Allez! Allez! BCB!!!

Hello! It's Todd this time! Mary said that I had to start contributing and write on the blog! Just kidding! But since this one is about basketball, I thought it should come from me!

Basketball in Switzerland has been great to us so far! There are 11 teams in our league and we have played everyone once, which puts us at 1/3 of the way through the season right. We currently have 4 wins and 6 losses. Injuries have been a big problem for our team. Douglas Tshomba has been out for 3 games and Pierre Wooten has been out for 5. These two guys account for over 30 points per game! So, I was FORCED to take more shots! HAHA

Game 7 of the season, we played Lausanne gave them their first win of the season! Everybody was pretty down after the loss and our coach even tried to quit... long story. To top it all, we had to play Fribourg, who was the undefeated at the time. But, we pulled out a HUGE upset and beat them here at home! Unfortunately, I rolled my ankle in the last play of the first half. I went into the locker room and got it taped up and finished the 2nd half with some pain, but it wasn't too bad.

So, I went to the team doctor and he took X-Rays and checked my ankle on a sonogram. He cleared me to play saying that everything looked OK. Our next game against Monthey was just 3 days away at home. Mary took care of me while I rested and iced my ankle. I played against Monthey after double-taping my ankle. We played pretty well, but unfortunately lost on free throw with no time on the clock. To make things worse, the guy who made the free throw is 41 years old! (Don't give up the dream Scoots!)

After the Monthey game, I didn't practice all week because my ankle just wasn't feeling better. The swelling went down, but the pain just would not go away. I've rolled my ankle a hundred times, and it usually feels better after a week or so. So after 2 weeks, I got an MRI, on Thanksgiving :( But, we quickly had something to be thankful for because the radiologist and the team doc told me that I did not reinjure my surgically repaired tendon and would not need another surgery!

So, the good news is no surgery, the bad news is that I can't play until after Christmas. However, I'm treating this time like a little vacation! Although we don't get to visit many places, Mary and I get a lot more time together around the house. I also get to take lots of naps as you can see... Mary never fails to take a picture of me!

Boncourt is a very unique place to play in many ways. Most teams in the league are owned by a single person or company, Boncourt is owned by "the people" or the city. Boncourt is a town of just 1200 people, but we average over 900 per game (2nd in the league)! The club refers to itself as a family, which reminds me a lot of Pekin. There are always people from the town that stop in at practice and people stop us all the time and talk to us about basketball. We can't understand anything they say, but it is great to feel that support!

Each game, they give a gift to the MVP from each team (chosen by the opposing coach). The first game against Nyon, I won it and got this huge basket of groceries! Lots of good chocolate!

Autumn Festival in Basel

We are having a gorgeous Autumn over here in Switzerland. The leaves turned beautiful colors as they always do. Unfortunately now, most of them have fallen. We are currently having a warm front which we are not complaining about. : ) Our time here has gone so fast! We can't believe it is already mid-November.

There is an annual Autumn festival in Basel. Basel is one of the biggest cities in Switzerland, and it is only about an hour away from us. The festival is a huge ordeal that lasts for three straight weeks. It is spread throughout the city in seven separate "squares." There is a really neat boat that taxis people across the main river. It is powered by the current of the river and wind. We have taken it a few times; it saves a lot of walking!

We decided to go on our Wednesday afternoon off, and we ended up meeting our friend Reto and his girlfriend. We were blessed with beautiful weather and temperate. We were lucky since we were walking all over the city. There were many large rides; some were even comparable to those at Six Flags. There was a giant Ferris wheel, and we took some really good pictures of the city from the top. They also had many stands of crafts, gifts, flea market items, and produce. Everything was set up very elaborately, and there were a lot of people demonstrating their product they were trying to sell. There was everything you could think of from magic tricks to kitchen supplies. They also had a lot of carnival type games. Todd was determined to win a hamburger pillow!

