MARCH!!

Well it's officially the middle of March and I'm officially terrible at keeping this thing updated. You'd think after 6 months I'd have the hang of it! Anyways, here's what's up:

Play-outs/play-offs are about to start! That means it's getting closer and closer to when I get to come home. The way our play-offs are structured is kind of confusing but I'll give you the spark noted version of it. We finished 9th out of 10 teams (yikes) so we will go to the play-outs along with the 3 other bottom teams. We will play PAOK in a best of 5 game series, with the regular season games counting. We are tied with them 1-1 so we will have to win 2 games to move on to the next round. If we win our series against PAOK, we will then move on to play Elliniko, the number 1 team in the league and the team that just won the Greek Cup. (This is also the team my really good friend Lykendra plays for.) The teams that lose their play-out series are automatically sent to play in the 2nd division next year. We REALLY want to stay in the first division so this first series is crucial. 

We had a weekend off a couple of weeks ago so I decided to travel to Barcelona for a quick trip. After getting in to the city on Sunday night, I walked around the Gothic Quarter and looked for a place to have dinner. I know that tapas are the meal of choice in Spain so I checked out a couple of tapas restaurants close to my hotel but the tapas they had that night weren't looking so appetizing to me so I passed on tapas. I happened to glance down a side street and saw a sign for a restaurant that said 'Mi Burrito Y Yo' and upon seeing the word 'burrito' for the first time in 7 months, I thought my Chipotle wishes had been answered! I grabbed a table and started checking out the menu only to see more tapas and paella. No burritos!! What I had failed to realize in my American, high-school-Spanish educated brain, was that 'burrito' in Catalan (the dialect of Spanish spoken in Barcelona) means donkey. The restaurant was called 'My Donkey and I.' You can imagine my disappointment when I learned this. I still ended up having a delicious dinner. I also decided to order some Sangria because I had heard that there was very good wine from this area and wanted to treat myself while on my 36 hour vacation. However, the sangria at this restaurant was wine with 2 lemon slices in the entire serving. Usually, there's a variety of chopped up fruit in sangria. I came away a little disappointed but it was a still a good meal. 

On Monday I had a jam packed day. I visited the Sagrada Familia Basilica, Parc Guell, La Casa Battlo, the FC Barcelona soccer stadium, and took a long bus tour of the city. I won't bore you with all the details of my sightseeing escapades, but I will tell you that Barcelona is an absolutely beautiful city. I loved it and think I'm going to need to go back some day to get a fuller Barcelona experience! I was kind of amazed at how much of my high school Spanish came back to me. I was not confident enough to speak any, but I could read almost all of the signs and could pick up pieces of conversations I heard in passing. My flight was at noon on Tuesday to head back to Athens so I couldn't do anything that morning except grab a coffee at the Starbucks that was conveniently located next to my hotel! All in all it was a fantastic trip and I would definitely recommend Barcelona as a city to travel to!

Not much else is new here in Athens. We are just practicing and playing friendly games to keep fresh before play-outs start. I'm still expecting to be coming home April 7th and to be honest, I have a countdown going on! It's 3 weeks from today so I'm actually trying to pack up my apartment a bit. I don't want to leave all of my packing for the last minute because the play-out/play-off schedule could get kind of crazy. I'm really going to miss the girls on the team and everybody here that has helped make this year as easy for me as possible but I also really miss my family and friends back home!! I can't wait to be back home and catch up with everybody and share all the crazy stories that didn't make this blog!

Oh! I wanna give a HUGE HUGE shout out to my girls back at DePaul! BIG EAST Regular Season Champs, BIG EAST Tournament Champs, Coach Bruno was named BIG EAST Coach of the Year, and all of the personal accolades for the team! I'm incredibly proud of each and every one of those girls for working hard to achieve their goal of being BIG EAST Champs! I'm a proud alum out here! Good luck and make some noise in the NCAA Tournament!

Another big congrats and good luck to the Rock Bridge Girls Basketball team on making it back to the State Final 4 for the 3rd time in a row and are looking to make it 3 State Championships in a row! 

That's all for now- wish us luck this coming weekend in our game against PAOK!

Valentines Day, a visit to an island, and 70 degree weather!

Well we've had two games since I wrote to you last. We played a home game against Ikaros, which we won. Ikaros beat us in the first round and this most recent game was another tough test but we came out on top.

