We are the Champions!

As some of you know, I've been playing basketball the past few weeks with one of the girls teams here at Tilburg. Unfortunately, I'm certainly not as young and athletic as I used to be so there is A LOT of catch up work to be anywhere close to where I was three years ago. But I made a pretty good start this weekend by participating in the '23rd International Mixed Basketball Tournament' at Tilburg. I wasn't planning to participate but my assistant coach asked me about a day before the tournament started if I wanted to play on his team.

There was 26 teams in the entire tournament and in total we played I think 11 games only losing our first game. Although most of the teams were from Holland, our team was by far the most international with Slovakians, Dutch, German, Spanish and a Canadian participating. I met some really cool people and even have a place to stay in Barcelona with Estephania my team mate. The tournament started on the Friday night and ended Sunday afternoon. On the Friday night, everyone goes into town to party but being me, when I finally got to town on my bike Friday night, I forgot the name of the place we were supposed to go. Luckily, I found a hoard of exchange students I knew to hang out with instead.

After only 5 hours of sleep, we had a full day ahead of us with four games. It was a lot of fun and we played against some really cool teams. The theme of the tournament this year was superheroes, so some teams went all out and actually played in superhero outfits complete with underwear over shorts. As was very Dutch, there was always bread, cheese and meat available to make sandwiches. For supper, they served sausage and that stamppot again - I'm getting to really like that stuff!

On Saturday night there was a social at the gym but I was WAY to sore and tired to go and chose to catch up on some much needed sleep instead! Sunday was a good day as we managed to continue our winning streak and win the finals with some of my flatmates cheering on! After the game our team enjoyed our winner's cake and some sort of local drink they have in Tilburg. In this picture, our team is being congratulated by the committee. It was weird because in Europe the custom when you greet or congratulate someone is to kiss on the cheek, in Holland, it is three times. Not the best thing after you are all sweaty from and bball game. The Slovakians had to leave to catch their plane and I was able to take home some leftover bread and fruit (save on groceries!)

It has been so great to play basketball once again in a competitive setting!