San Mateo, Perros, y Cafes!

San Mateo Street Entertainment

Plaza de la Catedral

Heading to see Trasto's parents

Trasto & his parents reuniting!

For the last few weeks I have just been getting back into the swing of things & readjusting to living in Spain. One of the things I missed most about Spain, and Europe in general is all of the street cafes. I love people watching and I really enjoy the coffee here, so I have spent a lot of time at different cafes, with teammates and alone. As a matter of fact I went to my favorite one last night to use the Wifi and watch both the Real Madrid and Barcelona soccer games. As of now, I don't have a lot to do during the day(we usually practice in the evenings), and neither does my good friend, Lara. I have been running around with her exploring Oviedo, Aviles, and Gijon. I am planning on tutoring kids in English throughout the week, and I have a few families that have "hired" me to start in October, so I am looking forward to that. I am also coaching my same kids team 3 days a week, and we only have two new girls so that has been fun coaching them again :) This whole week has been San Mateo, although I remember the weather being a little bit warmer last year! There are tons of street vendors, and concerts every night in the Plaza with the huge cathedral. I bought a new camera, before I left so I have been having fun playing with that, and learning how to use it. I have uploaded a few of my favorite pictures onto Facebook...Practice has been going well, and we have some new young talent this year that I am looking forward to playing with! We had our first scrimmage in Aviles on Saturday and we won by about 20. Tomorrow, we play a team from Liga 2, and on Saturday we have another scrimmage. Our regular season won't start until mid October. I just got back from Gijon, with a few of my teammates. We went to get ice cream from this place called Regma, that is on the beach and it is seriously the best ice cream ever! Only 3 Euros for a double scoop, and I got mocha :) I did feel kind of sick after because I ate it so fast it was melting all over me! We all stood hunched over stuffing our faces for a good 3 minutes, when I realized I was in front of an office window and a man was staring at me dying laughing....meanwhile I had ice cream all over my hands, face, and the ground below me. My teammate Patri, recently bought a golden retriever puppy and his name is Trasto, which means naughty in Spanish. He is so adorable! We brought him with us to Gijon, and then we stopped by the breeders house so he could see his parents. There aren't many actual houses where I live in Oviedo, but this was more in the country you could say, and it was a gorgeous house! I took a picture as Lara, Andrea, Patri, and Trasto were walking down the driveway. So neat how old somethings are here! It was so cute to watch them all run around in a little family, and made me want a dog even more! You could tell the people really loved dogs, and took good care of them, and didn't just do it for the money...One thing I have noticed in Spain is that there are hardly any mixed dogs. All are pure breds. I have also noticed that many people fail to pick up their dogs doo doo on the streets!!! I have been lucky, or attentive enough to not step in any yet...Patri, was not so lucky, as she stepped in a large one right before we left for Gijon. The last picture is in Gijon, after the ice cream! As you can tell, I am enjoying taking black and white photos recently :) Hope everyone has a great weekend coming up! Ciao

Back to Oviedo!

Well it is has been about 4 months since I last blogged. As I sit here in the Seattle Airport watching the sunrise, I figured this would be a good time to restart my blogging. Looking back I realized I never updated this to say how we did in the Final Four. We ended up losing a few close games therefore, not moving up a league. Leaving Oviedo back in May, I was unsure of if I was coming back to play again in Oviedo, or in Spain at all. I was set on resting my knee over the summer, and seeing how it felt after a few months before making any decisions. Come July, it was feeling good after doing a lot of stationary bike and elliptical, and I made the decision to come back to Oviedo, rather than go to a different team. I had a great time this summer and I will highlight the times with some pictures :)

I will start with my surprise going away party, thrown by my team. I really had no idea, and we had a great time in one of the local bars that we always go to!

Stopping in Boston to see college friends, where we went out in the city and went to the beach! Here in this picture, Kelly, Meredith, and I. 

Celebrating my sisters 25th Birthday in Denali National Park where we went to a wine tasting event, and went on a couple hikes!

Taking a vacation to California where I was able to spend time with my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins too! Here in this picture, Kyle and I in the sun at The Cheesecake Factory in Union Square, San Fransisco. Such good food! Hiked the Marin Headlands too!

