I wanted to write home and let you know that I've been spending my "off- season" playing ball in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Armintie Price from the Chicago Sky was on my team, which is called Shelen-ETK and is located in the Siberian Region of Russia. Your first impression of Siberia is probably similar to mine - a scene out of Rocky IV. So, upon arrival I expected to see mountains of snow and a very primitive lifestyle. I was praying for an internet connection! Luckily, I was wrong! Krasnoyarsk is a legit city. It's no metropolis like New York, Moscow, or St. Petersburg, but it had all of the essentials. The housing in the city is almost all high rise apartment building but most of them seemed to be old and in need of renovations! Luckily, I lived in a modern brick building that had a convenience store and supermarket right downstairs!

As far as basketball is concerned, I learned very quickly that their style of play was very different from ours and that EVERYONE can shoot the 3. I also learned that the referees seldom call fouls in favor of Americans! My team was a young one that had players from all over Russia and one girl from the Czech Republic. The team didn't have very big post players, so we struggled to compete with some of the other Russian teams but, I think it was beneficial to me because I got a lot of playing time and was able to work and improve some aspects of my game.

Unfortunately, my team had some problems in front office that forced me to leave. The team was going through a lot of changes with management and with those changes came the financial problems! Luckily I was able to get paid and leave before any further problems occurred but I don't think some of the Russian players were so lucky. So I'm back in NY through the New Year and am looking for somewhere else to play for the remainder of the off-season. So, Happy New Year and can't wait to be back in April!

Cori-