BRAZIL WEEK ONE

So I've been here a little over a week and I've finally found some time where I'm not so tired i don't even want to sit at the computer. i arrived on the 18Th at about 1 in afternoon. i flew threw the night which didn't help my case in the whole jet lag department since i have a hard time sleeping on planes. luckily the plane was only at 25% occupancy so i was able to have a whole row to myself. i didn't get the best sleep but better than i would have sitting up. i got to Sao Paulo and had to get through customs and then switch airports from the international airport to the national airport which is about a 45 minute bus ride. the flight to Uberlandia, which is where my team is located, was a short 1:45 minute flight. it was going smoothly until we were about to land and 5 feet to touch down the pilot jerks ups and we head back into the air. i was pretty tired so i didn't realize what happened until everyone start making noise. The flight attendant was nice and spoke enough English to tell me that there was a gust of wind that made him abort the landing at the last second. I'm glad he took the precautions!!! once i landed i got my bags and came out to meet my gm who's name is Fernando and the asst. Rodrigo. Fernando is from Uruguay where they speak Spanish so I'm able to hold a good conversation with him. Rodrigo is from Brazil but studied English in Seattle and was an assistant coach for BYUHawaii so he speaks English well. we jump in a little hatchback which i bet make up 70% of the car population down here. i haven't figured out exactly why (gas, not a lot of space, etc). probably a combination of reasons. they took me out to lunch at a churrascaria (spelling), which is a typical Brazilian style restaurant where it is all you can eat. they bring out beans, rice, bread, fried bananas, and then they come by every 1 minute with a piece of meat which they cut a piece off if you like. they also have a salad bar with potato salads, bean salads, and regular salad fixings. i was really hungry so it hit the spot. during lunch they told me that the apart/hotel (they call it that because they have a kitchen but they still come clean your room) wasn't ready yet so I'd be staying at a different hotel the first night. they also gave me the option to go to practice to meet the guys or just relax at the hotel. i decided to go to practice and practice as well. i wanted to make sure i was tired at about 10pm or 11pm because I'm 4 hours ahead of Portland and it would only be 5pm or 6pm to my body by the time i would want to go to bed. plus we have weights at 9:30 am. they dropped me off at a different apart/hotel, which come to find out late is owned by the same guy who owns the one i stay in now. my asst. met me downstairs at 4:30 to go to practice. we walked there and it was only about 6 blocks. on the way he pointed out the spot I'd be staying at which was only about 3 blocks from the gym. when we got to the gym i met all the guys and coach who were all really nice. the coach immediately pulled me aside and told me that he knows I'm a shooter and that he didn't care if i missed 10 in a row to now worry about it. he told be he had just got done playing and still remembers what's it's like to be a player. this was one of only things i was nervous about and it felt like a ton a bricks off my shoulders to know that my coach has confidence in me is really important to me. we only had 5 guys so we just did some shooting drills. it was nice to sweat the plane ride out. after practice Rodrigo asks what i want to eat and i told him to suprise me. he took me to a place called acai cafe. acai is a berry that is from the north of Brazil. i guess it has the most calories per gram of any fruit. They serve it in drink form and sorbet form. we ordered a bowl and a hamburger with egg on it. I'm glad he was there because Portuguese is way different than Spanish contrary to what everyone kept telling me before i left. a lot of the same words but the pronunciation is way different!!! it sounds like a mix between french and Spanish. Anyways, the acai (pronounced ahs-i-e) was really good as well as the hamburger. i slept pretty well the night but the beds are pretty hard. the next 2 days as well as Monday through Friday of this week were all the same. weights from 9:30am-10:30am, conditioning and shooting from 10:45am-12:30pm, eat at the university (where we practice), which is really good. it's only 5 reals (about $3) all you can eat beans and rice, salad, mashed potato's, spaghetti, and chicken or beef. after lunch i go home and rest until 4:30pm and then go to the evening practice from 5pm-7pm. after practice i eat and go to bed. i felt like i was Bill Murray in groundhog day this past week. lol The only thing keeping me sane is that it's all new plays with new teammates. off the court this past week things have been good. last Saturday one of the other Americans showed up. his name is Robby Collum and he's from Wisconsin. he's a great guy. we get a long really well and have quite a lot in common . IE, big fam, fishing, basketball (of course), movies, etc. the day he got here i had just moved into the new apart/hotel. it's brand new and i was actually the first guest they ever had. along with a new place you have little things that need tweaking. example; the first time i took a shower i realized they hadn't sealed it very well and by the time i finished there was water all over the place. also the Internet they are using sucks!! at 2 pm it slows down so bad that it's not worth using. i talked to the gm about it and the are "working on it". I'm starting to wonder if I'm still in Mexico! if it wasn't for wanting to see my beautiful family I'd be more OK with it. so here i am 1 week and half down out of 40. if anyone has specific question or want to hear about anything in particular e-mail me at day_robert30@hotmail.com. love and miss everyone!

