First Snow!

Last week, all Wittenberg students suddenly got an e-mail warning us about an upcoming snowstorm. "Chance of a Storm: Good." I didn't think much about it at first, but within the entire campus was covered in snow. Everything looked beautiful, and the temperature had suddenly (in a period of two days) dropped from 19°C to a perceived temperature of -11°C.

Living in a building with a lot of internationals was probably one of the most fun things that could happen at the moment. Some had never seen snow before and had been amazed, it was the cutest thing. They were looking at the sky for an hour straight, trying to catch some of the falling snow.

The first day of snow, some of the internationals decided to have a snow fight at midnight. Martin, Micky, Neo, Rayika, David and Vicky (a non-international, one of my teammates and the soon to be girlfriend of Martin;) all grabbed our jackets and went outside. Making snowmen wasn't a big success, so we kept it to throwing snowballs at each other, tackling each other, sliding down a hill on our butts and dropping snow inside each other's clothes. We had a blast.

I think it was the second or third day that we went out together again. We decided to go sledging and, because we didn't have any sledges, used our laundry baskets instead. We went to The Hollow, a beautiful hill on campus, and tried our sledging skills out. The snow wasn't ideal but with some pushing each other down the hill, we all made it to the bottom of the hill. Sometimes with our laundry basket, sometimes without: we often fell out at some point. I don't think I've ever had this much fun while sledging.

We were about to head out, when David took the wrong exit. Instead of walking outside, he walked into a girls room. We we're all laughing and rolling around when he fled the room with red cheeks and headed out of the right exit.

Our snow fight started in our own hallway.

Our campus is even more beautiful when it is covered in snow.

Walking towards classes was a struggle though: it was cold and slippery.

The Hollow, where we decided to go sledging in laundry baskets.

Campus again - Making my way back to my dorm.

In my opinion the most beautiful building on campus, covered in snow.

Because snow means the beginning of winter and Christmas, I started writing some christmas letters!

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Tiger Buddy

During season, everyone in the team had a tiger buddy - a team member who they would make a poster for when we had a home game, and a "tiger buddy package" for when we had an away game. You weren't supposed to know who had you as their tiger buddy until the end of season. We all had to write down our name, likes and dislikes on a note at the beginning of the year and put the note in a bag, after which everyone took out a note. Whoever's name was one the note you grabbed would be your tiger buddy for the rest of season. My tiger buddy was Paige, a super sweet Junior and in my opinion one of the best players on the team :)

Every week, I would make Paige a poster to cheer her on. Most of them included either inspirational quotes and a "Tiger Ups", and some of them would include "Kick some asses" and "Don't be a pussy's". If I had the time, I would draw something to make the posters look nicer. I think I did pretty well.

Every week, I would go to Meijers, Target, Walmart or Walgreens to get Paige a tiger buddy package. The tiger buddy package should include something to drink, something to eat and something fun for during the bus rides (that could sometimes take four hours - that's four hours to reach our destination and another four hours to get back). Most tiger buddy packages costed about $10 (although I often spend a dollar or two more because I got so excited). It might sound like a bit much to do this for every away game, but everyone needs something to eat and drink anyways when you travel for more than six hours, and giving it to someone else was actually a lot of fun.

I loved giving Paige tiger buddy stuff - she loved the packages and the posters that I made her and didn't find out that I was her tiger buddy until the very last game, the semi-final against Kenyon, when I wrote her a note. I was Maria her tiger buddy. She made me packages and posters as well, and I loved receiving them - it was like receiving a birthday present once a week. Thanks again Maria, you're amazing :)

The semi-final against Kenyon was fun, but sadly, we lost. I could use the break but I'm sad that season is over. The last game was pretty emotional: the seniors and the Dutchies (Car and I) played our last game and everyone got a little teary. I'm going to miss everyone!

One of my first and definitely my best posters: it took me more than two hours to make it, but I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.

Kittenberg instead of Wittenberg - someone in the team once told me about this joke (we had a lot of kittens on campus) and inspired me to make this poster. It didn't turn out the way I was hoping it would, but I still think it's pretty cute.

I didn't have a lot of time to make this poster, but yeah. TTFU stand for Tiger The Fuck Up.

Halloween inspired tiger buddy package!

I thought it was cute. And Paige loves fluffy socks! I've actually seen her walk around in them already :)

Trick-or-treat package for the last in-season game!

My last tiger buddy package was Christmas inspired. I'm going to miss making those packages.

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Halloween

This year I celebrated Halloween for the first time! The entire neighborhood was decorated in halloween articles, just like a lot of doors in the dorms. I opened the door for trick-or-treaters, had a halloween practice with the field hockey team and went out the day after Halloween.

