Bugg Checks In

Hi Stanford Fans!

I'm writing this blog from my living room in Dresden, Germany where I am currently playing professionally. I'm actually exhausted right now and I swear my legs are sinking through the floor they're so heavy. I'm going to share some insight as to what a typical day in my life looks like as a professional player because I knew next to nothing about what it meant to continue playing after graduating college.

So, I usually wake up around 7 a.m. and while I eat breakfast, I FaceTime someone that I know who lives on the West Coast because they are still awake due to the time difference. I go to morning practice, which is about an hour to and hour and a half and mainly consists of me trying to set into hoops. Sometimes we do defense or watch film or something, but mostly, I set into hoops. Then I head to the weight room, depending on how far away our next match is the workout could be light or heavy - today it was really heavy. Two or three times a week I then have a physical therapy appointment to keep me healthy and feeling good. Next, I have a few hours to myself before our afternoon practice where I can run errands or take a nap or call my family on the East Coast or binge watch Stranger Things 2... and then it's time for more volleyball. From 4:30 p.m. to approximately 7 p.m., we have team practice which changes based on the day and who we play next. After practice I come home, make dinner, do laundry, FaceTime yet again, clean up my apartment, read, and think about how tired I am. Every day is a little different. It's honestly a lot like college but with a lot more volleyball and no school.

Living abroad is a life experience unlike any other. I am constantly a fish out of water. Most Germans speak English, which constantly makes me feel guilty for only knowing minimal Spanish and Sign Language (shout out to Kathy!), but I still don't know what's going on 80 percent of the time. Some of my friends that also play abroad have coined the term "foreigner anxiety," which refers to the ever-present nerves in your stomach that fluctuate widely whenever you leave your apartment. I get nervous about the strangest things. For instance, will the automatic doors to the building open for me, or am I doing it wrong? Living abroad forces you to face uncomfortable situations and teaches you to laugh at yourself when you do something embarrassing, which is often. I have a lot of time to myself to read and learn about things I'm interested in, watch movies I've been meaning to watch, explore the city, desperately try to learn how to cook as well as my mother, catch up with friends I haven't talked to in ages, sleep more than I have the past eight years in high school and college, and follow the Stanford women's team as if I were still on it.

I have been so unbelievably lucky when it comes to the people that I have been surrounded by here. My club has a long history of Americans playing here including Katie Slay from Penn State, Gina Mancuso from Nebraska, Molly Kreklow from Mizzou, and more. I reached out to some of them before choosing to play here in Dresden and only heard great things, which I can now confirm are all true. The city is beautiful, the club is expertly run, the coach and team are hard-working, etc. Katie Slay and I played for the same club team when we were younger, so she gave me a list of things to do for fun, which included exploring the river that the city is built around. One day, I was walking by the river and a toddler ran up to me and I thought he was lost for a minute, but his family quickly followed. Me and the mother started talking and I now call them my adopted German family. I go to coffee at their apartment, they come to my matches, the team thinks it's hilarious. What was truly hilarious was me learning how to drive a stick-shift. That was terrible.

I hope you enjoyed a little insight to the mysterious/glamorous life of a professional volley-er. I can't seem to say I'm done playing just yet, and I hope that this will help anyone who feels the same as their college career comes to a close, there is still more volley out there!

As always, GO CARD!!!

Madi Bugg