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!

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       -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...