And I'm Back!

With it being just over 2 YEARS since my last post, I figured I would quit being a lazy fool and start telling other people about it. UPDATE: I just finished my second season with Chico State Women's Basketball as an assistant coach (also my last season in the program). We have camps coming up in June, after which, I will be a free woman. I plan to travel and I plan to see things I have been dying to see for years. Other than that, please start to look for more updates. 

Interesting fact: I am currently exploring the "gluten-free diet". Not super hardcore yet, but my obsession with food is out of control and I am attempting to show the food who's boss. I will let you know how it goes and maybe even post some delictable pics of my amazing cooking skills. 

We're Back! PART 2

Four months later...

Hello all! I am currently living in Chico, CA which also happens to be my lovely hometown. I work sometimes, I work out a lot, but for the most part I just enjoy the time I have with my friends and family. I made a trip to socal...which was MUCH needed. I am working for Bacio catering and attempting to get another job working in a Physical Therapy office. I plan to spend at least a few weeks down in Irvine for basketball camps...and that is all I know.

What is happening with basketball, you might ask? I currently have an agent through the Getaplay agency. She is based in Germany...and it looks like my next playing job could be in that very country. I am very excited to be presented with more opportunity to further my playing career and go for round two of international experience. I will keep this updated more, now that I actually have something people might care about.

Graduation was this past weekend here in Chico, so the town is perfect. Ghost town. Locals only. But I am ready for another vacation. Yes, I am aware I am super greedy when it comes to traveling. I would like to make at least one "big" trip this summer if I don't head to Europe early enough...in which cas I would just make the rounds there...something I never had the opportunity to do with the previous playing stint. Anyways, that is all for now...it's a boring life right now, but I can't say I hate all the free time :)

We're Back!

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted. I apologize if this blog seems scattered...I am currently trying to listen to the UC Irvine/Long Beach game online and Jade just hit her 3rd three pointer. I will try to give you a run-down of the past three weeks as best I can. If anything, it's been nothing short of a roller coaster.

We flew back on the afternoon of January 1st, which clearly put some dampers on my New Years plans and had me waking up friends at 7 AM in Chico to collect my forgotten things before my flight out of San Francisco at 3 PM. I hadn't seen Osier in the full 17 days and it was like we hadn't skipped a beat...except for some good new stories on both ends. Our flight back was exponentially more enjoyable than the flight TO the states. Again, we did not have seats together, but I was offered a window seat by a nice couple from Napa, who wanted to sit together...so Osier and I ended up a couple rows apart only. Unlike the flight the other way, this plane had personal TV screens for every passenger...which was glorious. I watched Angels and Demons, The Taking of Phelam 123, and the original Alice in Wonderland. The first is a religious conspiracy thriller, the second is a bloody action packed film, and the third is a Disney classic. Naturally, the one that creeped me out the most was the 3rd.

We arrived in Vienna on Saturday afternoon...about 1 PM. No bags were lost and we were minimally bothered by the customs officers. (They let us pass after I answered all their questions. IN GERMAN.) The rest of the afternoon was spent sleeping, thus creating the worst sleep schedule I have ever experienced, which lasted a little over a week. We practiced Monday and played in Bratislava on Tuesday, losing to a team which we previously beat by 20. The way this game was played/coached/refereed made me really wonder what I am doing here. I'm still wondering so any enlightenment would be helpful...

We played Wels that next Sunday. Fortunately for us, one of the Americans did not play due to a foot injury. We couldn't have lost if we tried, and at some points it looked like we were trying. We had a 23 point lead in the 3rd quarter, which was then cut to six points in the fourth quarter, but some free throws and a few defensive stops down the stretch sealed the victory for us. The win put us solely in second place, with Wels dropping to third. The Flying Foxes still sit in first place alone, even after our match-up a week later, which was so poor on our end that it doesn't even warrant a comment. Basically it went like this. They played a box-and-1. Our coach didn't even know. We lost.

Emotionally, we have both been high and low since we have been back. It didn't help that I had such an amazing time when I was home (both in Irvine AND Chico). After sharing our social frustrations with our teammates, they have made much more of an effort to spend time with us and keep us from solitude, which has made being here much easier, but Basketball wise, I have never had feelings towards the sport as I have now. I have never in my life felt apathetic towards basketball, but a part of me can't help but feeling that way now. There is really no light at the end of the tunnel, and Osier and I are running blind looking for it anyways. I am so thankful for my opportunity to play again, but I can't help but wish I was at home. Our excitement over our trip home clouded our vision of our existence here before, but the return has made everything clearer. Bottom line: 3 more months.

