It's Time To Take Action

After 6 weeks it is time. (Hard to imagine that I've been here that long already). But it is time to get down to business and learn Spanish. So far I've been getting by with speaking broken Spanish and catching a word here or there when someone speaks to me. Except, of course, for food. If you hear me order food you'd think I had been speaking Spanish my whole life :)

I have a new teammate now. Now I get to be the big brother. But since he’s older than me I’m more like the annoying, know-it-all little brother. Like my former teammate, he has been all over the world and has had many different experiences with playing professional basketball. We also have similar backgrounds and are both intelligent basketball players, so we have interesting conversations about some of our experiences with that and just life in general.

As far as basketball news, unfortunately we were eliminated from the Argentina Cup. It was the same scenario as last week; we had a game Tuesday and Friday, and Saturday if necessary. We lost on Tuesday, but on Friday I brought my computer, my charger, my deodorant, and a change of clothes with me because I knew we would be staying until Saturday. However, we were again unsuccessful and thus eliminated from the tournament. Both games were close and I think once my new teammate gets accustomed to the system and vice versa, we will be a good team. Atenas, we will see you again; be ready!  

This is my seventh week here, and it has barely rained at all...that definitely changed this week. For the past two days it has been raining cats and dogs – for lack of a better pun. That doesn’t bode well for a guy on a bike, doesn’t bode well at all. It got so bad that it even hailed at one point.

Haill, hail, go away. Come again another day.

Now I know you’ve all seen hail before, but I just wanted to show you so you’d stop complaining about how hot it is in the US. I’d gladly take that heat right now. It rained so hard that we couldn’t even practice today because the ceiling was leaking. Now I’m not going to make a joke about that because even the mighty John Paul Jones Arena has leaked before.

But yeah, for the next few weeks we’ll get a lot of practice time in before our first official game October 15^th. Two-a-days… not fun in any country!

Just another day at the office...

This week we started playing in the Argentina Cup. It is a tournament which has all the teams from the top two divisions, and it is the last set of games before the season starts October 15th. Each round is a best of three series.

            Our first game was on Tuesday at home. I had a great game and we ended up beating the team by 16. Our next game was scheduled for Friday on the road; if we won we would be done until Tuesday; if not, we played again on Sunday. They told us on Thursday that if we lost Friday, we would stay on the road until Sunday. Personally, I had no intention of staying there until Sunday. I was confident that we were good enough to beat them again. So confident, in fact, that I didn't bring my computer, my phone charger, or a change of clothes. The only thing I brought as insurance was my toothbrush and toothpaste...

Well, we started out well on Friday but they battled back and - you guessed it - beat us. We were the better team but they played harder and smarter than us and that led to the victory. I did not have a very good game; too many turnovers and I made too many defensive mistakes. Now, we had to stay there until Sunday. I will list how bad I punished myself by not preparing to stay:

1. On Sunday I would have to wear the same socks and the same tights to play in, and I would have to wear the same shirt, pants and boxers until Monday. No deodorant!

2. No computer means no football! No college football. No professional football. I look forward to football all week so this was a HUGE blow.

3. My beautiful iPhone would run out of battery. Now anyone who knows me knows that I live on that thing. When that goes I lose my music, my games, my internet, my communication with the outside world. Or at least my English communication.

4. Back to 2 meals. Ughhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Pretty much the only good thing that came out of this situation is that I have a funny story to tell. Why oh why do I keep doing these things to myself?

We got to the hotel…it left a LOT to be desired. It made a motel look like a five star hotel. I get to the room, and we have a small black and white TV with no cable. There were three beds and four of us in the room; two twin size and one queen. The good news is, I finally got to sleep in a queen-sized bed. The bad news is...and he snored!!!!!

Guess we shouldn't have lost huh?

I sat on the bed wishing I was at the disco, instead I got to watch roaches scurry across the floor.

Before I took my shower, I went to hang out with a few of my teammates in another room. One of my teammates said that when he went to shower, the water came out black! The first thing I thought was, “Great! Now I will smell for the next three days on top of everything else”. I went back to my room to test the shower, to see if I would have similar results. I stood outside the shower with the curtain closed – to make sure that if the water does come out black it wouldn’t get on me – and I turn the knob. It’s clear! Great success!

I started to prepare to shower, and then I stopped and spent the next 5 minutes smiling and laughing to myself about this whole situation. I couldn't make up a better story if I wanted to. I just laughed about the great time I’m having in Argentina simply from all the tiny adventures I seem to always end up in.

