Ok, what have you missed out on? Lots I'm going to assume. Well, last was really fun. I'll start with handball, move into friends, then finish with, uh idk something cool.
Soo my average week is wieghts on Mon, plays on tues, drills on wed, off on thurs, and friendlys on fri, and then random stuff on sat and sundays. i love going ot practice. each time i learn more and more.... my coach has a deal with asics so he hooked me up with some shoes... cost aobut 115$ which is way better than the prices i have been looking at on my own so that was such a blessing. They are bright blue though, i mean BRIGHT BLUE! ha. very nice though. I got pretty lucky. But yes, my coach is probably the best thing about handball. He is soo aweosme. Always asking if I understand, have questions, yatta yatta. Its just what I need. He has done a few one on one session with me to help me with my shot, me defense, and some foot work. So its been great. And the team...o the team. They are so aweosm. They have invited me out for dinner this weekend so they can get to know me better. ha they are so funny. Talking in english whenever im aroudn so that i can be involved. Its really funny to hear all their stories and stuff. I love it. We are gonig to a restuarnt called American Style... kinda funny i thought. but i have learned countless drills, Coach Kathy and Greg are going to be proud!... you too Anca! umm.... I have a huge smile everytime it rans cause i walk into practice dripping wet because i try to hit every puddle possible. its way awesome! and o, im like basically pro at riding my bike with no hands. If there was an Olympic sport for that, i'd win gold medal for sure! haha. anyway, yes handball is really really fun. I have a really wierd pain in my left calf/shin area. Not sure what it is, but its off and on. When its on, it hurts like the dickens though. Hopefully it'll get better. I think its from running on the gym floor, im not too used to hardwood. Im more of an outdoor soccerfield girl. :)
Last week was really fun with friends... i got contacts of a lot of people and tried to meet up with a few. but on thursday, i get invited to go to the school ball with Halli. So he bought me a ticket and i got to tag along. Really cool story. well kinda. not too cool. but whatever. So i had no idea what to wear so i was supposed to go with this girl named Elsa, but she had to study for a test. So i went into panic mood and called my handball girls and they totally hooked me up with some leggins, a dress t-shirth thing and some accessories. They got me all fancied up. and i went at like 8 to the pre-dance party with halli and hung out and met a bunch of kids and got some numbers. then we went ot the actual dance at about 11 at thsi place called broadway. WOW. ok so we got in (totally got frisked) and there was the circular balcony around the main dance floor. and we went donw to the main dance floor... so cool. and there was a band and stage and stuff. then we walked down,around, and up some stairs and there were two other dance rooms with a dj and a floor and everything playing seperate music. it was so sick. it was a lot of fun. over 1500 kids there. really fun. um, then friday night i hung out with a gril name Elsa, the one that was supposed to help me but couldnt. she was really nice. we got icecream, hung out, and watched a movie. it was really fun. I got home pretty late that night then some other friends called me up and we went to this graveyard, that was a lot of fun. just walked around and got creeped out. Ha it was fun, don't judge. Then sat i went to this pool that was by the presidents house. it was really fun. really hot hot tub and an awesome! water slide and wave pool. there are pools everywhere and no membership or anthyig is needed, you just go to pools. its really fun. And Halli took Toni and i to that. it was fun. then sat night toni slept at my house and we hung out with some friends all night and had a good time. Sunday wen to the international church and then got invited to go to one of our friends houses for more cake and coffee after church. it was really fun. they are a newly wed british couple... so funny. uh man bobby and zack would love the husband. his name was alex, uh! so funny. .... quality. then sunday night just kinda hung with the family and stuff. Monday i found some bouldering spots in reykjavik. toni and i kinda went exploring in the "forest" type area... we found some crazy like viking type places. definitely found a bunker of some sort. kinda creepy. but it was cool. ya idk.
losts has gone on. i totally feel like home here. doing my laudry. I cooked dinner lastnight for my family. made cookies for them today. going shopping and hiar cut tomorrow. have a sister bonding day planned for saturday. idk, its been fun. loving it here. loving handball, the friends.... my friends actually just left. theycame over to trysome cookies (its like almost midnight and they have a physics test at 8am tomrrow... haha gotta love em), loving the family a ton, loving iceland, loving God, loving life really. its just been really fun. I dont really know what to add in these blogss anymore because there is just so much. So maybe ill just pick a few things to talk abou tnext time.
