LOST

As I mentioned in my last blog, my husband came to visit for two weeks *happy face* and now he's gone again *sad face*.

Usually we plan for him to visit me twice during the season... one time before Christmas and the other time somewhere around March to break up 4-5 long months without seeing each other.

This season had been a little bit out of the ordinary for us: after asking for a release from Brno at the beginning of November, I ended up signing a one-month contract in Kosice. There we ended up having a very busy game schedule, so it didn't make sense for my husband to come out while I was traveling all over Europe.

With two practices a day and a gameday routine, it becomes very hard to be a good host and entertain people who come to visit, and because basketball is my job I can't just neglect those things. Having visitors becomes especially challenging when the weather is bad too and while my husband was in town it was snowing and raining for the most part here in Targoviste.

Luckily with my husband, he is a great visitor! He is a home body and likes to spend his vacation time inside the house, just relaxing and doing nothing. He is the exact opposite of me. (He calls me a butterfly... I always want to go out and see the world... always moving!) With that we definitely fall into the category of "opposites attract".

About 3 years ago, we started a routine of watching dvd series during his visits. We started of with Prisonbreak, a show that the ladies of Cras Basket Taranto got me/us hooked on. Then after four successful seasons Scofield & Co. retired and we had to find something new.... Prisonbreak was definitely a tough act to follow.... (I loved me some Scofield.... Ssssshh *whispering like Scofield* don't tell me husband!)

Going back to "opposites attract", my husband and I don't have the same taste when it comes to tv. I consider Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and The Office to be one of my favorite shows while he wouldn't even consider watching them if there was nothing else on tv.

So it was quite difficult to find something that both agreed to.

Then last year in Brno, we found it: ... "LOST"
(lol... that was kind of a funny word game, wasn't it... we "found" "lost"... hahahaha...ok.... my bad... not funny? Anyways...)

So last season in Brno we watched the first season of "Lost"... and we got hooked. Then with all the circumstances we had to wait ONE WHOLE YEAR to pick up the show again... and believe me when I say that "we caught up!!!" We set a personal record of watching 2 1/2 seasons in just 2 weeks.

Besides being "lost on an island" for most of his trip, we were able to enjoy some sun on one of days off as we were walking through the center of Targoviste, and my husband got the opportunity to lead two practices for some of the young MCM basketball players. On his last day in Romania, we explored Bucarest. In the "Big City" we were witnesses of a bizarre street fight... well, one guy was fighting, the other one was "playing defense". We got to watch "Alice in Wonderland" in 3D, which was a complete disappointment for me... I don't know about my husband, he slept through 3/4th of the movie... hihihihi... and then, last but not least we were able to start season 4 in our hotel room.... oops, that does seem a little unhealthy here.... HELLO, MY NAME IS LINDA.... AND I AM A TV SHOW ADDICT!!!!!!

Well time is flying when you have fun, and this blog was fun, wasn't it?

I am going to add some pictures next time, because now I need to pack my bag, because we are leaving for Bucarest tomorrow.... for the ROMANIAN CUP!!!

Game 1 against Olympia... at 15 o'clock.... I hope to see many of you there!!!

Noapte bunã now ("Good night" in Romanian)
LINDA

IT'S BEEN A WHILE

I am back.... my husband came to visit me here in Targoviste for the last two weeks, so I was a little busy :) My bad.... he left this morning *sniff sniff*, so please give me another day and I will write again.

LINDA

LOSS AGAINST SF.GHEORGHE

This has been a rough week for us girls in orange and blue. Second loss in just five days.

But it's basketball. You win some, and you lose some. Not that I underestimate the importance of this game, but I was again believe that something to become great you HAVE TO FAIL... but it's not the failure, but what you take from it.

Michael Jordan said it best:




Yes, I understand that it must be a great shock to all the Targoviste fans again, but trust me, we will be ok. Yesterday their pointguard Diaconu caught fire and couldn't miss a shot, and the whole team of Sf. Gheorghe played a pretty smart all game long.

I have to applaud the fans of Sf. Gheorghe- don't misunderstand me, they are NOT Targoviste fans ;)- but the atmosphere was great. It's nice to see people come together and cheer for one cause and support women's basketball.

The thing I didn't understand was, if I understood it correctly, that the crowd kept screaming "Dynamo"... as if they wanted to rub the loss against them into our face. I thought that that was kinda silly... especially because Targoviste was fighting for ROMANIA in the FIBA Cup, so to celebrate our loss in this international competition was a little unnecessary... but hey, to each their own.

Ok, I am gonna get going now. Got to finish this load of laundry real quick and start packing again... tomorrow we are off to Arad for the Romanian Cup, and it's going to be an EEEEARLY morning.

La Revedere,
LINDA

LEARN FROM EXPERIENCE

I know that God has His own timing, but yet it continues to amaze me every single time.

This time it's about the Daily Devotional of Bob Gass (www.bobgass.com) that I usually read everyday.

While we were in Russia I wasn't able to read it, so when I went back a couple of lessons today, I found out that the topic of the past couple of days has been "learning from experience".... Isn't this ironic? That's exactly what I talked about yesterday.

Please join in to read this "Food For Thought."