Went on a few hikes this summer. My best friend Alyssa had a few friends come up from L.A. and we took them on this hike called Angel Rocks.

Rebuilding the deck at my parents house. My Dad did most of the work, but Robin and I helped a lot! Here, nailing down the last few nails! 

White Water Rafting in Denali National Park with some girls from LA. Us on the Nenana River in this picture, before our guide threw us all in! So cold!

The annual costume boat party! This year the theme was Hollywood Stars. I was Lara Croft.

 Definitely am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things with practice and my team.  I am coaching my same little girls this year, so I am excited to see all of them as well. I will try to keep this updated for those of you who read it! Hope everyone else had a great summer and is doing well!!! Hasta la proxima vez!

As the year comes to an end...

The last few weeks have flown by pretty fast, and now on May 15th, there are only five days left until the Final Four. About a week ago we found out that we will definately be playing the three games in Logroño which is about four hours East of us. For those who have kept up with my blog, that area is where I went with my sister and friends back in March. It is the wine country, and a lot of people have already said that one good thing about the Fase (Final Four) being there is that it is a great place to celebrate if we win! The picture on the left is one of the promotion cards for the tournament, with the schedule below. The top two teams from our group, us and Salamanca, and then the top two teams from the other group will all play each other, and the team that has the best record will move up to Liga 2 the next year. I am practicing now and doing most drills and it feels great to be getting back on the court. I cannot believe that it has almost been 4 months since the surgery (May 19th, will mark 4 months). I played for a few minutes in our last league game just to see how it felt. When I got subbed in for my first game since November 15th, the first thing that happened was that there was a techincal foul on the other teams coach, and my coach chose me to shoot the free throws before I had even played. I missed the first one unfourtunately, made the second, but I will always remember that as the first "play" after my time being injured. I made a couple three´s, and missed a few, including a nice air ball! This past Tuesday the government of Mieres recognized our team for winning the University Championships. Mieries is where we practice, so I guess that is why they recognized us. The picture above is outside the Town Hall of Mieres. My teammates Lara and Carol will be interviewd tomorrow on the televesion as well. My kids team just had their last game yesterday and the parents organized a big team lunch with all the parents and kids after. It was at a really nice restaurant and we had a whole room to ourself which was good because the kids are crazy! The parents all had gotten 4th place trophies and medals for the kids since we finished 4th out of 12 teams. The kids made me a shirt, got me big Asturian book in English so that I could show my family, and a nice picture :) I am thankful to have had such great and supporting parents for my first coaching experience. I never had one problem with any of them! I also printed out one action shot for each of the girls that Meredith had taken while she was here, and made them say one thing in English in front of everyone. The best phrase was Olaya when she said, "Casey you are the queen of the world!!!" Hahaha. There was a big play area outside, and the picture to the left is of me and most of the team in there. I was with all the parents and kids for about 8 hours yesterday! A lot of Spanish, and a lot of good food and drinks! We talked a lot about the cultural differences between the United States and Spain, one of which was living at home. Here in Spain it is completely normal to live at home until you are 30, where as I explained in the United States  you were expected to live on your own soon after graduation frorm college. Many of them didn´t realize I was only 22 so they were really suprised when they found that out! We didn´t have practice yesterday or today, so last night I went out for some Sidra with some of my teammates. You can see the picture on the right with me and a few bottles! We will practice this week and then leave for Logroño on Thursday afternoon where we will stay until Sunday! After that I will be heading back to the United States of America!!!!! I cannot wait to eat peanut butter, bagels and cream cheese, Dunkin Donuts coffee, Starbucks Frapuccinos, and hear English all the time! 

Campeonato de España -- Spanish University Champions!

Cathedral in Leon

Hola, from Oviedo! I just got back yesterday from Leon where I was staying with my team for the past week. We played four games in the last five days, and we have our last league home game tonight, so our fifth game in six days! We ended up winning the University Championships in Leon, which is the first time that the women´s team has won in many years! We beat two teams from Madrid, one from Salamanca, and one from Barcelona in order to win the championship. We won the semi-final game on Thursday by 3 points, but won the final by 20! Today´s game is a derby against Aviles, which is just a 20 minute drive away. We only have two more league games left and we have already won the league. The only thing left is to win the Fase to be able to move up to Liga 2 which we are all working towards!

