The team that prays together, stays together

Yes, this might be a record for the most recent blog I've done in awhile! We just returned from our game in France, where we unfortunately suffered another Euroleague loss. This time it was only by 4 and we were in the game most of the time, but a lousy first half and poor execution down the stretch killed our chances. This was the most I’ve gotten to play in a Euroleague game though, and although my stats once again aren’t great, I held my own (yes I know, I need to work on that stats part so I can stop just saying “I held my own”).

Anyways, I’ll spare all the basketball details because quite frankly it’s a loss that’s still stinging and I’d rather not relive it. But besides the game, France was a great experience itself. If you noticed in the name of my blog, I’m kind of obsessed with the book (and movie) Eat Pray Love. And although the Pray part was tweeked a little for the sole purpose of a fun play on words, this trip was definitely the Pray leg of my journey. Our game itself was in Tarbes, France but the hotel we stayed at was actually in a small town called Lourdes that basically sits in the middle of the Pyrenees Mountains (hence the gorgeous mountain pics!). Some of the girls told me about the religious significance of the town, and after doing a little Google-ing of my own I discovered that Lourdes is considered one of the most sacred places in all of Europe and the most visited pilgrimage shrine in the Christian world. People come from all over the world every year to visit the sacred church and grotto of Lourdes, believing that it has special healing powers (For some more info on Lourdes, click here- http://www.sacredsites.com/europe/france/interesting_lourdes_facts.html).

Although I am Lutheran, not Catholic, and am not sure if I felt any true “healing powers,” I do know that being in such a spiritual place was an incredibly moving experience for me. We had free time before our game Wednesday and the whole team walked about 2 blocks to the church/grotto area. You’ll be able to see in the following pictures that there is basically a large church in the middle of a town square and then if you go around the side, that is where the grotto is in the side of the mountain/church. We all went through the grotto, each having some time to take in the moment, and then we walked over to an area that was a huge alley of booths where you could light sacred candles for people who have passed away. Although I didn’t light a candle, I did have an opportunity to have a moment of prayer and reflection with God. Most of you know that I’ve had a few loved ones pass away while I’ve been here and the grieving process from half a world away has been hard to go through to say the least. Even though I didn’t let myself get completely overwhelmed in this moment, I really did feel more at peace being in such a sacred place. So yeah, I think that Aunt Jan, Bonnie and my Louisburg Grams (Liv’s grandma) were all there looking down on me in France. :)

Walking back towards the church from the grotto, we also had another pretty cool experience where we were able to partake in the holy water there (I know Kate, “partake” is a big vocab word, but it’s the most fitting :) ). Some of the girls had brought their own water bottles to fill up and take back with them, but the rest of us simply washed our hands and faces with the water. Also, Migle had brought an extra-large bottle that she filled and then we all passed around and took a drink from. Ok, let me get my random, immature thoughts out before I get back to being serious. I thought of 2 things while drinking- 1) Either we’re all going to be blessed with good health or we’re all going to get swine flu, and 2) when it was my turn to drink I kept thinking of myself as Sean Connery’s character in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when he drinks out of the Holy Grail. Too bad I didn’t have any bullet holes in me to see if it worked…

Anyways, joking aside, the whole experience was pretty cool and definitely another one to add to my collection. Not only was it neat for me personally, but it was pretty special to share that experience with my team. Most Lithuanians are very devout Catholics and although I’m not for sure that all the girls on the team are, you could tell that they were all just as moved by the whole experience. Like I said, the team that prays together, stays together. :)


View out of our hotel window

Awesome snow-covered mountains

Walking the streets of France, no big deal :)

St. Louis of France? Perfect!

Gorgeous Church

Sacred grotto

Alley of sacred candles

Getting our holy water

View looking out from the top

Blessed team :)

Hope you’re happy Uncle Arvid!!

I’m assuming that I’ve probably lost the majority of my blog followers because of my lack of updating, which I totally get as a blog follower myself. I hate checking blogs and seeing the same entry as the last time I checked. Which apparently my Uncle Arvid does too as he told me (quote) “I keep going on there and seeing that ‘hola amiga’ bullsh*t.” Haha. So here’s your update Uncle Arvid! :)

First, the Euroleague. We’re 1-3 now, which yes, means we’re on a 3 game losing streak after that glorious Spartak win. Last week’s game was in Istanbul, Turkey and although no major sight-seeing was done, we of course did some shopping and the game was played in the same arena that the men’s world championships were played in this year (pretty cool). So check Istanbul off the to-do list. However the game itself, along with our game against the Czech team this week, was not too great for us. It is definitely more evident now why we are considered such underdogs in the league and in our pool. The majority of the players on the other teams are bigger, faster, stronger and more experienced than us. I’m not making excuses by any means, it’s just facts. And the skill level just seems to totally take us out of our game mentally. Needless to say, they’ve been a struggle and we definitely need to keep working on our cohesiveness to contend with these other Euroleague teams. On a personally positive note though I did finally get some playing time in a Euroleague game! My stat line was 1 rebound in 4 minutes, but hey, you gotta start somewhere right?! :)

The Lithuanian League has definitely been better for us as far as our record goes since we’re 7-0 and in first place there, having never won by less than 20 points. It’s definitely nice to get some wins under our belts (and nice for me since I definitely get more PT in these games) but it’s also pretty frustrating because these games don’t get us ready for our Euroleague games at all. As much as you can try to not focus on the score and only on the quality of play, it’s so hard because the games always just turn out so sloppy. And since Coach usually rests the starters more in these games, it’s not even like they get that much of a chance to work together and improve their cohesiveness which would help in the Euroleague games. Sigh….oh well, back to work in practice tomorrow so we can try and get back to winning in BOTH leagues!

