Christmas Break

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! And for those of you in the Midwest...I hope the blizzard didn't cause too much trouble with your Christmas plans. I had an amazing time with family and friends. It was SOOO great to be able to spend time with them, since I missed them so much. The snow storm caused some travel complications for me, but I was with loved ones basically the whole time so I really didn't let it bother me. It definately was hectic though...

I flew out from Italy last Monday to London. My flight from London was delayed 4 hours, so by the time I landed in Chicago, I missed my flight to Fargo. I was forced to stay overnight in a hotel by myself. I flew out in the morning from Chicago to Fargo (that flight was only 45 minutes behind schedule). I then drove 4 hours to make an appointment I needed to be at with my fiance. I guess I haven't metioned it yet on here, but I am engaged and am thrilled about it. But back to my story now... After we made it to the appointment we drove another 6 hours to be with my family for a couple days. About this time is when the snow storm started rolling in. We left a day early to beat the storm and drove 6.5 hours through less than perfect conditions. After that, I needed to be in Fargo for my flight back to Italy....but the roads were all closed due to the storm. So I hopped on a train and got to Fargo around 3:30 am. The next day I found out that my flight was cancelled so I had to reschedule. The next flight I could catch was not until today (two days later on Monday). I am currently in the Fargo airport waiting for my flight to arrive so that I can begin my long travel back to Italy. And wouldn't you know it...my flight is delayed. It is delayed long enough so I will miss my connecting flight in Chicago. So I had to reschedule to a different trans-atlantic flight from Chicago. I have no idea what awaits me in my travels but I can't help but wonder what else could go wrong. :)

But I am SOOO thankful I was able to be with my family for Christmas. Happy New Year to everyone!!! God bless!

Game Tonight

We have a road game tonight. It is our last game before Christmas break. We definately are going to play as hard as we can and leave it all out there since we won't have another game for two weeks!

Game

Well, I am going to make this very short. We played very well for much of the game last Sunday. We found ourselves up by 7 with just over a minute to play. Things were looking great, but sadly things fell apart very quickly. We turned the ball over twice in a row and allowed the other team to get within 3 in a matter of a few seconds. Then moments later I was called for my fifth foul and so I was forced to go sit on the bench for the rest of the game. That was probably the most difficult it has ever been for me to sit on the bench and watch a game play out. The other team ended up tying the game and we had the last shot. We couldn't get a good shot off though and it went into overtime. Sitting out for the entire overtime was so difficult for me. I don't get nervous at all while I am in the game when it is close down the stretch. I can handle that really well, but sitting on the bench and feeling helpless is another thing. Overtime began with a 70-70 tie. The final score was 71-73. Yes...you read that right. We scored one point in OT and lost.

Things are challenging over here right now, but all I can do is keep my faith strong and my head up. Perseverance is a tough lesson to learn, but one that I believe God is teaching me right now. I have learned so much about life and the blessings in life through my time over here. Now more than ever I can see how precious and valuable time with family and loved ones truly is. If you are able to spend time with family over this Christmas season...do not take it for granted. Count your blessings. God bless you all!

Catch up post....

Hey everyone. I am sorry that I haven't been doing a good job keeping up with my blog. I was thinking about coming on here and making up a bunch of excuses about why I haven't been updating you on my life over here...Like, 'I have been very busy', or...'We were traveling a lot', or...'I have been busy Christmas shopping'. Although all those things are true, it isn't the real reason why I haven't been posting blogs over the past couple weeks. The truth is that we have been working very hard on the court as a team and playing some good games, but have come up on the short side of the score several times. It isn't as fun for me to write updates on here when we have lost :) But I guess that isn't fair to those of you who check my blog and never see a new entry.

Since my parents left at the end of Novemeber, we have had several games where we played well but came up short. There was one game in there where we got blown out by a team that we had no business losing to by that much, but other than that miss-step we have been battling hard. We played some teams that are ranked at the top of our league and fought hard with them. The last game in particular we were playing Veroli at home. We got off to a great start and had a 13 point lead near the end of the second quarter, but we gave up some ground going in to the halftime break only up by one possession.

