Turning 28

Yesterday was...my (gulp) 28th birthday....I realize that this is by no means old...but I don't know, something about 30 being just 2 numbers away is intimidating...

I woke up yesterday and it was gloomy and rainy outside..."Oh well!" I thought, "I will just have to be the sunshine!" I threw back the covers and lept out of bed, whistling a tune to replace the birds who were not singing that morning on account of the drizzle....

Ah...if only that were true....In honesty now...my eyelids hesitantly opened and I thought "sigh (yes you can sigh in your thoughts)...I am 28 today..." I rolled myself out of bed and decided to go see if I had any birthday fan mail...At this point I had not actually realized the weather...I got online and immediately my spirits were lifted by an array of Happy Birthday wishes on my facebook. "Maybe today won't be so bad after all..."

I went downstairs and Claudia was home, who is never home in the morning (well, at least not by the time I get up around 9)...She smiled at me "Happy Birthday" and started into the kitchen. I followed her and saw that there, on their table, they had left me this:


(The presents at that point were wrapped and the coffee was not yet on the table.)
Claudia went and lit the candles immediately and I kept telling her how cool it all was. She stepped aside so that I could make a wish and blow the candles out...It took me a few tries to get them all, so that either means I will someday have a shoe full of children or that my wishes won't come true or that my asthma has gotten worse than I realized after being around all the smokers in Germany...I guess we will see which of these proves true... Claudia then went to the cupboard and said, 'today, you can use this!' And pulled out the Happy Birthday mug. I laughed and smiled, it was all so sweet and so unexpected. I got some coffee and some müsli (I really wanted to just dive into the cupcakes but it seemed like I should eat something breakfasty first, so the chocolate müsli fulfilled that role. Then I dove into the cupcake, delicious. Claudia is a genious in the kitchen.

I asked her if I could open the presents and she said yes and 'warned' me that they were just silly things. First package was a box of gourmet chocolate. Nothing silly about that. Second box was tea cookies, uh YUM! Third box was these little choclate cookie type things that I already polished off (they were small, okay)... I thanked her so much for it all and said that they knew where my heart is. Ha ha! I went and grabbed my camera to take the above picture (wish I had done that first before I opened everything but picture taking is never first on my mind)...

I got to sit and talk with Claudia for a little while. She is such a kind and warm person. She has a good sense of humor too. It was at this point though, that Claudia pointed out to me the weather...Gray and raining. Unlike my happy little Disney scene above I thought to myself 'of course it is overcast and raining on my birthday. Yesterday it was warm and sunny, but no, today I will have to walk through the rain on my birthday." (I am usually such a positive person...or so I thought...) Then, while we were sitting there, the doorbell rang- the mail! My mind was off the weather.

Claudia went and retrieved the mail and brought me back a package. It was from my mom and dad. In it I found a great birthday card (my mom wrote to me in German so of course I had Claudia translate for me) and my dad let me know that he had sung me 'Happy Birthday, a little out of tune'...loved it...the box was FULL of candy. Claudia and I started laughing...'well everyone knows what I like I guess!' I gathered up all my goodies, told Claudia if anyone in the house needs any sweets they know where I live, and headed upstairs to stash my loot (aka throw it on my bed)...

I decided I had better do a little workout because I don't go to practice on Tuesdays, I coach. Being pretty sore, I decided to do a pilates video (people have you ever heard of exercise TV? You can look up their website online and do all kinds of free workout videos...if you are into that sort of thing...for many of them it will tell you how much it costs to download it, but you do not have to download it, you can just play it for free)... After this I got ready to go into town so that I could skype with Grace at Starbucks...As I was coming downstairs Claudia offered me a ride to the train station, she had to go there to pick up Cosi who was coming home, sick, from school. So I did not walk in the rain, but I did feel bad for Cosi who had a fever.

I got into town quickly, ordered a breakfast sandwich (the ones here rock the world of the ones in the states bc the bread is insanely good) and coffee frap (no, I do not think I ate one thing that was good for me yesterday...oh except some grapes that I ate out of guilt at about 1130pm)... At first Skype or my computer or something, was being stupid (no, the 'or something' does not include me, I was NOT the problem)...I was so bummed, no skype?? But it is my biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirthdaaaaay! Everyone knows that birthdays are magical days in which everything goes right. The birthday fairies must have realized that and they gave Grace the great idea to use Facebook chat. It is just like skype! (Okay, and actually I do not thank the birthday fairies for this, I thank God, He really is sweet to me, I just thought the fairies thing sounded funny, irreverent?) Facebook, continues to blow my socks off...

Grace and I got to talk for about an hour. I realized that me, sitting at a table in Starbucks, talking to my computer screen, may have been weird or obnoxious to the Germans around me...probably both...but I was willing to be that person...the funnier part is, that after my conversation with Grace I started trying to make Skype work again and I realized that during my entire conversation with Grace, the sound might have been going through both my headphones and my laptop speakers....so to add to the weird and obnoxious girl talking out loud, I might have had headphones on, all the while everyone could hear BOTH sides of the conversation...Sorry Grace, but at least they couldn't really see you--except for the little girl who kept walking up behind me to wave at you...

I spent some time reading my Bible and thinking and writing a few thoughts. The Psalm for the day, 135, was largely praising God for how Great He is and how no one compares to Him...it was cool to think that such a unique, powerful, and uncomparable being had made me and has known me these 28 years better than I understand...

After these deep thoughts I decided to do something really profound...I decided to try again to get Skype working...while I was figuring out Skype, Amanda came on! I THINK I figured things out to where she and I had a normal conversation (normal meaning she and I could hear each other but the S-bucks crowd could only hear me)...It was so great to get to talk to her on my birthday as well!

By this time it was getting closer to time for me to go coach so I wrapped up our conversation. Upon getting to the gym I realized that I do not have the combination to unlock the padlock that is on the ball cart...practicing basketball can get sorta difficult with no balls...The trickier part was that my cell phone account had just run out of minutes and texts the night before (here most people by a card that is preloaded with minutes and texts rather than signing up for a monthly plan)...I had JUST bought a new card to reload my account on the way to practice, but the instructions to do it were all in German so I didn't know how to do it...Luckily, Kjell's house (Kjell is the boy whose family hosted Carrie and I this summer) is on the same street as the gym. I walked to his house to see if they could let me use their phone to call Cosi to ask for the combination....Unfortunately, no one answered... I walked back to the gym, kinda laughing and praying at the same time...I also figured it would probably be the day the most kids showed up or no one really spoke English and I would not have Cosi there to translate...

I got back into the gym and two boys were there. I asked one of them to help me set up my phone...He dialed some numbers and listened to the automated lady give instructions (apparently the automated system in Germany is just as annoying and confusing) because after a few attempts he shrugged and handed me the phone back...I asked him if he had a phone I could use...We finally got a hold of Cosi and got the combination...We set the basketballs free and there was great rejoicing... 4 boys showed up for training. That was the most I have had. We worked on pivots and ball handling and shooting. It was fun because they all seem to have a genuine desire to learn. They want to be challenged (except for when it comes to using their left hand to shoot left hand layups)...

After practice I headed back to the train station. I spent a few minutes outside of Starbucks checking my email and deciding what to do next...It is weird spending your birthday alone for the most part... I wandered back into the mall and decided that I was going to find the next Harry Potter video (I have been watching all of Cosi's German Harry Potter movies, she had 1,2,3, and 5...I will admit, I am now hooked and I really want to see the rest)...

After searching for what felt like ages, I finally found it- in the children's section next to movies like 'Barbie Goes to Germany'...it just did't seem right...Don't these people know how dark these movies are? Don't they know about the snakes who whisper 'kill, kill kill' and the death eaters who suck out your soul or the clear teenage angst? Children's section my foot...(that thought process made me feel a little less stupid walking out of the children's section with my purchase to be)... I got the movie and headed home.