They had sooo many delicious food stands; it was incredible. Naturally we love to eat, so we splurged and sampled MANY of them. : ) They did have some food that was typical of an American festival, such as honey glazed almonds, cotton candy, and pretzels. Basel is the "German part" of Switzerland, so there was a lot of food that was typical of Germany. We sampled many different sausage/bratwursts. We tried the traditional "German fast food" Currywurst. SOO delicious! The bratwursts came with no bun, mustard, and a slice of bread. They had fruit dipped in chocolate. Of course, beer in wine stands were plentiful. They had a roasted nut called a marroni. They roast them right in front of you and then you shell them yourselves. They were also selling corn on the cob for 7 Sfr!!!!! I couldn't believe it; it was really quite humorous : )

We had so much fun, we went back again the next Sunday! It was a rainy day, but we still enjoyed ourselves. One thing that we found so surprising is how CLEAN everything still was after 3 weeks of a crowded festival! The public bathroom was spotless and stocked with toilet paper. (I don't know about you, but I find this is usually not the case in the States!) The ground was free of garbage and the city still held a general feeling of cleanliness. I really applaud the Suisse for this!

PS- Thanks Aunt Marsha!!!

Life in Porrentruy

Sorry it has been a while! This program is frustrating me : ) Things are going well over here in Switzerland. The leaves are changing for fall, and it is absolutely beautiful! The mountains are a vast array of color with a contrast of dark green evergreens. We have been having wonderful weather. The sun has been shining, and it has been in the 60's. The only thing our gorgeous fall is missing is caramel apples.

We have really adjusted well to life in Switzerland. The pace of life here is refreshingly slow, and we have been enjoying it. All of the shops close for at least an hour around lunchtime. The bank in Boncourt is closed from 11:30-2:30! We have been grocery shopping mostly in France because the prices are much cheaper than here in Switzerland. We get to cross the border almost daily. Sometimes they stop us and try to ask if we have anything to "declare". There is only a certain amount of red meat/alcohol you are allowed to bring over the border. They usually see the BCB Basketball sticker on our car, and they're like oh oui!! okay!! haha

There are so many trails in Switzerland. We have spent a lot of time walking around aimlessly. We have recently discovered a really pretty hidden trail that is really close to our apartment. Poor Toddy gets home from practice, and I make him walk to a new trail I've found. : ) I spend a lot of time wandering around while Todd is at practice. I have a secret bench where I often go to read. It is near the castle that is right down the street from our apartment. The castle is awesome; it is so old and majestic.

The flower pots in the street had been stripped of their summer flowers. I was distressed about this, especially since the flowers still looked really pretty! I was very happy when I looked outside one day and they were planting "winter flowers." They also clipped the branches off of a certain type of tree. They chopped them off before the leaves even started to turn colors. It gives them a really strange look!

As we said before, the cheese and chocolate here are ridiculously amazing. They have a certain type of cheese here called Raclette. There is a special grill they use to cook it until its bubbly and gooey. Our friend Reto brought it over last week, and it is so good! It is so fun to have a lifestyle where you can walk somewhere and grab something you need. I've never really experienced that growing up in the country. Many nights, Todd and I will walk to the store for a fresh, warm baguette!

Belfort, France

Things have been cooling down here in Switzerland. We have started experiencing weather in the 40's-50's. It has still been really sunny and beautiful though! We have really been embracing fall. The trees changing colors on the mountains is incredible. It is a panel of colors with the dark evergreens remaining. One night, we made a quick trip to Belfort, France.

They have a massive lion carved into rock. It is a monumental sculpture built by Frederic Bartholdi, who is the same guy who sculpted the statue of liberty. It is 22 meters long and 11 meters high. It symbolizes the heroic French resistance during the siege of Belfort. There were 40,000 Prussians and only 17,000 Frenchman(only 3,500 of these were military) and they still managed to hold off the Prussians. It was very neat to see!

It is set into the backside of a French la citadelle de la liberte. We walked all around it; it was so cool to experience the history first hand. (Dad, you would have been proud: ) We also saw some amazing views of the city from the top.

On our walk back, we couldn't resist taking a picture with a "smart car". They are everywhere in Europe! I still can't help but laugh every time I see one up close.