Today I played in a tournament in which Blankenese is the host site. I am playing in the Women's Division, kinda like the open division back home. There are also 12's, 14's, and 16's (no 18's, they grow up faster here and are herded into the adult divison). The club has it's own restaurant that is a separate building in itself but it is joined to three indoor carpet courts. Most people sit outside to eat and enjoy the courtside view and today I went in the restuarant, Da Giovanni (?) and looked at the last court. The lights were off but sunlight shone through windows. I saw tons of tennis bags and people just sitting and some walking around and my first thoughts were accurate: some groups of kids bring sleeping bags and pillows to sleep on the court to save travel $. I don't think we'd find that in America...It is a good idea since we are in an expensive location. (The girls said the hotels were pricey around here.)
My first match was at 10:00 and honestly I was a little nervous. She was a 31 year old German woman that actually teaches here at this club. The first match jitters just don't go away no matter where I am or what is one the line. After her first groundstroke, a forehand, in the warm-up I knew I could handle her. Although I lost the first game I won 6-2, 6-1. I moved her around a lot and practiced all my shots: lobs, volleys, dropshots, slices, high top spin...It was really fun! My next match was scheduled for 4:00 but I decided to stay at the courts all day and munch on my pbj while I watched Johanna (the 15 year old sister) with Mrs. Spincke. Mrs. Spincke is such a hoot. I can't really describe her but she is always laughing, saying her opinion, telling someone what to do, stirring up something good in the kitchen or practicing her English with me. She is light hearted and tonight at a party (I saved this as a draft and have now returned) I passed her on the way to go to the bathroom and she just laughs and says, "Cook-ooo!' like I am crazy or something! haha We have a lot of fun and she has made me feel incredibly at home.
I continued to wait around, watching some matches and just enjoying the beautiful weather of prob about 75 degrees. The time quickly passed and I was playing this girl that I had noticed all day because she has, "the look." She walks really confidently and has a strong presence. Well, I tried to strut out to the court with her and I guess I did a good job of showing my stuff too because I won the first set 6-3. Halmuth (Claudia's father) and her mother were up on this balcony thing watching and that really helped. I guess I am pretty vain to play better when people are watching...oh well, it worked! After my first set finished she took a bathroom break and Claudia was warming up right next to me to start her match. Inni (the Russian girl I was playing) pretty much just walked over me in the second set, 6-1. I remember getting frustrated because my accuracy was so inconsistent and just kinda stupid. I was making dumb mistakes and getting pushed around like the runt in a puppy litter. After that episode, I took the bathroom break to redo my hair and marched out to the court. About 20 minutes later I was down 4-1, then 5-2 and was really upset with myself although noone knew expect my head. I was serving on the good side where the sun wasn't right in the ball toss path and was down 0-40. (OK, I am almost positive it was 0-40, it was atleast 0-30 but the other way makes a better story.) Somehow I scraped that first match point out of the way, then the second, then the third and was content when it got back to deuce. Yay! I was back in the game! Then I won the game, broke to make it 4-5, held serve again and should have been up 6-5 but she held. We switched sides again and I remember finishing my water bottle (they don't drink the tap here) but then I was like, 'Well, next time I sit down it'll be over anyway!' I pushed her to a tiebreak and at that point I was pretty sure I was going to take her since I had a lot more momentum. I got off to a good start in the tiebreak and won 6-2! Yippee kai yai yay!
There was actually a good crowd because they put the adult divisions on the center court right outside the restaurant and under the balcony thing and I had the Spincke's cheering for me and this really sweet lady who only speaks German so we just smile at each other, and then smile again, and then nod, then tilt our heads at one another, and then wave. She organizes our team stuff for the season. She was clapping for me, too. The atmosphere seemed sorta sophisticated because they recognized good points and only clapped and cheered on key moments. There were probably about 100 people or so watching total and it made for a very unique memory for me. A lot of the kids just hang around at the tournament site and were sitting along the ledge next to the other side of the court. As my mom would say, "Small town America" meaning the kids are just outside and content and love tennis. Anyways, I really wish I had some of it on camera but I will take a pic tomorrow so you can understand. I am trying to upload pics to my blog but of course the computer stuff is in German so I don't have a prayer. Oh yea, the iceing on the cake! The girl I played was the number 2 seed and I didn't know that until after the match. The burnt part of the cake is that I play Claudia tomorrow in the quarters. Oh well, that's part of it. We don't play 'til 1:00 so we are going to church in the morning beforehand.
I was really excited to have this win. I can't remember my last win over a good player in a hard three set match. It is a very good feeling.
I am tired. Much Love! And if you read this on Sunday, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, Mama!!!!!!!!!! and Amy! and Grandma! and Rhonda! and soon Emily!
