New Roommate!

Good morning to all of you in the states!

You will all be pleased to know that I have turned into quite the capable manual driver! Today I was stopped on a hill, but I smoothly let out the clutch gave it some gas and off I went! ha, if you can't tell I was pretty proud of myself;) I now feel comfortable driving to practice, to the mall, to the fitness center and "downtown." It is a really nice feeling because I am actually starting to feel at home here. This morning my new roommate and I went to a Yoga class and afterwards we participated in a half hour abdominal circuit. The classes at this health club are going really well, but I think that I would benefit more if I understood the language. At the end of the yoga class we lay down and relax every part of our body (or at least that is what I think we are supposed to be doing) and I just think that if I knew what the instructor was saying that I would get more out of the experience, but oh well. Today we actually met a woman who was born in Toronto, Canada (I told her about you Neesh!) and she has been living in Switzerland for 25 years!

So, my American roommate, Keisha Moore, arrived and she is just GREAT! She is from Merino Valley, CA which is about an hour away from L.A., and went to school at Washington State which is where my mom went to school! She graduated college in 2006 and actually played at Williams arena for the subway classic tournament. CRAZY. Anyway, she is a 6 foot 2 post player and she is quite fashionable. She has these fabulous looking high heels and they fit me perfectly! ha;) She has played in Solvenia and Lithuania so she is quite the seasoned traveler. When she showed up I was hanging out in her room talking to her while she was unpacking and this girl brought all the food in her cabinets from back home, no joke. She had peanut butter, cream of wheat, granola bars, syrup, pancake mix, every vitamin you would ever need, corn bread mix, big containers of powerade mix and plenty of other things! I think I am going to enjoy living with her.

This past weekend we went to a mountain where we stayed overnight in this nice retreat type building with bunk-beds and a nice big dining room. I was playing my coach, Fabio, in a game of foosball and he said "For an American you are actually good at foosball. What's going on!?" haha, I guess all europeans think that all americans don't enjoy soccer, but I showed him! I did end up losing however:( We had our first scrimmage on Sunday and I had to laugh because the team we played was the exact same team that the Gopher women's team played when I went and watched their game! As a team we played pretty well, especially since none of us have ever played together. I played decent, but the referees call things a little bit differently here. The biggest difference is that when I dribble I have to put the ball down immediately or else it is a travel.
One thing that I REALLY enjoyed about the trip was that practically every one of my teammates brought some sort of chocolate! Ha, Swiss chocolate is incredibly delicious and everyone over here is constantly eating it and more importantly they are sharing it with me!

Me and Fabio, my coach.

We have another scrimmage on Wednesday in Como, Italy and then hopefully another one on Saturday in Milan, Italy. Well, that's about all for right now. I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Love, Leslie