Kur amandito?

Going into training camp I knew a few things-

-I was going to be the only member of the Fab 5 there. Like I said, Marina and Giedre both are going to different teams in France, and then Courtnay and Lina are playing for other teams right now but will be coming later. Lina is playing in the World University Games in China but will be here the end of August while Courtnay is playing with the Canadian National Team right now, preparing for the Olympic Qualifiers, and will get to LT at the beginning of October (unless I can persuade her to leave her team and come join me sooner! Haha. Probably not, but GO CANADA!).

-Head coach Mantas is helping with the LT men’s National Team and will be back around the end of next month I think. Jurga (asst coach), Marius (strength coach), Justas (director of bball ops) and Migle (trainer) would all be there along with a new assistant coach, Aurimas.

-Other familiar faces from last year’s team would be Vita, Milda and Rima, while I also sort of knew the 2 new Lithuanian girls coming to our team, Mante and Santa. They were on other teams from the Lithuanian League so we played them about 4 times each.

-The 2 other new girls were from Belarus and Latvia. Tatsiana was from Belarus and I knew her as a very good scoring guard that we played last year in the Baltic League.  Aija was from Latvia and after my initial Google-ing I learned that she played a few years at Colorado so I was banking on her being able to speak pretty good English.

-And this I didn’t find out til I got to camp actually, but my first week in LT was going to be internet-free since there was no connection out in the cabins. As much as this sucks as far as communicating with everyone back home, I think it will end up being better for team camaraderie since otherwise I would be on my computer all day. :)

When Justas and I (and Nida) finally arrived at camp the other girls were in workouts so he showed me to my cabin to get set up. Sventoji is a small town near the sea that apparently is a big touristy place in the summer. The campgrounds we’re staying at are so nice, with little cabins scattered about and then a main meeting hall where we eat our meals at. Since there is an odd number and I was last to get here, I lucked out and got my own little cabin to myself while all the other have 2 girls each to them. About 5 minutes after Justas showed me to my cabin I heard a familiar voice outside my window saying “kur amandito?” which means “where’s Amanda?” I came out to find Vita, Milda and Mante walking towards me and was greeted by big hugs all around. Following behind them with hugs was Jurga and Rima and then introductions with Aija and Tatsiana. And finally I heard the familiar caring call of “Amaaaanda” and was greeted with a long hug and kiss from my little Migle. They were all so excited to see me and obviously the feeling was mutual. The one thing I realized this summer is that now no matter where I go, I’ll always be missing someone. When I’m here in Lithuania I of course miss my family like crazy, but even when I finally got to go home and see them this summer, I was now missing all my Vici/Lithuanian family. So although the missing and the goodbyes always suck, I can never complain about having TOO many people that I care about. :)

After all of the welcoming hugs, the girls went off to shower before dinner so I unpacked what little clothes I had in my carry on. Then a few minutes later Marina came barging into my cabin. It’s funny because she already knew last spring that she wouldn’t be returning to Vici, so when we said goodbye when I left LT in the spring there was a legitimate possibly that I might never see one of my good friends for the rest of my life (my heart sinks eve saying that). So although it sucks that I had to leave America so early this year, I did at least get to catch Marina before she left for France (unfortunately giedre left LT the day I got there). We spent a half hour or so catching up and then headed to have dinner with everyone else. Afterwards, Marina, Aija, Tanya (Tatsiana) and I walked down to the beach that’s conveniently about 100 feet from where we’re staying. Both Aija and Tanya speak very good English (which was a relief for me to find out) and I had a good time getting to know them a little bit. Also, Marina and I filled them in on all the background of Vici life and a little about all the players. This was kind of a surreal moment because if you remember from my blog way back when, it was about a year ago that Marina and Giedre had taken me on a walk in Durskininkai and filled me in on the whole team. Kinda cool to think that now I’m like a veteran with all the inside scoop. Boy, how things change in a year!

After our walk we came back and Marina hung out a little before going home. I watched a movie and then finally headed to bed. So after the long travel, my first day in Lithuania was filled with old friends, new friends and the comforting feeling of being back in my second home.