On a positive note, it has been snowing here constantly. Snow has never been something I have really had to deal with, considering the only two places I have lived are Chico and Orange County. We made a snowman and have a sledding trip planned for the next week. It also means that the weather has been *gasp* warmer than it was before. Either that or we are professionals at dressing for the cold now. We travel to Graz this Sunday for another game. More updates to follow...I promise. I know I have been slacking. Bis Dann!

Sidenote: We flew KLM (Royal Dutch) airlines. I have to say DUTCH is an insane language.

UC IRVINE WINS by the way!

Home For the Holidays

As I write this, I am 13 hours into the second of two plane rides that have taken me from Vienna to Los Angeles. We have one hour left until we land on American soil. Our first plane departed at 6:55 AM Vienna time on the 17th and we will arrive in LA at 12:30 PM on the same day. That makes this the longest day I have ever had in my life. 33 hours to be exact.

Imagine Osier and I sitting for 14 hours straight. And we don't have seats next to eachother… and we both pulled all nighters last night to try to plan our sleep patterns in accordance to the time changes. But besides the three children in the row behind me who keep kicking my seat, the ride has been steady, filled with on and off sleeping, a Harry Potter movie which I had no idea existed, and some German tunes. I can't wait to be on the ground though and finally head to Irvine!

We had two games since the last update. Both games were against the same team; Klosterneuberg. The first meeting was Sunday out at Happyland (again, best gym name ever). Considering we played poorly, it was big for us to walk away with the 23 point victory that we did. A 96 point offensive output doesn't sound too bad on paper, but boy, it was ugly. One of the (two, in my opinion) highlights of the game came right before the end of the third quarter. After our coach called a timeout with 1.4 seconds left to draw up an inbounds play from the sideline, Osier took the ball out on the baseline opposite our basket and proceeded to throw one of the most awesome baseball-style passes to the complete other end of the court to a waiting teammate under the basket for a layup. That shot put the game out of reach in our minds…we played the last 10 minutes even more fired up than before and cruised to victory. The second highlight, which doesn't even compare to the aforementioned event, came right at the end of the game. For some reason the other team felt the need to foul…all the way down to the last few seconds (down 20-23 points the whole time). With about 35 seconds left and following a Klo-berg basket, I received the inbounds pass and dribbled the length of the floor, dodging attempted fouls from every single opposing player the entire way, for an easy left handed layup.

Tuesday night, we went straight from our German class to meet some teammates at the University. From there, we walked through downtown in the freezing cold, past the infamous Rathaus Chriskindlmarkt at City Hall, to a little restaurant called Tokyo Running Sushi. Guess what we ate there. Running sushi is where the food comes around on little plates and you grab them off the line as they "run" by you. For a land-locked country, we didn't expect much, but the idea of all you can eat and the decent quality of the sushi they did have made it a delicious experience. That's not to say both Osier and won't be enjoying some super fresh California sushi at some point this trip.

Wednesday was possibly one of the longest days. We decided to pass on class that day, just to make sure everything was in order for our trip and to mentally prepare for the game later that evening. I knew Klosterneuberg was not going to go down easy for the third time in a row. The game finally started at 8:15 PM. We probably didn't score until 8:25 PM. We went into halftime down by five, but we knew there was still hope. We were the better team and we were playing way off our game. Oh, and did I mention we are down to 8 players? And only 7 played on Wednesday. Anyways, we crawled our way back from being down 11 at one point in the first half to being up by 13 in the second half. One of our post players, who had three fouls at halftime, then picked up two quick, ticky-tack fouls and was forced to leave the game. So 6 players for the fourth quarter. Up 5 with 1:30 to go in the game, they hit a transition three. On the other end, I drove the lane, spun, hit the layup over the front, and got the foul call, converting the 3 point play. That was their first foul of the quarter, which came back to bite them. We followed with a silly foul on a prayer 3 point attempt, and the opposing player converted all three free throws. Up two with about 45 seconds left, they began to foul. They needed to commit 4 fouls just in order to send us to the foul line, burning about 10 seconds along the way. I hit two free throws, we stopped them on defense, Julia hit two free throws, and their last chance opportunity failed. We won by 5.

This game was the first round of the Chevrolet cup, which I explained a bit in the previous post. We will now most likely take on Wels in the second round. Their coach was at the game scouting…rightfully so, I think we play them three times in January. Enough about basketball though. I am so excited to have a break. I will have the chance to see both the men's and women's UC Irvine teams in action and hopefully to make it to a Chico State practice. I may not update for a bit, unless something exciting happens that is worth writing about…so if you don't hear from me, MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR! I'm so thankful for what opportunities this year has brought my way. (Wrong holiday??)

Fast Forward 6 Hours: Now I am in Molly Goodenbour's apartment in Irvine...just spent my first dollars of the trip and had my first Mexican food, courtesy of Baja Fresh. Chipotle tomorrow. And the weather is beautiful!