The second half started well as we extended our lead, but again we stumbled towards the end of the quarter by giving up costly turnovers that they turned into timely baskets. We found ourselves down by a few possessions going into the final quarter. We fought hard throughout until the final buzzer, but we couldn't get on a role to dig out of the hole that we made. The final score was 82-92. We played fairly well against a very good team, but it hurts to keep losing while fighting so hard. We are staying together though and staying possitive. We have two games left before Christmas break. Tomorrow (Sunday) at home and then the following Sunday on the road.

I hope everyone is enjoying this Christmas season. Stay warm and keep your loved ones close! God bless you all.

P.S. If you would like to know more details about my life over here, or my individual performances, or any other questions you might have...you can email me at winkelman2209@aol.com. Thanks.

My Family Visiting

Hey everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know I did...my parents came here to Italy to be with me for a week. It was so nice to be able to spend time with them. They arrived here last Saturday and watched me play on Sunday night. As you read in my previous blog entry, the game went well. The rest of the week together we spent enjoying each others company and doing some site-seeing. I was able to show them around a little bit and even translate some for them to buy train tickets. I showed them around Milan, Pavia, and the coast.

Visiting some fantastic places here in Italy with them was a lot of fun, but what I really enjoyed was simply having them here for Thanksgiving. We made a feast for dinner...well, my mom did most of the cooking and my dad was her helper. I did most of the sitting around and talking. It was funny seeing them try to find everything that they needed to make the meal. I think 2 or 3 times my dad needed to go back to the grocery store because what they thought they were buying was not actually what they needed. Think about trying to go to a grocery store and having all the labels saying something in gibberish...you basically have to guess based on appearance. The grocery stores don't have all the same things that we were used to back in the States, but after some improvising my parents got all they needed and made a spectacular meal. I seriously have to say that it was one of the best meals I ever had. I definitely appreciate a home cooked meal, especially since it has been so long since I had one!

We spent the rest of that night chatting away and reminiscing. But sadly their trip couldn't last forever. They checked out Rome for a couple days before heading back to the U.S. It was such a treat to have them here for a week.

Well, our team is about to fly out to Naples for our road game this week. I will post a blog after the game to let you know how it goes.

God bless you all!! Talk to you soon.

Photo: Compliments of Andrea Spallarossa

Victory

We had a game this past Sunday. It was a very exciting win for us! The team we played was a very good team in our league. They had players with a lot of experience at the top leagues in Europe. We battled hard throughout the game and went into halftime with the game tied at 37. I was able to get to the rim and hit most of my jumpers as well, so that felt good.

The 3rd quarter however started a little off for the Pavia team (us). We found ourselves slipping behind as the quarter progressed. We were just missing some shots and had a few turnovers. I think we were down by 14 at the start of the 4th quarter, but we kept our confidence and we believed in ourselves. We kept fighting and battled our way back halfway through the quarter. We put on a press and got three consecutive steals to take the lead 69-68 with about 5 minutes to go. We continued this effort to cap off our run with a 91-81 win. It was a great victory for us as many players stepped up and hit big shots, free throws, and also got big defensive stops.

This game was especially fun to play well in because my parents were here visiting and got to see me play.

I have to go now though because they are still here and we want to spend the time together. Talk to you soon!

Ciao tutti!! Hey everyone!! I hope you are all doing well! Just thought I would say hi halfway through the week and throw some random tid-bits at you.

I am doing well. Practices are tough, but our team is playing well together. We still have two-a-days three times a week, so that keeps me busy. As you all know, I usually eat pasta and/or pizza everyday, but for dinner tonight I made myself grilled chicken sandwhiches and potatoes. It was a nice change of pace! It was tasty, although...they do not have BBQ sauce here in Italy so I had to eat them plain without any sauce. So that is a little depressing, but I will get over it I think.

