SIM JÜ - The Sole Reason Werne Exists

After a long waited 361 days the highly anticipated Sim Ju (I am not going to use that crazy u anymore because that forces me to switch my stupid keyboard to German then back to English and for one lousy letter its not worth it no matter how cool it looks) festival arrived and it literally took over Werne for four days of carnies, Carney food, Carney rides, Carney "you can't ever win even though it looks so easy to just throw the ball into the stupid bin but every time you throw it this magical Carney force propels the ball back out but here is a stupid trinket for playing that breaks ten minutes later" games, but most of all the guy auctioning off plants and the 1/2 meter bratwurst.

Here is a hypothetical day you could have at Sim Ju! You mosey on up and see a guy auctioning off exotic plants that look like he may have just dug them up from his backyard. You think "Oh, that one's nice I'll take it, I always wanted a palm tree in Germany." You continue on until you see the infamous 1/2 meter bratwurst. You think to yourself "I'm from America can I get a translation into inches please?" To your dismay you were thinking out loud and the Carney with a few missing teeth somehow knows perfect English or is a mathematician disguised as a Carney. He simply says to you "19.6850 inches, if you don't believe me Google it." You can't trust Carney folk so you whip out your blackberry and hes right. That's a lot of bratwurst. "I'll take one." You turn around, oh how conveniently the beer stand is directly behind you. "I'll take one." You are ordering in English but its a good thing you hold up one finger because its the universal "gimme one of them there things you are selling" sign.

"That bratwurst and beer were good what's next" you think to yourself. The creepy guy next to gives you a crazy look and then you remember to think with your mind not with your mouth. You continue on and there is the miniature version of the Eiffel Tower which signifies only one thing, CREPES. You get yourself a salami, cheese, and fish crepe because that is what everyone else got. You like this miniature theme so you decide to ride the mini-horses while you are eating your crepe. After the mini-horses you buy a curry-wurst, deep-fried mushrooms, pan-fried mushrooms, chocolate covered strawberries and bananas, Chinese noodles, pizza, a slushie, a pickle, a regular size bratwurst (because you thought it might taste different, guess what it didn't), cotton candy, and finish it off with a genuine American hamburger and hot dog. GOOD EATS.

Now that you have explored the culinary aspect of the fair you decide to check out the thrill rides. What better way to empty a stomach than rides that spin in 3 different directions and have been used as torture devices in many war torn countries. You decide to start off with something easy the spinning swings look nice. You then mosey over to the bumper cars and bust up some fools in the American flag car. After that you are feeling kind of daring and decide to take the Ferris wheel for a ride and the swings that give you a view of the city (see insert left, Anna and I rode the swings). You then realize how small Werne really is. Depressed for a second you cheer yourself up with another crepe. This time nutella and banana. GOOD EATS. Can't get enough of those crepes.

Now you feel like a champion but you still have the 3 dimensional spinning ride left to tackle. This ride flips while spinning in a circle and not to mention the whole ride is spinning at mach 10 as well. Good Luck!! After tasting again everything you tried that day and afterwards walking like a drunk guy taking a sobriety test you decide your thrill aspect is over for the evening and stumble to the beer tent for a nice evening of brew ha ha's and German folk music because it is only customary to leave Sim Ju with no money in your wallet. Those Carney folk do throw a good party though. Hooray for everything that Werne is and lives for.

On a more realistic yet probably still sarcastic note I heard of this Sim Ju no more than an hour after landing in Germany. As I was being escorted to Werne from the airport I asked what there was to do in Werne. The first thing the guy told me was that they have this huge festival in October where a half a million people come to. Its like a carnival he told me. A carnival it was. I may have heard about Sim Ju every day since that time until its arrival last Saturday. Most likely I will continue to hear about it until next year when it and the 1/2 meter bratwurst return in all their glory.

Back on Track

Werne: 86 Herford: 65

The team got off a short stint on the losing train with a home win against BBG Herford last Saturday. With a Dortmund loss to Munster that puts us in sole posessions of second place in the league behing Hagen Haspa.

Recap:

With the ancient festival SIM JU going on we still had a fairly nice turnout to our game. More to come on SIM JU when it finishes up this week which is more than deserving of its own blog post. Granted we play in a glorified elementary school gym but it has a court and two baskets so it gets the job done.