alright, i love and miss all you guys soo much. i truly do, im not just saying that. You guys mean the world to me, and i probably talk about you at least twice a week... ha im always mentioning somethinga bout back home.... ok. love you all... o, and if yo uget a chance, check out Romans 12:12
xoxo ~holly~
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Handball Update
So I started off at a club called Valur. Locals told us that it is the best club in town. The coaches are best, ex-Olympians, and due to the house I was supposed to be at that was the closest club. Therefore, I would be playing with Valur. So the club facilities are really nice. Fun atmosphere and all that good stuff. Really cool place. Great teams. My team was the Division 3 ('93-'91) and the girls did not impress me all that much. Started off with not a warm welcoming at all. But that's ok, some aren't good at first impressions. The first practice was so lame. Basically walked around the whole time, scrimmaged (slow as malicious pace) and then slight conditioning at the end. And I OWNED that cause those girls were so outta shape. I couldn't believe it. But I decided to stick it out. So I went there rest of the week to Valur. The coach did not talk to me that much. All my directions and awarness to anything had to go through the girls. Most of them, I could tell, didn't really enjoy explaining stuff in English to me so I kinda felt bad asking. So I just kinda hid in the shadows until I knew what I was doing. Although, there was one girl there - Este maybe - who was super nice to me. She was easily the best on the team and you could see her genuine heart and friendly personality. So she was definitely my go-to girl!
Anyway, I started attending some of the Division 4 ('94-'95) practices to get a full load and as much possible in. That coach was really awesome. Spoke more English than the D3 coach and the girls were really young, but funny. The practices went a lot better too. They were working on tactics so even though I couldn't understand a thing, the coach was moving around and using great tone and actions so I could follow a lot easier. I learned a lot about defensive positioning. Which is good! I had no idea about any of that! ha.
Ok, moving on with the week, Callie got a phone call from one for the boy's houses and they decided they really wanted to take a girl. So with my original family still outta town I went to meet them one night, and moved in the next day. I was kinda upset about it at first because I was going to be an hr bus ride from Valur. Not fun with 930 practices... So, after I moved in I went to Valur twice and said I have got to find a closer club. And in Hofnarfjordur there are two, and one happens to be about a 5 min walk and 2 min bike ride from my house. It is called Hauker. So i called that coach and explained everything and why I was here, he loved it. I met him the next day at his younger boys team, watched that practice, then practiced with the girls D3 team on Sunday. The girls were SO excited to have me! All introduced themselves (still have no idea how to say over half their names) and I can tell they are eager to help me learn.
The first practices Coach Kathy actually got to come watch and we did some drills then worked on 1v1 moves. So unlucky for Karin, she got stuck with me. But lucky for me, she was SOOO helpful. We were working on the swim move. She taught me o so much- footwork, steps, arm position, a ton. And the coach was very positive and talkative. He explains stuff in Icelandic, then asks if I understand, usually I say no, then he tells me in simpler terms, aka English.
My average week will look like this (I am in the middle of my first week with Hauker so it could be different) but sundays is a slower practice were we work on 1v1 stuff. Mondays are weights. Tuesdays we work on tactics and different plays. Wed we do shooting. Thurs is the only off day. Fridays we play in friendlies. Sat I'm not sure what we will do. Then we shall start it all over again.
Monday was really fun because we were all in the weight room, no coach, just lifting weights and talking. I finally asked if they could have an English speaking contest so that I could know what the heck they were talking about! lol. So they laughed and it definitely broke the ice. They started involving me in more conversations and asking questions about me and stuff. A great way to start off everything. Learned a lot about them and stuff. That was cool.
So far my favorite drill has been a game we played to warm up. I would classify it as a dodgeball type game, but maybe not. So everyone gets inside the 6m and there is one ball. If you have the ball you don't have any steps and you have to hit someone. If you get hit, remember who it you and sit down. If the person who hit you gets hit and sits down, you get to stand up. The objective is to get everyone down. p.s. I won! haha.
Tonight was one of my favorite practices. Started off with an awesome bike ride in the rain through puddles to the gym! It was the shooting type practice tonight and I learned so much. I learned the proper way to fake a shot and drop it behind me. I have been playing center back and learning SO much. It is the play maker position so I have to keep up. But it took a little bit of watching and a few attempts to get it, but I am doing better. Then we did some shooting stuff, and I asked if coach could help me improve my shot. So while the team was doing the drill, he took me against a wall and helped me. He is way awesome. Totally wants me to improve...get quality of a good coach. Then I jumped back in line and did a lot better. After practice he stayed just 5 min extra with me and improved it even more ( I need to jump UP and not in, its a difficult task. Soccer skills do not mix with handball, I'll tell you that much).
