Dunk Contest!

So I am finally getting to blog about the dunk contest....yes the famous dunk contest. I will save you from reading all the way and tell you right now I finished second in a dunk off! I think I should have won, but either way it was a fun experience. Now I can put dunk contestant on my resume.

I know everyone is dying for videos, so I will post this one of my best dunk of the night. Please do not laugh too much.

The whole all-star game was interesting, and took a total of 5 hours to do. There was a 3 point competition and a friendly game where one athlete paired with a young kid and shot for a minute, and see who got the most points. I also got to take part in that, so it was nice to be a part of the action. Of course there was the dunk contest, and then there was the actual game. Where 10 players from the league played against some men. They definitely put on a show for the crowd.

The interesting part was the girls had to wear dresses to play in.. I saw these type of uniforms at the World Championships, so it was not a huge shock for me, but it still is funny to think that people think its okay to have women dress up in a dress for an athletic game!


That was the big adventure last weekend, and this week has not been too exciting. We have had 6 or 7 players to practice, so it has made for some interesting practices. One big note is that 5-3-2 is BACK! the drill I blogged about earlier has made a return, and Amanda and I were once again last to finish. I am hoping it does not make a permanent return..

We have two games this weekend, and then Amanda, Giedre, Lina and I are heading to Vilnius for the night to celebrate my birthday! Should be a good time for sure.

I will leave you with some pictures of me playing in our game last weekend.

I wont caption them all, as they are all pretty similar. I still have the same short shorts and still number 4.

I hope everyone is doing well across the ocean. :)

Until next time,
Courtnay

Vilnius :)

So I promised a blog about my trip last weekend to Vilnius!

It started out on Saturday afternoon with Amanda, Lina (one of my team-mates), and I packing into the small car Amanda and I share and heading out on the road. The trip consisted of the usual loud singing of oldie songs, and making of goofy videos.

We got into Vilnius and checked into our hotel, and then drove around exploring and grabbed some food at the mall close to us. (Bad choice to go to a mall.. I ended up buying a pair of shoes). We had planned on going out for a night on the town, so we relaxed in our hotel for a bit and then started to get ready for our evening.

Our evening was a successful one. I can't go into too much detail, as some of it may still be fuzzy for me :). Either way Amanda and I were very excited to be out of sweats and into some girlie clothes. We also were able to met up with some english speaking men.. so it was great to be able to hold a conversation. I even had an argument on how I believe the Miami heat will make it to the NBA finals this year.

Sunday was the day for us to explore Vilnius' center and the old town. Now we didn't explore it all, we were able to venture up to the top of this castle, which led to being able to see over the whole city. It was pretty neat. Walking around in the old town was a lot of fun, and we of course found ourselves in some little shops.

Although our trip was not long at all, it was jammed packed and we absolutely LOVED Vilnius, and are planning on going back very soon.

Here are some photos of the trip:

 Ready for our night out!

 Chessy mirror photo, but it turned out really well!

 At the top of the castle, with Vilnius in the background

 Right before we headed out..

 Nice photo of me and the city in the background

 It wouldn't be a blog without me and a silly photo- Lithuanian Power :)

A

 I love this photo.. It was Really windy up at the top, so my hair was everywhere!

View of Vilnius from the top of the castle.

So that was the trip to Vilnius, and it was a great first trip! I know everyone is wondering about the Dunk contest and what not, but that will be coming very soon! 

Until next time,

Courtnay

Bucket List

So I will start this blog with the apologizes of not having written in awhile, but I will give you a recap of what has happened here in Lithuania since my last blog!

So basketball- We did redeem ourselves for our last Euroleague game. We played Tarbes at home, and pulled out a thrilling 1 point victory. Our team played very well, and it was a good game the entire way. I personally think i played well, but think my defense is what I am most proud of.. I don't usually play that well, so I am very happy with my effort. Another win means more bonus money, so that is always good (Don't worry already spent it). So now we were left waiting to see the result of another game in our group. We wanted the Czech team to win their game, which means we would sneak into the playoffs.. unfortunately they did not win and we missed the playoffs by a tie-breaker.

This just goes to show, that you always want to be the one to control your outcome, and not rely on others. So now we do not have anymore Euroleague games, but our team exceeded expectations and we finished on a high note!

So now we have had a little more free time, and Amanda and I (Leesa... :P ) have used this time to cross off some things on our Bucket List! Yes we made one of all the things we want to do here in Lithuania!

