Guten tag!

Berlin. What a week! Julius, my shuttle driver for the week here told me about his experience of the Berlin Wall coming down. He said he didn't realize how important or how big of a deal it was at the time in 1989. He was 12 years old and said the best part, to him, was that he would be able to see his aunt and uncle, who lived in West Berlin, for the first time since he was a kid.

He also drove us past "Check Point Charlie" and told us some crazy stories of what went on there. What struck me was listening to Julius tell these stories of his family and how they dealt with Communism falling and how personal it was. These were things I had only read about. It kinda puts frolicking in the sand into perspective real quick.

Random thought here, but how is it that every single German I have run into has spoken perfect English? Seriously, I'd like to know what they are feeding these people in the school system here.

We took a ninth this week after losing 18-16 in the third to Spain [Pablo Herrera and Raul Mesa]. It was a stinger, but we're still playing well and having fun. I guess that's kind of important.

Beach volleyball comes down to one or two plays so often. It's fun to watch players in those situations and see their mental strength, because it is grueling how often it comes down to one block, one dig, or one something. We happened to get aced down the middle on a rocket jump serve from Herrera for the match, but I was thinking more about the other players I got to watch this weekend, like Todd Rogers. He was super solid with some key sideouts in the final. They fell just short to the Brazilians [Ricardo Santos and Emanuel Rego], but what a great volleyball match! It was an incredibly high level of volleyball by both teams.

Anyways, we are now in Paris practicing for this week's Grand Slam. We are staying with family of Ed Ratledge. Great people, and there's nothing like a home-cooked meal. By the way, the courts are set at the base of the Eiffel Tower. That doesn't suck.

How fortunate I feel to be a professional volleyball player! To travel around the world, have all these experiences and to get paid for it?! It doesn't seem fair, but I'll take it.