Officially Finnish

Well, not really. But I did get one step closer with the purchase of a bike. I know this is not only a Finnish thing, but it seems like EVERYONE has a bike. Although bikes are super expensive here (new ones start at like 200 or 300 Euros) and I won't be able to ride it in the winter (unless I get spiked tires), I still think it was a wise investment. Here is how long it takes to get from my apartment to the places I need to walking: Gym- 10 minutes, Weight Room- 15 minutes, Cafeteria- 15 minutes (These times are all estimated while walking at a decent pace). Not only does the bike save me time, it is also a lot easier than walking! 

Marina took me to the place where she got her used bike last year, and luckily they had one that fit my size and only cost 70 Euros. I considered this a good price since it still works and doesn't look half bad! The man did not speak any English, but was so cute and threw in a lock and tire pump for free! The bike does not have any gears so going uphill can sometimes be tiresome. Luckily there are no huge hills in Hameenlinna. Also, in order to brake, you must push the pedals backwards. I am used to having handle brakes, so this took a little while to get used to. It also came with a cute little bell to warn people to get out of my way! :)

Overall, I am very pleased with my newest purchase. I have used it everyday and it feels great to speed past all those walkers. (Although this is a little mean, it is so true!)

 My bike! Soon there will be a small basket on the front to hold grocery bags or other things!

Been here a week!

Hey guys! So, I have almost been in Finland for one week; one busy week! Here are some of the highlights of the past seven days:

• Had to change my flight leaving from Pittsburgh because the first flight was delayed into Newark, and I would have missed my connection to Amsterdam. Luckily, the nice people at Continental and United switched me to a flight to Chicago first and then to Amsterdam. Plus, they upgraded me to Economy Plus on the over ocean flight, so I got an extra 5 inches of legroom! Yay!
• Once I arrived in Hameenlinna, I watched a little bit of practice and then headed to my new apartment. One of the girls had already moved in, so I got to choose my bedroom from the two remaining. The apartment (as you will see in the video) is really big and very nice. Its about a five minute walk to Marina's apartment. We still need some stuff (biggest thing is a washing machine!), but have most everything we need.
• On Tuesday I started practicing. This is what my days will look like for the next three weeks of preseason:
• Monday: Weights (lower body) @ 9 am. Practice @ 10:30 (can be switched). Practice from 4-6:30. Running Intervals right after practice.
• Tuesday: Weights (upper body) @ 9 am. Practice @ 10:30 (can be switched). Practice from 4-6:30. Spinning class right after practice for 1 hr. 
• Wednesday: Practice at either 9 or 10:30. Practice from 4-7.
• Thursday: Weights (lower body) @ 9 am. Practice @ 10:30 (can be switched). Practice from 4-6:30. Sand workout right after practice. 
• Friday: Weights (upper body) @ 9 am. Practice @ 10:30 (can be switched). Practice from 4-6:30. Running stadiums right after practice. 
• Saturday: 5k run on your own
• Sunday: Off
•  The rest of my time has been spent sleeping. For some reason it was really hard to adjust to the time difference this go around. I would sleep for sometimes 12 hours at night and take naps between practices. Plus, my stomach had been really bothering me since I got here and it would feel a lot better when I was laying or sitting. So, I would solve two problems with one solution: sleep (take care of the tired factor) while laying down (make my stomach feel better).  :)
• I finally got around to unpacking today. Usually I love organizing and putting stuff away (just ask my sister-in law Amanda), but for some reason, I was not into it at all! Anyways, it looks good now and I even have more room for new stuff!
• The weather here has been great. It feels like an American fall. Most days I'll either wear shorts and a long sleeve shirt or pants and a light top. However, it gets pretty cool in the morning and night. Don't think I needed as many warm-weather things as I brought! I guess I'll just bring them home at the Christmas break.

