Sunday, April 20, 2014

Last Post!

Well it is my last blog for Austria!

Finishing up the season we played Graz in the second round. We played them 3 times won once and lost twice which meant we played Vienna in the last round. We played Vienna the first time and beat them. The coach was asking one of our players if they would be coming to our game on Sunday because there was a conflicting game with the U19 team and the Bundesliga team. So, Saturday night we travelled to Vienna with 5 of our normal players, our coach and her daughter, and three U15 players. No one expected us to win because the other team had some of their first team playing against us. We ended up winning 3-1 and our 70- something coach came in and served the last point. It was such an awesome experience to play with our coach and prove to people that we could win!
So, that was it for our season! We ended up finishing 7th in our league. I can't believe I have finished my first season of professional volleyball!

So for the last few weeks I have just preparing for my trip to Spain. That means packing, cleaning, canceling gym memberships, and shipping things home!

This past weekend we head to South Tirol again to visit our friend. We went hiking and just had a relaxing time! It was an awesome weekend to finish up my season here! I am off to Spain tomorrow and just so happy with the people and friendships I have made in Austria!

here are the last pics- https://www.facebook.com/shannonthomp/media_set?set=a.10202468681572120.1073741842.1046910070&type=3

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Update 10!

Well, it has been sometime since I have written a blog. I figure today was a good day since it snowed for the first time in awhile. It was just 70 degrees for the past week and I had been out sun bathing at the river and now its been straight snowing for at least 10 hours.

The end of January was awesome. We beat Klagenfurt who had been in first when we played then and had not lost a game for 7 games.  My birthday also happened at the end of January and I had such an amazing birthday and so lucky to have made such great friends here to celebrate with!

We played hard for the last matches of the season and finished in 5th place. By placing 5th we were able to compete for the chance to move into the champions league. Unfortunately we lost against Linz which means we are now playing for 5-8 place. We just started the second round of playoffs and have about 4 more matches to play. The season will be wrapping up beginning of April. It is crazy to me how fast my first year has gone by. It feels like just yesterday we were leaving for training camp in Maria Alm.

So for my adventures off the volleyball court! We went to a Super Bowl party that was all you can eat and drink. It was so cool because they had "tradition American food", which really wasn't anything close to what you get at home. The place we went to have 5 different rooms, one of the rooms was a stage that they played 80s and 90s music! They had one big room that was where they showed the super bowl. It is crazy how many people are fans of American football. The next weekend we had off from games and we travelled to South Tyrol to our friend's hotel. It was so nice of him to show us around and we were treated very well. We walked about 30 mins to a restaurant in the mountains and along the way I would plop into the 10 foot snow. It was so fun and made me feel like a kid again!  We ate tradition South Tyrolian food and heard typical music that they played on a wooden stick with pots on the side as drums.  It was an awesome experience!

Fasching or Carnival which is similar to Mardi Gras and Halloween, we first went to Hall with one of our teammates. At the town party they have three different "shows", the first show was men dressed as old women and men and in different outfits that made noise. The would come around and hit you on the shoulder if you were a male and play with your hair if you were female. If they did this to you then you had to take a sip of the schnapps they had with them. They would walk around a try to scare you and make lots of noises. The next show was men who were holding "bears' (men in bear costumes) and they would come around and again tackle you or scare you. The last show was a man on a fake horse who was being chased by other men trying to put the shoe on the horse. According to them it is a way to ask for spring to come and to scare off winter. It is also at the beginning of Lent. On the actual day of Fasching we headed into the old city where they had two stages and a bunch of people all dressed up in the middle of the city. They had music and different types of food. It was a very cool experience.

That has been about it since Christmas. Day to day life is the same by practice and workouts.


http://athletesabroad.wordpress.com/2014/02/27/shannon-thompson-5-things-i-cant-travel-without/

Check out my feature on Athletes Abroad!

Also here are the pics from Fashcing! https://www.facebook.com/shannonthomp/media_set?set=a.10202312954319036.1073741840.1046910070&type=1

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Update 9 Italy!

Before I get into Italy I wanted to share how the last few weeks before break went.

