The First Few Days in Rio

Day 1: I finally arrived in Rio de Janeiro! And I got my bags!! (For those of you who know my history that's a big deal) Our manager picked me up and drove me to the hotel I will be staying at until my apartment is ready. Rio is an unbelievably beautiful city! I promise to post random pictures of the city from time to time.

Now on to the obvious problem, language -- I learned Spanish while I was in Argentina and had gotten pretty comfortable with it. I knew Portuguese was similar to Spanish but I still bought some Portuguese tapes and started studying away. By the time I arrived, I felt pretty confident with my Portuguese. I felt that with the Portuguese I was studying and the Spanish I already knew, I would be able to communicate a little. Wrong. Instead I felt the same way I did my first year in Argentina, like fish out of water. And the feeling this time was actually worse because I was so confident and then fell so hard. Le Sigh.

Anyways, I was ok because my agent was with me and he spoke English. We walked along the beach Copacabana and I stopped and took a few pictures.

Lunch on the lake

Chillin with the pope on the beach

After a short nap I went to a random restaurant and had the best steak I've ever had in my life. Afterwards I checked out the night life for a little bit; I'll just say I'll have as much fun in Brazil as I did in Argentina.

Day 2: Nothing. It was Sunday and I was dead tired.

Day 3: I knew today would be a long day. I woke up at 6 am to take a physical (The dreaded treadmill for the people who know what that test is), then had lunch with team officials. Later that day, there was a press conference with the two foreign players including myself. It was my first press conference that I was asked questions and got a chance to respond as a professional and you know what, it was about time; people need to know what I think haha. (That was a joke, I'm not that arrogant).

We'll be like Dwight Howard and Steve Nash should have been.

Now this was an interesting press conference because my first language is English, my teammate's is Spanish and everyone else's is Portuguese. It was a trilingual press conference. Questions were asked in Portuguese (some of which I understood. Go me!); and the answers were given in English, Spanish, or Portuguese depending on who was asked. Needless to say after the press conference I had a headache!

After an aspirin, I hung out at the mall and toured the city a little bit more and then I went to sleep. Tuesday was to be my first day of practice!

The whole team is not here yet because numerous players are playing for the national team. Therefore I practiced with the under 22 team. Towards the end of the practice, the coach came up to me and said that since it was my first practice my teammates were going to beat me up. I thought to myself, "Hmm all of these guys are younger than me and this is not my first year of professional basketball." I said to the coach, "Ok. That's fine. But I will fight back." I then put up my fists and smiled. After the practice, he said to them (in Portuguese), "Well this is Jerome's first practice, you all know what to do." I didn't understand what he said when he said it but I could tell by all the scared faces around me that he had told them it was time to beat me up. I raised my fists and gestured to them to bring it on. And of course, I smiled. There was only one brave soul who hesitantly slapped me on the wrist. Kudos to him haha.

I mean, can you really blame them?

Appetite Over All

I have a few other blog posts in the making, but something just happened that I want to write about now.

It was about 10:30 pm and I went to eat at a restaurant I've eaten at most often since coming to Brazil. The restaurant was relatively empty today, and I had ordered some chicken and rice; there was nothing out of the ordinary. I started to see a few people running in one direction, not enough to cause an alarm, but enough to start to draw other people's attention. More people started to come, and then a couple of cops that were on motorcycles stopped to see what was going on. This is when things started to get interesting.

I saw a guy running with a flag. I have no idea what it said because I was too far away. But whatever it said, the cops didn't like it because they took the flag and broke it into pieces. At that point I thought the incident was over because it had seemed like the cops had driven off. However, even more people started to gather, and then they started chanting at the cops. Even more cops came. I kept eating.

People started looking to see what was going on all around the area. Many people started to run into the crowd with their cameras held high and recording. Some of the cameras were expensive, professional cameras which made me think that this little riot was planned. I heard a few popping sounds. I continued eating. After a few more popping sounds the army or SWAT team arrived. All of sudden people started running away! Then...

