6 Day Road Trip

I just got back from a six day road trip last night. The travel was brutal....AGAIN! However, we did end up getting two wins. Our first game that we played was on Saturday vs Dijon. As I said before Dijon is a great offensive team that can pose a lot of trouble if you let them get hot. Dijon started out the game playing very well and they played well the entire game. We found ourselves down by 1 point at half. In the second half it was back and forth each team answering the other teams run. It was a very intense game and it ended up being very loud in the gym at the end of the game. The game was tied 81-81 with 20 seconds to go. I held the ball waiting for the clock to run down so that the other team wouldn't have much time if they ended up getting the ball back. With 8 seconds on the clock I made a move at the top of the key, but the defender played great defense and ended up stopping me. As that was going on my teammate Yannick Bokolo was cutting to the basket. I made a one handed pass to him in the middle of the lane and he make a remarkable contested lay with 4 seconds in the game. Dijon ended up calling a timeout. They drew up a play with 4 seconds to go and one of their players got a pretty good look at the basket but he missed the shot and we ended up winning 83-81 on a very great basketball game. That puts our record at 8-2 in French League play.

Our next game was out in Montenegro for our EuroChallenge. It was a very physical game especially from the opposing team. The refs were letting them grab, hold, bite haha believe it or not I got teeth marks in the back of my head from one of their players. The refs were very one sided which allowed the other team to stay in the game. I ended up making 4 free throws down the stretch to seal the game. J.K Edwards had a great game for us, shooting 75 percent from the floor and having 20 points. Followed by myself with 17 points (9-10 FT), and then a lot of guys between 7-9 points. It was a great team win and we definitely showed some poise out on the floor when the other team was begin cheap and the refs were one sided. It felt good to get a couple wins on the road especially after the long travel days that we had. Yesterday I got up at 4am and didnt arrive in Gravelines until 7pm. Flights were delayed and there was traffic coming back from Paris, all in all it makes to be a very long day. I will put up highlights from our trip when they become available. Our EuroChallenge record is at 3-1 with a tie for 1st place in Group A.

I am especially excited to be coming home in 3 days. We have a game this Saturday and then I come back to the states Sunday morning. I am going to be so happy to be able to spend time with loved ones and relax for a bit. I hope all of you have a wonderful time with your family and friends. Definitely enjoy it and be thankful you get the chance to spend time together! Take care and God Bless Joshua 1:9 (RIP Grandpa John, we love you and you will be missed, you are one tough son of a gun!! And tell grandma Carol I say hi I know you are chatting with her right now, she has been waiting for you up there!!)

Last Home Game Highlights

Here is some highlights from our last home game vs Roanne. Thanks again to Cyril for creating the highlights. I will continue to put up highlights when I receive them from Cyril. I finally got videos on the blog I hope you enjoy!! God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Busy, Busy, Busy

Hello again! I know I haven't been up to date on the blogs lately so I am going to fill you in on what's been going on over here in France. After our victory versus Roanne we played in a EuroChallenge game in Russia on Tuesday. Here is what my schedule consisted of earlier this week:

Monday- Left Gravelines 4:00am, Arrived in Russia at 8:30pm (we had a 2 hour time change, so all in all we were traveling for over 14 hours), 5 of my teammates lost their bags (eventually they were found), Stayed in a "so-called" hotel (really it was Bed & Breakfast), extremely long day and finally went to bed around midnight. I forgot to mention that as we were landing in Moscow about 500 feet up from the runway our pilot all of a sudden GUNS the engine and we are going back up in the air at a very steep climb. Well apparently there was another plane ON the runway we were about to land on. Luckly our pilot did a great job of keeping us safe and flying the plane back up in the air. We did a circle and then eventually landed. God was definitely looking out for us that day thats for sure!!

Tuesday- Breakfast at 10:00am, shoot-around at 11:30am, game started at 7:00pm, arrived back at the hotel around 9:45pm, had to get up the following morning at 3:45am (Wednesday morning) to catch a flight back to Paris, arrived in Paris around 2:00pm (Wednesday), bused from Paris to Gravelines and arrived in Gravelines FINALLY at 5:00opm (Wednesday night).

The game in Russia went well for us. We played pretty well the entire game and I believe we had 4 or 5 guys in double figures. The finally score was 77-66 which put our EuroChallenge record at 2-1.

Thursday- Had practiced and relaxed the rest of the day. My body was extremely tired from the long travel days.

