"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...

Going to Happyland

Two HUGE things have happened in the past 5 days...or however many days it's been since the last post.

First, we are officially students at the University of Vienna. (Uni Wien) After over a month of emailing back and forth, we finally were told that the documents we had would sufice for admission and spent Tuesday and Friday of this week making sure everything was in order. Our class begins November 16th. Osier and I both applied for the Bachelors program in Education of Sports and English...but since we are not fluent in German, we are alloted 4 semesters to take nothing but German before having to pass a proficiency test to begin the Undergrad classes.

Being a student means we can apply for our student visa finally. It also means we get insurance coverage under the universtiy and have the ability to save money on a great number of things by using our student IDs. The student IDs are funny...they are a folded sheet of paper with a passport photo glued inside and stamped. Nothing like the states. They love to use paper here for everything. AND they love to carry their papers around in little plastic covers. Whatever works, I guess.

The second thing comes in the form of a sweet victory. Friday night our game was at Klosterneuerg...who, if nothing, has hands down the best gym name EVER. (Happyland) It was not such a happy night for them though as we led from the start and continually increased our lead by 5 points every quarter, never really letting them back in the game. The game was overall the best we have played and we finally got some point production from an array of players and Osier and I each finished with 18. This is one of the first games I have felt like we didn't NEED to score all the points. The final score had us winning by 19 points and the MVP of Austrian players of the league last year was held to under 10 points.

We played a little bit inspired, since our 30 point loss last Sunday and the fact that Klo-berg beat us by 3 points earlier in the season. This win also propelled us to the second position in the league (head-to-head and point spreads). I hope we can use this game as a platform to really take off and start playing better basketball, but the season is long and every team is on a rollercoaster.

Tonight we plan on celebrating the victory and finally hanging out with a teammate who has been in quarantine for Swine flu. (she didn't HAVE it) We are also going to attend the Basketclubs game this evening and hopefully witness a victory for that program as well. We were debating going since they haven't won a game while we have been present. Anyways, I need to take some time now to tweak my fantasy rosters...yes, there is Basketball now also. And I must say that I would have rather had the Dodgers win the world series *gasp* rather than the Yankees.

If you have facebook, become a fan of our team http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Union-Kuenring-Flames/185276658419?ref=ts

Snowtime...

So I figured that while the baby snowflakes continue to fall outside our window and we wait for them to stick, I could post a little sumthin sumthin. The last 7 days have been a very long 7 days...as in, I'm pretty sure the days have been lasting 30 hours rather than 24. Speaking of hours, we had a time change about a week and a half ago, putting us only 8 hours ahead of the states (CA of course), but I believe the states just recently had a time change, bringing the grand total back to 9 hours...yeah, I know you don't care, but I think it's weird.
Our weeks feel the longest when we have games on Sunday. This past Sunday was our second meeting with the Flying Foxes, who beat us by 29 points last game...which was totally not refelctive of the way the game was actually played...whatever. This time around, I felt even more unprepared (for multiple reasons) and it showed. We ended up losing by 30...which again, was not reflective of the game (it felt like we lost by 75). The highlight of the game was when the opposing coach proceeded to yell at ME during the game...apparently I like to take out players in the backcourt. "Why do you do that? That is an intentional foul!"...bla bla bla. Yeah. Clearly, I enjoy sticking my "bad" knee into right into the bad knee of the other American player, whom I actually have respect for. It took me a moment to realize he was in fact yelling at me...and I just looked back at him with a crooked smile like SERIOUSLY??? I think the other American player was also embarassed. You would never beleive the politics involved with that club.

I also had my first experience with an And 1/Offensive foul. Osier went up for a layup (did a 180 and shot it backwards) and was called for an offensive foul as she made the basket. The refs stopped the game and informed the table that the basket counted, but the foul was on Osier. She and I looked at eachother like "WTF" as we ran back down the court, and were even joined by the opposing team's Americans in our thought process of "the rules here are sooooo dumb". I never thought I would be wishing that the referees were more like the CCAA referees (I am bias, they all loved me!), and I continually make the argument that since Americans invented basketball, we have the right rules. I really don't have enough time to explain all the dumb calls I have seen made in this country by referees and the different rules that make absolutely no sense. I one change I do enjoy is the 24 second shot clock. (I would!)

Halloween also passed us right by. Since we had a game on Sunday and the celebration routine here is a little different than Hallo"week" in Chico, we did not make any effort to dress up and go out on Saturday. I DID buy pumpkin seeds though.

We also learned that we may be able to start a course at the University ASAP. The german course we were interested does not require the diploma with the Apostille...they told us it did 6 weeks ago. We are both looking forward to learning a bit of German. Just being immersed in the language, I feel like I can generally understand what someone is asking, but usually our conversations with the people in our buildings consist of nodding, laughing, and agreeing. Then if they ask a question, we finally reveal that we do not in fact speak any German (in German.).

The snow does appear to be sticking...so Osier and I are going to have a winter photoshoot. We then plan on finding the Costco equivalent and turning these photos in to cheesy Christmas cards, which we will then mass-mail to the states. Please send me your address if you would like to receive a limited edition audimichelle 2009 Christmas card.

*Christmas vacation may include a trip to Belgium or London!!! And I went to a small concert last night and saw an amazing band from Wien. Moonshaker Sunnymaker: check em on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1_1hvxOGXk. And we went to 80s night on Friday...kinda.