I am a terrible blogger.

I am going to try harder. And I am going to do better. This blogging has just not happened lately. My sister was here the last week in February and brought me my new MacBookPro (which is beautiful by the way). And then I just didn't feel like I had anything to talk about. Volleyball has been frustrating recently because we have lost 3 in a row. We beat the last twoteams we just lost to in the first half of the season so it was not good for us to lose to them in the second half. We are currently tied for 8th place in the league and we have to be in the top 8 in order to make it to the playoffs. Butas you can see 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th place are all really close together in points.

When my sister came to visit we had an absolute BLAST! She flew into Paris (yes a direct flight from Boston-sooo lucky) and then took the train all by herself to Calais. Calais is Northwest France as close as you can get to England. She saw our match against Calais and then she came back with us on the train on Sunday. We hung out in Nantes Sunday afternoon until Friday. I took her to all of my favorite places and showed her around the city. She has about 100 espresso's while she was here and she claims they just taste sooo much better here. I wouldn't know since it is my goal in life not to get addicted to coffee. Then Friday after practice we headed to Paris for the weekend! It worked out perfect because we happened to have one of our very few free weekends while she was here. We saw all the sit

es in Paris Friday night and Saturday. And we even had time for some shopping :). I was so sad when she had to leave Sunday morning because we had the best time. But I stayed in Paris an extra day and a half which was nice. I was finally able to explore a little on my own and see some of the not super touristy spots. I went to Hillsong Paris for church Sunday morning and I'm not going to lie, but I was in tears the whole time. I haven't gotten to worship God with a group of believers like that is a very very long time. It was so great and I was completely in awe of how God used the sermon to speak to my heart. The sermon was about Paul's shipwreck in Acts 27. The pastor pointed out a few things that have stuck with me since:

• We are going to go through storms in our life.
• While they were in the storm, the tied ropes around the boat to hold it together, they lowered the anchor, and they threw some of their cargo overboard. When we are going through storms in our out life, we have friends who can help hold us together. I am so thankful for my wonderful friends who have stayed close by me through any storms I have faced here in France so thank you. Also, they lowered the anchor. When going through a storm, we need to anchor ourselves in God's truth. I want no one else to be my anchor except for the Lord. And thirdly, they threw some cargo off the ship to make the load lighter. I need to ask myself sometimes what do I need to get rid of or what is getting in the way of my walk with the Lord. There are very good questions to constantly be asking!
• God spoke to Paul DURING THE STORM. And what did he say? "Do not be afraid." Those simple words are spoken over and over again in the Bible but yet I still fear. I think that I just need listen while I am in the storm instead of trying to control and fix everything myself. Because God definitely has it under control and will figure things out wayyy better than I will ever be able to.
• The storm lasted a really long time- 14 days. Even though God spoke to Paul, He didn't stop the storm right then and there. There were even days when the sun or the stars never appeared. Can you imagine total darkness for days? During storms in our lives, we must be confident that God who began a good work in our lives will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus (Phil 1:6). I often get so eager to have the storm end and end right now that I forget to see how God is trying to equip me or sanctify me.

This was a very very encouraging sermon for me. When my sister hopped on the plane earlier that morning I so wanted to go with her. I wanted to go back to America and see my family and my friends and eat Mexican food. But this sermon just really reminded me that France is where I am supposed to be. Personally, I have grown so much while being in France and I continue to pray that God will use me in the lives of other to help build his Kingdom. But I must also remember that God doesn't need me. I am humbled at the thought that He would use me! :)

So, my days have had ups and downs. But I am constantly holding on to the ONE that will be the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, and forever. Because that is all I have and all I need!

