this is just too cute

Excited to...

• see the sun today
• watch the new episode of Nip/Tuck
• talk to my sister
• leave for Spain on Monday
• go home in two and a half weeks

Vincent

Tim Burton currently has an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Arts in Manhattan until April 2010, if you're able to go!

Que préférez-vous, handball, basketbal, ou des footballeurs?

So it's only taken me about 4 months, but here's a little intro to my French family for the next 6. We had a team "bonding" session where we had to answer a series of questions about what we liked and things we'd like to do and the title of this blog was one of those questions. Je voudrais presenter las dames d'I.O.P.V.:

Manu (second from the top in the sandwich): Pretty much the nicest French person I've met. She's from the north (Lorraine region of France) and is the girlfriend of our assistant coach Felix. Always super helpful and speaks the best Franglish in Istres. Joueurs de volley

Lena: Crazy, crazy, crazy 18 year old Lena. Speaks pretty much no English, but has a few phrases she likes to pull out of her bag, like during the match when I pass a short ball "YES, like dis Jenn, like dis!." Always laughing and smiling and is a true teenager, texting at any free second of the day she has. Footballeurs

Marielle: a true Istreen, from Istres and has played her entire professional career here. Always tries to speak english with us, which is refreshing coming from a French person. Joueurs de volley

Ivana: Miss Trophee Femina is undoubtedly the best setter I've ever played with (no offense to anyone else, she's just a fricken stud) and probably the nicest person I've met. I knew this when after we lost our first match she was searching for her jacket, unknowingly I was wearing it. I took it off and said "maybe this is yours" and she smelled it and I said "sorry, I smell bad" (as it was after the match) and she, in all her sad/angriness after the loss, said "No Jenn you smell nice", how sweet is that? She's been playing in Istres for 6 years now. And I think it was joueurs de volley for her.

Lydia: Algierian in nationality, but speaks great French.

Funny story; out of nowhere on the Metro in Paris:

Lydia: "Jenn, at first I think you are this girl who don't like for nobody to touch you and....I don't like you"

Me: awkward smile

Lydia: "But now, it's ok and I like you"

Basketballeurs, for sure

Hana: The "beaver" is a Czech setter, who has the patients of a kindergarten teacher (she has to, living with Sonia). Very animated and loves to tell stories. Prefers joueurs de volley, i think.

Marina: the coolest (and only) Slovenian girl I know. Is always up for an adventure (aka, going to see New Moon with me an hour away, in the middle of the day, only because I was so excited). The other day in the car she told me "Jenn, you've changed the way I thought about American people." That really makes me happy. Marina hearts basketballeurs, or just one in particular

Soňa (Sonya): hummm, what about Soňa. The funnest girl to party with (e.g. The Sex on The Beach song, NO ONE had ever heard before and Soňa was always talking about, until our entire team was in a disco and this song came on; it made the party that much more fun). A very young player and this is her first year playing outside of the Czech, she has a lot to learn. Her preference varies from day to day, from basketballeurs to footballeurs

Liz: Brazilian/German player who is a really great dancer, or at least a really funny one. Really fun to party with and quite a social butterfly. Liz can speak English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, wowzer. Basketballeurs

Vali: my Hungarian roomy who is so awesome. Has been dealing for the last 5 weeks with a knee injury but is so tough to be hanging in there. Played for a few years at Kansas State (yes, the purple school, boo!), so has been exposed to many American ways (which is awesome for me). Is nearing her 30th year of life but is still a vball stud, can't wait to get her back on the court! Basketballeurs

Et pour moi: stay tuned...ha

please mom, buy me a pig

While visiting Honolulu when I was 15 years old, I saw a sign that said "Pigs for sale $25." $25??? Are you kidding me? I'd always wanted a black pot belly pig as a pet and for $25, I HAD to have one.

me: "Mom, please, please can we get a pig?"

Absolute silence

me: "Mom...please, they're only $25?"

mom: "Jennifer, do you have $25 to buy a pig?"

me frantically looking for my wallet: "um, yes" With excitement, as if there was a real chance

mom: " Then why don't you save it until we get back to Las Vegas and by a package of bacon with it, cause that's exactly what your pig will be once it's living outside in the 120 degree summer heat.