We can now proudly cross off: trip to Vilnius (capital), attending a Zalgris game, and finding Amanda's family

I will post more about our Vilnius trip, as it deserves its own blog entry, but I know Amanda was very excited to get in touch with her family here, and they even came to one of our games! The Zalgris game was just like you imagine a crazy European sporting event.. things being thrown on the floor, fights breaking out, lots of noise, and the occasional F U chant towards the refs! The one things that really surprised me, was that the fans of the home team (Zalgris) would boo every time an American came into the game. They did not like not having 5 Lithuanians on the floor. I could not imagine playing a home game, and getting booed!

 Amanda and I on the way to the game.

 an action shot

 The crazy fans

Me and Giedre at the game!

These are just a few pictures, so you can all remember what I look like! 

In other big news.. I was told I am in the Dunk contest for the Lithuanian All-Star game... yes I said DUNK contest. I still don't really believe it, but all the girls tell me that they lower the rims and its an actual event. No I have no idea what dunks I will do.. I am just hoping I do not get hurt, and that I do not make a complete fool of myself!

I will of course blog about it, so you can share in the experience.

I promise to blog about my trip this past weekend to Vilnius, but that will be later in the week. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying North America for me!

Until Next time, 

Courtnay

IM BAAAAACK :)

Im back to the blogging world!

Sorry it has been so long, but being home and then arriving back in Lithuania, and time has gotten away from me!

Let me begin from where I left off: HOME. One word to describe my week vacation: AMAZING! Most of you know my horrible traveling schedule that made it so I missed Christmas with my mom, and arrive home on the 24th at 10pm, so I wont recap that.. but I was soo happy to get time at home.

In between spending some quality family time, and hanging out with my friends.. there was not much time to relax. I am not complaining by any means... I loved every moment of being home, even taking a Jack Daniels shot with my father (not a Jack fan)!.

Traveling back to Lithuania was much easier,, not one delayed, missed, or canceled flight! It took me about a solid week to get back to a regular sleeping pattern. It wasen't all bad, as I got to stay up and watch the World Juniors play.. even the disastrous final.

One interesting thing that happened since I have been back, is me having a little issue with food poisoning. I will again spare the details, but it was not fun and I was out for a bit recovering from it. I am still cautious about the food I eat, as I couldn't determine the cause of it.

We traveled to Prague for our second last euroleague game. One word for the game: embarrassing! We did not play well at all, and simply did not show up to play. We have one last game this week, and if we win we have a chance to sneak into the playoffs depending on other results. Either way we are looking at this game as one we have to win, and to redeem ourselves from last week!

Its nice to be back, and to get back into a routine with basketball. I miss everyone at home, and hope the last 3 + months fly by here so I can see everyone again!

Until next time,

Courtnay

Money Money MONNEEEY!

This is the saying I repeated after our last win.. over and over! With each euroleague win we get a bonus, so with our latest win we got another bonus :)

Now I know its not always about money, but its nice to be rewarded sometimes. So heading into Christmas break, we had our last euroleague game on Wednesday. We played a team from turkey, and the last time we played them it was a blow out by them, so we wanted to prove that we were a team  not to be steam-rolled. We always play well at home, so it was a good opportunity to get a big win before the holiday break.

The game started out well for us, and we were up at halftime and shooting the ball well. Everyone on our team was doing well, and it continued in the second half. Although they started to make some big shots and tried to comeback... our team continued to hit big shot after big shot to never let the lead slip.

When the final buzzer went off we were very happy, and danced to the vici theme song... Yes I guess the fish company has a little jingle they play during commercials and what not. This part reminds me of when I was at UVM and we danced all the time, so it was nice to have some similarities.

I got to start again, and play a lot, and I played pretty well so I was happy to contribute to this win.

Here are some action shots of me playing in the game:

 Yes I am using my left hand :)

 Dont know whats going on with my right hand, but still a nice shot

 Still using my left hand :)

 I like this one, even though Im not doing much...

 You might think Im left handed if you saw all these photos. lol

 Calling out a play.. no big deal.. its only Seimone Augustus...lol

 I am proud of this picture only for the fact that Slyvia Fowles ran into me, and she ended up on the ground.... she wasen't injured on the play so I can be happy about this pic!

 This is from our game against the Spain team, but I recently found them.

A nice general action shot.