It's not my fault

I was doing so good about blogging but then my beautiful MacBook decided to die on me. I would get this annoying blue screen that would just ring every 2 seconds. It would never power up. Needless to say, it has been a rough couple of weeks with my only form of communication to the world being broken. I do have a Kindle (which has been GREAT) and I can connect to my email and facebook but that's about it. I haven't really been able to talk to my family in a few weeks which has been rough. But I am trying to take advantage of all of this ALONE time... my favorite thing if anyone knows me. But it has been really great for solitude with the Lord. My sister is coming to visit on February 19th for a week and she is bringing me a new computer, MacBookPro! Yahh!! She flys into Paris and then will figure out the train system in Europe and immediately hop on a train to Calais, France. We have a game in Calais that night. Calais is in the northwest of France and it is actually the city where you can jump on the chunnel to England. She will stay in Calais at the same hotel as us and then she has the same itinerary on the way back to Nantes with us. She will be in Nantes all week and then we have a free weekend the second weekend she is here so we are planning on venturing to Paris for a few days before she flys out.

Here's what's been going on with me:

• We played against Venelles 2 weekends ago and we won 3-0. In case I haven't explained the scoring system for our league, I will do so now becase it is important. For every match there are 3 points up for grabs. If you win in 3 or 4 sets, you get all three points. If you win in 5 you get 2 points and the losing team gets 1 point. The rankings for the league are all based on number of points, so it is really important to win matches in 3 or 4 sets. The first half of the season, we won a lot of matches but they were all in 5 except for 1. So even though our record may have looked good we were missing out on a lot of points if we could have won matches in 3 or 4. Currently we are in 6th place out of 12 teams which is where we should be. I think we should finish the season in 5th place, but the coaches think that 6th or 7th place is more realistic. After the double round robin (we are in the second half) we have the play-offs. The top 4 teams go into a bracket and the 5th-8th teams go into a bracket. Then the top bracket competes for 1st-4th place while the second bracket fights for 5th-8th place. Hopefully all of that makes sense!
• We celebrated King's Cake. In France they bake this special cake and they put a figurine in it. Then everyone takes a slice and while you are eating if you have the figurine, you are the "King" or "Queen" and you get to wear a crown. I think that if you win, you have to make the cake for the next year haha. I did not win :(
• We went to this really really long awards ceremony where we were nominated for Professional Team of the Year in the Nantes region. We did not win :(
• We have American family night every Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday's we have dinner together and watch Modern Family and on Thursday's we get together and watch Glee. It has been really fun and it breaks up the week a little bit.
• This past weekend, we had a free weekend so us American's decided to venture to Normandy to see the D-day beaches. It was a 3 hour drive from Nantes and yes Bertha (the car) did make it! We went to Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, and Juno Beach. At Omaha Beach, 34, 250 Americans landed there on D-Day and there were 3,600 casualties. Gold Beach was where the 24,970 British landed and there were 1,050 casualties. At Juno Beach, 21,500 Canadians landed there and there were 1,270 casualties. We also saw the edges of the other 2 beaches, Utah and Sword Beach. Utah was an American Beach and Sword Beach was a British and French Beach. We also visited the American Cemetary which was really crazy. There are rows and rows of white crosses at the cemetary. There are 9, 387 Americans buried in the cemetary. Seeing those crosses made me realize the impact of the war and it was really moving. Most soldiers on D-Day knew that they were going to die as they paved the way for the others. Hard stuff. We also saw Arromanches which is near Gold beach. The allies brought over huge concrete slabs and dropped them in the ocean before D-Day in order to help calm the waters for the ships. The concrete slabs are still there. We also went to Point du Hoc which was by far the most astonishing. There were tons of Nazi bunkers up on this hill with huge cannons. The American Army Rangers scaled this 100 meter high cliff to somehow take out this area. Pointe du Hoc is definitely one of the places where you know that war took place. The beaches are just beaches. But at Pointe Du Hoc there are huge huge holes in the ground everywhere from bombs being dropped. It is really crazy. Many of the bunkers are still in tact and others were completely destroyed. I learned so much this weekend and it makes me wish I would have paid more attention in history class. We also went to Caen which was a city that the allies conquered about 3 months after D-Day which really paved the way to advance to Paris and Germany. You can click here http://www.worldwar2history.info/D-Day/ for some more information. We also watched Saving Private Ryan while we were in Normandy. It details the story of Niland brothers and 3 of the 4 are buried in the American Cemetary. It was really cool to see the movie after visiting the cemetary and the beaches because they did a really really good job of keeping it authentic.
• We play in the south of France this weekend against St. Raphael. It should be a good match!

