Classics?

So, do you want the good news or the bad news first?  Ok, I’ll give you the bad news, but only because you asked for it;)

Perhaps I should start writing these e-mails as the week progresses instead of writing everything on a Sunday or Monday.  Why? because if we play on Sunday and we lose, my demeanor isn’t always the most cheerful and as a result the weekly e-mail takes the brunt of my bad mood.  

So, if you haven’t guessed already, we lost this weekend.  We had two games, Sierre on Saturday and Neuchatel on Sunday.  These two teams are ranked numbers 1 and 2 in our conference.  We usually wouldn’t play two games back to back, but our game against Neuchatel wasn’t a regular conference game, it was the semi-final game of the Swiss Cup.  Saturday’s game vs. Sierre was actually pretty close, we only ended up losing by about 6pts.  Which, if I was them I would have been frustrated because they practice twice a day, everyday and we only practice 3 times per week.  If I was them, I would expect to beat a team like ours by at least 20.  I am trying to look at this from a positive perspective and the conclusion that I’ve drawn is that my team must be improving!  With Aldo at the helm of our team improving is inevitable.  On the other hand, Sunday’s game was not so pretty.  We kept it close during the 3rd quarter, only trailing by about 6pts, but then we lost our grasp and the flood gates opened in their favor, increasing to a 20pt lead.  Unfortunately, I had a run in with food poisoning on Friday night so Saturday and Sunday’s games weren’t too enjoyable for me.  

Alright onto the good news, this past week was pretty normal, except that the weather was absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!  No rain or clouds to damper the mood.  The wind was pretty strong which made it a lot colder, but that didn’t stop me from taking in some vitamin D.  On Monday I bundled up in a pair of sweats and my fleece jacket, grabbed my book and set up camp on my balcony, in direct line with the soul defrosting sunshine.  I only had about 10 pages left in my book, so the rest of the time that I perched out there was spent admiring my surroundings.  After 6 months of living here I am still in awe of the stunning scenery that makes up my world, 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  As I sit on my balcony, this is what I see...mountains rising and falling across the horizon, baby blue skies with wisps of clouds, green evergreens and other lush vegetation, small communities in the distance, clustered together on the mountain’s slopes, I see the train not even 100 yards from my balcony going back and forth, back and forth, sometimes carrying passengers and other times carrying lumber, I see the cyclists zoom on by followed by the young kids and their tiny mopeds and bringing up the rear are the elders on their bicycles as well and lastly I see my neighbor sweeping off her patio and taking care of her manicured lawn.  

View of the railroad tracks from my balcony.

View from the other balcony.

On Tuesday, Cinthia and I took a field trip to the local library.  Now, the library was not very large, but I was quite impressed with the number of English books that they carried.  The one difference, however, was that these English books were not very modern, most of them were classics.  So, I have a favor to ask all of you...what are some of your favorite classic reads?  I have read the Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies, To Kill A Mockingbird and so forth, but there were many that I had never heard of.  So, any suggestions that you all might have will be greatly appreciated!

Wednesday night we celebrated the birthday of Dejan Lukovic, one of the men’s players.  Dejan had everyone over to his apartment and once again he prepared dozens upon dozens of crepes for everyone.  Crepes with nutella are so wonderfully delicious, it really boggles my mind that we don’t eat them more in the U.S.  I know that if you go to The Original Pancake House you can order crepes, but what about crepe stands in the malls? I swear they are just as good as Auntie Annie’s Pretzels.  

Dejan, he's from Serbia.

Special Needs basketball practice was fun as always on Thursday night.  We split up into groups and I had the opportunity to work with 4 players who happen to be the most capable basketball players out of the whole group.  I had them cutting, catching and shooting, dribbling off my screens, catching taking one dribble and pulling up, it was great!  I think that they really enjoyed a bit more of a challenge and it was extremely rewarding to see them succeed in the drills.  

Two random thoughts...

You will hardly ever see anyone in Switzerland driving while talking on their cell phone.  Why? Because practically every car here is a stick shift.

If you are in Switzerland and have a craving for baby carrots, you are out of luck!  They do not sell baby carrots here, only the big ones that you have to peel yourself.   

Well, that about sums up my week.  Oh, and some of you were wondering if they celebrate Valentines day over here.  Yes, they do, but many people view it as commercial money maker and do not celebrate it.  I don’t think that any of my teammates gave out valentines and nobody even brought chocolate to our game on Saturday which seems absolutely CRAZY!  I mean, we are in Switzerland, right?!

Signing off for now, congrats to the girls and their buzzer beater against Michigan!!!

love,

Leslie