First win, and a birthday!

Soo its been a little time since I have updated, but somehow this year I feel like I have much less time then I did last year…. I’m sure I am just getting lazy, but I finally have gotten round to writing this blog.

So let me tell you about what I have been doing since I last wrote…. We have had two more euroelague games…one which we went to Russia and lost, and another one last week at home that we WON!

So let me start with the Russia trip…it was an awful trip, as we left around 3pm the day before our game, and arrived in Russia the morning of our game around 8 am. We had a four hour time difference to deal with, and we also had to fly overnight. Needless to say I’ve never had to do that kind of travelling before a game in my life…  We played Candace Parker’s team and came out flat and stayed that way… and lost by 30. Not much else to say about the game.. it was ugly.

Here are two photos from our walk when we were in Russia:

After this game.. our fourth straight loss the mood was obviously down, but we had a solid Lithuanian game that weekend and then we all got together to celebrate one of our team-mates birthday (Vaida). I think this helped us all bond together, and get our minds off basketball for a bit.

The party was of course held at our house since its massive, and everyone on the team came out including our trainer! Here are some pictures of the party!

 The cake... Yes it was a Barbie theme party...

 Our lovely sign for the b-day girl

 Jello shots in the form of the Lithuanian flag! (big hit)

 Part of the decorations... it took a long time to decorate our big house!

 Amanda, me, and Mante (new roomie)

 Vaida, Mante, me, and Amanda

Almost the whole team together!!

So we all came the next week ready to get our first euroleague win! We were playing at home, and against a team that only had 1 win so far. We knew that if we played well we could win. Lucky for us we came out shooting the ball really well and gained a lead right away and never looked back. Of course there was lots to fix, but we finally got our first win and it could not feel any better!!!

Here are some photos from the game, and from our last Lithuanian game:

 My supposed foul.. I still believe I got all ball :)

 Amanda and I defending a screen and roll.

 In our Euroleague game.. I did not make the shot, but the photo still looks cool!

A random action shot.

We are off to Poland this week for another Euroleague game, and have another Lithuanian game as well... I am hoping we have the same kind of week we just had: two wins.

That's all for now,

Courtnay

another week gone by..

Another week has flown by here in Lithuania! We had a euroleague game in Spain, so we had some more flights and long travel days… The game did not go well at all for us. The team cohesion is just not where it should be, so hopefully we will clean that up before our next game.

Spain is an amazing country, and I really would love to play there someday.  We were able to walk around the hotel area and enjoy the weather a bit. Walking around in shorts and a shirt in October is always nice.

Here are some photos from out travel, as we flew through London on the way there and Italy on the way back!

 Krispy Kreme donuts for the team!

They had a London 2012 store... didnt buy anything because I will be there in the summer

Only in Italy would they have pizza's in a vending machine... made fresh!

I am looking forward to being in Lithuania for a whole week without travelling on a plane! I have seen too many of them the past two weeks. We play Prague this week at home… our first home game, and I think we will all come out with something to prove.

So I promised some more photos from my lovely house in Lithuanian, so here they are!

 Once I arrived.. our kitchen and dinning area

 The sign I walked into once I entered the house..

 our small tv and fireplace

Upstairs.. my room (before I set anything up)

We also had out lovely photo shoot this week, where we had the entire hair and makeup done for us again, although this year was not as bad as last year.. and we had our photo shoot in a car dealership, so the pictures should be interesting.. (they will be posted when I get them).

 Our team photo- Vici Aistes 2011-2012

My head shot... number 13 this year.

Well that is all for me now.. Hope all is well back across the ocean!

Courtnay

Whirlwind....

Soo its been a crazy two weeks or so since I last updated… So I will do my best to recap it all!

Olympic Qualifiers: so we rebounded and won the bronze medal against Cuba, which means we will go to the world Olympic Qualifier in June! There are 12 teams and the top 5 will get the bid to London. It was very disappointing to not get the bid in Columbia, but I am happy with how our team played and cant wait to get back with team Canada and accomplish our goal.

 me versus Jamaica 

 family...

 team Canada 2011

2 days home: I flew back from Columbia and then had about two days home before I flew back to Lithuania. Let me tell you.. those two days were packed full!!! I had already packed a bit prior to leaving, so I had to do some laundry and pack the rest of my stuff. It is soo hard to pack all your life into two bags… and only 50lbs each.

