Turkey Day

     With Thanksgiving being an American holiday, I had all but accepted that I wouldn't be gorging myself with delicious home made food until my friend from work, Stella, decided she would be the patron saint of Turkey day and prepare the meal all on her own. Stella is Danish, but her grandfather was born and raised in the U.S. and brought the tradition back with him, so she invited me and another American friend (who was also coincidentally from Ohio) to join in the festivities.
     Stella prepared an amazing meal complete with all the fixin's that rivaled with my own mother's cooking. She made a pumpkin pie from an actual pumpkin, and cooked a 5 kilo. turkey for four people--classic American. After dinner we tried to stuff all the leftovers into her refrigerator, which was obviously not made to accommodate Thanksgiving feasts, and as long as she doesn't get sick of turkey sandwiches and cold mashed potatoes, she won't have to go to the grocery store for another week.
     After dinner Bobby, the other American guest, invited us all to go out to the night club he works at for some beverages. We agree and head downtown, spending a good bit of the night in a small pub just enjoying each other's conversation. It was nice to have Bobby around to understand all the jokes and ironies of being half way across the world and still meeting someone who grew up a few towns away.

Despite a change in scenery, this Thanksgiving shared a lot of the characteristics of all my other Thanksgivings: too much to eat, too much to drink, and very good company.

Tenerife: my home away from home

      This past week I took a leave of absence from the cold, dark city that is Copenhagen to visit my good friend Kristen in Tenerife. Tenerife is one of the Canary Islands and also one of my new favorite places. It may have been because of all the warmth and sunshine, or because of my charming American company, but I had a great time. I did the tourist thing on my first couple days, taking pictures of anything and everything (see my facebook page for touristy pictures). We had a big family dinner on Friday night that Kristen prepared; and by Kristen I mean her helpful songbird neighbor across the hall. A couple of the American guys from the basketball team joined us and it was a night of pasta, wine, and Spanish karaoke. I also practiced with Kris's team on Thursday and Friday, which was fun because its a very different style of volleyball there. I indulged in some authentic tapaz on two occasions and I now have a new found appreciation for olives. 
Saturday I spent the afternoon napping on the beach, then returned for Kristen's rival match in La Laguna. They won in 4 close sets, an ideal victory for both spectator and team. We went out to celebrate afterward, keeping in mind that we had to be up the next morning at 10:45 for a barbecue with the team and fans.

L to R: Sherri, Me, Kristen, Bridgette at the BBQ

      We were told it might be "cold" at the barbecue so I brought along a light sweater. You would not believe the temperature difference between the beach and a campsite a few miles up in the mountains of Santa Cruz. We were freezing. But, if you know Kris and I, it takes more than a little cold weather to keep us from a buffet spread. 
Most of the food was delicious, then we met fish cake. At first it seemed like a harmless cake, with icing on top--then they added shrimp. We all quickly scattered and dodged eye contact so as not to be offered this dish, but Bridgette (one of Kristen's American teammates) was suckered into a big heaping piece of it. I did not try it, but from what I'm told, it was just a loaf of shark chum with mayonnaise on top. No thank you.
     We left the barbecue in the afternoon to go take a nap and thaw out. I made several efforts to change my plane ticket so I could stay for a few more days since the girls got some bonus days off for winning on Saturday. Unfortunately, it wasn't feasible so we decided to make the best of my last day and have a night on the town. By night out I mean the entire night, causing us to actually dismiss ourselves from the party when it was time to take me to the airport at 6am. I did suffer from some serious fatigue after that flight, but overall I would say my time in Tenerife was a success. I am already plotting my next visit to the island, but until then its back to the daily grind...

Chalk it up as a win!