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Sunday, May 5th
Hello!
Yesterday morning we left for the festival, Cristival, in Brenem. Our hour long trip took us along the autobahn before we landed in some huge parking lot among thousands of other Christians about our age. What we thought was a free event ended up being €35 each, but it was money well spent. We started out by going through a large warehouse type room that had a couple hundred exhibits set up from different international and national Christian organizations. I knew that YoungLife was international and in Germany, so I was on the prowl from the beginning to find their booth. Now let me back up...when I was in Dallas about a month ago, I stayed with a family who is very active in their local YL. All three of their kids participated and worked in YL and now this couple still goes to camp and attends club weekly. Their son is planning on coming to Germany this fall to work with YL here for 3 yrs! One of their good friends (from Dallas) now is very active in the German YL as well and I saw his family pic on their fridge...anyways, because of this distant connection I thought I may be able to stike up a convo if I found them. Well, at last! There was the YL booth. It was pretty simple and I started looking at the pamphlets and stuff when a guy named Michael introduced himself to me as the rep. I told him I was interested in finding them since my boyfriend volunteered for several years in college and did all the stuff in high school as well. Then out of the blue, to make myself seem somewhat knowledgeable about them and like I was on the incrowd I said, 'Hey, do you know Dave Martin?' (the man on the fridge of the Dallas family) He goes, 'Yea! That's my boss.' Sweet, huh? Then after Michael told Claudia where he was from, she asked him if he happened to know one of her distant relatives (her brother-in-law's cousin) and he said, 'Yea, he's my roommate.' A few minutes later the roommate-distant relative showed up. It's a small world after all...
Most of the day is a blur to me right now. So much was in German and the group I was with primarily spoke in German. They are very nice and ask me questions and stuff but I know it slows them down to not speak their native tongue. I did go to an English speaking event by myself for 2 hours that I thoroughly enjoyed. If you know me well you will know that I was fine being by myself, so don't think, 'Awww...she was alone.' They had 3 different individuals or couples speak on what they do for missions whether it is in their backyard or across the globe. A young couple from the UK said they spent a year in the Phillippines doing mission work before they started their careers and found several thousand inprisioned children due to petty crimes. With their legal background they were able to help free one young boy who was in jail for sniffing glue. It is obviously a very sad situation but they are still trying to free more.
After that we ended up staying for the Matt Redmond concert even though we hadn't planned on it. After an exhausting day we left and I got in my bed at bout 2:00am. We knew we would be too tired to make it to church today so I slept 'til 11 and got up for a minute and woke up again at 1:30! I don't know what my deal is because I am always tired. But here I go again at 11:45 when I should be in bed. One thing is that if I want to talk to anyone back home I have to stay up and another thing is that I think I relax more away from my daily routine. When I am at my aunt's and uncle's lakehouse in GA, I melt into a blob, and the same thing when I go to Kent's family's house.
TODAY:
We had a BBQ at their home today with all 6 of their children. How cool! The oldest 4 all have are either married or dating and they brought them along, too. The only boy (and the oldest sibling) had his two adorable kids...I don't know who to spell the 2.5 year old girl's name...Carlotta Bella maybe. The 7 month old son's name is Kjeel, pronounced like the ending part of Ezekiel. From 1-8 the house was full and we all ate together outside in the beautiful sun on their new front porch. After the meal we played this give called Wikingspiel or something close to it. It took 2 hours! It's a little like horseshoes, but with no horseshoes...haha, you basically throw wooden blocks and try to hit the other team's. It was very fun but took a while for my team to win! (I was no help to my team...Mr. Spincke takes MVP.) Claudia went on to church and her older sister offered to take me to see the Elbe which is a very big river that goes through Hamburg. It was just amazing. I videotaped a lot, hoping to be able to show everyone the extremely steep and never ending narrow stairs we went down to get along the riverside. Bikers, couples, rollerbladers, walkers, people dining were all around although it was not a busy atmosphere. The property of these homes and apartments must be out the roof! We saw the sun go down and continued our walk back up and went a different route. This time we went up a street called Wereveg (I totally butchered that) that is famous because it is an extremely steep incline and is in a famous bike race in Hamburg. I felt the burn just from walking it!