China June 13th, 14th, & 15th

I haven't blogged again in a couple days and like i said last time everything is blurring together so I'll do my best to get my info accurate! not that anyone will no the difference ha ha. so i woke up that morning late. the beds are either getting better or I'm more tired at nights but I've been sleeping a bit better. i woke to the alarm this morning which hasn't happened much since i got here. i can most likely thank my little man cooper for training me to wake up on a dime! love you little man! so we hustled through our morning routine of packing, eating, and getting our stuff on the bus. we another long travel day ahead of us. a 2 hour bus ride, a 6 hour train ride, and then another 2 hour bus ride. I've experiences crazy 24 hour bus rides in Mexico but they usually aren't on consecutive days. I'd have to say this has been one of the taxing experiences I've ever had. it's a good thing we've been able to do some sight seeing otherwise it would be easy to get frustrated. the bus ride wasn't too bad in the morning. the roads are really bumpy so it's hard to get quality rest. when we got to the train station we were informed that we had 2 minutes to on to the train. this was no easy task because you have to go through a security check point and then a maze to get to your train. I'm not sure how we did it but everyone got on the train. i was the second to the last to get on and the door shut Andres (our back up 4). with the humidity everybody had gotten their workout out in for the day. personally I'm not sure i sweat ed as much in the game the night before as i did getting to the train! good thing they had wash station and i was able to dry off. in the previous trains there was barely enough space for our luggage and usually only standing room. we must have gotten lucky or reserved the car we were on because everyone got their own seat and there were a couple to spare the whole way. a little while into the trip one lady sitting behind us must have been listening in on our conversation because said jumped into our conversation. we were kind of took back not because she jumped in but because she spoke English. come to find out she was heading to Beijing which was only another 2 hours on the train from where we were getting off. early in the day we were told that we would be staying in this city for a couple days and that we'd have a day off. we all decided to try to find a way to Beijing on our day off (the 15Th). we all knew that we'd be in Beijing for the last 2 days but we wanted to make sure we had enough time to do everything. so we talked to our translator and he looked into it for us. the train was out of the question because the next day the dragon boat festival starts. it's a 3 day holiday and i guess everyone was flooding to the major cities to celebrate and there was only 5 stand up tickets left. the translator was being kind of weird. i think he didn't want to go, but we didn't really care if he did. we put a little more pressure on him and he found a bus we could rent to get there. it'd be a 4 hour drive but at this point that wasn't too bad considering how much we've been traveling. plus it was for something we wanted to do. anyways, we finished our train ride and got on the bus to the hotel. i don't remember the hotel very well but it was defiantly a downgrade. when we got there we walked around for a while at a strip mall down the street. there wasn't anything at all for any of us to buy. mostly clothes that were way to small. on our way back rob wanted to stop at the ATM to get some money so Ty and i waited outside. we noticed there was a tiny table that had a deck of cards with a couple tiny stools around it. we decided to sit down and play a game of war while we waited. within minutes we had a 10+ around us observing our game. we were playing fast and kept going to war so I'm sure these people were wondering what we were playing. i ended up winning pretty quickly which doesn't happen to often in one on one match. after that we headed back, ate some dinner and headed off to bed. we fell asleep watching the world cup which is what we will probably do from here on out. the next morning (14Th) we got up and ate breakfast. we spent today relaxing since we had a game tonight. before the game we go down and have our snack the Lithuanian team is just getting in. come to find out they had a game the night before against a Chinese team which they won easily but sucked for them because it was their 5Th game in 6 days and had to play another one against us in a couple hours. we get to the gym which was really nice but it ended up being the most unenthusiastic crown we'd play in front of. the 1st half was close but we took over in the second half and ended up winning by and an easy 20. i led my team with 18 points and 8 rebounds. again ofter the game they presented us with a team trophy but to our surprise there was a cash prize of 10,000 yuan (roughly $1500). they gave it to the owner who was nice enough to split it with the team. we each got about $100. not a bad little bonus, especially since we weren't expecting it. after the game we headed back to shower and eat. the game took forever most because the opening part takes forever. all these people had speeches prepared and they have to translate them all. so we got back late and the restaurant was closed so we had to go to the corner store and get some cup o noodles. they weren't bad but not something you want to eat right after a game. oh well, we were all focused on getting ready to our trip to Beijing the next day. we had to leave at 6am so we could miss traffic and so when we got there we didn't have to rush. i ended up falling asleep at 1am so i was planning on sleeping on the bus the next morning. the morning (15Th) came too quick but i was able to sleep about an hour and half on the bus. we stopped right outside of Beijing to make a plan because i guess buses are restricted in some areas. most people wanted to do shopping and see one site. we decided to go shopping first at this famous place called the silk market and then head to the forbidden city which is also right in front of Tienanmen square. shopping there is more of an experience than something to do. it's basically a 6 floor flea market. they sell high quality knock offs of famous brands. every stand you walk but your being yelled at and grabbed. they usually say to us "you so tall", "special price for you", "you come look for free", or just a "hey!!". once they get you in they usually try flirting tactics with guys "your handsome i give you special price". it's kinds of funny the first couple times but it gets old really quick! they want to barder with you so they usually start really high and you can usually get what ever you want for 5-10% of their original offer. if you start to walk away they usually drop the price in half and keep dropping it ever step you get further away. some get mad and others just say you are tough. ha ha. at about 2:30 we headed off to the forbidden city. we found a subway right in front of the market and took that about 4 stops to get to the east Tienanmen square station. as soon as you hit the top of the steps coming out of the subway station you see the walls of the forbidden city. you turn around and Tienanmen square is right there. it's a pretty cool