BOOM. A flash bang goes off. This got me out of my seat haha. BOOM. Another one goes off. A bunch of people ran into the restaurant and I also got up and ran inside. After a few moments passed and the worst seemed to be over, I went outside, grabbed my food, and brought it into the restaurant to keep eating. People lingered in and around the restaurant for some time to make sure everything had calmed down. Some had their noses covered; I guess there was a bad smell. That didn't bother me, I just kept on eating.

Nothing. And I mean nothing was going to get between my food and me!

There was a guy who had been close to the flash bang that came in the restaurant and he was pretty shaken up. I also saw some people running by who had their faces covered with masks and clothing; I assume they were part of the incident. All in all I was not overly alarmed (Minus the BOOM). I also could not ask and didn't fully understand what had happened. (Working on that Portuguese I promise) I just stuck to my general rules when dealing with sudden large gatherings of people.

1. NEVER run towards the big crowd. That puts you in the line of fire.
2. Know what is going on. Though you don't want to run towards the crowd knowing how dangerous the situation could become is important. (Helps when you are tall, you can see everything from a safe distance)
3. When other people start running, you start running. They're obviously running for a reason, you should follow suit.
4. Leave when it is clear that everything has calmed down.

If my Mondays are like this I can't wait to see what happens on a weekend!

A New Overseas Adventure

Well, after a two-year hiatus I have decided to return to blogging; at least on a temporary basis. The primary reason for my newfound desire to blog is that I am heading to a new country which means a new culture, a new language, and hopefully many new exciting adventures. Brazil here I come!

About three weeks before I was scheduled to leave the US, my agent sent me an email with a list of documents I needed to get together to apply for  a visa to enter Brazil.

Side note: I feel like I should give a short update on what happened the past two years in Argentina. I had two more great years in Argentina with the past year ending in three championships!

Back to the Visa: When I saw the list of things I needed, I put my face in my palm and thought to myself, "Getting this visa is going to be a nightmare." Oh how correct I was. The first problem was that I was in Charlottesville working out (Go Hoos Go!) and not in Louisiana. Luckily I had my passport and other necessary documents with me, so I mailed everything from New York (spontaneous road trip) to the Visa Agency who would go to the Consulate on my behalf. And now I will list all of the problems that I had...

• Before I do list the problems I had, let me say this. A lot friends have told me that they would like to visit me. Great! But be warned, you must have a Visa to enter Brazil and my advice to all of you is to get your Visa at least two weeks before you plan on coming. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE!!!

Problem #1: I bought and sent two money orders--one made out to the Consulate and one to the Visa Agency. I bought them at a pharmacy in New York on a Friday evening because it was my only option and mailed them to the agency. But alas, I did not read the fine print! The Consulate only accepts money orders from USPS. Le sigh. So I had to send the money to the agency for them to buy a USPS money order on my behalf.

Problem #2: When the agency submit my documents to the Consulate everything was fine...except they rejected my passport. One reason was because there weren't any blank pages, and the second because it had some water damage.

Water damage story: I had my passport in a bag in my apartment in Argentina in a closet safe and sound...at least I thought. It was a December morning I was scheduled to leave Argentina to come home for Christmas break, I retrieved my passport from the closet, and I was shocked to realize that my passport was wet! I almost had a heart attack. Luckily I was able to leave and reenter the country. Here is a video that shows why my passport got wet. 

Literally 30 seconds later...

Having received the bad news about the visa, I immediately bought a ticket back to Louisiana from DC. The day was Tuesday, July 23rd and the team wanted me in Brazil on August 1st. (Funny story I showed up at the wrong airport in DC and didn't have enough time to go to the other one. Luckily I was able to cancel that ticket and buy another one for the same price in time to catch the flight at that airport. Thank you Kayak.) I had to drive to New Orleans (about and hour and a half away) on Thursday to apply for my expedited passport and then back again on Friday to pick it up so I could send it express to the agency. I assumed that the representative would go to the Consulate on Tuesday because it only opened Tuesdays and Thursdays. WRONG AGAIN!

Problem #3: The agency received my passport, but didn't go to the Consulate on Tuesday because they had mislaid the money for the money order. Le sigh. After some detective work, I called the agency and the check was found! Problem solved...except that the visa application could not be submitted until Thursday, and if approved, could not be retrieved before the following Tuesday. I would then receive my passport on Wednesday and the earliest I could leave would be Thursday the 8th. Le sigh.