Well, we traveled our tough road this past week and the results were somewhat surprising. We beat Vordingborg in a 5 set match last Saturday, and then lost to Brønby in 4 sets on Wednesday, which knocked us out of the Cup. It was a very discouraging loss as we all hoped to be playing in the Cup finals in February.On top of that, we played Holte, the undefeated first place team the following Saturday so coming out with a winning record at the end of the week seemed unlikely.
    We went into our match on Saturday with basically nothing to lose, and honestly I think that helped. We gained an 8 point run in the first set and ran with it to win the set 25-15. Now that Holte saw they would actually have to play to beat us, the next set was tougher. But, with a few hitting errors on their end, we escaped with another win in the second set, 25-20. The third and fourth sets were both neck and neck until the final points and we couldn't seal the deal, losing 25-23 and 25-22. The match was at 2-2 and we went into a 5th set to 15 points. A point run in the beginning and a timeout at 5-1 was all it took to break the formerly undefeated champions. We exchanged sideouts for the remainder of the set, finally winning with an ace at 15-12. The entire team rushed the court, Holger leading the charge while jumping and waving his clip board through the air. If you'd like to watch the game, it is aired on www.holtevolley.dk (Holte vs. Gentofte)
     So, we won. We beat the undefeated, moving us up to a 3 way tie for first place with Brønby and Holte. We have one more match in this section of league play and its against the 8th place team, Lyngby next Saturday. Finishing the first round of league play in first place is very exciting, and I'm looking forward to defending our position in the next round.
    Now I pack for the Canary Islands, where I'm going to visit my friend, Kristen Dozier, who plays middle for a team on the island of Tenerife. I can't express how excited I am to go see American friends on a tropical island. A genie couldn't grant me a better wish. For more fun stories on adapting to life over seas, check out Kristen's blog called "Life and everything in Between."
Time to go buy sunscreen. Pictures and stories to come!

Challege ahead

Our next three matches present quite a challenge because they are against the other three top teams in the league. This Saturday we play Vordingborg , who currently sits at 4th in the rankings, while we sit just ahead of them at 3rd. Then on Wednesday, we have our next Cup match against Brøndby, who is ranked 2nd. We lost to Brøndby a couple weeks ago in a league match 3-1. They are our only league loss so far. Following those two tough matches is a big match next Saturday against Holte. Holte is in first place in league play with no losses. They have home court advantage so we will have to be on our A game to beat them. These are all very important matches because the outcomes will determine whether we rise to the top of the conference, or fall somewhere in the middle. In my mind the most important match is the Cup match against Brøndby because the Cup is single elimination and winning that match would put us in the semi-finals.

Thankfully, after this next week and a half of tough play, I get a vacation. Holger has given us 5 days off, which I am using to visit my friend Kristen in Tenerife, Canary Islands. Stay tuned for pictures of paradise :)

Back to the Drawing Board

     I suffered a couple losses this week, but it can only go back up from here. I began working at a restaurant called Brasserie Bisous as a cocktail waitress. Little did I know, I would be waitressing from 10pm until five o'clock in the morning. The bartender who I was to go to with questions was named Arter and he was not the patient kind. Thankfully, another bartender and a bus-boy had my back so I made it through the night without making any serious mistakes. At the end of the night Arter asked me if I wanted something to drink When I responded with a request for water, Arter shook his head and informed me that "we don't drink water here. Fish have sex in it and that's disgusting."  I drank half a Coca Cola then hopped on my bike and headed home to bed. 
     The first night was rough, but as is any first day on a new job. The hard part was working again the following night, and even harder was getting up to play our match the next morning. We played Brønby on Sunday afternoon and lost in four games. They played very well, and we did not. We see them again in a cup match in two weeks, so hopefully we will come more prepared to battle next time. I think with some concentration on our serve receive and converting free balls to transition kills, we can give them a run for their money next time. 
I decided that working at Bisous didn't solve my problem of being bored during the day, but rather compounded my problem by making me exhausted all weekend and during my match. I let my boss know that I appreciated the opportunity to work, but the hours I would be available from now on were limited to those that were accompanied by sunlight.

