Updates

•  Camp ended well. Overall it was good to have that to start with rather than going straight into practice. I know it for sure helped my body and mind adjust from the jetlag and it also allowed us all, especially the new girls, to get to know each other a little better away from basketball. And even though I didn’t have internet and was basically cut off from my world back home for my first week, being back with team and all their families reminded me how much I love my “other” family here. :)

• Back to Kaunas…. I have a SWEET apartment here now! It’s a 3 bedroom that Courtnay and I will share. It’s entirely too big for what we need but we’re excited to have the upgrade, to live like college roomies and to use all our space to entertain. :) The only negative is that it doesn’t have very good internet yet so it’s hard to upload a lot pictures. So I'm only posting a few now but will hopefully get more on soon. :) I also got an upgraded car from last year. For the first time in my life I’m driving a car proportional to my size! Lol. It’s a Chevy SUV that was brand new when they gave it to me so that was pretty cool. However, I was told that they’d be trading it out for something not as new, but right now I’m enjoying driving it.

Living room downstairs

Finally a big girl car!! Lol :)
•   Failed physical. Well, only part. It was the exact same stuff as last year (including the crazy alien abduction-like suction cups all over my body as the heart monitor). Overall I passed with flying colors, having the “heart of an athlete” and all that jazz. But I once again failed miserably at the Biodex knee strength test. It’s kind of funny because when I failed this same test at the beginning of last season they thought there was no way that I would be able to play the full season. And I did; and here I am back for more. So it’s kind of cool that (by the grace of God) I’m defying the odds. :) Lol.

• Real practices have started along with a few “friendly” games. (and again, “friendly games” is the term the use for scrimmages/exhibition games). We’re on a pretty grueling pre-season schedule right now of 2 practices every day of the week except only 1 on Wednesday and Sundays off. My body’s a little beaten down, but overall it’s just so nice to get back to playing for real. Summer pick up games are great but it’s nice now to be putting in work with a purpose,  getting ready for the season.

A promotional friendly game we had against a men's team of our Vici sponsors
•  Fab….2? Yes, one of my Fab 5-ers has now joined me! Lina is now back with the team and it has been great having such a close friend here again. She actually surprised me at the physical and we had a big, public obnoxious reunion. :) It’s been great catching up with her again and we’ve picked up right where we’ve left off, already seeing 2 movies together and going out for countless dinners. I’m so happy to have her back and now we’re just waiting for Courtnay (who gets here officially on Oct 6)!!

In related news….

                There have also been exciting things happening back home that can’t go without mention!

1.)    My cousin Andy and his wife Rhea welcomed a new addition to the family with the birth of their daughter Ella Lou on August 31. She is so adorable and I absolutely cannot wait to meet her when I get home for Christmas!!! So congrats to Andy and Rhea and all the Sax’s who have another little one to spoil along with Dalton! :)

2.)    One of my all time favorite coaches (and people!), Stephanie Rich got married this past weekend! Steph was my assistant coach at SLU for my last 3 years and is one of those special people you meet in your life that leave an indelible impression. I could not be happier that she found Tony to spend the rest of her life with. (and here’s a cool video/song that their friend put together telling their own little love story :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0pcukTB7eo )

One of the negative aspects of my “career choice” is that I have to miss big events like this at home, but it doesn’t make me any less happier for my loved ones!! I just have to make sure to give them some extra hugs when I finally get home. :) So congrats to the Sax’s and Dacey’s!!

Tuesday Camp

I surprisingly wasn’t extremely jet lagged this first morning and luckily for me I would be eased into workouts since we were starting with only yoga in the morning. Unlucky for me, this yoga sucked. Apparently we were going to be doing this for a few days so this first day was only an intro about concentration, breathing, your mentality, etc. And what does that mean? All talking. Not too great when I don’t understand the language. Rima was kind enough to translate for the majority of it but it lasted 3 HOURS. At least there were 2 other non-Lithuanian speakers in our group, but I think I can speak for Aija and Tanya when I say that we wanted to poke ourselves in the eye with a sharp object for the majority of the time. (Oh that’s NOT what I should be thinking about during a lecture about relaxation? Oops, guess I’m no good at yoga...Too bad.)

