeling the second one, so we left after the first quarter. It may have been because we were tired and just wanted to get back to our beds. We ended up getting back around 9 pm! I can't imagine how tired I would have been if we had stayed the whole game. It was nice to get out though instead of stay in our apartment.
I think I forgot to mention that a few days ago I got a call that I had a package waiting for me at the post office. I honestly felt like a little kid on Christmas. It ended up being a package from my mom with some make-up, bobby pins, hot tea, and the cutest was a little miniature pumpkin!! Honestly brightened up my day.
It was kind of cool today at practice coach was talking to us about how this weekend (our first game) is the start of our road to the championship. I had that feeling in my stomach I haven't had since the last game at Western. These scrimmages we've been having have given me that feeling a little bit but, not as intense as when the regular season comes around. They told us our equipment (uniforms) would be in Wednesday so it will be cool seeing what those look like!
Well it's about time to go to the second practice of the day. The morning practice was tough because the floor was dirty and slippery because of a weightlifting event they had in there the other day so we just stuck to shooting. Hopefully they cleaned it up because I don't want to go ice skating this practice!
Thanks for reading..
Until next time,
Jess
I think I forgot to mention that a few days ago I got a call that I had a package waiting for me at the post office. I honestly felt like a little kid on Christmas. It ended up being a package from my mom with some make-up, bobby pins, hot tea, and the cutest was a little miniature pumpkin!! Honestly brightened up my day.
It was kind of cool today at practice coach was talking to us about how this weekend (our first game) is the start of our road to the championship. I had that feeling in my stomach I haven't had since the last game at Western. These scrimmages we've been having have given me that feeling a little bit but, not as intense as when the regular season comes around. They told us our equipment (uniforms) would be in Wednesday so it will be cool seeing what those look like!
Well it's about time to go to the second practice of the day. The morning practice was tough because the floor was dirty and slippery because of a weightlifting event they had in there the other day so we just stuck to shooting. Hopefully they cleaned it up because I don't want to go ice skating this practice!
Thanks for reading..
Until next time,
Jess
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Improvement
Hey everyone. I know it's been over a week since my last post so I'm just going to apologize up front for not being very good about adding new stuff. Sometimes I just need to feel inspired to sit down and write everything down. I do have a new respect for professional bloggers though, it's rough keeping up! Now that we have the apology out of the way, I'll try my best to make it up to you and catch you all up on what's happened the last week (or so).
As expected, basketball takes up most of our day. We are still doing two-a-days, but now they are more tactical rather than agility. However, coach is still doing a VERY good job at still incorporating full court drills with lots and lots of running, usually those are in the morning practices. We have had about 3 or 4 scrimmages against this boys team ( I think they may be high school)and there is drastic improvement from the first time we played them. Any time you can see improvement in the team it's very gratifying from a players perspective, and I'm assuming from a coaches perspective as well. Tuesday we did very well in our scrimmage, so yesterday we got the day off (pinch me) and went in for full body massages (you must not have pinched). Basically it was a very relaxing day. What's very exciting is I'm expecting my legs to be able to function at full capacity when we practice now..*tiger fist pump*.
Still getting stares whenever we walk around town. I actually got a little bit testy and yelled out "HELLO!" to a major stare offender on the way to practice a few days ago. I can handle the older people staring, but when it's a mean girl stare from a 15 year old it grinds my gears a little bit. If any of you have seen the movie Inception, it reminds me of when they are in someone's dream and the people would all just stop what they were doing and stare directly at them because they sensed a foreign presence. Pretty much just like that, except no Leonardo Dicaprio. I'm just going to assume that this whole staring issue isnt going away anytime soon.
One thing I have noticed here is that the pace is very slow. In Missouri, if you go out to eat the waiters and waitresses bring you the bill as you are done eating, and sometimes even before. It's a pretty moderate pace, when you are done you're done. Here, however, you sit down to eat and you don't see a waitress for a good 10 or 15 minutes. Then when it's time to pay it could be another 20 or 30 before the bill is even placed on your table. People just go to these places and relax for hours. It's funny how antsy I was getting and how impatient I felt at this restaurant we went to a few days ago.. Guess that's going to be another adjustment for me.