sight. we headed directly into the forbidden city and it opens up to his huge courtyard. not all like expected. from the entrance you can walk straight for it seems like a mile or so walking through these huge courtyards. they have basketball hoops, gift stands, and snack shacks. after walking through 3 courtyards rob and i were a little behind because we stopped and bought some Chinese hats because the sun was blazing. we also got stopped quite a few times to take pictures. by the time we got to the fourth courtyard they were kicking everyone out. we didn't know what was going on until someone informed that they were closing this part of the city for the rest of the day. this ended up being a good thing because the city was enormous. i guess all the buildings were closed for the day so rob and walked around the gardens for a minute and then decided to go back to the market where everyone was meeting a 6pm to go back home. we got back to the silk market at about 5 and went up to the tailor to ask some question. one of out teammates got a suit made for $140 that he was picking up when we returned on the 19Th. rob had some other stuff he wanted so we didn't have to get measured but we found out that they can make them in 24 hours so we could go back when we returned. plus it also game me time to think if i really wanted one. before we left we stopped a pizza parlor that we saw earlier and ordered a pizza for the road. it was sooo good! i can't wait to get back to the states to eat some good home cooked food! the day turned out to be really successful. i got a lot of things people asked for and couple other random things. the bus ride back was miserable because they were doing construction on the road so that tacked on another hour and half. i got a couple short naps in but didn't want to sleep that much because i wanted to be able to sleep when we got back. again we got back late and ate a cup o noodles with some tomato flavored pringles. dinner of champions! ha ha.

China June 12th

I woke up to my feet on fire. the night before i left the balcony doors open late and let a bunch of mosquito's in and they had a feast. they weren't big bumps but just as itchy. i forgot to mention that the night before the sponsor from a sports company called peak sent us all a bunch of gear (travel bags, long sleeve t, polo, mesh shorts, sweat suit, and some shoes.) as grateful as we were everyone immediately thought "now we have to lug this around too!". sounds so spoiled and it is but carrying all our bags around through train stations, bus stations, and airports has defiantly wore on us. soon after i woke up we got a phone call telling us to go eat and that we were leaving at 9:30. i wasn't listening very closely so we got ready for shoot around and went and ate. when we got down there everyone was dressed casual so i asked and found out that we were going eat lunch at the sponsors somewhere downtown. i got razzed pretty good for that one and was banned from answering the phone for the rest of the day ha ha. come to find out that everyone was wrong. we were going to eat but not where we were told and not with whom we were told we were going to eat with. i was wondering why we got on the bus early. first i though we'd probably be doing a tour of something and then i though we probably have a far drive. it ended up being a combo of both. after about a hour and fifteen minute drive we show up on another enormous man made island. this island, from what i could tell, was made up of duplex condos, single family condos, and mansions, along with some community centers. our first stop was at one of the community centers. the place was littered with reporters and random other people that looked out of place. we had no clue what the point was so we just walked around and took pictures and posed for pictures. the community center was placed on the water and had a couple different buildings, a stage for concerts, a couple of covered areas, and a couple docks with boats and bicycle boats. about 20 minutes after we started they turned on this fountain about 60 feet of shore. it was no billagio but they did have one fountain in the middle that shot up close to 200 feet. it was quite the sight. it was really humid and although they made sure we had enough water we were sweating uncontrollably. after 45 minutes or so we signed some basketballs and took some pictures with a guy (I'm assuming he owned the project and then headed to the bus. we assumed we were on the way to eat but we stopped in the middle of a bunch of condos, got off the bus and headed down this driveway. halfway down the driveway we run into 3 peacocks. we got some good pictures before one kind of jumped at me with some aggression. i took that as a sign and we moved on. we crossed this little bridge and then the property opened up and this huge mansion stood there. it was surrounded by water with about 50 feet of yard separating the house and water. in the front yard there were a couple more male peacocks (the pretty ones) and females running around. the mansion was 3 stories and come to find out quickly was occupied. i guess the guy didn't mind it we toured it. the architecture reminded more of something you would find in orange country rather than china. all the inside had light colored walls and dark wooded trim everywhere. the most impressive room was the theater room on the 3rd floor. it had 10 leather lazy boy style massage chairs that even massaged your feet and head. heading back to the bus we saw one of the peacocks that had opened it's feathers up so we had to get a couple pictures of that. we loaded back on the bus and headed through the compound and then the bus came to another stop. at this point nobody wanted to move unless it was for food but we did anyway. to our surprise we made the right decision because it was for lunch. we sat around this huge round table with the lazy Susan in the middle spinning around. there was kung pao chicken, a beef and onion dish, a vegetable dish to start off. then they brought in some cold McDonald's which was really random. i think a couple people ate a little but it did taste like it had been sitting there since the night before. after the McDonald's they brought some sandwich's, fried rice, an eggplant dish, a cold vegetable plate, as well as a fruit dish. we all ate as much as we could because we knew there probably wouldn't be much before the game tonight and we needed the fuel. the drive back usually feels shorter but for some reason it didn't this time and i even slept a little. we finally got back to our hotel and was able to rest until game time. right before the game on the court the city representatives came out and spoke. they called the game we were about to play in the "sunshine island championship". they also said that this was the highest level of basketball that has ever been played in their city and hoped that it would bring international recognition to their city. we all felt honored to be there. the game was a good game. i had an up and down game. i wasn't feeling great and i had a little pull in my groin that was bugging me. our team played well together and pulled out the win. they presented us with these plaques that had a detailed Chinese tree made out of gold. it's actually really good looking. they also gave us a championship trophy.

