Visit From Our Slovak Friends

This past weekend, we had some special visitors.  Three of our friends from Slovakia came to stay with us and watch us play.  They called at about 1 am on Saturday to tell us that they were almost there so we went outside to meet them and help them find where we live.  Originally, we were supposed to have shootaround at 11:00, but our coach cancelled it so that freed up Saturday morning to enjoy a big breakfast and show our friends around the city.  After walking around a bit, we went to lunch at the restaurant where our team eats everyday.  Then, we went back to our apartment to do a little dinner prep.  After that, we took a quick nap before leaving for the game.

Our game was against Timisoara, a team ranked in the middle of the league.  They are most likely the team that we will face in the first round of the playoffs so it was important to come out strong against them and send an early message.  We played well and won by a substantial margin.

We went back to the apartment and made a big feast for our friends.  They always took such great care of us when we were in Slovakia so we wanted to return the favor.  After dinner, they surprised Jen with a late birthday cake.  It was honey Marlenka, Jen's favorite Slovak dessert.  We didn't know that they had that planned so we had already made brownies for dessert.  Not a problem...we just ate both!  :-)  We played a game of Farkle, and Peter won :-/  Other than the last part, the night was a lot of fun.

The next morning, we woke up early to go to Mass.  Then, after Mass we went back to the apartment for another big, American breakfast.  We had originally planned to go to Timisoara for the day, but after weighing our options and considering the amount of time it would take to get there and back, we opted for a closer option: Vinga.  Vinga is a small village about 25 minutes from Arad.  There isn't much to see there except for a big, Catholic church.  We were told that it's the tallest church in Romania.  We had driven by it several times on road trips and always wanted to go see it so it seemed like a good option.  When we arrived, we found out that it was closed :-/  It was still beautiful from the outside, but it would have been nice to go inside.  We took some good pictures, had a few laughs, and then got back in the car to go back to Arad.  While we had a car, Jen really wanted to go to a grocery store called Real because they have some things that other stores don't carry.  The only thing on the 'list' was cheddar cheese, but after about 45 minutes of shopping, we had a lot more than cheese :-)

After a little shopping, we went back to the apartment to eat and then help our friends get back on the road by about 5:30 since they all had work the next day.  It was a quick trip, but as usual, it was great to see our friends.  We're hoping to see them at least once more before we head back to the states.  

Thanks for visiting us Katka, Peter, and Marek!!!  We love you guys :-)

Here's some pictures from the weekend:

Peter was surprised to see all of the stray dogs in Romania.  When Jen and I first came here 2 years ago, we were surprised too, but now, seeing them has become normal.

Showing our friends around the center of Arad

In front of the main government building in Arad

The Orthodox cathedral in Arad

Lunch at the restaurant where our team eats everyday

I don't think they liked the soup very much :-)

At our game against Timisoara

Champs!

With our President, Marcel, holding the trophies we won in the Central European Cup

Saturday night feast after the game

We didn't have a corkscrew so Peter found another way to open the wine.  Other than the mess, it worked pretty well :-)

Birthday surprise for Jen - Marlenka!  It's her favorite dessert from Slovakia.

Sweet friends :-)

This is where we went to Mass on Sunday morning.  We had seen this church before (St. Therese Catholic Church), but we could never figure out what time Mass was until recently.  This Church is quite a bit closer than the one in the center so it makes going to daily Mass much more convenient.

There was a great sale on eggs last week so we stocked up!

Marek trying to help Jen make Eggs in a Basket

Jen did the first one to give Marek an example of how it should look.  The one on the right is Marek's first attempt :-)  In his defense, he didn't quite understand what Jen was going to use it for, and he thought it was wasteful to only use a small piece from the bread so he tried to get the most out of it.

Eggs in a Basket

Homemade pancakes - with a smiley face :-)

The girls working hard :-)

The Catholic Church in Vinga

Posing with the Romanian flag

Jen and Katka with their Sosovicova - a Slovakian soup

Dracula's Castle (and Jen's Birthday!!!)

Hi again!

Well, we are back on the road again.  Yesterday we traveled to Craiova, a city in the center of Romania.  We have a game today, and then we will drive back to Arad.  Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like we have been on the road a lot lately!

