More touring

Tourist

boo

So we played our 2 matches today and lost both of them. First game was against a US team and our second match was better than our first. We played A brazilian team and lost to them in 2, but both games were very close......POO! so now we get to explore the "oh so historical St. Petersburg". Next blog should have pictures!!

lucky!

Okay so yesterday in the qualifier we lost the match to get in, against Spain. But fortunately, there was 3 lucky loser spots, and the first name to get picked out of the bowl was us! So we are in!....We play today at 2 pm against Tyra Turner and Rachel Wacholder, a USA team. So lucky us!
On another note, we finally got our luggage late last night!!! Woot Woot.......our own clean clothes!

update

not enough teams dropped out, so we play tomorrow at 1 pm, against a Kazakhstan team, then if we win that we will most likely play a Spain team to get in. still no luggage.

awesome so far!

So let me tell you how this trip all started out....First, getting our visas to this darn country cost more than our tickets to get here.....then we get to the airport and have problems with our tickets.....then I remembered at the airport that I don't have our paper tickets to return home and my lovely fiance and father jammed back to our house and grabbed them.....then our flight out of LA was delayed, which made us late for our connecting flight to Helsinki......once we got to Helsinki, our luggage didn't make it. By 1:30 am we made it to our hostel, then had to get up and catch the 7:27am train to St. Petersburg......went to the players hotel and there are no more rooms for players, luckily we ran into our friend Kelly who is the USA trainer, and she is letting us crash with her.....still no luggage, freezing cold here, and suppose to rain tomorrow. Either going to buy suits or borrow suits from people. Meeting is at 7, it's 6 pm right now. If one more team pulls out of the tournament, we get bumped into the main draw.

Bye Bye

Leaving for St. Petersburg, Russia tonight. We have a stop in London, then to Helsinki. From there we catch a train to St. Petersburg. Gone for only a week, then back home.
It was great being back home, but for now, back to business!
Meeting is on Monday night, qualifier on Tuesday.

Just an FYI

Just want you all to know that I have an older brother, his name is Harbell. Went to visit him today at his work at THQ.
THQ is pretty much a global developer and publisher of video games. He took us ( Steve and I ) on a tour, and oh, before even entering the office we had to sign an agreement of confidentiality, because we were going to see the up and coming video games that people don't know about, or the video games for movies that are still in making. My brother pretty much has one of the best jobs ever! It was cool just sitting in his office and chatting with him, and playing catch up. I'm really proud of my brother, or in the Filipino culture, my Kuya. Proud of what my Kuya is doing and what he has accomplished in his life.........Just another reason why I love being home! Love you Kuya!

Home Life

Good Sunday!

Feels great!

It's good to be home!

home sweet home

In Finland, needed two matches to get in. Our first match we played a Finland team and won, our second match we played against a Spain team and lost in two :( What makes this lost worse is that there were 2 lucky loser draws. ( Meaning that 2 teams from the main draw had pulled out, and it our names had to be pulled out of a bowl). So the first draw was us and Canada.......and canada got picked. Second draw, was us and Great Britain......and GB got pulled out! Sign or what? What are the odds of our names not getting pulled out twice, both times 50% chance! So we both took a deep breath and walked out and said, "okay, this is a sign." So we both took the 11:45pm ferry out of Aland, that night to Helsinki. Arrived in Helsinki at about 10 am, went straight to the aiport, and tried to change our flight. We got a flight out that day to London. Once we got to London we tried to get on a flight that night out to LAX, but there were no more flights. So we took a flight out the next morning which would get us in to LA at about 2:40pm. So we had a night to stay in London. Diane and I called our friend Guy Perry who lives in London, but is one of those guys that is always traveling and we didnt think we would actually get to see him.. But what do you know?....we call him and he is in town! So that just made our night stay on London even better. We were actually just going to sleep in the airport since hotels in London were so expensive, but Guy was not going to have that, so he helped us out with a hotel! We had a very lovely time,drinking wine, eating chicken, talking with a British accent, watching people snooting, and talking fun pictures! Then next morning we were on a stand by flight to LAX and got in, and here I am, sitting on my couch, with my fiance and dog. Life is Grand!!!
Guy...i know you are reading this, so thank you, thank you, so much for our time London, you have no idea how much you are appreciated!

