Cakes.

I've got to tell you something about the Czech Republic... they have amazing baked goods. Breakfast, lunch & snack my taste buds are tempted by these delicious pastries and cakes, and it is only at dinner where I am spared from their grip. It seems common to the Czechs to munch on such luxuriously rich foods before an international athletic match, and I can only say; I like it.
We've played two of our matches, I'll summarize.
Match 1: Czech def Canada 3-0. We looked sloppy, except Fred Winters, who was amazing. Although we weren't at our best, the Czech's didn't look all that impressive either. We had many miscues in blocking and assertiveness issues in digging, but each set was decided by only 2 points. I got to play the last half of the 2nd set, and 3rd set of the match. I did some things well, which was nice.
Match 2: Czech def Canada 3-0. Again we had issues with our block / defense, but from my perspective the Czech's really came to play. Their big right side attacker had a hay day with us, and even though we had gone over a successful plan to slow him down, we were not executing it correctly. We had chances, but at this level you need to show up 100% of the time. I played about the same amount as I did in match 1, but I wasn't able to contribute as successfully as I did the previous match.
The drive home offered a nice opportunity to sit and think. I thought mostly about the landscape. There are several small towns separated by a few kilometers of highway. It's like if the Maples and Garden City were split by a 1000 lane wide McPhillips street, instead of the regular 4... and had curves and winds and hills instead of "flat" [I'm not home sick]. We still have 1 more match here to prove ourselves, but more importantly... to improve ourselves. <-- Do you ever wonder why cliche's exist? All the best.
-j.duff