you make like this

Alright so the day after back to back games we have two practices... "not as a punishment but because we need it!" My body does not feel like it needs it! Today is the no break practice though so we go at 1030 and then again at 3. I dont even go home because sometimes it takes a little longer... police men will randomly come and stop a roundabout for a while. Or cars park on teh street and you have to wait to go by. It is some treacherous driving I am glad my car insurance will have expired when I get home because I am getting used to this kind of driving... taking up two lanes swerving in and out. I am still convinced I will get in an accident in a roundabout before my time here is over as these roundabouts are like 3 lanes and when you have to exit you have to get to the outside lane but people are crazy adn they go so fast around them. Sometimes when I am lost I just drive around them in a full circle trying to jog my memory good news is that I am learning my way around!
While our coach talks English it is broken english and so I find myself talking in broken English now as well his favourite sentence is "you make like this and then you make like that" for looking at options. I actually found myself saying this sentence the other day.
I forgot my camera connection so I can't get pictures of my place onto my computer I will try and come up with a solution. The apartement is still awaiting internet hopefully one day soon!
Time for practice again...

A few Belgium notes!

Alright so still no internet and yes I am going insane... I am at a teamamtes house again. I tried to shoot this morning but the gym wasn't open even though I told the coach I was coming. We have had two games now the Belgium league is HORRIBLE! I can't really explain how bad the teams so I am a little dissapointed about that because if I am going to be over here I want to be getting better. We had a game the other night against a better team from France and we lost, I didn't play so great perhaps part of the reason is because I was playing point guard for some of the game. I hate playing point guard, I was being pressured full court and we two really good point guards so I don't really know the meaning of this. I am thinking about telling him I really don't like the point. Or the other reason that I didn't get a warm up because the new players had to go nad meet all the fans before the game... and after as well but instead of warming up we got to stand around with the fans. So crazy! You have to kiss everyone once on the cheek too everytime you see them. It is hard to get adjusted to this habit I don't feel all that comfortable kissing someone I don't know but thats they way around these parts.
Practices are okay we go two a days EVERY DAY... with no day off in sight. So as far as experiencing Belgium I can't tell you a whole lot otehr than I am already developing shin splints!
Every morning I have to scrape off my car from the frost it is cold in these parts! This old car that they gave me takes a good 10 minutes to warm up and if you don't it makes a lot of noises so I try and make it happy while I wait for the new car which like the interent, dryer and cell phone may never come!
We did however get to go to a spa the other day in the Belgium town of Spa we had our opening weekend there so we had to stay overnight and after our game the team sent us there to use the sauna and steam rooms and pools. It was very nice actually a good relaxation.
The food here has been pretty good, I can find most the things I need although with the two practices I do mostly snacking and not much cooking. The waffles have their own section in the grocery stores and they are really good!

Almost settled!

Alright well I know some people have been wondering but yes I am still alive here in Belgium. I did get picked up at the airport and was driven straight to the gym to watch my team play and them socialize and then to my apartement. I do not yet have internet so I feel like I am dead to the outside world, I have yet to talk to anybody although I will try later on today. First off my apartment is very cute although it is quite far from the gym. All my appliances are new but I do not have a dryer even though I am supposed to have one, my clothes are all over the the place drying right now. I live in a converted garage the lady who owns the house is very nice, she is a fan of the team and so very helpful whenever I have a question. The french has come in very handy as I got lost the other night and drove around for 3 hours. I know some people may not believe me but it really was 3 hours maybe more. Every time I asked for directions I got a new way to go but none led me to the little village I live in way out in the country. A few of the girls live together in a house way closer why I am not with them I don't know.
It is certainly a different way of live here as I was told to be at the gym at 830 this morning it is now 854 and I am waiting watching some boys play volleyball. Of course the cellphone that was also in my contract I do not have.

The coach is okay he talks in English for the most part. The girls are nice some very young and some old. One has her daughter on the team!

I have yet to explore much as I have gotten lost just going to the gym but to my defense there is freaking 100 roundabouts and 1 way streets and every time someone drove me they all went a different way.

The president did take me to the Citadel it is the fortress and it was really cool I can't wait to go back and check it out. It sits way above the town right on the river and there are massive holes in the walls from bombs but a lot of it still stands. The view from there is very nice as well.

