The Waiting Game

I realize that this blog has been, at times, depressingly self-important.  Haha!  Since August, blogging about my experiences here has been a linear connection to home (and a very therapeutic one I might add!).  Though the content has been pretty positive, the whole story is that it hasn't always been puppies and rainbows.  I've experienced homesickness (missing Billy and my family and friends), along with loneliness and  *lots* of waiting.  In fact, looking back, so much of my time here has been - in one way or another - a lesson in waiting.

In terms of volleyball, waiting is such an important part of training; not just in terms of resting and recovering properly after workouts, but also technically on defense, hitting, and blocking.  Not unlike many sports, volleyball is a game where a lot has to happen between touches in order for a team to be successful.  The incredible saves you see...  the impossible kills...  they all occur because of 1. the incredible ability of a team to perform explosive synchronized actions in a split second and 2. the ability of individuals to wait for the exact correct moment to come into contact with the ball.

In terms of life, I've been counting down the days until my return home since Billy left in February.  Looking around this place I've inhabited since August, my bags are finally packed.  I'm now counting down the hours before I leave France (maybe forever).  It's a strangely familiar feeling...  My two beautiful sisters, Sarah and Meghan, were here in Paris with me this week...  in a way, ushering me back into my life in California.  The waiting will soon be over.  That will be a feeling I haven't felt in a while!

Scrappy Scrap Scrapperson

Today, we beat the fourth seed in our league in a five-set nail-biter (21:25, 25:21, 24:26, 25:18, 15:12).  The fans were totally awesome.  It was an exciting match and a great way to finish off our season at home.  This was an especially momentous game for my team because we hadn't won a five-setter yet this season.

This game was also very rewarding for me personally because I was finally picking up defensive balls that (before this season) used to fall inches away from my fingertips (and then torment me for a week!).  Maguy has been working hard with me in practice to rewire my digging and diving (sometimes I would dive too soon, sometimes too late, and sometimes not at all - and almost always with the wrong arm).  I know, I know - my poor coach, right?!?!  Anyway, she somehow managed to connect a few circuits that enabled me to shine on defense tonight.  Though this match wasn't my best, it was very cool to see marked improvement in my ability to dig.  It felt so great to be on the floor scrapping together a play with my team.  And, of course, it was totally worth it for the WIN!  Yay.

Just Another Day in Paradise

Tonight we ventured to Paris to steal a tough four-set win (25-20, 19-25, 16-25, 21-25) against a formidable rival.  It felt so great to get a W!

I also finally found my name on USAVB dot com.  It doesn't really matter, but for some reason it feels super good just to see my name on the same list as some of the greatest female volleyball players in the world right now (Logan Tom, Nicole Davis, Alisha Glass - just to name a few)!

That's all for now.  More later!

The Natural

"You've got a gift, Roy.  It's not enough.  A clear mind and the ability to see from the heart.  That's real strength.  Just pick a spot and work at it.  The secret is confidence and concentration...  you got them you don't need much else."  - Quote taken from the movie The Natural

I've never been called a natural.  Ask any one of my coaches.  My athleticism has always been forced.  So, while my sister Sarah was a game-winning-goal-scoring soccer star and my sister Chrissy was landing back flips on a balance beam, I was best known for being wimpy and wiry and choking under pressure.

Coaches never recognized me for having natural talent or a gift - not once - and for good reason.  Ha!  In my youth, I saw this as a setback, but looking back now I've realized that this mindset really helped me.  I remember one time, after missing a wide-open game-changing shot, my dad took me out to a soccer field to practice my aim.  I didn't go on to score many goals after that, but this evening did teach me a valuable lesson:  "just pick a spot and work at it"

Being programmed from a very early age to believe that success was not going to come as easily to me as it did to others gave me the quiet confidence I needed to tryout for the Bella Vista high school volleyball team (despite my dad telling me "Amy, there's no way you're going to make the Bella Vista volleyball team!" Haha... he was almost right!).  I barely squeaked by with the last spot on the JV roster.  Bella Vista drew from a pretty strong pool of girls who were already playing club, so once I made the team my mission was clear:  try, fail, repeat.