Friday- We are back on the road again. We traveled to Dijon today because we have a French Pro A game tomorrow. Dijon is sitting at 4-6 I believe, but they are a very offensive minded team and can be very dangerous. It should be a great game tomorrow night.

After our game tomorrow we spend the night here in Dijon but then we bus to Paris and spend Sunday night in Paris. We are staying in Paris because we have to fly to Montenegro (spelling??) on Monday for another EuroChallenge game that we play out there on Tuesday. We will be on a 5 day road trip, and then we will get back to Gravelines on Wednesday December 16th. Then only 4 days and I will be back in the STATES!!

So there is a little bit about my hectic schedule that I have had recently. It has been a great time being with the team and it allows the time to go by extremely quick. Hopefully we can continue to play well with the rest of the games we have before Christmas. Below is a highlight video that my teammate Cyril created. He is nice enough to let me use the highlights from our games that he creates to put on my blog, so don't thank me for the video's he does all the work haha. The highlight video is from our most recent French game vs Roanne at home. ENJOY :)! I hope everything is going well and I will let you know how the next couple of games goes when I get back to France on Wednesday. Take care and of course God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

BCM wins (7-2)

I would first like to thank everyone that read my last blog and prayed for Amy and her family. I hope that you continue to pray for her and her family, they truly need it! Last night BCM came away with a great win at home. We played Roanne who was 7-2 at the time and I believe they were tied for 2nd place in our league. We came out in the first quarter on FIRE! It seemed like everything that we threw at the rim was going in. We ended up scoring 33 points in the first quarter. We continued to roll throughout the next two quarters and we were up by 30 points in the third quarter. Roanne had fight in them and they started knocking down shots in the 4th quarter and brought the lead to within 15 points. The final score was 84-71 BCM Gravelines. It was a great game to play in front of the fans that we have. I can't even explain anymore how crazy are fans are and how much fun it is to play in front of them. Last night it got so loud in the gym with drums banging, people clapping, and fans cheering I could hardly hear my teammates during the game. I gotta thank the fans for their support and hope they will continue to come support us. I ended up with 18 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds, and 1 steal. Our 3 man Cyril Akpomedah played a great game from top to bottom. He had 26 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist. He was the guy that got things rolling for us in the first quarter. It seemed like he was making every shot and that gave us a spark from the start of the game and we didn't look back after that. We all played a great team game last night and it was again enjoyable playing with the teammates that I have.

Overall, it was a great game for our team and a great win for us. It puts us at 7-2 in the league and in 3rd place. We are currently one game behind everyone else in our league because we had to postpone a game due to H1N1 virus. We have a pretty busy schedule coming up in the next couple weeks. We leave for Russia tomorrow morning at 4:45 am!! We have 3 straight road games ahead of us and then we have 1 home game Saturday the 19th. And then YES I will be flying home on the 20th.

I will post some highlights and photos when they are provided from our website. I hope everyone is getting excited for Christmas, celebrating Jesus birthday, and looking forward to spending quality time with the family, because I definitely am!! Have a wonderful night and lets go VIKES! God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Prayers

Hey everyone... I got an e-mail from my Mom this morning and I got some news about a lady from Owatonna, Minnesota named Amy. Her husband died in a car crash this morning. I don't know who she and I have never spoken to her or her family before but I have heard that her and her family have been following my basketball career for a long time now. The husband worked with my good family friend Murri More.

Not only did Amy lose her husband in a car crash, she lost her son at the age of 4, and she just finished treatment for breast cancer. How much can a person take really?? Like I said I have never talked or met with this family before but I hear they are amazing people. I ask for everyone that reads this blog to say a prayer for Amy and her family. She needs the support and prayers.

Amy I am praying for you and your family. Stay strong! (Joshua 1:9)

EuroChallenge #2

Hello again!! I wanted to give you a quick update on our last game and also our up coming game. We played in Germany last night and we played the worst game our team has played. We ended up losing 81-51. OUCH I know! Basically on every aspect of the game we were terrible. We shot 2-24 from 3 point land and got out rebounded 47-24. It was a rough trip since we bused there and our bus ride was over 8 hours long. I got back this morning at 7:15am. We bused through the night and it wasn't enjoyable at all. Our EuroChallenge record is now at 1-1. We play this Saturday at home in a French league game. Every Tuesday we play a EuroChallenge game and Saturday's we play our French league games. Our next opponent in the French league is Roanne. They are currently 7-2 in our league. We are currently 6-2 in our league. We are one game back overall because our last game in French league got cancelled because the other team was contagious with H1N1. But, it should be an exciting game coming up on Saturday and I am really looking forward to it. I was planning on putting up full game videos on my blog however the videos are too big for my blog so it won't work. But, I will continue to put up pictures and highlights for you. Below is a highlight link from our first EuroChallenge game at home over Thanksgiving. I hope you have a wonderful and blessed day!! God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

