Even though they don't celebrate Thanksgiving out here in Germany I still need to celebrate it on the blog. I think for my thanksgiving dinner I am going to have spaghetti with red sauce and tuna, very festive I know. I hope you eat enough for the two of us though.
I just want to say how thankful I am for you following me on this journey. I appreciate the clicking and the comments.
Sorry for the lack of content lately. I have been busy at work this week but I am going to try and get a bunch of content up in the next couple days.
I miss everybody and hope everyone has a festive and thankful turkey day. Now I need to slingbox up some NFL football.
Your Favorite Turkey,
TJW
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Newspaper Article
I wrote my first post last week for the newspaper. Here it is.
Guten Morgen Deutschland!
I hope this column finds you gazing out your window at a beautiful sunny day, although I am not about to bet money on it. I do however admire how gracefully everyone still goes about their day despite the clouds, rain and darkness. I know if I was dealing with this depressing weather year after year I would definitely be financing my psychiatrist's new Audi.
As my first column I would like to take a few moments to get to know each other. Well, rather get to know me since you are undeniably reading a newspaper. Although, if you do see me on the street say “Hello” and then I can get to know you. I do have one condition, can we speak in English please because “Meine Deutsche ist nicht gut.” I do love to learn so if you would like to teach me some Deutsch I am looking for a tutor.
Back to who I am. Most would recognize me as a basketball player for TV Werne but basketball does not define who I am. It is simply a game I love and have been working hard at for over 15 years and fortunately seen some success. Basketball has given me many experiences and allowed me to meet some amazing people. To be honest, it is the reason I get the privilege to write you today. Everyone has their vehicles in life and mine at this period in my life is basketball.
Throughout my months with you I hope to have a conversation, even though it is extremely dominated by one person. I want to make this fun and not just another read. I hope to make you smile every once in while and possibly think a little bit too. I am in a unique position as a foreigner to be able to share my thoughts and concerns with such a large audience and I plan to take full advantage of it. Whether that is good or bad, you be the judge! I have no specific plan on where this is going to go and will simply let creativity be my guide. I will frequently touch on basketball and living abroad but will not limit myself solely to these topics.
Speaking of basketball I should touch quickly on it before I leave you this morning. We won! Oh, and the first wood floor we ever played on in Germany completely and utterly disappointed me!
Until next week,
Trevor J. Wittwer
p.s. If you do not find this post humorous at all you can blame it on Daniel, my translator. The humor must have gotten lost in translation.
Guten Morgen Deutschland!
I hope this column finds you gazing out your window at a beautiful sunny day, although I am not about to bet money on it. I do however admire how gracefully everyone still goes about their day despite the clouds, rain and darkness. I know if I was dealing with this depressing weather year after year I would definitely be financing my psychiatrist's new Audi.
As my first column I would like to take a few moments to get to know each other. Well, rather get to know me since you are undeniably reading a newspaper. Although, if you do see me on the street say “Hello” and then I can get to know you. I do have one condition, can we speak in English please because “Meine Deutsche ist nicht gut.” I do love to learn so if you would like to teach me some Deutsch I am looking for a tutor.
Back to who I am. Most would recognize me as a basketball player for TV Werne but basketball does not define who I am. It is simply a game I love and have been working hard at for over 15 years and fortunately seen some success. Basketball has given me many experiences and allowed me to meet some amazing people. To be honest, it is the reason I get the privilege to write you today. Everyone has their vehicles in life and mine at this period in my life is basketball.
Throughout my months with you I hope to have a conversation, even though it is extremely dominated by one person. I want to make this fun and not just another read. I hope to make you smile every once in while and possibly think a little bit too. I am in a unique position as a foreigner to be able to share my thoughts and concerns with such a large audience and I plan to take full advantage of it. Whether that is good or bad, you be the judge! I have no specific plan on where this is going to go and will simply let creativity be my guide. I will frequently touch on basketball and living abroad but will not limit myself solely to these topics.
Speaking of basketball I should touch quickly on it before I leave you this morning. We won! Oh, and the first wood floor we ever played on in Germany completely and utterly disappointed me!
Until next week,
Trevor J. Wittwer
p.s. If you do not find this post humorous at all you can blame it on Daniel, my translator. The humor must have gotten lost in translation.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Google Adsense
I got my google adsense working again so you should really NOT* click on a bunch of links and then close the window.
*By not I mean you should. Its hard to display sarcasm in a print medium.
*By not I mean you should. Its hard to display sarcasm in a print medium.
I can't remember the team.....but there was a wood floor
I can't remember the last team's name we played but we played on a wood floor.
Well, I don't even know if I could call it a wood floor. I think it was actually fake wood and it had a layer of white film on it that made it ever so slippery. I thought it was my shoes so after the first quarter ran to the bench, slipped on a towel and fell over a chair just to put on a different pair of shoes. I then found out when I went back on the floor that is was not the shoes but rather the stupid wood floor.
Just to put everything into perspective in Germany we do not believe in wood floors unless its the Bundesliga (top league in Germany). Every other league plays on a sport courtish surface which surprisingly has some give and bounce to it.
Coach the whole week had been building up this wood floor too. Naturally, in my mind I was thinking traditional wood floor in a normal gym.
Why the wood floor you may be asking yourself when we are not playing a Bundesliga team? The answer is the women's program of this particular club plays Bundesliga. They happened to be playing before us and this fake wood is pieced together on top of the sport court.
