email address

I have received a few emails and IMs about how people have wanted to comment on my blog but have been unable to. They have wanted to contact me and don't know how. I'm new to this, and I know that I one has been able to comment, but regardless, I've come to a solution. To solve this mystery, I've created an email address specifically for this blog. If you want to comment on anything, want me to try about anything, or just want to say hi =), you can email me at: germanbulldog20@hotmail.de

I've included some random pics just cause I can and they are fun =)

Ciao!

One of the 30 different jumping pictures that we took one day.

Little Melina, oh my little shadow =)

Aliki and me on a random night..in the kitchen..most likely making something to eat..

while of course finding the time to sing with our high-tech mikes!

Melina and me

Us girls on my bed..I believe we were watching some show on my lappy and Gabi

came in and of course that called for a photo-op =)

First German meal at home

So, my host mom Gabi decided to make a typical German meal for dinner one night. I was excited to try it out and when walking into the kitchen, I could tell I was going to enjoy it from the different smells! I took pictures of each dish we had, so below are those pictures and a little bit of my views on them lol, guten appetite!

Here is a pic of the meal as a whole..I was so excited to eat it cause everything smelled so good!

This is KNODEL. Now, I don't have a German keyboard, so the spelling and special notations aren't going to be included in these foods lol. So, I don't really know what is in it. I do know that the main ingredient is potatoes, I think. This was pretty good, but it was the best when it was swimming in the sauce from the meat we had with it =)

And this was the meat, SAUERBRAUTEN. This was really good. The meat was really tender and the sauce was delicious, as I said before, I basically had the sauce all of my plate =). I will say this though, the knodel was good and all, but those of you who know me...I wouldn't have complained if the meat and sauce were atop some good ol' sticky rice!! And the vegetable of the meal, ROTKOHL. I think this was basically cooked red cabbage, with some seasoning. It was ok, but I prefer red cabbage raw. Reminds me of my mom's cabbage salad...mmmmmm, the best a day or two after so the dressing has been soaked up by the cabbage =)..lol, sorry for the side note. So, that was my first real German, home-cooked meal. Overall, it was super scrumcious =)

Thank you to all who come here and read and catch up with what I'm doing over here. I hope that everyone is doing well and that the first month of 2009 has been a great one!

CIAO!

Our first league game

First of all, I know I've done it again, where I've waited too long to post things. =/ sorry about that. I'll start with our first league game, this last Saturday.

We played Manheim, the same team we beat in the semi-finals of the Cup. There were points in the game that we played ok, but for the most part it was a really sloppy, ugly game. We came out flat, and as I said, majority of the game was ugly. In the end, we ended up winning, 79-52. However, I feel like we should have won by more and they shouldn't have scored as many. A few days before, we beat a division 2 team, when we had less players, and they were of a much high caliber. Hopefully our next game will be a better result, and not the result of the scoreboard, but of our intensity of play.

After the game, we went to dinner as a team. Our main sponsor said he would buy us dinner, he was happy about our Cup win the previous weekend. It was really nice to hang out with everyone, no stress, nothing but good food, fun company, and plenty of smiles and laughs to go around!

I know I've said it before, but this is a good group of people that I get to be around, and they make it easier for me to stay out here =).

Angie, Cati, Katja and me

I was helping Katja with her job lol

half of the table at dinner

and the other half of the table =)

We played another division 2 team last night. Another fun game, playing together like a team and doing pretty well. We led most of the game, running the break really well and actually hitting shots, which always helps =). We ended up playing an overtime, and in the end won by 3. It was fun, because they had 2 Americans, and are ranked pretty decently in their league. It was a nice confidence booster in the sense that, we as a team are moving in the right dircetion. After only 2 weeks, a few practices and 4 games, I'd say that we are doing pretty well. We are starting to learn how one another plays and becoming more in sync.

I can't believe that I've been over here for 2 weeks. It doesn't feel like it. It feels like its been longer, but not in bad way at all. We start our league this weekend, tomorrow, Saturday. It will be interesting how we react in this game. We beat this team last weekend in the semis for the Cup. We let up on the gas pedal and I think we could really dominate them, rather than just cruising through the game. I think that we played better against Speyer last night than we did last weekend. Hopefully we can keep the same intensity from last night's game for tomorrow's game. After the game, we as a team, are going to eat together. Our main sponsor is buying us dinner because he is happy with the winning of the Cup last weekend. So that should be lots of fun!

Until the next time.. Ciao!

team pictures!

My coach read my blog tonight and saw that I mentioned that I needed some team pics to put up here. I guess there was a photographer from a local newspaper at the game, so he sent me the photos he took. The last 2 are from my camera, just a few other team pics I had =)

us after winning the cup

who can get enough team photos
so i never used to be a fan of black shoes and black socks..man, look at me now =)

supporting the guys

rest time at the guys' game, in between our games

My cheeks hurt!!

