Winner, winner, STEAK dinner

So since my last post we have had 2 Euroleague games. And basically they couldn’t have had 2 more different results (wow, is “more different” even correct English?? I swear, my English has become terrible here and I’m going to get my Language Arts teaching certificate revoked….). Two weeks ago we travelled to Russia to take on Spartak for the 2nd time (we play each team in our pool twice). And you know how I said I would NEVER forget that Spartak win?? Welllll, I guess they didn’t forget about it either because they put a pretty good whooping on us, winning 85-52 (go ahead and cringe with me). It can basically be summed up with us playing poorly, out of sync and not being able to hit a shot while they were shooting the ball like it was warm-ups. Also, that one girl, Lauren Jackson, you know, who’s considered one of, if not THE best player in the world, has now joined back with her team and had a solid 28 points for them. So yeah, it was pretty ugly. On the personal side, although I had a whopping 2 points, I played 11 solid minutes and gave some good time beating up on Jackson…except for the play when she steam-rolled me en route to an and-1. Buuuut other than that I did ok. :) I have to say, although I’m not a huge fan of Jackson’s, especially after witnessing her on-court demeanor first-hand, it is pretty cool to say I played against her and here are some pics to prove it!! (And YES Coach Gray, I will continue to be a shameless name-dropper! :) )

Me, Noelle Quinn and Lauren Jackson

A little perimeter D for the big girl :)

Making sure not to foul. :)

Me about to block Lauren Jackson! Or her hitting a J in my face...lol. But since you can't tell from the pic I'm gonna say it's the first description!

Now, turning the tables, this past week we were back in the friendly confines of the Kaunas Sports Hall to take on the Spanish team who had beat us by 20 when we played there with all their crazy fans. Well I guess the home court advantage was the key to our win! Oh and the fact that we went 15-30 from 3-pt might have helped us just a little too. ;) Similar to the first Spartak game, we were up by about 10 for the majority of it but let them get back in it towards the end, with them tying it at the 12 second mark. Our final winning attempt was off the mark so we headed in to overtime where we were able to hang on for the win! This was again a huge shocker for all of Euroleague as Spain was at the top of our pool and of course a heavy favorite. After having some rough beat downs the past few weeks in Euroleague it sure was nice to get a big win and see the team so happy again! But unfortunately we can’t be too happy because towards the end of regulation Ausra (probably our best all-around player) hurt her knee on a play and had to come out of the game. There wasn’t any big, dramatic collision, but seeing Ausra hobble off the court, holding her knee with the look of pain on her face- you could tell it wasn’t good. It turns out that it was something with her meniscus and after having surgery this Tuesday she’ll be out about 3-4 weeks. Which yes, is about the remainder of the Euroleague season. :( It’s definitely going to be even tougher to get anymore Euro wins without Ausra, but luckily its nothing worse for her and we’ll obviously try our best to fill her place til she gets back. As for me in the Spain game, I got 13 minutes of time, with again just 2 points, but also some solid D against their two star post players, Sancho Lyttle and Erika DeSouza (again, name dropping :) ). There was even one play where I blocked Lyttle so bad that she fell to the ground and as we were going down the other end with the ball the refs had to stop the play because she was still laying on the court writhing in pain. Ok, maybe it could have been a foul but since the refs didn’t call it, I gotta admit that I was pretty darn impressed with myself. That’ll teach her not to bring that stuff in my house again!! I know, I know, I’m just as bad at trash talking in my writing as I am in real life…I guess I’m just too pure of heart, right Livie?? :)

But anyways, overall I’m starting to get more playing time as my Euro adjustment’s getting better and my confidence is growing. Both Euroleague wins have been  huge but it’s nice to know that I actually physically contributed to this one. Oh and in all the excitement of my blog about our Spartak win I forgot to mention something else pretty cool- apparently we get a bonus for every Euroleague game that we win too! I know, I know, I LOVE MY JOB. Ha. And there’s nothing quite like a coach ending a post-game talk with “and now we get more money too!” Haha. So yes, that’s why I said it- winner, winner, STEAK dinner!! :)

