Playoff Time!!!!

Hey Hey everyone!!! I decided to wait and update you all because not much has happened! Now that a couple of weeks have gone by, I have some fun stuff to share with you! :-)
First things first, I have failed at having a black history fact everyday! The idea sounded great in the beginning, but as days went by all I did was sleep haha. Sad, I know! But I think we've brought a lot of culture into their lives lol.
Well it's playoff time here in Israel!! We ended the regular season in 5th place and got matched up with Ramat Hen for our first round in the best of 5 series. Monday we played at their place and ended up losing by 9. We just couldn't buy a basket!! We had open shots and just weren't knocking them down. But it's ok...because the series is far from over. We play our second game this Monday at home!! It's going to be a great turnout! :-) On Thursday, we had our Israeli Cup game against the other Rishon team. We played TERRIBLE as a team! But we got the W...we were playing without one of our teammates for that game and we found a way to get it done! We are now in the Final Four of our cup and will play the next game on March 10th. My teammates said there is a big celebration that day and our coach is so happy!! She said it's one of her dreams as a coach to make it to the Final Four of the cup, so it makes that victory sweeter knowing we helped one of her dreams come true :-)
We got 2 days off one week so my roommates and I decided to go to the mall :-) Now, since I've been here in Israel I haven't really done any shopping for myself! Yes, I know that's SO hard to believe! I went into the mall with the mindset that I was going to buy everything my heart desired! Lol. Not the case...unfortunately my stupid grown-up conscious was telling me "Alysha, now do you REALLY need this?" And of course I had to be honest and say NO! We did see some interesting things as we were walking through the mall though! We walked by this one store and there was a mannequin with a very direct point:

Pretty direct right!? Lol

 Haha you would never see this in the states! Then we walked into this store that reminded me of Buckle...and this lady who worked there had on these AWFUL shoes!!! Now I know I've posted about the lack of style when it comes to shoes over here, but these take the award for the WORST! Lol!

Look at these HIDEOUS shoes!!!

We also went to watch our coach play in a basketball game! Aside from coaching us and the youth here in Rishon, she finds time to play with a division 3 team! Now, last year she was playing on the team who won the Israeli cup and Championship for Division 1, so it's safe to say she was by far better than the other players, but she does it to stay in shape and to just have fun. We walked in the gym and yelled "YAAAAAY SHIRA!!! GO SHIRA!!! YOFEE SHIRA!!!" Lol she was so embarrassed! But after the game she expressed how grateful she was that we came :-)

Me, Danielle, KD, and Becky at our coach's game!

Yesterday I woke up and it was so sunny and there wasn't a cloud in the sky!!! It's amazing how weather has an effect on a person's mood! It just made me so happy :-) After hearing about all the snow and ice back home in Tennessee, I can't say that I didn't enjoy yesterday just a little bit more ;-)

Gorgeous out right!?

Of course Anne Marie Lanning would notice my nails:-)

My tattoo artist Liz!

Yesterday I also got my 4th tattoo!!! I never even thought I would get ONE! Now I'm at 4! With all the changes I've been making personally I thought it was fitting to get something that would be a reminder of this time. I got a symbol that means "Begin Anew" and a Hebrew phrase that means "Whoever believes, isn't afraid". The tattoo hurt like crazy!!!! Once I started I was thinking "AC what in the heck are you thinking!? You're gonna die!!! " LOL but needless to say I made it through and ABSOLUTELY LOVE my new tattoo :-) Of course, I was sweating like crazy! You would have thought I just warmed up for a game! The combination of fear and pain is lo sababa for me!! Haha. But the tattoo artist is the best in Israel! She does all the celebrities and all the basketball players go to her! I mean look at my tattoo! It's amazing :-)
My mother finally got her web cam so now I can skype with my family!!!! It's so great to see and talk to my niece and nephew :-) Not to mention my other family members :-) My dad thinks it's pretty cool that he can talk to me all the way over here from the computer! It won't be long until I get to see all of them again :-) I'm getting excited!! 
Well I think that just about covers everything that's gone on in my life these past couple of weeks!!
Today's Hebrew lesson is my tattoo phrase: Mi shema'amin lo mefached (me-shay ma ah mean-lo-may fah head): Whoever believes, isn't afraid.
That's all for today's walk in my Nikes!! 
Until next time, 
Alysha