People People Everywhere

There were lots of people everywhere we went in Istanbul yesterday! We got in and were transported to the hotel from the airport. I dont think I have ever ridden in a car with a crazier driver in my life I'm suprised we did't hit 20 pedestrians or cars. But we did make it safely and then got to go and see the city a little bit last night. We went to a big marketplace that had many vendors selling all different things. It was strange walking by as they would just say things in as many languages as they knew until you hopefully responded to one of them. Walking around we saw several mosques and then we went to eat at this Turkish restaurant. It was so delicious, we ate sitting on pillows with musicians playing in the background. I had hummus with bread and lamb skewers with rice both of which I enjoyed to the fullest. This morning we had breakfast in the hotel, but this wasn't your typical breakfast in a hotel. It was outdoors on the roof (7th floor) and we could see all of Istanbul. I have a video of this but it is not wanting to upload at the moment. The food was nothing I had ever eaten, but was good nontheless. The sweets here are all very very sweet either with the amount of sugar or the honey that they add. The jelly this morning was so so sticky. I did enjoy the cheery flavor though as well as the sour cherry juice. YUM! So I have a turkish word for you today teşekkür ederim= thank you; to pronounce this you can saw tea-sugar-ed-durr-im quickly Heading out to see the city again for a bit then heading to Edirne for the week where we will be playing

I know its been a long time. I've been lazy. A lot has happened since my last post. First off Italy won the Juniors. The last 2 weeks we have been training every day for the Eurocup which we are leaving for in the morning (Saturday). We also played the Sharx last Friday, dropping both games. In betweeen all of that I still found time to do other things. I went on a city walk, guided by a book, with Mandy (another American); it should have taken an hour but it took us nearly that long to find the starting point not to mention the 3 or 4 times we got lost after that. It still turned out to be a good day and we made it back for practice. I also went to the pool with Mandy and Hiro and went bowling with Mandy, Caro, and Denise. Swimming was relaxing as we hopped in the wave pool as well as taking pictures of us jumping off the high dive. Bowling is always a fun social event and Denise whopped our butts over 2 games.

So more about the Eurocup...we are in the B pool this year with 6 teams. It is being held in Edirne, Turkey. We will play each team in a round robin format then the top 4 teams will be seeded into a bracket that will be played out Friday and Saturday. It should be an experience playing on an all grass field. Before we start playing we are spending a day in Istanbul which I am pumped for.

I may not have access to internet while in Turkey, but if I do I will post about the games.

Word of the Day: Kirsche, Erdbeer, Vanille, und Schokolade eis: Cherry, Strawberry, Vanilla, and Chocolate Icecream. Some of my favorite flavors of the deluctable icecream they have here.

Looking to bring back gold to Vienna!