I am looking forward to this weekend because I am getting some visitors for the second time since I moved to Italy. My parents are coming to visit!! I am really looking forward to seeing them and spending over a week together. They are amazing parents and people. I am so thankful that they love me so much and are coming to visit me over Thanksgiving! Thanks mom and dad...see you soon!

Well, I think it is about time I go have some gelato (ice cream)...talk to you soon!

We played against Venice this week. Venice is a very good team in our league. The game was a defensive battle from the start. We fell behind early in the game but fought back with aggressive defense and intensity to tie the game at 31 going into halftime. The second half started similar to the first...low scoring and a scrappy defensive battle. This continued throughout the rest of the game as we slipped behind by 7 or 8 points. We couldn't make a run to get back and ended up losing by 12. Personally I had a very rough game on offense. I couldn't get any of my shots to drop. Every shot I had at the rim seemed to rim out, and I found myself frustrated and forcing a couple shots. Everyone has their off days, and this was one of mine. We are going to shake this one off though and get ready for next week's game as we return to our home court.

I hope you all are doing well. Thanksgiving is around the corner...remember to be thankful for the things, and more importantly the people, you have in your life. God Bless!!

Game 6

It was yet another close game this weekend. We won 74-73. It was tight the whole way. We had the lead for most of the game, but couldn't pull away to get any breathing room. It was a hard fought game. I felt like we definately played with a lot of heart throughout the contest. Udine (the team we played) was a very solid team with size and talent. This was a great win for our team!

Sorry it took me so long to write...I have been busy. I actually had my first visitor from the US come last week, so that was a really nice change of pace. Anyway...our game last week was on the road against a team named Latina. It is on the south side of Rome. It was a nice 7 hour bus trip down there. I didn't mind the ride being so long though, because it was nice seeing more of the country.

The game was a nail-biter the whole way through. Both teams were scoring well throughout the game. We had a 45-43 lead going into halftime. I personally was getting to the rim well and finishing my drives strong, but missed a few outside jumpers. The game came down to the end...we were down 5 and needed a stop on Defense. We put on the press and I got my hand on a pass and deflected the ball out of bounds off an opponent. We then ran an inbounds play and I got fouled and made both free throws. Down 3 now. We put on the press again, and I got another deflection. This time, however, they recovered the ball and we were forced to foul. They made one free throw to go up four and clinch the game. Like I said, we played well on offense, but we definately could have used a couple more defensive stops late in the game.

This Sunday we are home against a solid team. We are looking forward to getting back out on our home court. I most likely will post a blog a day after the game so that I won't put it off as long as I did this week.

Talk to you soon. God Bless!

Game Online

I think our game is online today. It starts at 11:15 am central time (Minnesota/North Dakota time). The website is www.starchannel.it. First, click on the LegaDue symbol. Then at the top of the page that opens there should be four games. Our team is the Nuova Pall. PV and we are playing against AB Latina today. Click on that one. I have never tried this, but I heard it works farely well. If you try it, give me feedback to let me know if it worked. Thanks. I think our games should be on here most of the time, but I am not 100% sure. Talk to you soon.

Road trip

I am currently riding the team bus down to Rome for our next game. We actually play a team that is a little south of Rome. It is a long trip by bus since we have to wind through the mountains to get there, but it is a nice trip to see the countryside. I haven't had a chance to travel south yet so in a way it is kind of nice. I will post another blog after the game tomorrow. God bless.

Game 4 against Casalpusterlengo

We had a home game tonight and it went very well. We won! We played hard for the entire game. We got off to a quick start but they came back strong to take a two point lead after the first quarter: 24-26. The second quarter we played strong again and went up by double digits. Every run we made, however, was met by them scoring some timely baskets to keep it close into the second half.

We played aggressive throughout the rest of the game as we started to build a lead. The team we played is dangerous though, as they average over 82 points a game. In their past games they have been down by 20 and came back to take the lead in several occasions. So we weren't comfortable with any lead. We kept knocking down shots and getting stops. We ended the game winning by a score of 100-74. It was a fun night. I ended with something like 22 points. It felt good to get the win.

