Useless day, except for handball

Today I passed what I consider to be an extremely useless day. Still totally knocked out from the strep throat, I woke up, took my medicine, laid in bed again until 4pm, forced myself to take a couple bites of soup so I could take my medicine again, and then laid around resting until I got up for handball practice around 6pm.

Seriously- I have been completely useless since I got sick, and am kind of concerned I will never eat again. OK, maybe not, but it is kind of depressing not to want to eat when you enjoy eating. Maybe this is a totally dramatic reference, but I kind of feel like Tammy Faye Bakker when she said that all she dreamed about was eating a burger and french fries, but she couldn't.

But after I finally dragged myself out of bed and into handball clothes, I went to my first real handball practice in the gym! Yayy! It felt great to put on my handball shoes and some stick-em and run up and down the new floor of the gym.

Tonight was a "tactical" practice, so there wasn't too much running except for some fast-break drills we did in between plays. We learned 4 plays, which we practiced for most of the practice and then broke down into offense/defense at the end.

The plays looked great when were just running through them, but when we added defense and pressure, the timing was off.

As usual, Laurent was super awesome about trying to make sure I understood everything. He took time before, during, and after practice to tell me that if I didn't understand something- just ask. It is a really nice feeling to know that he really cares about me "getting" things. It helps my confidence on the court so I don't feel as stupid if I don't understand something.

Also, apparently it is the "mode" here to shower in the gym after practice, instead of going straight home. Doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me since most people go right home anyway, but what the heck, when in Rome! So I brought my shower stuff and hung out for a bit with the girls in the locker room, and had a chance to talk to a few of them more than usual. I guess that's the point, so maybe if I continue to do this I will get to know the girls a little better.

So, after my social time in the locker room, now I know that this team does like to party (which is cool!) and that some of the best clubs and discos are really close to where I live! On the drive home (I rode with a teammate), she pointed out the best clubs and what days they are open and what kind of music they play, so now when I feel healthy and have learned how to get around a bit better, I know where to go :)

Anyway, back to handball. Tomorrow is our first match against a team in the division below us- hopefully it won't be too hard, although I've heard they are a really physical team. We'll see, I guess. It is just outside Nimes, so about 40 minutes away from here.

Hopefully I will wake up tomorrow loving food again, because I'm going to need some energy to play a game!! Wow, I'm really excited, I really didn't think I'd be playing a game this soon!!