After all that madness we had lunch and then some down time in the afternoon, which was perfect timing for a much needed nap. At 5 we had legit workouts and I’m happy to say that all things considered, it wasn’t too bad. Our strength coach, Marius, apparently sat in on some of the LT men’s national team workouts and got some new ideas for us to do. This was exciting because when it comes to training, it’s always nice to have a variety of things to do. Our workout took place in a little soccer field near the cabins and the best/worst part about it was that right over the ridge next to us was the beach and the sea. It was awesome because how often can you say that your workouts are in a field where you have the sounds and smells of the sea around you. It’s pretty surreal to think that THAT’S my job. :) However, I also say that this was the worst part about it also, because the whole time I was busting my butt and sweating like a dog, I kept being teased by the amazing sounds of the calming ocean. All I wanted to do was go jump in! Well after a mildly intense workout (intense for Europe, not for America) my dream came true! Right after we got done we all headed to the beach and stripped down to our skivvies (spandex and sports bras) and ran into the sea! Although it was a little cold, it felt so refreshing and was so much fun to hang out there, wading around and jumping into the oncoming waves. Again, this is my “job”? Awesome.

After another yummy team dinner cooked by Justas (yes, he cooks too! I’m telling you the man does EVERYTHING for us!), Marina and a friend came back to visit and this time the 3 of us and Vita walked down to the beach, also accompanied by Justas and Migle’s dog, Pira. We hung out down there a little bit, taking in the sunset, and then came back to the cabins to drop Pira off. We also picked up Tanya and Aija, and met Mante and Santa as we took a walk into the town of Sventoji. Like I said, it’s a little touristy summer town so the main road is full of booths for food, souvenirs, games, etc.  We all had fun just strolling around, and yes even played some games. If you remember during our Belarus trip this spring Marina and I got into some heated battles on the war game Call of Duty for XBOX. So of course when we saw a little shooting gallery booth we had to challenge each other. We each had a little pellet gun and about 10 bullets to shoot at various targets of metal cans. After going shot for shot and keep score, I was up for the entire game (and of course rubbing it in a little :) ). However, when we had only one shot left each I was only up by 1 and Marina had the bright idea of making the last shot worth 2 points if you could hit one of the moving targets that was going by. I accepted this on the thought that neither of us would hit it and I would still win. But, after missing my shot, wouldn’t you know that she hit hers and the gloating ensued for the rest of the night. Still, it was fun to continue our competition and it was pretty good entertainment for our whole group.

We all strolled up and down the street a little more, and I have to say, after having snow on the ground for about 75% of my time here last year, it was nice to be out and about in nice summer evening weather. This is the kind of Lithuania I could get used to!

Cabins

Where we sat for 3 hours of yoga talk

 (i'm just out of the pic to the right)

In the Baltic Sea after workouts!

So pretty there!!

Kur amandito?

Going into training camp I knew a few things-

-I was going to be the only member of the Fab 5 there. Like I said, Marina and Giedre both are going to different teams in France, and then Courtnay and Lina are playing for other teams right now but will be coming later. Lina is playing in the World University Games in China but will be here the end of August while Courtnay is playing with the Canadian National Team right now, preparing for the Olympic Qualifiers, and will get to LT at the beginning of October (unless I can persuade her to leave her team and come join me sooner! Haha. Probably not, but GO CANADA!).

-Head coach Mantas is helping with the LT men’s National Team and will be back around the end of next month I think. Jurga (asst coach), Marius (strength coach), Justas (director of bball ops) and Migle (trainer) would all be there along with a new assistant coach, Aurimas.

-Other familiar faces from last year’s team would be Vita, Milda and Rima, while I also sort of knew the 2 new Lithuanian girls coming to our team, Mante and Santa. They were on other teams from the Lithuanian League so we played them about 4 times each.

