Flying to Spain…
January 11, 2007
By Cayley Thurlby

Being on tour was very exciting for the first few days, and then just as I was getting to LOVE the girls and getting a feel for Europe I got an offer to go play in Spain. So after one day of practice and two days of playing I was sitting at dinner waiting for the rest of our group to join us when I got a call from Tim. “You wanna play in Spain?” I thought about it for a second and said, “Of course.” The entire reason for being on the trip was to go play on a team ASAP. And I knew the chances of a team needing a setter late in the season probably weren't that good. After a thirty second phone conversation I hung up the phone and realized that Tim just told me I would probably be on a plane as early as later that night... “Holy $hiz” I thought to myself.

Title: “Cayley’s Last Meal”

Tim showed up at the restaurant and told me that I was going to Spain at 11 the next morning, two hours after every one else left for Slovenia on a bus. I was going to be flying to Barcelona and then to Sevilla where my club director was going to pick me up and drive me an hour to Coroba.

Title: “The girls getting their disco on in Prague”

I left the hotel after 2 hours of sleep from a very fun night out in Prague with the girls (not gonna lie, I miss the group, we were just starting to have way too much fun:) I woke to catch a cab to the airport. I didn't exactly travel light like I was supposed to because I wanted to be prepared if I was going to stay and play. I got lucky with Smart Wings leaving Prague because my bags were only supposed to be 20 kilos (what a joke for us American girls), they let my overweight bag slide and even let me check an additional bag at no charge. My luck in Barcelona wasn’t so good, I had to pay 90 Euros with Vueling Airlines to get my bags checked, and then the flight took off over an hour late.

Arriving in Sevilla I found Rafa, my coach and director pretty quickly, and we jumped in his Land Rover and headed for Cordoba (nice ride huh, the team seemed pretty professional at that point). Rafa took me by a bar right across from the gym for some tapas because it was already 11 by the time we got to Cordoba. From there he took me to my apartment and I met my new roommates and teammates Veronica from Argentina and Lordes from Spain.

The next day I slept until 3. I did not get to bed until late and had a hard time falling asleep, I was nervous and excited about the next day and a little confused about my new environment.

I met Ashley Michaels (she played in France last year after graduating from Kansas) and we hung out for most of the day. From there I went to my first practice where I was given uniforms and greeted by the newspaper photographers - talk about a change of pace. I have yet to sign a contract but hopefully it will happen in the next few days and I will play with this team until March and hopefully into playoffs…