Thanksgiving Rewind (LT version)

[SN: If you didn't figure it out, there's also a US version that I posted first]

A few weeks back, while complaining, agonizing, discussing how we were gonna miss Thanksgiving at home, Courtnay and I decided that we wanted to throw a “Canadian/American Thanksgiving party” here to make us feel more at home. Apparently those weird Canadians actually celebrate Thanksgiving on the 2^nd Monday in October, but Courtnay was willing to make our celebration closer to the US one. Since we usually have Sundays off we made plans to have it the Sunday following Thanksgiving. We would have liked to obviously have the whole team over, but with small apartments and limited cooking skills, we decided to just invite a few of the girls we’re closest to, Giedre, Marina and Lina (even though Lina had to bail on us last minute). After inviting the girls and explaining what the night would entail- basically lots of eating- Courtnay and I got to major planning. And as we all know, my motto for holidays (and life) is go big or go home so you best believe we did it up right! We ended up getting a whole formal seating arrangement of a card table, chairs, table cloth etc.  and after consulting some family members, came up with a menu of the following:

-appetizers of deviled eggs, nuts and cashews, and cheese and crackers (which btw apparently Lithuanians don’t do appetizers- we never see them on any menus at restaurants and it was a strange concept for the girls to eat the food before the actual meal was ready);

- twice baked potatoes

-rolls

-green bean casserole

-corn

-a carrot dish

-cranberry sauce

- TURKEY (obvi)

-and some famous Jean Kemezys recipe (the Betty Crocker box mix) brownies for dessert

The party was planned to be at Courtnay’s since she has the bigger apartment but since her oven went out the day before, most of the cooking was done at my place and then transported over. The oven malfunction ended up not being a big deal, but I have to admit that 2 people cooking a big Thanksgiving dinner for 5 is pretty stressful! I definitely have a new found respect for all of my aunts who cook all our big holiday meals! :) I gotta say that my twice baked potatoes were no where near that of Aunt Cheryl’s and my green bean casserole can’t compare to my Mom’s, but most of the food turned out pretty good (well, except for the cranberries that didn’t quit make the cut…).

It was pretty funny seeing Giedre and Marina get so excited to try all the different food, lifting all the foil off stuff and asking what it was. We finally filled our plates, sat down to eat and I continued holiday tradition with having us join hands as I led us in a traditional Thanksgiving-style prayer, thanking God for all his blessings and the “family” that He has provided us to share our meal with. :) Besides having to re-heat a few things, the food was all well-received and since then no one has gotten sick of food poisoning. A.k.a it was a success! After clearing the plates we busted out some cards and that’s when the real madness began. We showed the girls how to play the game SPOONS, and let’s just say that they LOVED IT! I’ve been in some pretty heated games of SPOONS in my day with my fam and the SLU girls, but this was definitely a contender for the most intense SPOONS group I’ve been a part of. Every hand we were all literally on the edge of our seats waiting to grab a spoon and as soon as one was taken mass chaos broke out that usually included screaming at the top of our lungs. Although this video gets a PG-13 rating (sorry Mom), it at least gives you an idea of how exciting things got…

So all in all, it was a pretty solid evening. Good food, great friends and fun times- definitely says the holidays to me! :)

Pics from the day/night...

Started cooking bright and early!

Lovely table setting

Giedre ready to chow down!

It took 5 stores to scrounge up 4 Buds but we did it! Had to have American beer at Thanksgiving! (And yes, my Juicy Peanut coolie made it to Lithuania with me!!)

Digging in!!

Lithuanian family Thanksgiving :)





Thanksgiving Rewind (US version)

So obviously the 4th Thursday in November doesn’t mean the same thing here in Lithuania as it does in America. In fact, I was even taken aback when I was asked what the holiday is actually for. Trying to explain this literally to people from a different country was a lot harder than expected. My 5^th grade Social Studies answer ended up coming out as something along the lines of “when English people first came to America they sat down and had a big meal with the Indians who were already there to celebrate coming together”. Yeah, I know, I would lose on “Are You Smarter Than a 5^th Grader?” but at least it got the point across. Haha.