Anyway, I love Hauker. It is just all around a better place for me to be. We play a friendly match on Fri night at 6. Not sure if I'll play, but I will definitely keep you updated. The girls all added me on facebook! and they want to do a team dinner or something to get to know me... I love those girls. Stay updated. I may do like a once a week handball blog. Maybe. This will most definitely be the longest, sorry about that! :)
Anyway, I started attending some of the Division 4 ('94-'95) practices to get a full load and as much possible in. That coach was really awesome. Spoke more English than the D3 coach and the girls were really young, but funny. The practices went a lot better too. They were working on tactics so even though I couldn't understand a thing, the coach was moving around and using great tone and actions so I could follow a lot easier. I learned a lot about defensive positioning. Which is good! I had no idea about any of that! ha.
Ok, moving on with the week, Callie got a phone call from one for the boy's houses and they decided they really wanted to take a girl. So with my original family still outta town I went to meet them one night, and moved in the next day. I was kinda upset about it at first because I was going to be an hr bus ride from Valur. Not fun with 930 practices... So, after I moved in I went to Valur twice and said I have got to find a closer club. And in Hofnarfjordur there are two, and one happens to be about a 5 min walk and 2 min bike ride from my house. It is called Hauker. So i called that coach and explained everything and why I was here, he loved it. I met him the next day at his younger boys team, watched that practice, then practiced with the girls D3 team on Sunday. The girls were SO excited to have me! All introduced themselves (still have no idea how to say over half their names) and I can tell they are eager to help me learn.
The first practices Coach Kathy actually got to come watch and we did some drills then worked on 1v1 moves. So unlucky for Karin, she got stuck with me. But lucky for me, she was SOOO helpful. We were working on the swim move. She taught me o so much- footwork, steps, arm position, a ton. And the coach was very positive and talkative. He explains stuff in Icelandic, then asks if I understand, usually I say no, then he tells me in simpler terms, aka English.
My average week will look like this (I am in the middle of my first week with Hauker so it could be different) but sundays is a slower practice were we work on 1v1 stuff. Mondays are weights. Tuesdays we work on tactics and different plays. Wed we do shooting. Thurs is the only off day. Fridays we play in friendlies. Sat I'm not sure what we will do. Then we shall start it all over again.
Monday was really fun because we were all in the weight room, no coach, just lifting weights and talking. I finally asked if they could have an English speaking contest so that I could know what the heck they were talking about! lol. So they laughed and it definitely broke the ice. They started involving me in more conversations and asking questions about me and stuff. A great way to start off everything. Learned a lot about them and stuff. That was cool.
So far my favorite drill has been a game we played to warm up. I would classify it as a dodgeball type game, but maybe not. So everyone gets inside the 6m and there is one ball. If you have the ball you don't have any steps and you have to hit someone. If you get hit, remember who it you and sit down. If the person who hit you gets hit and sits down, you get to stand up. The objective is to get everyone down. p.s. I won! haha.
Tonight was one of my favorite practices. Started off with an awesome bike ride in the rain through puddles to the gym! It was the shooting type practice tonight and I learned so much. I learned the proper way to fake a shot and drop it behind me. I have been playing center back and learning SO much. It is the play maker position so I have to keep up. But it took a little bit of watching and a few attempts to get it, but I am doing better. Then we did some shooting stuff, and I asked if coach could help me improve my shot. So while the team was doing the drill, he took me against a wall and helped me. He is way awesome. Totally wants me to improve...get quality of a good coach. Then I jumped back in line and did a lot better. After practice he stayed just 5 min extra with me and improved it even more ( I need to jump UP and not in, its a difficult task. Soccer skills do not mix with handball, I'll tell you that much).
