Week star and week freak

Cao, which would be Hi in my first language. My name is Bojana. I am a tall, curly haired, white girl from a small country called Serbia. Central Europe guys, I know you have no idea where it is but it's fine. If you follow my blog until the end of semester you'll know a lot about people and the life we live over there. It is completely different in every single aspect.

Let me tell you a little bit about how I ended up here in South Texas. In my country education and sport don;t go together. When you graduate you decide if you are going to university or you continue playing professional. I wanted both but at the moment it wasn't possible. I was waiting for something to happen to help me to make a decision. What was my next step? I kept wondering to myself. We were playing one of our last games of the season. We lost that game unfortunately and I hadn't performed very well. However, a bald guy with a huge smile came up to me and asked me if I wanted to go play for him in Texas. I laughed. His story was everything I ever wanted.

So yeah I am here now. It is everything that I could have imagined about the United States, but I am in Mexico. However, I am happy. My school is paid and my team is awesome. I have great people around me. I could transfer to other schools but I a found family here. I have everything that I need to finish my education and my 2 years of eligibility to play. We'll see what the future will bring.

My weeks are super busy, but also fun. This week we started with our spring workouts. Volleyball is out of season during the spring semester, but we condition like crazy. Mondays are a struggle. We start with a dynamic warm up. After we are doing the Vertimax (strength, speed and resistance training). It takes us about an hour to finish everything. Once we are done we go straight to the weight room and continue over there for another hour. Tuesday are fun. It is a ball work out. We fix our technique and work on some defense and passing. We were already sore after Mondays workout. My legs were dead. Wednesday was leg day. Sore legs on leg day. Haha, well good luck!! I am just going to say that we survived. Thursday and Friday were conditioning combined with volleyball drills.

Spring is a calm time of the year for me since we are out of season. I am used to pressure and I like it. You know how Jewel said. "If I am not on the edge of failure, I'm not being sufficiently challenged". I think I'm getting to that point...I was optimistic and took 18 hours this semester. We'll see how that goes. All my classes are pretty interesting and I am curious and excited to learn some new things. I have three classes every day except Friday, we also practice 2 to 3 hours during the day as a team, this doesn't include the time spent in the training room while doing treatments in order to be able to perform well at practice. Also I have to complete 8 hours of study hall every week. Once I am done with my daily routine of class and practice I go to Venom, which is my coach’s volleyball club. I'm an assistant coach to a 17s old team of girls. It is exciting. I am learning a lot about volleyball from different perspectives. We are having our second tournament in two weeks in Austin. I'm looking forward to telling you about it.

Being a student athlete is a big commitment. It takes a lot out of a person. But I am so grateful for the opportunity I have. I'm so happy to be able to play and attend a university at the same time. It is an awesome experience! 

People here consider me different! When I say different I mean everything. Which is normal I mean, I am 6'1 (that is not common here in South Texas). Also I am white and blondish which is not a thing you see here every day. They consider me different in the way I look but in the way I act as well. I have a different mentality and I see the world through a different set of eyes. I have traveled a lot and seen a lot. I've met different people and their cultures. So I am fine with being different. I don't think it is a bad thing. Being unique and different is who I am, and I am attracted to people who are like that.

 Being foreign and different in the Valley makes even grocery shopping interesting. Wednesday I was in Walmart and a short Mexican lady with two kids were passing by. Kids were staring at me, and their mom as well. I turned around to see if something weird was happening behind me. Unfortunately they were staring at me. Then they started speaking in Spanish. I understand a lot, don't ask me how because I don't know I just do. They were commenting on my height and my hair color in a rude way. I didn't mind and I was pretending like I didn’t understand I just asked her if she needed something because she was staring at me like I was an alien. It was just funny. I feel sorry for her, because of the way she thinks. The world is huge. I don't want to be rude but there is so much more outside of the Valley lady.

 I kept walking and a man with kids was trying to reach a can of beans on the top shelf. He smiled and ask me for a help. It was my pleasure. He asked me if I am number 23 from Pan am’s team. He knew some basic information about me. We took a picture with his camera. He said he is big fan because the way I play but also the way I celebrate points. He said I am different in a good way. It made my day! I picked up my groceries and headed home, I was in a hurry. My mom was about to skype me and tell me all about her week.

 I miss her. She is a fighter. She was telling me about her work and how my brother made her happy because he rocked on his game. He plays volleyball too, I was following the score online. It is something at least. She also told me that she was making my favorite meal for lunch. It is called Sarma. It is made from cabbage and ground beef. The most delicious thing ever! I told her a little bit about my day but I was in a hurry. She made me homesick with Sarma so I had to say bye and head to Venom. I missed them all!