The next game we played was this past Sunday against Ippokratis-Kos. They are located on the island of Kos, which means that we got to travel there! We ended up flying to the island, whichever as only about an hour flight, but not before the idea of taking a ship was tossed around. If we would have taken the ship, it would have been a 13-hour trip and we would have slept on the boat. I must say, I'm very happy our club decided to fly us there! We got up really early on Sunday to fly at 9:30, we got to the island at 10:30, headed to a local cafe for some coffee and sandwiches, hung out for a bit, played our game at 2:30, after the game went to dinner, then headed back to the airport for our flight back to Athens at 7! It was a long day, but it was a good trip, except for the outcome of the game. When we got to the airport in Arhens on Sunday morning, we had some time to kill before our flight was going to take off. We walked around the airport and I spotted some American candy at the Duty Free Shop. They had Snickers, M&M's, Mars Bars, a bunch of other chocolates, and Skittles! A lot of these candies, I hadn't seen since I'd been here. I asked my teammates if they had ever tried Skittles, to which they all replied 'No,' so I decided to buy a bag so they could try them! Most of the girls liked them, although a couple of the girls had pretty funny reactions. It might not seem like much, but it was fun to share with them a little bit of our culture. I think they enjoy experiencing what I know and I wish I could share more with them!

Before we left on Sunday, I got to meet up with a family friend from Columbia that was in Athens for business on Friday night, which also happened to be Valentines Day! Our family friend, Dr. Nicholas Kalaitzandonakes, is originally from Greece. He is a professor at the University of Missouri and was performing elvauations on the colleges here in Athens. His wife and my mom are friends, and I also babysat for their two kids many years ago. It was awesome to be able to meet up with somebody from home and get a little taste of Columbia! His nephew, Spyridon, also joined us for dinner. Spyridon was a student-athlete at Virginia Tech University, where he was a four time NCAA champion in the hammer throw! We had a really great conversation over dinner, which we then carried over to coffee and dessert! Dr. K also brought a little present from home that my mom sent with him. I was so excited to open up my little gift! Since we spent such a long time at dinner, coffee and dessert, Spyridon offered to give me a ride home on his motorcycle. I had never ridden on a motorcycle before and it was an awesome experience! I want to go on more rides!! Overall, I had a fantastic Valentines Day!

We had the day off on Monday after getting home from our game Sunday so Lykendra Johnson and I decided to go to the downtown area for some lunch and some shopping. She had also never been to the Acropolis so I made her go up there! We had a great time walking around up there and then getting burgers for lunch at the Fish Cafe. I don't know if you guys remember, but my mom and I ate there when she was here in November and I had been wanting to go back so I'm glad I could take Lykendra.  Then we shopped all around the Plaka and down to Ermou Street. I found a necklace that I loved and Lykendra found some awesome leather purses! Overall, we had a nice day off. The weather being in the high 60's also helped out! I started sweating a little but on my way up to the top of the Acropolis haha. 

Yesterday it was 75 degrees out. I opened up the windows and doors in my apartment and took a nice afternoon nap with the beautiful breeze! I was thinking of heading down to the beach but I think I'll wait till it gets just a little bit warmer out to do that. Right now, it's 65 and it's supposed to be in the mid 60's for the rest of the week. I hope the weather back home starts warming up soon!

Take care everybody and stay warm!

This picture is of me on the island of Kos. In the background, you can see Turkey! Kos is only about an hour boat ride from Turkey.

Here is a picture of me and Lykendra at the top of the Acropolis

And I got caught being a tourist here haha 

Hello February!

I cannot believe it's already February! Can you? Since it's February, that means that I've already been back here for a month and let me tell ya, the month ofJanuary flew by.

We opened up Febraury with a game on Saturday against Paok and we won! Paok is a good team and we played them a close game when we played at their gym back in November. I'm glad we could get the win for this game. My coach and a couple of teammates were trying to explain to me the play-outs/play-offs system and how many games we needed to win, etc to make the play-offs. I don't understand much about the play-off system but all I know is that we need to keep winning and this game was a big win for us!

Not much else has been going on. I've been dealing with all different kinds of sickness but I'm finally feeling better. My mom and sister put together an awesome care package with lots of goodies in it. I've been trying to pace myself but it's hard!! There is a small pet store that I walk by most days on my way to get food or get on the metro and they have a couple of very cute pups for sale in the window! Every day when I walk past, I'm so tempted to stop in and adopt one of the pups! They are 9 week old chihuahuas. I'm not the biggest fan of the chihuahua breed, but because I see them almost every day, I'm really starting to want one! It would be so fun to have a puppy to play with and train but I'm flexing my will power and not adopting one! That way, I'll be able to get the dog I truly want when I get home this spring!

