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!
Working Hard, Playing Harder 