Workin' woman

     Yesterday was an important day for me. I finally received my working permission and CPR number, meaning that I can legally work, have a bank account, and get access to health care in Denmark--all very important things. With good timing, my coach has found me a job being a cocktail waitress at a restaurant that a friend of his owns. The restaurant is called Brasserie Bisous. (Bisous is French for kisses). Holger and I visited last week to meet the owners and get a look at the place. It seems like a classy restaurant, and as I'm told it becomes quite the party after 10pm. They also host comedians and speakers on Wednesday nights, which I look forward to working. I don't have the ideal schedule right now, but I'm hoping that after a few weeks, the boss will see that I have experience in the biz and let me work a schedule more comfortable for me. They have assured me that the language barrier won't really be a problem, considering most liquor names are the same in both English and Danish, and most people are fluent in English anyway. 
      In other news, we played Frederiksburg on Saturday and won in 3 sets. It was our first home match and we had quite a few seats filled in the stands. We play Brøndby this Sunday and it is a very important match. We faced them once before in a friendly scrimmage at the beginning of the season and beat them in 5 close sets. They have acquired another American since then, bringing their total to 4. We also found out that our next Cup match will also be against Brøndby, on October 27th, making the match this Sunday all the more important for confidence purposes. A victory in both matches means we remain undefeated in the league and advance to the semi-finals of the Cup. 

Christmas in September

    Yesterday I was completing my typical morning routine, when I went to check the mail and found a small letter addressed to me. It was from the post office, letting me know I had a package. Hallelujah! I had been expecting a package from my parents for weeks now, and as far as we knew it was lost in Moscow. 
     I quickly got ready and hopped on my bike to head to the post office. Upon finding  the post office with ease, I turned in my letter to the clerk and received my package. Fitting it into the basket on my bike was somewhat of a challenge, and seeing over it as I rode proved to be difficult as well--but I had it and I could not wait to open it. The excitement to open this package was comparable to childhood Christmases, specifically the one where Santa brought us a ping-pong table AND a big red bouncy ball. 

    When I got home I rushed into my apartment, grabbed a knife, and began cutting away the mass amounts of tape that protected the contents of my box. Inside, I found an assortment of goodies. I found important things like my glasses, snow boots, and self-tanner; as well as essential foods like JIF peanutbutter, hot sauce, and macaroni and cheese. The box also included some things just to make me smile like a Batman PEZ despenser, toy mustache glasses, and a stuffed animal. My parents did a great job of assembling the care package, which I should have known, considering they care the most. My only constructive criticism would be to always let Kelsea pick out the magazines. Woman's World and Teen Pop Star! aren't really my kind of reading material. 

Quick Update: One month in.

I have officially been in Denmark for an entire month. We won our match on Tuesday in a quick 3 games. Saturday we played Fortuna Odense and beat last year's champions in 4 sets. This Saturday we play Frederiksberg volley at home at 1pm. I don't know much about them, but I look forward to our first home match!
I am also working on a way to put a slideshow of the photos I have taken on my sightseeing adventures, so stay tuned for that. If you would like to see some of my pictures from my trip so far, check out my Facebook profile. If we're not friends, friend me! :) (Search Meghan Marie, not Meghan Simons)

Season Breakdown

Ok, enough with my remedial issues of laundry and groceries; season starts today. Realistically, I'm sure you will hear more about my struggles with domestic life and cultural differences, but today begins my season--not just my regular season but "Cup" season. I assumed that the schedule here would be just as it is in the NCAA with a pre-season, followed by conference play, followed by a tournament. Wrong. Stay with me, because this may get confusing...
In Denmark, teams are split first by "divisions" based on the previous year's record. The top 8 teams join the "Elite" division (where my team is) which is the highest level of competition in the country. The rest are also split into divisions 1,2, etc. to play within a "conference" of their own. Within your conference, you play each team three times throughout the year. The team with the most wins at the end of the season is the Division champion.
During this same time frame, is the "Cup" tournament. The Cup is modeled after a typical NCAA tournament, with the top 16 teams participating. Except this does not take place at the end of the year, but throughout the same time frame as your "regular season". There are 16 teams included because the teams from both the Elite division and the first division are in the running to become Cup champions. Much like NCAA, the top seeded teams play the lowest seeded Division 1 teams, and each round is single elimination. This gives the possibility of a Division 1 team to advance in the tournament, take one of the top 8 places, and therefore be eligible to move up to the Elite division for the following year--consequentiality moving their opponent down to a lower division. Every year is a constant fight to either move up or maintain your position in the elite division. At the end of the year is the Cup championship and from what I've been told, It's a huge event. The winner of the cup gets so-many-thousands of dollars to put toward their team for the next year, as well as the likelihood of more sponsorships.
My match tonight is a cup match. We play a Division 1 team, and it just breaks my heart to end their season the day it starts, but this is apparently a cut-throat game, and I have a Cup to win :)

