Dec. 8, 2008

Hi Everyone!

I thought I'd write up a little note letting people know what I am up to post-USF. Not only am I not in San Francisco anymore, I am not even in the US! I am playing basketball for Falcon Basketball Club in Copenhagen, Denmark. I took this summer off from work to just relax and work out and came over here at the end of August. I wanted to try playing overseas while I still can.

It is such a growing experience to live in another country. It has been really interesting to observe Europeans' attitude towards Americans and basketball. Soccer, handball (a different kind than ours), and badminton are the main sports in Denmark. Never in my life would I have guessed that badminton would rank before basketball! The style of play, including the rules about traveling, is a little different over here... lucky for me I don't really dribble, so traveling hasn't been a problem. Although if our guards are being pressed, I occasionally bring the ball up the court. Lisa, the point guard--watch out!

We play in the top league in Denmark, but there is also a single elimination tournament with games every couple weeks that goes on at the same time. We beat the five-time defending Danish champions in our first game. We also played a lower division team a couple weeks ago and won 136-19! It isn't considered rude here to run up the score, so we pressed the entire game. They were so honored we played against them that they served us champagne after the game. That doesn't happen too much back home! We have the semifinal for the cup tournament tomorrow and we expect to head on to the championship!

We are in third place in our league right now. Our regular season goes through February and then playoffs for the Danish national championship go through mid-May. Since the level of play here is lower, it is a bit hard to maintain my intensity level in practices. However, we just got another American from New York, so we're trying to raise the level and be overly vocal. As one of the two professionals on the team, I am expected to be more of an offensive producer than I am used to. I am adjusting to my new role on the team though and averaging about 14 points per game and 11 rebounds per game (not including the blowout game). I think my biggest impact is my defensive contribution because of my help defense, and I usually play the entire game.

My team has been extremely welcoming, and my coach is one of the most respected people in Denmark. He knows the game really well and is also good about asking some of us more experienced players for input. I think my team, coach, and all the people in my club are my favorite thing about being here. They made it really easy for me to transition from home to here. It probably helps that Danish people speak really good English. My coach does all his coaching in English and everyone speaks English on the court. They are used to it because most basketball terminology is in English anyway.

I could definitely get by in Copenhagen without speaking a word of Danish, but I really wanted to immerse myself in the lifestyle here. I am taking intensive Danish class three times a week. It's one of the hardest languages to learn, but I am working at it and can already understand much of what people say. All in all, I think being here is a really good experience for me. The difficult parts about being here is obviously being away from my friends and family, the rainy/cold weather, and having to bike everywhere in that weather! I didn't mind biking around in September when it was still nice outside, but now it's a bit more of a chore. I'm slowly getting used to it though and at least it helps out the environment. (I am an Oregonian, after all.)

The best experience I've had so far was the opportunity to travel to Rome for four days with our other American on a weekend we had a bye. We got really lucky with the weather and we had a ton of fun seeing the sights and eating good food!

Anyway, I hope everything back at home is going well and feel free to get my contact information from the athletic department if you have any questions or anything else. I am looking forward to going home for ten days around Christmas and I hope that you all have happy holidays as well!

Go Dons!

Lisa