So yesterday evening there was a thunder storm and it was raining fairly hard and the thunder was so loud. The lights flickered a few times which made Sue (my roommate) and I realize we don't have flashlights in case our power goes out. And the award for immediately causing my parents to lose sleep goes to....
Anyways, everything is going well and I'm very ready for season to start up. I'm still keeping up with the Griffs athletics every week thanks to Ryan and Brett and their GSI show. I always look forward to seeing those every week.
Thanks for reading, until next time..
Jess
As expected, basketball takes up most of our day. We are still doing two-a-days, but now they are more tactical rather than agility. However, coach is still doing a VERY good job at still incorporating full court drills with lots and lots of running, usually those are in the morning practices. We have had about 3 or 4 scrimmages against this boys team ( I think they may be high school)and there is drastic improvement from the first time we played them. Any time you can see improvement in the team it's very gratifying from a players perspective, and I'm assuming from a coaches perspective as well. Tuesday we did very well in our scrimmage, so yesterday we got the day off (pinch me) and went in for full body massages (you must not have pinched). Basically it was a very relaxing day. What's very exciting is I'm expecting my legs to be able to function at full capacity when we practice now..*tiger fist pump*.
Still getting stares whenever we walk around town. I actually got a little bit testy and yelled out "HELLO!" to a major stare offender on the way to practice a few days ago. I can handle the older people staring, but when it's a mean girl stare from a 15 year old it grinds my gears a little bit. If any of you have seen the movie Inception, it reminds me of when they are in someone's dream and the people would all just stop what they were doing and stare directly at them because they sensed a foreign presence. Pretty much just like that, except no Leonardo Dicaprio. I'm just going to assume that this whole staring issue isnt going away anytime soon.
One thing I have noticed here is that the pace is very slow. In Missouri, if you go out to eat the waiters and waitresses bring you the bill as you are done eating, and sometimes even before. It's a pretty moderate pace, when you are done you're done. Here, however, you sit down to eat and you don't see a waitress for a good 10 or 15 minutes. Then when it's time to pay it could be another 20 or 30 before the bill is even placed on your table. People just go to these places and relax for hours. It's funny how antsy I was getting and how impatient I felt at this restaurant we went to a few days ago.. Guess that's going to be another adjustment for me.
So yesterday evening there was a thunder storm and it was raining fairly hard and the thunder was so loud. The lights flickered a few times which made Sue (my roommate) and I realize we don't have flashlights in case our power goes out. And the award for immediately causing my parents to lose sleep goes to....
Anyways, everything is going well and I'm very ready for season to start up. I'm still keeping up with the Griffs athletics every week thanks to Ryan and Brett and their GSI show. I always look forward to seeing those every week.
Thanks for reading, until next time..
Jess
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Let's Go To Turkey
Don't get your hopes up. The title of this probably makes it seem like I had this crazy cool trip to Turkey. Not the case.
We got back from practice on Wednesday and were settling in for the night when I get a phone call asking if I wanted to go to Turkey the next day. I really didn't have a choice because of something to do with my working Visa. At first I wasn't too thrilled. Then I started thinking, hey.. I get to go see Turkey.. I bet they have a Starbucks! Then I hear what time they are picking me up (two of the staff members) and I IMMEDIATELY went back to not being excited. 7 am they would be outside. I know, I know..to most of you that's a piece of cake. To me that sounds like at least 3 hours of sleep I'm missing out on, and if you know me you know I value my sleep.
Regardless, I woke up the next day at around 6. Feeling a little more excited that I would get to have some coffee. It was only about an hour long trip and we pull up to the first checkpoint near the border. Then we are getting out of the car and watching the car go back towards the way we just came. Wait.. What? Apparently he was driving a car under his wife's name so we couldn't drive it across into Turkey. So then I'm standing here thinking, "okay so where are we going to rent a car from?" And even "he's going to go back to Haskovo and get his car?" wrong and wrong. Yes, we walked across the border from Bulgaria to Turkey. It wasn't a little walk. We ended up going through all of the customs checkpoints fine though. We strolled right into Turkey where we hung out for a long time until we were told we could come back. Long story short I got to eat some Burger King, drink Turkish coffee, and walk from one country to another. By the end of the day, however, I was ready to be back at my place and would have rather ran 1000 lines at practice than do that again. The next day the staff would ask me "hey Jess you want to go to Turkey?" my response every time, "no."