We actually got to watch the second half of the women's game as they were playing when we arrived. These women were not women but rather men dressed like women. In all honesty these ladies were huge and thick too. One team had to have a girl close to seven feet tall. This is not an exaggeration either.
You could definitely tell that this was the top women's league in Germany, although there was still a ton of turnovers and terrible decisions. No value for the ball and terrible offense. The 3-point line in top leagues in Europe is the same for both men and women. It is between college line and NBA. I would guess it was about a foot behind the men's college line.
The atmosphere was pretty cool for the women's game. They set up a restaurant along one of the sidelines. It also went back underneath the stands. I think it was put together by a catering service. There were also probably between 500-750 spectators. Too bad most left for our game. Personally, I still think our league men's basketball is more exciting than women's Bundesliga. Thats just me though.
Definitely more professionally done that other venues I have seen, but still nothing compared to the states. You really can't compare basketball here to basketball in the states. Its like night and day, apples to oranges, insert another lame analogy !
I just realized that I still have not given the score of the game or whether we won or lost. I let the wood floor control my mind. Well we did WIN, with a significant margin of 32.
The game was actually much closer than the score indicates. For some reason the officials really wanted to keep this game close. Some of the most ridiculous things were being called. The charge was again the "call of the day" on multiple occasions. Except when yours truely tries to take a charge then its a no call.
Quick scenario: A player from the opposing team has the ball on the three point line lets call him Curly. I am standing near the hoop. Curly dribbles full speed and slams directly into me. During this entire time I did two things 1. Squared up to the ball and 2. Put my arms over my head. I literally stood waiting for the guy to hit me for a good three seconds. Guess what, NO CALL. "pitchko matre" !! Thanks Marko for the Serbian lesson.
My thinking is if I am not going to get the charge I might as well try and throw his business into the upper decks. I am probably going to get a foul anyways so we might as well make things interesting.
Besides horrendous officiating they played a 2-3 zone and we not hitting our outside shots. A sweet combination for a close game. We did wear them down as the game went on and simply good care of buisness in the fourth quarter.
All in all a good win. We have a cup game this Saturday against a lower league team then back to league play next weekend.
Its sunny in Germany, its gotta be a great day
TJW
P.S. Marko has begun his season at Northern State and I am going to check the box score of his game last night when I finish up here. Check out his schedule and catch a game when he is in your area. Then after the game talk to him and call him a "pitchko"
Well, I don't even know if I could call it a wood floor. I think it was actually fake wood and it had a layer of white film on it that made it ever so slippery. I thought it was my shoes so after the first quarter ran to the bench, slipped on a towel and fell over a chair just to put on a different pair of shoes. I then found out when I went back on the floor that is was not the shoes but rather the stupid wood floor.
Just to put everything into perspective in Germany we do not believe in wood floors unless its the Bundesliga (top league in Germany). Every other league plays on a sport courtish surface which surprisingly has some give and bounce to it.
Coach the whole week had been building up this wood floor too. Naturally, in my mind I was thinking traditional wood floor in a normal gym.
Why the wood floor you may be asking yourself when we are not playing a Bundesliga team? The answer is the women's program of this particular club plays Bundesliga. They happened to be playing before us and this fake wood is pieced together on top of the sport court.
We actually got to watch the second half of the women's game as they were playing when we arrived. These women were not women but rather men dressed like women. In all honesty these ladies were huge and thick too. One team had to have a girl close to seven feet tall. This is not an exaggeration either.
You could definitely tell that this was the top women's league in Germany, although there was still a ton of turnovers and terrible decisions. No value for the ball and terrible offense. The 3-point line in top leagues in Europe is the same for both men and women. It is between college line and NBA. I would guess it was about a foot behind the men's college line.
The atmosphere was pretty cool for the women's game. They set up a restaurant along one of the sidelines. It also went back underneath the stands. I think it was put together by a catering service. There were also probably between 500-750 spectators. Too bad most left for our game. Personally, I still think our league men's basketball is more exciting than women's Bundesliga. Thats just me though.
Definitely more professionally done that other venues I have seen, but still nothing compared to the states. You really can't compare basketball here to basketball in the states. Its like night and day, apples to oranges, insert another lame analogy !
I just realized that I still have not given the score of the game or whether we won or lost. I let the wood floor control my mind. Well we did WIN, with a significant margin of 32.
88-52
The game was actually much closer than the score indicates. For some reason the officials really wanted to keep this game close. Some of the most ridiculous things were being called. The charge was again the "call of the day" on multiple occasions. Except when yours truely tries to take a charge then its a no call.
Quick scenario: A player from the opposing team has the ball on the three point line lets call him Curly. I am standing near the hoop. Curly dribbles full speed and slams directly into me. During this entire time I did two things 1. Squared up to the ball and 2. Put my arms over my head. I literally stood waiting for the guy to hit me for a good three seconds. Guess what, NO CALL. "pitchko matre" !! Thanks Marko for the Serbian lesson.
My thinking is if I am not going to get the charge I might as well try and throw his business into the upper decks. I am probably going to get a foul anyways so we might as well make things interesting.
Besides horrendous officiating they played a 2-3 zone and we not hitting our outside shots. A sweet combination for a close game. We did wear them down as the game went on and simply good care of buisness in the fourth quarter.
All in all a good win. We have a cup game this Saturday against a lower league team then back to league play next weekend.
Its sunny in Germany, its gotta be a great day
TJW
P.S. Marko has begun his season at Northern State and I am going to check the box score of his game last night when I finish up here. Check out his schedule and catch a game when he is in your area. Then after the game talk to him and call him a "pitchko"
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
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