swollen nose

I am writing this today with a pack on ice on my nose as I got a good hit in it last night. I was going up for hte rebound and this girl came down on me and it started gushing so I turned to the bench right away and asked for a sub the refs didn't notice though so I had to run back on defense blood flowing all over the place, I finally knocked the ball out of bounds and just walked to the bench. This is where my trainer pulled something that resembled carpet out of this kit and ripped a piece off and shoved it up my nose. I said what are you putting in my nose because we do NOT have that in Canada. He just laughed at me, it is not broken just swollen... very sexy!
We won the game although we almost had practice today because it was really close but here is the thing coach tells us to take the game seriously however all pre game he talks about why we lost our euroleague game. Then he starts random people and gets mad when they aren't ready but how should they be. We ended up winning by over 40 and coach let us have today off so it all worked out in the end I guess.
I am looking forward to tomorrow we start our 20 hour bus ride to hte Czech somehow they worked out (in their heads) that it would be just as long to fly so we bus (or our version it would be cheaper to bus) coach said in pregame yesterday that we will watch teh film on teh bus ride. I am scared we have 20 hours to watch film not good! He always says we will only watch 10 minutes and we wind up watching over an hour. I just wish coaches didn't lie I mean let us get mentally prepared to sit down and watch a full hour of film don't tease us with teh in and out 10 minute film session.
I am headed to go and explore some caves today so I will update later.
21 days until I am home for Christmas!!!!!

My ride

Just came back from Poland... we lost another euroleague game and again it was close and we could have won so dissapointing. I finally had an okay game though which was good I am starting to get back to the ball hog I was freshmen year! The internet is so great to have at the house I am so thankful that it is working. I didn't get to see too much of Poland they had some crazy fans, and our hotel was really nice but other than that. This morning before we left I woke up a little early and got my lift in... may have been the first one this week (Allison and Mike don't get mad!) it is really hard to fit it in with Euroleage travel. Anyways after my lift I found out that we weren't leaving until later so since I was awake I decided to talk a walk on the beach. It was cold (nothing like Megs is dealing with) but so pretty we were right on the Baltic Sea and it was so peaceful this morning except for the man in a speedo (although this is quite normal here) running up and back, swinging his arms not sure what he was up to but he entertained me a little. On the subject of mens clothing, a few of us tried to go to the hotel spa last night and boy were we surprised when the man in the jacuzzi was not wearing anything... yikes!

I have included pics of my car from all angles... Michelle I hope you now see the possibilities for the Viper.

Finally!!!

I finally have internet... I feel connected to the world now! My Christmas flight has been booked I have my trip to Salt Lake planned, I can't wait. We leave for Poland tomorrow really early so I don't have time to play on it. It feels good to know I am back online!

Slow week

I get to fly home on the 22nd I was pretty excited when coach told us although he will not budge on coming back on the 28th. I am now trying to plan a flight to Salt Lake to visit Ben... I can't wait!
This week is going by really slow I think because 1- I don't have my internet and I thought I would. 2- my parents sent me a package and I can't get it because I have to sign for it but I am never home so now I have to wait until Thursday and hopefully my neighbour can sign for me. I am working on my note in French tomorrow! My body is just a little tired as well, I did something weird to my shoulder not sure what but it has been a pain. My knee bursa broke the other day and I spent a good 20 minutes with the other Americans trying to explain an ace bandage it all got lost in translation so I think I may take a picture of one and see if we can figure out the french word for it. It could be that they don't use them in Belgium though because our coach and players who speak English and French were also confused, who knows somedays it feels as though we are playing charades. We play the stacked team in Europe Thursday a bunch of the WNBA all stars who all have European visas somehow??? We are trying to put together an American Thanksgiving the day after the game although Turkeys are not easy to find around here, unless maybe at the market where you can pick them out from a cage and take to your backyard to slaughter them. I understand it happens I just find it so disturbing I can't even walk through that part of hte market on Saturdays without wanting to run through and let them all free.

Is it December yet?

The countdown to Christmas is oficially on and I can't even explain how excited I am to go to Christmas markets and do all that fun stuff. It also means I get to go home and hopefully Salt Lake. I ask my coach daily if I can go home earlier as he is trying to change the game on teh 23rd to the 21 which would mean I could come home on the 22nd!
The internet is still not working and from what I hear I may be offered a new apartement but it has yet to happen and so I think I will be waiting unitl the 27th now. It is scary though because who knows if they can even get it figured out by the 27th.
The body is kind of holding up I am taking full advantage of our days off when they come I do nothing basketball related!
The drama on the team has maybe calmed down I don't know I just try to avoid it all! We had a Belgium league game the other night and these girls were some hacks. For some reason the refs do not like our team or our coach so we had a few technical fouls and the foul count was really one sided despite them being complete hacks. I am a little black and blue it is so funny these girls guard me like up in my shorts when the ball is on the other side of the court I just want to help them out ask if htey have ever heard of help side because they are gettign scored on but it is all about the one on one D!
I found out today that my tiny couch thing can pull out into a bed... pretty exciting.
We went out to eat last night and I have now learnt that you should never go out to eat in Europe if you are actually hungry because it takes like 3 hours to get fed.
The team gave us this big old jacket that is not in the least bit flattering but I have been pulling it out as temperatures are dropping I hate scrapping off the car! Everynight this week they have salted the roads I don't know if they are expecting ice or snow or they just take good care of hte roads I am hoping it is the latter.
For some reason they give us these tiny uniforms and giant jackets that are 10x too big.

Are you serious?!?!?!

Alright so no internet yet... ya I am so upset, I actually had severe road rage driving over to my teamates house to use the internet once again. The little man Michele that takes care of the houses told me that it will be on the 27th now I almost slapped him and his freaking pipe smelling poodle that follows him around everywhere.
In other news we lost our euroleague game we should not have so that was a little dissapointing but ohh well. Then we had a little team meeting... all sorts of drama going on with the team I feel like I am back in high school, she wouldn't pass the ball to her because they are trying to protect their own country people talking crap in crazy languages... so much fun!

Well I have to run to practice again!

I am in Slovakia today big euroleague game tonight! Slovakia is not a really pretty country it appears to be really vandalized and a little on teh dirty side but I will ahve time for some more exploring tomorrow. Here are some pics from Brugge Brussels a cool little town. Our yellow game jerseys... there is such a thing as too much yellow and we are it.
Internet it supposed to come to my house today but apparently it may not work because they have to download a program on my computer what is this!!