Encuentre Mi Equipo

l -r (front row) Lara German, Ainhoa Miravalles, Ana "Colo" Martinez, Rebeca Fernández, Daniela Da Silva
(back row) Lindsay Stalzer, Katia Rodrigues, Entrenador Juan Villinares, Asistente: Ramon Guerrero, Maria Revilla,
Lauren Ford. Not Pictured- Natali Flaviani, Jaime Gallego, Manu Rubio- fisio

So here is the first unofficial team picture. It was taken around my second week here. Since then we added another player from Argentina named Natali Flaviani. She is a beast of a middle blocker. She is also my third roommate. More about that later. Also missing from this photo is our third trainer and weight coach Jaime Gallego and physical therapist Manu Rubio. Jaime is a very good translator and speaks very well. He attributes this to his world travels to many English speaking countries. Manu, our physio therapist, might be my best friend by the end of this season, considering my ankle problems. I already have daily appointments with him after practice. Usually during rehab the "usuals" Dani, Katia and I go to Manu and they teach me Spanish while we treat our ailments. Good times.


Another pastime we are starting is group get togethers. We are going to try to come together for dinners or fiestas (parties). My roommates and I are already planning a Halloween party. Cant wait. In the photo to the right, we all gathered at Dani and Katia's house for dinner. I cooked Curry chicken, which everyone thought was pretty good. We also had Pate, which is basically tuna and mayonaise with some other ingredient. I know it was really good. The Brasilleras served cornbread with pollo (chicken), maize (corn) and queso (cheese). It reminded me of my mother's Mexican Cornbread. The other main dish was a traditional Spanish dish called Tortilla. It is made out of Huevos (eggs) and patatas (potatoes). Ofcourse no meal is complete without Fanta Limon. Love that stuff. When I find the receipe for all these meals, I will certanly post them. Overall, it was a good time and I really enjoyed tasting everyones dish. I was so full afterwards.


Finally, meet my roommates. I am on the left and in the middle is fellow American Lindsay Stalzer. She is a graduate of Bradley University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. She plays opposite, but can also hit outside and middle. Trust me when I say, this girl can fly. On the right is Natali Flaviani a middle blocker from Argentina. She is very athletic with a fast armswing. This girl takes no prisoners. But dont call her Natali; she likes Flavia. Its fitting to her personality as well. Both girls are very nice and good roommates. This photo was taken right after we came from the beach. We can never get enough sun over here. :)

Un Día en la Playa

So what does one do when they have the weekend off and its a nice sunny day? You go to the beach of course. That's if there is one nearby. In my case there certainly is, and its about 8 km away in Benidorm. On a typical "beach day" we would take a bus down the mountain to la Cala de Finestrat. One fare is about 1.25, except if its Sunday and you miss the only two buses running that day. Which we did, so we grabbed a taxi. Our driver basically pulled up right next to the ocean. After surveying the area we settled right next to a group of beach chairs with umbrellas. I wish I could have sat in one, but they cost money and I was really looking forward to getting a tan. Because I really need more color and my paleness is almost blinding. Upon relaxing Lindsay and I quickly realized the difference between this beach and the ones at home. Here in Benidorm and possibly other beaches in Europe, you can go completely topless. What!? Yeap it is as common as chewing gum. I almost felt out of place being completely clothed. Whats even harder is trying to take photos without capturing some topless woman in your photograph.

After about 2 hours of sunbathing, we decided to walk around a bit and try to catch a bus back home. The one thing that stuck out to me the most was how many foreigners vacation here. There was so much English being spoken, it didn't even feel like Spain sometimes. I guess this place is a big vacation spot for a lot of Brits and Australians, and they were much help in giving us directions. We soon noticed that we were getting too black and decided to try and go home. The only problem was that no buses were running back to Finestrat. We only noticed this after three bus trips around town. We even stumbled back into my old hood when I was here two years ago. This clearly was the funniest part of the trip. We had no cell phone and no way of contacting our team.

We walked upon this hostel looking motel to ask to use a phone. After further inspection, we decided this was not the best place seeing as it looked like a serial killer resided there. Across the street was a better lit, nicer looking hotel. We walked in and asked the guy to call us a cab. And after further inspection of this place, I have come to the realization that it was a burlesque- style hotel. Girls were walking around in lingerie, and men were coming and going. I laughed to myself because I couldn't decide what was funnier; the serial killer inspired hotel or the hotel equipped with an escort service right across the street. We managed to visit both within five minutes. We quickly got heck outta dodge.

You will all be happy to know that we made it home safely and decided next time we should have a better plan. Overall it was a good day at the beach.

Practice! Practice! You Talkin' Bout Practice?!

Hola! Good to see that my Spanish is coming around right? Trust me, I know a few more phrases than that. I hope to be able to do a whole blog in Spanish before this season is all said and done. Hopefully that goal will become a reality after I work with our tutor. Yes, a tutor, which is ashame since I have taken Spanish in school since I was in kindergarten. It was almost my minor in college. This situation reminds me of a funny story back when I went to USC. I had a Spanish tutor tell me that I would starve in a Spanish-speaking country. Ha Ha Ha! If she could see me now. I am grocery shopping, catching cabs, and conversing with the natives in Spain! Jokes on her.

