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

Apple pie, "Swags", and my first tournament

Another random and unorganized blog… Sorry this post isn’t very exciting…it’s 12:45am and I’m exhausted. I’ll write more about my non-volleyball adventures tmrw.

Apple Pie

I forgot to include this in last week’s blog…When I was at my teammate’s boyfriend’s house she gave me a lesson in French cooking. I asked what we were going to make and she told me we would make apple pie from scratch. BOMB! I <3 Pie.

She started pulling out ingredients that included chicken, sour cream, and tuna…and I was more than a little confused. When I questioned that maybe those flavors didn’t go well with apple pie she explained to me that there are 2 types of pies- sweet or salty. While we continued to prep the food and I asked her where the apples were. She said that there wouldn’t be any apples…and at this point I became completely lost. We’re making a salty apple pie with tuna, but no apples? If any of you watch the TV show friends, I was picturing a dessert similar to the English trifle that Rachel made. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCCHwN0pUx4 ).  I later realized that what we were making was a quiche. She didn’t think I would recognize the word so she tried to describe it to me as “apple pie”. It ended up being delicious!! My cooking skills are improving!

 Coaching

In addition to playing for the club, I will also be coaching a junior’s team. I have been assigned to coach “Benjamines”, which is the youngest age group (12-under) of the club. The first week not a single girl showed up for practice! I was told that because it was also the first week of school, it wasn’t surprising that no one came. The other coaches assured me that next week I would have a team.

On Tuesday I had two girls show up for practice- Calypso and Matilda. Neither of them spoke any English or had played volleyball before. I have never coached this young of a group before, so I was already apprehensive, but the language barrier was really the cherry on top. Luckily there were two other coaches in the gym who could help translate and give me ideas for 2-person drills!

On Thursday I again had nobody show up for practice, so at this point I’m unsure as to whether or not I have a team?

"Swags"

This past week I got the opportunity to meet the American who played for my club the past two years. Christy Swagerty-Vilas, “swags”, facebooked me to introduce herself and asked if I wanted to meet up for lunch. She currently plays for another club that is also about half an hour from Paris, but still takes French lessons in Melun with her same teacher from previous years.

Christy was incredibly friendly and shared stories about her experiences from the past two years. Since we both have a ton of free time during the day, we decided to try to meet up this next week in downtown Paris so she can show me around.

One of the experiences that Christy told me about involved the “demon” stove in the apartment that I live in. Apparently when Christy and her husband were living here the stove burner would randomly turn itself on when they weren’t home. They ended up having to switch the stove on and off using the circuit breaker in the closet. She asked if I had used the front right burner, and I laughed and then told her the story about me holding the pan out of the skylight. Apparently that burner is a little crazy, so I’m going to go ahead and say the burnt food wasn’t entirely my fault!!

The story about the circuit breaker actually came in handy this morning! I turned on the stove and had started cooking breakfast when I heard a strange humming sound. A few moments later I heard a “pop” and all the power in my apartment went out. This wouldn’t have been a huge deal except I was getting ready to leave for our first tournament, the apartment was pitch black, and I was nowhere near packed or ready to go! After a few minutes I managed to find a candle and lighter so I could see what I was doing when I reset the circuit breaker. Luckily I had talked to Christy this week, or I wouldn’t have had a clue what to do!!

Volleyball talk…

We had our first tournament today (Sunday). After winning our pool in the morning, we ended up losing two afternoon matches to take third overall. It wasn’t a formal tournament that counted for anything though…just 2/3 game scrimmages.


My pro career started off with a bang haha I went for a tool and missed and ended up hitting the back bleachers. I know somewhere in Florida Steve Hendricks would be proud of that shot! The team we played first is in the division beneath us, so we were able to beat them in two even though we didn’t play all that great. I rode the struggle bus during that match then got dropped off by the struggle bus so I could catch the struggle plane in the next match. I started off hitting VERY negative.  The only reason why I’m not calling myself captain of the struggle plane is because I managed to turn it around in the third game by the end. I finished hitting better and had an ace to win the match.

We had about an hour or so break for lunch before starting bracket play. The first team we played had a Spaniard on it that could hammer the ball. She was incredibly feisty and created an interesting dynamic on their side of the court. She would randomly yell “arriba, arriba, arriba!!” but spoke English to her teammates. We lost the first game, won the second, and lost the third one closely (I think we had 12 or 13).