"The Lord gives wisdom." Pr 2:6 Contrary to what you may have heard, experience is not the best teacher - evaluated experience is the best teacher! Everybody has some kind of experience; it's what you do with your experience that matters. We all begin our lives as empty notebooks. Every day we've an opportunity to record new experiences. With each page we gain more understanding. Ideally, as we progress our notebook becomes filled with observations. But not all of us make the best use of our notebooks. Some of us leave the notebook closed; we rarely jot down anything at all. Others fill their pages but never take time to read them, reflect on them and gain greater wisdom. But a few of us not only make a record of what we experience, we linger over it and reflect on it. Reflection turns into insight, so that we not only live the experience,
but learn from it. We all know people with lots of knowledge, but little understanding. They have the means, but they don't know the meaning of anything. What's the problem? Their life experience is void of reflection and evaluation. When twenty-five years go by they don't gain twenty-five years' experience, they gain one year of experience twenty-five times! To win in life you must turn your experience into wisdom. So:
(1) Slow down. Wisdom is gleaned over time, not overnight.
(2) Drill down. The treasure is there, but you have to dig for it.
(3) Get down. Yes, get down on your knees and talk to God, because "The Lord gives wisdom."

So as I'm sitting on the bus right now to Sf. Gheorghe I am still not 100% able to completely forget about the loss in Kursk... but I trust that at the end this disappointing experience was meant for SOMEthing good! I hope that we each individually will take some time to reflect and grow from it- to then come together again and fight as a unit for the remaining titles left in this season.

A unit thas it stronger, closer and unbeatable.

Let's go MCM!
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

RECAP-REARRANGE-RETHINK

First of all, just to make it clear to everyone: I, Linda Frohlich, understand that basketball is just a game. I am thankful for every moment I have in it, but I also know that basketball is not who I am and not what defines me. God defines me and His eternal love drives me each and every day.

However I am still a competitor, I play basketball for a living!
And that competitor in me is now going to write this blog:

It felt different when I walked into my apartment last night after the 18 hour trip ... why?
Well, my apartment seemed different. Did somebody rearrange it while I was gone? NO! Well, what was different then?

Ever since I had stepped foot into this city, I was determined to do one thing... and that was to bring the FIBA Cup to Targoviste. Everything I had done, everything I had said, everything I had dreamed of was to get this little cup.

I saw it. I felt it and for some reason I knew that we could win it all.

So when I walked into my apartment this time, it had been the first time since I had been in this place, in this city without this self-proclaimed purpose anymore.

Less than 24 hours ago, in just 40 minutes, I had been robbed off this one dream, robbed off what I thought was our team's destiny.... and... was left with an empty heart.

It was this change of heart is what made me feel a difference.

The apartment felt colder than usual, even though all the snow had melted in the week that we were gone, and the temperatures were up again.

The apartment felt lonier than usual, even though I had always been by myself out here and believe me, ever since my heart has been empty, I've been getting a lot of visitors: like Mrs. Anger, Mr. Disappointment, Little Miss Disgust, etc... who of course then bring along their Uncle Negativity and Aunt Nausea!!

Today we have a day off, and it leaves a lot of time to think, to sulk and... re-focus.

Fact is, that we have another game coming up this Sunday in Sf. Gheorghe.
Fact is, the Romanian season is still going on.
Fact is, there's still a Romanian Cup and Title out there to win.
Fact is, life goes on.

I see the facts, but just the thought of the circumstances continues to sicken me and it hurts; and it will probably remain like that for a while, and always be one of those memories that leave a sour taste behind.

I want to apologize to all the fans and supporters, to all those who believed alongside of us, and couldn't do anything about it. You have been great and I hope you will continue to come out and support us.

Oftentimes we learn much more from our failures than we do from success, and I hope that that's what we'll all do... learn something from this loss/situation, and let it not be invain.

Let me finish this off with these two Bible verses that have been on my mind today.

Hebrews 12:10-11 "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose"

HAPPY TO BE IN KURSK

After leaving for the airport at 7am this morning (Bucarest time), we have been officially on the road for 17 hours now.

It's 1am local time here in Kursk. We just landed, got our bags and are on the bus to the hotel now.

We had some serious layover time today at the airport in Moscow (it probably ended up being approx. 7 hours, I think).

Luckily Shay brought some cards and taught Tina, Samba, and me how to play "Taki"... the Israelian version... Of course didn't reveal all of the rules at once so she could keep the upper hand at all times ;) but seriously, those cards probably saved us today, because "time flies when you have fun".

Now I am ready to stretch out my body and get some "horizontal rest"... Where is the hotel???

Are we there yet?

LINDA

This was our "private plane" from Moscow to Kursk... We barely all fit on there:


The baggage claim in Moscow had a surprise for me waiting: my Fenerbahce girls were there, too... on their way to play against Spartak Moscow in the Euroleague....

WIN IN ARAD

It wasn't a pretty one today, but we pulled it off: 68-53.

When we came into the gym of BC ICIM Arad the atmosphere was great: the opponents were like race horses in their boxes, ready to get the game started and the gym was packed with Arad fans who were anticipating a good game.

Their team came out and didn't let us get anything easy.
After a long fight for 40 minutes we luckily- and skillfully, came out on top at the end of the night.

To our surprise we had a busload of fans who had come all the way from Targoviste to support us on our away game.... which was awesome, because those 2000 Arad fans were no joke :)!!!!

Unfortunately I don't have actual pictures of today's game yet, but I just wanted to post a couple of photos of our great supporters, who have gotten on the bus today to come out to Arad and cheer us on.... on a one-way12-hours-busride.... TWO THUMBS UP!!!
Thanks for your help... we love you all!!!