We are 2-0

Hey Y’all,
First, the Volleytalk: We played two practice matches this week, one on tuesday and one on thursday. We lost our tuesday match and won our thursday match. These matches are not traditional matches in that we usually just play for time and everyone on the team will get to play. The tuesday match was pretty messy. The team we played was a lower level Slovenian team who we should have crushed. I think we let them dictate the level of play and just sort of lost focus. The wednesday match went much better. We played one of the top teams in Slovenia and won every set we played. I played in the fourth set and was happy with my overall performance. The team seemed much more fired up and we gave a solid effort throughout the whole match. This weekend we are playing a team outside of Vienna that lost last weekend. I believe we are favored to win but in volleyball anything can happen so we will see. In the last official match I was ineligible to play because my paperwork was not done yet. My paperwork is still incomplete so I don’t really know what will be the story for this weekend. Hopefully everything is taken care of and I will be able to contribute to another win! On a personal note, getting back into setting has been challenging. I enjoy setting but it will take a while before I feel 100% confident. Right now I am just trying to focus on being as aggressive as possible while not worrying about every individual set. I have 8 months of volleyball left and I don’t want to get to anxious about the little things just yet. I am also hoping that I continue to work out hard and get into the best possible physical shape.

Non-volleytalk:
So I have talked a lot about volleyball and to switch things up a little I thought I would talk about what I do other than volleyball all the other hours of the week. Well for the next couple of weeks I am living in a Youth Hostel until my apartment is ready. Too be honest I was a little disappointed that they couldn’t find anything better. The hostel is nice but there is no kitchen and randomly other people will be staying in the same room as me. It’s not exactly homey. I’ll post a picture when I can, but its pretty much just 3 twin bunk beds with a shared bathroom. Since I will be in there for four more weeks I moved all my stuff into drawers and got as settled as possible. I stole a drip coffee maker from Jake Schud’s apartment so I could make tea and coffee. I also went to the supermarket and bought cold cereal and peanut butter and jelly. So I pretty much got all the essentials taken care of. I’m thinking of buying some posters or something to give the room a less prison feel. Needless to say, it will be a nice improvement when I get to move into my apartment.
Well other than volleyball or working out I think that lately I have just been watching a lot of movies, and doing a lot reading. It’s nice having other Americans around because we can relate to each other and help each other out. When the weather is nice the geography here is absolutely beautiful. I am super excited for my girlfriend, Heidi, to come out. She has booked a flight for November 4th into Klagenfurt International. I haven’t seen her for about 2 months which is the longest that I haven’t seen her. It has been a lot of fun roaming around Europe but I am very happy she will be joining me. Anyways, I hope everyone is well.
Adam