I will try to put some pictures of action shots on here as soon as I can. Talk to you soon.

Apartment Pictures & Game 3

Hello everyone. Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I have been busy moping in my own sorrow so I haven't had any time to post anything. Ha, I am just kidding. I am doing fine, but we did suffer yet another loss. This league is very competitive...especially on road games. We had an away game this past Sunday and we fought hard. We did some good things and looked more like a team, but it wasn't enough as we ended up losing by 15 points or something like that. We played tough and it even seemed like we played a good game, but we did not shoot the ball very well. The other team also shot 15 more free throws than we did. I ended the game with 10 points and 8 rebounds. I was happy with the way I rebounded, but I wasn't hitting my open jumpers. This coming Sunday we play at home and it is a must-win game for us. We need to get a win to get things going.

So, as far as basketball goes, we are having a tough start but it should turn around for us. I am just going to keep working hard and hopefully we start getting some wins. I decided to take some pictures of my apartment and car and stuff so you would get a better feel for how I am living over here. The first one on the left is my car. The next one is my apartment building. I live on the third floor in the middle. The third photo on the right is the view from one of my balconies in my apartment. As you can see there is a small park next to where I live. There are a lot of families and children playing at the park so it can get a bit noisy at times with the kids playing, but I don't mind....usually :) This last photo I thought I would add just for fun. It is kind of hard to see what it says, but the gas here right now is Euro 1.273...per liter! After some crude math that calculates out to about $7.12 per gallon! Ouch. The diesel is a bit cheaper, which is a good thing for me considering I drive a diesel. Yes, my car is a diesel. I thought that was a bit unusual to have a car running on diesel fuel. So for me it is about $6 per gallon.

Well, I have to go to another practice. Talk to you soon.

P.S. Remember to appreciate the people in your life who you are close to. Do not take what you have for granted. Ciao!

Game 2

We had our second game of the season yesterday. It was against Vigevano. Vigevano is a big game for us because they are right down the road (about 20 miles) and they are considered our rivals. The atmosphere was CRAZY. The fans were going all out for this one. I couldn't hear anything before the game started...it was extremely loud. My ears were literally ringing. Fun atmosphere to play in!

Vigevano got off to a good start however knocking down some threes and scoring inside with their big man. We battled back but found ourselves behind for most of the game. It was a very frustrating game for me because I got into foul trouble. I had 3 fouls in the first half so I was forced to sit out much of the second quarter. I actually got my fourth foul just a couple minutes into the 2nd half. I couldn't believe it. I was trying to play smart and not pick up a cheap foul, but there were several fouls called on me that I most definately did not agree with. That is part of the game though I guess.

We fought back in the 4th quarter and tied it with a few minutes to go, but Vigevano came back down and hit a timely three pointer right after that. We ended up losing by a couple possessions. Personally, like I said before, I had a frustrating game due to foul trouble. It was so frustrating because I knew I could have helped our team more without the foul situation. I ended up only taking 7 shots in game ending with 12 points. Frustrating. We need to come back next week and get a win. Once we get that first win we should have things flowing into the rest of the season.

Talk to you soon!

A little taste of home...

I am watching the Minnesota Twins play in the playoff game to get into the playoffs right now. I was glad to see that the game was on at 4 PM central time so that I could watch it. That means that it started here at 11:00 PM, so I do have to stay up a little late but I decided it would be worth it. I am not an avid Twins fan, but since I am a Minnesotan I do like to see them win. Feels like I am back home watching the game.

Go Twins. Talk to you soon.

First Game

I don't really feel like writing this blog today, but I thought I would anyway so that you all would know how the first game went. The reason I don't feel like writing it is because I still have that bad taste in my mouth from defeat. Yes, we lost. We came out looking very strong as we jumped up to a 20-9 lead after the first quarter. I had some good looks early as well as I connected on 4 field goals in the quarter. Things went south after that though. We went into halftime only up by 3.

