Czech to Slove.

 *Dundun, dundundun dun dundun* goes the alarm on Gord's blackberry inform in me that the ungodly hour of 6am is upon us. Today we are traveling to Bled, where we will have a series of exhibition matches. I managed to gather the remaining articles of my clothing distributed throughout the hotel room, and with one quick "squish-squosh" my suitcase was packed. I had my breakfast cake and some coffee, then took a seat on the bus. Two very uneventful hours later I arrived in Prague, to take flight to Munich, before flying to Trieste, before busing to Bled... The first story of interest happened at the Lufthansa ticket counter in Munich, where a lineup of Canadian volleyball players were taken aback by the blatant line cutting of one man.

Now this isn't an EXACT shot of the time in which it happened, but I just wasn't that "on the ball". While awaiting our boarding passes, a young man walked straight through our lineup, dodging each member of our team as if he were Edward Cullen running through the lush forests of Forks. [I've heard Twilight references help snag multiple demographics of blog readers.] Anyways... we weren't sure what he was doing, perhaps it was an emergency situation... or perhaps he was just a jerk, regardless he simply stood at the front of the line and awaited his call from the agent. At this point we mostly stared wide eyed at each other asking, "Is this guy serious...?" and was he ever. Luckily for us, Volleyball Canada representative Julien Boucher was even more serious. In an epic display of assertiveness, Julien confronted the man via a "re-cut" and "stern statement of wrongdoing" which resulted in a prompt retreat by the man. Don't mess with Julien, he's all business.


The flight to Trieste was short, the bus ride to Bled was headlined by a gas station parking lot picnic [in the far from traditional sense], and before I knew it we arrived at the hotel.
Waiting to check into hotel rooms is my least favourite part of... checking into hotels. Everyone stands cramped in the waiting room as regular hotel guests stop and stare at the unusually large group of unusually large men, and the terrified look of the desk clerk [who MUST have been told we were coming] signals to me that this will be a lengthy process.

Yup, my hotel room is complete with a 9 inch television screen and 12 inch distance between beds. But who am I to complain? I'm having the experience of a lifetime, and after a 15 hour day of traveling, and a few hours of blog writing / editing I am ready to pass ou...
All the best,
-j.duff

Wesmen

A few days ago I was asked if I would be interested in writing a blog about my World Championships experience and obviously... I decided to do it. The man who approached me was Larry McKay, who just so happens to coach of the Men's Volleyball team at the University of Winnipeg. Larry suggested I write it for the Wesmen website, and it seemed fitting due to the amount of Wesmen flavour on this trip:
1. Justin Duff: Yup... that's right, I am a proud Wesmen alumni and on this trip.
2. Larry McKay: Even though the Volleyball Canada news releases won't tell you, we are graced by the presence of Larry. And what a presence, and pleasure it is!
3. Dustin Schneider: Dusty played 5 years with the Wesmen, in which he garnered so many accolades and awards that to list all of them would exceed the word count of this blog.
Although I am a little bias, to see members of our Wesmen community involved at the International level is indicative of the quality of our program. <--  In case anyone's interested, you may use that quote for recruiting purposes.
And... "off the record", in an "on the record" sort of way: It's comforting for me to see familiar faces.
All right, enough inflating our own tires... although the reason I did may be apparent after this;
Match 3: Czech def Can 3-0. There's not much to say, we had our chances... until they took them. I would make a few more comments, but I should allow the volleyball.ca website's game summaries some traffic.
*Non Volleyball Part begins*
During some downtime, i searched downtown LItomysl for a shot glass with the town's name on it for my friend who collects. Long story short, I didn't find one... unless the Czech's do shots out of Mugs and Cups, which is possible when considering the almost disrespectfully low price of liquor here.
At this point, I should mention something about my room mate / new best friend for life Gord Perrin. Gord is the youngest player on the team [out "younging" me by 15 months] and played this year at Thompson Rivers University [Oddly enough I decided to mention a non-wesmen player in my post titled Wesmen.] He was awarded 1st team All Canadian honors, and lead his team to CW 1/4 finals. Like me, he was originally named to the national 'B' team at the start of the summer, and bumped up for this World Championship run. We've lived together since mid August resulting in many hours spent watching Bachelor Pad season 1, and many random episodes of Family Guy, Simpsons, and South Park. He was right there during my shot glass hunt, so I feel he deserves a shout out in the traditional TRU way; "GGG G to the P"

I've noticed that a few more things about the culture;
1. Alternative energy sources seem to be a priority. Between our hotel and the gym there are several fields of solar panels [that's right, fields of them] as well as multiple windmills. I'm not an environmental buff [nor am I necessarily sure if the panels collect enough energy to make up for the amount they use adjusting their angle to follow the sun] but a friend of mine is, and I think she would like it.
2. "Bubbly" is all the rage... apparently. At each meal we were presented with a different fancily bottled carbonated water. I'm told by the elder members of the team [who have spent most of the last few years of their life in Europe] that I will acquire a taste for it, but for now... I'll stick to the tap.
Also for now, I will end this post. We head to Bled, Slovenia tomorrow to play exhibition matches against one of the top professional teams in Europe this past season. I'll be sure to let you know how they go. Until then, all the best.
-j.duff

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

OttaFrankenPrague.

Greetings Wesmen fans and family, my name is Justin Duff and I have recently finished my 4th & final year with the University of Winnipeg Wesmen Men's Volleyball team. Currently I am with the Canadian National Volleyball team on mark for World Championships in Italy. I'll try and be short with this summer's backstory, wish me luck. I was selected to the National 'B' team sometime in May, got invited to Australia with the 'A' team to fill an injury spot in June, and have stuck around since then. Now that you're up to date, we can move towards more recent news. September 11th we departed Ottawa, connected through Frankfurt, arrived in Prague. [Some of these events may have occurred September 12th, depending on your time zone.] Airport security is something everyone complains about, rightfully so. The lines are long, it's a high stress environment, and the officers end up taking away your toothpaste because it's in a 130ml bottle as opposed to the accepted 100ml bottle EVEN THOUGH it's nowhere near full. We landed safe, were greeted by a 2 hour bus ride to the quaint town of Litomysl, and have played 1 exhibition match against the Czech's. I feel that this entry is getting long, so I will save the summary of that game, as well as the one I am about to play for next time. Until then, all the best.
-j.duff