Hi Everyone so as I'm typing I'm listening to Christmas Music :) since Pandora doesn't work outside the US sadly, I've turned to AOL radio and loving it!! Also I'm drinking green tea with SPLENDA :) thanks to my dad and my beautiful Christmas tree I bought is brightly shining next to my bed so you can say I'm quite content as I write today! I need to recap my last two matches we have had three games this month already and our next one is on December 19th against Igisatchi, the last two matches we lost in three.
The first match was against Baki. As I said earlier one of our girls transferred from this team just last week and therefore there was A LOT of controversy and for some reason she ended up not being able to compete in the match because the other teams coach wasn't having it. I don't understand all the details but from what I gather her transfer from Baki's club to ours 'Shirvan' wasn't complete and so "legally" she wasn't allowed to play, usually in this case since the coach let her go in the first place, it's not that big of a deal but it was that day. So we were down our starting outside hitter and we had a replacement, Lada, she is currently our team trainer, but can play and she did. It wasn't a very competitive match from the start coming from our side and we didn't play very well the entire game. I was frustrated with the situation because I hate to lose and every game I am finding it harder to cope with the language barriers! I want to motivate and talk to my teammates but they don't understand anything I'm saying and it's upsetting when we are losing and I want to pick them up and tell them to forget the last set we just need to focus on this one, to shake it off, or even useful things like tactical advice. For example through out the game I notice tendancies and that certain players like to hit the same angles or remember that the setter always dumps in a specific rotation but I can't explain these things very well... I mean I'm doing my best to use body language by pointing and telling them the numbers but I feel like they only understand me 20% of the time at best lol and this has been hard for me to adjust to. I've been talking to my teammate Maua about this though and she told me to focus on myself, to do the best I can, and that what it comes down to basically, is just try to do my job and not to focus on the lack of communication or the way other people are playing at the time. I feel like this is good advice and I'll work on it but I'm so used to playing with people that understand me and being a leader and pumping the team up but that stuff is so hard to do now! Anyways, back to the game we lost in three, but I personally had my best match yet I had 7 kills for 13 attempts and 0 errors, I was happy when I finally figured this out, we had a meeting and he put all our stats up, the first match I did pretty well not as good but hit .340 I think it was like 3 errors 10 kills and I don't know how many attempts I could do the math but too lazy lol. And for both matchs the first and second I had +2 blocks I don't know what this means cause it's not the total it's a formula they use and I ended up with 2+ so I think this is good.
Ok now to the third match against Azerrrail, this team is very popular here in baku we train in their facility and they have been the power house in this country for a very long time, there are pictures of their wins and championship matches ALL over the Volleyball Federation, so I knew it was going to be tough to beat them before the match even started...we have a girl that just transferred from this team she is the other middle blocker Aynur. The first set started out great for us we were up most of the set and were playing very enthusiastically with our starting outside back in her position and a lot more fans in the stands for us this match we were on a roll! :) I was having so much fun we were blocking them and getting incredible digs! Towards the end of the match we had a tough call from the line judge go their way and lost our momentum a little and ended up losing 21-25, and the next set was a hot disaster! We started out up 4-0 then everything just fell apart they have a great jump server and she honestly scored 7 points acing us in a row towards the middle of the set and we were not communicating well, our outsides didn't serve receive up to par and were making incredibly not smart errors! You can't hit balls out of bounds when you compete with one of the best teams in the league, so after we lost the second set 12-25, we switched sides had a huddle where our coach talk to our passers about their serve receive a little bit and he pointed out Audina our outside especially telling her there's more to volleyball than just hitting and serving, two things she is very good at. She agreed shook her head and we all went out ready to win the next set or so I was hoping! We once again started out strong and I had a great push tip to the deep corner that land just perfectly on the line, but alas the line judge called it out, even the crowd was screaming so loud about this call but the up ref allowed it to be called out, and the girl that served seven aces in the previous set went back to serve us off the court. We didn't recover well and lost 15-25 UGGGGGH! Embarassing I know :( I didn't hit well this match being I only had 4 attempts two of them were blocked and two kills so I hit even .000 which is NOT good.