Anyway, I love Hauker. It is just all around a better place for me to be. We play a friendly match on Fri night at 6. Not sure if I'll play, but I will definitely keep you updated. The girls all added me on facebook! and they want to do a team dinner or something to get to know me... I love those girls. Stay updated. I may do like a once a week handball blog. Maybe. This will most definitely be the longest, sorry about that! :)
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Beginning life in Iceland
Everything has been going great. Absolutely great! I arrived 8 days ago now. The first few days I was very disoriented. But when they throw you into city and say find your way home via bus it has to click pretty quickly. I am pretty sure I know downtown Reykjavik by heart now. But unfortunately I do not live there anymore. I was supposed to be staying with the congressman's family, but he and his wife Pala are on vacation for another two weeks. So I stayed at Callie's (our Icelandic/American helper coordinator lady) mother's guest house for a few days. That was located right in the middle of down town so I really enjoyed walking not even 10 min to a nice little pond and coffee houses everywhere each day. Then one of the boy's host families called and because the boys wouldn't get here until a week after us, they asked if they could get a girl instead. So I was very disappointed at first, but God has a plan for everything. And I got shuffled into their home fairly quickly actually. They called on Tues, I met them Tues night, and moved in Wed afternoon of this week. So Its been all new and fun and exciting. God really knows what he is doing. This family is way awesome. The parents are great! Halli and Ana. Helping me out with so much and feeding me plenty (food is awesome - dad....i like fish) and just being great. The kids are real cool too. Youngest is named Erla - 13. She showed me around town and stuff. Really nice. Funny too. Then middle is Halli - 19. Cool kid. Always has friends here so thats been nice cause I really need to start getting more plugged into people and stuff. But he is a super track star from what I've gathered. So thats cool. Oldests is Ragnar - 23. Cool cat. Does schooling in the afternoons, so we chill in the mornings sometimes. He is active I guess is what Ana was saying. So hopefully that means outdoor active type :). But he said he'd take me around and show me cool stuff. The family lived in FL from 96-02. So everyone knows english really well. The only one who needs to talk slower is Ana, but she does just fine. But most the time everyone is speaking Icelandic. So I'm lost almost always. But thats ok. I'll deal with it. I've learned to really read tone and actions. Its kinda cool. I can follow some of what they are saying, kinda. But Ragnar did a year of schooling in NY and has a Masters in English. So he is just dandy! Anyway, I think this weekend I get to go to their summer house with Ana and Erla. I'm really excited for that. And when I get back either at night on Sat or Sunday the boys are going to take me out. Not exactly sure what that entails, but hopefully something fun!
Handball... way awesome. I have been to 5 practices now. They started off not so good for me. Its hard to understand and know what I need to be doing when everything is in a different language. Some girls know english, but I guess the only learn to write it, not speak it. So that whole language barrier has been difficult, but definitely getting better. The actual handball part of it has been way cool though. Have learned a lot about positioning of the body on defense already.That is something I really need work on. You see, I learnd the basic idea of handball, but none of the tactics or fundamentals. It is very obvious here that I am missing those. So hopefully I can pick those up quickly. Fussy has been such an awesome coach. He is the younger teams coach that I practice with on my off days. My coach is names Joey(pronounced w/o the "j") and he doesn't speak much english to me. So Fussy has been my main source to getting better. Which is awesome. He was an Olympian not too many years ago. Knows his sutff thats for sure. Anyway, handball is all good. My club's name is Valur, well as of right now. Its about an hr bus ride to and from because of my new location. The clubs you get placed in are mainly based off of where you live. And now I live in Hofnarfjordur and Valur is in Hllemma or something like that. So I am going to try to switch clubs to the one that is a 2 min walk from home named Haukur. Hopefully that will work. But overall, learning a lot and having fun with it!
God is doing soem pretty amazing things here. He has really showed to me what patients really looks like. I mean really looks like. I have yet to worry about anyhting. I realized that no matter what you do, how hard you try or anyhting else, things will happen how they happen and how God wants them to. So there is no point to try to make things go your way. They wont, and if they do then God will totally make it a living hell for you! ha. Well maybe not that far, but it definitely does not go as wanted when you get "your way". He has showed up with me every step of my days here so far. Just the beauty of this place itself is such an eye opener to the creator of it all. He is pretty cool dude. But two words adventure and spontaneous have kinda been my theme for the trip so far. I haven't really planned much. Well nothing really actually. I just have taken each day at a time and figured out what I might or might not do. Its pretty fun. Mixture of school work, exploring, handball, food, coffee shops, playing with Toni. Its all a good time. Mornings are slow filled with school and email junk. Then usually in the afternoons I'll meet Toni in town somewhere and we will find somehting ufn to do. Like today, we walked down the main shopping street in Reykjavik, stumbled onto a Red Cross store. Stopped. Asked if there was a place we could volunteer at. Got directed to another location. Then to the main building. Stopped on our way at this crazy Ti Restaurant for lunch. Went into the headquarters. Got placed with the Youth Director right away no questions. And now I will be volunteering Thurs nights at a teen thing. Really cool because over the summer, after I decided I wasn't going to New Orleans God spoke to me through this crazy man in Manitue springs and said you have to be patient and your time will come... hints the whole Iceland thing. And he also said, "He wants you to use your gift with teens to glorify Him" so to just "stumble" upon all this today is no mistake. Its really cool because it wasn't a big deal, or any trouble, or out of the way or anything. Set no expectations what so ever, and look at where I find myself. Right where God wants me. Pretty cool stuff.
