Let the games begin

We had our first preseason games (or "friendly" games as they call it over here) this past Friday and Saturday. We won our first game by one point. We were down by two points and one of my teammates hit a 3-pointer with two seconds left in the game. It was a great finish and a great start to the season. We played fairly well together as a team. We are still getting accustomed to playing with each other so the communication on the court isn't the greatest yet. I played well for my first outing and had about 15 points. Even though the ball was wet from all the sweat, I was fortunate to have my shots falling that game.
Saturday's game did not fair too well for us. We played sloppy and gave up too many turnovers and easy buckets. We lost by about 15-20 points - definitely aspects of the game we can improve on, but the season is very young. My shots weren't going in for me that game. Even though I had about 12 points, it took me too many attempts to get there. That's part of the game I guess. I will keep you updated on our future games. We play another tournament at home this weekend with games on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

"They talkin' about practice"

I figured I should actually talk about the basketball side of things over here since that is the reason I am in Romania. For the most part we have practice two times a day for about 2 hours each time. They have consisted of less long distance running than last year, but we still do a good amount of it. Several times we have taken a bus outside the city and ran in the woods for about 5 miles. We lift weights two times per week and we do a lot of agility/footwork drills so I think it's productive. We haven't actually played basketball as much as I would like, but I think we are going to do more of that next week because we have our first preseason game on Friday at home. I'm excited for games to start, and it will be a nice change of pace.

We have actually played soccer (their football) a couple times after we do agility workouts. It's kind of amusing to me. The guys on the team have somewhat assumed Americans aren't very good at soccer since they haven't had any good American soccer players on the team in recent years so they stuck Tyrone and me at goalee. That was fine for me because I got a good view at the action. And man, do they take it seriously. There is no such thing as a friendly game of soccer with these guys. They were yelling at each other over wrongs calls and trying to come up with strategies that I was afraid of giving up a goal and getting a beating after the game. Okay, it wasn't to that point, but I still didn't want to let them down. I did fine I guess so that's good.

Well, that is about all that is going on over here. My days aren't too eventful over here, but I will let you know if anything exciting occurs. I took some pictures so I will try and put them all up here. On second thought, I think I will just attach the link to the pictures on my facebook profile. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081088&id=184600800&saved#!/album.php?aid=2101207&id=184600800&fbid=573302471937&ref=mf Hopefully it works, and let me know if it doesn't. I hope all is well. Until next time...

Gotta Love It

Well, here it is, already almost a week since my last post. I am now in the hotel I will be staying at for the rest of the year--definitely an upgrade, besides the internet not working. I tried coming back to use the internet last Friday, but it wasn't working--just lovely. Tyrone and I got a cab to the hotel, tried connecting to the internet with no success, and got a cab back to the other hotel. It was a successful trip to say the least :) That's the way it goes sometimes. It is working now after cutting in and out yesterday. Hopefully, it works the rest of the year.

I should really talk about the other hotel we stayed at. I had some interesting food when I first came into Romania. Breakfast was a bowl of some porridge-like substance with sour cream on top. Many of you know that I'll eat just about anything, but this stuff was too much to handle. The coach asked me, "Mike, do you not like the food?" I thought to myself, "Yeah I don't like it, this stuff is bad!" But instead, I said that my stomach wasn't feeling too great, which was true as well. Then comes out a plate of two meats somewhat like summer sausage and bologna. Not bad if I had some crackers, but not for breakfast. The other days we had eggs for breakfast so that was good with me. For lunch one day we had meat kind of like hot dogs, but it was much softer. It tasted like it needed to be cooked more, but that is the way they eat it I guess. Other than those meals, the food has been better than in Austria. For lunch and dinner, soup is always served first with bread. You always get a salad as well, but it consists of mostly cole slaw, not lettuce. Then they serve the main meal: meat and potatoes. Lately we have had grilled chicken at this restaurant where we have our team meals. Dessert is always served too, which is a plus.

Enough about food. I have to talk about this elevator in the old hotel. This hotel must have withstood World War II bombings and looked like it. There were two elevators, one small and one bigger one. The bigger one was always operated by a worker who only seemed to work two hours a day so the majority of the time it was out of order. Therefore we had to use the bigger one. The sign said that it could hold four people, but we soon found out that was a lie. It's not very fun being cramped in a tiny elevator with three other big guys and getting stuck in the middle of the elevator shaft. Fortunately, we just kept pushing buttons to get to another floor and it started moving again. Great times, I tell ya. Next time we tried with only three guys and it was working fine until we got to the bottom and the elevator door wouldn't open all the way. No worries, we just had to pry it open with our arms. By this time I was about ready to make the trek to our 7th floor room, but we only put two guys in at a time and it worked like a gem. Those are just some of the surprises you get playing ball overseas. Gotta love it.

I will have to take some pictures now that I am settled in my new place. The city has everything you need: grocery stores, bank, a nice mall, McDonald's :), but it has tons of run-down buildings. The center of the city is fine, but other than that it's kind of sad to see.

Well, that is all for now. I hope you enjoyed.

The Arrival

First of all, I would like to give major credit to my man, Joel Webb, for starting this blog for me. It was a genius idea to say the least. I am in the hotel lobby writing a little blip before I have to get some rest for practice tomorrow morning. Hmmm....where to begin. Well, I can start with my first scare of the adventure: I should have missed my flight. I went by the itinerary I received from the team, which is a no-no I soon discovered. My flight for 12:30 pm was moved up to 10:45, but fortunately it was delayed until 11:50 so I had to rush to the gate. The angels were looking over me on that one, as my mom said.
Then, I was stuck in Budapest with no one to pick me up. I was waiting around for nearly 1 1/2 hours before someone came. I called Andrea just to let her know and get some reassurance and sure enough about two minutes later the guy arrives to bring me the three hour drive to Oradea, Romania. We are actually staying just outside the city for this week in an older hotel with no internet. Therefore, me and the other American, Tyrone, got a ride to the hotel we will be staying at for the rest of the year and are sitting in the lobby using the internet. I don't know if I will be able to come back before Saturday, but I will write again then.
When I arrived I ate at the hotel restaurant with the coach and conversed with him. He seems like a good guy so I am excited/curious to see how he will be this year. He wanted me to come to practice tonight, but just rest from the long trip and watch the guys workout. That was refreshing because I was running on little sleep to be very productive. We then ate as a team after practice and that brings me to now and writing this blog. I tried to fit in as much as I could before we have to leave and I apologize for the lack of grammar and flow (I know my sister, Sara, would not be very happy about that :) Well, take care and this is me signing off for Day 1.