My visit home, Turkey Day, and Lots of Pictures

Once again, this blog will be mostly pictures…but I will also try to fill you all in on some of what’s happened since I last posted. I’ll start with volleyball…

We’re still undefeated! We’ve only dropped one set so far; it was to the second place team in our pool. We have another match this weekend against the team in 4^th place. It’s an away game, so we’re leaving at 7am :/ The weekend after that will be our last match before we break for Christmas/New Years. It’s a French Cup match against a team that is supposed to be pretty good…we’re picked to lose! So hopefully we can pull an upset and end the year on a high note.

I finally got my visa! I can legally stay in France now! Woo hoo! The process of getting a visa was long, confusing, involved excessive amounts of paperwork and one very long trip to the French consulate in Los Angeles. The only bright side to dropping my passport off at the consulate was that I got an unexpected trip home to see my friends and family.

On November 11 I flew from Paris to London, then took a flight from London to Phoenix. In an attempt to get myself on the correct time zone, I chose to stay awake for the entire trip. It was a horrible idea. I went to bed at 11:30pm Phoenix time (730am Paris time) and managed to get a whole 4 hours in before finding myself wide-awake. The next day morning I took care of some last minute paperwork for the visa, and then drove 7 hours to Los Angeles. I ended up staying at my Uncle Brian’s house. It was perfect because it meant I got a chance to see my cousins Liz, Frank, and Erin (and Liz’s new baby boy)!

The next morning Erin and I drove 2 hours to the French Consulate. Erin joined me so that I could take advantage of the carpool lane and hopefully avoid the LA traffic. Unfortunately, I didn’t check what route my GPS chose…we ended up driving through neighborhoods, over a mountain (literally…), and never once got to use a carpool lane! I did arrive on time though, so no harm done. I handed over my paperwork and passport and was told to expect my passport in the mail sometime between 10-14 days. My flight was booked for the night of the 14^th day, so I was praying that their estimates were accurate! Erin and I drove back to Valencia, where we met up with my Aunt Tina and Liz for lunch. After lunch I said goodbye to everyone, then hit the road for another 7-hour drive.

 I arrive home from LA about 11pm and went straight to bed because I had another long day of travel ahead of me. The next morning I left Phoenix at 9:30 and headed for Tucson. I had lunch with my dad’s side of the family at Smashburger. Unfortunately, I had to catch a flight to Denver that night, so I was only able to stay for two hours before turning right back around and driving back to Phoenix. I had a quick two-hour flight to Denver, where I met up with my sister.

The next morning I woke up at 5 and was at the gym by 5:30 so that I could see my friends and get a workout in before I left town again. After Kelly got off work, her boyfriend drove us to the airport. I had two United Club passes, so we killed time in the airport eating all the free snacks we could handle. We ended up being late to board our plane because we were enjoying the free snacks so much that we didn’t want to leave. We had a two-hour flight to Kansas City and then an hour drive to Burlington, Kansas. My parents recently took contractor positions at the Nuclear power plant there, so they will be living in Kansas for the next two years.

We spent the weekend soaking in all that Burlinton had to offer…we saw a dam, went to the local swap meet, and visited the Shopco (which my mom could not stop talking about). The highlight of the weekend was when we bought a Christmas tree, then forgot to load it in the car. We didn’t remember until a few hours later, but were able to track it down. On Sunday night we drove back to Kansas City and flew back to Denver.

My last night in Denver was awful. I made plans to go out to dinner with friends, but an hour before we were supposed to meet up my stomach started to hurt pretty badly. Since it was my last night in town I didn’t want to cancel…I wouldn’t see everyone for another 7 months, so I figured I could just tough it out. About an hour after we go to the restaurant I started throwing up and it continued for the rest of the night. The next day I woke up and was feeling better so I went to workout. I ended up getting a PR for power clean (190#!) and then went home to pack. As soon as I got home my stomach started hurting again, which made me nervous, as I had 15 hours of travelling ahead of me.

