Updates!

I hope everyone is having a great start to the new year! I sure am here in Turkey. New Year's eve was fun for Carmen, Chrissy, and I. Our manager took us out to a restaurant for dinner. There was an American singer and band there to entertain us during dinner and somehow our manager got Chrissy to go up and sing a Turkish song. She knows one in particular from just listening to it so much. So although she doesn't know what she's saying she still knows the words. (That happens visa versa with the Turkish girls who sing American songs but don't know what they are singing about.) Anyways, the crowd loved her and she was fantastic. After dinner we counted down to midnight at Incirlik (Air Force Base).

We played Seb's team in Istanbul a few days later. It was very weird playing against Seb. She even said that she felt like giving me a high five after a free throw so I guess it was weird for her too. We lost by a good amount, but they sure have a great team. We had to shake that loss off because today we played our first Euro Cup game of the second round. They are the 1st seed and we are the 32nd. However, we won!! We all played really well and together and led the whole way. We couldn't get too excited just yet, because we have to play them again next Thursday in Russia and we know that is going to be a different story up there. It will be much tougher. We won by 14 points so if we win or don't lose by more than 14 then we will go on to the round of 16.

Chrissy and I will be leaving Saturday to go to Istanbul to play in an All-Star game. Coaches, media, and fans vote for 12 Americans/foreign players to play against 12 Turkish players in the annual game. Two of our Turkish players were selected for their team and our coach will be coaching the Americans/foreign players. Seb was also selected so I will see her again. This will be very exciting to play on the same team with not only the best in Turkey but some of the best players in the WNBA. It's quite the humbling experience to be named an all-star among some of these players, but we're looking forward to it and it should be a lot of fun. Of course we've got to prove where the best basketball players come from and win the game.

I talked to my old teammate Krista Rappahahn the other day and learned that she just arrived in Sweden to play basketball. She has some down time while she is applying to med schools so she thought she would play half a season before things get crazy. It made me wonder how many of my old Stanford teammates are actually over on this side of the pond to play, go to school, or work and I counted eight not including myself. It's great to hear all of their stories and adventures they are having like me. Can't wait to find out my next adventure!