Pretty Sunsets = Delicate Shades of Pink and Blue

Hello Friends and Fam!

The past week and a half has brought some beautiful weather to Klagenfurt, with blue skies in the day and cloudy evenings, the perfect recipe for spectacular sunsets. Kristina and I ventured out one afternoon to find a sunset lookout point, but somehow managed to miss the sunset during our adventure. We documented our pretty town anyway, and we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for the lookout..

Last week's match in Rijeka was a difficult one, they're a strong team and we're playing with somewhat reduced numbers. (I hate that excuse, but it's difficult to look across the net at a stacked starting lineup and 7 gals on the bench, then to turn around to our own bench and see one lonely ranger holding it down! Fortunately three of our girls returned to action early in the week, and hopefully we'll be staying healthy this time around :) We ended up losing 0-3 (boo, hiss), but Kristina, Rosa and I took our chance to jump-photo in the gym prior to our departure from Croatia post-match.

The week was pretty low-key, we learned lots of German (ok, maybe not "lots," but enough to make my brain hurt) and cooked some fanatastic meals, which are the main non-volleyball activities that keep us busy nowadays. We also had some craft-time fun with printing out a bunch of pictures that have been accumulated on my computer, it was really fun sorting through memories going back to senior year at Santa Clara through my adventures in Switzerland, this summer in Santa Clara, and now in K-furt!

Saturday was pretty monumental, namely because it marked the 23rd anniversary of my arrival on this planet! I woke up to find that Kristina had put little birthday messages up all over the house, from one on the microwave celebrating birthday oatmeal to one on the bathroom mirror reassuring me of my birthday beauty... it was adorable!

After our pregame serve and pass practice that morning, Birgit, Sophie, Ellie and Samira came over to deliver a large pile of presents wrapped in tin-foil, which turned out to be individually wrapped ankle socks (they hate the way Americans wear tube socks!). Then they presented me with an awesome poem, which I tried hard to read accurately. Samira documented it, and here's a little intro to my painstaking attempts to learn German:

As you can see, I'm majorly struggling, but the poem was really cute and they definitely made it a special birthday afternoon.

We played the team from Vienna that night, and ended up losing a tight match in 5 games. The team from Vienna is our biggest rival in Austria, mostly because they also play in MEVSA (the international league we're playing in now) and because we often lose to them in the Austrian Championship finals match. After a poor showing in the first 2 sets, we came back in the 3rd and 4th, and it was really frustrating to let it slip through our fingers in the 5th! Next time..

After the match, I didn't have much time to feel sorry for myself, because several of the club's representatives came up to give me a bouquet of flowers, and the crowd proceeded to sing "Happy Birthday" to me! It was really cute, and by the time we got to the locker room, I was smiling again..

After feasting with the girls post-match, where they sang "Happy Birthday" one more time, I came home to commence birthday celebration evening. All of our teammates were playing in an Austrian Cup match the next day, which mean that they couldn't come out to celebrate. Therefore we spent most of the night hanging out at home with a couple of them, which was fine by me! When we finally did make it to the town, we ended up meeting some of the volley guys, who capped off the birthday celebration evening by helping us hold down the dance floor at a local bar. We danced until the wee hours of the morning, and I think I could almost see the sun coming up as I got ready for bed..

My last birthday wish was fulfilled on Sunday morning, when Kristina made a delicious batch of banana pancakes (has anyone ever shared that hangover cure with you? Try it!!). All in all, it was a wonderful birthday weekend, and I feel really lucky to be surrounded by people who helped make my dreiundzwansig-rd? (23rd) so special!!

I hope you all had a wonderful my-birthday weekend too!

xoxo

Anna