I have a car an automatic thank goodness I could not have lived where I do if it wasn't! Right now it is a temporary as they are still ordering it or something I don't know. But it is the smallest car you have ever seen. It is great as far as driving though as people are freaking maniacs around here I thought the Viper could go fast. No these people drive like 160-170 on the highways and honk when you go slow. In town it is all fast too although the speed limits are the same as back home.
I also have some sort of satelite tv it is supposedly for watching English channels there are about 300 channels and so far I have found about 10 in English... BBC all news stuff. There tv is about 80% porn. I kid you not almost every channel is that. My teammate said but that is universal because you do not need an language. I am so thankful for Alias.

I am off!

Well I have not updated seeing as though I am taking off today and it felt like there were lots of things to do and people to see. I really have no idea what is in my bag at this point. Hopefully someone will pick me up at the airport and I will let you all know how everything looks!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well I am back in BC just in time for two Thanksgiving dinners! The visit with Michelle was great she got Energizer hockey tickets to the Flames game on Saturday night... they were playing the Canucks. It was an awesome game the Canucks won it with 4.7 seconds left in OT! The seats were amazing 3 rows up behind the Canucks bench. The most entertaining part of the game had to be when we were pulling into th parking lot in Viper. Michelle said the strategy was to reverse stall at the back of the lot so that is what we did but it actually took us 3 tries to get the Viper in between the lines. I said that the truck a few cars down was probably laughing at us seeing as though they did it one. She said they wouldn't be watching. Sure enough we get out of the car and walk past the truck and the man said we were thinking there must be some alcohol involved with that parking job over there! I was laughing especially since they were for sure all drunk with the one dude peeing in behind the truck and calling out Michelle because she can't park the mini van. Her response "someone my age should not have to drive this!"
Well Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Roadtripping

Alright well MIchelle and I embarked on a Alberta adventure driving out to Lyodminster (no I don't know how to spell it!) to visit Megs. We were both up really early and since Megs didn't get out of class until 230 we needed something to do for a few hours loyd is a little small not many places to kill time so we headed to West Edmonton Mall. Then it was time to hit the road, it was a gorgeous day just open sky so Viper (Michelles new van) was crusing and we got to visit Megs, watch a practice and eat at a tiny little restaurant that was recommended by all the locals. Megs was lighting it up at practice and it was so much fun to picture where she is.
Megs and her roomate had the next day off so we headed back into West Edmonton Mall and hit up the amusment park staring death in the face. I have to say I may have screamed a little but because right before the rides I found out that the roller coaster had come off the track and killed 7 people I don't know when a while ago but still! It was a great day of shopping and rides and we put Megs and Sam on the greyhound back to Loyd as we were off to Calgary.
We were both really tired and just wanted to get a little road behind us so we decided not to stop for gas in Edmonton (we had more than a 1/4 tank). In the middle of nowhere the gas light comes on, some of you may already know this is a big fear of mine I always fill up when it gets below a half tank! We are both freaking out a little I know they say you can drive for a while but there is nothing in sight. After about 4 minutes of driving we see an exit with a gas sign but it may be a truckers gas stop only and in the confusion we missed the exit! Bad news so we had to drive another 10 minutes where all we saw were exits to other highways finally we saw some lights and no gas signs but we had to get off the highway we thought we were pushing our luck a little. We got off and both of us were leaning forward trying to push Viper to the gas station I called Dad because I was so nervous and I just needed to hear his reassurance I think. We wound up making it okay didn't run out and the rest of the ride was uneventful!

Finally arrived!

I always find flying somewhere seems to take less time than when you have to fly home. This was no exception it all began in Valdivia where we were checking in, remember this is the incredibly small airport and the Argentinians show up like 15 minutes before the flight leaves to check in so this flight is delayed a good 45-hour. Then it makes two stops so we flew away from Santiago to make a stop and then we had to make another stop for gas or something so this just got us off to a wrong start because I thought it was a quick 1.5 hours in the air and we were down but it was like 3. When we landed we had to re check in our bags the only problem was that our whole team did not get our bags! The Americans and the Argentinians both got their bags a little outrageous if you ask me seeing as though we checked in before Argentina. So then we had to describe our bags to a lady who spoke a little English and try to explain how my personal bag was different from the team bag. I will be very impressed if I get my bag back before I leave for Belgium. It is supposed to be sent to Mission we shall see. The worst part was that some of the girls on teh team are leaving for overseas tomorrow without their bags I feel really bad for them!
Other than losing the bags the travel day was uneventful... long layovers and long flights. I was pretty excited when I made it into Edmonton and got to shower and Michelle such a sweetheart picked me up some Zellers underwear when she was out with her reps. The little things that can excite you! We are off to see Megs today and check out what her little town has to offer and maybe go shopping because I was up at 730! Two hour time change.