Aland, Finland

Got here this afternoon, by what the the Finnish people call a "ferry" but if you see by the picture it's more like a cruise line. It was about a 7 hour boat ride, not bad at all. We slept and ate and took lots of pictures of scenery. We are staying in a hostel here that sleeps 6 people, but it's just us and the Philippine boys team. We play tomorrow, don't know who we play yet, we are at the lobby of the hotel waiting for the meeting to start. We have no internet at our hostel, no TV....just our laptops, with no internet. oh well! Hopefully we qualify tomorrow and move into the main draw hotel!

Hooray

So we got into the finals and played against Georgia. We won in two! Got a trophy.......yay.
Tomorrow we have to play exhibition matches.......yay. This is a lot of work for no money ;P
Here is a picture of our wonderful trophy.

Pics

Here are some pics......picture of the great event, pics of the Phil. boys, and me and Di on the bridge to the site.

love volleyball

okay so we woke up at 4:15am to catch a 4:45am shuttle to the airport to get on our 6:20 am flight to Copenhagen, then had a layover there for about 2 hours, got on our next flight at 9:50am to Turku, got in at 12:20pm, driver took us to our hotel, we had lunch, showered, and then played Georgia at 4:00pm, lost to them in two, went back to our room, cooled down, played another match in an hour, won that in 2, and now here we are back in our rooms, ready to just CHILL!
Hotel is really nice, the venue is pretty funny. It's one court, on the side of the road in a parking lot. There are 6 women teams, and 4 mens teams. Georgia, Mexico, 3 Finland teams, and us. For the men, there are 3 Finland teams and our Philippine boys team. We have 3 matches tomorrow, and finals are tomorrow also. A whole lot of volleyball!

Turku, Finland

Okay so we just got our plans situated for the next few days, it is about 10:15 pm and we finalized our plans. We are going to Turku, which is in Finland to play in an exhibition tournament there. Rad thing about it is that they are paying for our flights to get there, hotels, meals, and our flight to our next event! How rad is that! Get the hell outta this expensive place and get our sh$# paid for. So we fly out at the butt crack of dawn, 6:20am, and we get into Turku at about 12:30, to play at 3:30 pm. Hey, we do what we gotta do. Room, meals, flights paid for, for the whole weekend....then we go to Aland to play on Tuesday, then on Friday...........WE GO HOME!

ARGHHH !

Lost our first match against the Brazilians, in two. Funny thing is that when our match was done, they forfeited their next match because one of the girls was throwing up.....why not our match?....i know it's mean. I'll stop. So then our next match we played a German team and lost in two. Sucky! so now, it's time to get the hell outta this place....where to?....Not quite sure yet. Maybe Sweden.

In !

okay so we ended up playing Japan and won in two! so we are in the main draw and play tomorrow. Our first draw is a Brazilian team, Adriana Shelda and Bahar. Double elimination.

Ang Mahal Naman!

So got here this afternoon in Kristiansand, Norway. So far all I could think of is how expensive this town is! Diane and I are staying in a Comfort Inn.....and it cost $215 per night!!...we went to eat dinner tonight at a Mexican restaurant and the bill was about 80 US dollars! So i think we will go to the grocery store tomorrow for food. Don't know why it's so expensive here, it's a nice town but....c'mon, why does the US dollar have to be so weak here.
We play tomorrow.....we either play Great Britain or Japan to get in. One match tomorrow.......send the good mojo :)

more pics

More of Klagenfurt

Sorry i haven't blogged in awhile, but access to internet was not easy, or it was limited. But anyways, Diane and i are here in Vienna. Got here this afternoon by train from Klagenfurt. Steve went on to Geneva where he will catch a plane and go HOME!.......lucky.
Klagenfurt was pretty fun, except for the fact that we didn't get into the main draw. But other than that, it's pretty beautiful. The venue was on a lake, and there was lots to do at the lake. Lots of swimming, jumping off diving boards, waterslide, Red Bull speed boat etc. A fun filled day at the lake was much needed! Went to a couple of the player parties, which one was held on a Swatch boat cruise. Had a couple days of practices, there was a gym there, so finally got to lift some weights! In the beginning of the week, we also rented bikes so that was most of our means of transportation from our hotel to the site. Good times! All in all, Klagenfurt was pretty cool.
So now here we are in Vienna, leave for Norway tomorrow, and play on Tuesday.
We have Norway and Finland, and then we get to go home!!.....for a week and then go to Russia.
My fiance is gonna be home on Monday, miss him already :(..........here are some great shots of him though, swimming during sunset time.

ARRGGHH!!

Played yesterday, won our first match against a Czech team, then lost the next match to get in against a Swiss team. Let you know how the rest of the week here in Klagenfurt goes later.