sandwich with the usual amount of lettuce

morning.
6:45 am over here. i went straight to bed after getting off the bus anoche. i was beat. we ended up playing the best team in begium last night at there facility in maaseik. it was an entire sports arena about a year old built just for volleyball. they had vip box seats with a bar. brand new workout facility and even a 10 lane bowling alley. all for the volleyball team. they play in the champions league and had several national team players. we only played their starting setter, middle, liber, and opposite. the outsides were reserves. we were up 18 16 in the first game and then just couldn't keep it together. we slipped and had some heady meltdowns with a few players and the belgians just didn't make mistakes. i'm still a little suprised that we kept it interesting for the most part. they weren't looking to sign anyone and i'm not sure if there were any scouts watching the match. at least i haven't heard about anyone getting interest. i played well. had some big blocks, but couldn't beat the setter at all. he was one of the best in europe so i don't feel too disappointed. i'm hoping someone is watching when we play the junior national team tonight. our coach says i'd be a really strong middle in sweeden, but the money isn't exacly what i'm looking for. everyone talks about the recession affecting contracts this year. so for first year guys it's really tough. i have two opportunities to play so far. on saturday i'm going to consider heading down to austria to see what it's all about. the two a days are good, but come game time it's impossible to be fresh. i'm hoping there will be some coaches watching tonight. i still like my chances. i know i'm in the best shape here and play way more than everyone else. so i'm getting my chances. we'll see how these next couple days play out.

evian yourself every day.

hey all. its around 9:37 give or take a few minutes. we are having our morning practice a little later than usual today. the two-a-days are a grind on everyone and our coaches told us to all go out for some entertainment last night. it was pitchers and bike wrecks all night. i came back early cause i really needed a good sleep, but there are some serious zombies walking around at breakfast. our head coach is an assistant on the swedish national team and has a millitary background. i'm thinking he'll be a pissed about the condition of some of the guys here. good times. we ended up playing two teams against the first divison belian team we scimmaged last night. i won both games i played and so that was good. no upper level scouts last night. second division holland and 2nd division belgium. a good day to be sore i suppose. i feel a lot better and we are sending our best guys to play another top team from the belgian team tonight. the roster hasn't been announced, but i like my chances. friday we play the dutch junior national team so that will be some good exposure. all and all not a ton of free time. about 5 hours of solid ball everyday and some meals in between. i'll get back on either tonight or after lunch, but that's all for now.
take care. and thanks for reading

bump yo ride with these foo.

hey. just after 6 a.m. here. i couldn't sleep anymore so i'm the first one up today. maybe it's the glutamine i'm taking. not sure. i'm gonna go and try to find a gym. i feel pretty good today and just want to work out some of the stiffness i have in my shoulder.
quick update for those keeping score. about 1/3 of the players are from canada. one asian. and two brothers who obviously jump the highest. and a guy from odgen utah who plays the balding 26 year old mormon well. so my expectations have been met as far as what cultures play volleyball. i'm gonna do some exploring right now and kinda get a feel for the neighborhood if i can't find the gym. i'll try and post again tonight.

i miss some of you. others not so much.

zet mens lopen

sorry for the delay. just got done with my first day. ummm. long flight not lots of sleep, but glad to be here. i've been running on adrenaline all day and haven't really felt much fatigue. it's about 1020 right now and the internet is sketchy at the hostel we are staying at. ya a hostel... it's in a sports park and just outside of eindhoven in a place called stayokay. it's ok. the biggest surprise is there is only one other person trying out at middle. i thought i'd be short to play middle, but that's my best position. so i'm fortunate about that. there are like 25 guys trying out for opp and outside positions. i missed practice this morning and arrived at the hostel just after lunch. slept for about 2 hours then went to the evening trainings. it went well and there are some decent players trying out. i already got an offer to play in austria for a club located on the border with italy. austria is a second tier league. comparable to belgium and spain. better than scandanavia and eastern block, but not as good as greece or italy. so i'm excited to have an offer so soon. normally i'd leave to austria tonight to tryout with the club tomorrow, but since i'm a valuable position the agency is making me stay till the end to run practices with full teams and not just a bunch of outsides playing all the positions. i'm glad too, it'll give me more chances to talk to other coaches and see what else is out there. so ya day one is done and i'll write again tomorrow. it looks like we will be scrimmaging a local dutch team tomorrow evening so that will be fun. alright kids. hope that was an ok entry. i hope to have more time tomorrow to write.

nighters

better looking than the next generation

so i'm gonna be holland this week through the 27 trying out to play volleyball over there. if someone likes my moves then they might pay me to do some more moves in a shirt with their name on it. thats the plan and basically how pro sports work. i'm lucky because i'm decent at a sport that black or athletic people don't play, so to be at a professional level in my sport is kind of misleading. let the record show that it probably seems like a bigger deal than it really is. from what i can tell volleyball is played by cultures of nerdy whites. a few examples of volleyball friendly cultures: mormons like volleyball, though wrestling is their clear preference(D & C 72: whatever...). canadians like volleyball. fair enough. homosexuals also like volleyball. you have to be really nerdy to want to ___ of another man. pun intended. asians like volleyball. and since asians typically hate math and technology they don't really qualify as a nerdy culture, but 75% isn't bad, and i think i still have a strong theory.

so ya, i'm gonna be competing with about 30 people to try and play overseas this winter. i'm going to say with full confidence that there will be representatives from each of said groups. i'll keep you updated when i meet them in two days with posted results.

my packing is going well. i'm going with north face bag and SDCC gym bag as my two luggage draft picks. it's hard leaving suitcase and internal frame pack because this is an international trip, but overall i like my choices. also i have my passport. a few recent trips to mexico put that statement into perspective.

lots to say, but i need to be up in about 4 hours to start this thing. i'll have plenty of percocet and a small pad of paper lent to me and a pen i found on my own, so i'll be able to write throughout the days and transcribe to the cold cold b as the opportunities arise.

August 18-21, Training and Matches in Eindhoven, NL
August 21-26, Training and Matches in Amsterdam, NL

good night.

raptor bacon

hi.

i'm brett and this is my heart...

so ya, this should be my blog for the week i'm over in the netherlands. not sure how my updates will turn out. maybe it'll be informative, maybe an outlet for my shit jokes, maybe it'll be what the detectives read to find out about the last days before my bloated corpse turned up in the mighty amstel river. i'm just gonna let it develop itself free form.