Last week, we had a 3 day road trip.  We left early Friday morning and drove to Brasov, another city in the center of Romania.  Because we didn’t play until Saturday, our team took the opportunity to do something fun/different while we had the time.  There is a city called Bran which is about 20 minutes from Brasov.  Bran is most famous for being home to Dracula’s Castle.  I had a rather vague understanding of the connection between Romania and Dracula before coming here, and to be honest, I can’t say that I have a great understanding even now. 

The story is pretty complicated, really.  I’m not going to get into all of it here because it would take a long time to explain and because I would probably still get some of the story wrong.  To make a long story short, though, the figure we know as Dracula is based on a real life person named Vlad Tepes III who later became known as Vlad the Impaler.  He was a rather ruthless human being who was known for killing people, impaling them on stakes, and then lining the roads with them to scare off his enemies.  The whole character of Dracula came about as a result of a novel written by Bram Stoker called Dracula.  Anyways, if you’re really interested, you can read a little more about it all here:  http://www.ithaca.edu/history/journal/papers/sp02dracula.html

Going to the castle was interesting, and it was a nice change from the usual routine since life as a professional basketball player overseas can be a little repetitive sometimes. 

On Saturday, we played Brasov (we won), and then after the game, we drove about 3 hours to Bucharest to play another game on Sunday.  We had an early game Sunday, made a quick stop at McDonald’s, and then got on the road for the long 11 hour bus ride back to Arad. 

We have a few things coming up to look forward to.  First, Jen’s birthday is TODAY! (March 11^th)!  She is 26…wow J  Since we have a game today and then will be on the bus the rest of the day, it’s not really the best day for celebrating a birthday.  It’s not a problem, though, because Jen and I celebrate birthday weeks together, not just days.  We’ll be sure to find some fun things to do J  Second, we are expecting some visitors this coming weekend!  A couple of our friends from Slovakia will be coming on Friday and staying until Sunday afternoon.  As usual, it will be great to see them and spend some time together.  And third, Jen and I just finished planning a trip to Rome for the following weekend (March 21-24).  We were told about a week and a half ago that we were going to have 3 consecutive days off so we immediately started looking up cheap flights.  We found a great deal to and from Rome and couldn’t pass up the opportunity.  This is obviously a very exciting time in the Church right now with the upcoming papal conclave.  We are assuming that by the time we arrive, a new pope will have been elected so that is extremely exciting.  Also, there are a few (well way more than a few) things that we really wanted to see/do in Rome last time we were there that we are really looking forward to.  And finally, we will be there for Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week.  Obviously it would be incredible to be in Rome for all of Holy Week, but it’s pretty cool that this last minute trip coincides with at least one day of it.  Sooooo…..lots of exciting things coming up.  We’ll keep you posted!

We hope you’re all doing well.  Don’t forget to wish Jen a ‘Happy Birthday’ J

Waiting outside to buy tickets to go see the castle

Walking up the hill to the castle

Inside the castle

Super narrow staircase

View of the inside of the castle

All of the doors were super short!

Carla and Jen

The sign actually says "Attention: Stairs," but we thought it was funny that it sort of looked similar to someone saying "Attention: Scary" - it just seemed fitting for Dracula's Castle

In the courtyard in the castle

Carla and Tina

Vlad the Impaler = Dracula the Vampire (sort of)

Carla helping Jen grab the money at the bottom of the well

In front of the castle

Castle at a distance

End of February Update! :-)

Hey!  I know it’s been a while, but we just wanted to give you guys an update.  The second half of the season is usually a little more difficult to blog about because there is a lot of repetitiveness in a 9 month season.  That being said, here’s what we have been up to in the last month or so.

This past weekend we were in Brno, Czech Republic for the Final Four of the Central European League that we had been playing in since October.  On Saturday, we played Trutnov, a team from Czech.  When we played in Slovakia for our first two seasons, Trutnov was a regular opponent.  They are traditionally a very well-coached, disciplined team so we knew it would be a tough game.  Thankfully, we came out with a comfortable victory.  Sunday, we played Miskolc, a team from Hungary.  We had a preseason game against them back in August, but at that time they were still missing some key players.  Our team played great in this game.  We jumped on them right from the beginning, and they were never able to recover.  Soooo….we won the championship!  Our team has three major goals for this season, and this was the first.  Mission accomplished!