The flight from Denver to London ended up being halfway empty, so I had an entire row to myself! I took some medicine and laid down for the entire flight. After I landed in Paris one of the representatives picked me up from the airport. He told me that my team wasn’t practicing that night, but that my coach wanted me to go to the gym to “work off the jet lag” that night. I went home and tried to nap a little bit, but before I knew it, it was 8:30pm and I was at the gym practicing.

That Saturday was my Thanksgiving! Christy, her husband Marc, her American friend Amanda, and I made plans to cook a thanksgiving dinner for a French couple that Christy and Marc knew. It didn’t go quite as well as I had hoped.

Before I left the US I was assigned the pecan pie, which calls for Karo syrup. I forgot the bottle in the US and consequently was forced to make it from scratch. My homemade Karo syrup was basically sugar-water. Amazingly enough, the sugar-water filling was probably the best part of that pie. Because Amanda and I weren’t able to find pre-made dough at the grocery store, I also made the crust from scratch. The recipe that I found online called for butter, but Christy didn’t have any…so I figured I could substitute with vegetable oil…but she didn’t have any regular vegetable oil either…so I ended up using olive oil. The third problem with the pecan pie was that we didn’t have enough pecans for the pie, so it ended up being a pecan/walnut pie. In hindsight, that really wasn’t a problem. Walnuts are delicious.

Our Thanksgiving menu ended up being:

Friend cauliflower and zucchini made by Marc
Mashed potatoes and corn made by Christy

Roasted duck provided by the French couple

Stuffing made by Amanda (it had sausage and apples in it…so delicious)
Pumpkin pie (the crust for this one turned out slightly better…I found canola oil)

Pecan/Walnut pie

The pecan/walnut pie ended up being awful. I took one bite and had to force myself to swallow it. The recipe called for 3 eggs, which in my opinion was 3 eggs too many. It ended up tasting like a pecan pie omelet. Yuck.

After a fun Thanksgiving night I caught a train from Paris back to Melun to rest up for my match the next day.

The only other exciting thing that’s happened since I’ve been back was an allergic reaction I had two days ago. I think it was a reaction to fish oil pills (although I’m not 100% sure). I ended up breaking out in really bad hives and had to sleep with my windows open because the cold air was the only thing that made my skin feel better. Luckily the bumps were almost completely gone the next morning when I woke up. That night though, my face swelled up and I had to go to a practice with a puffy, red, face.

I’ll try to put up another post of other things that have happened in the past two months…but until then, here’s all the pictures that I’ve taken on my iPod!

The scoreboard from a Rowling game. Here's a link if you want to learn the rules 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN0AY-9Bp-w 

Tim's puppy!! 

The most beautiful salad I've ever made...I miss Whole Foods!

It snowed while I was in Denver...I made Kelly get out to scrape

A beautiful, snowy, Denver night

Liz's baby...Steve/Doug Butabi

An Arizona sunset

My first escargot

Went to watch a volleyball game with Christy and Marc

waiting for the train to the airport...heading to the US!

the infamous pecan/walnut pie...before baking

Amanda hard at work on the stuffing

The pean/walnut pie. For what it's worth, it looked and smelled delicious. 

Clement during a game of Rowling

A Christmas market in Paris

My club's gym at night

Hives. awful, horrible, itchy, hives. 

a random building I walked by today

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Random street in Paris

Overlooking the Siene..Notre Dame in the background

the Siene

My favorite bridge

My favorite row of apartments

The Louvre

A Metro stop

View from the Metro 

Because you can never have enough Eiffel tower pictures. 

delicious sausage from the Christmas market

It's official, I am the worst blogger ever.

Hey...you are the worst blogger ever.....lots of time and no blogs.

That is the exact message that my wonderful mother sent me last night. She’s right though. My ambitious plan of writing a paragraph each day fell by the wayside two days after I wrote my last blog. Two weeks later I find myself in quite a pickle-forced to remember everything that’s happened with no notes to help me. I’ll start with volleyball since that’s the easiest thing to remember.

We’ve played two matches since I last blogged. The first match was at home and was against a team that is ranked near the bottom of our division. We won in 3, fairly easily. Playing matches against teams like that is frustrating. You know that you’re going to win the match; it’s just a matter of whether you play at a high level and are happy about the win. I hit okay during the match…nothing spectacular, but significantly better than the first two weekends. 