China June 10th and 11th

I had a decent night sleep and we went through are normal morning routing of eating, packing, showering and loading on the bus all at the last minute. The bus ride again was around 2 to 3 hours. We show up at the hotel which I can't remember what it looked like at all. The days have started to mush together due to all the traveling. I remember it being dimly lit in the hallways and full of a dark wood. When we got there we did our normal pre-game routine. We ate lunch, unpacked a little, napped, snack 2 hours before the game and left an hour and half before the game. All of us as tired as we were seemed to be getting a handle on the travel and were ready to play. Our big guy, rob decided to give it shot tonight as well which was nice. He had pulled a calf muscle a couple games before and was resting it. The gym wasn't the nicest we played in so far but I liked the rims. The downer was it didn't look very well ventilated and there was a smoky haze above the court. The game went great for us a team. We ended up winning by 3 to the team we had lost the 2 previous to. I had 20 points in the first quarter and then played 3 minutes the rest of the game because the refs calling phantom fouls. If we would have lost I would have been frustrated but I actually had a lot of fun watching my team beat this team up. It was a good morale booster not to mention it was a good gift for our point guard (Sepo Ginobili) who turned 38. Immediately after the game one of their the big guys from the Lithuanian team walks up to the ref and dumps water in face and throws the bottle at him. UNBELIEVABLE!! I couldn't believe what I was watching. First I thought they were going to arrest him because the police detained him but it turned out all they wanted was an apology. After getting back to the hotel and showering up we head to eat. We stay at the same hotel as the other team and that’s when I found out he had to apologize. Earlier in the day we told our translator that it was Sepo's birthday so we could plan something with the hotel staff. I guess they said they would take care of it. After we were done eating they came out with this double layer cake that had fruit and chocolate icing. It was actually pretty good. The hotel gave him a set of nice chop sticks that came with a table cloth. It was funny because one of the guys that was traveling and helping put a lot together wanted to be in the middle of everything. After Sepo blew out the candles he took some icing and put in on Sepo's nose. Then he wanted to feed him bites of the cake while people were taking pictures! Really uncomfortable but hilarious as well. When everyone had cake they were all ready to take Sepo out for the night. I was tired but thought it was important to go. We asked our translator if he could find out what was close. He said everything might be close except a karaoke bar down the street a couple blocks. This would have been a hilarious night but when we got there they had just shut down. Rob and I decided to go to the all night KFC across the street to get some ice cream while everyone headed back to their rooms. We walk in and see the ice cream machine in pieces. We were striking out left and right. Oh well, I took it as a sign to get back and get to bed because we had to travel the next day which is more tiring than the game in some cases. We get up early and packed, ate and got started a day full of travels which consisted of a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to the airport, a 2 hour bus ride, and a 3 1/2 bus ride. About an hour from our final destination we stop at a KFC that was attached to a strip mall. It was quite the scene. There were camera crews, reporters, and a bunch of random people waiting for us to get off the bus. Obviously someone had staged this. After taking pictures and signing a couple autographs we ate and headed out to what was hoped was the hotel. We quickly realized that we had a police escort in the front and one in the back. For the next 45 minutes we ran every red light while motorcycle cops stopped cross traffic. If felt a bit unnecessary but flattering. The last 15 minutes of the ride we were all wonder where they were taking us because it was water on one side and abandoned buildings on the other side. Then these huge buildings came into view through the haze a couple miles. We come up on this big entrance to this man made community resort island. We pull up to this huge hotel that looked like it belongs in Orange County somewhere. As we walk in the lobby opens with the reception on the left, a sitting area as well as a small scale of the finished island on the right, and a corridor running the length of the building with 40ft ceilings that where painted like the Sistine chapel straight in front. Through the corridor was this wide open eating area with these beautiful columns around the entrance. We got our room key and headed up to our rooms which have their own sliding glass doors that open up to a balcony that overlooks the island. All I’m thinking this is where we should have been staying the whole time!! After getting unpacked and washed up we headed down to eat dinner. Dinner was just as amazing as the hotel. They had lamb chops, duck breast in blueberry sauce, some sushi's, and for some reason the thing I was most excited about; mashed potatoes. Those took me home for just a couple minutes ha-ha. While we were eating were watched the opening ceremonies for the world on this 15 projection TV. The first game started at 10pm and it was about 9:45 when I hit the wall. I headed back up to the room and watched the first 20 minutes and fell asleep. I tried to stay up for another hour so I could talk to my family but I failed!