Analogies

Every language has its own proverbs, analogies, and cultural metaphors. Often, a direct translation into another language would leave a person bewildered. "What do you mean I'm beating a dead horse? That seems very inhumane. No, I'm not pulling your leg, I think you'd notice that. Why would I want to be holding a bird and since when is that better than birds hanging out in pairs in bushes? 

        Further complicating these culturally specific phrases would be mixing them up. A friend of mine from college, let's say her name is Jane, has quite the knack for mixing up metaphors. She often tells me to twist her leg when I invite her to do something, or throws out the phrase "when in Rome" as a catch-all excuse. 

        I'm not sure if my coach, Holger, suffers from the same confusion that Jane does, but he has left me scratching my head at several of his motivational speeches. After one match he instructed us to "Shit in the pot and then move it." Everyone sat in silence in an attempt to soak up these words of wisdom, until I finally voiced: "Holger, do you mean Shit or get off the pot?" "Yes Meghan, exactly!" he replied. Some still did not catch on, and to be honest I'm still not sure what he was referring to in a volleyball sense. 

      Typically, after some time, I can link together the phrase he is actually aiming for based on everything else he says, but one analogy he used still escapes me. During a tough match on Saturday there was a small argument about methods and communication on the floor. To silence this tiff, Holger simply screamed DON'T ARGUE! Afterwards, during our post-match pep talk, Holger informed us all that sometimes "you just have to shovel a camel." I have NO idea what he was trying to say, but I'm just going to play it safe and avoid any on-court arguing.

The little things

As some of you may have noticed from the video tour, our "two bedroom apartment" is most definitely intended to be a one bedroom flat. It is for this reason Dodi has a kitchen table in her room instead of a dresser. Dodi was getting quite fed up with using book shelves as her closet, so we made the trip to IKEA to get her a wardrobe. If any of you have been to IKEA, you know that the furniture is displayed assembled--but it is not given to you in such a way. It comes in a box, filled with eight to 10 pieces, some screws, and picture instructions with no words.

Nervously, we opened the box and sprawled the pieces around the room, surveying the task ahead of us. We looked to our picture book of instructions and followed each step, careful to pay attention to each detail and directional arrow. Lacking a screw driver, we completed the first four steps with a small knife. The next few steps involved nails...and a hammer. There wasn't really anything we could substitute for a hammer, so we searched the apartment for blunt objects. Thankfully, a small hammer was conveniently located in the cabinet above our stove- a God send. We finished the wardrobe, and stood it up to admire our work. All hinges are operational and no fingers were smashed during construction. With no men and few tools, we assembled a functional piece of furniture. Perhaps this is a silly thing to be proud of, but it's the little things here that make our stay more enjoyable :)

The To Do List

My current To Do List is as follows:

-Get a Bike

-Get a Laundry Card

-Find sticky hooks

-Learn Danish

This list used to be much longer, but these 4 items just seem to linger on the list as I sit here, helpless in crossing them off. And its not like I haven't tried. I went to a used bike shop today with our manager, Bo, and the cheapest bike they had was 1,700 DKK..this translates to about $290 and I am not willing to pay that kind of price for a used bike--without a chain. Some of the girls on the team said they would look online and check with their friends for bikes, but my bike issues are probably more towards the bottom of their to do lists. 

My laundry card is the tool I use to operate my apartment building's washers and dryers. It charges to the monthly rent, which I don't pay, so it is the ideal way to wash my clothes. Unfortunately, this was also at the bottom of someone else's to do list, so we won't be receiving it until Saturday at least. Not to sound like a diva, but if they expected me to pack everything I needed into ONE 45 lb. bag, it seems a little unreasonable that they would also expect me to survive 2-3 weeks without needing a laundromat. A public laundromat you suggest? Well, since every building around here has their own laundry room, the nearest public laundromat is several blocks away, and most easily traveled to with...a bike. So, Dodi and I have taken to laundering the old fashioned way, washing everything in our bathroom sink, and hanging articles to dry wherever there is a hangable place. Which brings me to my next issue.

