First Match in Budapest: BRSE v. UTE

Our travels started 26 minutes behind schedule, as Barbi had a final exam that started at 10:00am. As we loaded the bus waiting for her to finish, I whipped out my English-Hungarian phrase book and introduced the team to my terrible American pronunciations of their language. After a few laughs, Barbi ran by the gym towards the hostel to get her game day gear. I would sit in the front of the bus, next to Toncsi for the ride into Budapest. Zsoka informed me that, as this is my first match, afterwards I have to buy her a drink. When I asked if it was just a round for her, or if the whole team would need one, the girls all instantly perked up, only to get knocked down by Tibi saying "no, they want an American cake". Guess I'll have to import funfetti cake mix. As the drive began, Attila put in what appeared to be the South Africa World Cup CD, playing it on the loudspeaker; we all put in our headphones. The drive would take about 3.5 hours. Due to traffic we arrived around 3:00pm. Everyone began to get antsy aboard the bus, eager to start the match. Attila told us that, if we win tonight, he will buy some beer for on the ride home. How's that for incentive?

Pregame in the locker room consisted of Red Bull, grape sugar, and some crunk mix playlist, as per team request. When I was offered the chance to pick our jersey color for the match, I opted out by asking around which one those present in the locker room preferred. The white jersey + black spandex combo won in a unanimous decision. We were all getting focused for the match. Attila gave us a pep talk, and we headed out to play.

The first set, we fell short due to inconsistent passing and high amount of errors, losing 18-25. The second set was much tighter, with both teams serving aggressively; we would clench the victory 27-25 on my ace in the deep corner of zone one. Thanks, Jeffy :) We took control of set 3 early on, allowing the other team to score only 11 points total. We were on a high going into the 4th set, shaking off the few errors we made. With a 22-14 lead, we began to be overly confident, shown in our many hitting errors. The other team was making a comeback and we could not manage to side out, getting blocked at every attack. The game would eventually be lost 24-26. The 5th and final set, we had the advantage 8-6 at the switch. Back and forth, we chipped at the score, finding ourselves in the lead at 13-12. Unfortunately our youth would fail us against this much more experienced team, as they claimed the victory 14-16.

Overall, our team showed moments of greatness, however the lack of consistent mental toughness was highly evident across the players. Hopefully Sunday we will be able to come out on top, proving ourselves at our first home match of the year.

Not-So-Official Official Rules of Handball

Preface: After attending a local women's handball match, it was brought to my attention that my sports knowledge is not as well-rounded as I had thought. As an American, I have limited exposure to sports occurring outside of my country, and therefore at a disadvantage. Luckily for me, I am a relatively quick-learner, so within a short amount of time, I was able to figure out the rules of the game. After receiving the seal of approval from Adam--the papers were just sent out to get stamped--it is my pleasure to share with everyone (all two people who actually read this blog) the Not-So-Official Official Rules of Handball. (Note: the Rules are in order of my observations, not according to importance)

1. No kicking of the ball with your feet, unless you are the goalkeeper
2. When attempting to shoot at the goal, you must be behind what looks like a 3-point line in basketball
3. Goals are worth one point
4. If you bear hug another player who is in possession of the ball, the play is dead, indicated by a referee waving his arms and blowing a whistle
5. You are allowed to turn a bear hug into an MMA style choke out
6. There are 6 players from each team on the court, plus one goalkeeper each
7. Substitutions are made similar to hockey change-ups, where you just run in from the sideline
8. Stripping someone of their jersey is allowed (Note: tops only, pantsing someone is frowned upon as just plain dirty)
9. Body checking, shoving, and tripping other players is allowed, but only as individual actions. If any are combined, you get carded
10. Carding results in a one-on-one game of "dodgeball" where the fouled player gets a chance to pelt the ball as hard as they can at the goalkeeper from behind a small line on the court
11. Never, under any circumstances, can you hair pull. That's a bitch move and will get you beaten up
12. Constant shoving and poking of the player you are guarding is strongly advised, as the pure annoyance is enough to make them lose mental focus
13. There are two 30-minute rounds, in which time counts up, stopping only during 50-second timeouts

The combination of basketball, soccer, wrestling, and football found in this sport is enough to spark the interest of any sport-fanatic. I truly hope that the rules outlined above provide insight in what is sure to become the next-big-thing in the American sporting world.