For the four years that I played at BV and the two years that I played club (at Orangevale and Twin Rivers) my parents were a constant source of support.  They drove me all over Northern California to games and tournaments.  They shelled out copious amounts of hard-earned cash for club fees. They gave me pep-talks and cheered me on from the stands. They did all this probably not even realizing how desperately I needed it... Blah blah blah - I was a HUGE nerd with no friends who ate lunch alone in a bathroom stall - wah wah.  I digress!  The point is - I never expected volleyball to come naturally, but instead relied on a sticktoitiveness (which stemmed from my parents' steady support) to fuel every single inch of my progress in this sport.

Moral of the story?  Natural or not, having great parents is helpful.  And if you aren't talented don't worry about it because hard work works!  :)

French Milestone #3

This evening I celebrated International Day of the Woman with a whole stadium at the Tours vs. Sète professional men's volleyball game. A few guys from my men's regional team were seated up in the stands together like a good volleyball mafia family, so we watched together as TVB won handily.

We caught the tram back to Saint-Cyr and bantered the whole way.  Now, granted, #1 these guys are joksters (most of the time they're laughing anyway because they'll laugh at almost anything), #2 they are accustomed to my accent and humoring me, and #3 it isn't always easy to differentiate whether they are laughing at me or with me, but - audience aside - I'm pretty sure I was on fire tonight.  I made a couple of well-timed zingers that genuinely made this whole group of native french guys laugh out loud.  Ahhhh - felt so good!  Group laughter is a new high for me - so I thought I'd share!  :)

Alright, that's all for now.  More later!

Footage is Fun!

Oh my goodness!  I finally get to share some rare footage of me in the wild!  Haha...  Billy took this video during our game against Rennes Etudiants Club on Feburary 9th.  Rennes is the capital of Brittany (far northwest France) and Tours is the capital of Pays de la Loire (central northwest France), so it's kinda like a regional rivalry...  This team is so fun to play against because, even though they aren't very tall, they are dynamic and energetic and go after every ball.  Here are a few clips Billy caught from our match against them: 

I'm jersey #11 and wearing a white headband.

Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire vs. Rennes from Amy Moor on Vimeo.

Haha - did you like that premature celebration??  This game (which we lost in four sets (22-25, 17-25, 25-13, 18-25)) marked a five week break from league matches.  So, after a little Spring break action, we got back in the gym full throttle this week.

Our next official match is away on March 23rd against Vie au Grand Air de St Maur (a suburb outside of Paris).  Hopefully by then my ankles (yes - still sore!) will feel better and I'll be jump serving again.

Here is a link to our standings if you're interested:
http://www.ffvbbeach.org/ffvbapp/resu/seniors/2013-2014/index_2fd.htm
We are Reveil Sportif de Saint-Cyr.

It's really hard to believe we only have five matches left...  to WIN!  :)

The French National Team

The husband of my coach is the Head Coach of the National-Championship-winning professional men’s team in Tours and also Head Coach of the Female French National team (who has been practicing here this week to prepare for their World Championship qualification matches against Bulgaria, Croatia, and the Netherlands).  So, I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday watching the women’s French National team trainings that have been open to the public at the Palais des Sports in downtown Tours.  These ladies totally rock and inspire me by the way they play the game.  Their power and speed is just astounding!  They don’t make mistakes.  Here is me with my two favorite powerhouse players, both outside hitters:

These girls make the ball go BEAM!

Sick and Tired (In the Best Possible Way... Hehe)

Starting my sixth week of a fifteen week jump training program called Air Alert!  My body is beat, but I'm jumping higher all the time.

Also, my jump serve is steadily improving.  Maguy has helped me in practices to systematically fix one thing at a time.  First, she fixed how I hold my serving hand.  Second, she fixed how I hold the ball.  Next, she fixed the height of my toss.  Then, she fixed how far I stand back from the end line and the size of my steps.  Finally, how high my hand is at the point of contact.  Now, for the first time in my life (and thanks entirely to Maguy) I can confidently say that I have a killer jump serve.  Woohoo!