China June 7Th & 8Th

I wish I could say I slept good that night after our full day in Nanjing but I woke up at about 6:20 in a full sweat but not hot at all. i dried off and tried to sleep but I was up. I decided to get up and work on my blog and mess around on the Internet. our wake up call came at about 8:30 that woke fab up and we went an ate. this breakfast was by far the best we've has since we've been here. it had some American cereal, french toast, different varieties of fruit (normally it's been watermelon and honeydew melon), good breakfast breads to make toast, and really good apricot juice. we hustled back and got packed because we had to get to the airport which about 1-2 hour drive. we made it there in about an hour and a half, got all checked in and were pleasantly surprised to see they were playing the finals game on the bog screen and it was the 4Th quarter. we all huddled around it like it was story time at the library in elementary school. after the Celtics took care of business we headed to the gate. we flew china southern airlines and it was defiantly built for the stereo-typical china man. it was only a 2 hour flight but they still served food. you had the option of chicken in noodles or rice and fish. it came with a box that had utensils, a piece of bread, and this little vacuum sealed packed that had foul smelling vegetables in it. I'm not sure anybody gave that a try. i couldn't figure out their electronics rules though. Marcos, out starting 2 were playing games on my iPhone and they kept telling us to turn it off, but i could listen to music on it. also, i have 2 teammates watching movies on laptops and a couple others listen to music on other devices. we landed at Changsha airport which I'm not sure if that was the name of the city, province, or just the airport. last time i was able to use the translator as much I'd like because i was representing the team but ours is so busy dealing with our rep. that it's hard to ask questions. after landing we got on our bags and made our way to the bus to start the last leg of the days journey which we told was going to take 4 hours. it lasted every bit if that if not more. it was a beautiful drive though. the last 3 hours we were winding through these tropical mountains. there was probably 9 tunnels close to a mile long and a little river around every corner. there was also lots of old little huts that were who knows how old surrounded by rice paddies stair stepping up the ravines. i was curious what the wild life population consisted of but never saw a wild animal other than birds. just when we thought we were never going to get there there was a gap in mountains and city came out of nowhere. it was hard to see anything cause we were high in mountains and there was a low fog. the hotel was up a hill that looked out over part of the city and what much of been the cities central square. they were playing music but we couldn't tell until we got up to our rooms but there was an enormous paved circle and there was a couple hundred people doing Chinese line dancing (I'm sure they call it something else but that's the best way i can explain it). were told to take a quick shower and head downstairs to eat and be dressed to go to our presentation. the food was good. they had pasta, shrimp, and some fruit and that was good for me. we jumped on the bus after dinner and headed to our "presentation" which was a high school, college, or city league basketball game in the gym we'd be playing in the next day. it was surprisingly packed. when we walked in the whole place shut down. they stopped the game so they could give us court side seats that consisted of plastic stools that sat about 18 inches off the ground. i felt bad because even though I'm sure a lot of the people came to see us there was still a game that was going on. the game started back up and military guys lined the back of us so people wouldn't bug us. during one of the timeouts a couple of the players ran over to our side of the court and bummed cigarettes off this guy and they sat there and smoked! unbelievable!! at half time the brought us out on the court and introduced us. we took some pictures and they wanted us to shoot around. nobody really wanted too so i stepped up and air balled my first three! ha ha. then made 2 in a row and passed the ball to someone else on my team. a couple more guys shot and then we were escorted out of the gym to the bus. the bus dropped us off at the bottom of the little hill where our hotel was at and we walked around this open air market/ street food vendor area. i felt like i was on that show bizarre foods on the travel channel. there was roasted duck heads and lots of other stuff. after that we headed to this Fred Meyer type store that had a grocery store down stairs and clothes, sports, etc. upstairs. this was pretty funny because i think we ended up scaring quite a few people. they would just stare at a distance where a lot of people approach us. after walking the while store me and other 2 American went a different route home which ended up taking longer than expected. it must have been on a short cut route from the gym we just came from be we got mobbed by a bunch of younger kids wanting autographs and pics. we got to everyone and tried to hustle out of there before another wave came. it was about 9:30 pm and i was ready to fall asleep so i headed back to the room but Tyler and rob went to see of the spa was open. it