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.