ROUND 2!!

Well, this year’s adventure started even before I got to Lithuania... Euroleague season starts earlier this year which means I had to leave America on August 13 (or so I thought). My awesome summer (see previous post) was capped off by a big family party at my house the night before I left. This was the perfect way to spend my last night, surrounded by all my family and getting to tell them all goodbye. I seriously have the best family ever who support me through anything and who I love so much! After the usual “last breakfast” at Bread Co. with Mom, Dad, Maria, Em and Dalton, I said a hard but sweet goodbye to Mociute and then spent my last hour at home watching HGTV with my parents. I know, going out with a bang right?! :) (Besides the sarcasm, this was perfectly ok with me because it’s those little moments of just down time together that I miss so much while away).

Kate and Joe met us at the airport and after one final Starbucks we said some tearful goodbyes before I headed to security. I don’t like to rehash goodbyes too much because it brings back sad times, but I do have to say that although it will NEVER be easy to say goodbye to my family and home in general, this time wasn’t nearly as hard as last time. I was now going back to a city, team, friends and way of life that I knew and that I knew that I loved.

(Sidenote: One big thing that is going to be a little different this year are some of my teammates. 5 girls left for different teams- Ausra (our best player), Indre, Kristina, Marina and Giedre. I’ll miss them all for sure, especially Ausra’s scoring, but obviously losing Marina and Giedre is going to be the hardest. Along with Lina, those were the Lithuanian girls that I was closest with, not just on a teammate level, but  as good friends that I had great times with and that made my first year overseas such a special one to remember. In fact, Giedre and Marina were my first friends in Lithuania so I always had a close tie with them. Like I’ve said before, as much as this is a business, I still can’t help getting personal attachments to people so I was a little upset about going back knowing they won’t be there. However, I’m more grateful for the year I did have with them and also excited to meet my new teammates. And, thankfully, we live in a time of amazing technology so now we’ll just be relying on Facebook and Skype to keep us connected. :) )

Well, once I got to my gate for Chicago, that’s when the real fun started. I was supposed to leave at 12:50 and after multiple weather delays, getting on and off the plane, and sitting on the runway for an hour, we didn’t end up leaving until 7:15!! And yes, your calculations are right- I could have easily driven to Chicago in that time. Once we finally did get there my plane to Poland was long gone. The only silver lining for this whole fiasco turned out to be that I got to spend an extra day with Mal and her parents who live up in Chicago. So Mal and her dad came and saved my day, standing with me through a 3 hour line to get a new ticket and transfer my bags. So even though it was a very long, rough day, and I pretty much wanted to cry and/or punch someone from frustration, it just goes to show that God had a plan that He needed me to see the Eggerts one more time. :)

Mal took me to the airport the next day and I was now on my way to Helsinki! (Don’t worry, I had to look it up too- it’s in Finland.) This was now only an 8 ½ hour flight and after finagling with the ticket lady I got a seat at the very front of coach so it gave me some extra leg room. However it also gave me a first row seat to all the amazingness that is first class. Right when we sat down and I was still getting jammed in the knee by everyone’s rolling suitcases going by, they were getting served mimosas! I’m not sure what they all got for dinner (I think I heard that multiple courses were involved), but I do know that they got served hot rolls out of a basket while we got our rolls hard, cold and in a piece of cellophane. All in all, it was pretty much EXACTLY like the episode of Seinfeld where Elaine gets stuck in coach and Jerry gets the first class seat. They even pulled a curtain in front of me and everything!! But such is life, and I still made it in one piece, enjoying a pretty uneventful ride, watching Devil Wears Prada on my computer, finishing my book “Playing for Pizza” (good one!), and reading some magazines. (Ps- it’s probably too late now to get this on the newsstand, but if you have/read the August 15 issue of Sports Illustrated there’s a huge article on Lithuanian Basketball!! In fact, the gym that they describe, the Sabonis Center, is the gym that I practice in every day and that we play our Lithuanian League games in. It gives a spot-on description so you can get an idea of where I’m at every day and it also delves into the amount of love Lithuanians have for their basketball. I just thought it was pretty cool that as I’m on my way to play basketball in Lithuania, I open up my magazine to see a huge article about none other than basketball in Lithuania! I know, I’m a dork, but it’s cool right?! Lol).

Navigating through the Helsinki airport was no problem (actually a lot easier than Poland) and I grabbed a croissant, charged my ipod and waited only 30 minutes at the gate. After only sleeping 30 minutes on the 8 hour flight I knocked out completely on this one and woke up an hour and a half later as we touched down. After it being a drab, rainy day last year when I first got to LT, this time the sun was shining and it seemed nice out. A good omen right? Wrong. Even after me asking about my bags every step along the way, they fell victim to all the confusion of my flights. I don’t really care when I end up getting them now, I just pray that they do make it back to me at some point  because it was basically all my favorite things in the world combined in 2 bags…(so please say some prayers for me too).

Arvydas (team president) met me at the airport, helped me fill out missing luggage reports, and then took me to the bus station. Rather than going to Kaunas first, I now had to go straight out to our training camp in the town of Sventoji, which is in the northwest part of the country, right on the sea. The bus was taking me to the city of Palanga, about 20 minutes away from Sventoji, but after sleeping for most of the 3 hour ride, I hit another snag in the plan. Justas, who is usually very punctual wasn’t there to pick me up. Since I didn’t have a Lithuanian phone yet, the only communication I had was to text Marina who’s number I still had. She relayed the message that Justas was stuck in traffic and was going to be about another hour, but that she would also leave from her house in Klaipeda (about 30 minutes away the other direction) and see if she could beat him. So I wandered around the little shops around the bus stop, but otherwise just sat there waiting to see who would get there first. Justas ended up winning the race and finally picked me up with his daughter Nida (one of my favorite people in the world) in tow. After a pit stop at the store for dinner supplies, we finally headed out to camp to meet up with everyone else. After 2 days of off and on travelling I was finally going to get to settle in a little bit.

Besides my missing bags, all else could have been a lot worse so I am just thankful that I made it. But what an eventful way to get here. I guess it’s like they say- half the fun’s in getting there! :)