Happy Birthday to me.

Today is my birthday (woo) and I am 22 years old. Even though this is the first time I haven't seen my family on or within a few hours of my birthday, I refuse to be depressed. I have too many things for which to be thankful.

For starters, Thanksgiving Day turned out a whole lot better than anticipated. Many of the Germans whom I am around routinely poke fun at American culture, but Thanksgiving's feast is one they fully embrace. What started out as suggestions to try and thwart homesickness quickly became expectations of a gourmet meal hosted in mine and Nick's apartment. I've secretly fancied myself a pretty good cook but my only experience with preparing Thanksgiving dinner had been helping my mom snap peas and grate cheddar. Given this, I was excited to test my mettle.

After roughly 12 hours of work, Nick and I stood proudly and patted each other on the back for successfully completing our task.
In other news, despite playing blind for the past 2 weeks, we have picked up 2 more wins and I have been playing well. On November 23, we played our weakest opponents. We were only up by about 10 at the end of the first half, but we stretched it to about 30 by the end of the game. I think I finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds.
This past Saturday, we traveled to Berlin and played one of our tougher opponents. We raced to an early lead and finished the first half up by 11. During the beginning of the second half, our opponents stormed back to cut the deficit to 3. I hit a buzzer beating, step-back 3-pointer at the end of the quarter to squash their momentum and push our lead to 9 points heading into the final frame.
In the last quarter we outscored them 30-17 and won going away. I think I finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds.

Happy Birthday to me!