First Few Weeks In Poprad

After a delay out of Seattle, a 9 hour layover in Chicago, and an hour delay on the tarmac before takeoff, I finally made it to Slovakia!! It has been an incredibly eventful first two weeks. Poprad--the place I will call home for the next 7 months--is a small town at the base of the High Tatras, a beautiful mountain range that borders Slovakia and Poland. I live with the other two Americans (KJ and Neek!!) in a small three bedroom flat a few minutes from our arena.

For the most part, we are still getting settled in. Besides practicing twice a day, we are learning our way around town and finding out what Poprad has to offer. This past weekend, we hosted a three game tournament. We went 2-1, beating two teams from our league to win the whole thing!! Our team played well together considering we had only practiced together for three days before the tournament. The coach and most of the girls speak GREAT English, which definitely helped.

On our first day off since arriving, our team visited AquaCity, Poprad’s biggest attraction. AquaCity is a large aquatic center that includes an Olympic size pool, various saunas and hot tubs, as well as water slides. We mostly went to relax so we spent our time in the menthol steam room, and the herbal sauna. It was incredibly rejuvenating, and a good way to start off another week of double days before we head to a tournament in Hungary. I’m EXCITED to get going!!