Celebrating after the Finals with the Asturian flag

Team comida after the win

In the city with the team!

Leon was a very nice city and we had a chance to explore on our evenings off. The catherdral is beautiful, and supposedly one of the top 3 in Europe. There were 12 men´s teams and 12 women´s teams all staying in two hotels, so there was a great basketball environment. A lot of the teams there it seemed just came to party, as many teams went out drinking on game nights, including a few of the teams we played against and ended up beating by 20! Better for us :) On the men´s side a University from Barcelona ended up winning it all. A good number of people were able to drive down on Friday for the final since Leon is only an hour and a half south-east of Oviedo so that was nice. After the game, we went out into the city and celebrated with big lunch in the sun were I got a little burnt! After tonights game we have a team dinner and we will probably go out into the city to again, celebrate winning the gold medal! Our team only played with 8 players throughout the last five days, and I was not able to play. I am starting to do the warm-ups before the games, jogging, and shooting :) Everyone is pretty tired after this week, but I am sure we will do well tonight!  I had a game with my kids team this morning, which we won 56-5! I felt kind of bad for the other team, but we were´t pressing or anything, we were just a lot better! It is pretty rainy here in Oviedo, so I hope it gets sunny here soon! April flew by, and I cannot believe that it is already May! Three more weeks until the Final Four, which I hope I will be able to play in. I am pretty sure that I will start practicing this week, so we will see how the knee feels. We are supposed to have a reception in the next coming week with the president of the Unviersity to celebrate winning the championship! Overall this has been a great experience, and I cannot wait to be back on the court again!!

Cumpleanos en Espana + Tarta de Zanahoria

I was lucky to have great weather this past Thursday on my Birthday :) Actaully the whole last week was great, and I took advantage of it by laying outside a few times at the park below where I live. Here in Spain, and most of Europe I believe, it is a tradition that when it is your birthday, you have to bring something for the team to eat. Unlike our greedy culture in United States where we just take take take! I wanted to make something somewhat unique for them to eat so I thought Carrot Cake would be a good idea, becuase when I mentioned the idea to them they all thought it would be disgusting. Only my German teammate Clara, and Tina had tried it before. On my birthday Lara and I set out to find all the ingredients I would need, which was a process in itself trying to translate the things I needed. The funniest part was trying to find Baking Soda. Lara google translated it on her phone, and it said "bicarbonato de sodio." We asked the worker from the supermarket and she took us to where it was, sure enough it was there, and I was so excited they had it and threw it in the cart. Then, Lara picked it up and started reading it, at which point we realized that it was for cleaning dishes or getting rid of bad odors!!! Hahaha, I swear I wasn´t trying to kill them! I ended up googling later where I could find it, and I ended up having to buy the edible version in a Pharmacy! I also couldn´t find confectioners sugar in a big quantity the first day. It was about 6 dollars for a tiny little jar! I had to go to another store in which I found a big carton. While shopping, I also realized there are no Bagels in Spain! Anyways after about three supermarkets and a pharmacy I was able to get all of the ingredients. Lara thought it was impossible that with the stuff I bought, it would turn out looking like the pictures I had showed her. That debate ended in her You Tubing a video of some southern lady making a Carrot Cake! Ha! After translating all the mesaurments from cups to grams or mL, I was able to bake the cake! The back edge got burnt a little bit, but other than that it turned out pretty good! The Cream Cheese frosting was especially yummy. My team said that they liked it, hopefully they weren´t just being nice :) I had kids practice on my birthday as well, and I wasn´t going to tell them it was my Birthday, but somehow one of them found out. They ended up tugging on my earlobe 22 times....Friday night after our practice we went to see the men´s team play, who have now clenched a playoff spot! We won last night by about 20. We will play in Salmanca next weekend (Our longest road trip), and then 2 more games after that and our regular season is over! My doctor´s appointment got moved up to this coming Thursday, so hopefully I will be cleared to run! I don´t have too many good pictures, but here are a couple that Lara had taken with her phone. One of me baking the cake in her house, and the other of me sitting out side during lunch trying to find some word in my dictionary. I try to carry it with me at all times becuase there are always vocab words that one of us don´t know in the other language!