On Sunday, we lost to the third seed in our league (25-22, 25-7, 25-20).  I can't even describe how frustrating this game was...  What an emotional roller coaster!  We came so close in the first set only to totally implode in the second set - starting out badly with a slough of unforced errors and then ending in a disappointing 12 point rut (stuck in a rotation we just could not sideout).  I didn't even make it to the service line...  Competing in that third set was not enough of a consolation to comfort us from the single digit shut out.  Ugh!  After it was over, I just went to the sideline and wept.  The locker room was quiet, but I wanted more than anything to tell my team, "I'm sick of losing.  I know we can compete with these teams!"  So, I just blurted it out...  Everyone was looking at me like, "Uhh.  You're speaking in English."  Haha!  Here's what I was having trouble with:

AVOIR MARRE DE - to be sick/tired of
j'ai marre de
tu as marre de
il/elle a marre de
noux avons marre de
vous avez marre de
ils/elles ont marre de

RIVALISER - to compete
je rivalise
tu rivalises
il/elle rivalise
nous rivalisons
vous rivalisez
ils/elles rivalisent

So, the phrase would've been:
"J'ai marre de perdre.  Je sais qu'on puisse rivaliser avec ces équipes là."

I'm more fired up than ever to WIN and I believe our team is right around the corner from really performing.  This week, I'm taking Maguy's advice and tapering my double days.  All this down time is freeing me up to rest, write, and chomp at the bit...  I'm excited to have a great practice tonight and blow our rivals out of the water this weekend!

Disney Was Right... It's A Small World!

Yesterday, I was walking down the wrong aisle in the grocery store looking for bar soap and some people passed by casually speaking English.  I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around as quickly as I could and just shouted at them "Are you American?!?" like any sane, but slightly lonely and desperate person might.  The couple was Canadian.  Oops?  They were collecting a lost-luggage-esque assortment of items along with an American woman who lives here in Tours.  When I told her I was here playing volleyball, she told me that she met Kelli Smith (THE marathon winning, ass-kicking wife of TVB star middle blocker David Smith) at this very same supermarket under the exact same circumstances (ie totally randomly).  It's a small world after all  ...and it was about to get even smaller.  After chatting for barely five minutes we discovered that we were both invited to the same Thanksgiving dinner.  What?!?  After we picked up the parts of our exploded heads, we said our goodbyes and I found the bar soap at the end of the aerosol deodorant aisle.

I hope you are all looking forward to Thanksgiving.  I know I am!  :)

Stumble the Mumble

We kicked off this month with a three game winning streak, chased immediately by a three game losing streak.  Our best game yet was against Rennes away, where we won in four close sets (14-25, 25-23, 22-25, 21-25).  We're currently sitting comfortably in the middle of the pack (6th out of 10 teams in our league).  The ambiance at practices, however, is far from comfortable...  Me and my teammates and Maguy are all pushing each other harder than ever to keep moving together in the right direction.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my double days where I workout in the morning and then practice in the evening.  Some days are harder than others!  On a clear Tuesday morning, I ride to the Saint-Avertin Amazonia to tag team the gym equipment with a teammate who works out there on her break from work.  On days where the weather is begging me to stay in my warm bed, I end up peeking out the garage door from underneath a pile of wool and three water resistant jackets.  Then, post self-pep-talk, I brave a cold and wet commute (I like to think of it as a refreshing ice cold shower - ha!) to Amazonia Saint-Cyr.

Amazonia is one of our generous sponsors.  It is an amazing gym with locations all over the greater Tours area.  From my house, there is one location walking/jogging distance (Saint-Cyr) and two other locations cycling distance (Saint-Avertin and Joué-lès-Tours).  They have all your basic cardio machines (elliptical, stair master, treadmill, stationary bikes) and all the standard workout equipment (weights for every major muscle group and a workout studio with yoga mats).