I hope everyone is doing well. I will try to continue to update but who knows when I will be able to borrow a computer next! Have a great rest of the week. Hopefuly I can post pictures soon!

It's Official

I went to the Mediterranean Sea. And it was beautiful!
We played in Cannes on Saturday. We left Saturday morning and played Saturday night. We actually played really well and the match was really fun. We lost 0-3 (which was expected) but the scores were 18-25, 21-25, 18-25. So it wasn't embarrassing which I am very happy about! Everyone played hard and we played together which hasn't happened in a long time. So it was a fun weekend!

Our hotel was a 10 minute walk from the Mediterranean and we took a walk Saturday during the day to get the blood flowing in our legs! I loved it so much I went on a walk again with Laura, my Checz teammate and roommate on road trips.

We got back Sunday evening and the internet was out... ughhhh. It is starting to get annoying and it is inconvenient. I was supposed to skype with my parents on Sunday but I couldn't. Monday we had 2 practices and after our second practice we had a mock volleyball practice for all of our sponsors. It was actually really fun and funny at the same time. Our sponsors acted as the players and we put them through some drills and similar things to what we do in practice! It was fun to coach them (with my very limited French) and great to watch them attempt to play. But it was a fun evening. Today we had morning weights, practice and then French class. After weights we went and looked at our new gym for recuperation. We are allowed to go 3 days a week. They have an aqua massage table, sauna, swimming pool, and a bunch of cardio equipment and free weights. We can use whatever we want. We will still have our normal musculation at the other gym, but if we want to supplement it with anything, we can use this new gym.

Also, I am very naive in case anyone didn't already know that. There is this new billboard up around Nantes and it is a picture of a girl and guy without shirts on embracing. The girl has long dark hair and the sign reads "Salon Erotisme." For about 3 days I thought it was a sign for the new hair salon in town. WOWWWW! It is actually a sign for the strip club. But I guess that I am getting used to the half naked girls on billboards here in France and it is becoming normal to me. WoWW!

Cannes!

This is where I am going tomorrow!!!

Tomorrow morning (Saturday) we are heading for Cannes for our match. Our plane leaves at 6:45am which means we have to be at the airport at 5:45am which means we have to leave the apartment at 5:25am. We will arrive in Nice at 9:40am. Nice by the way is beautiful. We were just there last weekend for a match against Le Cannet. It is gorgeous and stuck right between the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean Sea! BEAUTIFUL! Our match is at 8pm Saturday night and we will come home Sunday.

Travel is much different than NCAA volleyball where you would leave Thursday afternoon and practice in the gym on Thursday night. Then you would wake up around 10 on game day and have a good breakfast, go to practice, watch film, have a pregame meal, take a nap and head to the game. I don't mind traveling the day of the game, but it is just a little hard when you don't get a good nights rest before your match. If I went to sleep right now I would get 7 hours, which is much less than my normal 10 haha. It is just an adjustment you have to make and get used to and when game time rolls around it's on!

Also, we are expected to lose to Cannes. Everyone is expected to lose to Cannes. There is a weird vibe that goes around the week you have to play Cannes because it is "impossible to beat them." That is something I will never get used to. I love to play against the best teams and come out fighting hard and shocking people. That is what you do. That is what sport is all about. But apparently we are just supposed to have fun. All week in practice we have been preparing for next weeks match. Cannes week is just a weird week. But I am excited to play against a great team and I am going to give it my all! Maybe we can pull together as a team and shock some people!!!!! Have a great weekend!!!

New Year's Resolution- Starting 12 days late...

So I basically suck at this blogging thing but it is my New Year's Resolution to update it more often. I think that if I update it every few days then it won't seem too overwhelming to update my life over the past month.

So...
I'm back in France in my new apartment and we finally have internet. We didn't have internet the whole month before Christmas break which was beyond miserable.

We are currently in 9th place in our league and we start our second round of competition this weekend. We started out the season really great and then we struggled the last part of the first half. But after a much needed break at home, we are ready to get back at it.