Play Xago & News!

Mujeres y Deportes 2011

Carol and I at Playa Xago

Tortillas, lomo, ensalada, pastel de vedura, patatas :)

Last time I blogged I said I couldn´t wait to go to the beach! Well, last Friday I went to the beach :) Piki, Carol, and I went to Playa Xago for the day which is near Aviles on the Northern coast. The professor for my class actually said today that we are so lucky for this weather and this time of the year. Usually it is pretty rainy and cold! It was a beautiful day, and we had almost the whole beach to ourselves! This weekend we won again, this time by about 60 points. We played against a team in Palencia about 3 hours away. Our whole team was back playing fairly healthy (minus me) but Tina rolled her ankle during the game. It was a good thing she had her ankles taped, because it was VERY swollen as it was...We had a team meal on Sunday, and watched the Nadal vs. Djokovic tennis match that took place in Miami. The Serbian Djokovic ended up winning in the tiebreaker, but they both played really well! This whole week is sunny and in the high 70s so I am a happy girl :) We only have like three regular season games left and then the Universities and the the Final Four at the end of May. I am adding resistance on the elliptical and doing that for longer amounts while continuing with the pool and bike! You can get some great workouts in the pool, I have been doing sprints in there and obvioulsy I am out of cardio shape, but still! Today my girls team had an apperance to do on the Oviedo Television sports program and I was not planning on going. The coordinator called me about 15 mintues before and told me he would like me to go. I was at physical therapy so I ran(figuratively) and tried to look half decent then met my girls at the station. Two of my girls answered questions and the rest of us just stood there, it was fun. I will post the video when it gets uploaded to You Tube. The first picture above is of all the women who spoke at the Mujeres y Deportes round table discussion a few weeks ago. I´m really not that tall, everyone was just really short!! I had sent back my computer with Meredith when she left at the end of Feburary to get it fixed at Merrimack, and she mailed it back to me a few weeks ago. On Friday I recieved a notice saying that my computer was in Madrid in customs! Still not sure how and if I will recieve it here in Oviedo. I had 10 days to show them the reciept for my computer, but I didn´t buy it recently....Anyways I faxed some paperwork today, and the coordinator for our club helped me so I hope I will recieve it soon!

Spring is here!

I am getting really bad at updating this thing! Lets see here since the last time I blogged, we have won two games, one home and one in Lugo. We are now 20-0. I am still not running yet, but doing elliptical, bike, and pool workouts. I still coach my kids team, and have been trying to get them to tell me one thing in English each day, usually they just say "hello" or "t-shirt" haha. Yesterday I was asked to speak to some students for an annual "Mujeres y Deportes" (women and sports) round table discussion. There were about 8 females who played various sports such as soccer, karate, mountain climbing, etc. I always forget that I was lucky to have Title IX growing up playing sports. I personally believe that there is not an equal amount of sports team between women and men here in Spain. After each of us athletes spoke to the kids, it was time for questions. Some asked me about the light in Alaska, and one girl asked me if I miss my family back in Alaska. My response was, well actually they are all over the world right now too! Well, my sister Robin is in Fairbanks, but my dad is in Mexico, and my mom is in Australia. The weather has been getting very Springy here. Sunny enough, that I got burnt the other day! For the last month or so the team has been doing a little extra workout before practice with our trainer David. Since the season is so long we kind of have two preseasons. Now they are getting some extra running in to be in to shape for the final tournament at the end of May, and for the finals for the Universitarios at the end of April. Above is a picture of some us doing partner biceps! Last weekend I also went and saw my first Liga 2 game which is the League above us. The competion was definatley way better than our league, but I think our team could compete with them. They had some very good American post players too that were strong and huge! Here in Oviedo there is also a Carnival weekend which is basically like Halloween. Everyone dresses up and goes out. A couple of my teammtes were avatar, some pipi longstocking, some rugby players. I didn´t dress up or go out, becuase I am not supposed to walk around too much on my knee. The other picture is after a game on the evening of Carnival. The little boy was my teammate Tina´s friends son. He dressed up like a clown with his parents and it was SO cute. Here is a picture that I took of my teammates before they went into the city. This weekend we have a home game, and I have two games with my kids! I can´t wait until it is warm enough to go to the beachhh.