BBG Herford had three Americans on their team so anytime one hears something like that you figure they are going to be pretty solid. We started out this game with a bang scoring 29 in the first quarter to BBG's 15. The quarter was concluded with the coolest alley-oop dunk I have ever had. There was about 3 seconds left in the quarter, we were inbounding from the side. The play was to set a double screen for Matt coming towards the ball for a 3. When we ran the play I went to set a screen for Matt and my defender thinking he was being smart took a few steps towards Matt to stop him. In the meantime I took off for the hoop and Freddy threw a pass right below the rim. I caught it and put it down right on my defenders head. I actually think he helped push the ball up over the rim for me. I would have loved to get that on tape but I the one guy that was taping was too slow and didn't catch it.

We should have put them away after the first quarter but like always we let the team stay in it. Maybe its just we relax a little, maybe its tired legs, I don't know but this is becoming a reaccuring event. They actually outscored us in the second quarter to pull to within 10 at halftime. Coach was definitely upset at halftime. He was really letting us have it.

The second half started and they got a few quick buckets bringing the game even closer. In case anyone is wondering I am currently not in foul trouble at this time, maybe 2 or 3 fouls. After a bad start to the 3rd quarter we pulled it together and outscored them by four or five.

In the fourth we finally finished them going up by 15 to 20 for most of it. I did end up getting 4 fouls but didn't foul out which is an accomplishment I might add.

BBG Herford was average at best. Their American point guard would play a few minutes then sit for long time for whatever reason. They had a 6'11'' big guy that was so slow he scored on people. I think at one point he had at least 3 and 1's in a row (translation: he made the shot and got fouled). The other American Matt did a good job defending and kept him out of the lane and made him shoot jumpshots.

For us all of us played well. I had 26, Matt and Tremaine both had 18 a piece. We played pretty well as a team and continue to improve which is most important.

All in all a good win and pushing our record to 4-1 in the league.

TJW

Again, Thanks for the comments I really appreciate them and read every single one. Its a nice way for me to know whats going on back at home.

Guess who's back? Back again

After a short sabbatical I am back up and running in full force. My computer is better than ever. Kon.n really hooked it up or should I say Matt for sweet talking the IT lady. She actually wrote a sticky note to me on my computer that said "I hate your Sony computer." Even through that hate she managed to make my computer even better than before I broke it. Plus 1 karma to IT lady.

A lot has happened in the past few weeks so I will start with the most important, our last game against Hagen-Haspa. Last Saturday we unfortunately received our first loss of the season. Honestly, I feel like we are a better team than them its just they beat us down the floor too many times and we gave up way too many easy buckets in transition. They had three international players two I believe from Canada and one from America who did everything for their team.

Excitement had been building all week for this game. This is another club who wants to move up the 1.Regionallia leage. The game was so big that our club decided to arrange a fan bus to Hagen for the players and whichever fans wanted to go along. It felt more like college getting on a coach bus and driving to the game. I have never rode to a game on a fan's bus but it was definitely entertaining. Our fans really are a riot. One time the bus driver killed the bus (because naturally everything is a stick in Europe) and the entire bus errupted with chants and cheers. This was how it was all the way to the game.

We arrived at Hagen good and early to a pretty nice gym. The gyms in Hagen tend to look identical to each other so I had to do a double take to find out where I was. Those tricky Germans try to fool you every once in awhile too. Case and point I thought they had a wood floor but it was only wood colored rubber (you almost got me Germany, I get a college education for nothing Trevor 1 Germans 0). The stands were elevated about 10 feet off the floor and our fans definately outnumbered theirs 3 to 1. For only about 30 or 40 of them they can sure make a lot of noise. It could be the 3 or 4 drums they bring to every game but thats just my opinion. Drums at basketball games plus 1 Germans (Trevor 1 Germans 1).

We started the game HOT, I mean if you stuck your hand on a stove hot! We scored on our first 4 possessions and had a 10-0 lead. We kept this momentum throughout the first quater. No one was in any real foul troube yet (foreshadow) and we had a 29-19 lead. In the second quarter we did a complete 180. We were running around like a bunch of chickens with our heads cut off. Chickens that were getting hacked when they went to the hoop. We scored 8 points to their 22 and found ourselves down at halftime. Not to mention yours truely had 4 fouls although I thought I only had three until I sat down at the bench and looked up at the scoreboard, DANG IT. I died a little inside. Coach had told us the week before that the refs were going to do everything to keep Hagen in the game and that very apparent almost too apparent. In the second quarter we could not get a call unless someone picked us up bodyslammed us then proceeded to jump up and down on our chests. May be a slight exaggeration but you get the point.

A single play defines the officiating of the night. We were shooting a free throw and miss. The ball comes off to Matt's side. He has a man in front of him so he reaches around and pokes the ball out. The ball clearly goes off a Hagen player. I mean the ball changed directions and goes out of bounds. The ref gives the ball to Hagen and his rationalization is that he should have called a foul on Matt so to make up for it he just gave the ball to Hagen. The thing is he DIDNT call a foul on Matt and the ball DID deflect off a Hagen player and go out of bounds. WOW!! Ok enough ranting back to the game.

