Week of October 9th-15th
Sorry for those that like the daily updates but I am going to start to do weekly because of the travel and game schedule. Since my weekdays are quite repetitive. I will still include all the juicy details that people love to read about that happen during my weeks or just the little funny blurbs that make people remember its just me, Alyssa (or nummy for the not so smart moments).
So this will finish up the week of the 17th and our first match then I will continue to write this way for simplicity purposes and just consistency with mushing all the weeks together. :)
This week has been a bit of madness leading up to the first game. I think that Paolo is just nervous for the season to start but lately he has been sticking to his Italian ways and the mood swings of that are always included. The plans for the weekend are that we go to the juvenil game on Saturday morning in Leganes and then we all leave from there together to travel to Lugo which is about a 5 and a half hour drive.
That morning I wake up a terrible stomach ache and have some issues that don't need to be discussed in detail on this site. So luckily I go to meet with Mario, who has therapy times with Angela and Audra scheduled for that morning. He tells us the best medicine for my issue and we go get some together before heading to Lugo to meet with the rest of the team. I literally am only allowed to eat bland foods by Lily for the entire weekend which is smart but stinks as well. I eat apples, rice, tea, bread and other bland, plain, easily digestible carbs. We travel in cars and of course our car is Lily, Fabian, Paolo, Ani, Angela and myself. Its perfect because Lily and Fabian have become like Angela and my parents while in Spain. We stopped for a bocadillo about 2 hours in and some tea and I was allowed the bread and the ham which that I could hardly even manage to eat really. Once we finally arrived at Lugo we went as a team on a tour of the town. There is a very old cathedral in Lugo that has been standing for hundreds of years. We went inside while mass was going on which felt rude but it was well worth it. The place was gorgeous and had shrines for each of the important pastors and people that have been a part of the church along with their burial arrangements. We also got to see this one part of Lugo that is famous, a wall that runs through the town which was built by the Romans forever ago. We walked along it with its strength as if it were built in the modern era. It was gorgeous. My favorite thing about all the towns I have been to so far is they are full of small streets and Ma & Pa shops. The cobblestone streets and little walkways are always lively and just you can't help but take your time walking through them and taking it all in as an outsider.
Anyways that night we went to the Pabellon which we would play in the next afternoon to watch a mens Superliga 2 match before heading back to our hotel for our team meal. We had a "family" style team dinner where they bring out platters of rice, pasta, veggies, salad, bread, etc for everyone to pick what they want off of. It was delicious and then we also had a yummy apple dessert after our chicken/meat dishes were devoured. By the way they use french fries as a side for everything here. Bed time for us though since we play at noon and have to be up at 9 for breakfast.
As soon as my head hits the pillow I am out because of not feeling so great. I dont wake up until the next morning when my alarm goes off. We head downstairs for breakfast and its similar to the night before where there are platters of thing that we get to pick off of for breakfast. There is coffee and milk (which seems incredible at the time due to the massive headache that I woke up with) along with toast, jelly, nuts, honey and other assortments of European breakfast foods. All Audra, Angela and I really want is eggs buttttt they don't believe in having things besides sweet things for breakfast here. So we indulge in the nuts, toast and jam along with some coffee. The funniest part of breakfast by far was the fact that the nuts had to be cracked so we had nut crackers and there were shards of nuts flying everywhere. After breakfast we headed to the Pabellon where I finally started to feel better which either was the distraction of a game about to be played or a permanent fixture.
The game went by fast and we played alright against an ok opponent and won 3-0. I had 11 aces which is about the only stat that I remember of mine because I served so so so much that match. Lily informed me that each week the league awarded a player MVP honors and selected the top 7 players in the league (6 and a libero) and that she thought I would be MVP which was news to me. After the match we went to have a typical meal from the north of Spain called Pulpa (octopus) which as gross as it sounds is delicious. They typically serve it with boiled potatoes. We had salad, ribs and dessert at the dinner table also which was incredible. Then we headed to the cars to start the long trek back to Madrid in our crammed car. I think I slept almost the entire way back to Madrid except for a few moments one or two times when we stopped for food. Oh and the minor fact of importance from the match that sticks out in my head is this....Angela telling me prior to a play to hit someone in the face on a two ball X-play. I go up and hit the two ball at left back and whammm square in the face of the poor girl. I usually am not one to laugh at this situation as I know what a concussion and head trauma can feel like. I quickly scurried back to the service line and tried not to have the other side see my face because I was ONLY laughing at the fact Angela just jokingly told me to hit someone in the face and I actually did. Paolo in the car on the way back played the hit over and over on his computer for a good giggle but I still felt bad about the post hit reaction I had. Here it is polite to say sorry to the player and I just ran away. Oops :) learning lesson.
Once we got back to Madrid I was thrilled to just lay down and relax and feel somewhat better but who knew that it was all going to come tumbling down the next morning when I woke up. YUCK!
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