Right before practice the following Wednesday I was rubbing my eye and my contact fell out. Since my coach didn’t want me to miss practice time going home to get another one, he asked me to just play with one in and see how it went. It actually ended up being kind of okay…I was really dizzy by the end of practice from my eyes trying to focus, but there were only a few times where it really affected a play. (My prescription is -2.5 for those of you who know what that means). I now have an extra pair packed!

Yesterday we had an away game that required an 8am departure. We drove for 5 hours, stopping once to stretch and walk around, and once for lunch. At about 1:45 we pulled up at the gym, giving us about half an hour before we needed to begin warming up. This team was better than the last team we played, but we still beat them in 3, which was awesome since we still had a 5-hour drive home. I finally had a good hitting match! My passing wasn’t all that great, but we have a stud libero who can pretty much pick up the slack so it wasn’t a big deal. We stopped by the beach for a few minutes before hitting the road and ended up getting back to Melun about 11pm. I passed the time practicing French with one of my teammates, Laura. I would repeat after an audio book and then she would correct my accent. I still have a really hard time pronouncing the letter ‘R’. eeerrhhhhhhhh. That’s what it sounds like. Eeeerrhhhhhh. Just practicing some more.

And now the random shenanigans section…

-Last week I went looking for the American Library in Paris. I thought it would be easy to find, as libraries in the US are usually big, stand-alone buildings, which are clearly marked. After about an hour of walking in circles I had developed blisters on my heels so I gave up and went home. (Mom- before you start, I was wearing sensible shoes…). I went back the next day using a map and spent the afternoon reading. 

-I met up with Swags for lunch twice. The first time we went to sushi in downtown Paris with her friend who was in town visiting. The sushi was ok…not the best I’ve ever had. We got gelato after though, and they made it in to the shape of a flower!
We met in Melun for the second lunch and her husband joined us. The restaurant they chose is called The Creperie…so you can probably guess what we ate! I had an Andoiulle sausage and Swiss cheese crepe for lunch, and for dessert I had a crepe that was basically a banana split.

-My knee has been slowly feeling better and I was able to play completely without pain for the first time on Sunday! Usually it will tighten up after I finish and cool down, but this time it didn’t at all! Woo hoo!

-I may be back in the US for a couple of weeks while I get my visa. I have to go in person to the French consulate in Los Angeles to get it. We’re trying to work out dates where I won’t have to miss more than one match. Right now I’m scheduled to go back October 16^th, but I’ll know by the end of this week whether or not I’m using that flight.

-I had a few rough practices coaching my little 12-year-old team. Our practice time got moved up so we were the first team in the gym, but I didn’t know how to turn on the lights. We practiced in the dark for 45 minutes until someone else showed up. I still only have 3 girls on the team, so it’s difficult to think of drills that I can use. On a happy note, there is another coach helping me now! He’s the boyfriend of my teammate and speaks English! He plays volleyball too, so he is able to coach technique and knows what he’s talking about!

-Last week was fashion week in Paris!! When I was walking around the city it was easy to spot models. They are tall and ridiculously skinny…seriously my ankle is bigger than their arms are. Now I know what you’re thinking, Kelly...‘But Amy, you have huge ankles…”. Well that’s true…I guess a better comparison is that my arms are the same size as their legs. True story.

Swags and I spent an afternoon trying to get in to two fashion shows. If designers have empty seats they’ll let people without invitations in so that their show doesn’t look empty. We got a super cool bag for free just for waiting in line at the first show! After an hour of standing we ended up getting turned away from both L so close…we did get to see some ridiculous outfits though. To my untrained eye it looked like they woke up, reached blindly in to their closet to choose an item, then accessorized with everything that an average person would say doesn’t match.  Snake print skirt paired with a fuzzy vest? Check. Head-to-toe bedazzled outfit? Check. 

While I’m on the topic of fashion, here’s a list of trends/things that are super popular in Paris:

·      Man bags- also known as a “Murse” (man purse).

·      High heeled shoes that look like sneakers

·      Wearing athletic clothes in an ironic way. i.e. a Nike shirt with a skirt and heels

·      Capris on men- also known as “Cabros”- RJ and Kev you guys would totally fit in here…just pick up a man bag and you’re good to go.

