some pics

I am posting some pictures of the Christmas markets I went to last week in Brussels. There is a picture of one of the 20 cocktail bars in the market. A roasted pig with Christmas decorations stuck in him... I don't need to say anymore. The grand place in Brussels, the Pis Mannekin in Brussels, and the live sheep in the Christmas manger.

We have 6 practices left and two games I am just trying not to pull a muscle and stay alive... it is like preseason college all over again!! It appears as though I have switched sports and am now training to become a sprinter! Coach actually said hte other day "your body can die many times before you actually die so he never again wants to hear that our legs are sore or tired" apparently he knows some people who do triathlons and they told him this! My body has died and I would love to call up one of these triathletes and find out when it is going to come back to life because coach never mentioned it. Ohh did I mention we end this week with back to back games...

time has stopped!

My Mariah Carey Christmas CD has been playing non stop for about a month now and time appears to have stopped, I do'nt think the days could go by any slower. I can not wait to go home but it feels so far away!

My body is a mess! I am laying in bed aching all over after yet another hard practice wondering what happened. The days of walking into a gym lacing up the shoes and throwing up shots are oficially over. My body creaks and groans every morning when I roll out of bed and then the process of walking down my tiny stairs trying not to put too much pressure on my left foot because if it is not warm pain shoots through it rocketing me to cling onto the frail railing as I wait out the discomfort. I never used to understand stretching and jogging before you start it is all clear to me now! That was also when I thought I would play until I was in my thirtys, Not going to happen!!!!

We lost again tonight but it wasn't my turn to play so I just sat on the side and watched it all unfold, our team seriously has way too much drama it is a production but it's just a job! The loss means we will have an incredibly hard practice tomorrow most likely all defense... can't wait!

Perspective

Well the hope of a long Christmas break is gone we lost at Valenciennes... it was a bad game. Things got crazy today coach some players didn't pass the ball and didn't really try, subbed themeselves in a total prodcution so we all got chewed out and spent 2 hours working on D. After the game I was really frusterated I rushed my shots in teh second half and thus didn't make any of them so I am just trying to find my shot still. I was trying to see the big picture that our struggles all happen for a a reason so I will be stronger when I push through this. All this was running through my head on the drive home. I was driving with a teamate and there were 3 cars following each other I was the middle car. It was a really really foggy night couldn't really see well and we were a litlte lost the coaches were still eating adn drinking (120am) so we took off and got directions. We came to a road with a yield sign and the first car went thorough I slowed and drove through and saw headlights I was like wow they are kind of close and then a second later in my rearview mirror I saw our third car get completely t-boned, the sound too of hte cars scrapping together so I stopped the car right away and my teamate and I sprinted to the car whch after the hit roated and was perched up on a solid cement street sign. The other car was going about 90 (or 65 for the Americans) so it looked awful. Thank God they were both alright albeit shoken up freaked out and the player in teh passenger seat has a bump on the back of her head.

It was crazy though normally another girl on our team sits in that seat in their car but since she is from France she drove with anotehr teamate so she could load up her car with Christmas decorations. The back is where the otehr car hit so if she was in the car it could have been really bad. The police came and our coaches and we wound up getting home around 3am. I certainly could not sleep just really shooken up watching it happen it is so crazy how life can change in a second so I stayed up until around 5am talking to my parents and Ben.

I was woken up this morning at 1030 by two policemen who were coming to confirm where I lived and my identity as I am just now getting my working papers! I answered the door my hair a mess just looking like I had 5 hours of sleep!
Today the president came to practice and gave us our "official car insurance papers" good timing!
Everyone... please drive safe!

Win # 2 and a chat with the big man!

