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
Sunday, October 21, 2012
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
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