ended up being open and they raved about the hour and half message they got for 88 Juan (about $13) at breakfast the next morning. from breakfast we headed off to shoot around. it was good to shoot around and get to know the court. they also pushed back the 3 point line about 18 inches which was fine with me. my shot felt good and i was ready to play. we head back to the hotel eat and rest before the game. i was still sweating a lot every time i fell asleep and i would never wake up hot or cold. it was concerning me but i was feeling OK other than the lack of sleep. after napping and working more on the blog we head off to the game. it seems that the start time for the games is more of a time to shoot for. we've haven't started a game on time yet. this game i was tired of being passive so i tried to be more aggressive. i ended up with close to 30 but they didn't keep stats so that's off what i can remember. being aggressive worked for the most part but a couple mistakes one the young guys made down the stretch killed us. we ended up going in to overtime and losing by a couple. pretty devastating. I'm pretty laid back off the court but it eats me up when we lose. especially since we came so far. i did learn a lot about the team that night though. 3 of starters have contracts for next year with this team and are here because it's in the contract. 2 of those guys are 37 and don't end up playing much after starting. 3 others are 19 and haven't played much at all in the top league in Argentina (good talents but not much experience). to top it off our best big guy got hurt after the second game. these teams that we are playing against are all-start teams from their countries. were competing but it seems like we might not have put the best team together to come over here and represent Argentina. oh well, as frustrated as i might be I'm still representing myself and it's an experience that is priceless! after the game everyone was pretty bummed but we had a 2 more games in the next days and we needed to think about them. after we left the gym the only thing that was on my mind was hoping the spa was still open so i could get that message. i ate quickly and Tyler and i headed upstairs. it was open to my surprise and we started our message at 11pm. we walked into a room with 3 stations. rob showed up about 5 minutes after we started. they started off with putting your feet in blazing hot water. while they soak they come around work on your head, face, and neck. my lady even messaged my pupils with my eyes shut of course. some of the techniques are weird though. they do a lot slap punching that makes this weird sound. after about 15 minutes they dry off your feet and go to work for about 20-25 minutes on each foot. anybody who knows me well knows that my feel are ticklish! so i was squirming around until i got used to it. during this part we also used the time to get a free Chinese lesson. Rob's fiance is Asian and her mom speaks the language well and has taught rob a few works here and there. after the feet they put this hot towel that smelled like ginger over your shins. after a couple minutes they took that off and started on the front side of your legs and then flipped us over to work the back side of legs up to the top of your back. by far the best $13 dollars I've ever spent. after words they wanted to take pictures along with the people at the front desk. after that we paid and tried to tip but tipping is not part of the culture here evidently so they declined. i had another rough night and but woke up refreshed. we did our morning ritual of eating and packing and jumped on the bus to the next city. they told us 2 hours but it was a solid 3. the hotel was right on the river and a big banner welcoming the us and the other team as well as letting everyone know that they have a 80 inch TV that everyone was welcome to come watch the world cup on. this hotel was defiantly prepped for arrival. it took only a minute or 2 to get out card and when we got out floor they had people open our doors for us and turn on the lights for us. again we did our daily ritual of eating lunch (which was average chicken wings, rice, and fruit), napping, and working on my blog. we head off to the game and our dressing room in right by the front door with windows and no blinds. good thing everyone comes dressed ready to the games with the exception of their shoes. i get me shoes on and head out to the court. there was a city league game finishing up so me and our back up point sat there and watched. after the game we shot around a little to used to the rims. this was hard because they only had one ball for each team. this game had the same out come as the 2 previous. this time we played well but the referees were so bad that we almost walked off the court. even the guy who put on this whole thing was complaining. the other team knew they were getting away with stuff so they did pushed even more. a couple fights almost broke out but in the end we had one ejection and they had none. i told our coach that we are playing this team again 2 more times in the next 3 days and this will get really ugly if the refs for take care of it. he agreed and said that we weren't going to play again if it was as bad as it was the next day. i had a OK game 16 points but got tired in the end. after the game all i wanted to do was sleep. if eating wasn't a team thing i probably would have skipped it but i ate and went to bed.

