Professional Soccer Update from Kristen Parr
04/22/16 | Women's Soccer
Kristen Parr is currently playing professional soccer in Lugano, Switzerland. Parr was a four-year letter winner for the Ducks and left her mark on the program. As a freshman, Parr led the team with 14 points and seven goals. She followed that up by leading the team in points again as a sophomore, becoming just the fourth player in UO soccer history to lead in the team in goals in consecutive seasons. As a junior, she was third on the team in points with six and in 2015, she made the switch to center back for her final season and logged the most minutes on the team. She was one of two senior captains on the team last fall.
Below, Parr outlines what her life and soccer in Switzerland is like:
Hello from Lugano,
I have been over here for more than five weeks already, crazy how the time can go by without even realizing it. I am living in an apartment with three other girls, one is also from the U.S. and the others are from different countries.
Lugano is beautiful. It is a smaller city right on a gorgeous lake with mountains all around. Most of my days include walking down to the lake and reading or writing or looking things up on the computer with coffee on the lake, it's a life that I can't really complain about.
With our soccer schedule, there is also time to make work for traveling. Going to different countries and seeing the different cultures and lifestyles in the different places has been one of my favorite things so far. Along with seeing everything with traveling is getting to try different foods and coffees and drinks and it is all so yummy.
So far I have spent time and explored Florence, Rome, Lucerne, Zurich, Amsterdam, and smaller towns on different lakes close to Lugano. I want to travel as much as the time allows for and already have some other trips booked as well. I feel so spoiled getting to do all that I do, but I figure I am in Europe for only so long and I need to the most of what I can and go for it. My mom and brothers also came over for their spring break, it was so nice seeing familiar faces and getting to spend quite a bit of time with them. It's been awhile since we've all spent that much time together so I am very grateful that they had the opportunity to come and that we could all be here and around Switzerland together.
The soccer aspect of this experience has been interesting, and very fun. It is hard to play when you cannot understand what your teammates are saying to you and cannot communicate very much back to them. With time, I am hoping to keep learning more words and keep the communication on the field simple but something I can understand at the same time. Even the coaches do not speak much or any English so it is all interesting. The whole language barrier is definitely part of the overall experience though which is cool to be a part of.
The soccer is also different, I don't know exactly how to describe it. All I know is that I love playing and am having fun and trying to enjoy it as much as I can. There are girls from quite a few different places on the team. A majority are from Lugano and Italy though. It is a club and a team that is trying to grow and to bring in more players from around the world that will push the club to better standings and quality of overall soccer.
I have just about two and a half months left over here and have no idea what is going to happen or how it is going to go, but I am open to anything and everything and we will see how it all ends up. Much love from lakeside in Lugano, I'll be back in Oregon before we all know it.
Go Ducks!
