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