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.