That's enough for now. I will leave you with a lovely tour of my apartment. Unfortunately, I did not have Layne's expertise on the camera (which allowed me to do only one take!), but you still get my witty commentary and a view of my new home for the next 9 months! Until next time...

Update!

Hi! Just wanted to give everyone a quick update about my situation for next season. I will be playing for a team in Finland (about an hour outside of Helsinki). I am leaving this Sunday and won't be back until Christmas! I am super excited to start playing again and can't wait to get settled in and meet all of my new teammates. Look for me to start posting regularly again! :)

Zagreb Post 4: Marina's family

Marina’s family was so welcoming the entire time I was there and always wanted us to come over for lunches. At one point her mom and grandmother were “fighting” over whose house we would go to for lunch (Lunch is the big meal of the day here instead of dinner like in the states). Everything we had to eat was delicious, and I think I gained like 10 pounds while I was here! They would keep asking me if I wanted more, and I would politely decline. A few minutes later, they would ask Marina if I wanted more again. I would decline again and this went on several more times before I said, “Okay.” This always made them very happy. In the end, we had lunch at her grandmother’s four times, at her parent’s 2 times plus coffee, and at her aunt and uncle’s once.  Plus we had a huge celebration for her cousin’s communion on day. Marina was like, “You need to come back more often!”  

I tried to get pictures with everyone. Most of them were taken on the day Marina’s little cousin got his first Communion so I am dressed up a little:

 Marina and I with her cousin Igor who just got his First Communion

 The whole crew that went to the communion minus Marina's cousin who was taking the picture

 Marina's baka (grandmother) and mom

 Marina's parents

 Marina's father and uncle

 Marina's aunt

 Cheering with Marina's grandmother and her homemade alcohol

 Marina's friends 

 Marina's other grandmother

Marina and her mom

Zagreb Post 3: Plitvice Lakes

Before coming to Zagreb, I had looked on the Internet to learn what I needed to see while there. Almost everyone said that you needed to make a side trip to Plitvice Lakes. When I told Marina about them, she said that we could go one day (they were about 1.5 hours away). Thursday was supposed to have good weather, so we picked then to go. We made some sandwiches for the trip and bought waters before we heading out so we would not have to pay the expensive prices for food while there. Although Thursday was supposed to be the best weather, it turned out to be pretty cold that day. The sun would peek through the clouds every once in a while and when it did, the weather was perfect. However, when it was hiding behind the clouds, we were all a little cold. Luckily, you are constantly walking through the park so we were able to stay warm that way.

The Plitvice Lakes are a preserved national park, and you can tell why when you begin walking through the park. There are so many little lakes that feed into each other through these beautiful waterfalls. They have constructed pathways throughout the whole park that allow you to walk right next to the waterfalls and over the lakes. There is also a small cave in the park. The water is so crystal clear that you can see all the way to the bottom. Despite it being chilly outside, we all wanted to jump in the water because it looked so pretty. However,  there is no swimming allowed in any of the lakes. During our tour, we walked around the paths, climbed to the top of a waterfall and took the boat to cross over one of the larger lakes. I took over 100 pictures, but here are some of the best (although the pictures are pretty, it was 10x prettier in person!):

 When we first entered the park

 View from above

 Getting closer to the water

 Little boat we took to cross to another part of park

 Just hanging around!

 My favorite picture of the visit

 Soooo pretty!!!!

Zagreb Post 2: Downtown Zagreb

We took two separate days to see all of downtown Zagreb. The first day Marina and I walked around the city while she tried to explain the buildings and statues we saw. However, she was not the best tour guide in the world. One time she told me to take a picture, and we would then ask her dad about it. Another time she said to google it when I got home! Some of the important things we saw on the first day were the Cathedral, St. Mark’s Church, the Stone Gate, and lots of little statues. While we were walking we got ice cream at one of the best ice cream shops in Zagreb and stopped at a café where Marina decided I needed to try coffee again. She ordered me a Nescafe Vanilla, and it was actually pretty good! It didn’t have a lot of coffee flavor which was good in my book. One of Marina’s friends, Sandra, met us at the café which was nice because Marina had talked about Sandra while we were at LSU. It was good to finally put a face to a name and meet someone who I had heard a lot about. She was really nice, and we ended up walking around the town a little more before heading home for the day.