http://www.bcm.deltafm.fr/index.php?saison=&cat=4&id=2230

Thanksgiving, Games, Family

Hey everyone!! Sorry I haven't written a blog in awhile but I was with my family all week enjoying their company. My family got in last Saturday and they just left today for Paris. They had a chance to catch two of my games and we also had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving together. When my family got in on Saturday we had a game vs Cholet who was at the time in first place in our league. We ended up winning the game 79-75 in a battle. It was a very intense and physical game but we manage to hold off in the end and got ourselves a big win. We started the EuroChallenge this week and we had another game on Tuesday vs Budconust (I believe they were from Montenegro). Again it was a physical game but we came out with another win beating Budcnoust 70-59. So, our French ProA record stands at 6-2 and our EuroChallenge records is 1-0. I am really enjoying playing twice a week. The more games the better. A little FYI, our game tomorrow has been cancelled because some of the other players from Vichy (team we were going to play) have the H1N1 virus. We wont have another game until next Tuesday Dec. 1st.

As I stated before my family came to visit me over the week of Thanksgiving. It was wonderful being able to see them and having them at the games this past week. I ended up taking them to Brugge, Belgium to show them around a little bit and explore Europe a bit. We didn't have too much time to be able to do much because of the two games that we had and also because of our practices that we had. We manage to be able to get out on Monday and head to Brugge. It was a great place to sightsee and check out. I had never been there before and I thought it was a great place and a place that people should check out if they get the chance to. It is called the city of lights and the whole city center is lit up by lights. It looks really neat at night. My family and I thought that it was a lot of fun and very enjoyable. For Thanksgiving we cooked (meaning my Mom) our own little feast and it was spectacular. Mom cooked some turkey, corn, and potato's. It was amazing being able to sit down at the table with my family and have a nice enjoyable supper together! I was really happy that my family got to experience the lifestyle over here in France. It was funny seeing them try to interact with people over here. I really got a laugh when we went to the grocery store and they were trying to figure out what type of food is what. It was a wonderful week with my family, Thanksgiving, and a couple basketball games. I will be praying they have a great time in Paris and safe travels home.

Again sorry I havent written a blog in awhile but now that I am back to myself at my place and some time on my hands I will be written them more frequently haha. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, there is plenty that we can be Thankful for. I will write again soon. God Bless (Joshua 1:9)!

Update, Preview of Upcoming Game

Good Afternoon! This week has gone by extremely fast and I wanted to give you a quick update on how things are going and a little preview of our next opponent. I won't have any other time to let you know how things are going so I figured I would write a quick note this afternoon. The reason I won't have much time to write tomorrow is because I am cleaning and doing some maintenance around the townhouse so it looks nice and clean for MY FAMILY!!! That's right my family will be here Saturday morning and they will be here through Thanksgiving. Now, just to let you know I am GEEKED, EXCITED, PUMPED, HAPPY, THRILLED, ANXIOUS, ETC, ETC that they will be with me for over a week. Those are just a couple words off the top of my head which describes how I'm feeling about there appearance in France. Finally, I will be coming home to my family after practices and games and will be able to communicate with them live and in person instead of via computer/skype. So thats a little bit about what I am looking forward to in the next couple days besides our game on Saturday.

Saturday we place the first place team in our league Cholet (6-1). We are currently 5-2 and in a tie for 3rd place in our league. We are at home this weekend and it should be a great game. I am looking forward to playing in front of our crazy fans again. Its always a great experience playing in front of the type of fans that we have. Hopefully we will have a sell out crowd again and the gym will be rocking. Cholet is a great team from top to bottom. They have a lot of players that have many different qualities. I am definitely looking forward to this next game. Well there is a little update about my family coming over and a little preview of our next opponent. The link below is some highlights from our last game. Again it is in French and there is more talking than highlights but that will have to do for now. Also I got the "OK" to put videos directly on my blog page but I am not so good with HTML so I am going to learn how to place a video in HTML from a staff member so you can view it directly on my blog page. I will get it eventually I promise haha. One other thing I want to ask you. I have the games that we have played on my computer and I was wondering if you would want me to put the entire game on my blog that way you can watch it??? Let me know through facebook, twitter, comments area, email. If I get enough people that would want to watch the entire game I will put them up. Take care and of course GOD BLESS. (Joshua 1:9)

