On the 29th of November the basketball team
went to Paris to play the American school of Paris. On the first day of arrival we went sight seeing
and shopping. Going to Paris was the first time I had ever been to Europe and
it was such an amazing place. Then in the
afternoon we went to the school which looked really nice but in my opinion it
wasn’t as nice as schools in Africa because they don’t really have a nice
outdoor grassy area, but other than that it looked like a really nice school.
In the evening around 5 we played the Paris team and we were defeated because
for some reason we weren't really prepared and it made us all upset but we knew
we could do so much better at the tournament in Brussels. Around 7 when the game ended we went home with
our host families and I stayed with Evelyn with the same girl I hosted when
they came to Kenya.
On the second day we went sightseeing and Paris is such a
beautiful place and I loved every minute of it! We went shopping and we ate McDonalds
and it has been about 6 years since I had eaten it and it was amazing! We went
to see all sorts of monuments and we went into the museum where the Mona Lisa
was but to my surprise it was smaller painting then I had ever imagined and it
was hard to take a picture of it because it was far away and there were also so
many people also trying to take a picture. We also went around small suburbs and
went shopping for souvenirs and mementos of Paris. Every single moment I spent
in Paris I was elated and amazed and where I was and how grateful I was for
this experience
On the third day we went on the bus with the
ASP players and we drove to Brussels where we were going to play the tournament
against the team of Brussels , the Paris team and two their schools. Once we
got to Brussels it seemed to be colder then Paris and the school was also
really nice. Their gym was really nice with speakers on the wall and real
bleachers and it was much better than our gym and even the American school of Paris
gym. When we arrived we got changed and we played against two teams and we beat
them and we were really happy and surprised because when we lost against the Paris
team and we watch them play we were very nervous but we ended up doing a good
job. When the games finished and around 7:30 we went home with the St. Johns
school in Brussels families and Evelyn and I were so surprised at how big their
house was and it was really beautiful.
On the third of December the tournament continued and we
played 4 teams again and we beat them al including the Paris team. Even though we
only beat them by about 2 points it was such an amazing and very intense game. I was so proud of our team because we did let our
nervous get the best of us and we gave them a tough fight and this state of
thinking caused us to give all the teams a tough fight in order to beat us and
in the end we ended up beating them all, and we did a great job. We finished the games and around 1 in the afternoon
we got back on the bus and drove back to Paris exhausted but proud of what we
were able to do.
Before we knew it our trip was over and I was proud of our team because we gave the teams a tough fight and we played our beast whilst having fun. This trip was one of the most amazing trips I had ever had!! On this trip our
team became closer then ever even though all the members of our team never came
the people who did come made our trip memorable. We were able to play really tough
but well deserved basketball games with the European teams and best of all we
were in EUROPE in Paris and Brussels sightseeing and shopping! One of the best things about this whole trip was how amazing our coach was being able to stand us
for all the 6 days and being able to help us reach our highest potential:)