Stay tuned for more exciting news...until then, szia!! (pronounced see-ya)

Röplabda, part one

My team, Békéscsabai Röplabda Sportegyesület, finally had our first scrimmage on January 7 and 8 against a team from Budapest. The teams were on a holiday break for the past 3 weeks, with no competitions, and would start back into matches the following week. On Friday, we won 3:0, playing a friendly fourth set to allow more play. Many people from the town came out to watch this scrimmage, as everyone was eagerly anticipating my introduction to the team and city as the new setter. Everything went very well for our team the first day, serve receive and defense, and we were able to be highly successful in our play. The girls and coaches all seemed optimistic about starting back into matches and everyone was able to leave the gym that evening with a smile.

That evening, Barbi (our libero), Niki (one of our outside hitters) and I decided we would hang out in Barbi's room and watch an American film, The Express. We made bundáskenyér,or french toast, and shared childhood stories, comparing cartoons and other TV shows from our youth. The night finally came to an end, and we all headed home to catch much needed rest before our scrimmage the next morning.

Saturday morning came much too early for our team. We arrived to the gym still half-asleep and unfocused for the morning's match. Our passing and all-around play was no where near the level from the night before. Attila was less than pleased with our performances, as we fell to the visiting team 0:3. We played two more friendly sets, and were victorious in only the 4th. It was definitely a humbling experience from our success the previous day, and showed that we have a lot of mental aspects that must be improved on in order to be successful. We would have Sunday off from training, and resume back on Monday to prepare for the first set of matches that weekend.

Hungarian 101

My Hungarian lessons began with Rita, one of the players on my team, with a little help from her husband Zoli.
Rita invited me to her home for New Years Eve day lunch, where we were entertained by her son Nandi. Her husband is obsessed with American sports, and almost died when I showed him pictures of me andthe UT volleyball team on the sidelines at the Bucs/Jags preseason game. I showed them both pictures of my university and the sights around Tampa. Lunch was really good, included lots of Hungarian dishes.

As the meal wound down, Rita and I grabbed out the Hungarian/English dictionary and my Hungarian phrase book and tried to piece together sentences to further communicate to one another. This led to my first, of what I assume will be many, Hungarian lesson.

After going over the alphabet, and stuttering over the many vowels, we decided to take on some actual words. She taught me to count to 10, the days of the week, and the months. Once we started going, she explained more about how to pronounce each letter as it is written, which made for a somewhat easier time. Occasionally Zoli would shout a correction from the other room, and we would burst into laughter. Their "c" is pronounced "ts", their "s" = "sh", "sz" = "s", "cs" = "ch"; so as you can see there is a lot of discrepancy between our alphabet and theirs, let alone a doubled amount of vowels.he words are spelled as phonetically American as possible, but was still difficult for some of their letters, as we don’t have that similar of sounds in the US.

What time is is? – ha’ny o’ra
Who? – ki
What? – mi
Where? – hol
When? – mikor
Why? – mie’rt
How much? – mennyi
Where is the toilet? – hol van a ved tse

My personal favorite:
I don’t understand – nem e’rtem

I speak English – Bese’lek angolul

Happy New Year - boldog eu yevet

Thank you – kosonom
Please – ke’rem
You’re welcome – si’ veshen

I'm off to a slow start, not sure I'll actually be able to retain all that much, but it's only been 5 days, so there is still plenty of time.

"Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.” - Benjamin Lee Whorf

And here we go, life's waiting to begin...

6:00 am came far too early, and with far too much instant adrenaline. Today was the official start to a new chapter in my life and, man, was I pumped. After loading up the Suburban and doing a final walk-through of my room at home, we began our 140-mile journey to the Orlando International Airport. Upon arriving, we saw that most of the group was already checked in, and ready to go through security. After an initial group photo, Kara, Chelsea, and I led the way, ensuring everyone made it through the pat-downs unharmed. We had quite some time until our flight to Boston would board, so we all scattered for our first forage for food. It’s important to note that you never know when you’ll eat again on these trips, so eat what you can, when you can. That said, Kendra and I decided to hit up the BK lounge for our final American meal. Many of our group sat around the help desk area to eat and rest from our drive before we would make our way over to our departure gate. “Flight delays…” I overheard someone say, and instantly knew this could mean trouble. We had to turn in our original boarding passes for the flight to Boston so we could try to get flights changed in order to not miss our connections. Boston was snowed in; there would be no air travel in or out of the city. Panic rushed through the girls like wildfire.