But its like 1 am here. I better get some sleep. Think I may have caught a cold. Have a stuffy nose and had a headache for 2 days now... o dear. Miss all and I can't express enough my thanks to all he support, thoughts, and prayers that have been coming my way."Takk" Thanks from the heart. Bless Bless.
Handball... way awesome. I have been to 5 practices now. They started off not so good for me. Its hard to understand and know what I need to be doing when everything is in a different language. Some girls know english, but I guess the only learn to write it, not speak it. So that whole language barrier has been difficult, but definitely getting better. The actual handball part of it has been way cool though. Have learned a lot about positioning of the body on defense already.That is something I really need work on. You see, I learnd the basic idea of handball, but none of the tactics or fundamentals. It is very obvious here that I am missing those. So hopefully I can pick those up quickly. Fussy has been such an awesome coach. He is the younger teams coach that I practice with on my off days. My coach is names Joey(pronounced w/o the "j") and he doesn't speak much english to me. So Fussy has been my main source to getting better. Which is awesome. He was an Olympian not too many years ago. Knows his sutff thats for sure. Anyway, handball is all good. My club's name is Valur, well as of right now. Its about an hr bus ride to and from because of my new location. The clubs you get placed in are mainly based off of where you live. And now I live in Hofnarfjordur and Valur is in Hllemma or something like that. So I am going to try to switch clubs to the one that is a 2 min walk from home named Haukur. Hopefully that will work. But overall, learning a lot and having fun with it!
God is doing soem pretty amazing things here. He has really showed to me what patients really looks like. I mean really looks like. I have yet to worry about anyhting. I realized that no matter what you do, how hard you try or anyhting else, things will happen how they happen and how God wants them to. So there is no point to try to make things go your way. They wont, and if they do then God will totally make it a living hell for you! ha. Well maybe not that far, but it definitely does not go as wanted when you get "your way". He has showed up with me every step of my days here so far. Just the beauty of this place itself is such an eye opener to the creator of it all. He is pretty cool dude. But two words adventure and spontaneous have kinda been my theme for the trip so far. I haven't really planned much. Well nothing really actually. I just have taken each day at a time and figured out what I might or might not do. Its pretty fun. Mixture of school work, exploring, handball, food, coffee shops, playing with Toni. Its all a good time. Mornings are slow filled with school and email junk. Then usually in the afternoons I'll meet Toni in town somewhere and we will find somehting ufn to do. Like today, we walked down the main shopping street in Reykjavik, stumbled onto a Red Cross store. Stopped. Asked if there was a place we could volunteer at. Got directed to another location. Then to the main building. Stopped on our way at this crazy Ti Restaurant for lunch. Went into the headquarters. Got placed with the Youth Director right away no questions. And now I will be volunteering Thurs nights at a teen thing. Really cool because over the summer, after I decided I wasn't going to New Orleans God spoke to me through this crazy man in Manitue springs and said you have to be patient and your time will come... hints the whole Iceland thing. And he also said, "He wants you to use your gift with teens to glorify Him" so to just "stumble" upon all this today is no mistake. Its really cool because it wasn't a big deal, or any trouble, or out of the way or anything. Set no expectations what so ever, and look at where I find myself. Right where God wants me. Pretty cool stuff.
But its like 1 am here. I better get some sleep. Think I may have caught a cold. Have a stuffy nose and had a headache for 2 days now... o dear. Miss all and I can't express enough my thanks to all he support, thoughts, and prayers that have been coming my way."Takk" Thanks from the heart. Bless Bless.
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