A couple days before we left for the Ukraine our team gave us each a scarf, hat, gloves, and a big winter coat. And when I say it was a good thing they did that, I mean it was a great thing.

We got on the flight leaving Istanbul at 6:15 a.m. It was a great flight. The plane was normal and everything. We got to Kiev on time. We had to pick up our bags in that airport because the airport in the city we were going to was not big enough. Anyway, we had to go outside the airport to check in again and as soon as the cold hit our faces, we realized we were definitely not in Turkey anymore.

We got on a propeller plane going to the city (I have no idea what the name of it was). This plane was not a regular plane. It was more like a Greyhound bus except smaller and louder. So I told my teammates that they better pray before we take off. We were only supposed to be in the air for an hour and half. But we had to land in a different city because the weather condition was too bad in our destination city. We stayed on the ground for about 50 minutes and finally took off. We made it safe at 8:30 p.m.. Thank God!

When we got to the hotel, I don’t believe the receptionist knew we were coming. She looked very surprised and almost ready to ask, “What are y’all doing here?”... It was funny. Anyway, we couldn’t make it to practice so our coach decided to make us jog in the hallway of the hotel. Mind you, the hotel has wood floors. When we started jogging, the lady who was watching our floor called security, I guess she was scared or something. So we had to stop and just stretch in the hallway.

The next day we got up, went to shoot around then to the game. The gym was like a homemade gym, the floor was uneven and hard, the court was small and only about 75 people could fit in the gym. We won though.. Yeah for us. Fortunately our GM spoke with one of the referees after our game, and he told our GM that we should catch a train to go back to Kiev because he didn’t think that any flights would leave out of the city the following day. We took his advice and got on the train that night. Our tickets for the train were bed seats. But there were four people to a room and 2 strangers were already in the rooms so only two of us from our team could be in a room. That, my friends, was very awkward.

To be in an 8 by 8 foot room with two strangers is not very comforting. I couldn’t sleep. Vickie Johnson, on the other hand, was knocked out. LOL. Our coach couldn’t sleep in his room because the men in his room were drunk, so he slept in the hallway of the train. We rode all through the night. The train ride was 10 hours long. I slept for three.

When we got off the train the next morning we were in a snow storm. We couldn’t open our eyes too much cause snow was blowing in our eyes, our noses were running and my lips were dry.. LOL. We had to drive another 2 hours to Kiev to fly out. When we got there our flight was delayed. I’m telling you, this was the longest two days ever. But the good thing is we won our group in the first round of the eurocup.

PS. The people in the Ukraine love their fur coats and boots. That was the largest variety of boots I’ve ever seen