The second half we couldn't really get into a flow on offense as we struggled to make it a close game at the end. We were down by 2 with about a minute to go. I had been struggling a bit to finish the shots I took up to this point in the quarter but the coach still called my number. I drove the ball down the lane and scored on an off-balanced shot to tie the game. It then became a free throw contest as we fouled them the next possesion. We were always a possesion behind though as we ended up letting the game slip away and lose by three points. It was a very frustrating game for us considering how well we started the game. We have our next game on Sunday at home. We are looking forward to getting back out there.

I guess I should mention that the atmosphere at the game was very fun to be apart of. The European fans are quite crazy when it comes to sports. The arena was small, but it was packed. They also can use noise makers and things like that so it was extremely loud in there. I think it is going to be a lot of fun playing in this league.

Talk to you soon.

Game this weekend

OK, so I eat about 5 bowls of cereal everyday. Whenever I am hungry between meals or at night I usually have a bowl of cereal. Sometimes I will eat an entire box of cereal in one sitting. Sorry if that wasn't that interesting, I just wanted to throw something else in the blog besides basketball and site-seeing.

Anyway...we have a game this weekend. It is the season opener. It is an away game against a team that we have already played in the preseason. I am excited to get the regular season going.

Talk to you soon.

Cereal

Guess how many bowls of cereal I eat each day on average. Post your guesses in the comments if you would like. I will post the answer with my next post. Don't ask me why I am posting this...because I truly don't know. It is very random...

End of Preseason

The preseason is finished. We had a tournament this weekend at home to finish out the "friendly games". We are very excited to start the regular season play as we have come a long ways together as a team after coming together 6 weeks ago. We had a little time off these last couple days so I decided to get out of the city and visit a couple different cities. My first stop was Milan. It was 'fashion week' here in Milan so there were a lot of people there for the fashion shows and other events. The Duomo di Milano was a pretty spectacular site. This is the first large cathedral I have visited here in Italy and I was impressed. As you can see from the picture above it is quite the piece of artwork. I was stunned by the detail of the cathedral, down to the smallest pieces of sculpture. It was incredible. Milan is obviously known for its fashion and there were many designer stores there like D&G, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Giorgio Armani, Gianni Versace, and many more. I decided to go into the stores to see what I could find, but after picking up a pair of sunglasses I liked and reading the price tag that read 385.00 Euro, I decided I would just stick to the streets. I knew I wasn't going to find anything to my liking as I am not really into that sort of thing, but it was interesting going there anyway. It all was very interesting but my legs were getting tired from walking around, so I decided to head out to my next city. I went to Lake Como for a little bit just to look at the views there. I have already posted some pictures of the lake in previous blogs. After sitting down and enjoying the view for a while I decided to take off back home. I guess I should mention too that drivers here in Italy are CRAZY. I seriously was nervous for my life many times as cars fly past in both directions missing me by inches. I believe the lines on the roads (when there are any) are more like guidelines than actual rules for driving. Well, I am going to enjoy the rest of my day off before practice picks up again tomorrow.

Talk to you soon!

My Team

Yet another preseason game...

We played another preseason game on Tuesday. I know, it seems like we have been playing preseason games for a month now. I am excited to get the real games started. The game the other night was against that team from Switzerland that we had played a week or so ago. We accomplished some good things in the game although we did end up losing by 4 or so points in the end. We got off to a bit of a slow start defensively. The other team was draining threes and getting three point plays every possession it seemed. We came around in the second half however as we only allowed something like 30 points in the 3rd and 4th quarters combined. Personally I was shooting the ball fairly well as I connected on 4 threes in the game. Things are coming together for our team. Two more games this weekend, followed by a week of practice, and then finally into the regular season.

Talk to you soon.