The rest of the week was normal with the same routines of practice, eating, sleeping. Yesterday (Saturday) a few of us traveled a few hours to watch a Bulgarian men's team play. It was a great atmosphere and some pretty entertaining basketball. I'm finding that the basketball over here is less power and strength but more craftiness and clever. We watched two games and on all four teams there were Americans. It was very cool hearing English out on the floor! After every time the home team made a good play or did something to the crowd's liking, the fans would chant "Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!" I definitely joined in on that on more than one occasion.
Now it's Sunday, we don't have practice, and all of the stores are closed. My roommate and I are stuck between being bored and not feeling like getting ourselves up to even try to go anywhere. We get a channel on our TV that is ESPN America so I usually turn it on the evening to catch some NFL games. Sunday mornings is also when I wake up and check to see how the Griff football team did because I can never stay up til 3 or 4 am when their games are happening. Give me a newspaper and a cup of coffee and boom I'm my parents (old).
Hopefully everything is going great back home. Even though I'm over here I still am excited for the holidays coming up. We are trying to find out if we can get some pumpkins and decorate them. Apparently some people over here celebrate Halloween so it could happen!!
Thanks for reading.
Until next time,
Jess
We got back from practice on Wednesday and were settling in for the night when I get a phone call asking if I wanted to go to Turkey the next day. I really didn't have a choice because of something to do with my working Visa. At first I wasn't too thrilled. Then I started thinking, hey.. I get to go see Turkey.. I bet they have a Starbucks! Then I hear what time they are picking me up (two of the staff members) and I IMMEDIATELY went back to not being excited. 7 am they would be outside. I know, I know..to most of you that's a piece of cake. To me that sounds like at least 3 hours of sleep I'm missing out on, and if you know me you know I value my sleep.
Regardless, I woke up the next day at around 6. Feeling a little more excited that I would get to have some coffee. It was only about an hour long trip and we pull up to the first checkpoint near the border. Then we are getting out of the car and watching the car go back towards the way we just came. Wait.. What? Apparently he was driving a car under his wife's name so we couldn't drive it across into Turkey. So then I'm standing here thinking, "okay so where are we going to rent a car from?" And even "he's going to go back to Haskovo and get his car?" wrong and wrong. Yes, we walked across the border from Bulgaria to Turkey. It wasn't a little walk. We ended up going through all of the customs checkpoints fine though. We strolled right into Turkey where we hung out for a long time until we were told we could come back. Long story short I got to eat some Burger King, drink Turkish coffee, and walk from one country to another. By the end of the day, however, I was ready to be back at my place and would have rather ran 1000 lines at practice than do that again. The next day the staff would ask me "hey Jess you want to go to Turkey?" my response every time, "no."
The rest of the week was normal with the same routines of practice, eating, sleeping. Yesterday (Saturday) a few of us traveled a few hours to watch a Bulgarian men's team play. It was a great atmosphere and some pretty entertaining basketball. I'm finding that the basketball over here is less power and strength but more craftiness and clever. We watched two games and on all four teams there were Americans. It was very cool hearing English out on the floor! After every time the home team made a good play or did something to the crowd's liking, the fans would chant "Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!" I definitely joined in on that on more than one occasion.
Now it's Sunday, we don't have practice, and all of the stores are closed. My roommate and I are stuck between being bored and not feeling like getting ourselves up to even try to go anywhere. We get a channel on our TV that is ESPN America so I usually turn it on the evening to catch some NFL games. Sunday mornings is also when I wake up and check to see how the Griff football team did because I can never stay up til 3 or 4 am when their games are happening. Give me a newspaper and a cup of coffee and boom I'm my parents (old).
