LEARN from yesterday, LIVE for today, HOPE for tomorrow!

Priviet Everyone! Russian for Hello :^)

2011 is here and by God's grace it's going to be another amazing year for me! I am so thankful that I have made it to see 23 and soon 24 :) my birthday is right around the corner. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about New Years resolutions and setting goals for this year, but I still haven't written anything down, I don't know why but I haven't been able to pin point a list of things that I want to change about myself or my life so instead I've just been mulling over what really matters to me.This is what I came up with...

Health for one, and my spirit for the other. This year I would really like to read the bible from beginning to end! Yet for a good week everytime I thought about reading my bible I'd google how to read the bible but never actually picked it up lol so I bookmarked a great website on the best way to read it and I finally began! I am starting with Mathew and working my way through the new testament and then back to genesis and a hop and skip through proverbs then back again towards the beginning. I have a teenage bible that my dad gave to me once and I really like the way it is set up with side notes on what is going on in the passages and it's easier to read than a bible you'd find in church. So wish me luck and I will keep you posted later on how my readings are going and the progress I'm making on this!

And what I'm reading for fun...

As for Health, I am already relatively healthy, I'd say being a professional Athlete this is a must (and that in Azerbaijan there isn't Taco Bell) but there are things that I would like to change for the better. The biggest thing is I would love to be more flexible! I've heard that it helps with decreasing injuries, keeping your body in better shape and that you can jump higher, but for anyone that knows me I'd rather pull off my own finger nail than stretch!!! I hate stretching with a passion, because thanks to my parents impeccable genes I am ridiculously inflexible like a steel pole! So if this is something I legitimately want to change about myself I'm gonna need some serious help from someone, haha and it's not only gonna be a workout for me to stretch but for the person stretching me! In order to accomplish this I'm going to look up some videos on youtube for stretching and also make sure that I take time after practice to use my trainer so that she can stretch me because the worst part is my hamstrings so if I can loosen those bad boys up I'll be fabulous!

Me in 2012

I've got a lot of amazing plans for 2011 and I'm really really excited about them. Once this season is over which should be the end of April I am going to meet my family in Greece !! :) I officially bought my ticket just last week and  I am super excited! While I'm in Greece my best friend Judy aka Stephanie Neville is going to fly over from Canada and meet me there! We are then going to proceed on our very first backpacking track through EUROPE! EUROTRIP 2011 JORDS AND JUDES! I'm so happy that we are actually going to do this! After we leave Greece we will to take a Ferry over to Italy and work our way up and around Europe Italy-Switzerland-France-Germany-Netherlands and then I will fly home from Amsterdam and visit my dad in Portland and see some of my friends around the United States. I may work volleyball camps around the Northwest or go to California and stay with my bestie CC aka Caitlin Zimbrick and work as a personal trainer for a couple months and train myself while I am there. I would love to play some beach volleyball and get some sun before I head back overseas.

Backpack that I'm going to buy for EUROTRIP 2011

Monkey I held in the Park :)

Speaking of CC she is going to bless me with her presence her in Azerbaijan!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am very very happy that she is coming to visit me it's going to be so amazing having her here I miss her and I haven't gotten to spend that much time with her since I left Corvallis Oregon which was in 2005! She is going to stay for about three weeks in this time her and I are going to workout and hangout :) It will be so great to have my friend here! I miss home and this is just what I needed. She'll bring starbucks coffee and some workout videos...that's truly all you need in life lol! So CC will be here towards the end of February and as soon as she books her flight I will start a Facebook countdown!

                                                       Caitlin and I Soon to Be REUNITED!

I would like to plan a vacation every year for when my volleyball season is finished, next year I want to see the great wall of China and the Pyramids of Egypt. Hopefully every season I will be able to see one of the seven wonders of the world! I am young and free now, so it's the perfect time to travel and experience different places and cultures. Being over here has already taught me so many things. I appreciate the little stuff more. Such as milk that is actually kept in the fridge at the market not in a box in the middle of the aisles, the non smoking laws in the US, being able to buy everything at once place like Walmart they don't really have stores like that here. I miss drive throughs like taco bell lol but also I've learned that you can be any where in the world and travel as many places as you'd like but what really matters is that you find happiness within, because if I wasn't happy I wouldn't be able to do this. Live so far away from my family and friends here in a city that looks/feels like it was hit by an atomic bomb two years ago and living in a place where I can't understand anything when it comes to talking or even reading the labels on shampoo. I am internally happy though and I have the best support system ever my friends are amazing and my family is even better!

Nights out with Teammates :)

Flaming SHOTS!

Now for the part about volleyball...

There have been a lot of ups and downs since I've gotten to Baku. Lately volleyball has held a lot of questions for me. There are rumors that our team is going to merge with another club here in Baku called Baki and that we don't have the finances to keep Shirvan my club running. I never know what is the truth and what is gossip so I asked my agent what he knew about these things and also the director of the club. My agent Nejat told me that he heard that this is true that the clubs may be joining together. That's when I fired at him like three thousand questions, "Should I start to look for another club, could I go to Puerto Rico, when will this happen, what should I do??!?" And his short and sweet response to all of this was "Darling don't worry all will be ok, people are not stupid to not see you can play volleyball." Lol that was it! So being he is Turkish and English is not his first language I just told him ok. He did make a valid point though and said that my contract is legit that my transfer has been paid for (they have to pay USA volleyball to allow me to play here) and that I am playing well and performing good so if there is a merger I will most definitely be on the new team. That made me feel better and also I know that my agent and my coach are really good friends and that this would work in my favor in this situation.

We had our first match of the second round on the 18th and we lost. Even though we lost I played great this game I had a lot of kills and blocks and I started jump serving which coach is really happy about! I've been feeling really good about my choice in a career lately, I know that if I keep working my ass off I am only going to continue getting better and hopefully...God willing without injuries, make a name for myself in the professional world of volleyball and perhaps even one day tryout for the USA national team!

I recently started hanging out with two girls from another club here, Jana and JJ. We went to the Ballet called Swan Lake and I had an amazing time the orchestra sealed my idea of wanting to learn how to play the violin! That will be my goal for another year as for right now I am still working on the guitar. Ok, back to my new friends...JJ is a middle blocker like me and she is our national team captain and is 28 years old and in great shape and going strong so it gives me hope that I too can play for USA one day. Maybe next year I will go to the tryouts :) We will see.

I have some good news in my first blogs I told you that my coach wasn't the kindest and that he shared with me my weaknesses as a volleyball player freely and daily. Well yesterday at lunch he definitely ate those words and I'm sure they tasted so sweet lol :). I was speaking to Adnan, my coach, about Mira one of my friends and her possible transfer here, when he told me that he would love for me to come back to play for him next year if I would like to? But to please keep this a secret as he doesn't want the other girls to know that he asked me this...So The first thing that popped into my head was "Is he FREAKING kidding me?!?! Why would I ever play for you again?!" But then my little smart sensor in my brain went off and I realized that burning bridges isn't a good idea and I actually said "Ok, yes maybe I will come here next year I would like to play here again, but we will just have to see." So I have been feeling very happy today you might even call it a slight gloat, about him asking me to play for him next year. Because it just goes to show that he realizes he was oh so wrong when he told me I was too short and not good enough to play professionally!!! This isn't the first time I've been told I couldn't make it and I know it won't be the last...but I'll never say die. :)

TONS OF LOVE MISS YOU ALL!

JORDANA PRICE #12