Quick Weather Update

The first couple weeks I was here in Italy it was "troppo caldo"... too hot!! Ha. It was above 100 degrees F everyday for a while. It has cooled down quite a bit the last week or so. It has been raining every few days and staying cloudy. I actually like this weather a lot. It is perfectly comfortable in shorts and a T-shirt. It stays in the 70's and 80's. I can't complain. I was talking to some of my Italian teammates and they said that it gets pretty cold in the winters. It even snows sometimes! Yikes, not sure if I will be prepared for the couple inches we might get ;)

Imola Preseason Tourney

We had a tournament this weekend with three other teams in our league. It was a 3 hour road trip to Imola, Italy. The first night we played the home team, Imola. We played fairly well but got into some serious foul trouble. I believe they shot around 33 free throws while we only scored 6 points at the stripe. Even with this handicap we had a chance to win late in the game. It was tied with about 35 seconds to go and Imola had the ball. The shot clock was winding down and they threw up a prayer from 3 that somehow found the bottom of the net. We were down three. We went to the other end and missed the opportunity to extend the game.

The next night we played well defensively. We did a lot of good things as team this game. Both on defense and offense we started to find some rhythm and chemistry. We still weren't hitting our shots like we would like to, but things are starting to come together. We started the game close but pulled away and ended up winning by around 15 points.

Preseason game against Lugano, Switzerland

We traveled to Switzerland on Tuesday for our first away game of the preseason. It was just accross the border and was only a 1.5 hour drive by bus. The scenery on the way was amazing. We drove through the mountains passing Lake Como. The picture to the left is a view of the lake and its city. We then came up to Lugano which had a very similar look to it. It was a city on the mountainside right next to a lake. It was a pretty neat place to visit. I have never seen anything quite like it. The pictures to the bottom right are views of the city where we played. The game itself was a lot of fun. We got off to a very slow start, falling behind 27-17 towards the end of the first quarter. We then played a lot tougher on defense and ended up tying the game just before the half was over. The second half was a continuation of the 2nd quarter as we played tough defense which lead to some good offense as well. We were down 4 with about a minute to go when one of my teammates was forced to shoot an off-balanced shot which missed and was heading out of bounds. I jumped after it saving the ball back to a teammate who drained a 3 as the shot clock wound down. We were now down by one. I guess I should mention that while saving the ball I turned my ankle and had to come out of the game. I walked it off and was back in with about 40 seconds to go. We got a stop on D. We came down on offense and our guard drove the lane dishing it to our big man who made the lay-up to go up by one with 15 seconds to go. We got a stop on the other end to finish the game and win by one point, 85-84. Personally I had a pretty good game. The first half I was frustrated as I missed a few open shots, but the second half I redeemed myself by making several moves to the hole to score later in the 4th quarter. We have two more away games this week on Thursday and Friday.

Food

I really like pasta and pizza, but I literally have it every single day. Don't get me wrong...Italian style pizza is very good, but I think I am going to have to start being more creative and make some other foods if I want to make it through the whole year. The pizzas here are very thin, unlike the traditional American deep dish style. The main meat that Italians have on pizza is prociutto (or ham). I typically get that with pomodorini (small tomatoes). It is very good. Other than that, I will make pasta every night with different types of sauces. At the grocery stores here they have tons of different kinds of cheeses, so it is hard for me to choose which one I want. I typically just guess and go with the trial and error approach.

Game against Milan

We played Milan tonight. We played OK, but we had a bad third quarter so we ended up losing. Milan is a good team in the top league. We have the day off tomorrow which is much needed. The knees are hurting a little, but I guess that is part of the job :) We travel to Switzerland for a Tuesday night game.

Preseason Schedule

We play another preseason game tomorrow night (Friday the 11th of Sep) against Armani from Milan. As most of you know, European teams are sponsored by companies and named after their biggest sponser. In this case it is Armani Jeans. Our next game after that is in Switzerland on Tuesday, which is only about an hour and a half drive away. After that we play a few more Italian teams.

Preseason game against our rivals...Vigevano

We had another preseason game tonight. This time it was against our rivals....Vigevano. They told me prior to the game that the games against this particular team are always crazy and extremely intense. Even though preseason games are called "Friendly Games" and do not count in our record, this game meant a lot to the two sides. It had an atmosphere of a playoff game. Thousands of fans came...both home and away. The opposing team is only about 15 miles away from Pavia so a lot of their fans made the short trip.

