Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that you will all have a blessed 2008! I spent my first Christmas away from my family, but Carmen, Chrissy and I were able to make the best of it here in Turkey. We decided to cook an American dinner for our entire team. I made the cornbread (which was a big hit!) and salad, Chrissy made the mashed potatoes and fried chicken, and Carmen made the Koolaid (also a big hit). We also thought it was necessary to sing some Christmas carols for them. I think they were glad when those were over, but we had fun at least! And we had some delicious leftovers for the next couple of days. I missed being in South Bend where my family and my mom's side were all together for the holidays. I was grateful that my parents brought their webcam so that I could see everyone through the computer screen. That made the distance seem that much closer.

Having stayed here through the holidays paid off on the basketball court. We upset the number 2 team in our league, Kayseri! This was a huge win for us. They had beat us a couple of times in the preseason, but we started off the game ahead and never trailed the whole way. We have just two more games until we are half way through the season. It's really flown by as it usually does. Speaking of upsets, Stanford FINALLY beat Tennessee!! It was a long time coming!! I'm so happy for my team (I still say it's my team even though I've graduated) and they will definitely be a force come March!

Ebay lam lar

Which means Happy Holiday. We are actually in the midst of a 4 day holiday in Turkey right now. The team had trouble explaining to us exactly what holiday it was, but supposedly thousands of years ago an important someone sacrificed a lot of lamb and that is what they celebrate today. The sacrifice signifies cleansing. Carmen went walking around today and happened to see someone sacrificing lamb. I'm not too disappointed that I missed that. Yesterday (the first day of the holiday) before practice, the team showed us the traditional dance associated with this holiday. They taught us and soon we were all joining in. In turn, the coach wanted us Americans to show an American dance. So we showed them the "Soulja Boy" dance. For you older generations, this is a hip hop dance. It was a lot of fun and we got to eat a lot of chocolate!

We are off to Burhaniye tomorrow to play them on Sunday. This a couple hours away from Izmir. Hope you all are enjoying the holiday season.

day off!

As promised I posted the pics from Israel, Istanbul, and Russia. knewlin.shutterfly.com.

We lost against Mersin yesterday by one point. It was quite a game. We were down 17 with 7 minutes to go and battled back to lead by 1 point with 6 seconds to go and they scored on a last second basket. Those are always tough, but we'll bounce back. We play Burhaniye this Saturday so we've got a while. We don't have another Euro cup game until January 10th. We were actually the last team to be selected for the second round so we barely snuck in there. But that means we'll be playing the #1 seed, a team from Russia.

Since we don't have a game for another 6 days, coach gave us the day off today. I decided it was time to pamper myself so I got a pedicure and manicure after I slept in until about noon. I have to enjoy it while I can because we are in the weight room at 8:30 tomorrow morning.

Istanbul and Russia

I'm finally back after a long week trip to Istanbul and Russia. And I came back to a few packages and cards too! I got a couple from my parents, one from the Perez family back at Stanford, and a card from the Volks. It felt like Christmas had come early! Thank you soooo much! I'm definitely stocked up on sweets for a while and a few food items that I can't find here will help with cooking. I actually don't cook a whole lot. The team takes us out to dinner usually the nights and mornings before games. And they feed us on the road too. Although I wasn't too excited about the Russian food.

Speaking of Russia, I didn't get to see much of it except the inside of a bus. That was the single most longest trip I have ever taken for one game. After staying in Istanbul after our Sunday game, we left on Wednesday morning and had a three hour flight to Moscow. We then proceeded to take an 11 hour bus ride to Vologda where I game was. After arriving at 2 in the morning we had practice in the morning and then the game at 6 pm. We lost. We had beaten them in Adana and they were definitely out for revenge. We stayed that night in Vologda in our hotel that looked like it could be in a horror film and left at 5:30 in the morning to catch a 6 pm flight out of Moscow to Istanbul. After our flight to Adana it was 2 in the morning and we were pretty beat.