The 25th of october was the day that the kids in Springfield celebrated Halloween by going trick-or-treating. It was a lot alike Sint Maarten in the Netherlands, the only differences were that the kids here dress up in costumes and don't sing: they just say trick or treat. Carlijn and I went to Sally (our host family) her house for dinner and to experience what trick or treating was like. Dinner was great: it was amazing to have some real, home-made food again. The trick or treating was even better: there were so many cute kids (and even some less-cute-looking adults) looking like Elsa, a Ninja Turtle, a zombie, you name it. It was adorable and I had a blast. 

The halloween practice on tuesday was so much fun. Vicky, Brownie, Kelly and I wanted to go as a group, but because we went costume shopping last minute we had to improvise. We wanted to go as the cast from Frozen, but the costumes were sold out. After coming up with ideas such as Cruella De Vil and the dalmatians, the cast of Mean Girls and more, we decided to make our costumes ourselves and go as Care Bears. Vicky was dressed up as Bedtime Bear, Brownie was dressed up as Grumpy Bear, Kelly was dressed up as Laugh-a-lot Bear and I was dressed up as Cheer Bear. My teammates were dressed up as dolphins, pimps, Harry Styles, paper, rocks and scissors and more. We had an indoor practice, which was unbelievably hot, but had a fun time. I turned out to make a pretty good goalie. 

We weren't allowed to go out on Halloween, because we had a game the day after, but that turned out to be no problem at all: the day after was just as fun. Because I once again did last minute costume shopping, there wasn't a lot left. I did like my costume though: I ended up going as a pilot. Most parties were closed, so you had to be invited. Some internationals and I were invited to the Betas (a fraternity) their party, so that's where we went. The party wasn't that different from most parties on campus, except for the fact that there was more alcohol (which I wasn't allowed to drink because the team entered the championships, I had just as much fun though), and for the fact that everyone was dressed up. My favorite costume of the night was definitely Bert and Ernie. I can't wait to celebrate Halloween again and am planning on celebrating it again next year. 

Even dorm doors were decorated!

Trick or treat!

The Spirit Store - most people buy there costumes here. I did to: I ended up buying a pilot costume. It was one of the last things left in my size and I thought it was kind of cute :)

The Care Bears!

The entire team was dressed up for the Halloween practice. My absolute favorite costume was Harry Styles - Casey looked just like him!

The pilot and the firefighter (Irene)!

Me, some internationals and some of our friends just before going out.

The party - everyone was dressed up. People were dressed up as anime girls, cowboys, tweedledumb and tweedledumber, police officers and sluts.

Bert and Ernie! Those were my favorite costumes of the night. 

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Senior Day

This saturday, the team had its last home-game of the season. As a tradition, the day of the last home-game of season is senior day, and the game is called our senior-game.

The week before, all the freshmen, sophomores and juniors were busy with preparing their part of senior day: decorating the locker room, making banners and buying them presents. As a freshmen, I helped pimping the locker room up. We all made posters for the seniors, hang up pendulums and used balloons to make the locker room look more fun. I ended up being in the locker room until 11.30 PM, without having dinner. Riley, Paige and I decided to go to the Stake 'N Shake to make up for dinner and I wasn't in bed until well after 1 AM.

On senior day, we all went to the locker room early to write a little message for each senior and to sign a gift for all of our coaches. We had breakfast with the team, got ready for the game in the locker room, and went to the field. We did our warm-up as usual, but the line-up was different: we made a tunnel under which the seniors and their family walked, while their achievements both on and off the field were summed up. Then we played DePauw. Sadly, we lost.

After the game, we went to the auditorium and had lunch with the team and all the family that had come to the game. We chatted a bit while I was enjoying the good food (I'm not too impressed by the food in the cafeteria, but Americans make good homemade food). After that we honored our seniors, thanked them for all they had done and then thanked the coaches too. It was a great way to end season.

One more game to go!

Staying up late with Riley and Paige to pimp the locker room up

On our way to Stake 'N Shake. Since it was Halloween, most people in the Steak 'N Shake were dressed up in their Halloween costumes. There was this one creepy guy, sitting alone in the corner, I think he was dressed up as a vampire? Anyways, he was laughing in a creepy way every time someone walked past him. Yeah, creepy.

Breakfast! Not much different than breakfast before most home games. The highlight was that Megan and Casey were fighting over a yoghurt (at least that's what I think they were doing) and that the yoghurt exploded on them. They had yoghurt all over them.

Preparing in the locker room!

Our "tunnel": all the seniors got a bouquet of flowers from coach, after which they walked through the tunnel while someone summed up all their on and off field achievements and thanked them for all they've done.

The game! Sadly, we lost 6-0...

The parents brought homemade food. So I had a lot.

Honoring the seniors. I'm going to miss you all!

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