Life As A Professional Athlete By Alison Bales

Hello Duke fans, boy let me first start off by saying how much I miss ya’ll overseas -- definitely no Cameron Crazies over here! For those of you who don't quite understand what happens to a lot of us after we leave the "Gothic Wonderland," well we get jobs and since Duke is such a wonderful school we have a lot of options, we graduate with a wonderful degree AND from a wonderful basketball program. For me I have no doubt that I will continue to benefit from both aspects of my Duke experience, but for now I have chosen basketball as a good start to my life in the real world.

Unlike in the NBA where the men have a long season, the WNBA's season is primarily in the summer, which leaves us multi-tasking Dukies with a lot of extra time on our hands, so it makes sense that each fall we search for a good fit with a team on the other side of the Atlantic. For my overseas rookie season I have ventured to Moscow, Russia and it was actually the weather my former teammates are experiencing in the Virgin Islands that sparked me to write a little something.

My team is called Dynamo Moscow and we play in both the Russian Federation League as well as the Euro League. As you can see in the picture we are certainly not wearing shorts and swimsuits over here. We are in what seems to me (yes I did get used to those mild North Carolina winters, when everything except the gym closes after a dusting of snow) to be nearly arctic temperatures at night.

You may also notice in the picture another familiar face, yes Monique Currie has decided to make Moscow her home away from home as well, and lucky us, we are not only in the same city, practice and play in the same gym, we live walking distance away from each other! It sure has been nice and since she arrived earlier than me, her internet and cable were connected even before I arrived, and being the American/newly graduated college student/email addict that I am -- it sure was nice to stop by after practice and watch whatever programming reached us all the way over here and catch up on my internet surfing. She even made me dinner once or twice! Like my parents taught me you should compliment the cook, if you want them to cook again so here is my shout out to an amazing chef!

Anyway to briefly tell you how life is living in a foreign country-- at times it can be difficult, humorous, amazing, fun, and at other times just normal. It can be difficult when we were served sliced tongue for breakfast or when we went to the hospital to get our physicals and I, who is used to the amazing Duke facilities, MRI's at
the drop of a hat, world class doctors not only taking care of you but sitting in the front row behind the basket, right behind the bench, and even on the bench at each of your games...this time around I faced doctors that didn't speak English.

It can be humorous when the English menu translations read steamed cancers (crabs perhaps) or bear and elk stew (maybe a more common Russian than American dish) and the daily sign language interactions between teammates that speak little more than a few common words although хорошая (pronounced horashow, meaning good) is my favorite Russian word.

One of those amazing times was when we were in the Canary Islands in Spain and instead of a second practice, coach decided to let us venture to the most beautiful beach I think I have ever seen, with amazing hotels rising up on either side of the backdrop mountains sandwiching a huge expanse of white sand and blue rippling water closed off from the rest of the ocean by two long black rock peers.

Its also amazing to look out the window of my lovely 17th floor apartment, see the Moscow skyline stretching for miles, or stand at the center of Red Square surrounded by snowflakes and think about the thousands of historical events that have taken place there, or gaze up at colorful spirals of the towers of St. Basil's cathedral. Even pausing to think about the amazing opportunity, to get paid to travel the world and play basketball in so many fascinating places, can make
you think for a second.

And then of course there are the two a day two hour practices where we do basketball drills that all of us have done for years, practice offense and defense until coach decides we have finally gotten it (although there are no longer 30 second water breaks nor double sprints for a missed free throw), watch video, and go over scouting reports. In closing I just thought I would let you know what one of your Duke grads has been up to since I was last playing in Cameron.

Things are going well and I sure am experiencing some exciting new things!

-Ali Bales

Life As A Professional Athlete By Alison Bales

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