-The 2 other new girls were from Belarus and Latvia. Tatsiana was from Belarus and I knew her as a very good scoring guard that we played last year in the Baltic League.  Aija was from Latvia and after my initial Google-ing I learned that she played a few years at Colorado so I was banking on her being able to speak pretty good English.

-And this I didn’t find out til I got to camp actually, but my first week in LT was going to be internet-free since there was no connection out in the cabins. As much as this sucks as far as communicating with everyone back home, I think it will end up being better for team camaraderie since otherwise I would be on my computer all day. :)

When Justas and I (and Nida) finally arrived at camp the other girls were in workouts so he showed me to my cabin to get set up. Sventoji is a small town near the sea that apparently is a big touristy place in the summer. The campgrounds we’re staying at are so nice, with little cabins scattered about and then a main meeting hall where we eat our meals at. Since there is an odd number and I was last to get here, I lucked out and got my own little cabin to myself while all the other have 2 girls each to them. About 5 minutes after Justas showed me to my cabin I heard a familiar voice outside my window saying “kur amandito?” which means “where’s Amanda?” I came out to find Vita, Milda and Mante walking towards me and was greeted by big hugs all around. Following behind them with hugs was Jurga and Rima and then introductions with Aija and Tatsiana. And finally I heard the familiar caring call of “Amaaaanda” and was greeted with a long hug and kiss from my little Migle. They were all so excited to see me and obviously the feeling was mutual. The one thing I realized this summer is that now no matter where I go, I’ll always be missing someone. When I’m here in Lithuania I of course miss my family like crazy, but even when I finally got to go home and see them this summer, I was now missing all my Vici/Lithuanian family. So although the missing and the goodbyes always suck, I can never complain about having TOO many people that I care about. :)

After all of the welcoming hugs, the girls went off to shower before dinner so I unpacked what little clothes I had in my carry on. Then a few minutes later Marina came barging into my cabin. It’s funny because she already knew last spring that she wouldn’t be returning to Vici, so when we said goodbye when I left LT in the spring there was a legitimate possibly that I might never see one of my good friends for the rest of my life (my heart sinks eve saying that). So although it sucks that I had to leave America so early this year, I did at least get to catch Marina before she left for France (unfortunately giedre left LT the day I got there). We spent a half hour or so catching up and then headed to have dinner with everyone else. Afterwards, Marina, Aija, Tanya (Tatsiana) and I walked down to the beach that’s conveniently about 100 feet from where we’re staying. Both Aija and Tanya speak very good English (which was a relief for me to find out) and I had a good time getting to know them a little bit. Also, Marina and I filled them in on all the background of Vici life and a little about all the players. This was kind of a surreal moment because if you remember from my blog way back when, it was about a year ago that Marina and Giedre had taken me on a walk in Durskininkai and filled me in on the whole team. Kinda cool to think that now I’m like a veteran with all the inside scoop. Boy, how things change in a year!

After our walk we came back and Marina hung out a little before going home. I watched a movie and then finally headed to bed. So after the long travel, my first day in Lithuania was filled with old friends, new friends and the comforting feeling of being back in my second home.

ROUND 2!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SUMMER 2011

In one word? AMAZING. Besides the overall awesomeness of my job, one of the perks is that I had the summer technically “off”. I got home April 30 and had until mid August to pretty much live it up. As a disclaimer, no I didn’t sit on my butt all summer and drink beer by the pool (at least not for the majority of it). Since my job is physically demanding I was committed to staying in shape and working on my game which I am proud to say that I did religiously. I joined a great gym right by my house (shout out to Planet Fitness….now can I get a discount for next summer?) and picked up a workout buddy in Kristy Rapps, my Fairview friend since kindergarten. I also was lucky enough to have 2 alma maters’ gyms to go back to for some workouts. I snuck into the still-deathly-hot-in-the-summer facilities of Belleville East High School a few times and got to go back to SLU and play pick up with my girls a couple times a week. This was helpful for the 5-on-5 competition and also great because I got to hang out with the team again and pretend like I was still a college hooper, just minus the 6am workouts the next day! :) (Ps- my girls are gonna be GOOD this year. You heard it here first. :) ). Overall I have to say that my workout regimen was a good one and makes me excited and confident to go back over as an improved version of myself!