When I got there Guido greeted me with a handshake and wished me Happy Birthday. I thanked him for the morning surprise. Claudia had made this awesome chicken curry and rice dinner that I love (she has made it once before) and Guido, Claudia and I ate. Cosi came and sat with us to talk. She had been sleeping most of the day. We all chatted through dinner and it was really great. They are a blessing to be around because they really enjoy each other and are constantly teasing one another and laughing...

My birthday basically finished up with me reading more wonderful birthday messages on Facebook and email, and me watching Harry Potter and eating more candy...The 6th DVD was not my favorite...it is the first time I felt like I was really left hanging at the end...Which stinks, because I am not about to go pay another 9 euro for the next one...sigh.... All in all, a good day. The highlights were definitely all the sweet words and things that people said or did...I thank God for all the people in my life, here and far away, who make me feel like I offer something to this world, like I am loved, and like I have people to love back...I am thankful for the many reminders I have had that oftentimes it is very small and simple things in life that add up to making a tremendous difference...I thank God for showing me His love through people and I pray that He will show His love to others through me, especially in new and wonderful ways in this next year. Oh, and the sun was back out today...

Prayers Answered

This morning I went out into the garden to read my Bible. It is beautiful out there. I know the second picture is just a bad picture, but I thought it was kind of cool. It is a beautiful sunny day and I felt that God was showing me some wonderful things, like He was streaming His light straight to me- which I feel like that 'bad' picture portrays...

I wanted to write out a list of prayers that God has answered. I will be honest, at first the only one in my mind was of Him giving me Liz for a friend, but I knew He had answered abundantly in other ways. I prayed right then, 'God please help me to remember all You have done.' I started writing and the next thing I realized He had answered even that prayer, one thing after another was pouring out of my pen. I wanted to share some of these things because He deserves to be bragged about:

1. When I was coming to Germany and I had to stay the night in the D.R. I had spent the first day pretty much alone. I prayed that night that God would give me someone to go through Saturday with, and what do you know, this random dude named Veejay started talking to me on the bus ride to the airport and I ended up with a friend who, a)gave me money to pay the airport worker who got my bags, b)helped me pull one of my bags through the 2 hour wait to check in c)helped make sure I got on the right flight d)talked to me through all the waiting and much of the flight so I didn't feel lonely and the time went by faster e)helped me get my bags again in Berlin.

2. I prayed that the man on the plane who had the heart attack would be okay. We were told when we got on the plane to leave the D.R. and go to Germany that the man had made it safely to the hospital and would survive and was doing well.

3. I prayed before coming that my team here would like me and that my coach would like me. That has happened for sure, they are fantastic. Even on Thursday another teammate asked if I would want to go jeans shopping together (I had asked her another day about finding long pants)...

4. I asked that God would allow me to play well, and I keep praying for this. So far He has allowed me to play well and stay healthy.

5. When we were in Leipzig and I slept on the hard floor I asked God to help me to sleep and sure enough, He helped me to sleep almost till 9 am!

6. Before going to Poland our coach told us that we probably would not be able to go to the tournament on Friday because we did not have a car to take. I prayed that God would provide a car. I told my coach this over Facebook. He put on his status that he needed a car and within 30 minutes, a friend told him we could use her car for the weekend.

7. Sorry this one is a little gross- but I had a lump in my mouth (I had this once before while still in the US and had it removed) and I prayed that God would take it away. He did. It is completely gone and has not returned.

8. I prayed that God would provide a church service to attend in English. Tonight I am going with Liz to one (she told me about it).

9. I prayed for a Christian friend my age--AIA put me in touch with Liz.

10.I have prayed that God would help me to know what to say in every circumstance, even when asked tough/uncomfortable questions, and I believe that He has done this so far.

11. I have prayed for safety walking home alone late at night in the dark, especially on the dirt rode that is filled with holes. So far He has brought me home with no problems at all. He also has helped me in my prayers to help me find my way using the trains.

After I wrote all of those things in my journal (knowing that I am still probably missing many) I read the Psalm for the day (I am reading one a day, but I started at the end and am going backwards). It 'just happened to be' Psalm 138 which says in verse 3:

"When I pray, you answer me, You encourage me by giving me the strength I need."

I almost started laughing when I read that, I certainly smiled. God is so sweet to me. I read over again in verses 1 and 2 where it says:

"I give you thanks, O LORD, with all my heart; I will sing your praises before the gods. I bow before your holy Temple as I worship. I will give thanks to your name for your unfailing love and faithfulness, because your promises are backed by all the honor of your name."

I thought of how much I have doubted God and even been angry with Him at times in the last couple of years. Yet still He is faithful. It is not as though He is faithful to one who has been faithful to Him. That is humbling in a wonderful way.

I thought of how I ask my German family for so many little things- do they have books in English I can read? DVDs in German I can watch? Nail clippers I can borrow? Can they help me print out papers I need to fill out for my team?

Why would I not ask my Heavenly Father for every little thing? Again I thought of my friend Beth, who I think is the person who really taught me to ask God for every little thing. I am so grateful to her for that. What a wonderful friend.

I then started thinking of things to keep asking God for. One of the main ones is financial provision, particularly through getting picked up by a higher team.

Shortly after this I read the rest of Psalm 138...and of course an answer is there:

vs 8 "The LORD will work out His plans for my life- for your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever."

I am excited to see what other things will be added to that list of answered prayers. I am thankful to know that I can count on that list growing.

And lastly, in a completely unrelated topic...Yesterday I went into a sports store in the mall and saw:



Yeah, that is the sister of Jen Ayers-Stamper, now Jen Dickson (former Teammate and friend of mine,not former friend, just former teammate ha ha)...Again, it is just cool to see her when I am in Berlin...And she is just straight up cool anyway.

Meeting Liz

Yesterday was a great day. The number one reason it was a great day was because I got to meet Liz Wörley. Liz is living in Berlin working for Athletes in Action and playing for a soccer (football) team. I contacted AIA about a week ago when I saw on their website that they are in Berlin. I basically just wanted to reach out and see if AIA had anything I could get involved with, people I could befriend, connections with good churches or if they do a Bible study, anything! The guy that responded told me that I should meet up with Liz so she emailed me and we arranged it.

I had no idea what sort of person Liz would be. I did not know if she was American or German (turns out she is both, she was born and raised in the US but her dad is German so she actually has dual citizenship). I did not know if she would be older or younger than me, what her personality would be like or what our time together would be like. Liz text me on Thursday morning to figure out where to meet. We decided on a train station in a large shopping area in Berlin. She told me to look for her- 6'1" with brown hair, wearing jeans and a khaki jacket...I laughed...okay, so I should look for myself? I wrote her back, 'I am 6', brown hair, jeans and a white jacket.'

I got off my train that afternoon at our meeting time and started looking around. At last I saw her walking up to me. It was so funny. She looked like she had gotten dressed in my closet. We both had on dark wash skinny jeans, our hair in ponytails with a headband, she had on chuck Taylor's and her jacket looks just like one that is hanging in my closet- and she was wearing it over a hoodie. You people who have been around me much know my affinity for hoodies...She looked to be around the same age as me. I was so relieved to see that at first glance, this is a person I think I can like.

Liz came up to me, us both laughing, and shook my hand and introduced herself. With that, she was off. She started walking and talking as though we had about 45 minutes to learn everything about each other and to eat. I matched her stride and began answering all of her questions. For a moment the barrage of questions stopped (like, how long have you been here, who do you play for, where are you living, do you like Berlin, does your coach speak English?) they stopped just long enough for her to say, 'IhavesomanyquestionsforyouwheredoyouwanttogoareyouhungryIdon'tknowwhereweareIdon'tknowthisarea' ha ha ha. 'Liz is a whirlwind,' I thought. The rest of the afternoon would only confirm that. My next thought was, we have been walking along at break neak speed, I had assumed because Liz knew exactly where she was going and wanted to get there right away. No, that is just how Liz walks. Every step is determined, even when wandering. I laughed when she told me that she had no idea where we were. I let her know that I had no idea either. 'Let's go this way' she responded, and took off in a new direction. That happened a few more times. Each time I just said 'Ok!' and followed my new friend along. Liz continued to ask questions or answer my questions,
Liz:'amItalkingtoofastLetmeknowifIamtalkingtoofast,peopletellmeallthetimethatItalktoofast.'
Me: ha ha, no you are fine! (In my head, but how do the Germans understand a word? Why is it that I suddenly feel that I have southern drawl? I remember in high school I dated a guy from Georgia, I thought that he talked SO slowly. I felt that Liz must feel that way about me) ha ha!