Our last match of the day everyone was exhausted, and it showed. We struggled in pretty much every area. I hopped back on the struggle plane and finished the day with probably one of the worst hitting matches of my career. This isn’t a pity party…this is the truth.

And as my last volleyball related note, my knee started bothering me during the first match of the day. I had it looked at by the osteopathic provider onsite and they thought it might be a meniscus injury but weren’t sure. I was still able to play, so I finished the day and the club is scheduling me a doctor’s appointment tmrw. My range of motion is pretty limited at this point and there are disgusting popping noises L Think happy thoughts for my knee please!

Random thoughts and happenings.

This post is going to be just random things that have happened…not in chronological order.

Crossfit is the first topic, so if the sound of things like WOD, Rx, or HSPUs makes your eyes glaze over I suggest you skip to the next section J

Before I moved here I looked on the crossfit website to see if there were any affiliates close to where I would be living. There are two fairly close- Reebok Crossfit Louvre and Crossfit Original Addicts. On Wednesday I had the entire day free so I decided to go check them out and see which one I wanted to join. Crossfit Original Addicts turned out to be really conveniently located. It’s only a 5-minute metro ride from the train station so I decided to go there first.

The box is really small (compared to the three or four that I’ve seen in Colorado) and was packed when I showed up. I met the owner and sat and watched a class and decided that this was the place I wanted to join. Everyone in there was friendly, not that I would have expected anything less from the crossfit community…but in my experience Parisians are not typically the most welcoming to Americans. All of the coaches speak English too, so that is an added bonus! I never ended up visiting the other gym.

Yesterday I went to my first class. Like I said before, the gym is small. You have to sign up and reserve a spot online because each class is capped at 12 people. People sign up like a week in advance to get the afternoon/evening spots (last class starts at 9pm) but the mornings only have a few people. That’s perfect for me though because since I have practice at night, morning is definitely what I want. Anywhoo…There was a last minute opening at the 12:15 class so I signed up. I got there (dressed in real clothes…yuck.) changed, and checked the board to see what the WOD was.

3 rounds for time of:

-200m run

-50 sit-ups

-200m run

-25 HSPUs

25:00 time cap

bluuuuuughhhhh I hate long workouts. I ended up hitting the time cap with 5 HSPUs left to go on my last set. I was kind of okay with that though because HSPUs are a weakness for me, so I was happy to get 70 done. Also because running sucks.

After I finished I realized I forgot my towel, which was problematic for 2 reasons:

1. I was soaked. I don’t mean like “wow tough workout, I’m glistening!” I mean like it looked like I jumped in a pool. No part of my shirt was dry. I had to wring it out before I put it in my backpack. Ugh. Needless to say, my fellow train passengers would have appreciated a shower.

2. Like I said before, people in Paris wear real clothes. Not workout clothes. I chose to wear jeans and a tank there. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to put jeans on when your legs are wet, but it’s pretty much impossible. I was forced to wear lulu shorts home.

** Non-crossfit related side story that happened on the way home**

On the Metro ride to the train station this guy walked from one end of the car and stood near where I was sitting. He stood like four feet away and just stared at my legs. Not in a “hey there, wink-wink, like your legs, I’m hitting on you” kind of way…it was more of a “I’m going to chop your legs off and put them in my freezer because I’m crazy sort of way”.  There was a door next to me so I figured he was just getting off at the next stop (which happened to also be my stop) so when the doors opened I waited for him to leave, but he didn’t. He just stared at my legs. So I got up and left the train…and he did too. Bluuuughhhh creeper status. I basically speed-walked through the train station to get to my train home. I took a seat where I could see all the other passengers walking by to get on the train. Crazy creeper man walks by, sees me through the window and just stops and stares at my legs again. I stared back and gave him my best “I will beat your ass if you stop and look at me one more time” face and he walked off. I moved to where I could see whether he got on the train. He didn’t, thank god. So yeah….no more Lulu’s in Paris for me. Pants. Lots and lots of pants.

Back to crossfit. Today I signed up for a morning class that only had 2 other spots reserved. I was hoping with a smaller class I’d be able to have a little more space and get more instruction. One of the people didn’t show so it was just me, a guy named Steven, and the instructor, Clement (the ‘t’ is silent). The WOD was:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

-Power Snatch

-Power Clean + jerk

-Deadlift

@30 kilos (#66)

I was happy because I love lifting things and #66 seemed kind of light. In my head I was thinking “Yes, short wod! Woo hoo”. No. That #66 pounds kicked my ass. I ended up finishing in 21:38, once again looking like I had just jumped in a pool.