Hopefully everything is going great back home. Even though I'm over here I still am excited for the holidays coming up. We are trying to find out if we can get some pumpkins and decorate them. Apparently some people over here celebrate Halloween so it could happen!!
Thanks for reading.
Until next time,
Jess
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Routine
I've been getting some trouble from a certain someone from back home about not putting a new post up this past week. We have kind of gotten into a routine of getting up for practice in the morning.. Eating lunch.. Taking a nap.. Going to evening practice.. Eating dinner.. Going to bed. So as far as the blogging world is concerned there isn't much new and extraordinary happening.
I think I'm still getting used to the idea that this is what I do for a living. I don't have classes to go to in the mornings or papers to write or presentations to prepare. I literally eat sleep and play basketball. And it's incredible. I almost can't fathom that what I've wanted to do for so long I'm doing right now. The only thing that would make this better was if I had my family here. As loud and as crazy as my nephews are I wouldn't trade that for the world. I don't know how anyone close to their family could do this without the technology we have today. I've been able to see and carry on conversations with them like they are in the room.
Practices are still as tough as ever. My roommate and I seriously can't remember a time where we literally didn't know if our legs would work when we started running down the court. The good news about that is when it comes time for games to start we will definitely be in good shape. That is if we can stay away from the ice cream stand that's about 30 feet away from the entrance to the gym. This ice cream is so good. Don't ask me what the names of them are. I do know chocolate ice cream when I see it and it is delicious.
Oh and today we saw our favorite old "Barack Obama" man in the gym during practice. Apparently he is our biggest fan. Today's conversation had Michael Jackson in it. He seemed to like that judging by his smiling and laughing.
I'll try to post one of these every week. So Mom please stop nagging me about writing more blogs , now you know there won't be one every day, haha. Love you all.
Until next time,
Jess
Friday, September 7, 2012
First free weekend
It's finally here. No I'm not talking about the regular season. I'm talking about two.. Yes two days off without running miles upon miles and doing some REALLY tough drills I have never even heard of before. A lot of these drills that we do I keep thinking would be fun to introduce to some of the teams I'm associated with back in the states. They are very different but it definitely makes your legs feel like jello.. Which seems to be a reoccurring theme here.
Despite the fact that we have two days off.. We still are required to go to the mineral water pool tomorrow at 9:30 am. This place is pretty cool because it has a sauna, a jacuzzi, a massage place, and the mineral pools are hot water so it feels pretty good on our jello legs. Then on Sunday we are going hiking up one of these mountains I've been seeing in the distance. We were told to wear our "hard shoes". Unlucky for me I left my hard shoes back home.. Whatever hard shoes are.
My American teammates and I are starting to get used to people trying to speak to us in Bulgarian even though we tell them right away we speak English. I'm sure the puzzled look on my face gives that away before we even say anything. We had a run in with an older man outside of the gym the other day who wouldn't accept the fact that we had no idea what he was saying. He eventually just started saying Barack Obama.. So we just started saying random things back. He seemingly understood "Barney" and "Orange juice" as acceptable responses to "Barack Obama.".
It's crazy for me to be over here and see the influence that America has on the entire world. People here are walking around with lakers jerseys on and listening to tupac and eminem in their cars. I don't think I ever realized that being in my little bubble in Missouri. Of course like I've said before they really emphasize Dallas, Texas and California and New York City. I think to myself um excuse me there are other great places in the U.S.. like Missouri.. And Ohio.
Some of the coaching staff speak little to no English.. And I always catch myself saying things in conversation like "ah come on" or "no way" to them thinking that certainly they at least know THOSE phrases. Blank stares. It's fun teaching each other new phrases everyday though and laughing at the attempts. One of the guys here told me he felt embarrassed because his English was not so good. I told him he was doing fine because I can't speak a lick of Bulgarian!! His response was that English was universal and Bulgarian is for such a small area. Touché.
Oh and one more thing. Highlight of my day today was making a trick shot at the end of practice for an ice cream cone. Sweet sweet victory.
