Texans in the snow

Being a Texan, I have never experienced a true winter, yet alone lived in one. The times I’ve been around snow in the past were from the occasional family ski trips I have been on. I was nervous to head back to Hanover after our long winter break because I have been told how brutal the winter is here, but it really hasn’t been bad. Despite the one dreadful week with a high of 3 degrees, the winter has been quite nice to me. I have been making it a goal of mine to do outdoorsy activities despite the cold weather to help persuade myself that winter is not evil and can actually be fun. So far, Kayden, Holly and I have gone skiing a few times at Mount Killington in Vermont. It was a blast! I also went ice-skating at Occom pond, which is just a few minutes walk from my freshman dorm cluster. The night of the first major snowfall in Hanover, a large student population met up on the green at midnight and had a giant snowball fight. The whole freshman volleyball clan went and ran around like crazy. Because it was dark, I didn’t know who it was that I was pegging with snowballs, but that was the best part. Pretty much all the freshman teamed up against Kaira and ended up tackling her every time we saw her. 

Both Holly and I have celebrated our birthdays this winter, which has been a great excuse to go out to eat and get away from Foco. Both of our birthday festivities were really fun!

On a side note, the freshman volleyball players all performed in the Athlete Talent Show at the end of January. Personally, I think we were robbed because we totally deserved to win it. We sang and danced to the song “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls and changed up the lyrics some. Alli stole the show with her mad singing skills and I rapped a small portion of it. I was so nervous before we got on stage but now it seems silly because the whole show was meant to be laidback and fun. 

Check out our performance video on the DP2 Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4507943536864

Winter volleyball training has been going really well. I can already see improvement in my strength and feel as though the individual training sessions are really improving my hitting technique and overall performance. I can’t wait for spring practices!

Winter Carnival is this weekend and I am determined to do the “polar bear plunge.” Hopefully I won’t chicken out.

Paige Caridi ‘16