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!!!!

A few pictures!

Before getting into my nice blue dressing for surgery!

Yes, the nurses really asked me to put "Si and No" on my legs just to make sure they did not operate on the wrong one!

Tina and I hanging out before the surgery!

Having some fun with my pretty blue dress :)