My best friend Megan, flew back to France with me and stayed for a week before school started at UK. I'm so happy she came because if not, it would have been extra hard for me to leave the states after Christmas. We took a 6 hour trip to Paris and saw the Eiffel Tower (at day and night), the Arc de Triomphe, all the key paintings and sculptures in the Louvre, and Notre Dame. Not bad for 6 hours. The rest of the time she was here we explored Nantes and just hung out trying to adjust to the time change.

The real reason I am writing this blog entry, is because I want to tell you what happened today at the physical therapist. I arrived at the PT (I have some nagging plantar fasciitis which won't go away) about 15 minutes early. I am always early because I never know how long it will take me to find a parking spot for Bertha since parking in all of France is ridic. Anyway, I was sitting in the waiting room and the second I walk in and sit down, the lady next to me with her foot propped up on another chair starts telling me her life story in French. I didn't even have 2 seconds to butt in and say "Je ne parle pas francais." I kept hoping my PT would come get me because I knew that any second she would ask me my life story. O but no... she talked for 14 minutes straight, and I interjected with the ooh's and aah's when necessary. She was probably wondering what was wrong with me and why I wasn't saying anything. Well, then again she didn't ever pause to breathe so she probably didn't notice much. Then with one minute until my appointment started, I thought I had made it home free when it happened. She asked me a question. But, I understood that she asked what was my job. So I said, "Je suis volleyuse." We have practiced this phrase over and over in French class and I was happy to put it to some use. She immediately looked at me and said, "Do you speak English?" I shyly replied yes, but I did inform her that I understand French... lie. She apologized and we both kind of laughed since she talked for 14 minutes prior without a single breath for air. But the problem was that she couldn't understand that my job was to play volleyball. I had to show her my sweatshirt that said Nantes Volley Feminin and then she kind of started to get it. She asked, "Professional??" I replied yes and then everything started to click for her. Then my PT came to get me. Ahhh one minute too late. I still laugh everytime I think about it.

Strike!

My parents arrived on Saturday and they got to see my first home game against St. Raphael. We won 3-0 and it was really fun to play at home! I am so excited that they are here! My mom made peanut butter cookies before she came because they don't really eat peanut butter here and everyone LOVED them!! Sunday we woke up early and took the train to Paris! We first stopped off to take pics of the Eiffel Tower and then the Arc de Triomphe! Then we hit up the Louvre! My dad apparently loves art (which I never knew) because he was taking pics of almost everything we passed. Now the Louvre is pretty big so it took a while! We grabbed lunch in the Louvre cafeteria and then we went to check in at our really cute hotel! It right near the Opera! We took a 30 minute cat nap and then headed to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre! We walked through the beautiful Basilica and then decided to go see the crypts and go up to the top of the dome! Well the crypts were closed but we decided to take the stairs all the way to the top of the dome. It was soooo cool and I am really happy that we decided to go. As we walked and walked and walked up the stairs the bell tower started ringing because mass was starting below us. We could see the entire city from the top and we got some really cool pictures! When we went down we decided to see how far into mass they were. The priest was in the homily and so we decided to stay for the rest! After mass we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant. It was good food but our waiter was rather "surly" in the words of my mom. Then we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night! It was really really cool and I am so glad we went back at night! We walked from one side, underneath it, crossed the Seine river and then made it to view it from the other side. We got some great pictures! We also saw it all flash like it does on the hour. We decided not to make the venture to the top because it was FREEZING! I'm pretty sure I convinced them that since we already saw the city from Sacre Coeur, that we didn't need to do it again. I knew how cold it was from when Nicole and I went in the daytime. Monday morning we went to Fauchon (the famous chocolate shop) and then to Notre Dame. Then we jumped on the metro to head back to the train station. Our train left at 12:45 and was supposed to arrive in Nantes at 3:15... perfect timing to make my practice at 5!

