During yesterdays practice, we had a conditioning coach come in and put us through about a 30-minute workout. It was intense, but you know me how I love to workout so I enjoyed it! We then played a little bit of 5 on 5 and then coach called it a day after that. So we pretty much had from 1:00 p.m. until the rest of the night free which was really nice. Dila (one of my teammates) told me about a Presidential Cup Men’s Basketball game between the top two Professional Men’s Basketball teams in Turkey. The game was happening later on that night. I was interested in going, so Dila asked coach for some tickets and he hooked us up with some!! Coach gave us 8 tickets, so Jo, Linsday, Dila, Dilek, Damla, Candide, Dila's friend, and myself all decided to go.
We left around 5:30 for the Fenerbahce vs. Efes Pilsen game (the two teams that played), because Dila said that it would be pretty crowded. I was also excited, because it meant more exploring of Ankara. To get to the game we took a dolmus (small bus), which only cost 1.7 lire, which is about $1. The bus was a good 15 minute drive, and we went by Armada and the Anka Mall…Anka Mall is even bigger than Armada. It was nice to be able to see some different parts of the city. When we got to the gym, it was too early to go in, so we had to wait outside for a while. It was a pretty interesting atmosphere, because you had people selling things, drinking tea, smoking, the whole nine yards. There were hundreds of people waiting for the gates to open to get into the game. Dila knew somebody that was working the game, so we were able to go around back and get into the gym about 45 minutes before it started.
The Feberbahce vs. Efes game was pretty intense. The crowd is crazy throughout the entire game. Fans from both teams had all kinds of chants made up...it was pretty amazing! One thing I noticed right away was how physical the refs let the game get. There were guys flying all over the place in the first few minutes. Fener started out really good, and maintained a lead on Efes for the majority of the game. Going down the stretch though, Efes kept hanging around and eventually tied the game. At the end of the regulation period the score was tied, so it meant going into overtime! In overtime, Efes took control and ended up winning the game!
*I was able to take some pictures while I was at the game, so I will post some of them on the "pictures" page, and then a few at the bottom!
Fast forward to today...I just got done with my first practice of the day, and have a break until the next practice tonight. I figured I would blog a little bit now, because I wanted to fill you in on the conclusion of the sheep story J. So today for lunch we were happy to see that they were serving pizza…it looked good from what I could tell! Well, when I went to start eating it, I noticed that there was some pinkish looking meat under the cheese. I am not a big fan of bologna, and I will eat beef hot dogs, but I had no clue what this meat was. I knew that it wasn’t pork, because over here they do not eat pork because of the Muslim culture. I decided to give it a try, and I wasn’t surprised to find out that I didn’t like it at all. I scraped all of it off and then just ate the bread and cheese. Well, Jo and Lindsay were eating their pizza, and both thought it tasted pretty good for the most part. I was joking around, and said, “I bet that is the sheep that we saw yesterday”. Well, this got Lindsay a little worried so she asked Dila what it was, and she wasn’t sure so she asked the Chef, and he told her it was lamb!!! Crazy huh? So then we all started laughing and Lindsay asked Dila to ask the Chef if it was killed yesterday. So Dila asked the Chef and he nodded his head. He did not nod his head no, but nodded it YES…crazy huh? So needless to say, the sheep that was once alive yesterday is now sitting on top of the pizza in the cafeteria today! If you ever want to try a “sheep dog” pizza then come to Turkey where you can fulfill your wish and desire J.
Oh and I also want to give a shout out to the Lady Flames Women’s Basketball team! Today is their first official day of practice. HAVE some FUN!! I encourage all of you to work hard, and ultimately to honor and glorify God. I miss all of you girls, but know that I will be following your progress throughout the season. Enjoy this special time in your life, because it will go by so fast! Love you girls!
Well, I am going to relax and rest before my next practice! Hope you all have a wonderful day J.