Our stay in Istanbul was much much nicer. We played Istanbul University on Sunday and won. (Always nice!) With our coach in a good mood after the win we spent Monday walking around Istanbul. We went into a beautiful catholic church near this popular outdoor shopping strip. I took pictures of the church from the outside, but we weren't allowed to take any of the inside. Next we went to a Turkish shopping bizarre where I bought a few Turkish items. We had to walk across a bridge where fisherman were lined up casting lines over the side. They would put 7 or 8 hooks on each line and catch that many small fish at a time. It was pretty neat. The trolleys in the shopping strip reminded me of San Francisco and the underground subway system was reminiscent of New York. Carmen felt right at home. There are so many people in Istanbul. It's population is near 17 million and it was definitely crowded like it. The coaches also took us around to some famous mosques and a museum. I don't know much about Turkish history so it was neat to see this. They had an 84 karat diamond on display that was found in the 18th century I believe. It was passed around and sold for a while until its value was discovered. Sorry, no picture of that either.

No rest for us. We are back at it with another Turkish league game tomorrow against Mersin. This is another important game as we are tied for 5th in the standings. I'll be putting up pics soon. I know I've been slacking and still have yet to put up the Israel pics but I promise they will be up within the next day or two.

Off to Istanbul and Russia

Our last game against Montenegro was a success. We won by 17 and they had beat us by 5 at their place so we won that head to head match up. That game was really important for us to get as it guaranteed us a spot in the second round of Euro Cup that starts in January. We still have to play well against Russia because every point matters in determining where we will be seeded in the second round. If this is all very confusing to you, don't worry, it is to me too. :)

We leave tomorrow to play against Istanbul University on Sunday. We'll actually be staying in Istanbul Monday and Tuesday before we leave for Russia on Wednesday so hopefully we'll be able to see a little bit of the city one of those two days. It should be cold in Istanbul, but I'm sure it's paradise to what I hear it is in Russia. I packed a few sweaters and my winter jacket for that trip. I'm sure I will need it.

I miss all of the Christmas lights and decorations right now! If you see a sparkly house, take a picture and send it to me!!

Back from the Holy Land

We've had a couple of games since the last post and unfortunately we lost them both. We played some very good teams and played pretty well but didn't come out on top. First we went to Tel Aviv, Israel. And I had a pleasant surprise! Seb's team, who is also in Euro Cup and was playing an Israeli team, was on our flights to and from Tel Aviv and we also stayed in the same hotel. As always it was great to talk and spend time with her. We weren't able to see the city apart from our bus ride to the airport, but our hotel was located right on a beach so the team and I walked along it. There were some shops nearby, too and one sports store had all University of Washington gear in their front window. Brett was excited to hear that and I took a picture of it for him. I'll post all of those soon. The game wasn't as sweet. We actually played well in the first half as we were up by 12, but they came out on fire in the second half. They are the top team in our pool, so a tough team to beat.

We turned right around and played the top team in the Turkish league yesterday. For those of you who really know women's basketball, this team had Cappie Pondexter and Tammy Sutton-Brown. They also had another Turkish player post who was just as good as Brown. We didn't play badly, we were just out manned. We were actually down 12 at halftime and only lost the game by 11 so we won the second half. We have to look at the positives in a game like that. And for the first time I hit an almost half court buzzer beater! I knew all of those half court shots we shoot for fun would eventually pay off!

After returning from Israel I found that my first package from my parents arrived. Even though I knew most of what was inside it still felt like Christmas. Thanks Mom and Dad! The pistachios are almost gone already. Speaking of Christmas, it looks like I won't be able to come back to the states. The Turkish league plays right through the holidays this year so unfortunately I won't get that break. I hope to talk to family, especially in South Bend this year through the internet and skype.

Well, we are back in action Thursday with Euro Cup to play the Montenegro team that beat us by a few points earlier. It's a really important game for us to win if we want to still be in Euro Cup play after Christmas.