I have searched high and low for the small plastic hooks that you can stick to walls and other surfaces. I am convinced they do not exist in Denmark. I would love to hang towels, jackets, necklaces, wet laundry--but the only hooks I can find are the metal kind at IKEA that you screw into the wall. Our walls seem to be concrete and I'm not trying to make that kind of commitment to this apartment. So, as you can imagine, those hangable places I was talking about tend to be door handles, chair backs, the shower rod, fans, and light fixtures. 

I will spare you the pictures of our apartment that is currently decorated in socks and underwear, and leave you with my Danish phrase of the day: " Jeg får ret på dette"  Translation: I'll get right on that. 

First Practice Matches

We won both of our practice matches today. They were against 2 teams in our league that we will see 3 times this season. I can't remember the names of them, because they each had more than 5 syllables. Overall, it was definitely a great day for Gentofte. To reward myself, i think I'll ice my shoulder, sleep in, and head downtown for some fun with the Polskis tomorrow :)

Transportation

So after a couple days of walking, my roommate and I decided to seek alternative routes of transportation. We conclude that our best bet is a bike, mostly because everyone here rides one. No kidding--there are separate sidewalks for bikes and for people and if you get caught walking on a biking sidewalk its lights out...I feel like "Frogger" trying to cross the street!

We will however end up taking the bus/train system when it snows here, because Meghan on bike + snow and ice = hospital visit.  I have yet to figure out the bus system and usually end up just following Dodi and getting my bus pass stamped whenever she does. I guess at some point I should get a tutorial of sorts in order to figure out the bus system in case I'm ever by myself, sans bike, and not in walking distance.

Day 3

Today was rough. Mostly because my roommate/tour guide, Dodi, had to work so I was forced to fend for myself. I set out to find a grocery store, but chose not to set out too far for fear of getting lost. When I did find a small grocery store, I could not read any labels or recognize any important brands like Kellogs, Oscar Meyer, or most importantly, JIF. I then realized that they don't issue bags for you to put purchased groceries in and I didn't want to be caught carrying all of my produce around the block in the hammock I could make with my shirt. I made the decision to leave the grocery store empty-handed--no peanut butter, and no pride.

My next endeavor was to head to city center to go shopping with Dodi when she got off work. By the time we got there, most of the shops were closed. We were both frustrated by this because it was only 6pm. I have no idea how any respectable, working fashionista could get her shopping done before 6pm, but apparently in Denmark they do. We continued to travel down the Stroget to no avail and eventually ended up on the other side of town. When it began to get dark we hopped on the train and then hopped off too soon, leaving us with about 10 blocks more to walk. We broke up the trek with a stop at a "Pizzeria" where I indulged in a pita stuffed with who-knows-what and lettuce, qualifying as my first real meal of the day. Shortly after we came upon a grocery store--correction-- a supermarket. I vowed to visit it tomorrow and made a point to configure directions to it in my head based on the remaining walk back to our flat. As we finished our journey back home, I realized the supermarket was only about 3 blocks from my apartment; just 2 blocks further than I ventured this morning.

MEMO TO SELF:

Supermarket is 3 blocks down  Aebelogade (bring bags)

Getting Settled

I'm all settled in to my apartment. It's near downtown Copenhagen, which they call City Center. It took me a couple days to figure out the bus system in order to find an IKEA and get some accessories for the place. It's nothing lavish, but it will do! Check out the video tour...

Take off

Just boarded my flight! The nice man at the check in desk switched me to an aisle seat for leg stretching purposes...what a doll. With my new and improved seat and these personal TVs This 8 hour flight might not be so bad!

ETA

I got my plane ticket information today. I depart Columbus at 6:55 PM and will arrive around 11 AM Monday morning! Now to pack everything I will need for 8 months in a 20 kilo bag...