On slate for this week- we travel to FRANCE on Tuesday for a game Wednesday. It’s in Tarbes, France which I know nothing about, but needless to say it’ll be cool to say I’ve been to France also! We travel back on Thursday then, and although I’m not sure when I’ll for sure get back to my computer, I’m hoping plans work out to Skype with all my fam at our Thanksgiving parties back home. I’m not necessarily a stranger to missing Thanksgiving due to basketball, but that doesn’t mean it gets any easier so I’m looking to at least virtually being at the festivities! However, there is some Thanksgiving excitement going on around here too! Although Canada’s Thanksgiving was awhile back, Courtnay and I have decided to throw an American/Canadian Thanksgiving dinner here on Sunday (had to plan it for an off day so we can get all the cooking done)! We’ve got a big menu of all the Thanksgiving staples that we’re excited to attempt to cook. As we all know I’m much more of a baker than a cook, but I’m excited nonetheless! I will for sure be posting stories and pics about that whole experience so stay tuned! (Also, please say some prayers that Sunday is truly an off day. With our poor play as of late, those aren’t necessarily guaranteed anymore. :/ )

And finally, here’s another glorious Lithuanian video. This time it’s of a few of us handing out flyers at the mall asking people to come to our game. It’s really the Marina and Lina show as they ham it up most of the time, but there’s a good shot of me handing someone a flyer, them asking me something in Lithuanian, me just shaking my head, and then all us girls busting up laughing. Yep, pretty much how things go around here. : ) http://www.basketnews.lt/video/ziureti/vici-aistes-kviecia-i-rungtynes.html  (And in case you're wondering, I was right. I STILL get chills and a huge smile across my face when they show Ausra's buzzer beater over Spartak! :) Really hope to replicate that feeling again soon!)

Ok, that’s enough for now. Promise I’ll update again soon. Or at least the next time Uncle Arvid calls and hassles me again. :)

PS- I’ll be home ONE MONTH from tomorrow (technically TODAY in Lithuania)!!!!! CAN'T WAIT!!! :) :) :)

¡Hola Amiga!

Don’t have much time to write since I need to get packing for our trip to Istanbul, Turkey early tomorrow morning (we play Wednesday). But I had to update on our Spain trip from last week (and yes, I’ll try to use Spanglish as much as possible). The game itself was no bueno. We lost, playing probably the worst that we have all year. And the crowd was absolutely LOCO- the stands were packed from floor to ceiling, there were about 10 people with snare drums and the whole crowd was into every play of the game like it was the World Cup (thankfully there were no vuvuzelas). So even though they were violently routing against us, playing in an atmosphere like that was an experience itself.

Besides the game though, a major highlight of the trip can be summed up in 3 letters- K T M. For those unfamiliar, KTM is the loving term of endearment that our SLU team came up with last year for one of our managers, Katy Dominick, aka Katy The Manager (KTM). Although she shuns her nickname and will probably kill me for using it in this blog, Katy and I have become muy buenas amigas in the past year. As luck would have it, Katy is studying abroad in Madrid, Spain this semester and it worked out (or rather she made it work out) that she could travel to Salamanca to see my game and hang with me for a bit. Since our game was late in the evening we had some free time where Katy and I got to walk around the town a little and then just hang out in the hotel. She then came to our game and sat cheering for us in the middle of hundreds of screaming opposing fans which took some courage and was awesome! After the game our team president took us all out for drinks (yes, even after a terrible loss, we still go out for wine as a team…jackpot) and Katy got to come along there too which was great. I can’t put into words how much it meant for her to come and to get to spend some time with a loved one from home. It was perfect timing too since this is about the halfway point for me until Christmas so the little bit of KTM definitely breathed some new life into me! :) So GRACIAS KATY!!! TE AMO!! :)

Here are some pics from the trip. Salamanca was absolutely beautiful (the weather was awesome)! Our hotel was in the middle of a little town center and before Katy had got there some of us girls went out and explored a little which was fun. So enjoy los fotos! ;)

Plaza by the hotel. This pic doesn't do it justice, it was pretty cool and busy.

Focal point of the plaza

Part of the team in the plaza. And notice I had them make "big, American smiles." They've still got some work to do but we're getting there. :)

Had to do a crazy pic too of course

Streets we shopped in. So happy to see an H & M! (I bought a scarf...of course. Ha.)

My little Migle and I in the streets. :)

Huge Cathedral we saw.

My #1 fan in Spain!!! :)

Plaza at night- so cool!

Loving life! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE!!!

For those of you not on Facebook (Mom and Dad) here's the video I made for Kate (my amazing big sis) for her birthday! Not getting to celebrate with her is "no bueno" as she would say but hopefully this makes up for it a little!!!

Love you B and hope you're having an AWESOME day!! :) Miss you, but see you next month!! ;)

[Notes on my song selection-

1) The Backstreet Boys and Lady Gaga songs were obvious choices and if the video wasn't long enough already I would have gotten Kate's other fave pop star/idol, Britney Spears, in there too.

2) The first song may seem like an odd choice for sisters, but if you truly know us, then you totally recognize it as "THE duet." Basically Kate and I perform this song better than anyone in the world. It's always in high request at random family get togethers or even weddings! So maybe you've been one of the few lucky, I mean priviledged, enough to hear it. :) ]

And for some reason I couldn't upload it directly on here so yes Kate you're now famous on YouTube. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyQL6zqCICY