Internationally Known To Rock the Microphone

So December is shaping up to what looks to be a solid month of travelling adventures.

First, since we lost to the Ukrainians in the first round of CEV (aka Euro) Cup we've been assigned to play against CV Unic Piatra Neamţ, a Romanian team, for the next round. They come here on the 10th and then we roll out to yet another former Soviet satellite on the 16th-ish. And yeah, I just like saying 'former Soviet satellite'.

Yes, please.

Truth be told, I'm pretty psyched about goin' to Romania since it's somewhere new but considering there was once the posibility that we'd be playing in Azerbaijan, I'm a little disappointed. I was all set to finally take full advantage of the chance to use my Azerbaijani with some native speakers... Plus, it's not everyday you get the opportunity to travel to a country that's priviledged to be the prime real eastate between Russia, Georgia and Iran. Maybe next year, but by then they might have discovered that it's barely still actually in Europe and therefore can't be in the Euro Cup... so I might not get lucky after all.

Back to Romania - We're playing in a city called Piatra Neamţ in north-eastern Romania, about 8 hrs from Bucharest. Word on the street is it's one of the "most picturesque cities in Romania" so let's hope it lives up to that description. Either way it has to be more picturesque than the Ukraine so I'm not too worried. My standards are low.

My expectations for ridiculousness, however, are high. Last time my club played in Romania a couple years ago they had some stories to tell. Apparently they actually passed a couple horses & buggies on the drive through the countryside to the city they were playing in. No word of a lie. Upon arriving at the gym, they found the Romanian army - complete with automatic weapons - surrounding the court. No big deal - you shank a ball and potentially take out some guy's loaded A-K... The soldiers stayed there for the duration of the game, presumably to protect the foreigners from the onslaught of cigarette butts and vodka bottles after beating the home team? Apparently people were allowed to smoke inside the gym during the match so I'm wondering if it'll be the same where we're headed. Should make for an interesting time. Here's to hoping nobody's asthma flares up during a long rally...

After Romania and the craziness that should ensue, it's back to Paris for our last match before Christmas break. We have an unheard of 12 whole days off so I intend on capitalizing fully and getting the eff outta Albi. Fortunately, My German will be in the house and we're rollin' to Venice for Christmas. I haven't been back to Italy since I was 6 so I'm lookin' forward to it. If Italian cuisine treats me anywhere as well as French has, I don't foresee any problems.

For New Year's we're hoping to head to Barcelona since there are cheap flights from Paris and I figure I should complete the French neighbouring-countries trifecta, as I was in Germany in August. Now if I can just fit in Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Andorra, and Monaco sometime before midnight I should be good on actually visiting all of France's neighbours before the end of 2008... D'oh. Yeah, I spoke too soon.

So that's what's been up lately. Planning trips and lookin' forward to a little change of scenery. It's a little crazy to think I've been over here for comin' up on 4 months. Yipes. What do I have to say for myself in terms of getting anything tangible accomplished off the court? Not a lot. Record amounts of time spent online and improved, but still pretty terrible, guitar skills. Rough. I think it's clear I need to spend some serious time planning some legit New Year's resolutions. I'm open to suggestions. For the rest of '08 I'm just focused on ball and takin' in more eastern European fabulousness. Should be good.