One funny thing...  All the cardio machines have audio outlets for streaming TV and internet.  However, the first time I saw this compartment flap cover - I'm not going to lie - I checked to see if wasn't an ashtray.  Nop - plugs for ear buds - Phew!  :)

Even more beloved than cigarettes to the French, though, is coffee.  And I believe I've already mentioned how much people appreciate snacks here, right?  Well, Amazonia wins the Best-Snack-Bar-at-a-Gym Award.  Hands down.  They offer an unlimited coffee and tea bar and yummy apples free for the taking!  So, when I can't motivate myself to go workout, the cappuccino gets me through the door every time.  Haha!

Anyway...  Ah yes, the title of this post...  I saw this quote on facebook the other day - no idea who said it - "Sometimes before you can walk the talk you stumble the mumble." This reminded me of another quote from Picasso who said something like "I'm always doing what I can't do, that's how I get to do it."  And THAT is exactly how I feel about working hard.  It can be a lot of two steps forward, one step back, but as long as you can stay the course, you reap the rewards!

Getting Better!

Yep!  This is pretty much how I feel about my game right now!  

I am so thankful to be here improving my game with such an amazing group of people.  My coach is so incredible.  My team is - day by day - making me a better volleyball player, and I hope that by the end of this year they can say that I did the same for them.  Oh man - good things are happening!  Every practice is getting a little bit better!  Getting so much better all the time!  :)

Bordeaux!

At 10:30 AM Sunday morning the whole team piled into a nine-person van to make our 4PM match against team AMAZON (I mean, Bordeaux Merignac).  This team came down from National 1 at the end of last season and has been dominating National 2 with their scrappy defense and ferocious offense ever since. 

Unfortunately for our record, the road trip was the highlight of the day.  The freeways here are fast, direct, and cost a fortune.  The gas was 110 euros, and the tolls totaled 150 euros!  OUCH!  Coach Maguy said if you aren’t pressed for time the national routes here are beautiful *free* back roads that wind through the countryside and tiny town centers (a great way to see the French way of life up close).

Bordeaux was unlike any wine country I’ve ever seen...  Lush vines extended from the freeway in their uniform lines for as far as the eye could see in every direction.  Vineyards weren’t nestled in a valley, or shelved along steep, rocky cliffs.  They just stretched on and on and on forever.  Rows of trees and solitary farm houses spotted the landscape and spurred deep conversations about food, farming, and the environment. 

You will never believe this, but it turns out that on this three hour car ride, I happened to be sitting next to a girl on the team who has also been to Madagascar!  Oh, we went on and on, sharing with Maguy all the coolest things about Mada.  Since Maguy spent most of her life in Brazil, she could relate to a lot of the eating habits that characterize that latitude (ie tons of rice, a million different types of bananas, and avocados for dessert).  Mmmmm… 

I often forget that Madagascar is where I first developed a respect for food.  Despite annual family outings to Apple Hill and my mom’s lifelong gardening and fearless foraging habits, before studying abroad in Madagascar in my mind food primarily existed prepared, packaged, and priced on a shelf, in an aisle, in a huge air-conditioned building with slick floors and friendly employees.  Madagascar is where I finally realized that even the ingredients for pop tarts are planted, grown, and harvested, before being shook up in a test tube, squirted out a mechanical arm and zipped up in a rectangular foil wrapper.  Haha!

That reminds me of a great bit from Jerry Seinfeld on pop-tarts:

Pop-Tarts aside, it’s really rare to meet someone else who has been to Madagascar!  It was so nice being reminded of the year I spent learning, eating, and experiencing life there while studying abroad.  So many names, faces, moments, and meals flooded back into my memory; devouring banana and nutella sandwiches around a campfire; meditatively chatting while peeling apples and oranges; snacking on boiled manioc doused in sweetened condensed milk; harvesting, de-husking, sorting, washing, and cooking huge pots of white, red, brown, and black rice; savoring samosas and skewers of beef with lemony hot sauce; and washing everything down with THB (Three Horses Beer)...  It made me want to go back so bad!