The application as approved! Finally! I was ready to leave on Friday. Bags were packed (70 lbs. instead of 50 and two free bags. Best thing ever!), made it to the airport, flew to Atlanta, aaaaaand the flight was delayed two hours. I just laughed. Compared to what I went through to get the visa a late flight was no big deal haha. I can only imagine what adventures lay ahead in Brazil!

Where All My Dreams Came Through in 3D

Disclaimer: This blog post is a special one-time post about a special event that happened to me today and doesn’t really have to do with the rest of the posts.

I’ll start by saying this, if you do not know what my favorite movie is you do not know me. If you don’t know that I can quote this movie from start to finish or if you haven’t heard me quote parts of it, then you’re probably not my friend.

When I heard that this movie was coming out in 3D for two weeks only while I was going to be in Argentina, tears came to my eyes. I seriously contemplated flying back to the US just to see this movie. However, I found out it was also coming out in Argentina, I just had to wait a couple more weeks.

I now know why I started learning Spanish. It was for no other reason but to be able to watch The Lion King in Spanish and be able to understand and compare it. Today, I was able to fulfill my destiny. Here is my story:

I arrived at the theater 20 minutes before the movie started.  I like to think of myself as a person who does what he wants to do regardless of what people think, however, even I felt a little embarrassed to ask for one ticket to “El Rey de León”.  

That's 25 pesos haha

When I went in I was the only one there. Score! Now I get to take the best seat! Sheldon would’ve been proud. (Big Bang Theory reference) 

That's one cool cat...no
pun intended.

After a few more people entered, the movie started. A HUGE grin spread across my face. I was happy as can be. Now there were certain things that concerned me as I started watching my favorite movie of all time in another language. I know that when movies and tv shows are translated, some things get lost in translation. The 3 things I was going to pay attention to were 1. Songs 2. Voices 3. 3D experience and general observations.

Songs

Circle of Life – Loved it, this song sounds just as good in Spanish as it does in English.

I Just Can’t Wait to Be King – Mmm unfortunately I’d have to say this was my least favorite translated song. It just didn’t have the same jovial feel

Be Prepared – I had the most difficulty trying to compare this song because some of the vocabulary is hard in English so obviously I didn’t catch all the translations. Also, some parts don’t sound as intimidating in Spanish.

Hakuna Matata – This would be my favorite song in Spanish. As soon as it came on I started chuckling to myself and tapping my feet.

Can You Feel the Love Tonight – This one felt a little weird to me, like it was missing words. I guess this was the hardest one to translate rhythmically, but it was ok.

Voices

Mufasa – This was the most important voice as far as I was concerned. If Mufasa didn’t have a deep, manly, fatherly voice, I would’ve walked out during the first scene. The voice they chose was good, not as good as the original, but good enough.

Scar – he sounded evil, but not as scary as the English version. I remember when I was a kid Scar creeped me out, and I just didn’t get that same feeling in Spanish.

Zazu – sounded annoying. Check.

Young Simba – had no problem with young Simba, he sounded like a girl in English, he sounded like a girl in Spanish. Consistency.

Grown Simba – had a deeper voice than he did in the English version which is good because I think his voice shouldve been deeper.

Rafiki – Mmm didn’t like it. In English he sounded old, wise, but crazy. In Spanish just old and wise. The craziness makes this character.

Timon and Pumba – They both were accurate in my opinion so, Hakuna Matata.

Ed – Spot. On. Haha

3D and general observations

•  It was pretty obvious that the original Lion King was not made in 3D. Some parts didn’t look great, but when Mufasa came out of the clouds it looked awesome. That’s all I cared about.
• Some of the jokes didn’t translate well, like when the hyenas were joking around when Simba, Nala, and Zazu went to the elephant graveyard. Pig latin doesn’t translate from Spanish. Or the jokes that Timon told when they first found Pumba
• I cried when Mufasa died again. It’s just as sad in Spanish.
• And can you believe that they changed the only Spanish words in the movie! Un-believable. (When the hyenas come in to Scar’s den after he’s king to tell him there’s no food. One whispers, “I thought things were bad under Mufasa, Scar hears and yells, “What did you say!?!” He replies, “Qué pasa”. For those who couldn’t recall)

Overall, I thought it was great and I really enjoyed as well as worked on my Spanish haha. For those who are wondering if I’ll see it again, I reply, Sí!