I also saw my family and friends for the last time till Christmas. This never gets easy, always leaving the people you care about the most gets tough, but I had such support from them, that I always feel like they are with me wherever I go. Some highlights of my few days home were a last family meal at my dads (steak was of course served) ,Wings and drinks with friends while watching football (doesn’t  get better then that), sleepover at Jenny’s (just like my childhood), and going back to my high school.

Back to Lithuania: So I started my trip back to Lithuania, I went to Toronto, then Poland, then Lithuania. It was about a 16 hour trip in total, and overall was not to bad.. although I wish I slept a little more on the planes. I was greeted with our team manager/guy who helps us with everything. We were then off to figure out my Lithuanian citizenship, and passport. I am proud to say that I now am a citizen of Lithuania!

I finally arrived at my new.. AMAZING apartment I share with the American and my good friend Amanda.  It is a step above from my apartment from last year, and even has an extra room for visitors (so come visit)! I had signs all over the house waiting for me, telling me all the great features of the house.

A gift from Amanda at our house.. (more pics to come)

My team was already in Turkey, so I spent my first night in the house alone, and packing to go to Turkey the next day.. another 17 hour travel day……

Turkey: I finally got to Turkey the next day around 11:30 pm, and was reunited with all my old teammates and met my new ones. So begins a new year with Vici Aistes!

Vici-Aistes 2011

Reunited with Legend and Star

I spent a week in Turkey and we had our first Euroleague game against a team that had Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, Ephianny Prince, and a couple big European stars…. Now it was a stacked team, but our team fought hard for the majority of the game. It was the last 5 mins of the game when they blew the game wide open… it was disappointing to start the season off with a loss, but I think we have so much room to grow that it will be exciting to see the progress.

Our first game.. trying to guard Taurasi... (didnt work too well)

So I think that is enough updates for me for one post… Off to Spain next week for another Euroleague game! 

Thats it for now!

CP

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

Hi all!

So as many of you know... we lost our semi-finals last night by 2 against Argentina. This could have been one of the most disappointing games i've been in a LONG time!

Normally I wont complain about the ref situation, but we felt like the outcome would have been different if the ref was aware of the situation at the end of the game. Needless to say it didn't work out that way, and we lost. Like the title of my post says... what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Our entire team was upset, anger, and frustrated after the game. It is always tough to lose, but when you feel like you deserved to win.. its even tougher.

With that said, we play in the third place game tonight, and were looking to bounce back and finish strong. I absolutely love this team, and know that next summer we will qualify for the Olympics in the world qualifier!

My team-mates have worked so incredibly hard to earn this, and we know it will come for us.

Thats all for now,

Courtnay 

Update from Columbia

Hy there! So it's been a tough time getting wifi, seeing as there has been a hotel full of athletes all trying to get Internet at the same time. So sorry for my lack of updates! Butt we finished pool play 3-1 with our one loss being to brazil. We moved onto the semifinals and play Argentina tomorrow. With getting to the semis it means we qualify for the world qualifier in June for the olmypics where five teams go from there. So having that safety net is nice, but we want to win it all now and qualify. Next step for us is to win our semis. It's going to be a real tough game, but I have faith in our team. Other then playing, we have had a lot of down time where we have spent wondering around the hotel trying to find wifi, reading, watching tv, or sleeping. There really isn't much else you can do. But after having a hectic summer it's nice to just relax. That's all right now, and I'll try to update soon Courtnay

First win

So we got our first win last night to Mexico. We won by almost thirty, and it was a complete team effort. It was great to get the first win, and now we play brazil this afternoon. My highlight was getting pooped on by a bat... Yes a bat... It happened. We have bats flying around the gym, and normally aren't an issue... But I'm taking it as good luck! That's all for now!