We walked on and talked about her experience so far in Berlin. She has been here since March. I quickly learned that my experience has been a cake walk in comparison to hers. Hardly anyone around her speaks English. Her coach does not speak English and so he does not even try to communicate with her. Her teammates are more distant...I felt a little guilty when she asked me how it was with my team...'Uh...everyone on my team speaks English, a few of the girls speak it really well...my coach speaks good English. He is really kind. The first day he told me not to worry about not knowing the plays and to just go do my thing.' We talked about the adjustments to the new culture and to the weather.
Liz: 'yeah, this getting all dressed up everyday? It sucks! I miss my sweatpants!'
I laughed and agreed. If you wear sweatpants out of the house people look at you like you are in your pajamas. Last night I was coming home from basketball practice and I had on basketball shorts and I caught a few stares.

Anyway, we wandered down a sidestreet and happened upon this little pasta and panini place. It was deeelicious.We made a mental note of where we were so that we could return. We talked more about our backgrounds. Liz is 23 and played soccer at Drake University. She has been involved with AIA for years. She is here with them on support. We talked about our families and faith.

We strolled through H&M and pointed out a few things we liked and then how we had no room for anything in our suitcases and walked back out. We went to Nike town and lamented how much more expensive everything is in Berlin (as if Nike wasn't already expensive enough). Oh, and one great thing about NikeTown, when I walked up I was greeted with this:

Ha ha, I dont actually know Allyson. But I am friends with her brother, and it just felt good to be in a foreign city and feel like you are seeing something that you know. She was on the wall inside a couple of times also and on the flat screen tv inside they were playing videos of athletes talking about their workouts, so I listened to Allyson explain to me why she does core workouts. I was ready to do one right then.

Liz and I walked and talked some more (found out she loves to read, also like me, and she loves coffee shops!) and soon it was time to go. She had her practice in an hour and I needed to go home and get ready for mine as well. We hugged and said we need to get together at least once a week. We are also planning on tryin an English speaking church in Berlin on Saturday night (perfect because most sports teams play on Sundays)...I was so excited to have a friend and a place to go to church.

(I know I know, how can I have anymore to say? But I think the following is funny so I am including it)

Yesterday evening I decided to try to get to practice early so I would have more time to warm up before we got started. FAIL. I made the mistake of bringing a book with me. I was reading in the train station and realized I had better go catch my bus. I walked up RIGHT as my bus was pulling away. 'Oh well,' I thought, 'I will just stand here and read and wait the ten minutes for the next one.' Ten minutes went by really fast. I looked up and realized my bus was there and everyone had already gotten on it. I dashed on board. I thought I got a couple of strange looks. I realized I had jumped on the bus in the middle, instead of going to the front door where you show the driver your ticket. Where I got on was the door where people get off. I hoped no one thought I was a delinquent...Surely everyone at some time has accidentally jumped on in the middle?

I did not have time to warm up at practice. My knees were HURTING and I was playing like poo. My coach was correcting me at every turn. No, use your other foot. Use your left hand on the left side. You are travelling (I have GOT to get used to the European step, it is different so Americans ALWAYS get called for travelling). When we shot around Tini told me, 'yeah, that wasn't so good.'

Later coach was teaching us a new inbounds play. 'So in the corner we want our best shooter on the floor, so probably Dani or Jessi.' Tini interjected, 'I would have to say Dani tonight.' I started cracking up. God Bless German straightforwardness (is that a word?). Everyone else laughed too. Coach looked at me and I shrugged, 'shooting didn't go so well today.'

After practice I had to fill out some forms. Timur was trying to help me read them (because they were in German, not because I can't read people)...On one of the forms he was struggling to tell me what to do...'this one is hard' he said...I thought to myself 'I can't feel too bad if even the Germans can't read German.' It took us forever to get the forms filled out because I kept writing things in the wrong places- either bc he told me wrong or bc I misunderstood. When I finally got it all filled out correctly we both raised our arms in victory.

Bc I was leaving practice so late I didn't take the time to change. MISTAKE. HUGE MISTAKE. By the time I got off the train in Falkensee it was nearly 11:00 PM and it was COLD. I decided that A) I was an idiot for not changing and B)I was going to have to run home, both to keep myself warm and to make it go faster...

The run was more of a pathetic jog, especially because I had my duffel bag on my back, also because there are so many parts of the path home that are pitch black and i would get nervous for my ankles. On those parts I would stop and walk carefully (the streets and sidewalks are very uneven) and then when I got into some light again I would jog again. Once again I found myself chuckling. The few cars that passed probably thought 'who is this nutcase running down the sidewalk late at night with a bag on her back?'

But I made it home safe and sound (answer to prayers) and I was happy to have had another great day on this German Adventure.

The Long Awaited (or just Long) Update from the Trip to Poland (Yes even my titles are long because I don't take time to think up something clever)

Well it has been a few days since I last blogged, and there are so many things that I could write about that I do not know where to start. How about the tournament in Poland?

Friday morning I left Cosi’s house with my duffel bag and back pack and began my walk to the train station. It never seems to matter how light I think I am packing, once I start having to walk with my bag it feels like all I packed was bricks…I met up with the team at a stop a few stations down the line and found out that there would only be five of us going to Poland that day. We had two games. In my mind I was wondering how that was all going to work out. I got the added pleasure of realizing that none of our post players were going to make it- so I think we all know who played the 5 on Friday…Our assistant Frank drove his car, which looks like a station wagon, with three of the girls, and Timur took our point guard Claudi and I in his friend’s car which is like a VW Golf hatchback- small, but big enough for just three of us. We made the drive to Poland which was a beautiful drive. Much of the ride is through countryside and tree lined streets. Everything is green and lush and picturesque.

We got to the gym in Poland with little difficulty.

(Ha ha, that is the back of my coach, Timur. I should have asked him to move, but I felt like a stupid tourist taking pictures so I was just trying to be fast)...

The wall of sponsos for the Polish team...and I am guessing one of their star players...

We played our first game with Timur’s instructions to only fast break when we had a clear advantage and to otherwise take our time because we only had five people. We played zone also to help conserve some energy, a match up 1-3-1 with me playing the bottom. Normally most people would rather play a wing because when you are on the bottom you are responsible for the whole baseline and it is a lot of running. I was happy to be the bottom in this scenario, however, because the bottom person is the only person who can see the whole court and must do most of the talking. I like having that role because it is not hard for me to talk on the floor, and I think it worked well for us seeing as how most of our communication on the floor has to be in English because of me, I speak English the best (praise the Lord, I would be worried if that were not the case)…Anyway, the 1-3-1 seemed to give the other team some problems. Offensively we struggled to get going. We were turning the ball over like crazy. It seemed that every play on offense we either scored or turned the ball over. There was not much middle ground. Thanks to our high shooting percentage and the points off fast breaks, we were able to build a solid lead and take the game. We were all pretty excited to have won our game with only 5 players. The other team had an entire squad- in fact, every other team there had a big squad. Coach was proud of us and we were proud of ourselves. It was a fun game.

After the game we girls were doing our post game cool down and the assistant coach, Frank, came over and told us goodbye. As he walked away I asked one of the girls where he was going, I was pretty confused, where could he need to go? We were in another country. She said he was going back to Berlin to coach another team. He had driven out to Poland basically just to help get us out there. ..So after our showers we loaded up Timur’s car with our bags and he drove to the hostel and us five girls walked there. It wasn’t too far. I had a great conversation with one of my teammates, our other point guard, named Tini (Short for Christina I believe). It turns out Tini had been an exchange student to Georgia during high school and had some great experiences while there including winning the state championship in basketball and track. She went to a private Christian school and lived with a Christian family. She told me that her family had asked her if she was “saved” and she had no idea what they meant. She told them she was Catholic. Tini said that she went to church with her family every Sunday for five hours and she went to chapel in her Christian school. When she left Georgia, she had indeed become “Saved.” It was great to talk to Tini and to get to know her a little bit. We laughed about some Christian stereotypes, talked about foods we love to eat and foods we miss from America, and the food that we are happy to have in Europe (like German rolls, YUMMMMM)…
At our hostel we took our stuff to our rooms. Tini and I were roommates. Our room was pretty fantabulous.