Our last 'regular season' game is on March 8th and then play-offs/play-outs will start from there. At this point, I have no clue when I'll be home. I'm trying to make the most out of being here. The weather has been pretty chilly the past few days after being about 65 for a week and by chilly I mean 45-55 haha. It's nothing compared to the 'polar vortex' going on back home and I'm not too upset about missing that!!

My mom and I were able to FaceTime on Sunday night so I could watch the Super Bowl. She propped up her iPad and pointed it at the screen so that I could watch the game and the commercials. Even though the game was terrible, it was still fun for me to watch!! It's times like those when family and friends get together that makes it so hard to be away from home. I really enjoyed watching the game and having back and forth commentary with my mom about the plays and commercials. 

That's about it for now! I'm downtown at Starbucks enjoying a coffee and am gonna head out soon to do a little window shopping! There are huge after Christmas sales here so maybe I can snag some good stuff for cheap!

Thanks for checking in!

Christmas, New Years, Back to Athens and ANOTHER WIN

Hello all, please forgive my month-long absence! A lot has gone on so I'll give you the quickest run-down possible.

After our win in December against Aris we had a game the next weekend that we lost by 2 in our home gym. We were supposed to have another game, a Cup Game, on the island of Kos on Dec 22nd before returning home for Christmas but due to some rules and other things I won't bore you with, we decided not to play the game. With much back and forth, I thought I was going to be able to come home a few days early for Christmas but we couldn't find a flight for a decent price so I ended up staying and flying home on the 23rd as originally planned. However, instead of spending my off weekend in Athens, I headed to Istanbul, Turkey for 36 hours before flying back to Athens late on Sunday night to get up early on Monday morning for a trip back home! It was a whirlwind of a weekend before coming home for 10 days. 

In Istanbul, I went to the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, and went on a Bosphorous boat tour (the Bosphorous is the bit of water that connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea and connects the European side of Istanbul to the Asian side). It was a really neat trip and although I wish I would have had a little bit more time there to explore the city, I'm glad I got to go and I think I made the most of my trip.

My time home for Christmas was awesome. I was so happy that I got to come home in the first place and spend so much time with family and friends. I got to do a lot of things and eat a lot of delicious, greasy, and fatty American food. I was lucky enough to get to watch my old high school, Rock Bridge, practice and play a game, DePaul play a game and even managed to squeeze in a Chicago Bulls game in between seeing family and hanging out with college friends. There are more people I wish I could have seen but I think I made the most out of my time home. I got to spend New Years with my cousin in the Chicago before flying back to Athens on New Year's Day.

Since being back, we've played 2 games. We lost our first game against Panathinaikos, the best team in the league. We lost by 8, but it was a much closer game than the final score. I think we had a great chance to win but let it slip away. We came back the next game and beat Proteas, another top team in the league. We won by 2 in a crazy finish. It felt really good to finally get a win on our home court and against one of the better teams in the league. Hopefully, we will continue with this good play and string together a couple of wins during the second half of the season. 

Currently, I don't have any more trips planned for any weekends while I'm still here but I'm ready to travel at the spur of the moment if an off weekend comes up. My cousin and I are however putting together a month-long backpacking trip through Europe with stops in Amsterdam, Poland, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Italy, France, Ireland and London for this spring. I'm really looking forward to that and am having a fun time looking up things to do in all of the cities we want to stop in along the way. This same cousin and I also impulsively purchased tickets to a major music festival in California called Coachella for the middle of April. Right now we are planning to make a big road trip out of it so it's also fun planning for that! 

I just binge-watched 8 seasons of the show 'How I Met Your Mother' in one week, aka I hardly left my apartment for a whole week. Season 9 is the current season but I've taken a break from the show for today and maybe a few more days to give my eyes a break from the screen. I've also been hanging out with one of the other American players here on another team. Her name is Lykendra Johnson and she's actually from Chicago and we know quite a few of the same people. It's fun to have somebody to go to dinner and a movie with. We just saw 'The Wolf of Wall Street' and I personally thought it was really good, although I thought the ending was strange. 

That's it for now. Thanks for checking in and I'll try to write more often!

WE WIN!

By the title of this blog, I hope you can tell- we got our first win!!! I'm so excited and happy for our team. Of course there are quite a few games that we should have won before this one, but it's a great feeling to finally get a win.