12-12

It's true. I have officially gotten lazy when it comes to posting. I knew it was bound to happen. And I wish I had an excuse, but I have plenty of free time, enough to write about, and I just got a brand new computer. I hope you accept this apology. Now read!

The last game I wrote about was in Sopron. Since then, our ventures have taken us south to the second largest city in Austria, Graz, which also happens to be the hometown of current CA Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger. I attempted to regain my title as team DJ (which I haven't held since college...a whole year and a half) and make a road trip CD. The way there was pleasant. We stopped to meet the rest of our caravan at a gas station about half way, which was between the road and a beautiful field of pumpkin or some type of squash. This stop was sandwiched between hours of mountain climbing and descending through woods that looked like they were pulled straight from the Twilight books/movies. Anyways, it was dark once we arrived so we missed seeing the actual city. Once inside the gym, we were shown the gym, which had been taken over by archers. Yes, bows and arrows. We opted, for our own safety, to stay in the locker room until they were completely through with their training. The gym was then transformed into a basketball court and we were on our way. The game was ugly, to say the least and we walked away with a 93-65 victory. I felt the pressure to one-up myself from the previous game of 38 points and drop 39 (with seven 3's). One of our players who has been flying under the radar all season came away from the game with FOUR converted AND1 plays. Pretty amazing!!! The drive back was filled with silence, minus the road trip CD playing for the seventh and eighth times. Love those songs...so much, actually, that I unloaded the CD on our coach , who was more than thrilled to accept the gift.

The next week included a lot of discussion between Osier and myself over the increasing depression we were both feeling for having to miss Christmas with our families. So we decided to take care of the situation. After asking our coach's permission, we successfully booked each of our flights home for the holidays. My trip will take me from Vienna to Amsterdam, switch planes, and then to LA, where I will continue down to Orange County (Michelle will venture further to San Diego) to visit my basketball people, who I miss SO much. After 3 days spent there, in which I will see a Men's and Women's Anteater basketball game, I will hop on a Southwest flight to Sacramento where I will be met by my lovely father. I will then spend the next 10 or so days in Chico with my family and best friends before flying out of San Francisco back to Vienna for part 2 of the season. My goal was to surprise my mother, but she found out through, what else, Facebook! So Mom, yes I am coming home. And stop stalking me on Facebook, please.

Back to games. The next week seemed like one of the longest yet, but we were rewarded with a 2 game spread over 3 days. Friday we took on a team from Bratislava, Slovakia, which plays in the Bundesliga over in Slovakia and had previously been a member of the AWBL. We started off very slowly and it seemed like every prayer they were awkwardly hucking towards the basket was going in. At halftime we were up 11. The second half showed more promise as we took a 20 lead and never let them get any closer. The team was very young and will be good in time. We can look forward to playing them again, our first game in the new year, on Janurary 5th. On Saturday, we enjoyed a lovely day off and eventually ended up at a club to celebrate the birthday of one of the Basketclubs players who turned 23. So old.

Sunday we played (again) Vienna 87. Now THIS game was UGLY. The other team managed to put up 11 points in the first half while we scored a slick 57 and rolled to a final score of 96-35. This team is also loaded with promising young talent, but is missing someone to put the ball in the basket (which generally helps in Basketball). Our entire roster of 9 people received some quality playing time and every player scored. We had a 5 day weekend since German course had been cancelled Friday, as well as the following Monday and Tuesday. We made use of this time by doing absolutely nothing.

These next few days are crucial. We travel tomorrow to Klosterneuberg to play at Happyland again, a game we need to win, and then proceed to play the same Duchess team the next Wednesday in the first round of the Chevrolet Cup. A little about the cup: From what I understand, the cup is seperate from the actual league play. The seedings are based on the previous year, giving us a 3 seed. We will play for the opportunity to play Wels in the semi-final round, with the winner earning a spot in the finals. Furthemore, I believe the winner of the cup tournament also receives an automatic spot in the year ending Final Four playoff (which should make no difference since one of the predicted final four teams should win the cup). And of course there is money up for grabs for programs that win cup games...the real incentive. The morning following this cup game, which we host in Vienna, we will prepare our things and hop our flight to our deluded idea of a vacation. Just kidding...I can't wait. Ah, Mexican food and Mommys who take you shopping...and Daddys who take you eating...and my neice!

Bis dann (until then), check out the website: www.uk-flames.org as well as a link to my new favorite song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfS_fugJYOI.

"Yeah, well today is a holiday for us and we came to class"

Today is Thanksgiving. That means absolutely nothing to us. Except for in class today when the three boys from Turkey (yeah, hilarious on Thanksgiving) claimed that tomorrow is a holiday and they will be missing german course. THEN we didn't hesitate to point out that today is in fact a holiday in our world. In reality though, all that it means is that it is the day after Osier's birthday (22).