-Crossfit is going well. I still miss everyone at Omnia, but I love my new gym. One of the guys at the gym can do back flips, so my goal is to learn how to do one before I leave!

-I can now say the months in French and have added the words 'nap' and 'ugly' to my vocabulary.

-Here is a link to my team's schedule and results:
http://www.ffvbbeach.org/ffvbapp/resu/seniors/2013-2014/index_3ff.htm

Sorry for the uneventful and random blog...I promise I'll try harder this week. I'll also add pictures that I've taken, but have been too lazy to upload to my computer. 

Knee update, 'Murica, and my first real match

I know I’ve said it before, but I really do hate writing. I want to share all my experiences overseas with everyone back home, but whenever I sit down to blog I just feel like throwing my computer! SO….my new plan is to try to just write a brief summary each day so that when I get to the end of the week I don’t feel overwhelmed trying to remember everything that’s happened and form the stories into coherent sentences. Hopefully it will make blogging a little more enjoyable for me and as an added bonus, provide some sort of structure so that my blog isn’t just me rambling about random happenings.

Here goes nothing…

Monday

Like I mentioned in the last blog, I hurt my knee during the tournament, so today was spent almost entirely in bed icing it and keeping it elevated. The president of the club stopped by to check on me. He also brought by papers from my university.

I don’t think I’ve talked about it yet, but I am enrolled at University of Pierre and Marie Curie, which is a University in downtown Paris that specializes in degrees related to all types of science. Just to be clear, I am not actually taking classes towards a degree. A student visa was the easiest for me to get, so the club I play for arranged entry for me in to this university under the agreement that I will play a tournament for their team at the end of the season.

The papers that the president brought by were my verification of enrollment and my student ID card, which I’ll need once we start the process of obtaining the visa.

Later that night I walked over to the gym to attend a coaches’ meeting. We had to evaluate how many kids we had in each age group to form teams and redistribute coaches. At this point my 12 and under team doesn’t exist anymore. Now I’m assistant coaching “Cadettes” which I think is 16 and under? Not sure though. The good thing about this is that their practice time is directly before the team that I play for, so that means less walking back and forth to the gym for me!
 

Tuesday

The swelling in my knee went down considerably overnight and I now have almost full range of motion. Swags (if you don’t know who that is, read the last post) was in town today so we made plans to meet for lunch. We went to a Turkish restaurant that is literally next door to my apartment. The owners were knew Swags from last year and were incredibly friendly. I spent the rest of the day in bed watching Top Gear. I tried downloading the movie “Pain and Gain”, but the internet connection is so slow that I probably won’t be able to watch it until Friday L

Wednesday

Jean-Pierre picked me up at 10 to take me to a doctor appointment at 11. The doctor was located in Fontainebleau, which is the next town over. The doctor didn’t speak much English, so the whole visit took place in French. It was really confusing, but basically he checked to make sure there weren’t any torn ligaments in my knee. He pushed on the back of my leg until there was a little pop and then said that I was fixed. My knee still hurt, and I tried to explain that, but I was told it just needs to rest more before it will feel better.   

I took tonight off practice and will see how it feels on Friday. Luckily Saturday’s match is for the French Cup, not the Champions Cup, so there is much less pressure for me to be back and ready to play.

At practice I had Sara ask Karim (the coach) what the doctor said was wrong with my knee, because at this point I still didn’t know. The translated version that I got was that something was wrong with a tendon. Hopefully a little rest will make it better!

Thursday

I met up with Swags again today. This time we met in Paris so she could show me around a little bit. Neither of us had eaten breakfast, so that was our first stop. Boy did she have a surprise for me…American breakfast!!! We went to a place that I think was called American Diner in Paris. I got eggs, potatoes, and bacon. Eggs and potatoes are readily available here, but I haven’t found real bacon in the grocery stores or restaurants here. Mmmmmmmmmm baaaaaaacoooon.

After we finished breakfast we walked down Rue de Rivoli, which is a famous street that has a bunch of shops and restaurants but is a little less touristy. She pointed out places where I can get sushi, gelato, fro-yo, and a few great thrift stores. 