Alright well this was rough one tonight... bad Belgium team that we actually almost lost to. I really felt like I couldn't get my wind in the first half was kind of struggling and nobody was really playing all that great so we were only up by 10 at half. In the second he tried to rest the starters as we have a big euroleague game on Wednesday but all the sudden they were up 1... with 4 minutes left in the game so went back in. I had not played so stellar on offense up to this point but this was my Christmas break on the line so I started driving and scored a little at the end we wind up winning by 4. Hey a win is a win so whatever its over! After the game of course I get called over by the President (the equivalent of being sent to the principals office when you were in school you knew you were in trouble) so he says "I know you good player but you need lead like you did at end of game all through game. I know you in your mind (with hand actions and facial expressions) because 2 bad years in WNBA but you good and we need good from you. This doesn't mean shoot everytime but end of the game good now do this all game." Then a high five! Ohh man I feel bad but I think I may have given him a little attitude I mean he is really cute and nice and then he talks.
We head to Valencienne tomorrow for a game Wednesday... this is the big one!

1 down 5 to go.....

The day after the beating we took at Gydnia coach informed us at practice that we have 6 games left before Christmas and if we win all 6 we can stay at home longer! Instead of coming back on the 27th I could come back on the 1st. This is his way of motivation and it has worked for me I am ready to go I wish all the games were in a row to take away the suspense. 4 of the games are Belgium league games so we should be able ot handle them all two are euroleage and we can beat these teams but it will be pretty hard! The first euroleague game is Wednesday in France so hopefully it all turns out great!

I went to my first Christmas market today in Brussels. Apparently the Christmas market in Brussels is one of the best because of its size and quality. I wasn't sure what to expect but this did blow my mind... it was so neat! In Belgium you can have some players on your team that play on lower division teams and one the girls that plays with us sometimes lives in Brussels with her boyfriend so she met us in Brussels and showed us around. This was really helpful as we avoided getting lost! My other teamate Jen and I were in the car together and parking has never been one of my strong points well we had to parallel park this I realy don't do well so after 5 failed attempts and the car perched up on the curb I got out adn let Jen have a go at it... first try I was mildly embarassed! The market stretched out over a few blocks and was broken into three main parts a lot of it is little crafts that people make, food, and of course beer. There were full on bars in this market I will post some pics later but people were walking around drinking shots, full bottles of beer, so funny! I had my first sample of hot wine pretty good I guess they add a different liquor as well as the wine there is a hint of apple cider taste in it but better than apple cider for sure. I also sampled my first hot beer. This sounds a little nasty but I figured if anybody knows about hot beer it would be teh Belgians as I never really liked the taste of beer but Belgian beer doesn't taste like beer so much better. The hot beer had lemon, cinnamon, and apples in it it was also pretty good I was surprised. I bought some beer I am thinking about trying to bring it home in my suitcase underneath... any suggestions and how much beer can I bring back into Canada? I finally saw the Grand Place in Brussels it was part of hte market it had a bunch of lights up it was really pretty and it also had a big manger display with live sheep! Emilie (teamate from Brussels) said htey normally have a live donkey as well.
Emilie was telling us the legend behing the famous pis mannekin (little boy peeing statue) apparently during the war the building caught on fire and legend has it that this little boy peed on the fire and saved the building thus the statue and postcards, bottle openers, shirts of him. We ate at the the Greek market and then headed out for a white chocolate covered waffle... so good I can't even put into the words the taste of these waffles. I also tried my first chestnuts roasting over an open fire (just like the song) however they were the one food of the day I would never eat again or recommend.

Emilie had a game in town so we checked out a bit of her game and then contemplated a movie but there wasn't really anything good playing (movies here are way behind) the choices were Georiga Rule, Beowulf, Mr. Brooks and a few others nothing striking us so we headed home... mighty proud that we didn't get lost once over hte course of the day!

Game two tomorrow.... Go Dexia!