We played against Aris, who was 1 above us in the rankings. They have an American post player on their team, too. Her name is Monique Oliver and she played at Rutgers, which means that I played against her at least once every year in college since Rutgers was in our league. Monique has been having a great season so far. She's been averaging a lot of points and rebounds and overall has been playing really well. I knew it was personally going to be a tough game going against her and I was hoping that our guards would have solid games. 

Our guards did play a solid overall game, which was key for our win. Our older point guard had 20 points and made some clutch plays at the end of the game. Our younger point guard (she's 16!) had 7 assists! She did a great job of distributing the ball. The rest of our guards played great defense and also contributed on the offensive end by getting offensive rebounds and making big time shots and good passes. I actually had one of my better games , too. I didn't score so many points, but I pulled down a lot of rebounds and played a good defensive game. I was so happy with the win that I could have cared less if I had a good or bad game. All that matters is that we won! It was a happy bus ride home!

When we got home, I got a message from one of the other American players on a different team here in Athens asking if I wanted to meet up with her and go out to one of the clubs. I was exhuasted and really wanted to go to sleep but I thought it would be a lot of fun to see the nightlife scene here so I decided to go! And I'm really glad that I went. I had a great time! We stayed out really late (or really early!) depending on how you look at it but we met some cool people and had a blast. So I spent most of the day yesterday laying in bed recovering haha. 

Today, I came to the downtown/center area to do some Christmas shopping and to get Starbucks! They don't have the same seasonal drinks here (no white peppermint mocha) but I had a pretty good drink- a toffee nut latte. I'm currently sitting in Starbucks, using their free wifi and enjoying my hot coffee while writing this blog.

Our coach just told me the other day that I can go home for Christmas a few days earlier than expected. This was such happy news for me! I'll be home next week and can't wait to see everybody back home! I know I'll have a lot of fun!

We have another game this weekend and again, it's against a team that we should be able to beat. It would be so awesome to head into the Christmas break having won 2 games in a row. Then, we'll come back and gear up for the 2nd half of the season. 

Well, that's all the news I have for now. Thanks for checking in!

December?!?!

Welcome to December! It's hard to believe that Christmas is only a couple of weeks away. With that being said, that means that I'll be home in a couple of weeks!! I'm really excited to come home and see everybody and take a long shower!!!

My mom left a week ago so I've got about 2 weeks left till I get to go home. She made me a sweet little Advent calendar so I have a treat to look forward to every day! So far this week, I've gotten some chocolates and a Starbucks gift card! I'm gonna go to Starbucks on Monday! If I wrote to you guys about everything that my mom and I did, I could fill up 3 blogs so instead I'll give you a couple of quick sentences.

We rented a car and drove to Old Olympia, birthplace of the Olympic Games. The ruins of the buildings there are awesome and the museum was really cool, too. Although we didn't have the best weather, I'm really glad we got to see that. As an athlete, the significance of seeing the birthplace of the greatest sports stage in the world was really amazing. We also went to Sounio, another city with some ruins. Of course we did all of the traditional touristy things in Athens and did some shopping, although not nearly as much as when my sisters were here!

It was awesome to have my mom here to spend Thanksgiving with. If you remember, I wrote about that in my last blog! This week has gone by really fast so hopefully these next 2 weeks will fly by as well! Our team still hasn't won yet (0-6) but we play again tomorrow and I really believe we can win this game and our game next week, too. It would be awesome to go into Christmas with 2 wins.

I cannot wait to get home for Christmas! I have so many people to see and things to do and so much food to eat! I've been making a mental list of all of the fatty American food I want to stuff up on before I come back! I'm looking forward to spending time in both Columbia and Chicago and seeing family and friends in both places. My mom and I are planning on catching the DePaul game on the 29th in Peoria and I'm trying to get some tickets to the Bulls game on the 28th in Chicago. 

Another thing I'm excited for when I get home is to open the packages I have waiting for me at home! I've done quite a bit of online shopping since I've been here. My sisters brought me some of the stuff that I had bought but there will be more when I get home! Sometimes it's nice to treat yourself to things. I'm trying really hard to save up a lot of the money that I'm making because my cousin and I are planning a backpacking trip through Europe for 2 months this spring, but I also like to do nice things for myself and for others. 

That's all I can think of for now. Thanks for checking in!

Thanksgiving, Greek Edition

Wow, I can't believe today was Thanksgiving! It felt like a normal Thursday to me. This morning, my mom let me sleep in for a Thanksgiving treat! When people aren't here to visit, I usually sleep until noon or 1 pm. However, while I've got guests, I wake up quite a bit earlier. We've also been doing A LOT of walking, so when you add in my practices and running on less sleep, I'm pretty tired by the end of the day! This afternoon, we went to the top of Mt Lycabettus. It's the highest point in the city and overlooks all of Athens. It is really a spectacular view. You can see the Acropolis, down to the sea, and all the way north. It made me realize just how huge Athens is!