Ok, enough about workout talk that I’m sure most of you don’t care about. Although I’ve always spent all summer working out, this one was a little different because I got to completely set my own schedule which allowed me to workout whenever I wanted to and pretty much do whatever else I wanted for the rest of the day. I helped coach 2 basketball camps this summer- the always passionate Shimmy Gray-Miller camp at SLU and also the Belleville East summer camp. I also ended up helping out with the East girls at a few more open gyms throughout the summer and had a great time sharing my bball knowledge and working with a great staff and fun group of girls! Now I just hope everything I taught those posts players stays with them throughout the season as they fight for a trip to state! :)

One of my fave SLU campers!!

After being away from family and friends for 8 months and only communicating via internet, it was my mission for the summer to take advantage of my flexible schedule and visit with as many people as possible. Well, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! My first vacation was one that had been years in the making, a pact made with my college roommates, Katie and Liv, that we would one day go on a vacation together on our own terms, minus our SLU travel sweats and bed check times. We settled on a trip to Riviera Maya, Mexico and had the time of our lives at an all-inclusive resort. Sleeping in, laying out by the ocean and pool, eating and drinking anything we wanted at will, and overall mostly non-stop laughs… our “Mexication” was a definite success! It was so great to reconnect with 2 of my closest college friends and it was a huge kickoff to what we want to be an annual roommate reunion vacation. And contrary to popular belief, it only slightly resembled an excursion worthy to be dubbed the Hangover 3- we did all make it back in one piece! :)

*~AKL4LYFE~*

My next vacay was a short getaway with my often-mistaken-as-my-sister-BFF Tyler. Ty’s family has a lakehouse out in the mountains of North Carolina that her and I stayed at for 5 days. This wasn’t as wild of a vacation as Mexico, but it was a trip that was both amazingly relaxing and also jam packed with adventure. We spent a lot of time sunbathing, floating or reading outside, but also managed to go swimming, canoeing, boating, tubing, hiking, running and even white water rafting! Although the rapids weren’t life-threatening it was still something I’d always wanted to do and it thoroughly fulfilled my wishes. More than the activities themselves, it was great to do all this stuff with my adventure partner, Ty, and to just spend time hanging out with her (and her fun extended family) at a destination that I’d consider pretty close to heaven.

Before our rafting excursion!

Not more than a week after being home from N.C., I was off for yet another vacation! This time, Dad, Mom, Kate, her boyfriend Joe, Aunt Cheryl, Uncle Tom and I spent a week at the Sax’s condo in Destin, Florida.

As you can imagine our family vacations are always filled with fun times, crazy stories and lots of laughter. This one definitely held up to that standard! It was extra exciting because it was Joe’s first Kemezys vacation! Also, any vacay with T-Bone and Shirley (Uncle Tom and Aunt Cheryl) is always an adventure! As expected, the majority of our days were spent sunbathing on the beach or venturing out to wade in the ocean. But no worries, there was excitement involved in that too. First we learned that Joe has an extremely keen eye as he ended up finding 4 pairs of abandoned sunglasses in the middle of the ocean! One pair of oakleys, some raybans, and one pair that unbelievably was the pair that Kate had lost out in the ocean the day before! Also, the boys had a minor animal sighting one day when they were pretty far out. The story has of course gotten more elaborate with each telling, and if you ask Dad he’ll tell you that it was a great white that skimmed right past him. However, Joe and T-bone claim that while it was a really large shadow of an animal it might have more likely been a manatee or something. Still, a good story! But I have to say that the biggest adventure came on the last day when we all (to my persuading) went on a jet ski tour. Yep, all of us. Kate and Joe on one boat, T-Bone and Shirley together, Dad on one and one with me and Mom together on what proved to be the ride of her life. Although this was my first time jetskiing (mark it off the bucket list!), I think it was more the choppy waves than my driving that made Mom almost get down and kiss the ground when we finally reached land! Haha. Besides our ski’s over-excitement we all had a good time on the tour, capped off by the time our guide directed us to an area to see some dolphins. In fact, we stopped our boats and I even hopped off and swam with them out in the wild! So cool! That however was the end of the good excitement. When we got back to the dock Dad ended up slipping getting out, cutting a huge gash in his pinky toe (which as we all know, according to Kramer, is the most important! Lol.). It resulted in him and Mom spending the evening in the ER and 5 stitches for the big guy. He’s finally all healed up today but it was an excitingly gruesome way to end the trip! But like we all said- luckily it was on the last day and not the first. The whole week was a blast, telling funny family memories or stories, or just enjoying the beautiful sunny weather and each other’s company.