With a great view.


Our room was connected to the other two rooms of our teammates by a common bathroom. We went downstairs where a meal was provided for us. I don’t remember what we had that first day, but I do know that every meal we had in Poland was good. I also know that every meal in Poland included dill. We laughed because there was dill in the soup, in the rice, in the mashed potatoes, and in the chicken. Tini had already given me the rundown on Poland:
1. The beer is cheap
2. The cigarettes are cheap
3. The chocolate is cheap (and really good)
4. People like to steal cars.
We now added to the list:
5. They put dill in everything.
And soon we added:
6. Their refs will not call anything for you if you are not Polish.

We went back to the gym around 7 for our 8 o’clock game. We put three girls in the back with Claudilaying across their laps, and me in the front seat with it pushed nearly all the way up. Timur drove us and I am sure we looked very intimidating pulling up- like clowns in a little circus car…But it is okay, we didn’t need intimidation. With our 1-3-1 and potent offense we won another game, despite the fouls called on us and not called for us. It seemed like the refs would start out calling a lot of fouls on us and then realize that we only had five players and it would ruin the game if anyone would foul out, so they would back off as the game went on. I think it was in this game that I had 30 points, which surprised me to find out because it didn’t feel like it. I mean, I knew I had scored well, but it just didn’t seem like that many.

After our second win we returned to our hostel and ate. We then hung out for a while in Claudi, Filly, and Dani’s room. (Apparently to be a part of the fantastic five, your name has to end with an “ee” sound, of course I am Jessie and my roommate is Tini.) The girls sipped on beers (they had me try a sip, I thought it tasted like bad apple juice) and I had my water and chocolate. Filli saw me downing the chocolate bar and she exclaimed, “You eat chocolate like bread too!” I laughed and agreed, glad to know I wasn’t alone in my chocoholism. (I had purchased some of the cheap and tasty Polish chocolate, it was very good)…We talked about all sorts of things including the war in Afghanistan, Obama, Christianity, and more. We laughed a lot as well and joked around- especially after the girls told me that our assistant coach Frank had told the girls in his car a story about “someone he knows” who had a babysitter look after their baby. The baby would not stop crying when put to bed so the babysitter called the people and said “your baby won’t stop crying, I think it is because of the clown in the room.” Of course the people answered, “We have no clown.” The girls were freaked out by this story, I started laughing and told them I have heard that same story in America, and it is like an urban legend and Frank is a liar. They thought this was hysterical, especially the part where I called Frank a liar. We all laughed and I told them that I bet Frank was preeeetty proud of himself as he drove home, thinking that he had gotten them all to believe the clown story. The rest of the weekend people would randomly call out, “Frank is a liar!” or “YOU are the clown!”

Saturday morning we got to sleep in, which was very welcome. When I woke up the first thought in my head was, “we have subs today!!!” I told this to Tini who thought it was hilarious. When we got to the gym and the other girls arrived we five were all cheering. In the third me we struggled a little bit to get a rhythm again. I was moved back out to the guard spot, and for a spell, back to the wing of our zone, but that was soon changed to me on the bottom again. We were playing a very young team so our struggle to get things going didn’t hurt us too badly and we were able to build a big lead. I think we ended up winning by nearly 30 points. The very bad news about this game was one of our players who had just come, Weibke (sounds like Vipka to me), got undercut on a turnaround jumper and landed on her defender’s foot and rolled her ankle. She will probably be out of basketball for a month.

The second game the five of us who had by now played three games in a day and a half were getting run down (we had all five played almost the entire game of each game bc the first two we had no subs and in the third one player fouled out early in the game and Weibke rolled her ankle). This was not a good combination with playing the home team. Nothing was going well for us. We started slowly, struggled to communicate, and could not get a call to save our lives. It was a team we should have beat by 20 but we were going back and forth with them. It came down to the end of the game. We had a 1 point lead and they had the ball. With just under 5 seconds left one of our players got called for a foul, putting us in the bonus (there is no one and one, it is all double bonus) and the girl hit both free throws to put her team up one. It was extremely frustrating. Timur called timeout to set up a play and to advance the ball to half court.
Coming out of the timeout we ran to set up our play. Timur started yelling last second instructions that I was unsure of and I decided to just run the play he had drawn up. No one else did. In the scramble to get open, Tini was hit hard by one of their players and knocked to the ground. Our inbounder was shocked by what happened to Tini and did not throw the ball in to me. The ref called us for 5 seconds and that pretty much sealed the game for the other team. They inbounded the ball, we foulded, they hit two free throws, the game was over. Our run of wins was over (we didn’t lose any games in the tournament last weekend either). We were exhausted. Timur told us we should not hang our heads. He told us that everyone loses games sometimes and it is okay and also that we had a lot of challenges that we had faced. We agreed. Normally I absolutely hate to lose, okay I always hate to lose, but this one didn’t burn me like usual because we really did have so much adversity through the game.

Sunday the adversity did not stop. We got up and went to breakfast at 8:30. Our game was supposed to be at 11:30. Our opponents showed up to breakfast already dressed in their uniforms. I thought that was weird. We ate and went back to our rooms to rest and pack up for the game. We had an hour and twenty minutes before we had to leave….or so we thought. About 20 minutes after getting up to our room coach came and told us that the schedule had been changed and no one had told him till just then, we had to leave right away. We scrambled to get our stuff (okay, everyone else scrambled, I had already packed thinking that I could lay back down till it was time to go) and went to the gym. Upon arriving we had 6 minutes to warm up. SKETCHY. The whole thing was sketch. The other team knew about the change in time but we didn’t? Sketch. Sketch sketch….

So we warmed up the best that we could and went out to play. Again we started slowly, no surprise there, we had a 6 minute warm up. Again the calls were one sided. This time however, it had even worse effects. One of our girls was on a fast break, sprinting the left side of the floor with the ball, and a player from the other team was running alongside her. When Filli went up for the layup the girl knocked into her, sending her crashing to the floor in pain and screams. Everyone stopped. It was obvious that something beyond an ankle roll had just happened. The Polish team went back to their bench, most of my teammates went to circle up around Filli. I stood back and watched, angry that the officials had let things escalate to this point. It is their job to keep things under control. Yes, injuries happen, but they are WAAAAAAAY more likely to happen when you don’t call fouls to keep players in check. Filli had to be carried from the floor. Our coach decided that we’d had enough and he didn’t want to risk anymore injuries. He calmly and kindly went to the coach of the other team and told them that it was nothing against them but we were not going to finish the game. He explained that we had hardly any players to begin with and now we’d had two big injuries. The coach understood and his team apologized for Filli’s injury.

The tournament officials asked us if we could do the trophy presentation quickly before we left. We agreed. We were given the second place trophy, the team we were playing took first. I was awarded the tournament MVP and received a duffel bag and a t-shirt. That was a fun moment…

After taking pictures with the other teams from the tournament we packed up and got on the road. I was with Fransi, Tini, and Dani. Timur took Filly and Claudi so they could go to the hospital. Louisa and Linsa went in the car Louisa had driven up. The ride home was just as beautiful as the ride there with scenery that left me thanking God.
As we got back into Berlin we were on the East side and I saw the area where they have kept part of the wall. It is covered in art work. It is crazy to look at that wall and to be reminded of what human beings will do to one another. It is hard to believe how recently it was that the wall went down…The girls on my team like to tease one of our players who lives in the “East Coast” (that is what they call it, ha ha!) because the west side is so much nicer than the East…but when you think about what happened in the East and how oppressed it was from developing, it makes sense…Anyway, Fransi dropped us three off at the train station and Tini and I said goodbye to Dani. Tini and I sat in McDonald’s and ate cheeseburgers and talked for a little bit- Tini could have left but she waited with me for a while since my train wasn’t due for an hour. I’m telling you, these people are KIND. 