Heading to Israel

We had a Turkish league game against Ceyhan on Sunday and beat them by almost 30 points! This was a huge win because we are even in the standings and now are a game up on them. This team had beaten us a couple of times in the preseason so to come up with such a huge victory is great for our team. We will see just how much we have improved when we take on Fenerbace next Sunday here in Adana. They are the number one team in the league with a couple of WNBA all-stars on their roster so we will definitely have our work cut out for us.

But first we travel to Tel Aviv, Israel on Wednesday to take on the team we played last month for Euro Cup play. There are 4 teams in each pool of Euro Cup and we play each team twice, both home and away. They beat us last time, so we are eager to take them on once again. I'll only be in Israel for a couple of nights, but I'll try to soak in as much of it as I can. I wish we had more time to just see the city, but we are there to play basketball so I'll take what I can get. You can check the stats and results of the Euro cup games at eurobasket.com and the turkish games at tbl.org.

It's almost December, so that means it's finally starting to cool off. On some days, especially in the middle of the day I can still get away with just a t-shirt and shorts, but the mornings and evenings I will be in my sweats. I need to get an umbrella soon too as it has rained a few times. It's pretty comparable to Stanford weather so at least that part hasn't taken much to adjust to.

Hope everyone is recovered from their Thanksgiving meals!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have so much to be thankful for this year starting with my family and friends and all the people who haven't forgotten about me even though I'm across the world!:) I'm thankful for being in a great situation in Turkey with great teammates. I'm also thankful for the technologies that keep me from getting homesick like video chat, e-mail, skype, etc. I don't know what I would do without that connection to all my loved ones back home. And my mom also told me I should be thankful for my slingbox that I am able to watch American television on. Thanks mom! It wasn't quite the Thanksgiving I am used to over here. I had no turkey, yams, ham, or pumpkin pie and I appreciate all of you that felt it necessary to tell me all the delicious foods you were eating or planning to eat. And even showing me the food over video chat! I made myself so excellent potato soup though.

We also had a Euro cup game against Cheveka, a Russian team. We won! It felt good to get our first Euro Cup victory. It was a great game and everybody played really well. There's nothing like winning when you're not supposed to! We turn around and get back into Turkish league play this Sunday against our cross town rival, Ceyhan.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

New pics

Just wanted to let you know that I've added more of my pictures from my trip to Istanbul, Serbia, and Montenegro on my page. Knewlin.shutterfly.com to check them out. You'll be able to see how cold but also how beautiful the long trip to Montenegro was.

Also, we won our game today. It was our first home game win in either Turkish or European cup play. The team wasn't as good as the other teams we will be playing but hopefully we'll ride this win into Thursday when we take on a very good team from Russia for Euro Cup play.

Serbia and Montenegro

I'm finally back after a long week away from Adana. On Saturday we left for Istanbul to play Migros on Sunday. We won this game by about 6 or 7 points. It felt great to finally get a win! We then stayed in Istanbul the next day and practiced. I was able to see Seb for a night. We went to dinner with a couple of her teammates/roommates. It was great to see and catch up with her. There are 6 teams in or around Istanbul so I'm sure I will get to see a lot more of her. And hopefully I can stay with her and see the city as well one of these days. I got to walk around our hotel, but that's about it. Istanbul is definitely more European than Adana. For one, they have a Starbucks! Everyone I talk to says it's a fun place, too so hopefully I will see more of it this winter.

The team bought us all winter jackets in Istanbul before we trekked up to Serbia and boy did we need them. It was so cold! It was a couple hour flight to Serbia and then we actually drove 6 hours to Montenegro where we would play. It was a long drive, but one of the most beautiful as well. We drove through snow and huge mountains. We also saw the evidence of a war ridden country. Although it is no longer dangerous, apartments still had bullet holes all over the outside. Our coach said snipers would shoot at the houses even through the walls. The drive was still very beautiful, however, especially when it got dark. Even growing up in Wyoming, I've never seen so many stars in the sky shine so brightly. It really took my breath away. I took some pictures and will get them up soon.