china june 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th

Morning came early. we woke up at about 8 which gave us about 1 hour to eat and pack before we left at 9. breakfast was a train wreck. they served hot orange tang to drink, some dry dumplings filled with spinach which in normal circumstances would be good but they weren't, hard boiled eggs, some type of cake (not bad), and some other things i didn't recognize. after eating we all jumped into the bus that took us to the Shanghai train station. this place, like everything else in shanghai was enormous. we went through various gates and check points before we were at our gate. i had to use the restroom so i had the my teammates watch my bags. all the lights in the bathrooms were broken but there was a little natural light coming in from a couple windows here and there. it was odd because all the guys and girls were going into the same door. when you get in there is a communal hand washing area and two ways to break off, one for guys and one for girl. every public restroom that I've been in has stunk to high heavens. so much that i have to bury my face in my t-shirt. not long after the bathroom break everyone lines up and these doors open. it felt like Christmas sale where everyone was trying to beat the next person to the train. i never found out if it was first come first serve or what. we all ended up getting seats on the same cart which was nice. in the same cart was also the Jordanian team that we would be playing the next day as well as as many more people you could fit standing up. it was so hot in the train i wasn't able to sleep much on the 4 hour trip. i did have a window seat so it was nice to see some scenery outside Shanghai. it went from dense city to farming land to dense forestry, to series of tunnels that winded though the mountains. the coolest areas were the farming areas. the built the railway off the ground so not to disturb the crop so it was kind of like having an areal view of the farming land. most of it was rice patties but there were a lot of tree farms as well. we finally got to our stop. we were all really hungry so we walked close to a mile to KFC. it's always fun walking down the street with your team in china. it's a like were a traveling circus with the way people look at you. instead of giving us all our own food money the just have us line up and we order one at a time. the only thing that sucks about that is that if you don't want to eat what everybody else is eating then you kind of stuck. plus I've found out that this team in Argentina is big on team dining. good for team bonding i guess. so KFC is nothing like KFC in the states. they don't have biscuits and they sell these random tortillas filled with meat, lettuce, tomato's, a weird sauce, and corn tostada. they do have chicken and chicken sandwiches but they are odd tasting. me and the other Robert ended up sharing a bucket that regular chicken as well as some chicken wings. the bus driver was nice enough to come pick us up at the KFC and we headed off to the hotel. we thought we were close but we were wrong! we still had a 2 and half hour drive in front of us in this bus that had zero leg room! after the shock wore off we settled down and listened to music to help pass the time. we got to the city which was much smaller there for they didn't have a really nice hotel. the room felt like a prison cell. it was so small that we had to step over our luggage to get to the bathroom. and the food was just like the previous. after dinner Fabri and i went back to our room and to get some much needed sleep being that we had a game the next day. the next morning a rooster woke me (in the middle of the city!) at 4:30am! he wasn't wrong either. the sun had already lit up the sky. i guess they don't do daylights savings time here. i was able to fall back asleep got up a couple hours later to eat breakfast which was the same i had the day before; hard boiled eggs and some cake with no topping. the only thing better was they did have a chef cooking eggs for you. after breakfast we headed back to the room to watch the first half of the Laker's/Celtics game which was live at 9 am Beijing time and get ready for shoot around. the ride there wasn't long and shoot around felt great. it's the first sweat that we broke on purpose since the 27Th of may. it was a normal shoot around with stretching, shots, and offensive review. after shoot around we headed back to the hotel for lunch. normally i snack on something and eat at about 3 or 4 but the food wouldn't be out at that time. plus, i learned when we played that friendly game in Mendoza the Argentinians like to eat early and snack a couple hours before the game. after lunch we headed back to our rooms and rested till game time. we r in the middle of down town so all you hear horns honking outside your window. since there really doesn't seem to be any set rules for driving everyone just honks to let you are in their way. gets old really quick! at about 5 we went to eat a snack which consisted of cheese sandwiches that one of the assistant coaches was making for us. our translator kept asking if it was OK and if we wanted some Chinese food. we all gracefully declined. we headed out for the game not much later and were greeted at the front door with what looked to be a wedding party. I'm not sure where in the wedding day the were but he was carrying here through the parking lot and let her get down before they got to the front door, which is also when they lot this string of fire works that had to be close to 100 ft long that were made up of m-80s or bigger. by far the most impressive display of fireworks I've seen and heard! if felt like we were in the middle of a fire fight! they finally swept of the ash and we headed on our way to the game. the gym was really nice and probably had close to 2000 people there before we even got there. the gym looked like it could fit about 7000 and i think there ended up being about 4000 or so. me and a couple other guys got out early for warm ups. the first shot i took i missed everyone in the crowd went "aw!". i quickly remembered from the last time i was here how easily they were entertained and disappointed. i finally got loose and hit 7 or 8 shots in a row from a couple feet behind the 3 point line and you would have though i performed the most amazing magic trick ever! we have 4 young guys that haven't traveled outside of south America and it was fun to watch their reaction to everything. the game started slow for us and the Jordanian national team that we were playing hit a couple quick shots. we were down 4-15 pretty quickly. i felt pretty good but only took a couple shots in the first half but we were able to fight our way back and go ahead by one. the second have was a different story. we buckled down on defense and started to find our offensive rhythm. we ended up winning the game by about 15. i had 8 points on 3- of 6 shooting. the big difference was our bigs. they were more athletic but we were bigger and played smarter. after the game we probably signed a couple hundred autographs and took as many pictures. as tired as my hand and face gets from smiling i try not to ever decline a picture or an