European fans are crazy. It was a lot of fun playing in that intense atmosphere. We ended up winning a close game at the end. I played pretty well and scored in the mid-20s. But it definately wasn't an easy game to win. Our team actually had 5 technical fouls including ejections (Don't worry...I didn't get any). It was a tough game to the end, but like I said, we ended up squeezing out the victory. Even though it was a preseason game, their was an awards ceremony to recieve a large cup that these two teams play for each year. I love the extreme fans that we have and I think I will enjoy playing with the adrenaline that they create. It was a lot of fun and it wasn't even a "real" game. I am looking forward to starting the regular season.

We have quite a few more preseason games to go until we hit the season opener on Oct 4th. We travel to a couple countries including Switzerland over the next couple weeks.

Talk to you soon.

First Preseason Game

Well, we had our first preseason game/scrimmage. We played Bologna, Italy. As you can see from the picture it was not an official game. It was closed to the open public and we just wore our practice jerseys. Bologna was one of the better teams in Italy from last season. The game went fairly well. We still have work to do as a team before the season starts. But it felt good to play in a game again. Our team colors are red and black. I think this might be the first time that I have worn black basketball shoes :) (That is me closest to the camera)

Pavia

So I have been living here for almost two weeks now. Things are still going very well. I like it here more and more as I get more comfortable with the city and the area. Right now it is kind of a grind having two-a-days. I get pretty wiped out, but it isn't too much to handle. An average day for me looks like this....

8:00 am: Wake up and have breakfast
9:00 am: Either conditioning, agility, and abs or weights and a bball workout afterwards.
1:00 pm: Make myself soemthing to eat. Typically pasta with chicken and fruit or if I am too tired to make food I might just have a pizza. After I am done eating I will go online and either talk to friends/family or watch a movie or something.
4:30 or 7:00: Practice. There is a professioinal women's volleyball team here in Pavia and we share a gym with them, so we will either have early or late practice.
10:30 pm: (If I have late practice) Make dinner, eat, go online for a little while, and then go to bed and do it all over the next day.

We haven't had a day off yet so I have not been able to travel anywhere outside of the city. I did get a little tour of Pavia from a teammate one afternoon though. Pavia is a nice city with many old buildings which gives it a great feel of history. I think there is a law that they can not tear down any buildings older than a certain number of years. There's even a castle here. In the center of the city there is an area where cars are not allowed to go so it is a nice place to walk around and go to all the shops and restaurants. There also is a river that runs through the city, but it is not clean enough to swim in. I will start posting some pictures on here as soon as a receive my USB for my camera. There was a mix up when I moved and so I am waiting for a friend to send it to me.

The last team member just arrived yesterday. He is the other American on the team. He has been playing pro bball for over ten years now. So that makes 2 of us Americans, one American with an Italian passport, one Austrian, and the rest are Italians. I like the team and coaches we have. I am enjoying myself....but I do miss people from back home in the States.

Well, I have to get to my next practice.
Talk to you soon.

I Live in Italy Now

Ciao from Italy!

I am moved into my apartment in Pavia, Italy. These first few days I have spent trying to unpack and get settled in. I have met the team and staff members for Pallacanestro Pavia (Pavia Basketball team). Everyone has been very helpful trying to acclimate me to my new city. My teammates seem like a lot of fun and I think I will enjoy the season with them.

But let's back up a little bit first...the plane ride over here...
It was a 17.5 hour total trip between flights and layovers. Besides the long layovers (2-4.5 hours) it was a very smooth trip. I guess I am glad I had the long layovers though just in case something didn't go exactly right. I really wasn't sure where I was going and just asked questions as I went. I am glad I flew through London though so that everything was in English the entire trip. I landed in Milan, Italy hoping that my bags made the trip along with me. I was relieved to see both of my bags made it. As I followed the exit signs out of the airport I was hoping someone was going to be there to pick me up. I have no idea what I would have done if nobody was there. But my assistant coach was waiting for me as soon as I stepped out of the terminal. Again, I was relieved.