Universitarios 3-0!

Hello all! Just got back from Madrid last night where we won the preleminary round of the University tournament. We played one regular 40 minute game on Tuesday which we won by about 30, and then we had to play two 20 mintues games against two different teams on Wednesday. The games were an hour apart and we won both of those games. We traveled to Madrid with the men´s basketball team, men´s soccer team, and men´s handball team. The men´s handball team lost their first game so they went back on Tuesday evening. The men´s soccer team won the preleminaries like us, while the men´s basketball team lost in the finals. The men´s soccer team and us will now travel to Leon to play against the 12 best Universties in Spain on April 25th I believe. This is apart from the league we play in, and I guess it is Spain´s version of the NCAA´s. Only difference is that many of the players are paid, and some are only signed just for this tournament. As long as you are "enrolled" in the school with the proper paperwork, you can play. The team that wins it all in Leon will play in the European Championships sometime in June. One of my teammates, Carolina, is from Madrid so her family and friends all got a chance to see her play near home which was nice for her. They had made signs for her and cheered really loud for us so that was nice!The picture to the right is of all of us after the game with Carolina´s friends. The picture above is clearly a few of us cheering on the ones playing. The other girl who is not dressed out with me is Peque, who has a hurt ankle. She should be back soon though, as hopefully will I :) My kids team had a good practice today, and we have a game tomorrow which should be fun. This Saturday we have a home game against Leon!

Pictures! See text below in previous entry!

Big Flower Dog!

Overlooking Gijon

Relaxing before the wine tour

Beautiful day at the top of Naranco

Fun shot

After our game :)

Coaching the Kids!

Second winery

Wine tasting :)

Big Barrels!

Meredith, Robin, and I in front of the Cathedral in Oviedo

The first winery in La Rioja

Visitors!

Early morning Physical Therapy

Wow, well a lot has happened since I last blogged! For one, my computer died on me so I have not had a computer to use that often. As far as basketball goes we are now 18-0. Last nights game was a Derby against Gijon which is about 30 minutes away. Our coach got ejected out of the team about three minutes into the second half because he was yelling at the scorers table for messing up the 24 second shot clock. He thought that they were cheating. We don´t really have an assistant coach so we were left to coach ourselves for the last half of the game. We ended up winning by 20! Tomorrow we will head to Madrid for the University tournament. If we win on Tuesday we will play again on Wednesday. It should be a good expereince, so I am excited. I have been progressivley putting more pressure on my leg while still walking with crutches, and I should be walking normally starting tomorrow. I have been able to do pool workouts and bike workouts for the last week or so, and that has been nice to do some sort of physical activity! It has definately been a long process, but I don´t want to rush it!

Meredith & I in Gijon

Meredith, Robin, and I in the Igelsia de Santa Maria Naranco

I had five visitors over a period of 9 days, including my roommate from college and my sister and her three friends. We rented a car and had a great time exploring northern Spain. Before my sister Robin and her three friends got here, Meredith and I went to Gijon so she could see the city on the water. Once, all six of us were together, we started out by touring Oviedo, and then we drove to La Rioja which is one of the famous wine vineyard areas of Spain. Marla had set up two wine tours, which were amazing! I had never been on a wine tour before so it was really interesting to see the wine making process, and taste all the different types of wine. One thing that I did not realize is that in Spain, most of the wine makers are female! We got to have lunch with the wine maker of one of the wineries so that was great. From there we stopped in Vitoria, Spain to see one of our friends basketball games, and then moved on to San Sebastian which is right on the border of Spain and France. It was a gorgeous city right on the water. On the way back, we stopped at the Guggeheim museum in Bilbao, and then returned to Oviedo. It was a lot of traveling for a few days, but definately worth it! Once we got back to Oviedo, I tooke them to see Cabo de Penas, which is the Northern most tip of Asturias which huge cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Then we made our way to Cudierllo which was a precious little town tucked away in a hill side. There is only one road, and then to get to the houses there are staircases that weave through the town. We also had one of the best meals there, and they got to try the Asturian Fabada which is a famous bean soup that is delicious! It was great having a car because we could just go anywhere we wanted! After all theh visitors left, I got back into my normal routine of going to Physical Therpay midday, instead of 9am, so we could have the whole day to explore :) My knee is definately making progess each day, I am just doing my best to stay patient!