Soon enough I was on the train ride home and exhausted. When I got into Falkensee of course it was raining. I used the handles of my dufflebag like straps and wore it on my back, then slung my backpack over my shoulder and began the walk home. It’s funny, with my ipod going and the music keeping my thoughts moving, the walk through the rain was pleasant. Matt Maher’s song, “Hold us Together” came on and I sang along (as if I needed one more reason for Germans around me to think I am crazy)...

I love the words to the chorus,
Love will hold us together, build us a shelter, to weather the storm
And I’ll be my brother’s keeper, so the whole world will know that we’re not alone.

Even on that walk home I was not alone. I thanked God that I am never alone. I thought of the TMC team and how they have so much- teammates who love one another and who love God…I thought of my own team who I am already growing to love. I got home and Claudia asked me how the weekend went..I was in such a good mood I almost answered that it was great, then I remembered the injuries and how things ended…but despite the injuries and ref drama, it really was a great weekend. The conversations and friendships built left me with a light heart.

Thank You to Mi Familia! Uh..Mein Familie!

Last night before going to bed I wanted to read...but with my nook out of action I didn't have much...then it popped into my head- the letters!!

My wonderful, thoughtful, brilliant family hid these in my suitcase before I left so that when I got to Germany and unpacked my bag I found a letter from each of them- including Alexis and Charlotte...Also, I had some cards from Grace- one from before going on the Crossover trip, and one from when we said goodbye in CA...

I grabbed them off my shelf and laid down in my bed to re-visit these pieces of encouragement, love, and humor...

I love every word...and I love the picture Alexis drew of herfself as a cowgirl because she is 'Alexis Texas', and the picture Char drew- stick figures of us hugging--with her standing on a chair so she could reach me :)

What a huge blessing! Thank you guys so much!

Dad, thank you for your words, especially about filling up our tanks :)

Mom, thank you for missing me terribly and for your joy over this opportunity for me...
Megan, thank you for counting me one of your best friends, I reciprocate that completely...so good to have someone who echos my thoughs and also laughs at pretty much anything :)

Brian, wow, your words were precious. Thank you for being my big brother and for the confidence you give me!

Alexis, I miss playing games with you too! Thank you so much for the love you sent me and the wonderful picture!

Charlotte, Thank you for hoping that I have fun, I am having fun! Thank you for the picture, I wish I could give you and your family all hugs right now!

Luke, you didnt write anything but I am sure that if you had it would have said that I am your favorite aunt of all time and even though you pretend to like Grandpa the best, you really like me the best...Thank you for finally sharing that :) Ha ha!

Amanda, thank you so much for your facebook messages, I love them. You have been so real with me and a huge supporter!


Grace, thank you so much for the words of confidence...they mean a lot to me...thank you for your encouragement and belief!!!

I love you all! Thank you so much for loving me!

Don't Miss the Bus!

So yesteray began as most of my days do...I woke up when I was done sleeping (sounds nice, doesn't it?) and looked out the window...sunshine, Yes! (This morning I looked out the window and there was a silvery haze, but don't worry it burned off)...

I turned on Cosi's computer, went downstairs for my customary coffee and Müsli, and came back to check facebook, email etc...Worked a bit on German, etc. This has been the daily routine...

In the afternoon it was time to go to the Spandau gym to coach the youth team. Cosi and I left, hopeful that this time around more than 1 kid would show up (though we had a lot of fun with him last time ha ha)...

Got to the gym and our one had turned to three...baby steps...All three are very raw, a 7 year old girl who is just learning the game for the first time (the sister of Denis, who I had mentioned before- I met him at Crossover camp in 2008), the 10 yr old boy who had been there last week, and a 14 year old boy who is going to play for Cosi's dad and has little experience and is looking to catch up...

We had our hour and a half practice (the usual length here it seems) and it went well. I think that the 14 year old in particular is eager to learn. Cosi remains confident that more and more kids will show up. I am optimistic as well...

So after all the kids left the gym, Cosi and I headed to the bus station...As we walked up to the intersection where we need to cross to get to our stop, we saw our bus pull up across the street...of course there were cars coming so we could not run across...we missed the bus...

At first this seemed a minor problem. We can just wait for the next bus...We looked at the bus schedule upon crossing the street (it is posted at the stop)...the next bus would not come for 20 min...we decided to walk a few stops ahead rather than stand there...

We made it to another station in about 10 min...a bus started coming our way, but the sign on the front of the bus read `bus endet hier' = bus ends here...this was the end of the line for the bus...we laughed, okay we will wait for the next one...a few minutes later one came...again, 'bus ended hier' we laughed again, this is crazy!!

Two more buses drove by us with that sign...it was becoming less funny. A guy on the corner next to us suddenly ran across the street- a bus had pulled up on the other corner...by the time we realized it, it was too late. Thanks dude for the heads up...sheesh...

I said to Cosi, 'hey, maybe we should check the sign and see if any more buses will even come to this stop today.' She checked it out, sure enough, it said that there would not be another bus...We crossed the street to the other bus stop...waited, waited waited...Finally we decided, let's walk again...We started down the street to go to the next station...within thirty seconds of us walking a bus pulled up to the station across the street we had first been staning at--where the schedule said there would not be another bus for the day...again, we missed the bus...

We walked on, laughing at our situation, saying that the 'bus gods' must be having a joke at our expense...We made it to the next station and waited...a bus came and actually stopped! We jumped on in victory!

Took the bus to the train station (a very short ride at this point bc we had walked so far)...Got off and went to our track...got up the stairs and saw the schedule for the train- we were on the wrong track...went back downstairs and checked the main schedule again...our train would not be there for at least another 20 min...

We went to a bakery in the train station and got some rolls to eat while we waited...My favorite German phrase kept popping in my head 'ich habe hunger' = I am hungry...

We waited for our train, which of course, came almost ten minutes late...Boarded...road it to Falkensee then started the 15 minute walk home...By the time we got home over two hours had passed since the end of practice...it usually takes about 30 min...We said to ourselves, next time DO NOT MISS THE BUS!

We were tired and so glad to finally be home and eating dinner--carrot soup!!

Möhre= carrot
Müde= tired

Ha ha, this was not a joke on me (though of course we made jokes about it), and it was a very delicious way to end our misadventure...

First Tournament

Well it just hit me that I have now been here for 1 week. Part of me feels like it should have been much longer than that...was I really sitting on an airplane in the Bahamas only a week ago? Time moves slowly right now because I have so much of it...

I start out by apologizing because our team travelled to another town this weekend and I am lame and forgot to take my camera. I have zero pictures to document my trip to Leipzig.



If you find Berlin, look down and just a little to the left to see where Leipzig is, about a 2 hour drive away...(You can click on the map to make it bigger so you can actually read the city names)

We met on Saturday morning and split into cars to drive to the tournament. We stopped at McDonald's about halfway through. Everyone ordered coffee except for me who figured I am always hungry and didn't know when we would eat again, so I got orange juice and a breakfast sandwich. Of course I ordered last and of course it took forever and a day for my order to be done. Love making a group of people who you really don't know wait and wait...but I am so glad I did it. I had eaten probably two and a half hours earlier at this point, and we still had another hour at least in the car.

We got to the gym with about an hour before our scheduled game time, but the team from Poland was late so we didn't play till probably an hour after we were supposed to. I honestly don't know how my teammates did it. Maybe some of them were eating at times I did not see? Maybe German women have super stamina?

Anyway, so our first game was against a team from Poland- supposedly the best team in the tournament. Whatever. They got a little lead on us to start the game but we came right back. I was able to hit several jumpshots in a row to get us going and the team really started to pick it up...

