Not so much new..

Im just writing a quick little something to say that really not much has been going on here.. We've had 3 Lithuanian games since the tournament... we won all 3.

I didn't get to play in the last two as I had a minor injury, so didn't want to risk getting hurt more to try and push through the two games.. This week I should be able to get back to normal and start practicing. Its funny how much you miss something when you cant do it for a couple days.

Other then that Amanda's parents were here all week, so that was awesome to finally meet her parents, and of course we explored the city more, and even found some new places for us to visit.. A nice restaurant, paintball, and a new mall! :)

My dad and Nicolette come a week on Tuesday, so I am praying I will be able to clean my apartment before they get here.. and of course Im really excited to see them, and show them around!

Thats all on my end! I hope everyone is enjoying North America.. I will be back soon!

Until next time,

CP

DnB Cup CHAMPS :)

So this past weekend, our team won the DnB Cup.. now I don't know exactly what that means, because our team got a bid straight to the semi-finals while other teams had to play for 3 months just to get to the finals...

Anyway, I did not realize that it was such a big deal until we won, and they had a ceremony and confetti along with trophies and medals! It was cool to have a celebration for winning.. I mean who doesn't like a celebration?!?!? It was nice to have champagne poured into our trophy and drink out of it, like it was the NCAA championships!

The best part, was we had our whole team back for these games! :) We were back to full strength, and it was great to have a sub once in awhile! Now that this cup is done, we have a few more weeks of Lithuanian league regular season before playoffs, and Baltic league final four starts.

Within that time Amanda's parents come.. this weekend, and then my dad and Nicolette come in the middle of March, so that is something to look forward tooo! :)

Here are some pictures of our team winning:

Nice picture of us all with confetti and the trophy :)

 Drinking champagne out of the trophy! :)

 An action shot from the semi-finals

 Me getting a check for being mvp... Love being a pro athlete!

 A funny photo of our team after we fell down while photographers took photos of us.

So that was my weekend, now we only have one game this week, so a little rest time. Not much else to share for now, I'll be sure to blog again when some more excitement happens!

Until next time, 

CP

Courtnay-Palooza!

This past weekend was a very eventful one! First off our team had 2 games, which we had to play with 7 players.. which included only having 3 guards. This meaning, the 3 guards had to play the entire game. So we won both our games by a comfortable margin, but it was a little tiring in the process.

Friday was my birthday, so after the game Amanda and I went to the steak house we love. we also thought a nice big ice cream dessert was in order.. and it was delicious! We then had an afternoon game on Saturday, which if we had won meant we would have two full days off. EVERYONE wanted this, as this was the first time we would have 2 full days off since I have been here.

Needless to say we won, and got our two days off. Amanda and I headed straight to Vilnius for the weekend and to start Courtnay-Palooza! :). We got to the city and relaxed for a bit, before meeting up with two of our team-mates to start the evening activities. It was nice to know we had a couple days off, and we planned on enjoying them!

The first stop for my birthday celebration was a friends bar, which was holding karaoke this night... yes I karaoke, and yes it was horrible! Now I ended up going up twice, with the first one being just Amanda and I singing Destiny Child- Say my name.... now the words did NOT match the song, so it was a disaster from the start! With that being said.. we had a good laugh at it!

The next time we went up, we signed up our two team-mates Giedre and Lina with us to sing "billionaire" in dedication of Marina, who was not there to celebrate her birthday (which was feb 13th).  This was a better performance, but still us just being silly.  The rest of the performers, actually were trying and were very good! They took it seriously and I was impressed with them all!

From then on, we went out and had a lot of fun. Many photos and memories were made on Saturday night. It was a great birthday for sure.

Sunday, we didn't do much, as we slept and went out to eat during the day, and at night we went to the Sky bar at a hotel in Vilnius, that has a great view of the city. It was really nice at night. We ended the night with some intense game of Jenga, and coming up with some great nicknames for ourselves. My nickname you ask: PIG.... I won't go into details on how I got that nickname, but I think it may have stuck....

Monday Amanda and I went for massages in Vilnius before we headed back to Kaunas. Now I obviously did not know what to expect heading into this, but I had ordered a deep tissue massage... and I did not get that. I would classify my massage as a light body rub... it was nice, but I left the place just as sore as I had been when i walked in. Amanda's massage was a little more interesting, as she had a small chinese lady literally hang from the wall and walk on her....

All in all we wont be getting massages anytime soon in Lithuania.... you live and learn right?!

So our two days off were a huge success, and now its back to work with another two games this weekend. The good news is everyone is back for our team, so we should have 12 healthy players for our games!

Here are some photos of the weekend:

 On the way to Vilnius :)

 I was soo tired, that a nap was the first thing on my mind when we arrived!

 Me and Giedre

 Amanda and I

 Lina and I

 So don't wear dresses often.. so it had to be documented!

Amanda and I "performing"...

 Us being silly while getting ready.

One of my favorite pictures!

So that's all they wrote about Courtnay-Palooza :) 

Until next time,

Courtnay :)

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