Observations of a foreign land

Weather Report: Mostly cloudy and damp Correction: Sunny and nice (I started this post yesterday but didn't feel the inspiration so I put it off)

I had a great walk around the neighborhood today because the weather was bearable more importantly I NEEDED that sun for my soul.

A couple observations of European living:

1) Everything is smaller here, houses, cars, yards, streets, shops and restaurants to name a few.

2) People have chickens in their yards. Yes, chickens in the middle of town. Don't be afraid these are not rampant garbage eating chickens but proper free range (there is a fence) hens. I thought this was just a fluke when I was walking around but saw it in several yards.

3) Now #3 is the most perplexing to Tremaine and I. This has happened to us at other places but the gym, fitness gym, is where is occurs most frequently. People say "Ciao" aka "bye" when they leave the locker room at the gym. Previous to this good-bye I had no contact with these people nor had I seen them on a regular basis. We never had a moment while in the locker room that warranted a good-bye. There was no "we both come to the gym at the same time but never talked but feel a connection with each other because of the similar interest in moving extreme amounts of steel" with these people that in my world prompts a good-bye.

I feel that a "hi" has to precede a "bye" at some point during the process. But that is simply my humble opinion. Maybe its just a creepy locker room thing because last year at a completely different gym it was guaranteed to happen if someone was leaving the locker room to go home. They would not however say it if they were simply leaving the locker room to go out on the gym floor.

Maybe its a testosterone thing maybe its just creepy but if anyone could shed some light on this it would be greatly appreciated.

TJW

Borken Beat-Down

Hello Hello

Well last Friday was simply a Borken beat-down. Brash, maybe a little, but I thoroughly the alliteration. I try not to think too long about stuff just simply write the first thing that comes to mind for better or worse.

So we traveled to Borken because for some reason if school is not in session the gym all of a sudden becomes out of commission and we either practice somewhere else or have "friendlies" away. The drive does provide a supurb venue for a nap though which Tremaine and I take full advantage of all the time 90% of the time.

I am liking the look of our team. We have quick fast guards mixed with a big front court so I think we are going to be able to put a lot of pressure on teams this year and score a ton of points. With everyone being a year older and having another year of experience our bench is much improved.

Long game short, defensively with our pressure we created a ton of turnovers which in turn lead to lots of easy buckets. We made them play a lot faster than they were capable of playing which made the 30 point difference in the game. Everyone got to see a lot of time and I am excited to get the season going again.

I mean Germany is fun and all (insert: Sim Ju) but basketball is what I really look forward to.

TJW

p.s. Sim Ju news to come. Still two more days of festivities.

Just another damp day in Germany

Guten Morgen

Well as the title foreshadows it is indeed another damp day in Germany. Nobody go crazy on me or spit your cereal all over the computer because of this big freakn' revelation but simply take it for what it is. What is it you may ask yourself? Its every single day in Germany. That's what it is. Is it too much to ask for a little sunshine up in here. I would love to see some depression statistics or vitamin D levels of this part of Germany.

Quick tangent: Speaking of Vitamin D, get your vitamin D levels checked, seriously. If you can do anything for your health right now optimize your VD levels (anyone else find that acronym slightly funny?). I can almost guarantee that most of you will have insufficient VD levels. Insufficient VD levels lead only to BAD things.

In all seriousness check out these two articles

What it is:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2002/02/23/vitamin-d-part-five.aspx

How to optimize:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2002/02/23/vitamin-d-deficiency-part-one.aspx

Alright back to my pessimism. But really, I am going to be honest there have been probably 2 real sunny days out of 7 since I have been here so I can't complain too much. On the bright side, you like the connection to weather, we do have a "friendly" today. That is code in German for a scrimmage. I think we travel to Borchen.

I have been getting used to my excessive free time because I don't start my part-time job for at least a week. We are also in a new pad this year which is much farther from town. This translates to excessive walking to get there. Indeed it takes a while so if any Germans read this blog and have an extra bike lying around and would like to be a pal and let a friend borrow it. You will be showered with praise and admoration.

This is worth repeating, "DOES ANYONE HAVE AN EXTRA BIKE THAT LIVES WITHIN 100 KM OF WERNE AND WANTS TO LET ME BORROW IT?" -- I am expecting sarcastic comments from my US viewers like "Oh I have an extra bike Trevor but its in the US" so fire away. Thus the reason I put in the clause" 100 KM of Werne."

To bike hunting (because they cost as much as things with engines here),
Trevor
p.s. Sim JU this weekend. Thats German code for people gunna get crazy. You will recieve a full report of all the craziness.

Safe Arrival

Guten Tag

I arrived in Germany and I actually gotta run to the store to buy some food so I am going to make this short and put a longer one up later. We won last night by like 25. One of my bags got left in Amsterdam so I didn't have any basketball shoes. Tremaine had an extra pair that were about a size too small so I ran with those. I can't say my toes felt good after the game.

Well, I just wanted to say I arrived at our new place and am hoping my bag comes today but right now I need to get to the grocery store.

TJW

I'm Back......Online and Off

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last four months. To be honest, there was not that much to talk about. Actually a very frustrating time for me but I'm back to being healthy and ready for another season of blogging and basketball.

After much deliberation I decided to go Round 2 on Werne. I am excited to get back, see some old friends, and make a run at the championship.

Just booked the flight to Werne. Back to the old stompin' grounds. See everyone on Friday the 16th.

Trevor

p.s.
remember to not click the links, I hate it when you guys do that :)