http://www.bcm.deltafm.fr/index.php?id=2227

5th Win for BCM

Hello again! I hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday. It has been a long day for myself. I got up at 7 am and went to the airport to catch a flight to Paris. Once our team got to Paris we had another 3 hour bus ride back to Gravelines. I finally am able to relax on the couch and it is approximately 5pm. But the long road trip was well worth it after an unbelievable game last night.

We got our 5th win of the season last night vs Hyeres-Toulon to put our record at 5-2. It was a very exciting game from the start to the finish. I got in some quick foul trouble and didn't play much in the first half. We ended up being down by 10 points at halftime. Throughout the 3rd quarter it was back and forth for both teams, neither team really gaining any momentum. Finally in the 4th quarter we started to make our push and started to gain some ground. We came all the way back to within two points with a minute to go. We had the ball down by two and we ran a screen and roll play, I got double teamed but our 3 man Cyril was open in the corner and I passed the ball to him and he hit a 3 pointer with 50 seconds to go to put us up by 1 point. We got a defensive stop on the next possession and I ended up with the ball in my hands and they fouled me with about 35 seconds to go in the game. I hit both free throws and put is up by 3. The next possession we fouled one of their players on a 3 point shoot (very iffy call) with 18 seconds to go. He stepped up to the line and missed the first free throw and then made the next two. Putting our lead at 2 points. We inbounded the ball and they fouled me again with 12 seconds to go and put me at the free throw line. I made the first free throw to extend our lead to 3 points, and then I made the second free throw as well to put our lead up to 4 points and a two possession game. And that folks was pretty much the end of the ball game. We ended up winning the game 79-73. It was an incredibly exciting game especially in the 2nd half. It was a great team win for us with three guys in double figures again and a couple other players with nine points. It was a great game by both teams and we were fortunate enough to come out on top. It made this long trip a lot easier with another win under our belt. So I may be tired from all the traveling today but it was a road trip that was well worth it.

I posted some pictures from our last home game vs Asvel. I didn't get around to posting them last week so I thought I would throw some pictures up there today. I will have pictures from our exciting game last night posted up in the next couple of days. Again I hope you have a wonderful Sunday and I am looking forward to writing another post for you in a couple days. God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Game vs Hyeres-Toulon

Hey everyone!! Sorry I didn't write a post earlier this week I was slacking in that area. Things have been going well over here in France. I am currently in a hotel room getting ready to go to bed. We play Hyeres-Toulon tomorrow night. They have the leading scoring in our league playing for them and I believe they have another player that is scoring in the top 10 in our league. They are a good team with the same record that we have 4-2. Today I had to take my first flight over here in France. Hyeres-Toulon is in the very south point of France which is about 10 hours from Gravelines if you were to drive. So our team hopped on a plane and flew down this afternoon. It was a smooth trip which is always nice. I am still going to be putting up pictures and a video from the previous game like I said I would. I just put it on the back burner this week but I will have time on Sunday to be able to post some pictures and videos. I want to say good luck to the NDSU Men's Basketball Team they are playing in their first game tonight vs Utah Valley, go and get the W fellas! Again I apologize for not putting up highlights and some pictures earlier this week but I will put them up when I get back to Gravelines on Sunday. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will give you all an update again on Sunday. God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Victory for BCM

Good Afternoon everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful and blessed Sunday. I have had quite a busy day today. I made myself some french toast, eggs, and some hash-browns for breakfast this morning. I swept my entire lower level, did the dishes, and on my second load of laundry. I am getting a lot of things done around the place today. Right now however I am putting my feet up and relaxing for a little bit. My body definitely needs a little rest right now after the physical game that we had last night.

