Disorganized Chaos

This past week has been interesting to say the least. In fact I think that I might be in a slight madness-induced coma despite the fact that my eyes are open. It is also possible that my comatose state has something to do with the three consecutive hours of Food Network that I've been watching. I am currently writing about one sentence per half-hour while considering the possibility that Paula Dean might have stolen my idea of hosting a cooking show for drunks even though she doesn't actually ever admit that she is boozed up during the broadcast. Apparently the ship has already sailed on that plan even though I'm convinced that here in Aalst I would have a great target audience for such a show, but I digress...

Now, where do I begin?

The week has been filled with a wide range of interesting occurrences, some of which were exciting and others that I could have gone without. I suppose I'll begin with the unwelcome events so that we can get all of that shit out of the way (pardon my French, but I'm not obligated to practice since I'm commuting into Brussels for grad school). I will actually reach back a few weeks for this next thrilling story. It all began when Damon went to France for a few games with his team and was knocked out after a collision during his game. The symptoms of a minor concussion were not too much to worry about until the following day when he began having nose bleeds. Clearly the only rational thing to do is to panic because every concussion results in brain damage, paralysis, hemorrhaging, pancreatic cancer, malaria, polio, and blindness. No... seriously. Check WebMD. However, he was one of the lucky ones and the brain scan that I forced him to get was clear. Little did we know, this would be the least of our worries for the week.

Last weekend the Okapi team had games on both Friday and Saturday. I'm going to go ahead and add that these were the 4th and 5th games that they had played within a week and a half, which might seem like a difficult schedule for a human body to survive. You're probably thinking to yourself, 'gee, how can anyone stay healthy when they are practicing twice a day for 10 months with games every weekend?!'  Fascinating question. You'd be right in assuming that it is a struggle at times; exhibit A: Damon Huffman. Unfortunately Damon injured his knee in his game against Amsterdam on Saturday. After various scans it was discovered that he had torn the ligaments that hold his Patella in place and so on Tuesday he went in for knee surgery to repair the damage. The doctor said it would take about three months before he could start playing again.

I could sit and bitch about how much that diagnosis sucks, but I think I'd rather look on the bright side. As far as knees go, three months isn't all that bad. ACL injuries can take an extremely long time to come back from, and there are plenty of other injuries that can be career-ending for a professional athlete. Obviously when your livelihood is dependent on your body and your physical health, an injury can be a scary thing. Like in any profession, you are paid to produce, and if you can no longer do that then you are replaced. If you can play into your thirties then for the most part you are in the minority for a basketball player and your career is considered to have been a fairly long one. An injury brings a variety of worries for an athlete. Although contracts include injury insurance, it is possible that a team will choose to buy out your contract and bring in someone else to play. For example Trevor's team (Damon's brother for those of you that don't know) went through something like 14-16 players and a coach all in one season. They are expendable commodities and often times there isn't much loyalty between team management and players. Another concern is that an injury can become part of your reputation, and it is something that teams take into consideration before pursuing a contract with you. A history of injury can be a major deal breaker. While professional European basketball can be extremely lucrative, it is certainly not the NBA and these players are not set for life after playing for a few seasons. That being said, Damon is very lucky that his injury is something that can be fixed with surgery and that he has a live in babysitter (me). It is also nice to be playing in a  place like Aalst where good relationships can be formed between the club and the players. It is early in the season which leaves plenty of time to heal and then return to the court with more than half of the season and playoffs left!

Ok. Blah blah blah. I've surely bored you to death with the inner workings of European basketball. The real point is that now I have the equivalent of an immobile, giant child in my house who for the time being can hardly move off the temporary bed that is set up in the middle of our living room (I may be exaggerating slightly). Clearly this location is important because then he can have easy access to video games, food, sleeping accommodations, and television without moving. So let's be honest here, the only real issue with this entire situation will be trying to ensure that he doesn't spend 3 months straight murdering his brain cells by playing video games... annnnnd also that our living room doesn't look like it is straight out of an episode of Hoarders.

Now I suppose I should move on to the more positive and exciting things that are happening in life right now. Last week was my first week of orientation for my Masters program, and this week is the first week of classes! It is all very exciting and overwhelming at the same time. It has been more than two years so I was last in school and so it is certainly going to be an adjustment. It takes me anywhere from 50 minutes to an hour and ten minutes to get to the campus in Brussels by train (Aalst is only about a 20-25 minute drive from Brussels, but the trains make many stops along the way so it takes more time). I have spent the early part of this week sitting in on various classes and trying to decide which courses will be part of my schedule for this term. It has been a little bit of a struggle because I have to take some constraints into consideration that most of the other students don't have. The majority of the students live in Brussels near the campus, so they don't have to take train schedules and commuting time into consideration. I also have volleyball at least 4 days a week which means that I have to be home from school in time to get in the car and drive in the opposite direction to Gent. Hopefully I'll have my final schedule set within the next few days and then I can stop being an insane stress case.

Orientation week was exciting because it was my first chance to meet my classmates and professors. Seeing as this is a European University, orientation clearly had to include an excess of booze. I mean what better way to get to know a group of strangers than to get them drunk off of unlimited, free wine and let them over-share and blurt everything about themselves in a matter of hours?! I've met people in my program from all over the world; Greece, France, Ireland, Germany, Costa Rica, Colombia, The Czech Republic, Kansas, and even another girl from Washington State! I've discovered that Grad school is an interesting place; an entirely different beast than the Undergrad experience. It is awesome to meet other people that are equally as nerdy as I am and that are just as excited to continue learning. You also meet people that want to spend their time telling you how smart they are, which is always entertaining. I've already had someone tell me that from their experience they can see that Americans are dumb, I've learned that someone was up for an orgy after they announced it to the entire bar, and I've learned that one classmate is far more knowledgeable in the field that they majored in than anyone else in our Masters program (which I think MUST be obvious considering they've earned an undergraduate degree which is a feat that hardly anyone else in the world has achieved...). Grad students are fascinating. I love them. I hope that they'll find me at least slightly interesting too and that I'll be able to make some friends so that I'm not the weird kid that gets picked on during recess.

In other news, my volleyball team played our first official league match on Saturday. After nearly 2 months worth of preseason training, conditioning, and practice scrimmages (or 'friendly matches' as they call them here), this was a very welcome and exciting change. I am positive that the average age on our team makes us the youngest team in the first division, and also most likely the smallest, height-wise. But we won our first match in three sets, and played extremely well! I think we were even a little surprised by ourselves because we really came together and played with great chemistry and energy, and we were able to compete at a level that we hadn't yet reached during pre-season. Hopefully this will be a confidence booster for us and we will be able to continue competing with the bigger, more experienced teams. For now, I'm quite proud of all of my 'baby girls', as I like to call them on account of the fact that I've been playing volleyball since a few of them were 4 years old... That's a fact that I'm reluctantly sharing and one that we don't need to revisit because it just reminds me that I'm going to blink and be 35. Devastating. 

I'm probably forgetting to fill you in on all sorts of thrilling things, but my brain is completely overloaded and I'm trying desperately to avoid getting so flustered that I spontaneously combust and splatter brain chunks all over my already messy living room. More than once this week I've asked myself, 'what the hell have I gotten myself into?!' I vividly remember telling myself frequently during my undergraduate student-athlete experience that I would never put myself through something like that again. Well apparently I'm out of my mind and I love torturing myself. But hey, at least a serious lack of sleep, and self-inflicted pain and stress is better than being bored out of my tiny little mind. Right?

RIGHT?!