Saturday comes. My teammates and I are eating lunch when my teammate asks me, “Are you ready for the game tonight?”       Huh!?!       I thought the game was Sunday? Turns out the game was in fact on Saturday. I was so happy that I gave him a hug; now at least I get to watch the NFL!

Gametime. I put on my same sweaty socks and tights from Friday. BOY did they smell bad. You know you smell bad when you’re in a locker room full of guys and your smell sticks out. Well, I went out there, musty pits and all, and we came out victorious. The stench may have even lightened up the defense haha.

Our next game is Tuesday, but until then I AM READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!

Well...it was fun while it lasted...

Well...it was fun while it lasted...
I had a great time there and I will never forget some of the memories I had. Though at times I was frustrated , I will always cherish the relationships I made. I'm sure going to miss...that hotel. Haha, had you for a moment didn't I? I'm soooooooo happy I have an apartment now. The hotel was nice and everything but after FOUR AND A HALF WEEKS, it got on my nerves. I will miss the people there though. We would mostly only say, "Hola", but they would always smile and wave, and they always knew what I wanted to eat for breakfast... :)


But here, take a look at my apartment

I have a shower curtain!!!!!!

Do you know what the first thing I did when I moved in? That's right. I went to the grocery store; which is right around the corner. GREAT location.


If you haven't figured it out yet; IT'S OFFICIAL, I MADE THE TEAM. The process has taken a lot longer than I thought, but it was well worth it and I'm extremely happy. So happy, in fact, that I started singing when I heard the news - like this!  I would also like to take this time to thank the little people who have made such a big difference, aka the guards who passed me the ball; I couldn't have done it without you!
Disclaimer:  I am not responsible for busted speakers or cracked windows due to my singing!


Up until now, I have tried to make this blog as lighthearted and funny as possible, but we all know that life is not all fun and games. Unfortunately, my teammate has moved on to another team. I was definitely sad to see him go; he has been like a big brother to me and my experience so far would not have been nearly as great without him. But, I realize this is a business and I always have to keep that in mind.


More bad news. Earlier this week the unthinkable happened - my bike broke! I almost cried. My bike and I had really bonded over these few weeks. We had explored the city together, gotten lost together, and gotten chased by dogs together. I even named it. And all that happened was that my weight caused the pole beneath the seat to bend all the way backwards. Guess I'm eating a little Too Much... (Sorry I don't have a picture; I got it fixed before I remembered to take it. Snap!)

So last week, we won our game against a good opponent and my teammates wanted to celebrate afterwards. I've been here for about a month and I haven't seen the night life yet, so I figured, why not? I had only heard rumors about how they don't start partying until 4 am and they don't stop until 7 or 8 AM, but I still needed to see it. Sure enough, we went to one of my teammates' place at 2:30 and headed to bars at 4. Now I thought I had a little bit of celebrity status in Charlottesville with fans that wanted pictures and autographs, but nothing compared to here. I swear I took about one hundred pictures that night. And you don't need to know the language to know when people want to take one either; they just take out their cameras and wave them. I took a couple of my own, just for memory sake.

Taken at approx. 4:45 am

So after doing the salsa for 2 hours, my teammate and I decide to go home. The disco was still packed. A lot of older people were out too; these people party hard! I had fun, but that night really made me appreciate our smoking laws in the US. Cough cough.

But going back to the celebrity thing; there was one moment earlier this week that had me grinning from ear to ear. Now I try to be humble with everything I do, but this one got to me. I was walking in the gym to see if the main court was open for me to shoot. As I walked, I saw that there was a volleyball tournament going on for teenage girls. As I was walking by them, all of a sudden I see an arm and then a flash! Sure enough, one of them had taken a photo of me as I was walking by. If they would've asked me I surely would have allowed them to take a picture, but no, they just snapped a picture as if I were Justin Timberlake (just the first celebrity that popped in my head). I couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the day.


One more thing that still blows my mind. Now I understand that in Argentina, and other countries, dogs are allowed to roam free without owners and leashes. And besides the occasional bike chase and dog poop, I'm fine with that. However, I just think they get a little tooooo much freedom. On Sunday, we were playing an away game. I had just fouled out of the game with a minute left and we were down by 2. After my initial frustration, I look up from the bench and see a dog walking on the court...and no one even flinches. I thought I was going crazy. I rubbed my eyes, looked to my left and my right, but no one seemed to care that there was a dog walking on the court as the final seconds were ticking in this very close game. It just trotted off the court as the play started moving towards it and then went on about it's business. We ended up losing the game by 4 (I had 21), but the dog was the lasting memory in my mind.


You can keep read up on games, (with google translator-that thing is a beast) see the schedule, and I think watch the games when the season starts, here.