Bulgarian word of the day: Haskovo = хасково
Until next time,
Jess
Despite the fact that we have two days off.. We still are required to go to the mineral water pool tomorrow at 9:30 am. This place is pretty cool because it has a sauna, a jacuzzi, a massage place, and the mineral pools are hot water so it feels pretty good on our jello legs. Then on Sunday we are going hiking up one of these mountains I've been seeing in the distance. We were told to wear our "hard shoes". Unlucky for me I left my hard shoes back home.. Whatever hard shoes are.
My American teammates and I are starting to get used to people trying to speak to us in Bulgarian even though we tell them right away we speak English. I'm sure the puzzled look on my face gives that away before we even say anything. We had a run in with an older man outside of the gym the other day who wouldn't accept the fact that we had no idea what he was saying. He eventually just started saying Barack Obama.. So we just started saying random things back. He seemingly understood "Barney" and "Orange juice" as acceptable responses to "Barack Obama.".
It's crazy for me to be over here and see the influence that America has on the entire world. People here are walking around with lakers jerseys on and listening to tupac and eminem in their cars. I don't think I ever realized that being in my little bubble in Missouri. Of course like I've said before they really emphasize Dallas, Texas and California and New York City. I think to myself um excuse me there are other great places in the U.S.. like Missouri.. And Ohio.
Some of the coaching staff speak little to no English.. And I always catch myself saying things in conversation like "ah come on" or "no way" to them thinking that certainly they at least know THOSE phrases. Blank stares. It's fun teaching each other new phrases everyday though and laughing at the attempts. One of the guys here told me he felt embarrassed because his English was not so good. I told him he was doing fine because I can't speak a lick of Bulgarian!! His response was that English was universal and Bulgarian is for such a small area. Touché.
Oh and one more thing. Highlight of my day today was making a trick shot at the end of practice for an ice cream cone. Sweet sweet victory.
Bulgarian word of the day: Haskovo = хасково
Until next time,
Jess
Monday, September 3, 2012
Preseason has begun
Today was our third day of preseason. Let me tell you it is rough! They do things very different over here. For example, stretching is done for about 30 minutes it seems like. I'm not talking about touch your toes and butterfly stretching either. We stretched muscles I don't think I've ever stretched before. Which is probably why I've been forced to roll out of bed like an old lady. We have 3 days of 2-a-days and 3 of just one practice days. They informed us today that there are 10 days left of the running in the mornings, which seems okay compared to our six week running schedule at Western. Our first day of practice there were a significant amount of people from the town in the gym watching. This is the first year this city or "town" has had a women's team so I think people are interested in how we look. The town is small.. Everybody knows everybody.. It kind of reminds me of st. Joe except here I don't think some of the locals are too thrilled about the americanskis on their turf.
The stares we get walking through the town haven't subsided yet. We actually are used to it now. Hopefully they become more friendly stares the longer we are here. I am living with another american from Indiana and she's great. Our "flat" is very nice so we feel lucky to have the things that we do. They don't have dryers for our clothes so we have just been laying our clothes around the kitchen and living room until we get a clothes rack. We laughed cause we imagined what a local would say about Americans if they walked in and saw that.
We've been finding more and more stores that have things very close to what were used to back home in the u.s.... diet coke and dark chocolate candy bars.. Which obviously is essential. The milk here is delicious and they take pride in the freshness of their fruit, veggies, and dairy products. I'm taking pride in it now too!
Tomorrow we should be getting Internet in our apartment and cable so we are excited about that. We have our second practice of the day coming up at five so we are trying to prepare ourselves for another tough one! Until next time!
Jess
The stares we get walking through the town haven't subsided yet. We actually are used to it now. Hopefully they become more friendly stares the longer we are here. I am living with another american from Indiana and she's great. Our "flat" is very nice so we feel lucky to have the things that we do. They don't have dryers for our clothes so we have just been laying our clothes around the kitchen and living room until we get a clothes rack. We laughed cause we imagined what a local would say about Americans if they walked in and saw that.