Well, our team won again at home this weekend. We played the defending champs from last year and came out on top with a 70-64 victory. We were up pretty much the whole game and we extended the lead in the 4th quarter to 12 points with 6 minutes to go. However, Asvel had a lot of fight in them and they cut the lead to 3 points with a minute to go. They ended up fouling us on the next possession and I made both free throws to put us up by 5 again. They came back down the court and scored again with 30 seconds to go to reduce the lead to 3 points. Asvel fouled us again so they could stop the clock. I went to the free throw line and made both free throws to put us up by 5 points again and sealing the game. We ended up winning by 6 points after they fouled us again with 4 seconds to go in the game. It was an incredibly intense game from both teams. Our fans were unbelievable last night. I believe it was close to a sell out crowd and not to mention our game was televised throughout France last night. It was an awesome feeling playing in front of our fans last night. They really do support us well so I want to say thank you to the fans for showing your support. It was another great team win for us with 3 guys scoring in double figures along with a few guys right below the double digit mark. Its always enjoyable playing for a team that has balanced scoring. Our record stands at 4-2 right now and in 3rd place in our league. Last night I suffered a deep thigh contusion to my left leg with about three minutes to go in the game. The adrenaline was pumping so I finished out the game but this morning my leg feels like someone hit my thigh about 10 times with a baseball bat, basically its REALLY SORE! I am going to stretch it out and ice it today and hopefully it will start to feel better. Other than that I am feeling great and I believe the rest of the team feels great about getting a win last night. I will post some pictures and video clips from the game in a couple days so you can check them out. Also if you have any questions for me about basketball, France, my life style, anything at all don't be afraid to ask in the comment box or hit me up via email, facebook, twitter. I hope you all have a safe and wonderful day. God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Another Week

Bonjour everyone (wow my French is coming along isn't it haha)! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. I wanted to write another blog giving you all a couple more updates. Things are going pretty well for me. I actually had to go to the foot doctor yesterday night because I had an ingrown toenail that was causing me a lot of pain and restricting me from being able to run, jump, cut, basically the essential things to play basketball. So I went to the doctor and she cleaned my feet and started to dig out my ingrown toenail. Now, I don't know if you have ever had to get an ingrown toenail cut out but it hurt so bad that I started sweating profusely when she was digging it out. Kind of a gross story but that was an event that went on for me this week. Today my toe feels great without any pain. Our foot doctor did a wonderful job. I went and ate supper over at J.K. Edwards (teammate) house last night with his family along with Trey Johnson (teammate) and his buddy J. Jones. He grilled some steak, samon, and had some rice as well. It was a wonderful meal that I definitely appreciated.

On Saturday we play Asvel the defending champs from last year. Tony Parker from the San Antonio Spurs is one of the executives for the team and his brother plays for the team. They are a good team with a lot of talent. I am looking forward to playing again on Saturday. The game is at home and I am hoping that we will have a packed house with a lot of CRAZY fans again! We have had a good week of practice and we are excited to be able to play another game. I actually have to go to practice in about 20 minutes. The link at the bottom is from our last Saturdays game vs Le Harve. There isn't much basketball on the link like I thought there would be. More talking than anything but if you want you can check it out. I am also still in the process of trying to get the "OK" from our team to be able to post the videos directly on the blog page. Until then there will be a link that you will have to click. Have a wonderful day and night. Hope all is well! Au revoir (I know, I know its coming along hahaha) God Bless! (Joshua 1:9)

http://www.bcm.deltafm.fr/index.php?saison=&cat=4&id=2221

Bcm vs Le Harve (Game 5 of the Season)

Good Afternoon everyone! Hope you all are having a wonderful Sunday (enjoying church and football I'm guessing). Today I went to the market here in town. I have never been to an outdoor market before so it was a very experience for me. My teammate Yannick Bokolo ended up getting some chicken at one of the stands there and I had it for lunch. It was extremely good and something that I can do on Sunday mornings if I need a little food. They had fresh fruit, vegetables, chicken, and a number of different other types of food. Now I just got down icing my feet and my knees. I am going to relax the rest of the night and get ready to watch the Vikings/Packers game. It comes on at 10:00pm over here so hopefully I can stay up late enough and watch the whole game. That is a little bit of what I did and what I'm doing today.

Last night we played Le Harve for our 5th game of the year. It was an away game for us and we haven't won on the road this year until last night. We ended up winning our first road game of the year with a score of 83-68. It put us at 3-2 in our league, tied with a number of different teams for fourth place. Again it was very balanced scoring on our teams part with 4 guys in double figures. I had 15 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and a couple steals. We maintained the lead pretty much the whole game expect for the in the middle of the 3rd quarter they started to make a push and brought it within 6 points. We ended up pulling away again in the fourth quarter and to another good win for our team. I was really happy for our team to get a road win and get above .500. We really moved the ball well hence 5 guys in double figures, and it is always enjoyable playing in a game like that. That is pretty much what I have for you about the game yesterday. I will put up pictures and highlights from the game later on this week. I hope you all have a wonderful afternoon and enjoy the Vikes/Packers game. Talk to you again soon. God Bless (Joshua 1:9- Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid nor dismayed for the Lord your God is with you WHERE EVER you go!- Love it)

