Polish Cup Run and Week in Amsterdam - Blog #50 (Feb. 18 - Mar. 1 '26)

Note* Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has been along for the ride to 50 blogs. I appreciate everyone's time spent reading these updates. The hardest part about this experience has been being away for so long and missing all of you back home. I hope that these have helped you miss me a little less. Here's to the next 50!

Basketball Update:

We headed down to a city named Sosnowiec for our mid-season single elimination tournament, the Polish Cup. It was a big deal for ZG to qualify for the cup (top 8 after the first round of games) because the club had not been in it in several years. We were fired up to match up with Szczecin in the first round. All eight of the teams stay in the same hotel, so it is a bit of a unique experience seeing all of your opponents around all the time. I wasn't sure whether to make small talk, give head nods, or acknowledge at all the guys on different teams. It was pretty awkward, to be honest, but it was also pretty cool seeing everyone from the league. We played really well in our first game, and I probably had my best individual game of the season. The game was on Friday, and the semis were on Saturday. Szczecin is currently sitting in second in the standings in the league, and our semifinal matchup was against Wrocław, who is in first. We handled business again in the semifinal game, but we were definitely feeling the effects of the back-to-back games. To make matters worse, our newest player, Sagaba, broke his wrist and is out for the season. The championship was the next day, on Sunday. With us already being short-handed without Szumy and Fifi, Sagaba being out was a big hit for us too. The game was close through the first half, but we just ran out of juice. Sopot beat us by over 20 and took home the Cup. It sucked to make it all the way to the championship and go home empty-handed. There is no reward for second in the cup. It was a cool experience to have with our fans, and it was a great run!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/18aa85_07ee29c7441747dfac6cbd9b6a3747ee/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

One of my teammate Phil Fayne's slam dunk contest-winning dunks

Leadership Lesson:

I have become pretty close with a couple of my teammates this year, and it has been really fun to have close friends as coworkers this season. However, they tend to see the world and certain things quite a bit differently than I do. The great thing about this is that we have the ability to exchange ideas, opinions, hypotheticals, etc. very openly and freely. Without getting into too many specifics, some pretty crazy things have been said, but we always respect each other's statements and are able to have good conversations. It has really opened my eyes to the importance of being able to disagree while still keeping respect for one another. This is a great lesson for leaders because people need to be able to have difficult conversations without making assumptions or taking things personally. Having these conversations while removing emotion is important, and it is a valuable lesson I have learned this year.

What Else Did I Do This Week?

The highlight since my last post of my off the court expereinces was definitely my trip to Amsterdam for international break. I left the Monday after our cup loss to spend the week with Nikki. On Monday, we went out for an awesome dinner at Men Impossible. We did not know that they only served vegan food until our waitress told us so, and we got the tasting menu. The food was actually awesome and the ramen was maybe my favorite thing I had all week. It was not traditional ramen with a lot of broth. Instead, it was creamy and more savory. It was amazing though, and I would highly recommend for any vegan people traveling to Amsterdam. We also got absolutely drenched on our walk home in classic Netherlands fashion.

Tuesday, we went for an awesome morning walk along the Amstel River. The nice thing about being in Amsterdam in February is that the crowds are much less busy than almost any other time of the year. Not many tourists and more space to enjoy the amazing canals. The weather was great during my visit too. 50s and sunny. The walk was beautiful, and it was awesome seeing Amsterdam early in the morning like that.

We also had introductory passes for a Pilates studio, PLTS, a couple of blocks from Nikki's apartment. We went three times for classes during the week, and it was great for me to keep up maintenance for my back while also doing something with Nikki that she loves to do which is going to workout classes.

Tuesday night, I met a couple of Nikki's new friends, Abby and Ethan. We went to a trivia night or as Europeans call it, a pub quiz, at a bar right across from Nikki's apartment. I honestly thought we did an alright job overall. There were 7 rounds of 10 questions a piece, and we seemed to be holding our own throughout the night. Safe to say I was shocked when the host read the final results, and we placed 40th out of 43 teams. Tough to hear, but we will be back with more people and sharper brains.

On Wednesday, we went out for another dinner before going back to Boom Chicago for an improv comedy show. We went over the summer and had a great time. It is the only place I have ever been to any kind of comedy show, so I was excited to go back and see some comedy. It was a fun time no doubt, but the show didn't have my favorite guy from last time. There was another talented female missing too, so the talent was not quite as good in my opinion. It was still awesome though, and we had a great time.

Thursday, I went to grab a pistachio cruffin (croissant + muffin = cruffin) from Saint Jean that is outstanding. Seriously, one of my favorite desserts out there. We went to Albert Cuyp market for lunch and had some tacos, bao buns, and coffee. It is easy to forget just how many people live in Amsterdam/The Netherlands until the sun comes out. People come out in droves when the weather is nice, so it was fun to experience that. Thursday night, we went out to an awesome dinner with another couple with whom Nikki has become friends. Caroline and Ryan were a ton of fun to hang out with, and the food we had was outstanding. The name of the restaurant was Night Kitchen. We got the group tasting menu, and it was great. Supposedly, they have great wine and drinks too which we did not try. It was great company and great food.

Friday morning, we went for a little walk before I had to head back to the airport to go back to ZG. It was an amazing trip spending time with my bestie in one of my favorite places. Also, huge bonus that the Amsterdam Airport now has a Wingstop, so I was able to indulge in an American staple before heading to my flight.

Cultural Difference:

This may come off as a diss to the great people of Poland, but I am not intending that. I really don't know if this is about Dutch people as a whole or just the people of Amsterdam, but I could not help but notice how good-looking the people in Amsterdam were. That's males and females by the way. Maybe it is because I haven't been out and about around a lot of people as much, but it was my biggest takeaway from spending time in Amsterdam for the week.

Top Meal of the Week:

Night Kitchen was top-notch food. It has to be my top meal of the week. These lamb ribs were probably my favorite, along with this cabbage dish that was awesome. They also have this pistachio creampuff type thing that tasted like pistachio frozen custard. It was unreal. Thanks for reading!