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