In the end of November we had Thanksgiving for our friends. We made all the traditional foods like stuffing, cranberry, pumpkin pie, green bean casserole, mac and cheese, turkey (we really just made chicken legs and thighs), mashed potatoes, and we asked our friends to bring a tradition dish from where they were from. It went really well and the food was delicious. Thanksgiving is a silly holiday but it was really nice to be able to spend it with friends and be thankful for the life that I have. As far as volleyball goes we are on a winning streak coming off of break and we beat our cross town rivals to end on a win before the holiday. We are getting better and better with every game and I am really excited for the last half of season. 

Well Marvin got here Dec 17 and we started our vacation. We spent some days in Innsbruck while I finished up practice before the vacation. We explore Innsbruck and headed up to the Olympic ski lift. It was really cool to see the city from that high up. Dec 20 rolled around and that night we were off on an overnight train to Venice. It was very rainy and foggy in Venice but that didn't stop us. We dropped our luggage off and went exploring the city. We went and saw St. Marks, the clock tower and St. Mark's square. We also walked to the Academia and saw many bridges which had the padlocks on them. Apparently it is to give good luck for love. Italy is having a problem with people putting them on the bridges and claim that it is worse than graffiti. Venice was a very cute town and I loved all the canals that run through the town. We had dinner next to the Rialto bridge, which is right on a canal. The next day we were on a train again heading for Milan. Milan was my favorite city (all the cities were amazing and so different in their own way, but Milan reminded me of all the cities in America that I absolutely loved, like Boston and New York.) Our hotel was right next t the Santa Maria delle Grazie which has the Last Supper painting. Milan's Duomo is absolutely breathtaking. It stands out in the busy city and you just pass by it when you are on the trolly. It is all marble and is craved out in the most amazing way. The inside is also breathtaking and has so many stained glass windows and paintings. That evening we headed to the San Siro stadium to watch the derby game against Inter Milan and AC Milan. It was so cool to see a European soccer match! The crowd was so loud and the atmosphere was crazy.  The next day we just walked around the city and took in the sights. The christmas market was still going on. The next day it was off to Rome. When we got to Rome we discovered that because of Christmas a lot of the museums and sights were closed. On christmas eve we saw the Vatican, the Trevi fountain (which we did throw pennies into), the Spanish Steps, and the Pantheon. That night we headed to St. Peters square to see mass. On Christmas day we headed back to St. Peter's square to see the pope give the Christmas message. He looked so tiny up against the red back drop. We headed to the Colosseum before hand and saw the Roman forum. We found a restaurant there that we really liked and ate there three times! The next day it was off to Florence.  Florence was amazing as well. We didn't get tickets to see the statue of David but went by and peaked our heads through the window to see. We also saw the Duomo there and it to was spectacular. For the most part we just walked around the city because lots of the museums costed money. The next day we headed up to Palazzo Vecchio and walked up the clock tower. The clock tower made it possible to see the whole city. It was so stunning. We also saw Ponte Vecchio and walked past the Uffizi. The next day we headed to Cinque Terra. Our hotel was at the highest point on the mountain and of course we had to walked up 200 steps just to get to the hotel. The town was small but still so pretty. That night we ate dinner and just walked around. The next day we headed to Vernazza and Manrola. They all were so different but yet so similar. We watched the sunset and had dinner on the water. The food was so delicious there. The next day we headed to Rimini. Rimini reminded me a lot of Santa Barbara and I felt a little at home there. I ended up getting really sick and laid in bed the whole new years eve. Luckily our room had a balcony so I was able to see some fireworks. On New Years day it was a train ride back to Innsbruck. The food in Italy was amazing, I did eat lots of pizza, pasta, and gelato which was delicious.We ended up not being able to go to Prague because I had a scrimmage against other American girls who came on a tour like I did in August. The last few days with Marvin were great and we went up the mountain to an Igloo bar which overlooked all of Innsbruck, talk about an amazing view. 

Well we are getting ready for a game against Klagenfurt this Saturday and looking for a win. 
I posted pictures on Facebook from all the travel.

https://www.facebook.com/shannonthomp/media_set?set=a.10201869575194835.1073741837.1046910070&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/shannonthomp/media_set?set=a.10201869667877152.1073741838.1046910070&type=3