Highlights and Pictures

Hey everyone! How are you all doing? So I finally am writing another blog. Its been a pretty busy week for me. Again I spend most of my time at the gym practicing or getting treatment done. We had a full week of practices preparing for our next game vs Le Harve. They are a good team with a 3-1 record. We are playing at their place on Saturday. I will update the blog on Sunday again and let you know how the game went. But, I wanted to put some highlights from our game and a couple game pictures as well. Again for the people back home the commentating is in French just to give you another heads up. So you can practice up on your French :)! To view the highlights you have to click the link below. I am going to try and be able to get the video highlights placed directly on my blog page in the up coming posts, but I need to talk to people that work in our office so I don't get into trouble with some copyright restrictions. Hope everyone is doing well back home. Miss you guys and I am trying to keep up with everything that is going on. Remember, don't be afraid to give your boy a shout I can always enjoy some company via emails, messages, facebook, twitter, etc etc! Enjoy the pics and video. Take care and as always God Bless! (Joshua 1:9)

http://www.bcm.deltafm.fr/

BCM vs Rouen

Hey everyone! I hope you all are having a wonderful Sunday. I have had quite a busy day today and I am finally having time to fill you all in about our game last night. Today, I went to Belgium with my teammate J.K. Edwards and his family. We went to a city call Antwerpen, Belgium which was about an hour and forty five minutes away. It was nice to get out of the house this Sunday afternoon and check out a different city. There is a lot that a person can do in this city. They had a zoo, aquarium, tons of different stores, and plenty to eat. We walked up around the city center and checked things out. I am glad I went and it definitely passed time quickly this afternoon.

But back to the game last night. We ended up winning 81-65. We played great team ball and we finally started to improve our defense. It was nice getting another win under our belt and it was a great win overall for a team with 5 guys scoring in double figures. We really moved the ball well amongst each other which made it a fun game to play. We took an early lead into halftime but Rouen came out with a lot of energy and starting knocking down some outside shots which brought the within 6 points in the 3rd quarter. That was the closest they would come and we stretched it out in the 4th quarter and ended up winning by 16 points. As I said before we played well together as a team and did a pretty good job on defense, now we have to start preparing for next weekend. Our record stands at 2-2 now and we play next Saturday vs Le Harve (who is 3-1). Our fans here are amazing and very enthusiastic. Our gym gets to be so loud at times that you can't hear your own teammate calling out a play or hearing your teammate talk to you on defense. It is a great atmosphere to play in and it always gets me pumped up when we have a lot of fans at our games.

Well I am going to end the night over here watching some football and relaxing a bit. Hope you all have a wonderful night and I am looking forward to writing a blog later this week. Goodnight and God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Mid-Week Update

Mid-Week update letting people know how things are coming along over here in France and if anything else new or interesting has happened over here. Things are going pretty well over here in France. I am continuing to stay busy everyday with practice and treatment. I typically try to get hot and cold treatment a couple times a week and get my legs stretched out after every practice. That tends to help me recover a lot faster and I feel a little more refreshed if I continue to make those two treatments a habit. If you were wondering what a hot and cold treatment is, it is when I would start sitting in the hot tub for a couple minutes and then I would jump into an ice bath for a minute or so. I would do it back and forth 3 times. That treatment helps flush your legs out and helps them recover faster. So between practicing, getting extra shots up at the end of practice, and recover treatments I am spending a lot of time at the gym. Give you a little heads up about this weekend. We play Rouen, Saturday at 8pm. They are 0-3 however they have been losing some close games so it should be a good game. We are 1-2 and definitely looking forward to trying to get another win under our belt. Should be an interesting game that I am looking forward to. I will update you on how the game goes on Sunday.

Outside of basketball I spend time watching the TV series LOST online (kind of addicting). I also read the Bible and some books that I brought with me from back home, and sometimes I watch ESPNAmerica. Its like ESPN back home however I don't get sportscenter, and a lot of time the games that come on don't come on over here till 3 or 4 in the morning. But at least I can watch something that I am familiar with. Yesterday I went to the grocery store and dropped 130 euros which is around $192 USD. That sounds outrages doesn't it, but what I have noticed is that groceries are very very expensive over here. So that is were a lot of my purchases go too. But since it is just me over here my groceries tend to last me a week and a half to two weeks.