Here is the link to the video of our game if anyone wants to take a look at it:

http://www.basketnews.lt/video/ziureti/vici-aisciu-tritaskiai-padejo-iskovoti-pergale-kaune.html

So the other big event of the week was our team Christmas party after our game on Wednesday. Now this was a fancy Christmas party, which included me having to wear a dress.. which everyone who reads this knows is my favorite thing to do!

The party was a lot of fun, it including drinking lots of wine or champagne... exchanging our secret Santa gifts, eating, and A LOT of dancing! I did not participate in the dancing part too much, as I did not want everyone to be subjected to the awfulness of it! the best dancer was by far our coach.. who came out of nowhere to surprise me as a good dancer!

So here are some pictures from the party, I know everyone wants to see my dress! lol

 Me and Amanda showing off our new dresses!

 Me and Marina, showing off our sign for making three's!

 This was when it was after midnight, and technically ONE week till I was going home.. I had to document my excitment!

 Most of the team before we headed home.

Amanda, Indre, me, and one of our sponsors!

So that was the Exciting Wednesday I had, now its 4 days until I am home and I have one Lithuanian league game left to play and some practices... So time to start packing!!!! :) :) :) 

Until next time (which wont be for awhile),

Courtnay

P.S MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEARS to everyone!!

When I get home....

So the title of this update is appropriate as I am so excited to get home! I cannot wait to see my friends and family, but I am also very excited to have the wonderful little things back in my life for a week.

Me and Amanda spend a good amount of time talking about what we will eat, or where will go when were home, so I figure I would let everyone else know what I am looking forward to most:

1- SUBWAY... everyday... Chicken Bacon Ranch sub. I have missed this delicious place, and it has been WAAAAAY to long since I had a sub. (Dad- hint hint.. since your picking me up from the airport... ;)

2- Cool Ranch Doritios- Don't ask me why, but since I have been in Lithuania, I have craved this.. It isin't even something that I had often when I was home, but it sounds delicious to me.

3- Uncle Dans ranch dip and veggies- My mom's specialty for whenever I get home from a trip, so I am putting in my order to have a whole plate of veggies to myself, because I will destroy it.

4- Yellow Mustard & Ranch- I have missed these in my life, and I cannot wait to be able to have a sandwich and put on a condiment! Oh and I will be taking some back here with me.

5- Bagels- All I want is a soft bagel... There is no such thing here, and I once again have missed these in my life.

6- MOES- doesn't  a calorie filled burrito sound delicious? I think it does! Since I no longer live in VT, I cannot get these delicious treat, so it is on my list for when I take a visit to UVM.

7- Tim Hortons- I will order a hot chocolate, then a bagel, and then possible 5 donuts (maybe im exaggerating)... I will then order this everyday until I leave.

8- East Side Mario's- Best Garden Salad.. that is all I want from there :)

9- A DRYER- All my clothes will be thrown into the dryer, just so I can value the soft and fluffy feel of all my clothes again! It has been so long since I havent had a crusty sock to put on.

10- Walmart- Yes.. I miss this place greatly.

Yes I realize this mostly has to do with food I will be consuming, and I could go on for another 20 things.. but I figured my top 10 will do!

I will be updating soon, with details about our latest win, and with pics from both the game and our teams Christmas party.. but I figured this post has you salivating for food, and you now need time to go grab some delicious food for yourself.

Until next time,

Courtnay

9 days :)

I figure a quick update would be nice! Me and some of the other girls on Sunday went and did a commercial/ handed out flyers in the city's old town center. Me and Amanda had not really ventured out there yet, so we were pretty impressed that we found the place all by ourselves (without getting lost) AND by the center itself.

Now if I was back in Vermont passing out flyers for an upcoming game, I would be outgoing and chat up a storm with anyone or anyone who would listen. Here it is MUCH more difficult, as all I can manage is "laba diena" and hand a flyer to them. If someone starts to speak Lithuanian back to me... I just shrug and say "english". Most people just walk away after that.

Needless to say it was a lot of fun, and as promised here is the link to the video and some photos:

http://www.basketnews.lt/news-35156-vici-aistes-kelyje-i-pergale-pasikinke-arkli-video-foto.html

I got some bad news last night, as Jackie was unable to come today since her visa issue was not sorted out. If she came she probably would have been deported... which would not be good... so this week its just two games and team Christmas party. Not a bad week to me!

Also almost all my Christmas gifts are done, just a couple more and then im DONE!

Until next time,

Courtnay