Needless to say, I didn't have my black pot belly on the 4 hour plane ride home. But now, there is a way, tea cup pigs, how can you say no to that? He'll stay small forever and he can live in my purse. I HAVE to have a little black tea cup pig, h a v e t o. Whenever I tell someone I want a pet pig, I'm met with pessimism; my mom: "he'll turn to bacon", my sister: "they're so dirty", Aida "pigs are the animal of the devil." Come on people how can you say no to this? Please mom, please?

a little Monday treat

I stole this quote from my friend Amy's blog today because I read it, loved it and was inspired by it, thanks Amy! Happy Monday everyone

"People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, People may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, People may cheat you; Be honest and frankanyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, They may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;

It was never between you and them anyway."

Mother Teresa

"I'm on the practice field running 2-a-days so I don't drop the ball when it's threw my way"

Yes, I know it is now October and it's been more than a month since I've written anything, so here I am with a little (a very little) bit of free time to let yall know what's been up.

So, our preseason training, without competition, lasted for about 6 weeks with a schedule as follows:

• 7:15am 30-50 minute jog (length of the jog depended on coaches mood that morning, but towards the end was cut to just 30 for all the old chicks', ME INCLUDED, knees
• 8:50am head to the track for sprinting, stairs, and ab work. Written it doesn't sound one quarter of how intense it was. But it was something that I dreaded, thinking about laying in my bed each night, not knowing what kind of sprinting was to come the next day.
• 10:30am- 12pm head to the weight room, usually for some sort of circuit that always included supersets
• 3:30pm French Lesson
• 4:45pm-7:00pm ball training

All of this 4, sometimes 5 days a week.

Six weeks of that equals no blogging, so there :) Needless to say our training was very intense in all arenas, running, weight lifting and on the volleyball court. We were all so tired in our bodys and minds, but of course found a little time to party.

Our "preparation" period ended on September 7th with our first tournament in Frasnes, Belgium (yes, land of the delicious chocolate and beer). We stayed in a hostel out on farm land in the absolute middle of nowhere. Frasnes is about an hour drive from Belgium and full of corn fields, cows, gorgeous flowers, barking dogs, and more cows. In our hostel, all of the girls stayed in one big room with 6 sets of bunk beds and two singles (thanks God i got a single), two toilets and two showers. I'll just leave it at that, you can all guess how ecstatic I was for the whole week. When we got to Belgium after our 6 week preparation period our training schedule for the next 7 days was as follows:

• 7:15am 30 minute jog
• 10:00am weights
• 12-3pm treatments (massage and Beamer, has anyone every heard of that??? Let me know)
• 5 or 6:00pm match

Yes, we ran and lifted weights before amatch and on one occasion jogged in the am, played a match and then went to sprint up hills afterwards, just because. So we played with heavy legs all week with this CRAZY schedule and still managed to finish 2nd. The other teams there were Menorca (from Spain), a German team (who my old Japanese roommate from Switzerland Hiro was playing for,( nice surprise), and two Belgium teams. On the Spanish team, who also happen to be staying in the hostel with us, there was a girl I recognized at first sight, turns out Janine was from the UK, but raised in Arizona, played at U of Washington (yes the purple school) and happen to be roommates with my former UT teammate Brandy Magee last year in Spain, crazy hu? And I recognized her from US Nationals a couple summers ago. So we finally officially met, got a chance to hang out and talk for a little bit about our experiences, being away from home, Spain, France, my team's crazy training in Belgium, and about her crazy libero who took our clothes out of the washer and put theirs in, ha, yes. I'm so glad to have met her and had such great conversation with someone who is going through the same things I'm going through from sort of the same perspective, she's cool people.

We had one weekend off when we came back from Belgium, which I used to run as fast as I could to Switzerland, ha. A nine and a half, almost ten hour trip each way by train which was worth every second, as I needed a break so bad, to get away from my teammates (since we spent the last week in a 14 bed suit) and away from Istres (and my nightmares about running on the track). I spent less than 24 hours in Schaffhausen with Dave and even missed one of my trains in route home on Sunday night, but like I said, worth every second!

Since Belgium, we've been playing "friendly" matches with the teams nearby (Saint Raphael, Cannes, Venelles, and Le Canne)t and continuing to train. Our schedule is not half as intense as it was as we approach the start of the French Championship, but we are still going hard at the beginning of each week running and lifting like we're training for the Olympics.

