Happy Birthday to Me!!!

I turned 25 today! A quarter of a century old! I can't believe that I am already 25, but I feel younger which is the important thing! I woke up to a nice surprise of a sunny day! It has been raining for what feels like weeks, so seeing the sun especially on my birthday was great. Unfortunately, the day was spent inside either practicing or taking a nap between practices! In between practices, the mail came and a card from my Aunt Toni and Uncle Dick arrived. Perfect timing!! I couldn't wait until 9 pm here because that was when I was going to FaceTime with my parents. I was also going to get to open the package they sent with gifts from them and my brother's family. This package has been staring at me saying, "Open Me!" since I got it last Friday. Anyways, it was worth the wait. After taking to my parents, I had a mini photo session with my new gifts!

 My lovely friend Layne who I kept me sane while in Montenegro sent me a birthday package too. This one arrived super early because we were used to the snail mail in Montenegro. She totally surprised me with the package by asking my parents and Marina for my address. Thanks Layne!!!! :)

After practice, I went over to Marina's so she could give me my birthday present. She had went to this little bakery and got me a dessert/cake. She put a candle in it, so I got to blow out a candle on my birthday. Marina and Damir got me a headband, some hair clips, and some body lotions. So nice to spend my birthday with one of my best friends!

 Couldn't wait to open my package! So exciting!!!!

 Photo session begins. (I had to take very many pictures just to get the few I posted. My self-timing skills are a little rusty, plus I was trying to get as many things in one picture as possible.) Trying to get a good pose with both my new boots (Thanks Drew and Amanda!!) and my new sweatshirt. Got two goods ones... Thought they were kinda of funny so I posted them both. :)

Still flexible at 25! 

Some of my other gifts: a Nike t-shirt, a pull-over, a new game, some chap stick, Orbitz Sweet Mint Gum (yum!), and two new pairs of earrings.

Happy (early) Halloween! Some Peeps and another Nike t-shirt (in my team's colors!). Can't wait for the Peeps to get a little stale to eat them! May have to share with my teammates because I am sure none of them have ever had them!

Of course the parentals had to put in a few "parent" gifts: a light for my bike so "I don't get hit from behind" as my dad told me and some multivitamins. My parents have been telling me that I need to take these especially with the cold weather coming, and now I have no reason not to take them!

Overall, it was a great first birthday in Europe! My teammates sang to me at practice, and I was able to chat with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, nephews, and niece. A special thanks to everyone who sent me something all the way over here in Finland. I love getting things in the mail...It is so exciting! Here's to another great year! Thanks again!

Scrimmages and Saunas

Let me start this post off with a few minor updates:

1. Preseason is over! This means no more extra workouts after practices. We are still either lifting or practicing in the morning and practicing in the evening, but it is so much better than the first six weeks.

2. I found out we have a TV game on January 2. Dirk unfortunately informed me that I could only come home from December 19-26. This means only a week and no New Year's Eve in America, but I guess any time is better than not being able to come home at all.

3. It has been raining non-stop for like the past two weeks. It is not a heavy rain by any means, but enough to be annoying. My parents are getting their moneys worth for my rain coat! :)

4. My second roommate (Martina) comes on Saturday. She is an outside from the Czech Republic who has been training with their national team but was recently cut. It will be nice to finally have our whole team together and another person in the apartment.

5. My birthday is in a week, and I am looking forward to my package from home!

I think that may be it for the updates other than the scrimmages. So far we have played 3 scrimmage games with three more in the next two weeks before we go to Germany. The first game was against Kangasala, who finished last in the league last year. We won all four sets we played pretty easily. We worked through different lineups, and I got to play middle for two sets and right-side for one. Playing back row is always fun, but I really prefer middle.

This past weekend we took a little trip to the town of Orivesi which is about an hour and a half away. On Saturday and Sunday we practiced in the morning and then played against Orpo (the team from Orivesi) in the evening. Orpo came in second last year, so it was good to see what more of the competition will look like. On Saturday, we won three sets and lost one set. I was pretty pleased with the way I played, and our team is starting to come together. I think we are going to be very good this season. On Sunday, we split sets with Orpo, each winning two. There were some questionable calls by the refs at crucial times, and the crowd got pretty into to it the last two sets. I think we were all exhausted from a week straight of practice and training, and it seemed to catch up to us during this scrimmage match. However, we still learned a lot about our team and saw our potential. Dirk was pleased with our play and told us that he knew we were tired from a long week and long preseason. With this in mind, he gave us the next two days off! During these days, we were told to relax, eat well, sleep well, and go to the sauna.

Being the good listener I am, I went for my regenerative run at our workout place. This is the first time I ran on the treadmill instead of around the lakes, and it was so BORING! Anyways, after the run, I did a thorough stretch and then headed to the sauna. Sitting in the sauna, I thought it might be a good blog post because going to the sauna is not very common in America, but very popular in Finland. In addition to sweating out all your impurities, the Finnish use the saunas as almost a social hour. Most are separated into male and female (they provide hours for each sex) because you are supposed to go into the sauna nude. I read a statistic that there are over 2 million saunas for the 5 million people in Finland. That equals out to one per household.

While in Finland, I have been to the sauna three times. The first was after spinning with the team to help our tired muscles. I only stayed for like 5 minutes because it was so hard to breathe. The second time was at our owner's home. Our entire team went to his country house for a team dinner. The women went in the sauna first, and then the men. Some of the girls jumped into the lake and then got back into the sauna. It is typical for one to go into the sauna for some time and then either shower or jump into the lakes. In the winter, they either roll around in the snow or cut a hole in the ice on the lake and take the plunge! (It reminds me of when we would jump in the pool during the winter after sitting in the hot tub.) The person would then go back into the sauna. The third time was today. The workout place was empty, so I had the sauna to myself. This was nice because I could make it has hot as I wanted. I think the Finnish girls on the team can tolerate much hotter temperatures than me. Overall, I am beginning to understand why saunas are so popular here. I bet they feel even better in the winter when it is so cold outside!