Hello hello hello,

So, I've realized in the past few days that I should probably post more often. One, cause I obviously want to keep you guys update, but also because so many things happen that I want to share! Oh, and I can only put up 5 pics per post, so the pics are limited. Anyways, here we go =)

Last I told you guys that it snowed, well, that was the only day so far, but now it is raining. The day after it snowed, I went on an adventure by myself, big step for me lol, and went and bought a jacket..a nice, big, warm, comfy jacket, with a hood =). It was fine to get it by myself because it was in the one area I know how to get to and from my house on the train, perfect!

Another adventure was with Milena and Gabi, to the grocery store. My first time in the store since I've been here. Of course I took my camera and below are just a couple photos of our time. Milena and I couldn't wait to find things to take pictures with. So, as we walked around, first of all looking for things to put in the cart that we'd be craving later, we picked out several things to take some fun pictures with. Below are just 2 of the many:

she decided to go with Coke and popcorn, both the size of her

yes, you see it correctly..its not cool ranch, that says cool american!

Yet some more exciting news, Christos, my host dad came home for the weekend. This Saturday was my host mom, Gabi's brithday. He is originally from Greece, and stays there most of the time to hold down the gym that they have located there. I was very excited to finally meet him, and just like the rest of the family here, he was very welcoming and loving. The minute he got in, though, we were all working like crazy to get things ready for Gabi's birthday party; cooking and setting up the house for the estimated 30 dinner guests that would be arriving that night. Also on that day, Milena had her first game. So, as a whole family, we all went to watch her play and it was a lot of fun. She did well, and I believe had 33 points by the end of it. After her game, we all came back to the house and continued to get ready for the party. We prepared more food and the while had the music blaring and everyone was singing and dancing. It was such a good time! There was never a dull moment, and my cheeks hurt the whole night cause I was never not smiling. It was great! Below are a couple pics from the night of the party:

a family photo: Gabi, Aliki, Niko, Christos, Milena, me

of course had to throw one in of us girls =)

I left the party early to retreat to my room upstairs. I had two games the next day, the Cup, from my earlier post. I thought it would have taken me longer to fall asleep as the party was still in full party mode, but I fell asleep pretty quickly. Sunday was the big day and I was pretty excited to play once again with my team. I know I have said it before, but I really do enjoy my teammates and playing with them. I'm happy with the team I'm on and feel very lucky that they are so welcoming to me. Ok, that was my mushy side for a couple sentences, enough is enough! ;) We played our first game against Manheim. We started off strong, got sloppy and even a little lazy for a bit, but ended up winning in the end by about 20. After the game, we went across the parking lot to our guy's pro team. They were playing, and we went to support, as well as pass out flyers about our next game, happening right after the guys' game. Our second game was against Gerlingen. We started off rough, and we were down at halftime. We snapped out of it and ended up winning th game by 20 or so, again, I'm not too big with numbers so I'm not for sure on it. We won the Cup! Hooray!! So, the start of my second week in Germany and I have won a championship, awesome! =) Next weekend we start league, and I believe we play Manheim again. And let the fun continue! Below is a picture of just a few teammates on game day. I will soon get a picture of all of us so that you can all enjoy.

Hellen, Angie, Berit, me

Annnnnnd I think that's it for this one. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did writing and posting =)

Until the next time...

Serena

It snowed today!

Yes, you can guess it, it snowed today. Like real snow. I've only been in real snow once before, so needless to say I was pretty excited. I walked with Melina in the snow, we went to get her sled from our family's gym. It was pretty cool, but at the same time, I don't know that I'd always want to walk in it. I know that I need to invest in a new jacket and maybe even another pair of shoes. We'll see.. ok, that's it, just wanted to share that it snowed today =)

Ciao!

Second email

Hello once again from Germany!

Things are still going well here in the cold country. We had our first game last night. It was a practice game, against a division 2 team, we are division 3. Before the game, we had only one practice as a team, so needless to say, I was a little nervous to see how it was going to go. I was excited though. What a great experience I have in front of me, so why not make the most of it. Anyways, we fought them hard the entire game. There were stretches where we were even ahead. All my nerves went away, of course, once the ball was in play. And for those of you who know me and my game, you will be proud to hear that I took the first shot of the game, that would be the first shot on the floor! lol, yes yes, I know, me shooting? What a crazy thought!