Now, for the next couple of weeks, we will just play league games.  Then, at the beginning of April, we will play in the Final Four of the Romanian Cup.

This weekend, we will play against a team from Brasov, Romania.  It is in the center of the country in the heart of the Transylvania region.  On Friday morning, we will leave early because our team is taking a trip to Bran Castle (better known as Dracula’s castle).  This is probably one of the most well-known landmarks in Romania so it will be great to have an opportunity to see it.  I (Jen) watched the movie Hotel Transylvania on my flight from California to Romania, and I’m excited to see if the real-life castle looks anything like the castle in the movie.  I’ll let you know.

Anyways, here are some pictures of different things that we have done in the past month or so.  Enjoy!

The church that we went to for Mass while we were in Brno.  It felt like old times in Slovakia because the Czech and Slovak languages are so similar.  The church that we go to in Romania has Mass in Romanian and Hungarian, and we can hardly understand a single word so it was awesome to at least be able to identify a couple of words that we knew :-)

Celebrating after the win

Team picture

At our victory dinner posing with the CEWL Cup

We played a home game a couple of weeks ago against Satu Mare, and some of our teammates helped to organize a Teddy Bear Toss before that game.  Fans were encouraged to bring stuffed animals to the game and then after the playing of the Romanian national anthem, everyone was instructed to throw their toys down towards half court.  It was a big success!  Those stuffed animals will be given to children in Arad at hospitals, orphanages, and places like that.  The day after the game, Tina, Chrissy, Suzana, and I were invited to visit a center in Arad for people with some sort of mental disability like Down Syndrome or Autism.  

This is a picture of me and my new friend, Vlad

I (Jen) have been enjoying trying out some new recipes lately - especially healthy recipes.  I found a healthy pancake recipe on Pinterest that uses wheat flour, Greek yogurt, an egg, and a few other things.  Tina was a little skeptical when I first offered her some because she doesn't typically like her sweets to be "healthy," but when she tried them, she loved them.  I have made them for a few other teammates, and they have been a hit!

End of January Update

Hey!

We just wanted to write a little update since it's been about a week and a half.  There's not a whole lot new to write about, but we figured we better get back into the habit of blogging or else there's a good chance that we might have a repeat of some of the past years where we just stop blogging in the second half of the season :-)

So, that being said, we have officially been back for 3 weeks now.  Games have been going well so far in this part of the season.  We only have one more game in January, and then in February, we will have a ton of games including the Final Fours of the Romanian Cup and the Central European Cup.

Last week, we got an unexpected snow storm (well, at least I didn't expect it).  It was funny because the few days leading up to it had been really nice weather.  Kari and I were actually talking one night after practice about how surprisingly warm it had been in January and how it seemed like maybe we weren't going to get any more snow since it was almost February.  We went to sleep that night and woke up the next morning to snow everywhere!  Hahaha...what do we know? :-)  Thankfully, it melted the next day :-)

We found out today that we have this coming Sunday off and possibly Monday so there's a chance that Jen and I might try to plan a little excursion.  It's really short notice, and not a whole lot of time so we'll see what we can come up with :-)  We hope everyone is having a great week!

~Jen and Tina

Waiting for the tram after practice

They love Romania :-)

Kari running to catch the tram.  When we are waiting for the tram after practice, there are two different trams that come by - number 7 or number 18.  Number 7 takes us straight to where we live.  Number 18 takes a turn towards the center of the city, but it's possible to get off and walk to another stop and wait for a tram there.  At this stop, there are more trams that come by so it's possible that it might be faster to take number 18 and then catch 3 or 6.  It's a gamble.  Kari decided to take her chances, but this time number 7 was the better choice.  Jen tried to stall the tram for her by keeping the doors open, and she managed to get a picture  of Kari in action :-)  It's normally not a big deal to run to the tram, but with those snowy/icy sidewalks, it's a bit risky :-)

Kari carrying Jen across a slushy puddle :-)  What a good teammate!