Basket: The universal language

I thought I probably wouldn´t be as good at basketball in Spanish as I am when I play in English. But, really, it was about the same. Granted, the level of play on the national team in Navarra is that of a lower class Division 3 team in the states, I´d say. I could understand plays pretty well, and once I asked, "Como se dice..." and acted out a screen for someone, I found out how to say "screen!" and I was on my way.

It was so fun to play basketball again! I think anywhere there´s a court a ball and a team, I feel at home. The coach´s name is Gnaki (like gnocchi, with an "a" sound in the middle). The main guy, Yuso, wasn´t there last night. I think he sort of organizes the teams and the coaches take over from there.

Anyhow, practice started at 9:30 and it was mostly 3 on 3 type drills and then scrimmaging. Gnaki would write out a play to focus on or have us go against a zone. I didn´t really need to understand his words, just had to watch a drill or play one time through and rotate in.

I tried to talk with a couple of girls on the sidelines and we laughed pretty hard at how bad I was at Spanish and them at english, but we got our points across. I´ve chatted with Maria, Pui and Garaze so far. Maria seems to be the main PG. Pui is the oldest on the team at 25 and Garaze is just a baby at 19. We have practice again Wednesday and I plan on chatting them up a bit more.

I think the main difference between this team and those in the states is conditioning. All I´ve been doing is running and I was ready to play more after a couple games while the other girls were dragging. They are talented though. Good passers and shooters. Gnaki said he´s working on a way to make it so I can play with the national team in games too, he knows some english. If it works, I´ll get to travel around northern Spain with them to play! What a great way to see Spain! I really hope it works out.

I had my first Spanish class this morning too. My professor seems nice and I understood more than I thought I would, but will need to ask questions and make sure. There are supposed to be 12 people in my class, but only 9 came today. 2 others are American and most of them speak english. But, I´ll be speaking Spanish as much as I can.

Today we went over the extra credit and where to find books we might need. There are 5 of us in a special program that gives extra help through an online database. We stayed later than everyone else to get acquainted with the stuff on the computer and that was it. My only homework so far is to buy the books for Thusday. It´s a bit intimidating, but I´m just gonna throw myself to the wolves, as I´ve been doing in most situations lately.

Well, I´m off to jog with the butterflies again. I hope everyone is well and thanks for all the notes of encouragment!