To put it lightly, the game we played once we arrived in Bordeaux left something to be desired...  Enough said.  Bordeaux Merignac provided post-match pâté and crêpes (YUM!) and on the ride home we chowed down on a yogurt and nutella cake that our setter baked and my dad’s famous chocolate chip cookies (which arrived in the mail this week!).   Even though all of us were stuffed from the snacks, the club paid for a pit-stop.  We sat inside a gas station dining area and supped on delicious (by American standards) microwaveable pasta boxes.  Outside the sun set on distant forests and farms in hues of highlighter yellow, orange, and pink behind wide blankets of dark purple clouds. 

We made it home by 10:30 PM.  My head hit the pillow hard, gears still turning over missed serves and bad plays from earlier that night.   Alas!  Sunday nights remind me to look forward to a sit in the sauna and swimming, and a week of hard work for our next match.

That’s all for now.  More later!

We won!

Our first home match was a smashing success.  We beat Landaise in three straight sets (26-24, 25-21, 25-22).  I was so nervous!  The team did some really great things.

After the game both teams stayed and hung out in the team room.  We drank and ate (I had been waiting all day to eat bread, so I went a little overboard on the baguette and brie).  Ha!  It was especially delicious after such sweet success!

Tough week of training ahead...  That's all for now.  More later!

First Official Home Match!

Pizza, Sauna, Practice

Wonderful lunch meeting with Maguy today.  Today was NOT a double day, but we went to a pizzeria, so I just *had* to indulge my curiosity!  Qu'est-ce que c'est la pizza française?  It was so delicious...  I ordered the vegetarian pizza topped with tomato sauce, cheese, onions, peppers, mushrooms, artichokes, eggplant, and olives.  Soooo good!  The thin crust was charred around the edges and soft in the middle.  Mmmmm...  An obvious fork and knife situation...

My Monday training sesh was a swim and a run.  I went to the local pool and almost had my whole workout derailed because it turns out they have a sauna!!!!  YES + exclamation points forever!  If there hadn't been a 30 minute limit, I'd still be in there right now...  Awww, so nice!

At practice tonight my serve-receive passing felt better!  I'm getting into a rhythm of relaxing my arms and then refocusing on the ball to get my platform angle just right before contact.

First home game this Sunday!  Until then?  Work, work, work!  :)

Nutrition: Everyday Eating

Back in the States, working for SweetWARE, I started getting a lot questions from people about what to eat and why.  I'm no expert, but (because of my natural curiosity and the tools I had at my fingertips) I had the privilege of learning a lot about what food is made of and what works for me.  Here are a few rules of thumb that I like to think can be applied to any diet for added energy and vitality!

1.  Eat rainbows.  Not Lucky Charms, people!  I'm talking red tomatoes, orange carrots, yellow peppers, leafy greens... You get the picture!  If you eat a bunch of grays and browns, that's how you're going to feel.  PS - Condiments don't count...  Sorry!

2.  Fast food = once a year!  For maybe five years now, Billy and I have been getting Taco Bell for Valentine's Day.  This radical tradition started when we found ourselves wandering around Alameda on V-Day with no reservations and the realization that a nice dinner would require an hour wait and about a hundred bucks...  Going to Taco Bell was the most counter-cultural thing we could think of at the time and it stuck!  Now we look forward to it every year and fast food just feels wrong on any other day.  Haha...  Bottom line?  364 days a year, swap fast food for fresh food to feel (yep - pretty much instantly) better!  PS - In-and-Out does not count as fast food after a long day of tournaments and that's just the way it is...

3.  Whole Foods.  Not the store.  The food.  Unless you have a deadly allergy, foods that do not require packaging are generally better for you.  If it absolutely has to have a package, it also requires an ingredient list - so, read that shit!  Ingredient lists are required to list ingredients in order of predominance by weight.  If I'm debating between two products?  Compare the first three words and then run the last three words through my difficult-to-sound-out filter.  Red flags that get a product put immediately back on the shelf:  hydrogenated, artificial, monosodium glutamate, high fructose corn syrup, flavor, and color.  I rarely look at nutrition labels, but when I do it's normally to ensure that foods high in saturated fat, transfat, and sodium don't make it to my grocery cart.