Our whole crew at Ballyhoo restuarant

(also the place of Linz and Darren's rehearsal dinner last summer!)

Our awesome sand castle!

Kemezys Christmas card pic!

A few weeks later was my birthday where I turned *gasp* 24 (which as all my fellow athletes know is really like 87 in basketball years…kinda like dog years). But it turned out being a great week spent with family and friends. My favorite Canadian, Courtnay, even made the trip in for the week to celebrate! After spending 8 months in Lithuania together sharing all our life stories, it was so fun to show her around my neck of the woods and introduce her to all the people she’d always heard so much about! She got to experience Dandy Inn, indulge in Taco Tuesday at Sax’s store, get the requisite tour of M-town, see Busch Stadium, go up in the Arch, go to the zoo, play pick up with my SLU girls, eat Chipotle, swim at Aunt Marlene’s pool and take in some of the STL nightlife. All in all a great week, right?! So doing all that made my birthday week extra special, highlighted by the actual day of my birthday where I had dinner with my closest friends and fam and then went to the midnight premiere of the final Harry Potter with my cousin Maria!!! And yes, we stood in line for 3 hours and of course made shirts for the occasion. Hey, you only turn 24 once right? Might as well do it big! :)

Courtnay and I continuing our awesome picture taking in STL!

(copyright Katie Kemezys photography ;) )

Friends out for my bday!

Ready for HP DHP2!!

 

My next and last vacation was a trip Kate and I took to go see Linz up at school. She’s in grad school at Purdue Calumet, about an hour outside Chicago. It was the perfect mix of a weekend as we spent all day Saturday downtown (even getting to stop and have lunch with my Chicagoan friend KTM!), and then had a low key Sunday going to church, watching movies and just having some good old fashioned girls times. With our spread out living arrangements and busy schedules these days, it was great for us to hang out just like the old times. I’m so glad I could finally visit her and spend some much needed time together! :)

Kate, Linz and I in Chi Town!

 

So, in a nutshell, that was my summer. :) I obviously only hit the big points but there were also tons of other great times including some Penny Pitchers nights at Humphreys with the one and only Lacey Shalenko; lots of dinners and sleepovers with Mal; countless movie nights at the Wambolds (and playdates with Dalton!); a stellar Mascoutah Homecoming weekend; a surprisingly low key county fair excursion with the Poe-Nelson clan; and lots of quality family time. All in all, I don’t think “awesome” even sums it up. More like- PERFECT!

Every mile a memory... (Year 1 wrap up)

Staying true to my procrastinating style, yes I am just now writing a recap of my first year playing overseas.

If someone would have told me even a few years ago that I would have left home and lived in a foreign country for 8 months to play basketball I would have thought they were crazy. I had many coaches and other former players encourage me to look at the option of playing overseas, and however enticing it was, I could never wrap my mind around the idea of being away from home and my family and friends for so long. Uh uh. “Not for me” I told them. No thanks. No way.

