Super Bowl Sunday, Loss to Aalst, and Anne Frank House - Blog #16 (Feb. 3 - 9)

Basketball Update:

We played Aalst this week on the road. They are a Belgian team whom we had beat pretty handily at home earlier in the season. I played maybe my best game of the season in that game, and it was Nikki's first game she was here for. Well, it was a different story this time around. I got two early fouls and sat out with foul trouble in the first half. I did not have much of an impact for us in the second half either. They controlled the first half, and their crowd was fairly into the game. Then, in the third quarter, we went on an 18-0 run to take the lead. The momentum flipped on its head, and we had taken control due to the success of our 2-3 zone defense. We had success with it against Mons a couple of games ago and did again on Friday. The comeback was awesome, but they executed better than us down the stretch and beat us, 80-71. Tough loss, but we are back to work this week with a big matchup against our rivals, Den Bosch, at home. They won this week and jumped us in the standings by a game. Biggest game of the year for us!

Leadership Lesson:

While not as much about leadership, one of the best things you can do as an individual to succeed is to focus on your controllables. There are a million things for us to worry about, and many of those things are out of our control. You may worry about what other people think or uncertainties about the future. If you can't let go of the uncontrollable worries and anxieties in your life, then they will control you. This may sound oversimplified or even naive to say. However, I am a firm believer that if you put your time and energy into people or things that you care about or into your values, you will have a better life. Our leadership development coach at CSU, Rod Olson, used to say, "Change the changeable, Accept the unchangeable, and Remove the unacceptable." Not worrying about the things you cannot control in one thing, but going as far as to accept them can free your mind even more. This is something I definitely have not succeeded at. I find myself often caring what other people think or about what my future will look like. The fact is that I can maybe influence what people think of me, but ultimately, I need to be myself and be fine with what other opinions are. My future is my future. There is no telling where I may be next year or what I will be doing in ten years. I can set goals or have a vision for what I want things to look like, but things change fast. More likely than not, these things will be out of my control, so it is best to accept it. Hope this made some sense!

Top 5 of the Week:

Animals

1. Orca Whale - Orcas are awesome. They are killing machines, and the cool part is that they often hunt in groups or with their pod. One of my favorite things about them is that they have never killed a human in the wild. They get a bit of a bad wrap because of the SeaWorld incidents, but they are very smart animals. They know prey versus humans when they are in the wild.

2. Octopus - I do not have in mind a specific kind of octopus, but some of my favorite videos to watch are octopus videos. They have so many different capabilities, from shapeshifting to camouflage to fitting their whole body through tiny holes. Huge octopus fan.

3. Cheetah - Cheetahs were always my favorite animal when I was growing up because they are the fastest land animal. That is pretty much the only reason. Other than cheetahs, I really do not like any other cat.

4. Dog - Very basic answer here, but dogs are great. Man's best friend. Only one caveat and it is that I am not a fan of small dogs. I feel like anything 25 lbs and up (with special exceptions) is more my speed.

5. Bald Eagle - Seeing a bald eagle in the wild, most of the time in the northern woods of Wisconsin on a lake, gets me fired up. These animals are at the top of the food chain for a reason. Awesome predators and really fun to bird-watch bald eagles.

What Else Did I Do This Week?

Because we had a Friday game, Coach gave us Saturday and Sunday off. Nikki and I didn't plan much because I found out about the off weekend on relatively late notice. We had a great day Saturday. Nikki made pancakes, and after, we biked into Leiden to go to the market. We picked up a few things and then, each went to a couple of spots that we had not been before. We went up to this lookout on a hill in the city and went for a long walk along the outside of Leiden. We walked to the oldest windmill in the city, De Volk, which translates to "The Falcon". It had a great view of Leiden, and it was cool to learn a bit about windmills. It had a ton of really steep stairs and was definitely worth checking out. It was part of our museum passes we bought a few months ago that have definitely been worth it. We stopped at a restaurant for a late lunch that was awesome. Then, we went to check out this vintage market that came to Leiden for the weekend. I really do not like shopping, especially for clothes, but this market was not too bad because some of the stuff I found did fit me. I have been wanting some corduroy pants and found some nice ones there.

We had booked a wine tasting at a little wine store/restaurant in the center that was a lot of fun. I really do not know anything about wine or the different terminology you are supposed to use. It was a fun activity! Then, I saw that the Six Nations rugby tournament was going on, and it was England versus France. Nikki has been wanting to watch a rugby match, and there was a bar down the street showing the games. We grabbed a beer and watched the second half which was very entertaining. These guys that play rugby are unbelievably fit. Nikki thinks they are tougher than football players, but I disagree (obviously no bias). After that, we grabbed a pizza and headed home. It was an amazing day in Leiden.

Sunday, we had finally scheduled the Anne Frank tour/museum in Amsterdam. We biked to the train station and went straight there. It was a very cool experience. I learned about Anne Frank and a little bit about life in Amsterdam during WWII. It was pretty interesting to see the area that Anne and seven others lived in. It is the upstairs annex area of an office building/small factory which I did not realize. I thought she lived in the attic of someone else's apartment. Very cool story. I would not say that it is a must-do for someone coming to visit Amsterdam. There are some cool artifacts and everything, but it is perhaps slightly overrated. Afterwards, we got some matcha and stopped to grab a couple of pastries. The pastries we got were from Brioche, and they were brioche pastries (go figure). Nikki nor I had ever had this style of pastry, so it was fun for us to try out. We also made a stop at Kelly's which is an expat store. We got Fritos, Tostitos, Cherry Coke, and some other things we have been missing. Super Bowl essentials.

Nikki and I made some slow cooker sloppy joes that were unreal. What a great meal for a Super Bowl. Nikki and I also placed a couple of bets for the big game just for fun.

Travis Kelce 1st TD scorer (+1000) - L

National Anthem, under 120.5 sec (+100) - W

Tails (+100) - W

Both teams successful 4th down conversion (-124) - L

I was 2/4 on them, so I would call it a success. Nikki did not stay up, unfortunately for me. I made it through three quarters before I lost any hope that Mahomes would come back. I was rooting for the Eagles. For one, the game made the Packers look a lot better for only losing to them in the Wild Card round, 22-10. I also have kind of turned into a Patrick Mahomes hater. My hatred was sparked because of the insecurity that exists in my love for Rodgers. Everyone knows Brady is the GOAT, but something I could hang my hat on as a GBP fan is that Aaron is the best talent at the position ever. Mahomes has a very serious and compelling argument against that now, but if you ask me, I would not take anyone over Rodgers. Good halftime show, a few good commercials, and a mediocre game. I love Super Bowl Sunday, so I was happy to still celebrate a little bit.

Top Meal of the Week:

This definitely goes to the sloppy joes on Sunday night that I just mentioned. We had been wanting to make them for a while, but we were missing Worcestershire sauce that we finally acquired from the expat store. This meal really hit the spot and earned this week's top meal.

One Thing I Like About the Netherlands:

This has more to do with Europe and the rest of the world outside of the US than it does with just the Netherlands, but I did like watching rugby and would be interested in learning more about the sport. It is obviously relatively similar to football, but it is still a fun watch. Those athletes are insanely tough and are fun to watch. My cousins, the Alberts, were always trying to get me and my brothers to play growing up, but we always had another sport going on in whatever season rugby season is. Hopefully, I will catch a game in person at some point while I am playing here. Thanks for reading everyone!