The French Championship begins on October 17 in Paris and it couldn't come any sooner for us. With press conferences and sponsor events, we're super excited to get started with competition. Our big sponsor Ouest Provence's big promotion this year is "The Space of Champions", backing four major sports clubs nearby, Men's Soccer and Basketball in Fos (a city less than 5 minutes away) and Men's Handball and Women's Volleyball of Istres. So because of this we've had a few gathering with all four teams and gotten a chance to get to know some of the other athletes. The exciting thing is that on the Men's Basketball team there are two Americans and two other players that went to American Universities (a Puerto Rican and a guy from Martinique). So like I said about Janine (the girl from the UK), it's nice to have some people around that I can relate to. I think it's really important with being away from home for so long, to have something like that to keep you sane, so it nice, they're fun.

Each and every day I'm not training or dreaming about training, I'm on the internet waiting for my sister to get online so I can video message with her, my niece and nephew, and those occurrences are way to few and far between, I'm just saying, Ja'Nice...? Ha, but no really I miss everyone at home so much and love you guys, I wish sometimes I could pack you all up and bring you on some of my adventures, I really do.

Happy Saturday people, peace!

the great city of Istres

Vali (my roommate from Hungary) and I at a sponsor event

tournament in Venelles

match in Fos

friendly match vs. Saint Raphael in Istres

breaking in the second team's brand new jerseys

Ivana (Serbia) and I messing around on the sideline

Marina (Slovenia) and Sonia (Czech Repub)

King James in Paris

Happy 1st!!!

To my always happy, smiling, joyful, enthusiastic, elated, bright, friendly, and adorable nephew "Ojo" Jonathan Jr Happy 1st Birthday. I love you Ojo and miss you and your "excuse me?" eyebrows, kiss kiss from Antie Jenny

Bonjour a tours, beinvenue a Istres!

Vacation time has officially been over for two weeks now and it's back to work. I had an incredibly busy, relaxing, and exciting vacation. I worked, I traveled, I spent time with my family, went to concerts, to the rainforest, and had so many amazing experiences that kept me smiling.

I left Terville (THANK GOD!) on May 13th and landed home safely with more excitement then you could imagine. I was in France for 8 months, with only a three day trip to San Diego in January for the funeral of my Ant, so I was over due for some In-and-Out Burger, ha! After two weeks of enjoying be home I was ready to run again and left to work a vball camp down in Wilcox, Arizona. I don't know if it was growing up where I grew up or what, but I absolutely adore small towns, temporarily at least. The people were all so welcoming and hospitable and the campers were so grateful for our presence, i think that's a huge reason why I continue to work camps; the satisfaction of seeing progress in the kids in addition to showing up each day to their anxiousness to work and learn, almost makes me want to coach someday....almost.

Ja'Nice and the babies came into town from Fort Irwin just as I got back from Arizona and I think I almost burst with excitement just knowing they were on their way. They stopped first

at my dad's house to drop their things off before coming to my moms and I couldn't wait to see them...I drove less than a mile to meet them because I couldn't wait anymore. I've always heard people talk about the joy that children bring, but I've never felt it with other

kids the way my niece and nephew make me feel. I get SO excited when I see them (even now on the webcam from across the ocean). No matter what mood I'm in or what's going on, Mya can always say something crazy or do something totally outrageous to make me smile. That or just looking at how incredibly happy Jojo is, always smiling and laughing or just sitting looking at you with his funny eyebrows like he's got a question to ask. They make me happier than anything in this world. So aside from fun time with the babies, Ja'Nice, mom, and I went to the Reggae in the Desert Festival and had a really good time. We got a chance after the show to meet Ky-Mani Marley and take some pictures with him too, which was exciting.

mom @Reggae in the desert

The weekend flew by and early Monday morning I was off to Washington State to work two more vball camps in Chehalis and Forks (YES THE TWILIGHT FORKS, soooo exciting I know). On my way up to the great Northwest, I was delayed in LA for about 6 hours, and what better way to spend a layover than horseback riding with my brother DOnovan, in Burbank, just a spare of the moment idea, ha I loved it.