But something in me changed the last 2 years of college. I can't technically put my finger on any one moment, but I can honestly attribute a lot of it to my tenure at SLU. Although I never had a winning record there, I truly believe that the experiences I went through, both good and bad, shaped me to be the person I am today, which includes the trait of being independent enough to go off and live in Europe all by myself. These personal traits were not solely created by me, but more from the fact that God surrounded me with some amazing people who allowed me to shape the kind of person that I wanted to be. So long story short (too late) I want to thank all those people- friends, teammates, teachers, coaches, and most importantly my unwavering family for being there for me, and each playing a significant role in allowing me to develop the strength to follow my dreams.

That said, if you read my blog at all this past year, I think it’s pretty obvious that I had an absolute blast! Going into this, I wasn't quite sure what to expect at all. The only references of playing overseas came from my good friend Tyler who played a year in Holland and from Monica Wright off of Love and Basketball. As much as I tried to hide it, the moment I left America last September was the most scared I'd ever been in my entire life. Keep in mind, this is the girl that went to college 20 minutes away from home, had never gone longer than 2 weeks without seeing her parents, and who has always dreamt of living in Mascoutah, Illinois for the rest of her life. As excited as I was for the new adventure, I was also terrified. I had no idea what to expect- would the language barrier be too much for me? Would I be able to hang playing professional basketball? What were my teammates gonna be like? Would I be able to cope with being away from home and family? And most importantly- Would this picky eater find anyyy kind of food I liked over there??

I had many initial culture shocking moments at first including navigating international flights by myself, some scary egg salad, questionable traffic laws, drinking milk from a bag, and of course the language barrier. I mean, knowing how to sing Happy Birthday in Lithuanian only got me so far... But from the moment I got there, I also had some calming sense of home. Growing up with a heavy Lithuanian influence in my dad’s side of the family, it was like all of that made sense to me now. Every elderly person over in Lithuania reminded me of my Mociute. :) And although the culture was very different, having ties to it made it that much more exciting. I wasn’t just learning about a new country and language for basketball’s sake, but also to be closer to my family roots.

It also helped that this huge life change wasn’t me going over to Europe on a whim, or on a post-college backpacking excursion. I had a team (and a job) waiting for me. The team was welcoming from the being. Once they got comfortable enough to speak their broken English to me and realized that I wouldn't make fun of them for it, I formed relationships with all the girls quickly. I soon had my other fellow North American, Courtnay, join me and from there the good times continued to roll.

Our season can definitely be considered a success. We had some big wins along the way. We weren't supposed to win a single game in Euroleague, yet the small but mighty Vici team ended up winning 4 games and just missing playoffs by a tiebreaker. It was awesome to not only get to play some of the top names in the women’s game but to also unexpectedly beat them. Being the underdogs made all those wins that much sweeter and always ended in huge celebrations of us hugging, dancing and jumping up and down. I even had my first dogpile after a buzzer beater! The feelings after those wins were some of the greatest emotional highs I’ve had playing.  They always reminded me why I love this game so much- the culmination of all your hard work paying off. We did have a few crushing loses in Euroleague too, but we dominated almost everything else, winning the Baltic League, Lithuanian League and DnB Cup championships. Our combined total record for the whole year was 35-6 meaning we won 85% of the time. Not too bad if I do say so. :) And after a slow start adjusting to a new level of game, I saw my minutes and production go up as my confidence did and I look forward to building on this for the next season.

Can you tell how happy I am?? :)

Although there were some trying times throughout basketball- like I said, some of those Euroleague games weren't just loses, but absolute thrashings- I still had fun playing with my team. Which brings me to the next part of my reason for such a great year- my team itself.