We ended our day at a tearoom called Angelina where we split a pot of hot chocolate. The place is incredibly expensive, as it’s located it a fairly touristy area and is upscale. The pot of hot chocolate that we split was 15 euro, so about twenty bucks. It was delicious though. Basically a melted chocolate bar mixed with cream. I couldn’t even finish it, that’s how rich it was. Yes, you read that correctly. I, Amy Wong, left chocolate on the table!

I went grocery shopping and spent the rest of the day listening to Barbell Shrugged podcasts and watching the movie “Pain and Gain”. The movie is craaaazy and is based on a true story!

Friday

I did a really light workout to feel out my knee this morning. The swelling is completely gone, but it’s still uncomfortable on impact. 

Today was pretty uneventful…after working out I went to the grocery store, then just hung around the apartment and rested. At 6:00 I walked over to the gym to coach a practice. I got changed to an assistant coach for the 14 and under group, which is waaaaay easier than head coaching. With this group I don’t have to explain the drills, but some of them do speak English, which makes explaining technique much easier.

I participated in practice tonight and my knee felt okay. We did a few easy ball control drills before ending with some 6-on-6 drills. Practice ended about 10:30 so I went to sleep as soon as I got home. We have our first French Cup match tomorrow so I wanted to make sure I was rested.

Saturday

Our match wasn’t until 8pm, so I got up around 10. My teammate, Julie, invited me over to her apartment for lunch along with another teammate, Marlene, Swags, and their respective husbands/boyfriends.  Marlene and her boyfriend picked me up at 12 and we headed over to Julie’s apartment. She and her boyfriend live a little over half an hour away from Melun in a different suburb of Paris.

Julie and her boyfriend cooked the lunch from scratch and it was delicious!!! We had baguette with a tuna dip and cucumbers for an appetizer. The main course was pasta with pork filet mignon that had a mustard sauce. For dessert we had an apple and pear crumble that was heaven. Absolute heaven. Over the course of lunch we spent time trying to convince them to open a restaurant. I offered my accounting services in exchange for free food. 

We left their apartment at 5:30 to head to the gym, which was in downtown Paris a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower. We arrived a little early so we hung outside the gym with the rest of the team until it was time to get ready and warm up.

The warm ups here are waaaay simpler than in college. We jog for a while, do some static stretching, warm up our arms and pepper, do some on-court defense, and then finish with hitting lines and serving. The teams here always do shared hitting lines. For non-volleyball people- shared hitting lines is when each team hits from one side of the court and only hits down the line then at a certain time they switch from the left side to the right side.

The team we played was a lower level team and we were expected to win. We beat them 3-0 and none of the games were particularly close, so I was happy about that. I struggled with hitting a few times, but for the most part I had an okay game.

In France, after a game both teams shower and change then share snacks and drinks that are provided by the home team. I thought that this might be an awkward time, hanging out with a team you either just beat or got beat by, but the girls insisted that it wouldn’t be. I think there aren’t strong rivalries here (especially during the French Cup games) so that probably helps! The team had homemade zucchini cake, pistachio cakes, chips, soda, beer, and juice. We hung around for about 15 minutes then headed out.

The whole team went to dinner at a pool bar/restaurant in Montparnasse afterwards. By the time we got to the restaurant it was already 11pm so I was starving! The restaurant was called Indiana and had a Native American chief head as it’s logo, so I wasn’t sure what type of food it would have. It ended up being a mix of Mexican and American food. I had a chicken sandwich and a Corona; just like home J After dinner we played a few games of pool (Amina and I won!) then called it a night about 1:30am.

Sunday

Because I got home so late last night I slept in until 10. My knee was super stiff again, so I decided to take it easy today and just ice and rest it.

So that has been my exciting day…haven’t left the apartment at all and have listened to BarbellShrugged podcasts for 6 straight hours now haha rough life.

And as my last note...I figured out how to see blog traffic and realized that I went over 1,000 pageviews. Crazy! I can't believe 1,000 people have read it...just kidding. I know that 500 of those views are probably my mom. 

Miss you all back home!

Bisous