El Último

I can't believe it has finished already. It seems like yesterday I was arriving to Argentina trying to figure out why the restaurant I was supposed to eat at was closed at 7 pm. I know it's been a long time since I've written my last blog, but I just haven't had the time to just sit down and write it. But now I'm here so let's recap...

We made the playoffs! I had to start it by saying that because it went all downhill from there. We lost the first two games on the road on Wednesday and Friday. We then traveled back home for our must win game on Wednesday. We practiced hard all week but unfortunately we came up short on Wednesday and thus we were eliminated from the playoffs.


I haven't seen my parents since December and some of my friends for almost a year, so needless to say after our season was over I was eager to get home. So eager in fact, that I was ready and willing to leave the next day! But unfortunately my story will end how it began, with airport problems.

Thursday morning my teammate, my manager and I went to the travel agency to change our tickets. The first words out of our mouths were "How soon can you get us home?" Well, it turned out that the earliest that I could leave was Monday. Ugh! Well, it wasn't so bad.


I was able to hang attend the celebration dinner with my teammates on Friday.

Great group of guys!

On Saturday and Sunday I was hung out with a lot of the friends that I made in Río Tercero. At the end of it, I was glad I stayed those extra days.

Finally Monday arrived and it was time to leave, and I was supposed to arrive home Tuesday. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed overnight and I wasn't able to get home until Wednesday. Since then I've been running around visiting family and friends. 


Well, that's it for this year. I hope you all have enjoyed my blog and I thank you all for following it. Until next time.

But, We Made The Playoffs

The stage was set. After all we'd been through we only had to win two of our last four games to make the playoffs. After all the long bus trips, close games lost, and the misfortune, we still had a chance to make it. However, three of the last four were on the road, and we all know about our road woes. We definitely had support from everyone in the city though. As we were leaving there was a huge crowd of people gathered, cheering and chanting, and wishing us good luck in our upcoming battles.

Last week Friday we played a team all the way in the north of Argentina, so it was hot! But no worries, the gym we were to play in was one of the nicest gyms in Argentina and it had air conditioning...or so I thought. Now the gym has air conditioning, but for some reason they did not have it on when we played. It was actually the hottest gym I have ever played in; as soon as I stepped on the court I was in a full sweat. Now when I play basketball I usually have one goal in mind: to win. That day I had two: to win and to survive. 

Despite those obstacles, we started of the game very well, and even had a 22 point lead in the first half. Then fatigue started to kick in. 22 became 19, 17, 13, 9... all the way until with about a minute left in the game they took their first lead in the game. Very next possession, BOOM, slam dunk from yours truly. Now we are up one and just need one more stop to do the improbable. Sure enough, we force them into a turnover and win the game!!! HUGE win. Some of my teammates and the coaches were jumping around celebrating the victory. Some were even sliding on the floor! But I was wayyyy too tired from sweating so much, but I accomplished my two goals: to win and to survive.

Now we only needed one more. Unfortunately we came up short last week Sunday, but we knew we had a home game coming up so we were not discouraged.

Friday. Biggest game of the year. We win and we are in. You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well...

NUEVE TIENE HUEVOS!!!

It became official. We made the playoffs in our first year in the top division and we were safe from reclassification for another year. Mission accomplished!

So we had made the playoffs, but we still had one more game to play against the same team on Sunday.

From this point on I'll call this entry: You Can't Make This Stuff Up Part 2

We left at 2 o'clock on Saturday for our 7 hour drive to where we were to play our last game. The plan was to get there, practice for a little, and get ready for Sunday. I had a bad feeling a soon as I walked on the bus and saw how filthy it was. You could literally smell the dirt in the air. The seats could not even hold my body weight; I leaned back and the chair leaned back without me pushing the button. But, we made the playoffs!

About 4 hours into the drive the bus cut off: in the middle of nowhere of course. Apparently something was wrong with the belt or something. We did not call a mechanic, but after an hour by the ingenuity of some of the bus drivers and the coaches we were able to get the bus running and make it to a car shop.