Both Chehalis and Forks are in Northern West WA so we got to do some driving around the state, visit the beaches on the Pacific Coast (La Push, Ruby and First& Second Beach), walk through the only rainforest in the nation, stay in the most amazing Bed and

Breakfast (Huckleberry Inn, HIGHLY recommended), eat fresh Halibut over the camp fire, visit a few of the Indian reservations, take a ferry to Seattle, pick fresh salmon berries, and hear some pretty cool cougar stories from Bill and Kitty, the B&B owners. All because of volleyball. I was talking with my high school coach, Coach Hill about and all the opportunities that volleyball has brought about in my life and it's really crazy to think about, I'm so thankful.

Sign from "Twilight"

Next on my journey I headed to France to sign my contract for the 2009/2010 season. I spent a whole week in Istres to do all of about three hours of work. For the most part it was really exciting to come and sign my contract, but after that I spent the remainder of my week sleeping during the days and the nights wide awake on the internet, strange trip, but glad I got it done.

After that week I was glad to be back home and even more excited to go to Fort Irwin to be with Ja'Nice, Jon, Jojo, and my Mya. For two weeks, I woke up each day around 6am, ate breakfast, went to run, came home showered took a nap, woke up to Mya screaming from downstairs, "Antie, wanna hold you", played all day with the kids, stayed up late at night playing scrabble with Ja'Nice (and mostly losing), then waking up and doing it all over again. On the army base there's a park, a pool, a bowling alley, a movie theater, and a gym, so that's what we did; go to the park, go "swimming in the waaaaater", as Mya would sing, jump on the beds and go to the movie theater or some variation of those activities and I can honestly say there's NO other way I would have rather spent two weeks. There was lots of True Blood, hot tamales, green beans, scrabble, neapolitan ice cream, Yo Gabba Gabba! and pee pee at the park and I can't wait to do it all over again!

Back in Vegas it was time to work again and the end of July mean basketball tournament time. I've been working the Big Time/Reebok Summer Championships every summer for 8 years now (with the exception of last summer, wow I'm getting old). So, I spent 5 days straight watching boys high school basketball and staring at stat sheets, good times.

My summer at home ended with my older cousin Bill's 30th birthday party and a chance for me to say goodbye to some family members before I left. When Ja'Nice and the babies left I cried, I can not imagine what I'm going to be like with my own kids if I'm acting this way now with my niece and nephew. I've been gone for two weeks and I already miss them like crazy.

That brings us to today: like I said I've been in Istres for two weeks now and let me tell you it's the complete opposite from my first two weeks in Terville last season, night and day. Here's one example: I have photos from the first night we went out in Terville and Regan and I are wearing flip flops and jackets, the first place we went when we got free time in Istres, was the beach, so there jackets vs. bathing suits. Our workouts here have been reminiscent of my training days at UT plus some. I almost forgot what it was like to have good volleyball training, but it feels good to be surrounded by people working hard again; so here we go....

the girls out in Marseille

Beach

REALLY funny stuff

i heart Lausanne

I escaped from this prison I call Terville last weekend to one of my favorite cities on Earth, Lausanne, Switzerland. I got the chance to say goodbye to my dear friend Aida, who I probably wont see again, until I return to Europe next fall, in person so that was really nice. Also got to enjoy some nice spring weather (on Saturday at least), Lake Geneva, visit with Aida's mom, help put on a pretty good apéro (i think that's how you say it), did some shopping, and had a pretty good all nighter out with Aida, Leila, Vincent and Piotr. L O V E Lausanne and it'll be one of the first places I visit when I come back next fall :)

on the Roof de blah..blah (can't remember the name)

i cut the mangos :)

the crew out all night

Aida and I



looking at pics of Leila's trip to Iran (where I told her I'd never visit)



Aida, Laetita (her lil sis) and I shopping

Bella as a cheeseburger

Ok I read and love the Twilight book series, but this is way too funny not to share..."you brought a snack" haha:

can't wait to get home to hug

the happiest baby in the world

and

Mya-Easter Bunny

Happy Easter Monday

Well, in France they celebrate Easter on Monday not Sunday, so Happy belated Easter Sunday and Happy Easter Monday :) So the season is wrapping up in Terville and I can smell home already! We have a match this Wednesday vs. Le Cannet and then our last regular season match against Villebon on Saturday, so....we could possibly be finished with our season on Saturday...possibly. The sun is shining everyday now and the good part about this past week is that we've had some visitors. Regan's parents came into town last Friday (GOOD FRIDAY) from Texas and also her boyfriend and his CANADIAN friend Gavin drove in from Germany. Then Saturday my bestie, Dave drove in from Switzerland. Regan's people are all still here, but Dave left on Sunday :( It was a short visit but I was so glad to see him and get to hang out that it didn't matter.

