I’m not really sure how to do the whole week #? deal since we had a break for Christmas... so, that little part of my blog is going out the window. What isn’t, however, are the pieces of advice that I have been acting on since I’ve been here. The theme of this blog (as the title says, of course) write things down and stay in touch with people.
I came back from home refreshed and ready for the longest stretch of our season, and with that came lots of new adventures... here are the bullet points I jotted down along the way
-Our ‘tougher’ team mentality has done wonders for us to start this year off. We had an offensive explosion against Racing in our first week back. Though we gave up too many baskets (they scored 72 points), we were efficient on most of our possessions scoring 92. The best part was that is was a total team effort offensively, which is a focal point for us moving into the playoffs.
-All-Star Day was really fun. I had a great time playing and chatting with some of the girls on the other teams. Our coaches were having fun with the game as well, so it was enjoyable not only on the court, but also on the bench.
-In Luxembourg, as I’ve seen so many times, things can be very different from, well, everywhere. My biggest example from the past few weeks is the 3-point contest on All-Star Day. First of all, I was amused at the ‘racks’ that we would be taking the balls out of... and by racks, I mean shopping carts. Secondly, not all the racks had 5 basketballs in it, as I found out the hard way when realizing I had no 5th ball, or “money ball” as the Americans were calling it, at my 3rd spot. Thirdly, I was confused to hear my score, 39, when my 60 seconds were up. If I took only 24 shots, how did I score 39? To my surprise, each shot counted as 3, unlike most contests where each shot counts as 1 and the money ball counts as 2. Finally, to my and the other Americans’ surprise, there was no such thing as a “money ball.” I was sitting on the bench thinking, it’s a 3pt contest... what do you mean there is no money ball? Every where else has a money ball! Welp, this is Luxembourg! I ended up making it to the finals of the contest, losing to one of the guys from Sparta’s team. Even without the money ball, it was still a great time!-Going to the trainer, or as they call it here, the physio, is some painful stuff! After a good conditioning workout on a Tuesday morning, my knee began to hurt, so my coach got me an appointment to see the physio. My problem, tight hamstrings and calf muscles... the solution, something way worse than anything my college trainer threw at me. For all you Princeton athletes, it was muscle scraping on steroids. I’ve never been so bruised after a therapy session. But, hey, it worked and I’m feeling much better and a lot more loose!
-Revenge is sweet! T71 was a team that beat us in the opening part of the season, and we were looking to have a good game against them. Just like the Racing game, we had a well-balanced offensive explosion, except this time, we played defense as well. What made the night even better was that our men’s team pulled off a big upset of the #1 ranked T71 men’s squad. In a nerve-racking but exciting game, the Walfer guys gained a 17 point lead in the 3rd quarter and held on for a 1 point vicotry when the final buzzer sounded. That win gave them a great chance to squeak their way into the top 6 and make playoffs!
-French is a tough language to learn, but Fluenz definitely makes it easier. The one thing it doesn’t help me with... my Spanish accent while speaking French. Really?!? I haven’t taken Spanish in 3 years and I have that accent when learning another language.
-Though Luxembourg does things differently than other places, some of those things are awesome! Instead of a team conditioning session on a Wednesday night, we had a Tae Bo instructor and a DJ come into our gym for a 1 hour 30 min class. We kicked, punched, and sweated our butts off, but it was way more fun that running for that amount of time. I hope we do it again soon!
-I love meeting family members of my friends. We all tend to be a lot like our family even though we may not think we are that similar. I got to see this first hand with the Scheuren family when they took me out to dinner after Tae Bo. The food was amazing, and the company was even better. When Paulina and her sisters interacted, even though they are very different, you could tell that they were family by their mannerisms and body language. -I’ve been over here for a few months, but still at each morning workout, anytime the men’s coach tells me to grab a “lady ball” (aka women’s basketball) I crack up. For some reason the image of a basketball with the coloring of a lady bug pops up in my head and I always have to hide my laughing from him.
-We crushed Telstar... enough said there.
-I love how when you’re alone, you will watch an entire football game and remember most plays. When you with a group of people watching a game, however, you do a lot less watching and a lot more talking/joking/arguing etc. That is how the Pats v. Ravens game went when I watched it with several other of the Americans. What I do know, the Pats won and the Superbowl is in 2 weeks! Can’t wait for that one!
-It’s a small world after all... it’s not just a song, it’s a fact. On a back street in Antwerp, Belgium, I ran into a group of exchange students studying in Amsterdam. Not only were they headed to Luxembourg the next day, but we got to talking and one of them is friends with Niveen Rasheed, my former teammate from Princeton. I couldn’t get over it, how funny and random that encounter was!
-I finally got my Kindle and I can’t wait to read all of the books suggested by friends... the first one I bought, Mere Christianity by CS Lewis. My former roomie, Shelbie, suggested it to me and so far, so good.
Not only have people been sending me book suggestions, but I’ve been able to Skype and instant message with a ton of friends from back home. Though I’m not homesick, it’s always nice to hear from everyone back in the States.... it was also good to know that some of my Princeton peeps made it through Dean’s Date and final exam period alive.
I can’t wait to hear from more people and I also can’t wait to have more adventures to blog about!
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