So, here come the stats for you numbers folk:

Minutes played: 40 (we play 4, 10 minute quarters)

Total FG: 7/14 (1/2 3's)

Total Reb: 5 (2 OB, 3 DB)

Assists: 7

Steals: 3

TO's: 5 - in my defense, 3 of them were travels, which apparently I have to learn how to dribble again, cause its different here, but still, that's no excuse, I know

Now that the stats are out of the way..I had a really good time playing. I enjoyed my teammates a lot and I think they enjoyed me as well. I didn't feel out of place on the court with them, and even in the TO's it wasn't awkward. I will admit that the coach spoke in English this time around, but on the court it wasn't bad. Other than the language barrier, once again, I think that we have a chance at being real good, which is always exciting. Of course, there is a difference between potential and reality. So, we will have to wait and see. I spoke briefly with my coaches after the game and they were really happy about the game and joined in my excitement for the future.

We have practices all this week, and then we have games on Sunday. It is what the call the Final Four, the Cup. It is something completely different than regular season. The Cup that we participate in is open to all divisions except for 1, they have their own cup. Its a similar setup as the NCAA finals, starting with 32 teams, ending up with 4 who play against each other. And that is this weekend..sorry for the long winded explanation, but I just learned it and it was interesting to me.

As far as any updates with the family..there aren't really any right now. Everyone started work and school yesterday, so I have the morning to myself, and right now it has been taken up by sleep and reading. The search for formal German lessons is failing. To learn German, in Germany is expensive. So, the lessons may not take place =/. I still hear German allll the time, but understanding anything is not there yet. Not unless its slow and directed at me, and even then its a little hard. I'll try and cut myself some slack seeing as it hasn't even been a week since I've been here.

I think that's it for this one. I'm going to look into the whole blogging scene, and see if I can figure it out. I've never done it before, but if I can do it, and its easier to just send you the link, then that might be the next email.

I'm attaching some pics that I talked about in the first email, from my host family trying on my oversized clothes =), and some from a little adventure my sisters and I went on. Hope you enjoy!

Until the next time..

Ciao!

Serena

my little sister, Melina

my two sisters, Aliki and Melina

my sisters and mom, Aliki, Melina, Gabi

Aliki and me


Melina and me

Aliki, Melina, me

First email

Hello all,

So here's my first email from Germany. I feel like there is so much to write and I don't even know where to start. I'll just start writing whatever comes to mind, so pardon the randomness =)

As most of you know, I'm staying with a host family. There are two girls, 11 and 16, and a boy, 19. The mom is from Germany and the dad is from Greece, where he is currently at now. I will meet him when he comes back on Saturday. They own a gym, and there is one here and one in Greece, so I guess the travel back and forth quite a bit. The girls have been a pleasure and the youngest one is officially my new shadow. She wants to do everything with me, hang out all the time, and even wants to come to all my trainings and games. It's really cute. The older sister is very nice and was very welcoming from the start. She speaks the best English, oh yes, they all speak some level of English, but she hangs out with me too. They are like the sisters I never had, and now I have sisters and brothers! It's great. I have my own little room, with just enough space to house the tons of clothes I brought =). Last night, my first night here, I dressed the girls and mom in my hoop clothes, we all know that I like my shorts big, so needless to say, it was a great photo opportunity! We cooked dinner together tonight. It was really fun, we had music going and the little one was taking pictures and everyone was dancing..it was awesome.

On to basketball, I had my first practice today. Met all of the girls and had a training session. They all seem really nice and welcoming. We have a practice game on Monday, so we'll see how that goes. I learned plays today and was able to get up and down the floor with them a bit, so that's good. I will definitely update you when we get games under our belt =)

Oh yes, the food. Well, I haven't had real German food yet. My first day I had Thai and Chinese food. This morning I had cereal and toast, and tonight we cooked and made a pasta dish. Believe me, I will let you know when the time comes for me to eat real German food lol.

That's all I can think of right now. Please feel free to write back. I will respond as soon as I can, but I will respond to everyone that writes.

I hope that all of your 2009's have started off right!!

Ciao,

Serena

P.S. I have started to pick up German words and phrases. My accent is horrible and of course my memory is right there with it. But I'm determined to figure it all out =)

Welcome to my blog!!

Hello all!

Ok, so it's going to be official. I'm going to have my own blog. I've sent out a couple emails so far, which I will post on here in case anyone has missed them. I think this will be much easier to keep everyone updated as to my life and adventures here in Germany. I'm not sure when I'll post, and I don't want to set a specific time and day that I will post. Basically, whenever I feel like something fun and exciting or interesting, viola, it will appear here!

I hope that everyone's 2009 is still starting strong! If you have any fun stories and updates, please send them my way as I would love to stay in touch.

Well, that's it for now. I'll post my other emails and some pictures for everyone to see!

Ciao,

Serena