Puerto Rico

So we spent 4 days in Puerto Rico and had 2 exhibition games.... we went 1-1.. with our first game being pretty ugly... but we got it out of our systems so that was probably the only positive that came from the game. The second game was MUUUCH better! Although it turned out to be a football game almost.. both teams started to take some liberties with fouling and being aggressive since the refs were letting us do that.
Needless to say, we both settled down and we came away with the victory!

Now we had to play at 8pm... got back showered, packed, and ate and by this time it was probably around 1 am for most of us! Not soo bad.. unless you have a 3:30am wake up call! Well needless to say we all got up and headed to the airport. Now we had a nice 6 am flight BACK to Ft. lauderdale.. yes back into the USA... seems silly but we didn't complain and just went about travelling. Then we flew into Bogota, Columbia and had a 6 hour lay over.. yes SIX hours!!! But we were lucky enough to get rooms at the Sheraton to relax and nap for a bit, until our last flight which was a short one into Neiva! Got in around 9pm..

Now thats a long day considering we were already in South America to begin with.. but we are here, and ready to go after getting a good night sleep!

Here are some pics from Puerto Rico:

 The gym we played in for one of our games..

 The view from my hotel room.. not to bad!

 A random Castle.. that my dad is convinced is the Bacardi castle

 A random street I passed while touring around.

 The view from a bridge towards our hotel

 The beautiful water we passed everyday, but never got to go to... 

 Some nice view of the water.. again!

 Really was a beautiful place

 Random San Juan photos...

 Another random...

The hotel had a rooftop hot tub and pool.. Yes we took advantage of it!

Well thats all I have for now, a few practices here in Columbia and then first game against Mexico on Saturday!  For those of you in Canada.. the games will be played on TSN2 on tape delay, so look at your guide to see when they are playing!!

Courtnay

Final Training camp!

Hi there!

Just a quick update on team Canada training camp! We are more then halfway through our camp, and things have been going well! Everyone is working hard, and we are trying to clean up all our systems and put our final preparations together before Columbia!

We have 3 more practices before we head off to Puerto Rico, and I could not be more excited! The more and more I think about it, I get giddy thinking about the chance to qualify for London. I am truly blessed to put on the Canadian jersey!

For those who are interested, if you want to check out NBA TV when your free, they will be airing a special on our team. You can get to know some of the team, and hear our thoughts heading into the qualifiers.

Thats it for now, hope everyone is doing well!

Courtnay

Last week home

So the last week I was at home went by soo fast! I went to NYC for Labour day weekend, with a couple friends and then met Jackie(my college roomie) in the city.

The weekend was a lot of fun! Some highlights were just going down to Time Square, and experiencing “New York”. Also going to see Sister Act on Broadway was  phenomenal!

I also got to meet up with a friend of Jackie and I, who lived in New Jersey. It is always nice seeing people you haven’t seen in a couple years! There were many photo opportunities in New York, so I wont share them all, but here are a few that are my favorites.

 Yes we got to go to Carlos Bakery (where they film cake boss)

 Jori, Cliff, and I enjoying the rooftop restaurant in NJ

 Jori and I in Central Park

 Jackie, Jori and I getting ready to enjoy the NYC night life

 Jackie and I in Time Square

Jori and I enjoying our frist trip to the big apple!

Once I got back, it was a busy two days, filled with lots and lots of laundry and packing! I was leaving on Friday to head to National Team camp, where I would be gone for a month and then once I got back I would only have two days at home before heading off to Lithuania. Needless to say my packing took longer then I thought, and I was frantically rushing around the day before I left!

One of my favorite things before I left, was being able to watch NFL opening day! I cannot tell you the last time I was able to sit down and watch a football game on an actually tv! (not streamed online at 11pm). It is the little things like this that I miss when I am away.

So now I am in Toronto, training with the national team. We are putting our last little preparation in before heading out for our Olympic Qualifiers! The team feels extremely confident in our chances, and has put in years and years of work for a chance to qualify.

We leave the 17^th to head to Puerto Rico for a couple exhibition games, and then to Columbia!!

I will be updating as best as I can while away, so you can all follow Team Canada as we qualify for London 2012!

Sidenote- we have a team blog (http://canadaball.blogspot.com) if you want to follow that as well!

Courtnay