The one bad thing that is tough to deal with is only playing 1 game a week. That is when things can get monotonous throughout the week. However, we start up the EuroChallenge in November so we will be playing Tuesdays and Saturdays, something I am looking forward to. Thats it for now I will let you know how the game goes on Sunday. Oh yeah and one more thing....I have time on my hands some days so don't be afraid to hit me up on my blog, twitter, or facebook. I always enjoy a message from people since I'm all by myself over here, makes me feel connected still hahahaha. Take care and God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

BCM vs Le Mans (game #3)

We had our third game of the year last night vs. Le Mans. Let me just say that it didn't go very well. We got beat by 20 points 75-55. I personally had 5 points (0-4 FG, 1-4 3FG, 2-2 FT, 5 Rebs, 4 Assists, 2 Steals). It was a rough game for our team in terms of trying to get something going. If we ever started to get a little momentum it quickly turned in the other teams favor due to us turning the ball over or referee's blowing their whistle. I'm not a person that says things about the refs being good or bad but it was a very physical game and let me just put it this way, they let a lot of things go during the game. You gotta give credit to Le Mans they played well together, executed pretty well and capitalized off of our turnovers. They are a good team and so you have to give them credit for how they played. We sit at 1-2 overall in our league tied with 4 other teams at 1-2. Our next is at home vs. Rouen on Saturday Oct. 24th. I apologize this is so short and to the point but if you know me personally you know how I feel about winning and losing and how much of a competitor I am, so what I'm saying is I'm not a "happy camper" right now. But something positive to look forward to is another game next Saturday. We have to continue to get better during practice and hopefully things will start falling into place for us and we can get some back to back wins under our belt.

It is 2:05 p.m. here right now and we didn't get home from our game until 5 a.m. last night so I am going to take a little nap. I will try and find some video from this game and post it later this week. Otherwise I will write another blog sometime this week and keep you all updated on things here in France. Hope everyone is enjoying there Sunday's back home, let me guess: church, football, football, football haha! Talk to you soon. God Bless (Joshua 1:9)

Townhouse, Car, Etc

As I said in my previous blog I was going to show you a couple pictures of

what my place and car look like so you can get an idea of how I am living. The townhouse that I live in is a tw0-story, three bedroom place. On the main level I have a living room (where I have a couch and T.V), dining room (where there is just a table for eating purposes), a kitchen, small bathroom and a garage for the car. It isn’t that big of an area for instance, when I sit on my couch I can see my dining room and kitchen all in one view. But, I don’t need that big of a place since it is just myself over here. The upstairs to my place has three bedrooms and a bathroom. Again there isn’t a lot of area upstairs but there is definitely plenty of room for just me. One of the bedrooms upstairs is empty while another has just a bed in it and there is my room where I have a bigger bed and closet space. Overall, I really enjoy the place I have over here and I really couldn’t ask for anything better. A couple of miscellaneous things involving my apt: there is NO carpet anywhere (everything is either tile or wood), my garage connects with my kitchen, my garage is where my washer and dryer are placed, and there is no central air or heat (there are heaters in every room that you have to turn on manually). Those are a couple of things that I found interesting in my townhouse.

My car is a four door foreign style car (don't even know the name) and it is an automatic. Apparently over here there are hardly any automatic cars and everyone usually drives manuals. It is a nice little ride that gets me from A to B equipped with a radio, CD player, heat, etc. There is a funny story involving the process of me getting a car. At first since I told them I haven't driven a stick-shift for along time they said they would get me an automatic, so I was cool with that. Well like I said earlier automatics are hard to come by so it took a little longer than normal to get a car. So they gave me a smart car right away!! Now I don't know if many of you have seen a smart car or have actually been inside one, but WOW was I scared driving that around. It is the smallest car I have ever been in and when I drove to go some where and it was windy out I could actually feel the car moving side to side from the wind. I was literally afraid that if someone

were to hit me while riding their BIKE that I would be the one with all the injuries haha! But, finally they got me a normal car and I wasn't so scared to be driving around the town. I will let you guys figure out which picture the smart car is :)!

Well, that is a little bit of what my living area is like and what my car looks like. As I said before I am really happy with how the team has set me up with such a nice place to live and a car to drive. Tomorrow we leave for an away game vs Le Mans. We play Saturday night at 8pm. I will let you know how the game was and all that jazz in the next post. Hope you enjoyed learning about my living arrangements and I will talk to you again soon. God Bless (Joshua 1:9).