 Statue outside the train station (The guy on the horse is very famous in Croatian history, but I cannot remember his name.)

 Park on the way to the center of Zagreb

 The Cathedral

 Inside the Cathedral (blurry again!!!)

 St. Mark's Church (I thought the tile roof was very impressive!)

 The Stone gate

A few days passed before we went back downtown. Marina wanted to go on Saturday morning to show me a popular open market called Dolac which is very crowded on Saturdays. This time Damir came with us. There was so much fresh food (fruits, vegetables, eggs, cheese, fish, and nuts) in the market as well as crafts and flowers. Everyone had these little carts that they were filling up with their goods. After breakfast from a nearby pekarna (bakery) and coffee, we walked to the other side of downtown to see the rest of the sights. Damir knew more about the city and was able to tell Marina who then translated it to me. We saw the National Theatre, the art museum, the largest museum called Mimara, and the botanical gardens. Although Zagreb is a big city, it has a small town feel in my opinion. We walked around some more before going to Marina’s house for lunch with her family. The weather matched a great day.

 Fresh flowers at Dolac

 Fresh fruits and vegetables at Dolac

 Handmade baskets and crafts at Dolac

 Fish market at Dolac

 National Theatre

 Mimara: the largest museum

 Botanical Gardens in downtown Zagreb

 Some of the prett flowers in the Botancial Gardens

Zagreb Post 1

After an adventurous trip to the Budva bus station with Nikola (We missed the bus to Dubrovnik in Budva because it left 5 minutes early, so we chased it to Kotor. Luckily it was still at the Kotor bus station, but I had to run to buy and ticket and rush onto the bus. And I forgot to mention that we think we had to outrun the police at one point. Nikola thinks they got stuck behind another car and gave up on the pursuit!) and making an earlier connection in Dubrovnik, I arrived in Zagreb at 5:30 am. The buses were actually very nice and made frequent stops for the passengers to get off to use the restroom or get something to eat. However, I never got off the bus because I was afraid I understood the driver wrong about how long we were staying at the stop, and that the bus would leave without me (After traveling on both buses and trains in the past couple of weeks, I think I prefer to travel by bus. Maybe I was just so tired of trains, but the bus seemed easier and faster.). 

Marina and her boyfriend Damir were both there waiting for me which was great to some familiar faces and get off the bus after almost 17 hours of traveling. We went back to the apartment we were going to be staying in for the next week or so. Damir had to go home to help his mother with something, so Marina and I were alone in the apartment. Although it was only 6 am and neither of us got much sleep the previous night, we couldn’t go back to sleep because there was so much to catch up on. I gave her the Swedish fish I had been saving from Layne’s parents which we ate while we chatted. 

That afternoon we were going over to her grandmother’s apartment so I could meet her mom’s side of the family. After being on the bus for so long and wanting to make a good impression on her family, I decided it was probably a good idea to take a shower. We all got ready and headed over. When we got to the apartment, Marina’s aunt was on the balcony waving an American flag and a Croatian flag. It was pretty funny and her family was so welcoming. While at the apartment, I met Marina’s grandmother, aunt, uncle, mother, and little cousin. Her grandmother went all out with the meal and it was delicious (I would learn throughout the week really how good of a cook her grandmother was!). We ate, talked, and got to know one another before Marina, Damir, and I decided we needed to take a walk because we had ate so much. We walked through a very nice nearby park and stopped for coffee on the lake before picking up Marina’s mom and heading home. With a full belly and my lack of sleep catching up with me, I headed to sleep around 9 happy to be in Zagreb and see Marina after almost a year!