After a great summer of camps with Aspire Higher Basketball, my next adventure is playing professional basketball for Perpignan, France! Last year I played for Netanya, Israel. I've been blessed to see different parts of the world and experience different cultures. When I arrived the general manager and president of the team picked me up and they both did not speak one word of English! After 10mins of attempting sign language we discovered that google translate is the best way to go. Thank goodness for technology. Next stop was to meet the team, who luckily all spoke English and have been very nice and helpful. They have even helped me learn a little French and they said in 3 months I'll be fluent....HA! We'll see. After three days of being in France and one practice with the team we traveled to a small town about 4 hours away called Saint Sever for a practice game. I love the coaches style of play and philosophy. Always great ball movement and player movement in the offenses, and he constantly tells me to "run and gun." It's a shooter's dream! Can't wait for season to start.
Below are a number of pictures and descriptions that give a glimpse of some of the experiences I have had so far.
Picture of our home court and the team playing the first day I arrived! Unfortunately I was unable to start playing until I passed the medical test.
On the left is cow tongue! One of many interesting things I found while grocery shopping with the general manager that doesn't speak english. He helped me to understand with different gestures..for example with this one he pointed at it, then said "moooooo," and then pointed to his tongue! No thank you! On the right is a rice and seafood dish from a restaurant in Barcelona, Spain. Being a fan of the movie Happy Feet 2, I started laughing because Will and Bill were on my plate straight from the ocean eyeballs attached and all! Yikes.
My own little foreign car!
The interesting culture doesn't stop at food! For the jerseys he said I have the choice of shorts, which are more like spandex, or a skirt. Hahaha! Any suggestions??
We had time to walk around the small town of Saint Sever after our long car ride and before our practice game.
Perpignan is a very cute city! I haven't had time to explore but on the left is a little alley way and on the right are some mountains. The city is in between the beach and the mountains! Love the area, best of both worlds.
I will put more pictures up the more I explore but for now....Au revoir!!
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