As travel experts, Kamryn and I did what any well-seasoned traveler would in such a crisis: eat. And take pictures. We finished off the remainder of Big’s salad while he worked on rebooking us through Miami. Miss Paula took the group downstairs to reclaim our luggage while Ceej and Big finished reticketing everyone. We had been rerouted onto an outbound flight from Miami into Rome that would depart at 4:45pm. It was already 12:30. The group was divided into three cars and began hauling it down the turnpike towards Miami. Big managed to get us to the airport safely in just over three hours. Oh hey, Mario Andretti.

My last day in America would have to wait until tomorrow, as poor weather up north forced me to miss my connecting flight out from Miami. The group checked in and began exchanging their US cash for Euros while I waited in line to change my ticket from departing Sunday to Monday. Big and I had just left the ticket counter when I remembered I needed to shortstop my ticket and baggage in Rome instead of continuing on to Catania. I got back in line to fix my ticket while the group began to head to security. A few family photos later, and it was time to bid my parents and sister farewell. I would not see them again until possibly May, if you don’t count the numerous Skype dates that will occur between then and now. The Delta ticket counter was less than helpful in attempting to shortstop my ticket in Rome, and sent me over to the Alitalia ticket counter, claiming it was their problem to handle. Alitalia was unable to help me and merely sent me back over to the Delta line. I called Big to explain the situation and he instructed me to stay at Alitalia and have them help me to the best of their abilities or walk me down to Delta to ensure that some changes are made. 20 minutes later, I still had made no progress. Big came back through security to assist me. About an hour and a half later, we had made two contacts via phone, and one at the ticket counter and finally: SUCCESS! My ticket would stop at Rome. Big left me again, and I left the airport to drive to my uncle’s house. Due to the utter chaos of my day, I was extremely scatterbrained and unable to follow the multiple sets of instructions he gave to me. Finally surrendering to the craziness of my day, I pulled over and waited for him to find me.

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins

And so it begins...

I got a call yesterday afternoon telling me that I have a contract offer to play with a team in Hungary. I will be the first American placed in Hungary that they know of, and the first time they have done anything with this team. Of course, I accepted...haha

So, I leave Dec 26, fly into Rome, say goodbye to my family (who is continuing on to Sicily) spend the day in Rome on Dec 27 and then fly that night into Budapest, Hungary and drive 2.5 hours to Bekescsaba (south east Hungary near the Romanian border). The team's name is Békéscsabai Röplabda Sportegyesület (BRSE - www.brse.hu). The site is all in Hungarian, so its nearly impossible to figure out. The team is in the first league in Hungary, finished 6th last year, trying to make it into the final 4 this year. My contract is from Jan 1-April 30, 2011.

In attempts to improve my Hungarian knowledge base, I researched the alphabet: 44 letters, 15 of them are vowels. Its really disheartening when I read that there are multiple letters that make the same sound. Why the redundancy, you may ask....God only knows, but I felt the need to provide some examples:

I, i - i as in machine
Í, í - i as in machine
Ü, ü - i as in machine (with lips protruded as if to whistle)

E, e - e as in set
Ö, ö - e as in let (with lips protruded as if to whistle)

J, j - y as in yes
Ly, ly - y as in yes (l is silent)

So, yeah that's all I've got so far, but pretty exciting...there will be many more posts coming up.

Bicycles and Black Death (part two)



Sara picked me up from Nina's around 10 and we headed to her dorm in 
Ljubljana. After picking up Eva, Hana's sister, we were on our way, eager to 
begin another adventure in the capital city. Her dorm is very nice, 
built in 2006. She shares a room with Tine who is studying to be a 
pediatrician. They share a bathroom and kitchen with Sara's boyfriend, 
Matjaj, his roommate Marko. We had a cappuccino and talked about 
religion, science, relationships. Finally Hana called to say she was 
done with her exam and ready to meet in the city for the adventure.
 We took the bikes and headed off into downtown. Sara came prepared 
with a plan, aka "cheat sheet" with information about historical sights 
from around the city. There is a famous architect (Plečnik) 
responsible for most buildings in LJ, a famous poet (Prešern) who 
points to his secret lover Julija. The tripod (Mikie, Julie, and myself) is well represented by 
the triple bridge called Tromostovje. 
I bought postcards for the gang from the city. Hopefully they will get 
them before I am home.