That’s the end of crossfit talk J Now more random ramblings.

On Monday one of my teammates, Sarah (emphasis on the “ah”…like sar-aaahhhh) showed me around Paris. We went to the Opera House, walked by the Louvre and Royal Gardens, and then met up with her friends to drink wine. Personally, I hate wine. But they told me if I’m going to live here I have to learn to like it!

At that point in time I didn’t have a phone, so I told her which train I was planning on taking and she said she’d meet me at the station. Of course things didn’t go as planned. My train had mechanical issues and stopped at a random station where we sat for about half an hour. They then told us (in French) to get off the train and take the next one that was coming. I had no clue what was going on, so I just followed the crowd. I ended up arriving an hour late, and on a platform that was underground where I had never been before. So to sum it up, I was late, lost, phoneless, and on top of that I had to go to the bathroom. Those who know me well know that when I say I have to go to the bathroom, I mean like NOW. Not 20 minutes from now when it’s convenient. So I went rushing around the train station and found a bathroom. When I got there I realized that you had to pay to use them. Luckily, I randomly had change in my pocket so I didn’t have to wet my pants in the fashion capital of the world J

After that was crossed off my list I went in search of wifi so I could facebook message Sarah and see if she was still waiting. I saw a starbucks and stopped to see if they had wifi, which they didn’t. Right as I was walking out I saw Sarah! She had stopped at an information booth and we happened to bump in to each other! Gare de Lyon (the train station) is enormous. So the chances of that happening are pretty slim.

On a less lucky note…I decided to call my dad from a payphone the other day and found out how expensive international calls can be. When Kelly and I were over here a few years ago we called from payphones and it was like a couple of bucks. This time, when it asked me if I wanted to hear the charges I pressed no…I didn't want to wait any longer- I wanted to talk to my dad!! We chatted, I hung up, and the cost left my mind.

Fast-forward to two days ago when I decided to call my mom. This time I wasn’t really in a rush so I hit ‘yes’ that I did want to hear how much it cost before the call connected. “the first minute costs 35…” In my mind I was praying that the next word would be “cents”. Nope, it was Euros. The first minute cost 35 Euros!!!! And then each additional minute after that was 2 Euros. Awesome. I hung up.

My dad and I had talked for 10-15 minutes.  I still haven’t checked my credit card statement, but that phone call was in the $70-$80 range. Next time I’m calling collect.

Last Saturday night I went to a party at my teammate’s boyfriend’s house to celebrate her getting a new job. There were about 20 people total and they all spoke varying levels of English. One of the guys had a huge NY Yankees tattoo on the side of his neck. He confessed that he loves everything about NY. And here I was thinking that all French people hated America.

Okay, finally volleyball talk!

Practices have been going really well. We usually do serve receive/defense drills for about an hour, hit for some portion of it, and do cardio/circuits for the rest of the time.

We got two new players this week. One is a middle and the other is an outside. I think we’re still expecting one more player, which will put our roster at 11. We also got a new assistant coach who used to play for the club years ago. The girls told me that she used to be a stud pro player.

We have our first tournament next weekend, and then the regular season starts the weekend after that. That’s pretty much all the volleyball talk there is!

Because I don’t practice until late at night, I have a ton of free time to explore. If anyone has any suggestions of things to see/do in the area please let me know! I have an unlimited train pass for the areas close to Paris and unlimited use of the public transport within Paris…so yeah, suggestions please!!

Here are a bunch of pictures that I've taken since I've arrived...not in any order. 

The Siene River...runs through the middle of Melun

The ice cube tray for my freezer

 Guy on the left is the one with the Yankees tattoo on his neck. 

My train station!

The Opera House

The woman in the striped shorts is like 60. seriously. 

More paris street fashion. Pleather shorts and pants.

The ethnic food aisle at the grocery store

Melun

melun

This is the prison...it's right in the middle of town. 

My walk home from the grocery store

random picture from inside Gare de Lyon

Kelly and I had lunch here 2 years ago. 

Crossfit Original Addicts

Lover's Bridge

Well it looks like I won't be buying mascara anytime soon. $15-18 for one tube.