Picture Day!

Wednesday was picture day for our team! We were so excited to finally get our jerseys! 😀

Yup, that’s a blue and a PINK jersey! I’ve never had a pink team color before, let along bright bubble gum pink, but I’m kinda diggin it 🙂

We met in the morning at Passage Pommeraye, a small but very classic Nantes shopping center. It was so chilly at 9 am taking the pics, but I think the the shopping center in the background will look so cool. And we also managed to have some fun, taking lots of silly pics with the photographer too. I can’t wait to see them (and share them with you!)

Afterwards the team, coaches, Presidents and some of the other staff went to a cafe for a drink (of course). This place, La Cigale, is one of the oldest and most traditional in Nantes. The presidents told me that I MUST take my family there when they visit!

It was gorgeous inside! Really ornate decorating. I kept looking at the walls and noticed some insect pictures. Then I looked again at the menu… and again at the wall… CICADAS! The place was decorated not with actual cicadas, but with fancy pictures of cicadas on the wall. It’s like their mascot?! What the heck, I hate those buggers! BUT, I loved this cafe. My macchiato was delicious 🙂 and pretty! A couple of girls ordered a hot chocolate, and I may have stolen a sip. So much more rich and delicious than your average swiss miss or even *gasp* Starbucks hot chocolate.

 

We finally have our full team together now, YAY, and are heading to a tournament Fri-Sun. Hoping we can finally put some quality play together!

One Long Week

This past week has been a whirlwind! Over the course of Monday-Saturday we have had a total of 24 hours of training, be it volleyball, lifting or conditioning. Needless to say we were so beat by the end of it. The highlight of the week, however, came Wednesday and Thursday- we took a trip 2 hours north to a city on the North shore of France called St. Malo for a scrimmage.

We drove up Wednesday afternoon and were drooling over the cute little town we came upon. It’s right on the water with lots of ships and traditional French architecture- the skinny pedestrian-only cobblestone streets. Souvenier shops, cafes and restaurants on every corner. I love this stuff!

We walked down a few streets to have a cafe for snacks and a drink before setting off to the gym for practice. Seriously couldn’t stop gawking and saying, “Oh my gosh, it’s so cute!”

We had practice that evening and afterwards had to spend 20 minutes working with kids from the area. I love doing that stuff, but it’s always funny doing it in another country. The kids are never that comfortable with English so I get to use lots and lots of hand gestures and movements. Best part of the session- setting a girl that had a ‘New Brunswick’ t-shirt on- that’s the city I was born in! I asked for a picture with her, pretty sure she thought I was nuts.

After dinner that night, we took a stroll from our apartment/dorm thingies we stayed in to check out the view of the ocean. We ‘ooh-ed’ and ‘ahh-ed’ the entire way with all the buildings, and we hit the shore just in time for sunset! It was gorgeous.

The next day we had conditioning and practice in the morning and a scrimmage that night. With more than a few hours between the time we needed to be at the gym and no apartment/hotel thingy to stay in, our guide lead us to a park that overlooks the water. Not exactly how I like to get a pre game nap in but it was neat to see the the brilliant blue cove on a gorgeous day.

Then we headed to a different cafe to kill another hour or so and grab a drink and some snacks to fuel up. Have i mentioned how much I love the little cafe’s? Adorbz.

That night we won our scrimmage in 5 sets. For having very limited personnel (7 players: 2 setters, 2 middles, 1 OH, 1 Opp, 1 Lib) and being awfully tired from all of training it was a good win for us. The gym was nice and there was a decent crowd for 2 teams not from the city. We get to play the team again next week as well. The only downside of this trip was leaving the gym at 11:30 pm after eating and not getting home until 1:30am… with an afternoon practice awaiting us.  But we survived!