Alright alright alrigiiiiiight.
Forewarning, I am not writing this with proper grammar. I graduated and no amount of spelling errors can take that away from me.
So basically, I spent my summer kind of traveling in the US and mostly putting a dent in the couch in my parents’ living room – the Olympics really helped me make my mark in the cushions. On Thursday, August 11, after spending the day eating all my weight in ‘American’ foods, my dad and I flew to Paris and eventually Geneva. Since arriving in Neuchatel (about an hour drive away from Geneva), we have been doing our best to rid the city of all the cheese and chocolate it has been infested with. Despite our best efforts, it is still overflowing with the vermin. (Attempted healthy-ish eating starts tomorrow after my dad leaves and stops paying for meals.)
So, the club gave me an automatic car (bless you, NUC Volley), on Saturday night, but didn’t have a parking pass ready. This meant that after Sunday (free parking), we had to move the car every hour or risk trying to figure out how to pay a ticket to the Swiss government that is bound to be written in French. We decided to take a road trip to Interlocken because one of my friends from school, Sarah Haase, happened to be stopped there on her post-Olympics trials for swimming (Sarah is a badass) European trip. The place was freaking gorgeous. I’ve been lucky enough to see a lot of beautiful places in the world…but this was on a new level (yeah I meant for you to sing that line). We took a cable car to the top of the one of the smaller mountains and I can now say I know what heaven looks like. Please see Instagram to laugh at my clever caption/be jealous/like the pic. @madibuggs
Our first team event was Tuesday evening. We hiked a mountain. A mountain. And yet somehow ended up out in a bunch of fields/farms?? I have a really bad sense of direction. But at these farms there was a cute hotel and the committee members/coaches/me and Elizabeth’s dad/mom were there to chat (lol, attempted chat) and eat some snacks and drink to the start of season. I am incredibly grateful that Swiss schools teach English. Also it’s embarrassing when the Swiss apologize for ‘how bad [their] English is’ and I’m like, ‘dude, I’m the one in a foreign country that doesn’t know a lick of French other than bonjour.’ French lessons start next week…I think…I’m never 100% sure what’s going on.
Anyways. I’ve already gotten over my fear of looking stupid in front of strangers many times over since being here for less than a week. I apologize for my dad flooding your Facebook newsfeeds', but we’re having a good time. Also I am beginning to suspect that my dad will find more than one reason to come back and visit before Christmas...
So in terms of practice and the actual reason I am here…I have gotten/am going to continue to get my butt handed to me. To whoever said that college would be the toughest conditioning of my life, you lied. We did these 3 min running circuits 9 times in the first practice with crazy drills in between that had two balls going at once and I struggled to breathe the entire time because 1) I am not in the best shape of my life, 2) it wouldn’t matter if I was, 3) in case you didn’t know, I live on a mountain, 4) I had no idea what was going on, and 5) I was nervous. But fam, we made it. We all jumped in the lake afterwards which was really nice and will probably become a ritual. Then we had our first ‘fitness’ session (aka lifting), which was all max out reps to find out how strong we were. Ya girl actually did pretty well – can’t run but I can hold my own in the weight room. Also, the gym we lift at plays music (like every other weight room in the world) and I was dancing in between sets (bc what else am I supposed to do?) and the gym owner (I think, not sure about his title) came over and was like, “we have Zumba here!!! You do Zumba with us!!” So I guess I have a hobby now. Allegedly we are running some kind of sprint test at practice tonight?? I may have accidentally joined a track team. Please send me all of your aerobic capacity, prayers, and oxygen.
Random things:
Rosco Allen is playing basketball in Spain and he was the first to cave and get fast food from McDonalds. His meal included a Big Mac, 15 nuggets, a Kit Kat McFlurry, fries, and sweet and sour sauce for dipping sauce as the Spanish McDonalds does not have ranch. He gave it a four star review. Rosco would like to add that this is not a normal meal for him and that he is a very fit/committed professional athlete.
My dad is apparently immune to jetlag. I am not.
The Swiss bank I am using made me sign an agreement that they could share my information with the US government, so no, Conner Crane, I cannot hide your money for you.
Cried for half an hour after my dad left this morning because reality is sometimes hard to accept and if anyone thinks that I’m not terrified to be in a foreign country on my own for the next 9 months, you’re insane.
Later dudes, be nice to each other.
- Bugg
P.S. Please bear (bare?) with me while I figure out how to make a website that makes sense/is cool to look at...I was a Political Science major.