We ended up losing that game by 5. We started the 4th quarter down 16 so we came back but it just wasn't quite enough. We'll put together 4 good quarters one of these games. Our next chance is in a couple of days when we play another Turkish league team here in Adana.

I'm anxiously awaiting a care package from my parents! Anything from the states is always a treat. Can't wait for that! I wouldn't object to any care packages from anybody.

And congratulations to my Stanford team!!! They upset the #3 Rutgers team on ESPN. I had to watch it live and stayed up until 5:30 in the morning. And it was definitely worth it. I was so proud! It was great to see them in action.

Ataturk Memorial

After practice tonight we went to a memorial for Mustafa Ataturk. Today was the anniversary of his death. It was an orchestra playing with some opera and a video playing overhead of Ataturk's life. The music was lovely even though I couldn't understand anything they were saying. I suppose it's even hard to understand opera in English anyways.

We had our first Euro Cup game yesterday. We played a very good team from Israel and lost. It's a different atmosphere for me to be on an underdog team, but we keep playing hard and that's what it is most important. I believe you can follow these games or at least the scores at eurobasket.com. Just follow the links to my team (Botas). We leave tomorrow for Istanbul to play Migros on Sunday. This was the only team we beat when we had a preseason tournament in Kayseri a few weeks ago, but I hear they got some new Americans so they might be a different team. Hopefully I will be able to meet up with Seb (a former Stanford teammate who is playing on another team in Istanbul) while I am there. We will eventually be playing her team. We will stay in Istanbul until Tuesday where we will then fly to Yugoslavia to play in another Euro Cup game on Wednesday. We can play all of our Americans in the Turkish league games, but unfortunately only 2 Americans can play in Euro Cup games, so we will be without Lisa and Carmen just like we were for yesterday's game.

Be sure to watch the Stanford women's team on ESPN this Sunday when they take on Rutgers. My parents will record that for me so I will be able to watch it. I will be cheering from afar!

First Game

We had our first game yesterday against Besiktas here in Adana. They are the 2nd ranked team in the Turkish League. We ended up losing by 13 which was actually pretty good considering how poorly we shot. We were convinced there was a lid on the basket. But everyone who plays basketball knows there will be games like that so we can't worry about it too much. We actually got a pretty good crowd. Not quite as many as Stanford games, but they were just as noisy. They chant the entire game. Maybe someday I'll figure out what they are saying. We play Thursday against an Israel team. When we play a team from Turkey, it is part of the Turkish League and when we play a team from another country, it is part of the European Cup. So it's sort of like two different seasons going on at once. Only a select few teams do this.

After the game I came home and was able to listen to Stanford's exhibition game on the internet. They won handily and it was exciting to hear everyone doing well. They have big tests against great teams coming up and some of them will be on television so my handy slingbox will be put to work.

I'm sure family in South Bend, especially Papa, are unhappy about ND's loss to Navy yesterday. I was actually video chatting with my brother during the game and he turned his computer to the screen so I could see the last few plays. Speaking of chatting, Skype is great if you want to actually talk to me. Just download it and add my skype name (kristennewlin) and you can directly talk to me if your computer has a microphone. And if it has a video camera you can actually see me too.

Happy Birthday Clare!

I wanted to wish Clare Bear a happy 23rd birthday! Clare's birthdays were always the best because we could celebrate Halloween and her birthday at once! Turkey unfortunately does not recognize this holiday so we were without trick or treaters or scary costumes. If anyone has extra Halloween candy don't hesitate to send it this way!:) We still felt the need to be scared tonight so a lot of the team went to see "Saw 4" in theatres. They movie is in English with Turkish subtitles. If you have a weak stomach, I don't recommend watching it. It was quite bloody and usually not the type of movie I would want to see, but I guess we needed some sort of scare for Halloween.