4.  Anti-oxidants: our bestest friends in the whole wide world.  All we need to know is that, as a species, our favorite foods (in no particular order) are: any apple, any dark fruit, all berries, pecans, dark beans and pinto beans.  Period.  Okay, fine, fine!  Go ahead and throw in artichokes and russet potatoes if you insist...  Do it!  :)

Last thing before I get off this soap box (which I'm totally unqualified for if you forgot or missed that part).

5.  HYDRATE!  Replace the liquids you currently drink (soda, iced tea, coffee, alcohol, etc.) with the liquid of life: water...  or fruit and vegetable juices...  or just fruits and vegetables!  And this is where everything starts circling back to reinforce itself:  The USDA recommends 8-9 servings of fruits and vegetables day.   These foods (raw) are 75-90% water, so eat (or drink!) that ridiculously hydrating, nourishing, colorful stuff!

So, if you find yourself asking yourself "Do I dare eat a peach?"  The answer is just yes.

Writing this has made me very hungry, so I'm going downstairs to get a snack...  That's all for now.  More later!

Nutrition: Eat Like the Athlete You Want to Be

Sunday was the 10k & 20k de Tours!  A beautiful day... So, I wandered down to Tours Center to check out all the athletes and the cool booths and stuff.  I stood in line (forever) to get Paella and got to the front of the line only to realize that not only is there meat in Paella, there is *every kind of meat* in Paella (sausage, chicken, and seafood) - and I became a vegetarian (kind of) on Mother's Day this year...  Doy!  Ahahah!  I ate it anyway...  Ooops!  :)

Since I stopped eating meat (okay, fine, not entirely, but for the most part - haters...), I've been told more times than I can count that I'm probably not getting enough protein.  This inspired me to analyze my diet and, believe it or not, it turns out I'm getting more than enough protein, but could stand to DOUBLE my carbohydrate intake.  Insane!

Here's what a day looks like for me right now (a double day is when I workout for more than 4 hours total):
Breakfast - plain yogurt with honey and cinnamon, muesli (double days add eggs and toast)
Snack - fruit
Lunch - spinach salad (double days I get to eat whatever I want for lunch)
Dessert - plain yogurt with honey and cinnamon
Snack - fruit
Snack - peanut butter rice cakes with honey and cinnamon
Snack - bread with olive oil and vinegar
Dinner - vegetables + grains + beans or tofu (double days add pasta)
Dessert - plain yogurt with honey and cinnamon

This gets me to exactly 100g protein, 360g carbohydrates, and 100g fat (around 2600 kCal) on single days... and on double days I get to eat carbs like it's my job (like just throw in a whole baguette there somewhere, double the grains for dinner, and maybe even a pastry and coffee) to bring me to 800g of glorious, golden, crusty, delicious carbohydrates.

When I'm training, I also like to follow a few general rules:
1.  Low alcohol and low caffeine.  That's right.  Except for occasions, if I'm training right, alcohol becomes a distant memory and caffeine stays out of the picture as much as possible.

2.  High-protein post-workout snack:  nuts, hard boiled eggs, or apple with peanut butter...  My go-to post workout snack right now?  Rice cake with peanut butter, honey, cinnamon and banana - YUM!

3.  Hydrate!  I drink about 2 liters a day of water (at least).  When I'm back in the States, I'm drinking electrolytes like a coconut water, or gatorade diluted by 50% to keep that post-bikram head ache away.  Here, I've been drinking lemon water and diluted apple/pear juice with a little pinch of salt after workouts.

This link is an amazing article written by US Anti-Doping Agency about the best diet for athletes:
http://www.usantidoping.org/files/active/what/dietary_intake.pdf
My targets are based off of this and this fitness calculator from active.com.