There hasn't been a post in over a week because we didn't play a game until last night, after our game in Wels was officially cancelled last Saturday. Again we travelled to Sopron, Hungary to take on one of the teams there. (Please see the previous post titled "Fun and Games...yes real games" to read about the first time we met this team). The previous meeting with this team ended up being one of the most frustrating games I have ever played and resulted with a UK Flames 2 point victory over the host. Since then, I would easily say our team has gotten 100 times better. I can't say that for the other team. The numbers in our camp were dwindled...from work and sickness. So playing with 8 players, we took a 3 point lead after a sluggish first quarter. The second quarter was equally difficult, as we struggled to find offensive production from anyone other than Osier, and I was still getting used to that evenings position, which was at the point guard.

Clearly the mineral water and the carefully planned pre-game meal at Burger King kicked in right before the second half. Any shot that hit the rim found the decency to go in. At one point I actually tripped over my own feet, caught no air, chucked the ball up to the rim, and barely caught myself in time to see it roll around the rim and fall through the net. This similar scene happened about 15 times for me on the night and about 10 times for Osier...it was insane. We combined for a cool 61 points...which is 4 more points than the other team scored total (23 for Os#10 and 38 for Me#4). Our group of players played an overall good game, and we made the team look much worse than they actually were. One of the infamous referees from the previous meeting was back, but made a total of 3 calls all game (2 were right at the beginning, followed by an earful from yours truly). The final was 86-57. This brings our overall season record to 7-3, including these two exhibition wins over Sopron and we remain tied for the second position in the AWBL. Our next game is on Saturday and we play AT Graz. That is where Arnold Schwarzenegger is from BTW.

A little about German Course: We go EVERYDAY for 4 hours. The first day of class was interesting...he began speaking in all german. After and hour of Osier and I looking at eachother blankly, we approached him during the break and informed him that our German was very limited. Like, VERY limited. So he restructured the lessons...much to the dismay of certain students. One student (named Mustafa...yes really) was completely opposed to the level of teaching in the class and made a scene before proceeding to leave and never return. 1) Sorry Mustafa, this is the lowest level German course available. 2) Good riddance. You suck anyways. At this point, which is almost two weeks into class, I am feeling more confident in my German spreching skills (that was meant to be Germenglish). One day I will explain how difficult the language actually is, but for now, I pick out words and phrases and ask and answer questions. Give me a few months and these posts will be in German...get your online translators ready.

I had a visit from two of my best friends the past few days. Other than the first two nights (jet lag and no desire to hit the town) I had a fabulous time with them. Their visit really made me miss home and wish for a chance to get home sooner rather than later. And they came bearing gifts for both me and Osier. My dad stocked them up before they left and they met Osier's mom on the way to the airport to pick up her stuff. Last night after our game, we went for mexican food. YES. Mexican food. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I had chicken enchiladas and Osier had fajitas. We will be returning there in the near future, but I have definitely satisfied my constantly intensifying Mexican food craving for the moment. (It's definitely no G-Mex Taco Tuesday, but it will do) Now, if only I could find a Panera...

But on the subject of food, go have some Thanksgiving dinner for me. Sweet potatoes with marshmallows. Mashed potatoes. Green bean casserole. And just know I am thankful for everyone who has read my posts and who cares even a little bit. Sorry no pics this time! But I AM typing this on my brand new Mac computer!

Back to School, Back to Schooooooooool

Last night was the eighth round of play in the AWBL. Our opponent for the night was BC Vienna 87, one of the youngest teams in the league. We handled them very easily and Osier and I were able to play limited minutes. The final score was 86-60, but they never really had a chance. The game itself was very uneventful, but there is a breif write-up on the website www.uk-flames.org. After this game, we sit tied with Wels in second place. This coming Sunday we are supposed to travel to Wels for a game, but they have begged to reschedule. My thoughts: One of the Americans may not have had the right visa...so had to go home. Or someone is sick. Either way, I think they are up to something. You know what they say, never trust a Catfish.
Last Thursday, we took a trip to Bratislava, Slovakia to figure out our visa situation. Friday would have been our last day in the European Union legally. Fortunately, we were able to get our stay visas, which are good through the middle of May. We will still continue to work on getting our student visas so we can travel through the other countries in Europe (our current visa does not allow us to other countries in the EU).
Two of my friends from Chico will be here beginning Friday for a breif stay and I cannot wait. We also begin school tomorrow. Whoever decided that 4 hours of German a day was a good idea should be shot. We officially need to go back to school shopping. I have been making due with a single pen this entire time: One from Bidwell Title & Escrow in Chico. (My dad deals with them and steals their pens) I should probably practice my handwriting too...