We've been finding more and more stores that have things very close to what were used to back home in the u.s.... diet coke and dark chocolate candy bars.. Which obviously is essential. The milk here is delicious and they take pride in the freshness of their fruit, veggies, and dairy products. I'm taking pride in it now too!
Tomorrow we should be getting Internet in our apartment and cable so we are excited about that. We have our second practice of the day coming up at five so we are trying to prepare ourselves for another tough one! Until next time!
Jess
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
So...Tired
Wednesday, August 29 12:52 am
Okay well never have I experienced a trip taking such a toll on me. I honestly forgot what time of day it was.. Even slipped my mind what day it was period. Luckily I met up with my American teammates in Frankfurt and we stuck together the rest of the time. Those Germans are not very patient with Americans who have no clue where they are going ..(me).
Once we got to Sofia, Bulgaria it was a very good feeling. The sky coming in was a gorgeous dark orange with light blue and dark blue above it. After we landed it was almost like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. Little did we know that once we walked out of the security there were our coaches to welcome us with some flowers and with a few photographers and journalists. Jeez! I hope I nailed the "I just flew on an airplane for most of the day and haven't seen my hair nor really car what it looks like" look.
Now it's time to just relax until tomorrow when we have physicals to take care of and heart rates to test. Then we get to go to the city we are playing for.. Hascovo!! The other Americans are nice and I can tell they have a winning spirit. I'm excited to get out on the court with the rest of the girls and get this season going!
Til next time..
Jessica Koch
Okay well never have I experienced a trip taking such a toll on me. I honestly forgot what time of day it was.. Even slipped my mind what day it was period. Luckily I met up with my American teammates in Frankfurt and we stuck together the rest of the time. Those Germans are not very patient with Americans who have no clue where they are going ..(me).
Once we got to Sofia, Bulgaria it was a very good feeling. The sky coming in was a gorgeous dark orange with light blue and dark blue above it. After we landed it was almost like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. Little did we know that once we walked out of the security there were our coaches to welcome us with some flowers and with a few photographers and journalists. Jeez! I hope I nailed the "I just flew on an airplane for most of the day and haven't seen my hair nor really car what it looks like" look.
Now it's time to just relax until tomorrow when we have physicals to take care of and heart rates to test. Then we get to go to the city we are playing for.. Hascovo!! The other Americans are nice and I can tell they have a winning spirit. I'm excited to get out on the court with the rest of the girls and get this season going!
Til next time..
Jessica Koch
Monday, August 27, 2012
On My Way
I woke up this morning feeling a combination of excitement and fear. There has been so much building up to this day and it's pretty relieving to finally be sitting here waiting for my FIRST flight to Charlotte. It is very bitter sweet that I get to go do something I love but at the same time say goodbye to all of the people who are closest to me for awhile. The coolest thing to me is that my family and friends know that this is something I have to do. The support I've gotten my whole life and especially this last week and a half has been incredible.
So it's finally time for me to go and make everyone proud. I desperately want my Missouri Western family to know how much they mean to me. Being there helped me become a better person and I think prepared me for this next adventure in ways I'm probably not aware of yet. Bet they never thought there would be a Griff fan in Bulgaria!!
Now I'm sitting here in between my mom and Dad just soaking up the last few minutes with them before I'm gone for awhile. But just a warning to St. Joe they will be attending most if not all basketball games and most if not all football games.
I already miss everyone and am excited to share good and maybe even any bad experiences I encounter in Haskovo, Bulgaria!!
Jessica Koch
So it's finally time for me to go and make everyone proud. I desperately want my Missouri Western family to know how much they mean to me. Being there helped me become a better person and I think prepared me for this next adventure in ways I'm probably not aware of yet. Bet they never thought there would be a Griff fan in Bulgaria!!
Now I'm sitting here in between my mom and Dad just soaking up the last few minutes with them before I'm gone for awhile. But just a warning to St. Joe they will be attending most if not all basketball games and most if not all football games.
I already miss everyone and am excited to share good and maybe even any bad experiences I encounter in Haskovo, Bulgaria!!
Jessica Koch
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