Catching up

So to close out 2008...

• I stayed up until 7 am to watch the presidential election and acceptance speech from Barrack. Probably the best speech I've ever heard live in my lifetime. I'm pumped for the Inauguration!
• A wicked time in Osnabruck with big Kev and his teammates. Resulting in unforgettable partying with the doner man.
• A huge thanksgiving dinner with around 25 people, 1 turkey, and interesting side dishes brought to the table (mac & cheese??, pizza??).
• A spur of the moment trip to Koln at 1 am with Kevin, Olson, and some other teammates. What could possibly await 12 guys each paying 30 euro for a 40 minute train ride on a Saturday night?
• A visit from my White Birch Lodge friend Abby and her roommate Kelly who were studying abroad in London town which was a blast!!
• A trip to Amsterdam where I found myself down $160, completely sober, and only window shopping around the red light district (I promise Mom). (yes this is my car)
• I also got the chance to catch up with Coach Wilcox and his team in Amsterdam. It was quite a coincidence to run into the whole team at this little cafe...
• A flight-squad throw up after a serious throw down in front of the infamous Kbomb.
  
• 5 Wins by a total of 65, 2 Losses by a total of 6, a new career high in points (37), a new career high in rebounds (18), the best game of Basketball I have ever played (34 pts, 52% fg, 18 reb, 2 TO, 3 Ast, 1 Steal, 1 Block in 40 minutes), the 2nd best dunk in a game of my career (Elms still prevails), my first successful alley oop in a game, and our team is in 3rd place for the first time to finish 2008.

I apologize to my thousands of readers for the lack of updates but it has been a wild ride and I have made a great effort to limit my daily computer time.

As for my time back home and bringing in the new year I was fortunate enough to spend some great quality family time with both of my grandmothers, my cousins in Illinois, and of course my parents and sister. I also got the chance to keep it live in Ann Arbor and New Years Eve in New York City! I got the chance to spend my time in America with loved ones and and indulged myself with America's finest... burgers, Gatorades, Taco Bell, my automatic transmission Jeep, skittles, dishwashers, dryers in the laundry room, high definition television, AMERICAN TELEVISION, AMERICAN SPORTS ON American television, and many many more. I even got to watch my Detroit Lions loose their 16th game of the season. I thought they wouldn't pull it out but of course we broke the record and I'm really proud of my boys (or angry brick wolves for that matter).

Since being back in Germany, I have had some of the most fun yet. I had a special visitor from Amherst come stay for a week. Chelsea and I spent some quality time watching movies, experimenting with cooking (ever had chickamon??? chicken with cinnamon, ask for the recipe if your interested), visiting den Haag in the Netherlands, and many hours spent on the road. She even got to watch us embarrass the most low-budget team in our league with a 3o point smothering. That's about it for now. Keep on working hard with whatever you are doing and remember, "The only things we ever keep are what we give away." -Louis Ginsberg