The Revival!

I’m BACK!!!! Hiiiiiiii. Hahaha. So sorry for the long absence and the abrupt ending of my blog. I warned you from the beginning that it might fall off…. I’ve always wanted to keep a diary but couldn’t never be all that diligent. Well, with a new world traveling experience just beginning, I’ve decided to give the blog another ‘go’.

So how is everyone out there? Thank you for taking the time to read my blog!!!! I was actually shocked to hear that so many of you were sad I stopped. As I mentioned in one of my last entries, my parents and friends basically kidnapped after I was done competing Aug. 15^th, 2008 in Beijing. I can’t complain though; we had an awesome time!!!  However, since I was out of the athlete village my last week in China, I didn’t have computer access to keep up with entries. Then once I got back to California, all I did was sleep for two weeks straight, waking for only brief periods to refuel on food and water…oh all that other homeostasis stuff! (Oh I miss Ms. Silva, my 9^th grade honors biology professor! “Ms. Silva, may I please leave the room to go maintain homeostasis??) HAHA….random tangent, you had to be there I guess. J Anyway, bottom line, after my two week recovery period, I think I was too China’d-out to relive the experience through the blog. I don’t even think I put pics on facebook til like November. But enough excuses! I’m currently trying to compress and shuffle through the 2000+ pictures I took during my first Olympic experience into a sort of photo “movie”…. It will be like a basic slideshow hopped-up on Red Bull…. I’m about to give that slideshow ‘wings.’ Give me about another 2 weeks….just because I’m overseas now, working with the pics I have, but I forgot another camera in the States that I still need to upload. I figure, you’ve almost a year to see them…what’s another two weeks. Hahaha. No. that’s not it at all. I’m just lazy sometimes. Forgive me.

So now for the fun stuff! Catch-up time! So since Beijing, I had been living with an awesome family in Menlo Park, CA. They have 3 girls: Eliza (9) and twins, Natalie and Mariah (7).  I picked the girls up from school a couple days a week during the past year and we had a lot of fun. They are really funny, smart, and creative! In the fall, I coached a 4^th/5^th grade volleyball team at Oak Knoll elementary with another great person in Menlo Park named Theanne. She is nice and has an amazing family. Her daughter and Eliza are best friends and played on the team together. Theanne also has the cutest 4 yr old in the world, who might just be one of my best friends!!! Hi Will!!!! Also, her oldest son his super smart and really artistic. I’ve spent several nights babysitting at their house. Anyway, coaching volleyball was such a refreshing and FUN experience. We had a great group of 10 girls. It was mind-boggling to watch them develop their skills. Some of them had never really done a sport before, but within 6 short practices, we had all of them serving over the net and by the end they were all amazing rally players. They seemed to have a lot of fun and won all but maybe 2 or 3 of their games. Leaving them at the end of the season was hard. They were so fun and adorable. It was my first coaching experience and I loved every minute of it! 

When volleyball was over, I was recruited, by John Paye, as the JV assistant basketball at The Menlo School, a private school in Menlo Park. There, I got to work with another group of rising stars. Their head coach, Bob, taught me a lot about play making. He’s a really talented coach and it was great to work with him. They were so energetic and hard working…can’t ask for more as a coach J! Once the high school season was over, it was time for me to continue with my training for this current track season.

            I’m still training at Stanford with my coach Edrick Floreal. He’s so amazing (Even when he’s mad at me!) haha I just know that there is so much I can learn from him seeing as he was a great, world-class long and triple jumper, competing in one Olympic games for each event and 3 world championships. Even more, he is a very detail oriented teacher but also understands the value of having fun. He is also good about trying creative approaches to get me to understand different concepts (sometimes maybe a little too creative….like he just had dream about something and would use me as a test-dummy to see if it would work on a real person) hahaha. On June 26^th, I took 2^nd place at the US National championships and qualified to compete at the 2009 World Championships Aug. 15^th – 23^rd in Berlin. It wasn’t the performance I wanted but it was a great learning experience and somewhat “life altering”. I have had a good year of training thus far, although it was delayed a few months due to the severe tear in my left hamstring last July. I decided, after jumping at US Nationals, that it was time to commit myself to being a world-class triple jumper. As part of that decision, I will be deferring my acceptance into graduate school (in which I was planning to receive an MFA in Advertising). It was a hard choice to make but I realize that since triple jumpers don’t usually hit their peak/excel at the event until they are 27-29, this is the time in my life when I really need to be a student of the event. I really don’t know how to triple jump properly. I never realized how complicated it is…. Like a golf swing, you have to try, but not try hard at the same time…. You have to have to be confident but not bold….you must believe, but not expect. Yeah, that and about 500,000 other complicated/ conflicting notions such as timing that I typically over think. So bottom line, for the time being, grad school is ‘out,’ track is ‘in,’ and I’ll have to find a job geared towards anything fashion/sports marketing related to keep me busy.