Highlights from Game 2

Here is a link with a couple of highlights from our intense home opener last Saturday vs Chalon. I apologize if the link doesn't work I am not a high tech computer guru haha! But, I think it should work. Let me know if it doesn't work and I can try and change it. Oh yeah and just a heads up the commentary is in French, ENJOY :)! More updates to come later this week with some pictures of my place, car, etc.

http://www.bcm.deltafm.fr/index.php?id=2211

Video #1

Update from France

Hey everyone.. I wanted to give you all an update on how things are going over here in Gravelines, France. We had our second game of the season last night which was also our home opener vs Chalon. It was an amazing and very intense game that came down to the wire. It was back and forth throughout the whole game neither team being able to extend the lead significantly. It all came down to the end of the 4th quarter when Chalon hit a shot to go up by 2 points with 8 seconds to go. We called timeout and set up and high screen and roll with myself and our 5 man J.K Edwards. I caught the ball at half court as J.K. (our 5 man) came up and set a high ball screen at the top of the key. I refused the screen and took it to the basket and scored a left handed contested lay up with 4 seconds left to tie the game and send it into overtime. We jumped out to and early 5 point lead in OT but Chalon had a lot of fight in them and they ended up going up by 1 point with 19 seconds left. We had the ball with 19 seconds to go and we really couldn't get a good look when one of our other guards Yannick Bokolo drove to the basket and made a great wrap around bounce pass to J.K. who laid it in with 4 seconds to go and putting us up 1 in OT. Chalon ended up not getting a shot off at the end of the game and BCM Gravelines came away with a win. As I said early it was quite an exciting game and our fans were so crazy I just loved the atmosphere. I am really happy that our team got a W and we are back to 1-1 in our league. Hopefully we can continue to build off of this win tonight. Thats pretty much the exciting news in the basketball world over here in France.

Off of the basketball court, things are going well. If I am not at practice I am usually relaxing watching some episodes of Lost or catching the Twins games. I have ESPNAmerica which is nice because I can catch the latest sporting news The only bad thing is that the Twins games come on over here so late with the 7 hour time change it is difficult for me to catch the end of the games. I continue to make my own breakfast, lunch, and dinners. I need to start getting creative since I really just rotate between: pasta, chicken, and hamburger. However, my teammate J.K. Edwards invites me over to his house to grill and eat with his family quite often which breaks up the routine. I am definitely thankful for that family. But basically what I'm saying is I MISS MY MAMA'S COOKING haha! Any ideas for some dinners please don't hesitate to give your opinion haha :).

All in all my life over here is great. I'm enjoying the basketball side of things but I am also loving the opportunity to live and experience a different country. I will give you another updated later on this week and give you more details about my townhouse and my city. I'll throw some pictures of my place in as well in the next blog. Take Care and God Bless!

Hello from France

Welcome

Hello everyone!! So I decided to setup a blog for people that want to stay in contact with me and so I can keep people updated on how things are going over here in France. I am currently living in Gravelines, France. The town that I am living in is located on the northern coast of France right by the English Channel. It is a small town which is 20 minutes from Dunkerque, France. I am living in a three bedroom townhouse which is about 5 minutes from the gym.

Before I go any further I want to tell you that my high school coach Matt Addington did the amazing design work for the blog. He is unbelievable and very creative when it comes to designing webpages and also photography. Matt is a professional photographer and I would highly suggest if you want wedding photos or senior pictures that you get in contact with him. You can check out his stuff on his website or Facebook Page. So I want to say thank you Coach for helping me get this blog started and always following me throughout my career. You were a heck of a coach but an even better person!

On the basketball side of things I am playing in the ProA League here in France for a team called BCM Gravelines. You can check out our website and it's especially interesting if you're fluent in French. There are 16 very competitive teams in this top league. We played our first game this past Saturday. We ended up losing 80-73 to Paris. We didn't play well as a team and I personal didn't play that well, but we have another game this Saturday that I am really looking forward to. I will keep you updated on everything over here in France. Take care and talk to you soon!

You can also follow me now on Twitter...BenWoodside. Just another place I can keep you updated.

A Few Photos

Well I am going to call myself new to this blogging thing, but it will be a great way to keep in touch with many of you and give you a glance Inside My World here in France.

A few photos for you from some of the early season.