Wowzer, I just flipped my calender from February to March and can hardly believe the velocity in which time is traveling. It is difficult to comprehend that I was home just 2 short months ago, and by Friday of this week my apartment will be full of 5 more sets of shoes, coats, suitcases, eyes...the whole shabang! Yes, the Knight clan is taking their first journey over the pond and arriving in the small, but tremendously beautiful country of Switzerland that I have come to know and love. Stay posted for more news on this grandiose occasion.
This past Monday I applied the white makeup, black eyeliner, blood-red lipstick and black cape for one final night of carnivale. The late nights of carnivale may have been wrapping up for me, but I still had one final day to celebrate as well, Tuesday. I woke up on Tuesday morning to a bright and glorious blue sky, the perfect day for a parade. The roads leading into downtown Chiasso were closed in the early hours of dawn and before I had even opened my eyes the people of Chiasso had plunged head first into making this years carnivale parade the best thus far. I arrived at the Moka Cafe around 1:45pm and was promptly given my outfit for the day. Now, not anyone can participate in the parade, you have to be a part of a group. Can you guess who had a group for me to join? Cinthia, of course! The theme of our group was Astronauts landing on the moon. Dunque (so) I slipped into a stylin, reddish jumpsuit complete with a helmet, tool belt, energy pack and oxygen tank! As we danced/strutted our stuff down main street, I helped to push part of our float. Once I heard the whistle I helped maneuver our piece of the float towards the other 3 pieces, once assembled two different people climbed up separate ladders and began to wave a flag symbolizing our arrival on the moon! At the sound of the next whistle we broke apart and continued on our way, dazzling the spectators as we strolled on by.
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| Me in my Astronaut outfit! |
The streets were lined with families and their rambunctious children, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the parade because it is the one time out of the year when they are free to spray their silly string and throw their confetti at whomever walks by, and not get in trouble for it. By the end of the parade I was covered from head to toe with all different colors of silly string and confetti! At the same time, however, those of us walking in the parade had secret stashes of confetti as well and I took no mercy on those who presumed to shower me with their shinanigans;) Once we had made it through the final stretch of road, Cinthia checked her phone. She had received a text message from Lucas saying that he saw the two of us on T.V! After our group was finished walking, Cinthia and I returned to the beginning and watched the many other groups that were still waiting their turn. The floats were quite impressive and there must have been several thousand people milling around main street.
The one moment, however, that I will not forget is when Cinthia and I were walking back to the start. Neither of us were wearing our costumes, we were just two innocent bystanders, but nonetheless this little girl must have recognized me and decided to douse me one last time. Out of nowhere this girl of about 10 years of age appears, cocks her throwing arm back and rifles forward a fist full of confetti. The confetti disperses through the air and hits me in the face, chest and stomach. As I stood in shock, Cinthia is doubled over to the right of me laughing uncontrollably! Looking back on the situation brings a smile to my face, but when I arrived at my house and was changing into my practice clothes, I was no longer smiling. I knew I had confetti on me, so before entering my apartment I made sure to brush off the remaining pieces. As I took off my zip-up sweatshirt, I had completely forgotten to shake out my hood. Well, serves me right. A cascade of confetti proceeded to fall out of my hood and cover my bedroom floor, luckily my vacuum was up for the challenge.
Later that night I found out that we had won first place for being the best group! A sum of money was given to our group to help us prepare for next years parade, and a certificate was also presented to the leader of the group.
Wednesday was a long day. We had a league cup game in Neuchatel, which is about a 5 hour bus ride from Chiasso and our game didn’t start until 8:30pm. Previous experiences against Neuchatel have left us losing by 50 or 40 pts. This game, however, proved to be a different story. At half-time Riva was leading 32-27, the question was whether or not we had enough steam left to seal the deal. Unfortunately our team was plagued with foul trouble and both Polona and Jess were charged with 5 fouls. The referees were making some down right horrible calls, which lead to 2 technical fouls for Aldo, and with 5 minutes left in the game he was asked to leave the gym. In all honesty, I don’t think that he did anything too absurd to have been given 2 technicals and then kicked out, I think that the referees were bound and determined to help Neuchatel win the game. Anyway, we lost the game by 14pts, quite an improvement if you ask me.