Happy Superbowl Sunday!

My team warming up outside on a beautiful morning!

Well we just started the second half of the season! We will go in the same order as the first half, but if we played away then we will play the same team at home, and vice versa. We won yesterday evening so we are now 14-0, also meaning that we beat every single team in the league, and so far, one team twice. I have played in a total of four games, and only one healthy. Not exactly what I had planned for my first season overseas, but I am staying positive! This coming Wednesday will be the three week mark from surgery. I am still using crutches, and have gotten pretty used to them. I go to physical therapy every day to strengthen my quad and work on flexibility. I will go and see the same surgeon a week from tomorrow so he can give me an injection of something to help rebuild cartilage. While going to physical therapy I met a school teacher who invited me to come speak in his class about Alaska. The kids are between 3 and 4 years old, so cute! I went there last Friday to meet them and see how the class was set up. I will go back on Thursday to tell the kids a story about Alaska, in Spanish of course. I am looking

Game on 2/5 vs. Burgos in our new gym

forward to it though, and I hope to get a few pictures with the classes. I believe I will be speaking in front of about 60 kids. Speaking of kids, I won with my little kids team yesterday, and we lost to the same team in the beginning of the season, so that shows improvement! The weather here has been getting better each day! Today was 65 degrees out, so I went to the park and read for a little bit. It is supposed to be in the 60's all week, so I hope the weather holds until my visitors come in a few weeks! I love my Spanish class at the University. Basically our teacher just gives paragraphs in English and we have to translate it to Spanish. We do it on our own and then we bring it to class for him to go over. I have my first coming up so I hope I do well! Anyways, I am sure that it is going to be weird to walk again after 4 weeks of not stepping on my right leg, but I am looking forward to it! As you can see in the pic both the mens team and womens team will be playing in our new gym. The new facility also as a great gym with weights, treadmills, and  a Finnish sauna :) I used it on Friday at practice and it was great to sweat, because it is hard for me to do that with out running! Although sometimes I do get a good workout crutching up hills, doing abs, and all other exercises I do with out stepping!!! I have been looking for a place to watch the Superbowl, but no luck yet! It is only at 12:30 here, so I will probably miss it! Everyone else enjoy it for me, and all the junk food I am sure you will all be eating(Meredith)!!!!!

Crutchin is a Habit!!!!!

Yesterday marked one week since my surgery! I am starting to get used to the crutches, which is good because the first few days, my hands were incredibly sore! The weather has been great here, sunny and still no snow! Definitely the mildest winter that I have had between living in Alaska and Boston for the past 21 years of my life! I have been going to Physical Therapy to help keep my quadricep strong. Today I went and bought a dictionary to help Spanish people learn English. I figure that I need to be productive since I have a LOT of free time now days. Thought it might be interesting to get a dictionary to learn it "backwards." I was talking to my physical therapist about the different between South American-Spanish and Spain-Spanish as well as the difference between North American-English and Old English like from England. She is from Argentina and was explaining how is it easier for her to understand North American-English than Old English, yet for Spainards, it is way easier for them to understand Old English. I have heard from my teammates many times that I am hard to understand, but that might just be because I talk too fast :) There are certain letters like the G, J, and Z, that are pronounced differently in South America. I, too, think that it is easier to understand South American Spanish or Mexican-Spanish. My team won our game this past Sunday 69-57 in Aviles. The picture above is during a timeout at this game. It was one of our closer games so it was a big win for us. We are now 12-0 and have one more team to play in the first round of games, which means we are almost halfway through the season! Crazy how time is flying here! Hope all is well with everyone who sees this!!!!