Pia Sundstedt

When I lived in Italy I realized that volleyball is a big sport and especially very popular among the italians. I saw a few matches and it was exciting to watch. It is a very fast game and the players at the top level are very very good.
15 years later the volleyball fever has reached my hometown Kokkola. This sport is big now, as the Tigers from Kokkola (Kokkolan Tiikerit) won the 4th game in the final. They won the Finnish championship title last night in front of 4200 spectators and I watched it live on TV here in Doha (thanks technology). The town supported the club by changing our ice hockey arena into a volleyball arena for the finals.
As a former athlete I do not really get excited about some Finnish championship titles. I guess I have just too many of them and at a certain point those medals doesn’t mean anything to you. You aim for wins in bigger events.
Now I don’t want to underestimate the performance of our tigers. I am very very proud of them and want to thank them for putting our town in Central Ostrobothnia on the Finnish map again. This victory is not only a happy moment for the club, it is also a extremely positive thing for our town. Volleyball is a big sport in the world you know.
Friday night the club will be celebrating their victory on the market place together with their fans. This is something you as an individual athlete never will be able to experience, unless you are a world star. As an individual athlete you celebrate with yourself, sharing your emotions with yourself. So tiger-fans go out there on Friday and celebrate our team. I would go if I Would be closer to my Kokkola-home.

I only made a 3 day long visit to Finland and Kokkola. This weekend spring arrived here. The snow is gone and the sea will soon be icefree. Summer is coming.
I went mtn bike a couple of times and I will miss my bike a lot. Only 1 month left and we will go home to Germany on vacation. Our 29ers are waiting for us there. Can hardly wait to hit some trails in Black forest.

I haven’t been updating my homepage for some weeks. The reason is that I just do not have much time for it anymore. I am getting busy, really busy. After a long winter with a lot of ups and downs I have finally started to like the life here in Doha. It has come to a point where I say, I could not imagine a life anywhere else.

The reason for this is very simple, I have something to do, I have a task and I have a goal.

Something, is work. I am working part time as a coach at Aspire Sports Academy. At the girls talent center we have girls (grade 1-6) coming over for training. We introduce different sports to them and teach them that sports and exercise is fun and the key for a healthy lifestyle. Maybe some of them will choose the path of becoming athlete. Time will show.

The task I am talking about is as challenging as qualifying for the Olympic games. As you all know, Qatar is the hosting country for the Cycling World Championships in 2016. The host country wants to have a woman’s team at the start line. Time is running an all this has to be done in only 3,5 years. This task is challenging and we have now built a team to achieve this goal together. We are starting from zero. First we have to find the girls and then we can start the work.

Goal is to build on my master’s degree and become a qualified teacher.

Many things to do and now I start to understand why people always are looking forward to the weekends 🙂

I am back in Doha since 2 weeks. I really needed a break from the life in the dust. Three weeks of winter activities, familiar surroundings and just being in the part of the world where you feel “most home” was exactly what I needed after 3 months of non stop Doha.

In the 2 weeks here there is a significant change. I have finally got my residence permit. I am part of the society now! I should really celebrate this. Just by showing this id card doors of opportunities does open for you. 

What more is going in in Doha in the spring time? IKEA has opened. It was like Christmas for us. Finally some real furniture. You see, arabic style furniture is really not my/our taste, so after 2 months of living in an apartment with hardly no furniture we finally have our apartment furnished. How great isn’t it just to sit at your dining table and sip on your morning coffee…

Some of our friends also has invited us for dinner. Once we had hungarian gulasch and once serbian specialities. The thing I like about Doha is the international atmosphere and having the opportunity to become friends with people from all over the world.