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| Back, Left to Right: Filippo (GM) Francesco (Pres), Samantha, Me, Marta, Jess, Judit, Aldo (coach), Giovanni (2nd coach), bottom: Polona, Nico, Noemi, Lisa and Julia. |
After returning late on Wednesday night, Aldo gave us (Polona, Jess and I) the day off on Thursday. Usually he puts the 3 of us through a workout on Thursday since there is no practice with the whole team. Instead of practicing I accompanied Cinthia and Lucas for lunch and then enjoyed a nice little field trip through Lucas’s childhood neighborhood and a special place where he and his siblings used to play. The special place was a cave that was located at the foot of some large rock formations. After venturing around the cave we continued on our walk and I got to see his old house. The streets of this neighborhood were very old and narrow. I would imagine that driving in and around these streets everyday would be somewhat of a hassle because you are bound to come across a car going in the opposite direction, and in this instant one of the two cars would have to drive in reverse as far back as possible until the road widens and the car can pass through.
Thursday night, I opted not to go to the special needs basketball practice but to attend my first movie in the Mendrisio cinema. I was planning on paying with my credit card since I had no cash and when hearing this Cinthia exclaimed “Leslie, we are in Mendrisio, not New York! You can’t pay with credit card here!” I found this comment quite amusing and soon found out that the cinema was not what I had pictured in my mind, there wasn’t even a stand for buying popcorn or sour patch kids:( The movie, however, was still great. I bet many of you have seen Slumdog Millionaire, and for those that haven’t, I highly recommend it. There were no subtitles, but with the actions in combination with the words, I was able to comprehend almost perfectly.
Saturday was another game day, this time our opponent was Fribourg. We were winning by 10pts at half time, but once again we came out in the 3rd quarter and let them right back into it. With 40 seconds left they were up by 2pts, 83-81. Polona was fouled and sent to the free-throw line where she calmly sank both shots. With 20 seconds left and the score tied, one of their best players was brining the ball up the floor. As the clock ticked down she began to make her move towards the basket, I helped for a second too long, she kicked the ball out to my player who had maybe missed 2 shots all game. I tried to recover in time, but it was too late. Her baseline jumper was already in the air as my hand rose to contest her shot. As my head turned to follow the shot my stomach sank as I saw the perfect “Cuff” of the ball. I ran to grab the ball, inbounded it to Viola, who then took a half court shot and missed. We lost 85-83. We still have a chance to be ranked 4th in the conference, but we have to win against Troistorrent this upcoming Sunday. Next weekend will be tough because we play Neuchatel again away, and the next day we play at Troistorrent.
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| An inside view of our gym. |
Today has been a relaxing day. I am very grateful to have friends like Cinthia and Lucas who invite me to spend time with their families. Spending time with people helps me to get my mind off of the loss and ease my frustration. Today I had the opportunity to spend time with 2 of Lucas’s sisters and 3 of his nephews. After spending several hours with them, Lucas and Cinthia came over to my apartment for “American Spaghetti.” I am quite proud to report that they thought it was “buono!” Now, when I say “American Spaghetti” I just mean that I used McCormicks seasoning mix and hamburger meat. My mom always makes her spaghetti sauce with this mix, so I thought I’d introduce it to them. Since we live so close to Italy there is a very strong italian influence where food is concerned, therefore I was a little nervous to see what they would think of my cooking, since the “best” pasta is found in Italy. At the end of the day, my American spaghetti passed the test;)
Before I go I want to shout out to 2 seniors, Emmy Fox and Kay Hill, who are playing in their last home game tomorrow in Williams Arena. Just have fun tomorrow and enjoy the day! GOOD LUCK!
Ciao tutti!
Love,
Leslie
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