Note on the Polish team- there were several of them who had shaved about a 2.5 inch strip of the side of their heads...weird. I have actually seen a few Germans who have done this too, but none on our team and the girls on my team thought it was weird too.

Anyway, we pulled out the win in the first game and everyone was very excited. Our coach is a young guy, 23 years old, who so far is very positive and patient. He has a lot of passion for coaching. I enjoy him. The girls are fun as well. On the court, as far as I can tell (shoot, they could be saying pretty much anything and I would have no idea) they are also positive and get along. We ran a lot of 4 out 1 in and just try to penetrate to the basket. It seems that, for the most part, if you just drive to the basket you will get a foul called. It is a little bit crazy...

We had the rest of the day free so we showered up and watched some of the next game after us. We ate dinner as a team at the tournament in a hospitality room wehre the meal was provided and that was fun. A few of the girls told us a story about overhearing a German girl in a bar who was speaking English to her friend and started every sentence with, 'HONestly,' but with a hard pronunciationg of the H...as you would use it in have or how...they thought it was hysterical so the entire two days girls would randomly exclaim, 'HONestly!' I used this oncee to get a laugh before our second game when we were warming up and shooting free throws, I waited till our point guard Claudia was about to shoot then pulled it out...Everyone got a good laugh out of that...(and she missed the shot, so I guess it worked ha)

That night we went into the main downtown/square of Leipzig as a group. No one was ordering food so I just got coffee...mistake. I think it might need to be my new mantra, if there is an option to get food, just get it. It was a good time to talk to some of the girls and find out more about them (Some of them speak very good English so we can have a conversation just fine)... One is a project manager for some company, another is a teacher in an elementary school, another works with handicap people...They seem to have a great sense of humor...Another girl who was just playing with us for this tournament is a doctor. She was telling me how she was the team doctor for their U16 team that won the Euro cup...she had to rush back early before the championship game to do a back surgery, but she had a picture of herself on her phone where you could see that she wore a team jersey under her scrubs when she went to do the operation...She is a really funny, really energetic person...

So that night we were split up into groups and we stayed with families/players from Leipzig. I was with two girls, Dani who is about my height, and Louisa who is about 6'4"...We were shown to the rooms where we would stay- down in a basement turned apartment with one room with a tiny twin bed, and then the couch in the family room area that was folded out to a twin sized bed with two comforters folded on it, showing that two of us were meant to sleep there...uh...well guess who got the bedroom, of course Louisa, none of us would have argued that for a second...but that left Dani and I to squeeze onto the couch. I couldn't do it. I couldn't sleep feeling that at any moment I was going to either fall off the bed or roll onto this girl that I dont know (and who speaks very little English)...I moved to the floor. It was a wooden floor with a rug on it- preeeetty hard. I prayed and asked God to help me to somehow sleep and He provided...

The next morning we got up and got ready. I had a little time to read my Bible so I was greatful for that. We ate breakfast (why didnt I pack something to take with me??) and left for the gym. We were there almost 2 hours before our game so we watched the game before us.

We took the court at 12:30 against the Leipzig team.


http://www.eurobasket.com/team.asp?Cntry=Germany&Team=7866&Page=1

That is a link to their team page, although it is not entirely accurate. There are no Americans on their team anymore...The women from the Leipzig team that we stayed with the night before kept joking around that they wanted to try to get us drunk so that we would be out of it for our game. Thankfully, that did not happen. Ha ha. We got off to a great start, 10-0 run to get things going, but in the second quarter we started falling apart a little bit. At half time it was tied up, I think at 31 if I remember correctly. In the second half it was back and forth for a bit (we play 4 10 minute quarters)...Going into the fourth we had a small lead, maybe 8 points...and we were able to keep that up to win the game.

We then had an hour break before the next game. We took about 25 minutes to go outside to sit...in the sun!! I was so happy to have a sunny day. I really had thought all sunny days were behind us. We soaked it up and ate some snacks, which was so good because I was literally getting lightheaded by the end of the second game.

In the final game we played a team from Austria that was comprised mainly of girls that looked like they were 14-16 years old. I felt bad for them a little bit, though I am sure that the experience is good for them. We did not play great, which I think happens when you have just played and your competition is not the best, but we won by 25. I did not play the first quarter as Timur (our coach) was trying some different things...that was fine with me...In the second and third quarter I played quite a bit (I think the whole time actually) and even played some point guard...we tried some new things offensively and defensively, particularly a 1-3-1. I started on the wing, played there for a while, then was moved to the bottom where I was running the baseline, and then got moved to the top...At the end of the 3rd quarter Timur asked me how I was doing and I said I was ready for a break...ha ha, I was dying at that point. I played the whole quarter and that was a lot to play the bottom and then the top of a 1-3-1...

So we came out of the tournament the winners going 3-0. Our team got a trophy and we had fun. One of the girls on my team asked me how I liked playing with them, if it was good or if I felt bored or something...I let her know that I liked it a lot.

I could go on and on with details of the night but I will spare you. :) The biggest thing I would say is that I am thankful for a good weekend- no injuries, had fun playing, enjoyed the team and coach, and learned a valuable lesson- pack food :)

The last thing I would mention is that the coach drove me home last night and we had a good conversation in the car. We talked about our team and the potential there, but also about my potential as a player and playing first league. He said I am 100% capable of playing first league and he really thinks I will get picked up. He said it is just a matter of continuing to play and be seen. That was great input to receive!

This week we will practice and get ready for our tournament in Poland. Also, I will have the two training times for the 'team' I am to coach in Spandau. Please pray that kids will show up this week!!

Watch Your Language

Ok so...I have been trying to learn some German...every day I have a lot of freetime so I have been listening to this cd my dad gave me of lessons in basic German stuff- asking for directions, ordering in a restaurant, times and days of the week, etc...

Last night on the way home from practice we were in the train station with about 30 min to wait for our train (me, Cosi, and Cara- the girls have gone with me the last two times so I can learn the way before doing it solo)...I was pretty hungry so the girls said it was time for me to try currywurst. They also told me I should order in German...I walked up to the counter and bashfully squeaked out 'ich möchte eine klein curryworst' translation: I would like a small curryworst...The guy nodded at me, rang up my food and I handed him some money...I wish. NO! That is never how it goes! He ran off a string of questions which of course I did not understand a word of! I felt myself getting embarrassed and I laughed and said, 'I have no idea'...of course I panicked...what do you always get asked in such ordering situations? The girls reminded me- he wants to know if you want a drink or fries or anything with it...I turned back, 'oh, no no, just curryworst' (German speaking over)...After paying the bill the dude then went off on some other long sentence...I just nodded and said to the girls, now what did he say? Apparently the usual, something about have a good night...sigh...

(A note on currywurst...this is like a hot dog/sausage substance with a sauce like ketchup with curry...it is very good)

Next as we were waiting for our train I decided again to try to work on my German...I turned to Cara and asked, 'Bis du möhre'? Cosi started cracking up...hard...'Cosi! How can I practice German if you are always laughing at me!?'
'I am sorry!' She cried, 'but you just asked Cara if she is a carrot!'

Oh.

möhre= carrot (pronunciation guide- Muh reh)
Müde= tired...(pronunciation guide- Muh deh)

it really sounds the same...sheesh...

Whatever shred of 'just try it-ness' I had in me towards speaking German has been thoroughly abused...

On a postive note...for breakfast I had chocolate Müsli...America needs to jump on that train as soon as possible...

Day Two and Three

Well the sleeping pill was not quite as magical last night and I woke up pretty frequently, but at least I was able to go to bed around a normal time- 11:20 or so, and wake up at a normal time 7:40…No popping up wide awake at 4 am or anything…. So I didn’t mention it beforehand, but at Guido’s practice on Monday night I was able to jump in to one of the fast break drills with the boys and that was really fun. I also shot around on a side basket for a while and it felt good to move around. I think it definitely helped to keep me awake past 7 pm… Yesterday I slept in till a little after nine (went to bed around 10:30) so I woke up feeling really good. Everyone was already gone of course so I went downstairs to find something to eat and I found this:


The note says, "Im full with coffee for Jess!" Sorry my pictures stink.