We have two setters on our team the majority of the time it's been the Bulgarian setter Simona, I really like her except she refuses to set me in transition, I think she just doesn't have confidence enough to force the middle and I'm used to Nikki Baker who'd set me laying down from middle back lol, so this has been a huge difference, I wish I could hit more than I've been doing but I don't speak bulgarian so all I can do is shake my head when she gives me the signal for what she's gonna set me and hope that I'm enthusiastic enough she will give it to me lol. I blocked decently I don't know the stats though I'm sure I'll know before our next match. That's that though we lost in three and we have another chance to play this team and I know we can beat them because we didn't lose because they are better than us we beat ourselves in this match and if we just cut out all the stupid errors we will totally be right there fighting for the W!
Here is a picture of my team :) we were all at my favorite place in the city it's called Traveler's Cafe, I'll post a picture of that too! It's so nice there and I love the White Chocolate Mocah it rivals starbucks lol
Aside from volleyball I have been really sick this past week I didn't go to practice for three days because of this and I am not at practice now because I keep having these awful coughing attacks once I start working out to the point where I am coughing so much I feel like I'm gonna throw up...sorry for the gorey details :) but today I asked if I could go to the doctor because I am concerned that if I let this stuff sit in my chest for too long that it could turn into a bad infection and I definitely don't wanna be spending any time in the hospital here! So my trainer called the doctor she knows personally from one of the other clubs here in Baku and wrote down the meds I should take, and the director of our club brought them back to me from the pharmacy. Come to find out in Azerbaijan anyone can buy antibiotics if they would like! :) strange I know lol but I'm happy I didnt' have to go through the whole get a prescription process! So I brought home Augmentin aka amoxicillin, some cough syrup stuff for your lungs, a bottle of iodine and camphor oil! I was told to take the meds and rub the iodine and camphor on my chest and neck, I looked at her like she was crazy lol I am NOT going to criss cross iodine all over my neck, like she showed me I should be doing, first of all I'm not sure why they think iodine will help me, but the more important matter is iodine stains your skin and bad! So I just dabbed some on my chest instead of criss crossing it all over my neck like she told me hahahaha I don't wanna walk around with orange neck skin for two weeks! Lol and I accidentally messed up the mixing of the antibiotic ha, I was supposed to mix the powder with 70 ml of water but I accidentally mixed it with around 800 ml whoopsies...so a lot of math later, I've figured out I just need to take about 100 milligrams a day for seven days and it will be equivilent to what I was supposed to have taken if I'd made it right! No worries I should be healthy SOON! :) Which is good because we have a game coming up and I really wanna play my best and need to be healthy!
That's all for volleyball and health, I am getting kinda sad I won't be with my family for Christmas this is the first time in all my 23 years that I haven't been with my mom and sister on the 25th! It had to happen sometime though, and I know that I will be ok...I was researching flights to see if maybe there was any way I could go home but it's just too long of a flight and too much money for so little time at home. So instead I am planning on relaxing during my break, reading, writing, maybe do some artwork and I will spend actual Christmas day with Maua, she is having her parents come here and her boyfriend lives with her, they have a dog now too and of course the infamous rat lol, so that should be fun, I will experience Polish delicacies! I'm sure of it, and of course I've offered to make my famous Idaho mashed potatoes :) minus the Idahoianness! And also I want to make mexican wedding cookies my moms recipe they are soooo sooo good maybe a pumpkin pie if I can find the ingredients! Well that's all for today I will write again soon thanks so much for reading I hope every one is going to have amazing holidays with LOTS of family and friends if I don't blog before then! P.s. Don't take your fam for granted you never know when you'll be too far to see them like in Azerbaijan for Christmas lol ;)
Pics of my aparment and Christmas tree I love!
MUCH LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh and here are my teammates Carla and Maua
<3 Jordana still #12 :)
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