First Week

Okay. Here is my first real attempt at blogging. Ill just give a little recap of the week. I have to say, the first week here has been really good and challenging. Liz and I arrived in the Lugano airport on Monday afternoon and were taken to our new home right away. I thought that maybe I would be able to catch a nap or something but that was certainly not the case. We had practice that night and before I could practice I had to pass one of these tough European physicals.

My new teammates and I waited in the hospital waiting room for about an hour and a half for our names to be called. When I was finally called in (after fighting off sleeping in the chair) the doctor asked me if I was having any problems with my joints and if I was sick or not. Then he listened to my lungs and sent me on my way out. The whole ordeal maybe took 5 minutes. I'm not kidding. I passed with flying colors though.

So after the "physical" I had to run back to our apartment and change and then meet the team on the track. Now, running and conditioning is probably the worst part of playing basketball. I hate it with a passion. I am 6'10" 270 pounds. God did not build me to run around a track. I can do it but I don't like it. That being said, I thought that since it was the first day of running after a long summer off and after the Americans just coming in, we were going to jog a couple laps and that was going to be it. I could not have been more wrong.

We did a little warm up and then got right into it. The first thing we did was run a mile and a half in 8:30. I couldn't believe I actually did it. Then we had to run 3 laps in 4 minutes. The rest of the work out consisted of situations like this but I can't remember it because it was such a traumatic experience that my brain has actually blocked it out.

The rest of the week went the same except we went to our gym, Palamondo, to shoot every afternoon. Palamondo actually translates into ball world. You have to love language translations. I would never go to a place in the United States called Ball World.

This weekend was actually pretty awesome too. Rega, (friend from last year and member of the SAM society) took us out on his boat on Lake Lugano. It was an AMAZING experience. I have lived in Ticino for 2 years but never made it out onto the lake. This is such an unbelievable place to live. I will try to post some pictures next time because whatever words I write down will not do it justice. We cruised around on the lake between the Alps for about 4 hours and then went back in. Lugano had a festival going on called Blues to Bop that was pretty cool. I couldn't stay out very late or much at all because I was so tired from the week. I'm trying to really get my body in great shape this year.

Well, we are done with conditioning on the track now and I'm pretty happy about it. Its a great occasion. Tomorrow we actually take the court as a team. I cant wait. Ill fill everyone in on it soon.

Until next time.........