We are fully into the swing of things here in France. I have been living in Paris (well, just outside of Paris) for about a month and a half. I am currently writing this while on a train, passing through the lovely countryside, eating a baguette sandwich, while my American teammate is eating her box of assorted fresh macaroons. Can it get more cliche than that? Doubtful. But we try.
I’ll skip back to the beginning as to not confuse anyone. Speaking mainly of myself…
I arrived in France just over a week later than expected due to some family complications. I just couldn’t get on the plane when I was originally booked to depart so I crossed my fingers and held my breath as I booked my own ticket a few days later for the following week, hoping for no repercussions from the club. Of course, sometimes things seem like the largest most monumental fail (usually in terms of pro contracts) when in retrospect, everything turns out fine. Sometimes you just have to do you.
Rudy left during the planned date of departure, so he had a week to prepare for my arrival. He is getting better at this “filling the house before wifey comes”-thing. My favourite story was many years ago when I was coming to visit him in Germany at Christmas time and he wanted to get the apartment “Kyla ready.” Stock the fridge? Buy some flowers? A love plant? Make sure there’s a second mug in the house? No. The solution to my arrival: buy one small red (it was Christmas after all) candle. THIS year, however, he picked up a tv stand off of Facebook Marketplace and converted our old tv stand to a coffee table, picked up a yellow arm chair, placed a healthy-smoothie-mixins order on Amazon and of course, bought one small candle. Two months later we still haven’t bought a lighter but that’s beside the point.
Winnie was arriving a couple weeks after me due to a few more certification problems so Rudy and I had time to get used to the rhythms of both playing professional ball abroad…together. Yes, this is the first time in the history of our lives (aka the last five) that we both get to play at the same time in the same country. The past two years Rudy has come with me overseas first to Peru and then most recently to Puerto Rico (tough life) and so originally it was his year to play and for me to follow. As it works out, we both ended up getting offers in Paris and there was no way we could pass that up.
Our little first floor apartment resides in a small, lush town 45 minutes away from downtown Paris. On weekday evenings you can chalk that up to an hour and a half but still, the fact that I can see the Eiffel Tower on my drive to the gym has me constantly counting my wanderlust-blessings. The town we live in is where Rudy trains and plays so his club was in charge of finding us an apartment while my club was responsible for finding me a car. Makes sense. My drive to the gym is about 25-35 minutes each way which is truthfully getting a little old but because we aren’t training two times a day every day, I tell myself I can survive. Rudy started this season walking to practice a few times a day but quickly realized that wasn’t going to work either, especially when it turns winter, and so the following week he made the executive decision to buy an electric scooter (which, by the way, is all the rage here in Paris… electric or not). Razor’s are making a come back!
Came across the oldest vineyard in Paris, right in the middle of the city.
I just want to sit and drink coffee all day.
A couple weeks after I arrived we started our league which was decently fast but I’ve had other seasons where I’ve started just days later so no stress there. I tell so many people that playing professionally is like winning the lottery (or not) depending on your teammates and coach… and living situation. It’s possible you connect with no one; either nobody speaks English or you just don’t vibe. At all… It’s possible that your coach is completely off his rocker and tries to teach you things you learned 20 years ago (but the volleyball world has moved on from that particular style for a reason…). It’s possible that every time you lose a game, someone from the club tells you that your monthly salary is being cut in half (even though you’re likely not getting paid on time anyways). It’s also possible your apartment is a hole and everything is broken and your power goes out when too many things are plugged in at once (thanks Italy). Truly playing professionally IS like playing the lottery every single year. Luckily, this season my teammates rock. I am beyond thankful for them and the relationships we all have.
North American humans that are reading this, you know that when teammates all get along VERY well, there can be problems of holding each other accountable. We had to work on this during my university years (which clearly worked out well) and also with National Team; how can you call out one of your best friends in a way that they know you have their best interest at heart. It’s a two way street and a mix of professionalism, respect, mutual agreement that you both want to be making everyone around you better, all the while ensuring that nobody is taking things personally. It’s always a delicate dance you rarely get right the first time. This is easy (-ier) to do when you’re with teammates for years and years at a time, harder to do when you’re all thrown together from different countries, clubs, and philosophies on how to play the game. I think that’s why professional volleyball is so challenging and so intriguing for me; there are so many things that can go wrong and yet in order to have success (or survive) you better figure it out quick! The team’s that don’t, sink.
We had a hot start winning the first few games (including an upset over the usual powerhouse Le Cannet) but the last couple weeks we have lost a few games that we shouldn’t have. Shit hit the fan in a mini but equally annoying way, I cried all day last Monday which brought me back to some not so happy times in my overseas career, fought a little bit more on the Tuesday, and then called it a day on the Wednesday. I’m too tired (and old) for this.
So here we are. A team with a lot of potential and the usual challenge of figuring out how to push one another and when, and figuring out how to translate that to success on the court. Again, I ACTUALLY TRULY love everyone on this team so that’s a fricken treat. Not sure if that’s ever happened haha. SO press on we will!
Usually team photos are taken in front of a nice wall at the gym… I’ll take the Eiffel Tower any day….
Beyond volleyball, I have been exploring every chance I get which happens to be Wednesday afternoon and all day Sunday. If you’ve seen Emily in Paris my life is exactly like that, minus the office job, fancy clothes, swanky parties, and plethora of men. But certainly all the croissants. And cafe sitting. And exploring. And wondering why the first floor actually starts on the second.
That is until covid wanted back in the spotlight and decided to run rampant through France (and Europe) with 50,000 cases a day. Macron, the French president, has addressed the country a few times in the last couple of weeks but most recently has put us back in a mini-quarantine/confinement for the next 4 weeks (maybe longer depending on the numbers). Apparently similar to what was happening here in March/April: working from home is advised, most cafes and restaurants are closed but some have chosen to stay open for take-out only, everything fun is closed, you can only walk around for 1h per day within a 1km bubble of your house, and if you’re out and about to get groceries/returning from work etc. you’ll need a piece of paper showing the date and time of said activity, incase the police stop you. It’s going to be far too difficult to stop everyone on the streets to ask for papers but I guess I don’t want to risk being THAT foreigner trying to beat the system, wandering around the Arc de Triumph and getting slapped with a 1000 euro fine. Nah.
*update: we are now operating at 85,000+ new cases a day. So that’s super awesome and fun…. pray for us s’il vous plait.
Despite covid trying to ruin the season and a strange last week, things have been going well here. Winnie is living her best Parisian life as we are right beside a few big parks so she has been meeting many new French friends. There are only a few weekends when Rudy and I are both away but she’s already had a successful sleepover with a pup-sitter.
We’re all surviving and thriving over here, all the while eating too many baguettes (I just do'n’t understand how they are SO good over here?!). The confinement certainly puts a little damper on the exploring-Paris part but I DO really hope that there won’t be too many more road blocks moving forward this season. Thanks for tuning in folks, as always, I really appreciate it. And if you want shorter more frequent updates on all things professional-covid-Parisian life then jump on my email list (starting next week because I’ve taken a major chill session but I’ll be better moving forward, promise). Click HERE to sign up and be my virtual pen-pal.
See you on the flip side friends. Stay safe, wherever you are in the world xx
