Hey Everyone!

So I have already had 3 practices. The first one was last night and I was just drenched in sweat! The coach told the girls in our meeting before we started that I had been out of vball for quite sometime and had a back injury so it would take a while to get back into it, so he told the girls to be patient with me. It was kind of funny because I'm sure most of the girls were like why is she here if she's terrible. But the practice went well. It was so weird to be hitting again. Sometimes I would forget that I was a hitter and I think the word oops and sorry was my whole vocabulary for most of the practice....haha....They warm up differently here. You kind of just have to warm up yourself instead of someone directing you what to do. They expect you to be mature enough to do it on your own. We have some really young girls on the team and the youngest is a 16 yr old I think. And then our oldest is almost 40! And she can still play the game. So extremely different than what we see in the states. Most of the young girls won't actually be playing with us at games but they will be playing with a junior team. But they just want these girls to develop. We do however have a middle who is 16 but plays like she is in her 20's. She is already training on the beach so she will not always be with us at the beginning.

So needless to say the rules are a little bit different international and I learned that last night. I was in middle back and a girl dug the ball high and it hit off the ceiling and I bump set a perfect ball to the outside. NO ONE was there to hit it and I was like "are you serious where are you". Then the coach starts yelling "you can't play a ball off of the ceiling, you aren't in the US anymore Karlik". Everybody started laughing it was hilarious! So getting used to all these new rules has been interesting. And then later on a serve came between me and the libero and she called mine....or I thought she called mine....I don't actually know what she said but the ball landed between us and all I could think was "did she say mine or did she say you in Danish" But I didn't want to ask so I just looked at her and gave her a high five. She was probably thinking "why are you giving me a high five? you know we lost the point right?" But everyone on the team speaks English so it makes us foreigners job a lot easier. I'm not gonna lie my body has been really sore....I think it is saying "are you crazy lady! what are you doing to me!" It is crazy to think it has been almost 3 seasons since I've trained (because my senior year all I did was rehab). But please be praying for my back! It was acting up a little bit today so I had to sit out of a couple drills : ( but for the most part it has done its job!

I'm not gonna lie even with all of this new stuff I have still found time to be a little homesick : ( I miss all my family and friends and am truly grateful to have you all in my life! I know the Lord will give me strength and that I have to continually know that he has placed me ere for a reason. So if anyone feels that they miss my face soooooo much please come out and visit! I would love it!

Ok well I better get to bed we've got another long day ahead of us!

Much love to everyone!

p.s. i know some of you might be thinking the picture i have up is in Denmark....well its not its actually through the mountains in CO....our friend Tyler decided to put that picture up. but i will try to take some pictures asap!