Sorry for the long time between blogs; trust me I wanted to write a few but I was determined to have this be my next one. If you are reading my blogs regularly, leave a mark (not you mom). Leave a comment or become a follower, I just want to know Hoos been reading. Thanks.

Road Trip!

It’s Thursday and we have our first road trip; it's a four hour drive... and we are carpooling. I repeat. Four hours. Carpool. I really hoped I didn't have to use the restroom because I had a feeling they wouldn't stop. I remember back at UVA when I complained when we had to carpool to the airport. Twenty minutes doesn't seem that long now compared to four hours. Luckily, at the last minute they changed their mind and put us on a bus; a double-decker bus at that. It was cool because I had only seen one in the movies, and now I get to ride in one. 
Right before we left they called me down and gave me the money for my airline ticket. Hooray. Only problem is they paid me in cash and I was about to go on a three-day road trip. It was a lot of money that I didn't want to carry on the road (for those of you that want to come visit...I suggest you wait until next year and maybe I'll be somewhere cheaper; I was carrying a lot of money)

The name of the city that we went to is called Sunchales. We stayed at a nice hotel, nicer than mine in fact. They even had a shower curtain!

-          

       -Let me pause for a moment and list some more things that I took for granted when I was in the US.

1.    Shower curtains – you’ll appreciate these very quickly if you have to mop up after every shower like I do

2.    Thermostats – you don’t realize how much power you have until it’s gone

3.    QUEEN SIZE BEDS – I’ve yet to see one. I’ve been sleeping on a twin since I got here. Yes, my feet hang off the bottom and my legs hang off the side. In my hotel I push the two twin beds together, on the road I’m not so lucky. I almost rolled off the bed…twice.

4.    Soft bread – All of their bread is hard, all of it. Everywhere I’ve been they have hard bread. I’m talking about hard to the point that when you try and eat the bread it cuts your mouth. I know, because it has cut me. Oh, and you have to eat it because sometimes it’s the only carbohydrate you have!

One more comment. Now, I thought Virginia food was bland (no offense I’m just from Louisiana) but the only thing these people use as seasoning is salt. When I go back home, I’m definitely bringing some Tony Chachere’s back with me. Another thing, they put mayonnaise on their meat! Disgusting right? Chicken, steak, pork.  Mayonnaise. I can honestly say I will never dip my steak in Mayonnaise before I eat it. Never.

We got to the game later that night, and got a good old fashioned butt kicking. I’ll refrain from talking about the game.

The next day we head to San Francisco for another game. Not the US, San Francisco in Argentina. We get to the gym an hour before and there are a bunch of girls having volleyball practice on the court. I watch them finish practice, take down the volleyball nets, and put basketball nets on the rim. Oh yeah, it's 30 degrees outside (-1 degrees Celsius trying to get used to that) and there is no heat in the gym. Should be a fun game.

It’s 20 mins before game time and the other team is warming up. I was waiting to go to the locker room so I could change into my uniform. I saw my teammates getting dressed on the bench in front of everyone, but they had their jerseys on already. I didn’t. I said to myself if they don’t find a locker room for us in two minutes I will have to get dressed in front of everyone. 5 minutes go by; I'm one of the only one not dressed. I have to get changed. Now mind you there is a volleyball tournament going on in the court right beside us and the gym is full of people. I sneak off to the corner and go for it. I change my pants as fast as humanly possible. (Thank goodness I had put on my tights in the hotel). 

Sure enough, we didn't have a locker room at all and we had our pregame speech on the bench. At halftime we had our speech in the bathroom. Why yes, it did smell bad. To all my former teammates: appreciate what you have. Appreciate it. Anyway, we lost. I'll refrain from commenting again just in case someone from Argentina is reading this blog.

That's San Francisco for ya.

Next day we came to the gym and there was volleyball again. But at least the vball nets were down and our nets were up. I came prepared for no locker room, so I was fully dressed.

I went to the bathroom though about ten minutes before the game (I knew where it was this time), and a janitor who had spoken to me the day before was in there and started talking to me again. He talked to me before I used the restroom, while I used the restroom, shook my hand as soon as I finished using the restroom (I wanted to wash my hands but he stuck his hand out there so I mean I didn't want to be rude) and then he kept talking to me even though I was clearly trying to leave. I didn't understand a word he was saying. All I know is that he was talking about some kind of a T shirt. I just nodded and said "si" until he stopped talking and then ran on the court.

We won the game after we made some adjustments from the other two. Now I'm back in my hotel (Ugh) hoping that tomorrow will be a very good day...