Thanksgiving Day 2010 for me was spent mostly in airports. We were travelling back from our game in France and didn’t get home to Kaunas til the evening. So my big Thanksgiving Day meal was a bowl of Mac and Cheese (at least it was a little American right?). This day definitely reminded me of one thing that I am so thankful for- technology. Through the glorious ways of Skype I was able to still be a part of my family Thanksgivings at home. The way the Kemezys fam gets down for Turkey Day is church in the morning (which no, unfortunately, I was not able to Skype in for :) ), Dad’s side of the family for lunch and then Mom’s side of the fam for dinner. And at both places I was able to see almost every family member possible. In 3 words- It. Was. AWESOME!!! Since Dad’s side is a smaller crowd they mainly all huddled around the computer at once, with Mociute front and center of course. This skype session consisted of—Maria playing a song she wrote on her guitar (so impressive!), me telling all my Lithuanian stories and Uncle Arvid making fun of my attempts to actually speak Lithuanian. Oh and how could I forget some amazing cameo appearances by Mrs. Weston, Uncle Jim’s mom- she definitely always livens up a family party! :) I stayed on with them for about an hour and we all shared in our usual banter back and forth, making me feel like I was actually there.

Next, I moved on with the family to the Lockwood’s house for the Klingelhoefer fam’s gathering. There were some technical difficulties here, in that apparently I was only a small, dark picture to them, but I could see everyone perfectly so it worked out well for me! Since there were quite a few more people at this shindig, there was more of a procession here, where people took turns filing in and out to catch up. As much as I talk to a few of my cousins regularly, it was great to see all the extended family members that I miss so much. Also, this was the first time I skyped with my Grams, and although she seemed a little leery about talking through a computer, it still warmed my heart to see her. And no offense to anyone else, but the other most exciting part was to see my baby boy Dalton! Ok, he’s actually my cousins Em and Matt’s baby boy, but I sure do miss him the most from home. After being there from the minute he was born, it’s so hard being away now and missing him grow up! I can’t believe how big he looked on camera and how big he is gonna be when I get home to see him at Christmas. And yes family, I get all-time dibs on holding him! :) So although it was a little bittersweet actually seeing him, it also absolutely made my day anddd I’m pretty sure I heard him say “Manda.” ;)

So even though I had to stay up til 3 am my time, it was well worth it to get to semi spend the day with all my family. Like I said, I really am so thankful for technology allowing me to do this. And at the same time, this Thanksgiving, I of course did some cheesy reflecting on the things I am most thankful for (come on, it’s me, queen of cheesiness). Basically, I just cannot get over how much God has blessed me with such a wonderful life. For starters, I am taking part in an amazing opportunity right now- being able to play professional basketball in the country of my ancestors. Growing up with my Dad’s side of the fam so proud of our heritage, it is so special to be able to experience it all first hand and then to share all of that with my relatives back home. It also makes it that much more special that I am surrounded by such a great group of people here. It’s hard going through the holiday season wanting to be home with family, but at the same time, (as cliché as it sounds) my team here really is like my family. I’ve made great friends that I know care so much for me and I am making great friendships and memories that will last a lifetime.

Along the same giving-thanks trend, I just have to say THANK YOU to everyone who has sent me a card, package, email, message or whatever wishing me luck on this adventure. I had told my mom awhile back about how I don’t think I ever felt so loved by so many people until I left the country! Haha. It sounds weird, but seriously the outpouring of well wishes I’ve received so far is just unbelievable to me. Including all you blog readers, I just can’t believe how many people care so much about the experiences I’m going through. It is so awesome and just re-iterates to me how much God has blessed me to be surrounded by such caring, loving people in my life. For that, I can never be thankful enough. :)

And here are a few pics I snapped during the Skype experiences....



Most of Dad's side of the fam

Mrs. Weston giving Mociute some love :)

What a cutie!! And you're lookin good too Emmy! :)

Blowing me a kiss! <3

The most family members we could fit in the pic. Can't wait to see you all soon!! :)



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