Volleyball!!

The normalities of today shall be skipped over because I went and played volleyball tonight and would rather explain that :)

So a few days ago the option of paying 35 euro to choose 2 weekly sports activities confronted me. I had the option when getting my student card a while ago, but it re appeared with more appeal. A classmate told me she was participating and doing some workout classes so I decided to look at the sheet. Hmm...VOLLEYBALL. It stood out to me and the fact that there were levels so I could be in a class without beginners sounded SO appealing! So I signed up for that and French Boxing (which Chelsea and I are doing together on Wednesdays).

So my first day of volleyball is rapidly approaching and I am super nervous. Like, more nervous than I was going to my first day of class (which I was not that nervous for..), and I was panicing. I don't know what exactly I was nervous about. I think the fact of being isolated because I didn't speak French was the main thing. I felt comfortable thinking about the actual playing of Volleyball, but the interaction scared me some, who knows how a room full of French people would treat me.
It went from 6:30 -8:30 and as I headed to the building, I realized I did not know where the 'Hall of Sports' was. Hm...I figure it is big, I'll see signs. Wrong. No signs. The people I ask say they think It might be upstairs, fail. Finally grab a pamphlet with a miniture diagram map thing, oh hey, Hall of Sports is a separate builiding behind the one i'm in. And class starts in 2 minutes. Shmeh, being late is better, I can scope out the people first.

So I find the other building with ease, and It has a entire side full of windows, so as I turn the corner I immediately see volleyball ish people and head inside.

There is little ole Kaitlyn standing by herself. Normally I would strike up a conversation with another lonely, but seeing as my French would immediately make that awkward I kept silent. We all rounded together. She called names, I had to focus on each one because I knew she would say mine with a French accent [Cat-lean] and did not want to miss it. Bingo, I heard it!

Ok. TIme to pair up. Dang it. I figured it would just work it's way to where I would see a girl that needed a partner or something, how it always works out, but no, this was not normal life, it was like the movies, I was by myself. I scanned just to make sure, and sure enough, there was an odd number of people. So I warmed up with the wall until the teacher came and added me to another group. They were nice :)

Then an older lady showed up late and I got paired with her. She was graying, but I would say maybe mid 40's? Very active, and when we did 2x2 competitions, we won all but the 'gold' medal round :). Oh and this was the intermediate section. The super good club players were doing their own thing. I am a tad envious because I would love the challenge to be playing with them, maybe she will ask me to move up sometime. Not that I am much better, but the majority of the people I am playing with are serving underhanded and most likely do not know how to do an approach to hit. Nothing wrong with that, just explaining.

Anyway, we continue then get into groups of 4 and do more scrimmage, the teacher by this time knows I speak english because as she walks away from telling me something, a very long explanation about me not hitting it over but setting it over the net, she mentions to the group if anyone speaks english to potentially help me haha. The cat is out of the bag.

I am going to be SO sore tomorrow but playing volleyball was like riding a bike, minus having the necessary muscles, It felt like I never stopped playing. SO fun. Did a couple dives that my knees will be paying for with some bruises, but quickly learned and started doing proper dives. I'm happy I don't have my knee-pads because it will force me to dive better?

During a time when our team was resting, it came up that I was studying abroad with my team of 4. They crowded around (including the older lady) to ask me questions. An interesting question they asked was "What is hard for you here", and I explained that the hardest thing was actually speaking French. I told how my friends all speak English, and even when I meet French people they want to switch to English either because they are trying to be nice and make it easier for me to communicate, or they want to practice their English. Either way, I end up not practicing my French! The old lady then asked If I had tried the Cider (famous in this region), and I said not yet! And she said she is going to bring me some next week! How nice :)

Ack. So basically my nervousness is gone. I love it. Love love love. I knew that it would most likely turn out ok, and it did :) and now I get some super good exercise once a week (twice with boxing hah..)

Welp. I just ate a yellow plum.

Homework time :)