Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Good Morning from Oviedo!

Napolitano de Chocolate

I just had some coffee and a napolitano de chocolate, which is my favorite pastry here. It is probably one of the most unhealthy though too =/ Basically it is a croissant filled with chocolate, and when they are fresh and warm they are delicious! Meredith, my roommate from college who lived in Salamanca, Spain for three months on exchange, also loved these. By the time she told me to try one, I had already been hooked! Unfortunately I have not been able to find a coffee shop that serves like lattes with flavors or anything. They only have regular coffee, coffee with milk, or I think there are cappuccinos too. Clearly, there was no Thanksgiving here, but a few of my teammates had heard of it and wished me a Happy Thanksgiving. I didn't even eat pavo(turkey) on this past Thursday, but I was able to Skype with my family before they feasted! If I had a kitchen in my place, I would have cooked, but I don't :(On another note I had two games with my kids since I last blogged. One on Friday night and one yesterday morning. On Friday night we lost by 43 points. Not good! We were able to bounce back and win on Saturday morning so our overall record is 2-2 and we are ranked  third in our league of twelve teams.

The Friday night game was played outside and I am pretty sure it was about 32 degrees because I could see my breathe! I felt so bad for my kids, but then again they were probably warmer than me because they were running around! It was a pretty dramatic game on Friday, with the parents screaming at the ref, and even coming down onto the court. I was pretty angry with the ref as well ,but then I just started to feel bad. It was his fist basketball game he had ever reffed, and that was clear. Actually, I think that was the first basketball game he had ever seen. On top of the that the person running the score book was a 10 year old boy so he was making fouls for the wrong person, and giving points the wrong team. All the mom's were standing behind our bench and comforting the girls who were freezing and angry about the game, while all the dad's were angry and yelling. The mom's just kept telling me I was doing a great job and to just worry about coaching, meanwhile a few would come tap me on the shoulder and show me what the real score was, because they were keeping track on their own pad of paper haha! So far, no problem parents yet, in fact, they are all very nice. Yesterday we had a big team meal at Tina's apartment. Saturday's and Tuesdays we never have practice, even if we have a game the next day. One type of typical food here is tortillas. Before

Tortilla de patata

Spain, I had always thought of tortilla's like the flour ones that you use to eat tacos, or buritos. Here tortillas are eggs and potates all cooked together to make a big queesh like pie. I am sure that you can put other ingredients in the tortilla like ham or veggies, but just eggs and potatoes I believe is the most common. Today we will leave at 1:30 to head to Vallolidad where we have a game at 6pm. I am still not practice or playing yet, continuing to let my knee heal. If we win today we will be 8-0! Tomorrow is a HUGE game in Spain where Real Madrid will take on FC Barcelona in one of the biggest soccer games of the year! I will be going for Real Madrid :) It had started to get very cold here, and I can now see snow on the mountains that are behind the city. Looks like it's time for me to be on a beach, in 22 days! :)