On that note, if you have anything to add - please leave a comment for me!  I love hearing about new recipes and things that work for others!!  Thanks!

Living Simply!

I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but the President of Saint Cyr sur Loire Volley Ball is also the head honcho at Simply.  I went to Simply in Tours for the first time on Monday to shop.  This was the closest thing to an American grocery store I've seen yet!  The prices were all really low and the organic section was HUGE.  They have tofu, coconut milk, soy sauce, pesto, fresh and dried pasta, sliced and bakery style bread (mmmm... I got a whole grain loaf with walnuts), a whole range of cheeses (Yes, of course I splurged and bought goat cheese), fresh and canned fruits and vegetables (canned beets has been the best find yet in that department), ready-made soups, salads, sandwiches, Q-tips, band aids, deodorant (yay!)...

Anyways, Simply is the best (and I'm not just saying that because they are our biggest sponsor)!  :)

I Need a Miracle

Riding back from my second weight lifting seance with a team mate, this song was stuck in my head...

Mostly because it was the last song playing at the gym before we left, but also because it's really how I feel about how much better I want to be at volleyball.  I need a miracle!  Ahahah...

After our tournament Saturday (we won six straight sets!), it's clear that I need to work on front row defense, defending the tip, and serve-receive passing!  Maggie helped me with two concepts: 1. serving between players (making them move and make decisions) and 2. speeding up my arm swing when my timing and the set are right.  "BEAM!" she said.  Haha!

I'm really excited to work hard at practice tonight...  That's all for now.  More later!

French Kissing

I don't know how deeply I've delved into the subject of kissing in France, but this is the stuff that this Culture (yes, culture with a capital C!) is made of...   So, here we go!

This morning I was sitting in a coffee shop/bar/newsstand/convenience store around the corner from my new digs looking like a total tourist in my shorts and tennies with socks, writing postcards, and drinking a cappuccino (which looked like a McDonald's ice cream cone and an espresso got in a brawl and the ice cream won) and - I'm not even joking - every single customer said hello upon entry to pretty much everyone but me.  The men shook hands with each other and everyone kissed the women (2x minimum - first the right cheek then the left cheek - though I witnessed a four kiss situation which, at this point, is my worst nightmare...).  Ha!  No matter what is going on, you drop everything and walk straight up to people with a gender specific greeting and this is a HUGE part of the culture here that I have yet to fully embrace (ahem ahem).

So, if you can imagine my practice last night - there I was being introduced to the core of the Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire Men's Regional team (seriously 7 French guys just totally blankly staring at me) and no one knew how to say hi.  Do we perform the usual ceremony (two kisses - no eye contact - no hesitation, just literally stick your neck out and go right on in for it)?  Do I just take the lead and spit on hundreds of years of their cultural tradition by swapping their kisses for a sweaty yankee handshake?  Running away screaming was taken into consideration...  Eyeyey!  I ended up asking if it was possible to institute a strict high five policy...  People agreed this was fine.  So, our salutation involves a high five plus an exploding fist bump (it's sporty and kinda like knuckles kissing with fireworks at the end).

Greeting aside, it was pretty obvious from the start that at least half of these guys were not excited about having a young, female, American coach...  Oh man, that's so many counts against me here it's a little ridiculous, but once we got started they were all cool and there's no doubt about it - this team is athletic with strong fundamentals.  My role is clearly just to work them out hard and give them game-like drills that challenge specific areas where they need improvement.  I thought practice went pretty well, but we'll see who shows up on Friday!  :)

Today I went to see a cool and competent podiatrist who made me custom insoles!  Now every time I take a step it feels like a baby is punching me in the arch.  Haha!  He said wearing the insoles should clear up my foot pain completely in ten days and to come see him again any time.  We talked for a long time about feet (doy!) and athleticism (one of my favorite topics!)...  His office was super high-tech.  He really helped me.

I feel great - which is good because I have practice tonight!  Yay!  Okay - that's all for now.  More later!