Well lets see, it has been about two weeks. I cannot believe I have been here for only two weeks. It seems like I have been here much longer, but that is due to the fact that we are only training right now. No games yet. So there is sort of a preseason feeling to all this. There are no games, its just training and getting a feel for each other out there on the court. We practice twice a day for about 2- 2 1/2 hours. So I wake up at about 8 am, grab some breakfast, and head out the door at about 9:15 for our 9:30am practice. Practice is pretty much focused on ball control and conditioning. My two favorites! And if you know me, you know I am lying when I say that. Being a middle blocker, my expertise is in protecting the front line as much as possible through attacking and blocking. You rarely see me in the back row passing (bumping) or digging. I'm 6'2. and its hard enough to bend down to tie my own shoes. But its great to be an all-around player and as much as it is uncomfortable for me to do it, I know it is making me better in the long run. Adversity builds Character! Plus who doesn't love conquering something they are supposedly not good at.

After morning practice its really important to put food back into my body. I usually sweat out about 2-3 Ibs every practice. Not exaggerating at all. I can wring the sweat out of my shirts. I call it my Patrick Ewing Syndrome. After lunch comes my favorite part of the day. Siesta! Its a tradition in Spain to take a short nap in the early afternoon after your midday meal. Usually stores and businesses are all closed for this past time. I think its great and we need to adopt this siesta time in the States as well. Our afternoon practice starts at 4pm. The gym's temperature is blazing by this time of the day, but nothing I cannot handle. The girls and coaches have been very accommodating to us. Sometimes we play American music and the other day we played basketball. Yay! Some days its hard because I do tend to miss a lot of things in translation. They are pretty understanding and encourage us to speak in Spanish as much as possible to ease the transition. The other day I was in a drill and I said something in German and totally forgot I was in Spain.

As much as an athlete loves to practice and get better, we also love to go out and show what we have been practicing for and play games. I believe there is about 5 or 6 more weeks until our first season game. It gets pretty redundant and repetitive after awhile. But you have to understand that whenever I slack off, someone else in some other gym is busting theirs so they can kick mine. Someone once told me that the acronym for FORD was Fix Or Repair Daily. I guess that's why after all of the tweaks and practice and daily repairs, I am still BuiltFORDtuff.


Our Practice Facility

Bienvenida a Espana... Again

So I have made it to Spain. Again. And I say that because, I was here not so long ago in Benidorm, which is about 6 km away from my new home here in Finestrat. Back in 2007 I trained with the Benidorm team for about 3 weeks, before they opted to go with another middle. Fast forward to now- two years later, I am back and signed with a team called Cala de Finestrat. What a difference right? Since 2007 I have torn and rehabbed my rotator cuff, won the German Cup, torn two ligaments in my foot, won the 8th place tourney in Finland, and won USAV nationals while garnering all-tournament honors. I am the testament for ups and downs. Ins and outs. So don't count me out ever. I am Built Ford Tough for a reason.

I have been here for about three days now, and I think I might be falling in love with this town and their way of life. Siesta is the greatest thing invented right behind lasagna. I live with my teammate and fellow American Lindsey Stalzer (she's real cool) in a three bedroom apartment (it also has 1 & 1/2 bath). Step outside onto our front patio, and it looks like a scene from the Bourne Ultimatum starring Matt Damon. Yeah the one where he is jumping from building to building. Step outside onto our back patio and you can see the most beautiful view, just like something straight off a post card. This view is equipped with a huge mountain, with hills and houses and green landscape. Look a bit further and you can see the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Its only 8 km away. It sucks we have to walk up three flights of stairs to get home, but the view is well worth it. Outside, the streets are made of bricks and everything surrounding it seems sort of romanticized. Sometimes I really feel like I am living under the Tuscan Sun.

I have practiced about four times and let me tell you, it has not been easy. Yes, I did take two weeks off to have my wisdom teeth extracted, but still no excuses right? The heat is so intense, I am seriously tired before I even get started. Water is critical here! I do believe it gets to be about 90 some days. My teammates are very nice. There are nine of us. Two Brasilleras- Katia & Dani; Five Spanish- Ainoa, Rebeca, Lara, Maria & Ana; and lastly us Americans. Right now practice seems to focus on conditioning, which is good and bad. Everyday I feel like I am coughing up a lung, but it will go along way further into the season. Tomorrow or manana en espanol, we have a "friendly" match against another team here. Very excited to play and train. I know there is a lot of good competition here in Spain this year and I welcome that. If you wanna be the best, you have to surround yourself with the best and compete against the best. I asked for this and I am going to get a good helping of it.

Overall I am just excited. This experience is amazing and I don't want to take anything for granted.

Till next time, I am going to stay strong because I am ... BuiltFORDTuff!