Ok, time for an update! Here's what we've been up to in April and May 

Boca Chica, Dominican Republic
The first stop of our tour this season. It’s a NORCECA, which means it’s a continental event and only teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean can compete. We finished up in 4^th… a respectable finish, just frustrating to lose our two final matches. 

Canadian men

Yay team!

A lot of locals in the ocean.

Overall it was a good chance for us to get used to playing outside in the wind and sun. It was more a trial run for the first World Tour event of the season in….

Brasilia, Brazil

Our walk to the courts, along the highway of daily potential death

We flew back home to Toronto and had a super-quick turnover, having only a day to do laundry and re-pack before flying out to Brazil. There were two rounds of Qualification (single elimination) to make it into the Main Draw. We beat Uruguay but lost a tight one to Georgia and just missed qualifying.

Good morning Brasilia!

We then flew home, and since we loved having only one day to get everything reorganized for the next trip, we did it again! This time we flew to…

CHINA

Ohh the 3 week-long trip in China.

First stop: Sanya

This place is HOT. Like - sitting in the shade, wearing nothing but a bikini yet sweating profusely - hot. It’s a small island off the southern coast of China and it’s a popular vacation spot (also known as China’s Hawaii) (for real). Yes, it has beaches, and yes there are palm trees, but it’s still China. Like last year, we were warned not to eat the meat because it could be contaminated with steroids. Anyway, there were two Quali rounds again here. Our first match up was against another Canadian team; Annie Martin and Marie-Andree Lessard. These guys are volleyball veterans and we knew it was going to be a tough match. Unfortunately there was a little collision at the net early on and I hyperextended my knee, but that got me pretty fired up and we pulled out a 3-set win. That set us up against a team from the Netherlands. This is another solid team and we battled hard. Our match was played in the mid-day Sanya heat and I’m pretty sure all four of us were delirious. It was so hot we could barely think straight, let alone get our bodies to cooperate and play basic volleyball. We ended up losing in the 3^rd set. A heartbreaker, but my knee was starting to seriously swell up so a break was probably not the worst thing at the time.

Ow.

Acupuncture

camping meals for dinner

Shanghai
The next stop on tour was in Shanghai. This was a Grand Slam, which requires a certain amount of points to even be in the qualifier. I have hardly any points from taking most of last year off to let me shoulder heal, so we didn’t quite make the cut in Shanghai. Dang.

Local hot spot

Trying to communicate with cab-drivers is always an adventure

But we did manage to get some quality training in so that we could be prepared for….

Beijing

This was another Grand Slam, and we squeaked into this one, getting the last spot! Unfortunately this matched us up with the top-seeded qualifying team (Austria) so we had a tough draw and lost our first and only match of the day. It was tough to lose, we didn’t have our best game, but it was encouraging to make some great plays against a solid team like that, even despite the injury.

Just made a quick stop at one of the wonders of the world

HOME

We managed to get home in time for mother’s day and see our moms (however jet-lagged we may have been!). 

My family also threw a surprise celebration for Lenny in honour of his achievements on the World Cup circuit this past season. It was really good to have the whole family together, if only for a few days. Lenny’s off to training camps in Oregon and Hawaii (the real one) and Jamie and I stayed in Toronto for 2 weeks and took advantage of the great weather down at the beaches.

Where are we now?

Seoul, Korea

There’s a challenger event happening here, and we thought it would be good practice for the Grand Slam coming up Moscow next week. This was a successful tournament for us, ending up in 9^th place! We’re feeling good and are happy with our game here in Seoul. 

VW convertible timeout booth

that was fun





On to the next one!! MOSCOW