Well, that is my day. It was fun. How was yours? I love email so please send me something that is going on with you. A day without an email is kind of like a day without food...chew on that. Hahahahha
Yesterday morning we left for the festival, Cristival, in Brenem. Our hour long trip took us along the autobahn before we landed in some huge parking lot among thousands of other Christians about our age. What we thought was a free event ended up being €35 each, but it was money well spent. We started out by going through a large warehouse type room that had a couple hundred exhibits set up from different international and national Christian organizations. I knew that YoungLife was international and in Germany, so I was on the prowl from the beginning to find their booth. Now let me back up...when I was in Dallas about a month ago, I stayed with a family who is very active in their local YL. All three of their kids participated and worked in YL and now this couple still goes to camp and attends club weekly. Their son is planning on coming to Germany this fall to work with YL here for 3 yrs! One of their good friends (from Dallas) now is very active in the German YL as well and I saw his family pic on their fridge...anyways, because of this distant connection I thought I may be able to stike up a convo if I found them. Well, at last! There was the YL booth. It was pretty simple and I started looking at the pamphlets and stuff when a guy named Michael introduced himself to me as the rep. I told him I was interested in finding them since my boyfriend volunteered for several years in college and did all the stuff in high school as well. Then out of the blue, to make myself seem somewhat knowledgeable about them and like I was on the incrowd I said, 'Hey, do you know Dave Martin?' (the man on the fridge of the Dallas family) He goes, 'Yea! That's my boss.' Sweet, huh? Then after Michael told Claudia where he was from, she asked him if he happened to know one of her distant relatives (her brother-in-law's cousin) and he said, 'Yea, he's my roommate.' A few minutes later the roommate-distant relative showed up. It's a small world after all...
Most of the day is a blur to me right now. So much was in German and the group I was with primarily spoke in German. They are very nice and ask me questions and stuff but I know it slows them down to not speak their native tongue. I did go to an English speaking event by myself for 2 hours that I thoroughly enjoyed. If you know me well you will know that I was fine being by myself, so don't think, 'Awww...she was alone.' They had 3 different individuals or couples speak on what they do for missions whether it is in their backyard or across the globe. A young couple from the UK said they spent a year in the Phillippines doing mission work before they started their careers and found several thousand inprisioned children due to petty crimes. With their legal background they were able to help free one young boy who was in jail for sniffing glue. It is obviously a very sad situation but they are still trying to free more.
After that we ended up staying for the Matt Redmond concert even though we hadn't planned on it. After an exhausting day we left and I got in my bed at bout 2:00am. We knew we would be too tired to make it to church today so I slept 'til 11 and got up for a minute and woke up again at 1:30! I don't know what my deal is because I am always tired. But here I go again at 11:45 when I should be in bed. One thing is that if I want to talk to anyone back home I have to stay up and another thing is that I think I relax more away from my daily routine. When I am at my aunt's and uncle's lakehouse in GA, I melt into a blob, and the same thing when I go to Kent's family's house.
TODAY:
We had a BBQ at their home today with all 6 of their children. How cool! The oldest 4 all have are either married or dating and they brought them along, too. The only boy (and the oldest sibling) had his two adorable kids...I don't know who to spell the 2.5 year old girl's name...Carlotta Bella maybe. The 7 month old son's name is Kjeel, pronounced like the ending part of Ezekiel. From 1-8 the house was full and we all ate together outside in the beautiful sun on their new front porch. After the meal we played this give called Wikingspiel or something close to it. It took 2 hours! It's a little like horseshoes, but with no horseshoes...haha, you basically throw wooden blocks and try to hit the other team's. It was very fun but took a while for my team to win! (I was no help to my team...Mr. Spincke takes MVP.) Claudia went on to church and her older sister offered to take me to see the Elbe which is a very big river that goes through Hamburg. It was just amazing. I videotaped a lot, hoping to be able to show everyone the extremely steep and never ending narrow stairs we went down to get along the riverside. Bikers, couples, rollerbladers, walkers, people dining were all around although it was not a busy atmosphere. The property of these homes and apartments must be out the roof! We saw the sun go down and continued our walk back up and went a different route. This time we went up a street called Wereveg (I totally butchered that) that is famous because it is an extremely steep incline and is in a famous bike race in Hamburg. I felt the burn just from walking it!
Well, that is my day. It was fun. How was yours? I love email so please send me something that is going on with you. A day without an email is kind of like a day without food...chew on that. Hahahahha
Friday, May 2, 2008
Germany Blog Entry 2
It's that time again. Sometimes I really don't feel like writing a blog and when I told this to EJ through gchat she completely understood and told me to wait until I feel like it. I don't completely feel like it right now but if I don't write now then my news will be old, lost and never told.