These girls are so sweet! The night before Cara (Cosi’s sister) had given me this jar of gummies, and they also provided me with a bottle of flat water that I could put in my room (everyone in Europe it seems loves carbonated water…I can drink it no problem but flat just tastes better to me still)….

Yeah the jar was full of candy before I took the picture. I should have taken it before eating most of it...typical...

I ate my breakfast and spent a good amount of time yesterday working on the blog post, checking up on facebook, and of course, watching a you tube video on how to pronounce the letters of the German alphabet….I read my Bible and had time to pray for just about every person I’ve ever met and then spent some time planning my practice for the evening….

Practice went….great! Ha ha, not one kid showed up. But highlights were that Cara had gone with me to practice so that she could show me the way via the train and bus I will take myself in the future. We had fun travelling together as we worked on her English a little and a lot on my German…

Montag Dienstag Mitvoch Donnerstag Frietag Samstag Sonntag Those are, I hope, the days of the week we worked on. I also found out that the word for gate, door, and a soccer goal is all the same. I can say it, but I have no idea how it is spelled…sounds to me sort of like tour but with the “r” being more of an “ah” sound…

Cosi met us at the gym and we waited a few minutes to see if any kids would show up. When none did, we decided to go to my practice for ASV Moabit Berlin- the 2nd league team I am to start playing for. On the way Mike Opitz called and he explained that he had told some of the kids that I might not be there on Tuesday because of all the craziness with my flights…He thinks kids will definitely be there on Friday. He also said he will pick me up today around 11 am to talk about details of the coaching/playing/finances deal…He also mentioned that there is a first league team that I might need to travel to go see. I hope that part is true!

We found the gym in Moabit, Clara was our faithful navigator, having looked up the address on the internet on her phone. Another train ride, another bus ride and we were there. The coach saw me in the hallway and came over and greeted me warmly. Cosi explained to him about my practices with coaching overlapping with his practices. He told me it was no problem at all and that he was happy I was there…Also, there is a tournament this weekend that I can play in.

Practice went really well. I felt pretty good and the girls were very friendly.Timur told me from the start that he would speak German and that two of my teammates could translate for me. It went just fine. There was only one drill where I was pretty confused and it took a few minutes for them to explain it to me extra- but I would like to blame it on my translator who told me we were going to shoot to miss- it made the drill make no sense in my mind ;) ha ha! But I got it quickly enough…

To start practice we spent time doing a plyo circuit with some defensive slides, footwork through cones, jumping, medicine ball work, and short sprints. It really felt good to work out like that. Then we went into some shooting and I shot well.

From there 2 on 2. My partner and I won every game, we had a good pic and roll system going. I felt a little bad for her though because nearly every time the defense played the roller and left me open coming off the screen, so I just kept shooting or going for the layup. I kept thinking this would set it up the next time for her for the score, the defense will adjust…but no. Oh well, by the last game she was kinda laughing about it so I think it’s ok.

We learned some offense in their secondary break. We only had 8 players at practice (Timur the coach had warned me that we’d be low in numbers that night) so we played four on four in the halfcourt with Timur as the all time point guard for both teams, and we played the half court breakdown of the break. This was really fun. We were playing to 6 and my team barely won 6-5. I need to work on my backdoor pass. One thing I have noticed playing in Europe is they go back door way more than we do and they throw the backdoor pass way more than we do. I felt bad because this one guard on the team kept going back door but I kept throwing the ball to someone else because I was uncomfortable with the pass and because I felt like she was right under the basket…but she seemed to expect the ball there. I talked to her about it afterward and explained to her how we would generally not throw that pass but that I will try to figure it out. She was very understanding with me which I was thankful for.

We finished practice with some more partner shooting. We huddled up and the team said some cheer of which I had no clue what they were saying, so I just said “yeah, that!” and the girls laughed.

Timur came up to me afterward and told me again that he would really like for me to play. Marcel is going to come with me to practice on Thursday to talk with TImur to help work out more details as far as me coaching and playing and as far as payment. There is the tournament this weekend and then another one the following weekend in Poland. We would stay two nights in Poland I think, wondering if I’ll see anything/do anything that will count as really Polish and giving me an idea of how Poland is different from Germany. Hope so!

Please keep praying that details work out financially, that maybe there is a real opportunity with a first league team and that it would be a good opportunity for me…Also pray that I can pick up on German quickly…I would like to interact with Guido and Clara more but I think it is language that really limits that. Also, it sounds like there will be a lot of games on Sundays so I’m not sure what the church factor will look like, but there is a possible evening service at one church, and another thought that’s been running through my mind if I stay in this town is to try to start a small Bible study with the Christians that we know during the week… Oh, and the food so far is good  Lots of pizza on homemade dough! Yum!

Day Three:
Well I tried to post the day two thing this morning (Wed am9 but it was not working so I am now posting it Wed evening and I have another update...Mike stopped by the house today and filled me in on a few things.
First of all he said that the coach from practice last night thought I did a good job, so that is always pleasing to hear!

Secondly he said that hopefully next week I can go to try out with a first league team...Of course I do not remember the name of the city it is in, but I do know that it is three hours away from here...

Third he told me that he thinks I should for sure go home for Christmas if I can afford it because he says it is important for family to be together for Christmas- especially for Americans. He said that in his experience Americans get "homesick and moody" around november, so they should always go home for a couple weeks for Christmas if they can...let the fundraising begin ;) family, in lieu of Christmas presents I will take money towards a flight!!

All in all, it was a good conversation with Mike. In an hour I will go to the gym in Spandau to work out a little bit. Marcel's team has practice at 8 so I should see him and catch up with more details then. Mike says Marcel knows more and has also been working on getting me an apartment...I had no idea about that!

K that is all for now (ha, as if that was short!!)

It Starts

This process so far has been quite surreal. I have had to continually tell myself what I am doing- “I am going to Germany, not for a vacation.
The first flight went by pretty quickly. Sat next to a man and his little boy, on their way to Disneyworld. I watched a dumb movie for most of the flight.

The flight to Germany was the most eventful flight I have ever been a part of. Talk about the things you’d like to have someone with you for. The first few hours I was sitting in the back row next to a young German couple who felt it necessary to kiss every 30 seconds. Gross…I tried to focus on other things…Then one of the flight attendants came on over the intercom to tell us that because of a medical emergency with one of the passengers, we would have to turn around and go back to Miami. A few minutes later several attendants and one of the other passengers carried a man who looked very purple down the aisle to the back of the plane. A bit later we were told that we were going to have to land in the Bahamas instead. Apparently the other passenger helping to carry the man was a doctor and he didn’t think that the man would survive the extra thirty minutes it would take to get to Miami as opposed to landing in the Bahamas.


The dying man’s wife came and sat down behind me. I just kept hearing her apologize to the flight attendant, “I am so sorry. I feel so bad for all of these people.” The flight attendant kept assuring her that it was fine, that everyone would understand. The woman didn’t seem distraught at all over her husband. She remarked, “he’s probably going to be fine, as soon as we land.” As though the guy was just being dramatic. I felt so sad for this couple, for the man fighting for his life, for his seemingly unaffected wife, and for the strange relationship they must have. After about an hour and a half, the plane began circling down down and down. I could see the altitude numbers on the PA screen dropping….soon we were on the ground and the flight attendants opened the back emergency exit door. The wife said, “Oh good, we’re going out back here? Now we don’t have to walk by all those people.” Surely, I thought, this woman is somewhat in shock.



The man was taken from the plane and put on an ambulance. Then the waiting began. “we have to fill out paperwork” we were told. We waited an hour. “We have to get more fuel” added to the wait. Then, “We must contact our headquarters in Berlin to see where we should go, we cannot go back to America.” One hour turned to two, then three. Then we heard “we are still waiting on word from Berlin. We will serve a cold meal and turn on a movie.” I ate my cold sandwich and watched the second dumb movie in two days, this time “Arthur.” I drifted in and out of sleep. By the end of the movie we had gotten word that we would have to go to Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic. Air Berlin had a station there. The crew would get their mandatory 10 hour break and we would all be put up in a hotel. The hour and a half flight commenced.