  Soooooooooooo where in the world am I now?! I’m currently in the tiny, charming town of Donnas, Italy. I’m sitting in a “lavanderia” paying 10 euros (about $18 USD) to wash and dry a load of clothes! That earns a very sarcastic “Awesome!!!!” L hahaha. Yup, after competing at US Nationals, I packed my bags for Europe. I left on July 4, 2009 (yeah how patriotic) for Copenhagen, Denmark. From there, I met up with competition organizers for a drive to Karlskrona, Sweden (found out just after leaving that a friend from school had family only

20min away). It was a beautiful place and our hotel was near a beautiful lake that led out to what someone told me was the Baltic Sea. Whatever it was, there were giant swans and little babies swimming about; it was adorable! My competition in Karlskrona was Monday, July 6^th. I got 2^nd in the long jump and 1^st in the triple jump. It was raining a lot during the meet, so that was not so fun. Coming off a long trip from the states, I was a bit wobble-legged (not a word but I think its descriptive. Haha). Therefore, my marks were low but, hey, I’m here to make a little money and got the job done.

The next day, we (my agent and some of this other athletes) took a 3-hour train ride back to the Copenhagen airport to fly to Geneva, Switzerland. From there it was a 2 hour drive to Albertville, France. Albertville was the host of the 1992 Winter Olympics and is located on the mid/southeastern border of France in the Rhone-Alpes. I like it there! I came this meet last year as well. Being familiar with the area, really helped me feel at ease and my French is really improving. Oh and by the way, my new agent’s name is Jeff Hartwig. He’s a super cool guy and was a pole-vaulter on the 1996 & 2008 US Olympic teams and the silver medalist at the 1999 Indoor World Championships. Anyway, in Albertville I only did the triple jump. My legs certainly felt more powerful. I won and although I only jumped 14.00m (45’11”), I was somewhat happy with the performance because I felt stronger than I did in Sweden and I did a better job than I’ve done lately at remaining positive and having fun.

  The next morning, a large number of the athletes that competed in Albertville, hopped on a big bus to make the 3-hour drive to Donnas, Italy. I also did this meet last year. This time around, I was able to appreciate the town more, since I knew I was only staying for 3 days. Last time, I had to stay almost a week and a half, which included 6 days absolutely alone, with no transportation, not much food, and no internet access. My only source of transportation was a little bike, meant for a 10 year old. This town has so many hills, since it sits in the Alps, and half the time I had to run the bike up hill since it was took steep to ride up. I also got chased on knocked of the bike by 3 dogs that roam around in one of the vineyards next to the track…..sooooooooo NOT my cup of tea. Tiny places like this can be hard to navigate on your own, especially since the French I know doesn’t help me with Italian at all.

However, since I survived that experience last year, I knew this year would be a breeze! I know my way around so well, that I even knew when and how to ask the bus driver to stop so I could get to the “lavanderia” which is where I am now. The competition is tomorrow and they only have the long jump. Since I’m not feeling 100% and I have to long jump again in Liege, Belgium on the 15^th (only 3 days later), I plan to take it a little easy tomorrow. As for today, I woke up and had a luxurious breakfast of everything the hotel had to offer. LOL. Ok so it was only a hard roll with some berry jam and coffee. But I must say, that each time I come here the coffee it GREAT! And I come prepared. After my roll, I went back to my room to enjoy a chocolate peppermint stick Luna bar and some awesome trail mix (I’ve been living on the supply I brough over here). Then I relaxed with a book I just started (Agatha Christie’s Three Blind Mice and Other Stories). I know its crazy old, and I probably read some of her books when I was younger, but I love mysteries and wanted to spend some time on this trip reliving my elementary school years when I wanted to read every Nancy Drew book I could get my hands on! After a bit, it was time for lunch, which would no doubt include an unhealthy portion of pasta. But dude! Pasta here is so fresh and cooked al’dente; it’s perfect! YUUUMMMMMM.

Well, I just put my clothes in the dryer. After they’re done, I’ll make the walk to the track so that I can workout and get internet access to send this long entry & make a few Skype calls. Shockingly, the track is the only place to get internet and they cut it off the evening of competition. Tragedy! Well that’s all for now! Thanks for ready my mini-novel “catch-up” edition. I assure, as I continue to keep up with this blog through my trip to Berlin in August, the entries will be only a fraction of the size! J 

Peace, love, and pancakes! ~Erica Ashley