As I stepped outside I realized I wasn't in North Dakota anymore...a heat wave was there to welcome me to Italy. The first few days it was above 100 degrees F. I think it hit 40 deg C which is about 104 F my first day here. Oh...and no AC in the apartments here. It is rare to find AC. And all the fans were sold out of every store. So I spent the first couple nights sweating while I slept. I am not complaining at all...I don't tend to let stuff like that bother me. It was almost funny how hot it was. They assured me that this week is the hottest week and it will soon get better. It is tough to eat though when all you are thinking about is how hot it is.

One thing I did notice right away was that there are a TON of pizzerias. I literally have eaten pasta or pizza every day. I also have had some sandwiches as well. The pizza is good. They are large in diameter, but they are thin compared to most American pizzas. But it is enough to get full off of one pizza.

We have started our preseason workouts. This week is mostly conditioning and some agility/ab workouts. Sunday I think we are starting our two-a-days.

Well, that is all for now. If any of you have any questions feel free to post them in the comments section and I will answer them if possible. Thanks.

Talk to you soon.

I am leaving the country today!

Well, I am sitting here at the airport in Fargo waiting for my flight. I take off from Fargo at 5:53 pm central time (Monday, Aug 17th). I fly into Chicago, and then take off for London. I jump onto my third plane there, before arriving in Milan, Italy. Milan is a short drive away from my new home town...Pavia!

The time in Italy is 7 hours later than it is here, so I am taking off from Fargo past midnight in Italy time. Yes...that means that I will be traveling through the night and arrive in Italy Tuesday evening according to my new time table. I am going to try and catch a couple hours of sleep on the plane on my way over there, but I am going to dead tired when I finally arrive. I need to stay awake though until Tuesday night so that I can kick the jet-lag. If I can manage to stay awake until Tuesday night (around 9:00 or so) then I can sleep hard and wake up Wednesday morning hopefully feeling refreshed. We will see how that goes.

I think I have one day to get settled before jumping into basketball practice, but I honestly am not really sure what my schedule will be like once I get there. I guess I will find out soon enough. I am supposed to have internet so I think I will be able to update another blog in a couple days to let everyone know what it is like over there for me.

Talk to you soon.

Signing

Well this may be old news to most of you...but I signed a one year contract with a team from Italy. Throughout the month of June I received several offers from teams in Poland, Bulgaria, Belgium, and Spain. Some were good offers in which I considered for a while. Then in early July I recieved a few more offers...one of which was an offer from a team in Italy. This offer jumped out at me and seemed to be the best situation for my career. After a few days of thinking it through, I decided to sign on with the team out of Pavia, Italy.

Pavia is a solid team in A2 Italy. Last year they made it to the playoffs in this competative league. There are a lot of unknowns about what my life is going to be like when I move there in mid-August but I am looking forward to it! Pavia is a city of about 71,000 people and is located in Northern Italy, just south of Milan.

Intro

Hello everyone!

Since I graduated this past May from NDSU, I have been persuing a professional basketball career. I knew that this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity so I decided that I could put a "real job" on hold for a while. So I hired an agent and weighed my options. I got a little bit of a look from some NBA teams after playing for the Bison. As the summer progressed it looked more and more likely that I would be playing pro basketball in Europe.

I have friends, family, and fans who all have been supportive and expressed interest in my endeavors. I thought the best way to keep everybody in the loop would be to start a blog. This way I don't have to worry about whether or not they are on my facebook friends list, I have their email address, or have their instant messenger screenname.

I can't make any promises about how frequently I will post on my blog, but I will do my best to keep everyone up to date on what is happening as well as post some pictures from time to time.

Feel free to comment or add anything to my blogs. I appreciate your interest and look forward to what is to come.

Thanks.