We landed in the D.R. in the middle of the night. Most everything was dark and I couldn’t make out what the place looked like, except for the building.

We went into the open air airport and got our baggage. I was disappointed to find out our luggage wouldn’t stay on the plane because I didn’t want to have to deal with my two mammoth suitcases..but oh well. Up to this point I had made very little communication with anyone. About 90 percent of the people on the flight were German and the combination of the language barrier and my fatigue led me to stay quiet most of the day. Now in the airport I took my cues from my fellow passengers. There’s a luggage cart around that corner. I waited in the back of the crowd for it to thin out so I would have space to maneuver the insanely heavy bags I had packed. I loaded them up and followed the line through customs. I got another coveted stamp in my passport and followed the trail of people back out to the front of the airport. An airport service man took my bags from the cart and put them onto a dolley and took them out to buses that everyone was loading onto. Of course I had no money for tip, hopefully this man understood our situation? I got on the bus and picked a spot to settle in. We were told we were going to a hotel 30 min away.

On arriving and again unloading everyone’s bags, we now migrated to a meeting room where we would be registered with the hotel. I started realizing that I was definitely with Europeans- no one is polite about lines or space. The rule is there are no rules, it’s every man for himself and I would have to decide whether or not I was going to do things their way or be last in everything. I continued to deal with this dilemma all night as I could not bring myself to cut in front of people, to throw my body or bags in front of someone next to me. I continually felt frustrated by the people who would see a line of people and yet walk right to the front and jump in.

My dilemma led me to being the very last passenger in my hotel room- I later found out that another passenger had already been sleeping in his room for two hours by the time I got to my room around 5:30 in the morning. Upon entering my room I was able to forget my exhaustion for a second as my eyes beheld the large suite with a king sized bed, couch and sitting area and balcony leading out to one of the pools. I searched the mini fridge and found that the contents were included with the stay and I helped myself to the only food item inside- a bag of lays potato chips. The first food I had eaten since the cold sandwich, those chips had never tasted so good.


I tried to get the internet up on my computer so I could check in with family and friends, but no dice. Apparently the one thing not included in this all included resort was free wi-fi. I shut the laptop down, set two alarms, got ready for bed and crawled into that large slice of heaven for the next four hours.




I woke up around 10 on Sunday morning. I walked out to my balcony to spend a few minutes looking at:


I packed up my things and set out to find the front desk again. I stepped out the door to amazing humidity. The walk to the front desk had me sweating and I realized the jeans and t-shirt were a huge mistake. I went back to my room and changed. I tried calling the front desk to see if they could send someone to help me with my bags but no one answered. I set out with my two huge bags, backpack and purse. I was sweating bullets as I pulled those 100+ pounds down the sidewalk. I spotted one of the hotel bell boys with a bag cart about halfway through my trek and waited for him to come help me. Sure enough he offered to take my bags and I gladly let him. He said he had to go to one more room to pick up bags and he’d meet me at the front desk. I obliged, praying that I really would see him and my bags again…Back at the “lobby” (a huge open air room with bar area, restaurant and lounge) I searched for something to eat and drink. I found pineapple juice and a table with pastries. I downed two of the pastries and a few cups of juice and waited for my bags which yes, did show up. Again I had no money to pay the man and just hoped he wouldn’t hate me too much.
Next it was getting onto the bus. I joined the crowd of people from my flight, making some small talk with a few of the girls I remembered from the night before. After about an hour’s wait all of us were loaded again onto buses. A guy named Vijay began talking with me on the bus from across the aisle. We chatted on the ride to the airport. Upon arriving our bags were unloaded and the airport workers were waiting to help us with bags. I knew they were all hungry for tips and I tried to just grab my own bags to avoid once again disappointing some worker, but of course I wasn’t fast enough. I followed some dude with my bags to the line and I tried to explain to him that I didn’t have any money as he just stood next to me in line. Vijay came up behind me and handed me a $5. I thanked him and handed it to the man who then nodded at me and left…I thanked Vijay again and offered him some Euro but he told me not to worry about it. We were now at the back of yet another line, which was obviously going to be an hour at least of a wait. We continued chatting and making small talk. He is from India but works in Paris. He was giving me tips about living in Europe- keep an open mind, don’t be offended by harsh comments because Europeans speak their minds and don’t sugar coat things, try to learn the language, etcetc etc. He helped me roll one of my bags through the line and “soon” enough we were at the front of the line.
Next it was back through security and to our gate. Of course our gate didn’t say Berlin on it, but Miami. We spent a few minutes trying to figure out if we were at the right gate, and ended up just hoping for the best, taking the word of some of our fellow passengers that we were in the right place. I realized how much on this trip I just hoped for the best and followed along. I hope that this method continues to give me the success it has so far . Sure enough we got on the correct flight another hour or so later. Once in the air it was crazy to think of all we had been through so far.
Vijay and I talked some more on the plane. Eventually we were able to talk about God. Funny enough, it came up when he asked me what music I liked and I said in my list that I listen to Christian music. He began to tell me why he doesn’t like Christian music though he is a Catholic. I then got to explain why I do like it, how it reminds me about the truths about God, how it directs my heart to praise and admire Him, how God has used it in my life during hard times to encourage me…This led into talking about all sorts of things in regards to Christ and the Bible. Vijay asked me at some point if I had a lot of friends who believe like I do and I was able to tell him more about that. I am hoping that I could show him someone with a genuine relationship with God.
With about four hours to go in our trip we both decided to try to sleep. Of course that didn’t go so well, but I slept on and off for the next few hours. Finally they served us “breakfast” which I was very excited for and of course disappointed to find we were already starting the German breakfast of bread, lunch meat, and cheese. At least I got some coffee!

On arriving to Berlin we began to clap. Our journey was finally ended. Vijay helped me to collect my bags (he didn’t have to get his as he was still going on to Paris). As soon as I walked out of the baggage claim Cosi was there and we hugged. It was so great to see her! Her Opa had brought her and would drive us home. He didn’t speak any English but he was very sweet. I wished I could have spoken to him. I just kept saying thank you.

When we got home Cosi had to go back to school and everyone else was gone. I took a few minutes to get online and check facebook then I went to my room and crashed. I took comfort in the fact that I had some sleeping pills so I could take one at night . The four hour nap felt amazing.



When I woke up everyone was home and were gathering to eat so I joined them. Delicious! Rice and chicken. We watched a little bit of the German basketball team playing Latvia, Nowitski was a pleasure to see again though it was Chris Kaman who was doing most of the scoring in the part of the game we saw. Soon it was off to Guido’s practice (Guido is Cosi’s dad and he coaches a club team of 16 year old boys). Cosi and I went along because some of the boys I know from Crossover were on the team- including Kjell who is the boy in the family that hosted Carrie and I this year. I was so excited to see him, and Adrienne, both who have been at Crossover every year that I have been. Then I saw Florian, a boy from last year and then Denis! I was so surprised to see Denis, he was walking up to me and I did not recognize him at all. I was thinking “does this guy know me? He is walking up to me like he does”…then I realized it was him! Denis came to Crossover in 2008. He was there again in 2009 but I wasn’t, and in 2010 and this summer he was on vacation during camp, so this was my first time to see him in three years. He is all grown up! He was very excited to see me and told me that he has great memories from 2008, especially from me answering his questions about God. What a wonderful way to be greeted!!

All this to say, the start of this journey has already been very eventful. I am excited to be here but still nervous for how things will work out. I just keep turning that back over to God. So far it looks like the team I will coach and the team I will play for basically practice at the same times. The team I coach is to practice two evenings a week, and the team I am to play for has it 4 evenings a week. I may only get to practice myself on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I really hope somehow it can work out differently…

Tonight is the first practice with the team I will coach. We have no idea how many kids will show up, and I have been told it could be kids from age 7 all the way to 14. I have also found out that this may be more like training sessions than an actual team. As usual, everything is up in the air ….

To be continued…