I know, I'm supposed to be a "professional" now and just worry about my performance and see basketball as my "job", but I can't help to still have a team mentality at any level and turn my teammates into best friends. My favorite teams I've ever been on in my life (8th grade, sophomore and senior year high school, my 2^nd, 4^th and 5^th year of college), were some of the most successful but were also the best because of the people on those teams. And the same goes for now. The girls on this team were never anything but welcoming and loving to me from the very beginning. And not just on the court, but I was lucky enough to make great friendships with them off the court as well. To me, it was one of those special teams where, yes there was some griping here and there (when is there not on female teams), but overall everyone meshed together well and got along. No matter what we were doing we always seemed to have a good time just because we were all together- yes, even on that 19 hour bus ride from Slovakia! :)

Apparent from previous blogs, my girls in the "fab 5"- Courtnay, Giedre, Marina and Lina- especially became great friends to me this past year. As the younger crew of the team, we all got along so well and had such good times together both at the gym and away from it. Although they have lived in Lithuania all their lives, there is such a heavy American influence that we shared in all the same pop culture gossip, TV shows and jokes. I mean, who knew that Bon Qui Qui is funny across all cultural barriers?! (Never heard of it? YoutTube it. Then laugh hysterically.) Courtnay and I obviously had a natural bond as the only North Americans, but that also grew into a close friendship that I was so happy to have (aka I would have died without her).  I can credit Marina, Giedre and Lina for taking me under their wing when I first got there and also showing me the ropes culturally- including where I can watch American TV and movies online for free and of course also teaching me the basics of Lithuanian language, predominantly all the bad words :) This was my “crew” over there and every minute we spent together turned into a great memory that I’ll always hold dear.

Yes, we're as much fun as we look :)

Being a few months removed from my rookie year, I look back on the whole experience as millions of great memories. After being scared to be away from family and friends, I ended up talking to at least one, if not ten people from back home every day. I’m not sure how people lived abroad before the internet, but I do know that I thank God every day for the inventors of email, Skype and Facebook (did I just thank God for Mark Zuckerburg? Weird...). With the constant support of tons of people from home, I had the experience of a lifetime playing basketball, travelling the world and hanging out with a great team. I still have to pinch myself now and then when I think that this is technically my job and that I am living out my dream of being a professional athlete (and yes, it’s still awkward for me to call myself that and yes, I purposely leave the “occupation” line blank on forms because its awkward).

If you’ve spoken with me at all about my experience (or followed this sparse blog of mine), I think it’s pretty easy to tell how much I loved it and how truly blessed I am to count that as an experience of a lifetime. I feel that I have grown immensely from it and I will always look back on that first year as one for the books…and for the blog :)

Dreams do come true.... :)

I love pictures

We were once again lucky enough to have a visitor here as Courtnay's best friend/college roommate, Jackie, came to visit. She played hockey in Austria this year and now has some down time in Europe so she decided to make the trek to Lithuania! It was only a short visit, but we had a good time, spreading the weekend out in Kaunas, Vilnius and Klaipeda. It was great to finally meet Jackie as I felt like I already knew her from Courtnay's stories, and it was even better because she has the same love of pictures that I do! :)

No this isn't photo-shopped. All bathrooms in malls have blue lighting. I know, weird!

Court and I at practice

Went to Bajorkeimis for dinner but stopped down by the river/woods behind it first for some photo ops.

Me on the left. Again, NOT photoshopped. I've developed a vertical in Lithuania!!! Haha. (Ok, maybe not...)

Jackie, Courtnay and I

Skippin rocks on the river. Always a country girl at heart! :)

Lithuanian national dish- cepellini. Tastes sooo much better than it looks. I'm gonna miss this!!

 

Indoor water park in Vilnius where slides go out the building and come back in. Awesome slides, jacuzzi and a swim-up bar-- LEGIT!

Excited I beat her in pop-a-shot (arcade basketball)! An yes, i get very competitive in arcade games! Haha.

Road trip to the Baltic Sea in Klaipeda!

I was so excited about the ferry you drive your car on. Just like in the movie Double Jeopardy!! Haha.

Good times on the ferry :)

Gettin ready to jump in the Baltic Sea!



Annnd it was FREEZING!!!!!
(As apparent by the ridiculous look on my face and my girly running style out of the water. Lol)



Just hanging at the Baltic Sea :)

Artsy ;)

Such a great visitor!!

Yep, this was the actual "bathroom". And yep, i used it.



Goofing around in Klaipeda