The second half began and we still struggled to find any rhythm in the game. We probably had over 20 turnovers in the game and we were giving up really easy buckets. Now we were running around like a bunch of chickens with our heads cut off with tired legs. They were simply beating us down the floor each time and they had a guy who could sky (translation: can jump really really high). I distinctly remember one play. I was watching the point guard bring the ball up uncontested then I saw him throw a sky rocket pass towards the baseline. I turn around to this guy flying through the air head probably going to hit the rim grabbing the ball with his left hand outstretched behind him and flushing it home. I almost clapped for that man but instead just said respect and ran back down the floor.

I managed to make it all the way to the fourth quarter without picking up a foul until about 7 minutes left in the game. I guess they felt it was time for me to take a seat for the rest of the game. I don't think there is anything more frustrating than fouling out or even playing with four fouls. It completely changes the way you play and severely limits the aggressiveness one can have. No more fouling out. I am stating it right here to the public. No more. (at least not for a while :) )

As for the rest of the team Matt and Tremaine both played well dropping 20 spots (translation: scored 20 points). I had an off night only scoring 16 or 18 depending on the paper that you look at (thats Germany for ya Trevor 1 Germany 2). I just want to be able to play the whole game again. No more fouls remember. I really think if I say it enough the basketball gods will look favorably upon me and let a few slide next time.

Well they started to pull away late in the second half and that about did it. Our legs were tired and in a way we had just given up. The game was out of reach. If coach is reading this please don't kill our legs the day before a game at least no suicides.

I have a picture that pretty much sums up our day. In the picture I am going up for a lay-up and the jumper from Hagen is rising above me about ready to volleyball spike my ball into the floor. It may have left a dent in the floor I don't remember. You know what I said after this happened (for the second time) its still our ball :) .

Just for the record if I didn't already have four fouls and scared to even touch anybody lest I pick up my five I would have tried to HAMMER it on him. Maybe next time. We will definitely meet again Mr. Hagen-Haspa. Next time at our place. Until then sleep tight.

Germany 3 Trevor 1 Game Over (but only for tonight my Melanzana Riccha is waiting)

Until next time I leave you with a thought to ponder "Why do they have Braille on drive-thru ATMS."

Ciao Ciao
TJW

Computer CRASH

There must be something about our flat and computers. Matt's computer crashed last month and now mine has been on the fritz lately and finally said "I WILL NOT START WINDOWS" not literally but in computer language. Luckily, Matt and Tremaine's work has an IT department so it has been incapacitated for the past two weeks. I guess the lady has been having all sorts of troubles with it so that is why its taking so long. I plan to get back to my blogging ways here soon. I have a lot to write about so check in in the next couple days to see if anything has happened. That is if my computer returns today.

Update

Hey Everyone! Its been awhile since I have written a blurp so I decided since my fingers are not quite at frost bite stage that I will pound out a few keys. Nothing exciting has been happening here since we haven't had any games. During the next three weeks all the schools are on holiday so since we use their gyms we don't really have games. Coach does plan to play a few exhibition games next week to keep our rhythm as he likes to call it.

The last week has just been military training. We rarely touch a ball until the end of practice. Today we did agility drills for an hour and a half. I guess he feels that some people on our team are a little out of shape. I can't really disagree with him but I would love to touch a ball every once in awhile, this is basketball right?

Currently we are practicing in this dinky gym that doesn't even have three point lines. I don't even think the hoops are ten feet as we can adjust them at will with the crank on the wall. One of the hoops we always put down to four feet so Coach's little kid Marko can shoot. He is one of the coolest little kids I know. He loves basketball and comes to almost every practice.

Yesterday we had to opportunity to scrimmage against a pro A team called FC Shalke. The crazy thing is Brady Brink who played at Saint Johns is playing for them. We actually guarded each other for a majority of the time and i was able to catch up with him a bit before and after the scrimmage. He seems to be really liking it there and we plan to meet up again when both of our scedules allow it.

It was alot of fun to play against a team that was a few levels higher than us. It really taught us about our team. Shalke all-around had much better athletes which is understandable because they had five + ?? foreign players on thier team. There is no limit on foreign players in pro A. They also had much more basketball knowledge than many of the players on our team which makes sense because much of thier guys are older. I feel talent wise though I could definately play with these guys. I didn't feel out of my league at all. For whatever that is worth.

Well my hands are now frost bitten and I am going inside before my computer freezes. Off to Amsterdam!!

Tschuss
TJW