Greetings from 'the coldest city in Poland'!

Upon my immediate arrival into Warsaw's Chopin Airport in the late August warmth, I was let in on a little secret: Suwalki - the city where I would be living for the next eight months - had hit the balmy heights of -29C last winter.

Let me repeat that: -29C. That wasn't included in the contract I signed! I'll admit my first thought was, "What have I got myself into now?"

Funnily enough, that question would be asked of me many times in the first few weeks in Poland by journalists eager to find out what the "first British volleyball player in Polish League history" was doing in Suwalki? Good question!

To get to Suwalki, arrive in Warsaw and go east. For four to five hours. Suwalki is nestled in the north east corner of Poland, very near to Lithuania and Belarus. Suwalki itself is a charming mix of beautiful lakes and hills, slightly depressing communist architecture standing alongside more modern buildings in fantastically wild colours.

The Poles are a very proud, friendly people who enjoy all the latest gadgets, but I do not get the feeling that they are rushing to buy anything American or British like some of the other 'newer' countries of Europe. They do enjoy football from our shores, however, as they claim their league in Poland is horrific.

I can confirm that it's not the best football I've ever seen. Then again it's hard to compete with the boys down at Stamford Bridge!

One of the possible reasons for the decline of Polish football is the rise of volleyball. This is probably the first country I've played in professionally where I can confidently say that volleyball is the national sport, with a little competition from strong man competitions and a weird penchant for competitive arm wrestling.

The coverage of volleyball compares to that of the Premiership in England. The top division in Poland now attracts some of the world's best players and is widely regarded as one of the top three or four best leagues in the world. It was with this knowledge (and little else!) that I accepted an offer to play for a team in the Polish second division who would be pushing for promotion this season.

Poland is my seventh different country in seven seasons. I always laugh when I read those idiotic pieces about how a footballer has to live close to his mum's house. The life of a British volleyball player is a constant battle with new people, places, faces and languages.

I fancy myself to be a bit of an amateur linguist and, having spent a lot of time in the half-Polish city of Chicago in my youth, I felt I was prepared for Polish. Let me cut a long story short - this is going to take a little while.

Their alphabet has something like four Zs. Granted, on the first day I was taught all the 'adult' words by my new team-mates, but to speak Polish itself will be a challenge. I had better get studying, as my first coach doesn't speak a word of English, neither do half the players on the team.

Within the first week I was in Poland I did about 25 interviews. Why I chose to come to Poland? How do I like Polish women? (no comment!) and what words in Polish do I know? (um...). The guys on the team took great pleasure in winding me up about it, or at least I think that's what they were doing!

I was being rolled out as some sort of Victorian side show, but once I played a few pre-season matches with the team and the supporters saw that I'm not just here for the money (ha!), most of the press attention has relaxed.

There have been many bizarre encounters for me around town. I walk into a shop and the person behind the desk says "Hello Andrew Pink". So it's been slightly odd but it's not a big city (70,000) so I guess that's to be expected.

Women love athletes here and the volleyball players are THE superstars. The guys from the Polish national team would struggle to walk down the street I reckon.

The club, Slepsk Suwalki, have made a rapid rise up the Polish volleyball pyramid having been formed only in 2004. After five league matches we are undefeated and have only dropped one point in a 3-2 victory. We have also progressed to the fifth round of the Polish cup competition. The danger is pushing too hard for the first division too fast and then bankrupting the club, which in volleyball happens a lot more frequently than you'd think.

Whichever way you look, money is such an issue in sport. Personally, I'm certainly not doing it for the money, but for the lure of the Olympic dream. Many Olympic athletes earn very little money from their sport and will end their career with nothing in the bank and no assets.

They're lucky if they have some sort of education to fall back on. It's all very well and good when you are young but the lack of professional sporting opportunities for volleyball in the UK will have a major say in what happens after London.

I'll be 29 then and how much longer can I really sacrifice the future security of a potential family to make a pittance to play this sport? It really is disgusting what those footballers make. One week of Mr Rooney's salary is probably more than most will earn in a career in volleyball.

But that's a discussion for another time. For now I'll be stocking up on warm clothes in preparation for the harsh winter which is closing in faster and faster every day. It's a good thing Poland is a tea drinking country (Twinings has just moved its entire operation to Poland) otherwise I'd freeze out here, so spare a thought for me when you're complaining about how cold London is!


Andy Pink, who plays for Slepsk Suwalki in Poland, is Britain's vice-captain

British Volleyball is represented by davidwelchmanagement.com