We open up Turkish league play this Saturday against Besiktas. They are a team from Istanbul and are quite good. They have a couple of post players from the WNBA and a great Turkish post player so they are a big team, too. We went to a dinner last night and watched them play on television against another Turkish team. We are looking forward to starting the season. As I'm looking forward to Stanford starting theirs this Saturday with an exhibition game. I will be following them every step of the way and rooting them on for an NCAA championship. Go Card!

Photo Albums

Just wanted to let you know that I've added a page exclusively for my pictures. I've posted two albums so far. Just go to knewlin.shutterfly.com. I will let you know in my blogs when I update them.

Today has been a pretty lazy day. I slept in, went grocery shopping, cleaned up the apartment a bit, and posted pictures for you to see! It's days like these that I'm glad I have access to American television through my slingbox. I can actually watch, change channels, and record shows directly from my t.v. at home. Great way to keep up with Grey's Anatomy and America's Next Top Model!! I've also discovered podcasts through itunes, thanks to Clare and Brooke! I can download the news and other things to keep me updated on things back in the states.

I'm also trying to figure out meals that I can make with the food they have available in the grocery stores. They have pasta noodles, but no spaghetti sauce or any other sauce that I can cook up. They only have tomato paste. Does anybody have any suggestions on other things that I can make to put on pasta? Or any other way to spice it up? What about simple meals I can easily make? Any suggestions would be welcome. Teshekular!

I told Titch that I would post another blog today, so as promised here it is. I'm sure you live for this Titch! We just got back from Kayseri where we played four games in four days. Needless, to say I'm a little tired. Our team lost 3 games and won one. We were playing against decent teams, and never lost by more than eight. So although we lost, we hung tough. The game today was against the top team of the tournament. They had won all of their previous games pretty handily, but we actually took them to overtime. I was really proud of our team for fighting and being scrappy. We are much younger than them and this team (Mersin) has very experienced players and a couple WNBA players. Carmen hit a three to send it to overtime with nine seconds left. We are getting better with every game we play. Our team also signed another American post player over the weekend. Her name is Lisa Macchia and she graduated from Boston College in 2006. She had only practiced with us for a day and doesn't know all of our plays yet, but she still played great. So now we are officially done with the "friendly" games of our season. Starting next weekend, we start league play and Euro Cup play.

If you all have been keeping up with the news, I'm sure you've heard about the Iraq-Turkey tensions going on right now. After the dozen Turkish soldiers were killed by the Kurds, the city changed overnight. Cars were driving up and down the streets honking their horns. We see Turkish flags everywhere and banners showing the face of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He was the founder of the Turkish Repulic as well as its first president. All the televisions in the restaurants are on the news. The people here are definitely reacting to what is going on in their country.

I've also been trying to keep up with the So Cal fires. I'd been keeping in touch with my teammate Kish who goes to Pepperdine now and was thrilled to learn that she recently was able to get back on campus. And teshekular (thank you), Nana, for letting me know my cousins in this area are also fine.

Merhaba (Hi!) everybody! Great to hear that the blog will be useful to a lot of you. I will do my best to keep it updated as much as possible.

Botas is one of four teams that is in or close to Adana, so Carmen, Chrissy and I have befriended the other Americans on the Ceyhan team. Chrissy actually knew one of them (Crystal Smith) from her WNBA training camp this past year in Phoenix. The other two are Kristen Green and Tasha Mills. Kristen and I discovered that we have the same middle name as well! At least we thought that was pretty cool. The six of us went to Incirlik, which is the big American air force base here in Adana. It's only a 10 minute drive. We went out to a bar and were pleased to be able to speak to many Americans. It had been a while since we heard so much english! Of course we are trying to engage ourselves in as much Turkish culture as we can, but it was nice to be able to communicate easily again. Following that we decided to go to a salsa club. I never would have thought my first experience with salsa dancing would have been in Turkey, but it was still a lot of fun.