Just enjoying the scenery.
Used to this by now.

After about an hour the bus was fixed and we were on the road again. After exactly 50 minutes, the bus broke down again. Seriously. But, we made the playoffs!

Another hour passed, and they were able to get the bus fixed again. At this point was 10 o'clock and we still have another three hours ahead of us. Guess we were not practicing. We reached the city at about 1 am and then we had dinner. (Actually not that unusual.) Afterwards, my teammate and I decided to walk around the city for a little. (Not unusual either, there were a lot of people out and about.) It was during our little adventure when I heard the two most random English phrases ever spoken to me. We walked by two guys who were sitting on a bench when one shouted, "Double Dribbley", and the other jumped up, made a smoking gesture with his hand, and shouted, "Smoking grass poo". We decided that it was indeed time to return to the hotel. 

The next day we ended up losing the game. We did not put our best foot forward because we wanted to rest people. But, we made the playoffs! After eating and learning which team we were going to play in the playoffs, we set off for our home at about 2 am...with the same bus...

At about 5 am we all felt that familiar feeling, the bus shut off. It was 5 am on a Sunday, so I did not  know how we were going to find a mechanic. However, they were again able to start the bus back up in a record ten minutes. My teammate then jokingly said, "Watch the bus cut off again in 30 seconds." Of course he was wrong, it only took 20 seconds. 

After another 20 minutes we were told that there was another bus behind us that was  full of people and we were going to join them so we needed to grab our stuff. Seriously? But, we made the playoffs. 

We joined them and we set off again at about 6 am. I even took a picture next to my seat buddy...

We were both kinda groggy

A couple hours later we made it to the bus station, changed into a bus of our own, and then drove another two hours home. So now we are resting for the day, and leaving again tonight at 11 for another 8 hour trip to play our first game on Wednesday. That will make two straight nights on the bus and three bus trips in four days. But, we made the playoffs!

Maybe We Just Need to Be Underdogs

Hi everyone, did you miss me? I can't believe there are only 2 weeks left in the season with 4 games left! Four games have passed since we last talked so let's recap what happened:

Rewind all the way to last Monday. We played against the 3rd best team in the league at the time. The last time we played them they beat us handily. So on paper they were going to beat us again right? Nope. We probably played our best game as a team all year and beat them by 30. BadaBOOM!

Wednesday we played our first nationally televised game versus the team we lost to in overtime by 2 on the road. At this point they were second to last in the league and we were playing them at home. So on paper we were going to get revenge and win right? Nope. Now granted it was probably the worst officiated game I've ever played in, but we still had a chance to win although we ended up losing by 2 or  3.

Now we had a bit of a break before our next game the following Friday. The reason was because there was the all-star game and all-star festivities that weekend. Yeah, I feel like I should've been there, but I'm not bitter. It's cool. I looked at the team and they selected to veteran big guys. It's cool. I have to wait my time that's all. But, yeah I didn't watch the game. Hmmph.

On to Friday. We were playing against the last place team at home, whom we had beaten twice before pretty convincingly AND we had over a week to prepare for them. So of course we kicked their butts again right? Nope. They smacked us by 20 and it was our worst home loss of the year. I played so poorly that I should buy the team some wine. Haha.

Yesterday. The teams below us had been winning so we were on the brink of dropping into the bottom four. We HAD to win that game to stay out of the bottom four. But wait, who did we have to play? A team in the top 5 who had beaten us not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times! (is there a word for the fourth time?) So we had no chance of beating this team and we were definitely going to lose right? Nope. We came through and pulled out the victory; but boy, it was by no means easy.

So let's recap: We lost to the two teams we were supposed to beat, and beat the two teams we were supposed to lose to. Maybe we just need to be underdogs. Now we are in 11th place with 4 games left. WE MUST HANG ON!

Oh yeah I almost forgot, if you haven't seen my highlight video yet you can find it here! or in the related links section on the right. I put a lot of time and effort into it, I hope you enjoy.

And for the sake of a picture here is one of my funny faces caught on camera.

Mommy, he hit me :'(