We celebrated Tereza's 27th birthday on Sunday night at the TFOC-House. We all sat around pretty separated, the Americans (+Canadian) and then the Romanians and a French guy, for me not so fun. I wasn't really in a party mood anyway and in addition I was sooooooo tired, so i decided about two hours into the sit and be bored party I decided to go home and take a nap. About an hour and a half later Regan and her dad come home and asked if I'd like to go bowling and I was like "Yeah sure!" So it ends up the entire party is headed to the bowling alley and boy were they not happy when I showed up "Shame on you!" was what I got from Tereza and "where did you go?" from Alice..what can you do? I was bored and falling asleep at this sit and be bored party, so better I went home to fall asleep in my own bed then in my chair at the party...right? Ha, whatever dude.

Oh man, Mya went to her first day of daycare last week and I hadn't gotten a chance to talk to my sister yet to see how it went, but today my momma sent me a picture and it's so sad. Ja'Nice said Mya cried and was so sad when she left her there :( I feel so bad, I know it was so hard for both Ja'Nice and Mya...I miss them, i miss yall :(

this is what daycare does to happy children

iDaft

Kanye West has the best blog ever on EARTH and for reasons like this:

http://www.najle.com/idaft/

I promise, I spent at least an hour on this page laughing while I watched myself dancing to my own song in the mirror, ha!!! Go there and laugh

French Fans

Soooooooo, on Saturday the impossible happen. We won, not impossible that we won, but the fact that we beat Istres, who on a scale from 1 to 14 is a 4 and we are a good 10 or 11. No one expected that we would win, but thank goodness they played really terrible in the first two games and we got 2 points, sounds bad but hey, at this point this is what we need while playing the top ranked teams.

After the match we headed to the VIP room as we usually do to stand in the corner and pick over the yummy pasteries (we, Regan and I). Usually we stand at the table in the back cause no one speaks English and our French is limited with strangers:

French Stranger:"Bonsoir"
Me: "Bonsoir"
French Stranger: "Bon match!" or "La prochaine!"
Me: " Merci!" or "Oui, merci"

But there is one man who insist on have a full conversation with us, despite the language barrier. Now granted his cheeks are always BRIGHT red and his cologne could be called "Budwiser" I try to give him the benefit of the doubt. But he's drunk, he's always drunk and uncomfortably close when he talks to us. Usually it's about steriods (i think) or "boom" (apparently the sound we make when we hit the ball) but last night I was standing alone and I gues he thought it was appropriate to have a French conversation with me about Viagra...um sir? Ok I usually laugh at him cause it's something like him pointing at the red and blue image of Barak Obama on my shirt and saying something stupid like "Obama black! hahahaha" and I laugh cause I'm..ok I don't know why I laugh at him but I do. But last night I had no idea what he was talking about, so I walked over to a group of my teammates and Alice (the translator/setter) and asked her what he was saying and she goes "He's talking to you about VIAGRA!" Ewwww, why drunk man why? So I got freaked out and got away from him.

The later when Regan and I were in our Range Rover Clio in the parking lot he came over to our car and I immediately locked the door and he tried to open it, so I cracked the window about 2 inched and he tried to put his hand in so I rolled it a little more and he put his face in and gave my cheeks two overly moist kisses and blow 2 to Regan...so needless to say, I have a new boyfriend!

Paris

This past week we had a few days off, so Karen and I met up in Paris. The weather was really nice while we were there which helped while we walked around to site see and wait in hours of lines outside (which was all very worth it). We got a chance to see an Andy Warhol Exhibit which was awesome, walked the Champs-Elysees, saw a protest at Notre Dame, met a few American guys at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and got offered two bottles of champagne out in the Latin Quarter. Paris is AMAZING, if you've never been go...NOW, with one of your best friends, or with the one you love, heck I'd go back alone. I plan on going again at least once more before I leave France, it's only an hour and 50 minute train ride away...here's a few photos



Notre Dame

Champs-Elysees

the sweetest thing EVER!

today Regan and I were watching Oprah and this man and lady these two guys were on telling Christian's story, pretty much the cutest thing ever: