The apartment is actually not bad, I share it with my teammate Vero (who did an awesome job decorating the living room btw). The location couldn't be more convenient, if you like shopping that is, as it sits right on top of the biggest mall in Galicia! That makes up for the time it takes to get to the gym I guess :) The view from my bedroom window could be a lot better though. The other place where I spend most of my time is of course the gym, or should I say the soccer field outside of it since we ran laps there every day the first 3 weeks of pre-season. I never liked running long distances, but we did have some fun a few times when for example the sprinklers came on and we had to keep going like nothing happened. I must be crazy for saying that I was extremely happy last week when we started doing sprints instead... Next weekend we have our first league game and coach Jacinto said that this is the last week with "a large volume" of training.
Even though the season hasn't officially started, we have already played a number of games against teams in our league and teams in the top league. This coming Saturday we match up against RC Celta Indepo who we lost to after a terrible first friendly game a few weeks ago. The winner will move on to the final of Copa Galicia and I have no doubt that we could be that team. I got used to winning gold medals last year playing in Switzerland so I don't see any reason not to keep doing that ;) After reading that Pio XII appearently is a league favorite this season my motivation is on top!
My team consists of both experienced and younger unexperienced players and I think we have a great balance of talent. During the first week here I realized just how "small" the basketball world is when one of our pg's Lidia told me she played in Switzerland some years ago. Turns out we are both ex-teammates with my very good friend Katia. I found another connection with Andrea, our center from Pittsburgh who in High School competed against two of the girls I played with at IPFW. How is that for a coincidence?!
I'm happy that I'm not the only one on my team that doesn't speak Spanish because I basically didn't know anything until I came here. I'm starting to understand what's going on in practice, and sometimes I even think that it's easier to follow what the head coach is explaining in Spanish than what the as coach is trying to translate to English for me. With a captain that speaks no English whatsoever communication can be a problem at times :-/ Andrea and I went on a mission last weekend to find some more English-speaking people. Preferably tall and hot basketball-playing boys... I'm not gonna go into more details about the result other than let's say: jackpot! I think that's a long enough first update, but I have more stories to tell so come back soon!