So with that being said, yesterday on May 1 I played in my first club match for Blankenese. I realize I misspelled that in the last entry. We showed up for the match at about 8:20 and I (playing number 2) and number 4 and number 6 played our singles match at 9:00. I dominated my opponent 6-0, 6-0 and really enjoyed dropshotting her even though I kind of felt bad. Oh well, not bad enough to stop! She, along with most Germany girl, toss the ball like 10-15 feet in the air. I just kind of stand there and wait until it is freefalling back into her racquet to really get ready. She really was very bad and should have played like 6 for them, Claudia didn't understand why she played 2 either. Oh well, a win for me and my first match on the clay finished. After my match I watched the other girls finish their matches and THEN the next three went on...It is part of their system to have long and drawn out matches. They had extra courts but it's just what they do so I don't even ask. At the end of the singles matches the match score was tied 3-3, so we had to win 2 out of the 3 doubles matches for a team victory. Considering Claudia had told me that we should easily dispose of this team we all knew it would be bad to lose to them, esp. with the first match of 'the season.' (the season is beg. of May to end of June) Claudia and I won our dbs and our number 3 team won as well which meant we pulled out a victory! Yay!
After that I was really tired from spending an entire afternoon at the courts to play about 1.5 hrs of so of tennis. It was, however, an absolutely beautiful day of sunshine and cool fresh air so I couldn't complain about being outside. After the match Claudi and I scampered inside to take a shower and she remarked that we were the first ones is...a good thing. I took my clothes, towels, etc. into the shower area and my eyes bugged out when I saw my fear was a reality: community showers. I asked Claudia about this and she said, 'We are all God's creation...' and I was thinking, 'Yea, guys take showers together but not girls where I come from!' Anyway, I took a shower as fast as possible and couldn't believe that the team we had just beated was in our 'locker room' talking to my team...This thing is very social. After all this, we went upstairs to the restaurant at the club and had a meal. Once again, our opponents joined us and everyone pretty much spoke German to eachother except when Claudia announced that I wasn't used to taking showers in the vicinity of other girls. We had a great dinner but I really wished I could have used my phone to text people or something because I just couldn't understand a thing. I wonder how long it would take me to pick up on a few words or phrases when they are speaking. Hmm...we'll see by the end of the month if there is any progress.
Tonight is Friday and tomorrow we are going to a city an hour north to some Christian convention. I am really excited about it. We are taking three other people from her church and will also be meeting up with her sister. They have workshops in English ( :) ) so that will be great. We will all be coming back tomorrow night.
Thanks!
So with that being said, yesterday on May 1 I played in my first club match for Blankenese. I realize I misspelled that in the last entry. We showed up for the match at about 8:20 and I (playing number 2) and number 4 and number 6 played our singles match at 9:00. I dominated my opponent 6-0, 6-0 and really enjoyed dropshotting her even though I kind of felt bad. Oh well, not bad enough to stop! She, along with most Germany girl, toss the ball like 10-15 feet in the air. I just kind of stand there and wait until it is freefalling back into her racquet to really get ready. She really was very bad and should have played like 6 for them, Claudia didn't understand why she played 2 either. Oh well, a win for me and my first match on the clay finished. After my match I watched the other girls finish their matches and THEN the next three went on...It is part of their system to have long and drawn out matches. They had extra courts but it's just what they do so I don't even ask. At the end of the singles matches the match score was tied 3-3, so we had to win 2 out of the 3 doubles matches for a team victory. Considering Claudia had told me that we should easily dispose of this team we all knew it would be bad to lose to them, esp. with the first match of 'the season.' (the season is beg. of May to end of June) Claudia and I won our dbs and our number 3 team won as well which meant we pulled out a victory! Yay!
After that I was really tired from spending an entire afternoon at the courts to play about 1.5 hrs of so of tennis. It was, however, an absolutely beautiful day of sunshine and cool fresh air so I couldn't complain about being outside. After the match Claudi and I scampered inside to take a shower and she remarked that we were the first ones is...a good thing. I took my clothes, towels, etc. into the shower area and my eyes bugged out when I saw my fear was a reality: community showers. I asked Claudia about this and she said, 'We are all God's creation...' and I was thinking, 'Yea, guys take showers together but not girls where I come from!' Anyway, I took a shower as fast as possible and couldn't believe that the team we had just beated was in our 'locker room' talking to my team...This thing is very social. After all this, we went upstairs to the restaurant at the club and had a meal. Once again, our opponents joined us and everyone pretty much spoke German to eachother except when Claudia announced that I wasn't used to taking showers in the vicinity of other girls. We had a great dinner but I really wished I could have used my phone to text people or something because I just couldn't understand a thing. I wonder how long it would take me to pick up on a few words or phrases when they are speaking. Hmm...we'll see by the end of the month if there is any progress.
Tonight is Friday and tomorrow we are going to a city an hour north to some Christian convention. I am really excited about it. We are taking three other people from her church and will also be meeting up with her sister. They have workshops in English ( :) ) so that will be great. We will all be coming back tomorrow night.
Thanks!
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