Delirious

We had our first official blow out in Euroleage the other day got smoked by the other team now I know it is bad to make excuses but I am going to throw some out there...
A 14 hour bus trip the night before resulted in some serious grumpiness exhibited by the coaching staff the NIGHT before hte game at practice we got a lecture on our last Belgium leage game and how we were taking too much rest maybe we weren't in shape and thats why we have been losing at the end of the games! Then we set up into all sorts of defensive slides and half court one on one... right into 5 on5 full court. Not my favourite type of practice but acceptable the night before a game ridicilous. I woke up the next morning with my groins on fire and not feeling ready for a game. Then shootaround we spend 10 minutes shooting the rest of the time 5 on0 3 times all our offenses!
Needless to say we got smoked down 11 points in the first 5 minutes (mostly on fast break baskets!!!) so it was unfourtanate but as I have gotten older I have finally realized it is just a game and am able to forget about it quickly.
Good news was that Maiga (teamate from first year in Sac) plays for the other team so it was so nice to see her I really wish we could have stayed the night and I could have hung out more with her but we had to bus home. She is a really neat person and was so helpful and encouraging my first year so it was great to catch up with her and see a familair face!
Onto the bus ride back home our coaching staff, president and groupies take hte losses hard so when we lose they take the stat sheet and a lot of beers and basically go off on their players!!! So there was beer flowing after the game and we were supposed to depart at 10 so the whole team is waiting in the lobby and at 1030 a teamate went down and told htem we were supposed to be leaving. They got a little upset told her they were in charge and we would leave when they were ready. New departure time 1130 (we all waited in teh lobby as we had already checked out at 10pm) Once we boarded the bus the alcohol had put people in an interesting mood and we had the opportunity to fall asleep to 15 tipsy adults singing and clapping along to the French music!! We made it home in one piece so it is all okay, my body however has no idea what time of day it is or day of the week I am off.
Belgium leage game Saturday (not my turn to play) and hopefully Sunday off!

All lies!!!

Sleeper Bus (def): A sleeper bus is a type of coach used to transport bands and their roadies between cities and shows. In Europe, these vehicles are full sized coaches but are only designed internally to carry between 8 and 18 passengers. There are always full galley facilities, comfortable lounges and bunk beds to allow the passengers to eat, relax & sleep.

The bus we rode on: a glorified school bus (maybe thats a little harsh we had a bathroom) the seats supposedly reclined but never stayed reclined always crept back into the straight up position. I had really hoped that this bus was goign to be so amazing that I set myself up for failure I don't know what I was thinking but as soon as we boarded I knew I was in trouble... luckly I wasn't one the players who had to share seats (because all the people who travel with us were taking up their own seats!!!) most of the players staged a takeover in the early morning hours and won their own seats. This was after they slept on teh bus floor for a few hours. As promised by coach we did get to watch film!! A full two hours was devoted to watching us screw up while teh staff drank their beers. This fun ended at 1am when coach was threatening putting in a scouting tape for our game tomorrow luckily it turned out to be The Mummy 2. I tried to fall asleep listening to the sounds of hte movie! Around 4am following 3 hours of tossing and turning I found myself worked up in a angry rage at a number of things
1- who was the idiot who thought of leaving at 10pm and sleeping through the night?
2- how many hours of sleep am I going to get?
3- who is snoring?
4- how in the world did our coaches call this a "nice big sleeper bus"?

I had to seriously calm myself down... I get really grumpy when I haven't had my sleep so it took a little for me to settle down. Once I did I managed to doze on and off until we stopped at a gas station. I went out ot stretch and a bunch of hte guys were peeing off the side of the bus I was like come on there is a washroom 200 feet away... seriously. It was here that we found out the bus ride wasn't teh original 20 hours we were told but only 14. The first positive but then it got me even more flustered as to why we wouldn't leave early morning and at least get a couple good hours of sleep.
I should be thankful because we made it to teh Czech safe and sound apparently we drove through some nasty snow storm (I guess I slept for a while!) and were barely moving sliding a bit over the road!
Well I need to go for another walk trying to stay awake so I can sleep tonight!