Advertisement
Published: October 27th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Rainbow
I guess sometimes we have to walk through the rain before we can appreciate the rainbow. Yesterday as I pulled into my new home an iguana the size of a small dog wiggled its way across the driveway. Today a gecko enjoyed the view with me as I ate breakfast on the balcony. The two sweat shirts and four pairs of jeans I packed have not even made it out of their bags and I've gained a new appreciation for tank tops or shirts with cut off sleeves. The weather is warmer, my room is bigger, the food is tastier, and Costco is just around the corner. Other than the occasional 6 inch spider or the 25 mosquito bites every night its hard to find things to complain about here.
Four years ago I was here and it was so incredibly foreign. I felt like I was in a whole new world with things I had never seen and a culture I had never experienced. Their was the occasional American player but I didn't know any of them and no one was a good friend from back home. Now, in only four short years I feel like this is as close to playing at home as I will ever get. It seems like every team has
First Home
The kitchen an American that I either know personally or consider a friend. The internet works consistently, I have been able to use my cell phone to keep in touch, and the time change means that I'm awake at the same time as all of my friends from back home. Can you believe I even get to go home for a week to be the best man at Billy's wedding?!? Amazing. This is not to say that things haven't been interesting or even a little adventurous since my arrival.
Landing at an airport in a foreign country with no real knowledge of who or if someone will actually be there waiting for you is always an interesting experience. This time was no problem and the owners grandson (Ramon) picked me out of the crowd with ease and introduced himself. We got in the car and headed to our first stop. Dinner with Matt McKinney (my house mate) and our setter Fernando Morales at none other than Chili's!!! Throughout our dinner I couldn't help but smile as I thought back on how foreign this place seemed all those years ago and here I was sitting in a Chili's Bar and Grill ordering
in english and joking around with an old friend. Little did I know that my relaxing dinner was the calm before a four day slump.
Ramon's job after dinner was to escort us to our new residence. Matt and I realized that there might be a problem because of the hour long drive we had to take to get there. We told ourselves, "The club said it was a really nice place by the beach, so maybe it will be worth the drive everyday" HA!!! As we walked in we were greeted by the stench of humid dust and that dirty furniture smell that you get when you buy something at salvation army and it was never really cleaned properly. Before we could get passed the smell we saw a Christmas tree, still decorated, dominating the corner where a baby stroller had also taken refuge. The kitchen look as if a fraternity had just had a party the night before and the refrigerator was stocked full with expired and half eaten food. Both Matt and I had a feeling the the upstairs was not going to be much better.
We were right. The upstairs consisted of three bedrooms
First Home5
Sample of one closet and one fake plant. Only one of the bedrooms had an air conditioner with that same room being about 3 or 4 times the size of the other two. All the closets were filled with plain old straight forward JUNK!!! The kind of crap you would see at a garage sale and think, "Are those people really trying to sell that?!?! I don't even know what that is!!" There was also a broken door, a dirty bathroom and baby pictures that the previous tenets were nice enough to leave adorning the walls. Neither of us was sure what to do or say so we just followed Ramon hoping that the horror would end. There was more to the tour but by that point I stopped paying attention because I just wanted to sleep the nightmare away. There was a patio area that I dont remember and a BBQ that I'm pretty sure would have required a tetanus booster before use.
Thankfully Ramon left and the two of us settled in for the night. I had to bring a mattress from one of the other rooms and put it on the floor with Matt because that was the only room
The Driveway
Even the driveway was nicer!!! with an A/C. As I drifted off to sleep amidst the rumble of the cool air and the bed bugs I took a moment to resign myself to the fact that I no longer wanted to play professional volleyball. I could no longer deal with situations like this that were all too common. Traveling and living around the world had runs its course and that night before I fell asleep I was ready to give it up and come home.
I found out very quickly the next morning that Matt had been just as upset with everything as I had been and since he had spent the past two seasons down here he started making calls immediately. We heard a lot of maybes or could happens but nothing concrete and for the next three days my entire life was packed into the trunk of a car. I didn't say much to anyone nor was I very friendly to any of my team mates. I still had it in my head that I would be getting my flight home as soon as I could find an internet connection. Thank goodness I couldn't find one.
I could go on and
Our Home
As you walk down the drive way and look to the right you see this. Our home!! See the balcony up to the right? Remember that! try to describe where we live now but I think the pictures do a better job than I ever could. Now that I have been eating, sleeping, and typing all in the same place I have been able to settle in and really enjoy this little jungle bungalow. Once I opened up to my teammates I discovered that they are a really great bunch of guys. I have already been surfing with one and gone to a family BBQ with another. To top it off we have already won 2 of our last 3 matches and should be in a good position to win a lot more. I can already tell its going to be a much better season. That,s all for now.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.112s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 18; qc: 58; dbt: 0.0709s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
jon
non-member comment
awesome
Great to hear you're doing so well! What a great experience. Keep up the blogs, fun to read.