I'm on a boat!

... Well, it's a ferry. And it's huge! We're on our way to the next stop on the World Tour. We flew from Kristiansand, Norway to Stockholm, Sweden, and from there were are taking a ferry to an island called Åland in Finland. The ship we're on has a restaurant deck, several viewing and sleeping decks as well as a sauna!! I'm sure there's more I haven't discovered yet. This 5 hour trip will go by in no time.

As I'm writing this, I'm looking out the window to breathtaking Scandinavian scenery. It almost reminds me of the Muskoka lakes in Ontario.

After spending a week in Kristiansand we are moving on to Finland. We're leaving behind enjoyable and unfortunate experiences, both being equally memorable. Last Monday we played in a Country Quota match. The FIVB only allows 4 teams per country to enter the tournament, any excess teams play off in order to make the Qualifier (Canada has 5 women's teams entered here so the teams with the lowest amount of points had to play each other for the 4th Qualification spot). It worked out that we would have to play Jamie and Liz.

This was a match like no other that I've played before- I'd never been so nervous for a game! It felt like there was just so much to lose: win and make the Qualifier with a chance to make the Main Draw, lose and your tournament ends right there. The match wasn't pretty- there were so many unforced errors on our part and we lost the match in 3 sets. Kacie and I were pretty upset with the loss. It was tough to hang around in such a small town while everyone got to play, and we weren't allowed! We did manage to go watch most of Canada's games- they were all very exciting! Jamie and Liz actually made it into the Main Draw, which is a huge accomplishment!! Congrats to them, and to Heather and Liz, who also had an excellent tournament.

It's also hard to stay upset in Kristiansand for too long because the town is just beautiful! The buildings and restaurants were so quaint (however expensive!) and the people were also pretty friendly. Also- I've never seen so many blond people in my life!! It was a refreshing change from traveling is Asia. I felt like I blended in a little better here!

Kacie and I spent the week training with some other teams. We're ready to move forward and take on Jamie and Liz in the next Country Quota game in Åland!

On the road again...

Two weeks after playing in Vancouver, Kacie and I made our way up to Kelowna for the Centre of Gravity tournament. This is a festival that happens every year for a whole bunch of different sports including wakeboarding, jetskiing, dirtbiking, bmx and of course, beach volleyball. My parents and Austin came for the weekend to cheer us on (even after suffering some injuries and illnesses during the trip!).

We ended up having a pretty good tournament, coming in 3^rd place. We lost to the tournament champs (Heather and Liz) in the semifinals and beat our former partners (Asya and Rebecca) for the bronze.

After getting back home we had less than three days in Toronto to do laundry and pack for the next 3 weeks! Now we’re in Kristiansand, Norway and it’s absolutely beautiful!! The weather is cool (about 20C) and slightly cloudy, but it’s a nice break from the muggy Toronto heat.

The only thing not so nice about Norway is how expensive everything is!! Walking through the streets, we checked out some of the menus of local restaurants: the average meal was about $40 CAD. A club sandwich was $30!! We’re going to have to start getting creative with our meals here….

Vancouver!

I love being on the west coast! It seems like every time I come here in the summer, the weather is absolutely perfect. Kacie and I played in a 2-day tournament at Kitsilano Beach last weekend. We played a total of 7 exciting matches and ended up coming in 4th out of 32 teams. As usual, we had a lot of fun playing some of the top teams in the country. (Jamie and Liz, the tournament champs, are off to Korea to represent Canada in a couple of invitational tournaments. Best of luck girls!!). We will see most of the other teams in Kelowna for another big tournament next weekend.

Our stay in Vancouver was made possible thanks to the generosity of Kri's family (Kri was my roommate for 4 years at UofT). Her parents treated us like their own kids by letting us take over their house and even borrow their car to get to the beach. They also came to cheer for us while we competed, and even took care of me while I came down with strep throat!! I can't thank Julie, Blair and Pat enough (and Amy and Kri for letting us stay in your rooms!). You guys have been more than amazing.

I'd also like to thank Blair for taking pictures on the weekend! Here are a few:

Change up

There have been some big changes since my last post. Asya and I have split. It was a very difficult decision to make, but we have both moved on and found new partners. I just want to say that I respect Asya as a person, a player and a friend. I learned so much playing with her this season. She has played the game for a while now and definitely has a good understanding of the game tactics and has amazing ball control. There are no hard feelings as we continue to practice daily with our new partners under our head coach, Lennard.

My new partner is Kacie MacTavish. I'm really excited to train and compete with Kacie. Our first big event will be at the Corona Open in Vancouver (July 16-17).

No pain, no gain

Our first week back from Korea was a pretty grueling one. It was the Train 2 Compete National Selection Camp- which Asya participated in, and I as her partner. Training started on Tuesday and went throughout the week including the OVA tournament on Saturday. The weather was getting cooler and rainier as an intensive week of skill testing ensued. At the end of each day, everyone was sore and exhausted, but throughout it all we knew we were building up our stamina and toughening our mentalities- if we can survive this, we can play in anything!

Thursday was a particularly rough day, we had 6 hours of training, mostly in the rain. Unfortunately, that day I also rolled my ankle. The sand was hard-packed because of the rain and there were some pretty big divets on the courts. I came down from a block jump and landed on my ankle in a funny way. I ended up just getting it taped and continued to play. The next day it felt much worse, so I was advised to take the day off and go see a physiotherapist at the Athletic Centre at UofT. Turns out I strained a tendon, so it's nothing too serious.

The weather on Saturday turned out to be perfect! I got my ankle taped up for the tournament and Asya and I ended up winning! It was a great day- so nice to be back home. Now we're taking a well-deserved few days off to recuperate from the week. Then we'll be back at it again! I can't wait!

Home

After traveling to three tournaments across the globe over the past two months, it feels really good to come back home to a familiar routine, food and regular sleeping habits! We'll be training and competing in Canada for the next couple of months.

While on the road, we've developed a list of things we'd like to work on and it will be nice to get some helpful feedback from our head coach, Lennard Krapp.

Another great thing about coming home is that I get to do another one of my passions: road biking. The weather was absolutely beautiful so my dad and I put in 71km this weekend.