After Mt Lycabettus, we were going to have Thanksgiving lunch in Glyfada. Glyfada is one of the nicest neighborhoods in Athens. There are tons of bars, restaurants, and shops in Glyfada. Since we knew we weren't going to be able to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, we decided that we were going to have as traditional of an American meal as possible. For me, practices are at night, so we had to have Thanksgiving lunch instead of dinner. We chose TGI Fridays and headed out there on the tram. We both had chicken with mashed potatoes and as a treat, ordered dessert! Apple pie is one of my most favorite desserts and I was so thrilled they had it. While enjoying our desserts, the power went out! All of the lights and electricity in the building went out. So I whipped out my phone and used my handy dandy 'Flashlight' app and we finished our dessert by the candlelight of my phone.

Today on the tram to our Thanksgiving lunch, a homeless man was begging for money. While I couldn't understand a word he was saying, I pretty much gathered that he was homeless and asking for some money or something to eat. A young guy gave the homeless man some food he had just recently bought and by the looks of it, you would have thought that the homeless man had just received a five course meal from the nicest restaurant in town. He was so appreciative and thankful for the small amount of food from a random stranger. While they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here, it reminded me of all I have to be thankful for. Yes, I'm living alone in a foreign country and I moved here without knowing a soul, but this has been an eye opening experience for me and has made me realize what a truly fortunate and blessed life I have lived so far. I'd like to share with you guys some of the things I'm thankful for today:

-A loving and supportive family who would travel across the world, literally, to support me and my dreams

-My past and present teammates. My past teammates at DePaul are some of my closest friends and I'll always have them in my life. My current teammates who have made me feel so welcome here. A special shout out to my translator teammates, Jenny and Anna Maria, who are constantly letting me know what the coaches and girls are saying when they speak in Greek. And a special thank you for the teammates here who are trying their hardest to speak English so they can talk to me, even when they don't know much!

- iMessage, FaceTime, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Blogspot and all other social media that has allowed me to keep in touch with friends and loved ones back home!

-My health and the health of my loved ones

-My coaches, past and present. Grade school, high school, college, and now beyond. Each one has taught me not only about basketball and every other sport, but also about life 

-My friends back home. I know that they are always just a text message away and they will always be there for me. I can tell them about the good times and the bad, I can laugh with them and I can cry with them, and I know that they will always have my back, no matter where in the world I am

-Internet cafe's, especially the VS Cafe and all of the employees there who always greeted me with a smile and a Freddo Cappuccino. (Side note, I still go back once a week even though I have wifi in my apartment now, just because I miss them! Not sure they miss me though! Ha!)

-A support team back home. Not just my family, but every person that reads my blog or checks my Facebook and wishes me well. There are more people than I realize that want me succeed and that are rooting for me. It's really great to have you in my corner, even if I don't always know or acknowledge that you're there

-WiFi in my apartment. Enough said

-Basketball. Bball has taken me some really awesome places. Not just around the globe, but in personal growth as well. It has helped introduce me to my closest friends and has provided an outlet for me in tough times. Basketball led me to college where I got a great education and has led me to fulfilling my dreams of playing professional ball. I've been to Denmark, France, Hawaii, the US Virgin Islands, Greece, Rome and countless other cities and states because of basketball. I've played and won against the best in the nation and have also come up short. I've celebrated because of basketball and I've cried because of basketball. I've known victory and I've known defeat. Basketball has led me through some deep valleys, but also some very high mountain peaks. 

I could continue to go on and on with things I'm thankful for. I could talk about every family member I have and every friend I have and every cool thing I have ever done or experienced. And someday when I'm feeling down, I should because it would be a great reminder of how fortunate I am. I've done and seen some really amazing things in my relatively short life thus far and I'm blessed with the best support system a girl could ask for.

So while I couldn't have turkey and mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and 3 different kinds of apple pie, that's not what the holiday is about to me anymore. And while I couldn't spend the holiday at home where my family lives, I've realized that family lives in your heart, too. I might be 6000 miles away from them most of the time, but I'm more thankful for them now than ever. 

Today, I'm thankful for every day that I've woken up and been able to live my life. I'm living out my dream. Yeah, some days it's tough, but it's also made me really thankful for what and who I do have in my life.

Happy Thanksgiving!