We had today off from practice so I thought I would do some exploring. I don't know if our apartment is neccessarily in the downton part of Adana, but there are definitely a lot of shops, restaurants, etc. within walking distance. I went into a convenient store and saw some packaged food that looked like chocolate. At least that was what the picture looked like. So I bought it and it was delicious! B.G. our sports marketing guy then took Carmen and I to a huge nearby mosque. I learned that it is actually the second biggest mosque in the middle east. We have driven by it plenty of times and I wanted to see the inside. Before we could enter we had to take our shoes off and Carmen and I had to put on a long sleeved shirt and a scarf to cover our head and neck. They were provided them for us at the door. The inside was absolutely magnificent and beautiful. Arabic writing of the Koran was on the ceiling and huge lights strung down. I took plenty of pictures and as soon as I figure out how to post them on here I will. We saw many people kneeling and praying and B.G. encouraged us to join. Carmen was a little hesitant, but I decided to try it. So trying not to disrupt anyone I quietly knelt, but B.G. quickly tapped my on the shoulder and said that I was facing the wrong direction. You are supposed to be facing east towards Mecca and there were even arrows on the carpet that pointed that way for everyone to follow. Woops! I'm so glad that I was able to see it though and I'm sure I will go again some other time.

I've realized that I haven't even discussed the basketball part of Turkey. I still can't believe that I'm getting paid to play the same game that I grew up playing with my brother and dad in the front yard! We have a very young team. I'm actually one of the oldest. But our coach expects us to compete with all of the WNBA veterans in our league. We have had a few friendly games which means they don't count towards our record. We have done ok, but there is definitely room for improvement. We actually have a "friendly" tournament this week in Keysari. We leave the day after tomorrow so hopefully when I return I will be able to blog about our great games!

Well, I've finally gotten my act together and decided that this blog would be a great way to let all my friends and family know of my adventures here in Turkey. Although it's a fantastic problem to have so many people interested in how I am doing and what I am doing over here. I'm truly blessed. Of course I will still try to keep up the personal e-mails to you, but hopefully this will cover my experience a little more in depth. And props to Blake for suggesting I do this!

I've been in Turkey for a few weeks now. For the first week and a half, we were about an hour from Adana, right off the Mediterranean Sea. We stayed at the little community of Botas (pronounced Botosh) which is our team name and sponsor. We were able to go down to the beach for an afternoon and it was beautiful. The water was so warm, something I'm not used to from norther California. And it stayed shallow for about 50 meters out. I had to quickly adjust to the food as they were serving us cafeteria food and it was eat that or nothing at all. So either I got used to it pretty quickly or just got so hungry that anything would have tasted deicious. Now that we are in Adana, we can do our own grocery shopping and cooking, but I've tried to make a point of venturing out and trying new foods. My two housemates, Chrissy Givens and Carmen Guzman, thought I was crazy for eating something I had never seen or heard of. But most of the time it has been ok.

Chrissy and Carmen are the other two Americans. They are both my age so we are all experiencing this for the first time. The language barrier is something I've never had a problem with before. But it has actually been quite a fun challenge. For example, our landlord doesn't speak english and I had to tell him that we had no hot water. So I showed him a glass of water, said "Yok" (no) and started fanning myself. And then let the faucet run from the sink and shivered. He then led me outside our apartment door and showed me a switch, and just like that...hot water!

Fortunately, a couple girls on the team speak enough english to communicate with and both of our coaches can speak decent english. My head coach, Ceyhan (prounounced Jeyhon) and Olcek (pronounced Olgey) have been very welcoming as well as the other girls on the team. They have all gone out of their way to make sure I feel at home and have accommodated me in every way that they can. Our team went to a dinner last night, and it's so fascinating how all of us can enjoy each other's company and laugh together without knowing each other's language.

I haven't had much of an opportunity to explore Adana, since I've been a little sick this whole week, but I will be sure to let you all know of that when I feel good enough to wander. I hope this blog will be useful to a lot of you. Thanks for all the support back in the states and I am always in the mood for an e-mail! Talk to you again soon.