We headed up this killer mountain to see the Ljubljana Castle; and 
pushed our bikes the whole way. Once to the top we took a quick moment 
to lock the bikes and then head into the castle, where we were first 
greeted by the LJ symbol: a dragon. 
Hana pointed out a sign that we knew deserved a picture. Trouble 
followed: in an attempt to hand me my camera after documenting this 
sign, hana and I fumbled the pass as the camera string was stuck on 
her finger. It was slow motion as we watched my new birthday camera 
plunge towards it doom, crashing into the stairs below. "it's ok no 
worries" was a slight understatement. The Nikon screen flashed "lens 
error!" and made a horrible beeping noise. It was over for my camera. 
DOA.
Luckily I have a warranty....
Now that we have no way of visually remembering my time with the girls 
in LJ, my writing must step up it's game.

After the now somber adventure in the castle, we headed to Eva's for a 
drink and then to the student center so they could get their meal 
coupons (similar to meal exchanges) so we could enjoy a pizza before 
the BBQ tonight. It must have appeared that we were poor starving 
college students (which isn't too far from the truth) as we all shared 
one bowl of soup and one pizza; each with our own juice only costing 
€.80.
 We rode back to drop off Hana's borrowed bike before stopping at 
Merkator to buy some essentials for the nights festivities. We picked 
up three 1.5L sangria, and one bottle of Puschkin Black Sun (a 
favorite from my trip here two years ago).

Finally we made it to Saras dorm where we were greeted by her roommate 
Tine, and suitemates Matjaj (boyfriend) and Marko. Marko's 
girlfriend/Sara's best friend Katja and Sara's brother Nil also 
joined. We immediately poured glasses of sangria; we had no juice and 
were thirsty from biking all around town, and the BBQ began: A feast of 
potatoes, grilled veggies, čivipčiči, chicken wings with special 
sauce made by Matjaj.

Questions were rapidly fired in my direction by everyone about foods 
and life in America. Topics included: macaroni and cheese (introduced 
to Matjaj by Sara after her visit to FL), grilled cheese (not similar 
to their toast, even though they think so), pb&j, s'mores (Tine has 
had this so I had some help explaining). After every answer and 
description Katja said "wow you are like watching a movie, so very 
American!" to which I reminded her that I was born and raised red 
white and blue.
 The sangria began to dissipate and we began drinking black sun. Asher 
Roth made a grand appearance, and after listening to "I love college" 
I was asked to explain many ideas from his lyrics. 
Matjaj made me say the pledge, to which three cell phones were pulled 
out and recorded my every English word. I was asked to follow this up 
with the national anthem, which I butchered with a voice far from 
American idol worthy. Katja wrote out Zdravljica, the Slovejne national 
anthem, handed it to me and made me say out loud. They laughed and 
clapped at my pronunciation of these somewhat difficult words. Marko 
failed at getting Tine to drink so he passed the job off to me. With 
an innocent look and a few kind and convincing words, I was 
successful. Peer pressure much? A little after midnight the purchased 
drinks were gone, and Matjaj brought out homemade berry schnapps.

With open windows and the lights on, we had a fine collection of gnats 
on the ceiling. Matjaj and Marko showed off their flame throwing 
skills and torched the little suckers, killing them instantly with 
firery hairspray. Where did they fall? On the table. Luckily the 
drinks were all well protected. We finished the schnapps in record 
time, each person passing the glass to their left after taking their 
turn. Once we got to the end of the glass and you were subjected to 
the alcohol-full berries, Tine and I decided to call it quits and headed 
off to their room and get ready for bed. I checked my email and 
facebook and chatted with Julie and Marion for a while, catching them 
up on my life from the past few weeks and discussing future plans to 
hang out as soon as I get back to the states.
 I bid everyone good night, jumped into the shower, which flooded the 
whole room, squeegied the floor once I realized there was a water 
problem, then headed off to sleep.