Well, we arrived at the train station and our train wasn't on the board... Hmm. We asked and someone told us, "O, it was cancelled because of the strike." OK. I started to freak out a little because I had to be back for practice. They told us just to get on the next train with no seat. Weird. But we did it and the train was scheduled to arrive at 4:15. I had to be at practice by 4:45. It I am late, I get charged. So, I made some calls and finally we figured out a plan. My teammates boyfriend picked me up from the train station, swung me by my apartment to grab my things and took me straight to the gym. I arrived at 4:45 on the nose! Talk about stressful! Wow!

Tuesday, I had to go to a special medical visit for my visa. Nicole and I headed to our appointment at 1:30 and proceeded to sit in a room until 3:30 without our name being called. People who arrived after us were getting called before us. WOWW! So finally we said something, and they told us they had forgotten about us. They got us in to see the 4 different doctors. After a very interesting topless chest x-ray and seeing the other doctors, we finally left at 4:45! O France!

This morning my parents were headed to Geneva so that they can make it to my game near there on Saturday. They had a flight out of Nantes. We left way before the flight to try to find some gas however we did not have any luck. I wouldn't have had enough gas to get them there and back so we went to plan B. I brought my parents back to the hotel where they called a cab. Well they tried multiple places and finally one agreed (all because of gas and the strike). So the taxi came and took them to the airport! Here is the text word for word that I received from my mom:

"OMG. We just arrived at our gate. The plane is flying but stories to tell about how we got here. The airport exits were closed both directions off the interstate so the cab driver took us through the countryside for 30 min to find the back way in. We arrived at the airport greeted by numerous armed guards, a fire somewhere in the vacinity and a 56 euro cab ride. But we are here!! BTW, there was one gas station open on the interstate but the line was about a mile long. Love you and hopefully we will see you on Saturday!!"

That about sums up strike. Today all the workers decided to block all the entrances of all the airports today so that passengers couldn't get inside so that is what my parents were dealing with!

I went to a gas station that my teammates told me about and waited in line for over an hour to get gas! But Bertha (our car) now has a full tank of gas and she is ready to go! So that is life in France currently! Tomorrow the Senate will vote on the bill again! Everyone is on strike because the government is changing the retirement age from 60 to 62. And since the government pays all the retirement salaries for all the workers, everyone is upset! I hope the vote tomorrow goes well or else we may have some problems getting to our game this weekend. We are supposed to take the train, but they informed us that if it is cancelled then we will drive the 10 hours in buses there. But "with what gas?" is my question!!

Eighty!

Did you know that eighty in french is quatre vingts... which literally translates to 4x20. WHAT?? As I try to learn French, this is what I am dealing with. Or did you know that I am une americaine, but my dad is un americain? Yes because I am a girl, I get 2 extra e's. Or did you know that a dog is masculine and a car is feminin? Who decided that? Well I am learning French slowly and I really want to learn. I practice with my teammates all of the phrases I know, and they laugh because it is so basic and funny to them! But I am hoping with 3 1/2 hours of French class a week, that I can learn something!

Here is what I know:
-Je m'appelle Sarah.
-J'ai suis americaine.
-J'ai 22 ans.
-Je suis volleyeuse.
-J'habite a Nantes.
-Je suis nee le 11 avril 1988.

Other phrases that are useful:
-Je ne sais pas. (This means "I don't know" and I use it very frequently.)
-J'ai faim. (Literally meaning "I have hunger" and yes the m in faim is silent so the pronunciation of this would be "jay fah")
-Big mac grande avec frites et coca-cola (You can figure it out.)
-J'ai froid ("I'm cold" pronounced "jay fro-ah"... silent letters are everywhere.)
-Je ne comprends pas. (I don't understand.)
-A quelle heure? (I thought it meant "what time is it" however, I just looked it up so I could figure out how to spell it and it actually means "at what time?" Haha funny)

So today I had a busy day... practice 11-1:30, class 2-4, practice 4:30-6, reception 7. I am sooo excited for Saturday when my parents will come!!! Yahh!!! And we play our first home match on Saturday night! So excited!! Also last night I downloaded the first book in the Narnia series on my Kindle... I am so excited to reread them since I read them as a child. I am sure that everyone wanted to know that, but these are the things I get excited about!!!

Au revoir!