Flashback: Summer 2010 part 2

After some very rain-filled days here in Santiago I'm happy to bring my thoughts back to the summer again. So, I was on my way back to Norway after a great vacation almost all over the states. This was the first week of June and I had a few days to get my sleeping on Norwegian time before the weekend, and the first practice with the national team. I was extremely excited to be back with the team and meet old and new teammates. It felt good to not be one of the youngest on the team anymore and it was good to see a lot of young promising players:) According to the tradition of weekend workouts with the national team we were able to look out at the sunny and warm weather from the inside of the gym...


The next couple weeks consisted mostly in basketball, working out and hanging with family and friends. I was also lucky to be invited to play with 3 of my girls in a street tournament!! Of course we became the queens of the Kuba-court and the price money wasn't bad at all :)

Switzerland was our opponent in a couple of exhibition games and I got to see my two teammates from Sierre; Katia and Alexia! (Hop Sierre/Helios!) We managed to win both games and I'm proud to say that Suisse is undefeated so far in the Eurobasket Division B. Then after another 10 hour workout-weekend in the end of June we got a break... well I didn't really take a break from basketball since I left for Tønsberg the next day. I had signed up for a coaching class at the famous "Basketskolen" basketball camp. It was fun going back, even though I'm too old to actually participate, and I got to see a lot of good friends and coaches again. I also liked hanging out with the kids and pretend I was a teenager again :) The best part was seeing my friend Erik again and show him that I'm still the better shooter :-P

My first all-star game as a coach:) 

Spis!

Back in Oslo the following weekend the triple T's (Tina, Torunn and Tori)  were ready for a night out!! I love Oslo in the summer! But not the pouring rain that starts right while you're waiting for the night bus to take you home... I don't know why I decided to get a job this summer too, but I did work as a mailman for a few weeks (and yes I drove the the little red car around on my route :-P ). The money is great, yea that's about the only reason I woke up at 6 am to work with hopeless people and walk around in the rain for hours... I'm happy now though as it paid for my new laptop and some other things I'm sure I could live without.
In the middle of July it was time to meet up with my Norway teammates again for some friendly games against Luxembourg. We got away with two wins again, but it wasn't pretty as it looked more like a wrestling match than a friendly game of basketball at some points. It was nice to see another player from the swiss league on the court though! (Good luck this season Laure, and hop Elfic Fribourg!)
The last preparation we did for the Eurobasket Division B games was a trip to Estonia to match up against another team in the other group. After a really close second game that we won in OT team Norway was undefeated and ready for the part of the season that really mattered! I hate to remind my teammates of the first game in Coimbra facing Portugal, but I think we all learned something from that loss. Moving  on to the next and a much better effort against Sweden later in the week... We were unable to hold on to an early lead, but at least there was no shame in the performance we put on that night. We kept our heads up before the final game facing Slovenia, but disappointed we left the game being outscored by a team that I think shot over 50%  from the 3pt line. The games didn't go as I had expected, but thankfully it's not over yet and we get 3 more chances in May! (For dere som kan norsk, her er link til Landslagsloggene fra i sommer: Landslagslogg)

One season ends and another begins... but not yet! I had already signed my contract with my new team in Spain earlier in the summer and I was just waiting to find out when they wanted me to fly down. I made the most of the last time I had at home. The summer had been the best in a long time and it was prefect to get the feeling that it was time to move on to something new as my birthday and last Saturday in Norway was approaching. And what a way to end it! My best friend Kristina and I wanted to celebrate our birthdays together and invited a ton of people to party with us. More than just a few showed up and now I know how fun birthdays are supposed to be!!