autograph after a professional player waved me off when i was younger. after the game i was so tired i didn't want to eat but i forced myself to anyways. after dinner i went back to the room and fell asleep immediately. the next morning (June 5Th) i was woke up to the darn chicken again but again was able to fall back asleep again. we ate breakfast and headed off to the next city which was about a 2 hour drive. the whole drive was off road because of construction on the highway. i wasn't at all good on the body after last nights game. this city was a little nicer than the previous but very dusty and polluted. the hotel turned out to be pretty nice. the rooms were really big, modern, and you could run almost everything in the room from this little pad on the night stand. the pre-game meal and snack were also a bit better. still not really excited to eat it but it looked more familiar. we decided not to have a shoot around since we got there so late so when we shower up to the gym it was all new. the gym itself was beautiful inside and out. we were all a bit tired from the travel and the game before but the Jordanian team (which is who we were playing again) had the same schedule as we did. the game was awful for us. we couldn't shoot to save our lives. we scored only 2 points in the second quarter!! 1-21 shooting. it was the worst quarter that I've been a part of in my career that i can remember. we end up losing the game by 17 but we were down by 30 a lot. the frustrating thing was was that we were getting good shots and just missing. i ended up with 15 and nobody else had over nine. after the game i noticed that I'd been sweating much more than usual my body was starting to stiffen up, especially my neck. i made it another quick dinner and early bed time not only because i wasn't feeling good but because we had another travel day the next day. when we woke up and went to breakfast before leaving they told us this was going to be a short trip today and a long trip on Monday. nobody really was excited about that since we had a game on Tuesday and Monday was going to be our rest day but when we got to the city we'd be staying the night at at around 1pm every bodies mood changed. the city was Nanjing, which is the countries ancient capital before Beijing. Tyler immediately grabbed a map from the hotel counter and started to make a game plan. i wasn't feeling very good but everyone was going and there was some once in a lifetime stuff to be experienced. our first stop was food at this really weird buffet. the name was something like "Chinese south American style BBQ buffet and beer house". we walk in and all the employees are dressed in old German garb and it's decorated with German flair. the food was Brazilian style where you have a salad bar and they bring out meat on big skewers. the only thing from the salad bar that was good was shredded carrot and red cabbage with 1000 isle dressing. immediately the meat started to come out. the first was chicken heart with a spicy sauce (not bad). then came an array of pieces of beef, pork, and chicken. i tried everything except the solid piece of fat that they BBQ and ox tongue (it came out whole and they shaved pieces off). i would have tried it but i couldn't get past the smell. after that unique experience we embarked on a journey that took us all over the city of Nanjing. the first stop was to the purple mountain where they various monuments, temples, pagodas, etc. the first stop on the mountain to Dr. Sun Yetsen mausoleum. the Dr. played a huge role in over throwing the Quing dynasty and soon after became the first president. he also wrote some pretty influential books and was known for being for the people. the monument consisted of close to 400 steps that spanned over a mile up to the Dr. mausoleum where you could view his coffin what was made of some sort of stone and copper on the inside. the architecture was beautiful and i guess won lots of awards for it's design. from a birds eye view the whole place is shaped like a bell. although the mausoleum was impressive, i would say that the view back toward the city just as if not more impressive. after taking the pictures and haggling with the gift shops we headed off to the site. i think they're were 7 main attractions to see on the mountain but we only had time for 2 because we got there a little late, the park closed at 6:30pm and we didn't finish the first part till 5:30pm. so the next and last spot we went to on the mountain was the linggu temple, which was an 8-9 story pagoda made of concrete that was probably 150ft tall. it was a ways from the mausoleum but there was a trolley that took us there. the trolley ride was hilarious to us and probably annoying to the locals. here we are on this ancient mountain and this Argentinian team is singing these fight songs at the top of their lungs. some people were having fun with it and others gave us dirty looks. so after the short trolley drive we start walking the trail to the temple(pagoda). the walk again was about a mile long with some old building to stop and look at on the way. the Nice thing was there wasn't as many stairs which was nice since we would be traversing so many pretty quickly to get to the top of the pagoda. it was only about 25-30 ft. wide and spiral stair case winded up the core of it. you were able to stop at each level which also had a balcony that went around the whole thing. Emmi(our back up point guard) and i stopped on the first couple floors but they all looked the same so we headed up to the top. by the time we got to the top we were a bit light headed so we took our time going to the edge to look over. the view was incredible!! hard to put into words. on the top floor there was a make shift gift shop where a guy was selling little gold statues of the temple and some guard dragons as well as a some other random stuff (the most random being a sling shot ha ha). after soaking everything in we headed down which made me more light headed than going up. when i got to the bottom some of the guys were just going up so i layed on the stairs until the got back down. after everyone was done we headed to get a taxi to take us to the city center. we were told that that was one thing we needed to see. but this time my neck had stiffened up, i had a bad headache, and i was drained but again i told myself I'd probably never get the chance to do this again. by now the sun is going down so on the taxi ride the the city light began to come on. these buildings here are incredibly unique. the designers of these buildings have to being some type of drug to be thinking that abstractly! we got dropped off and got our bearings which took a while but we would of rather not got lost in this city and plus we'd had already done so much walking that we wanted to be efficient. so we all gathered up and headed toward the "time square" of the city. it was also like everything else today, hard to describe. since I've never been to new york i can only speculate that this was what time square looks like there. all the lights, shopping, and bid buildings! we took a couple pictures and from there we headed to the subway which would get us within walking distance of our last stop of the day; a 1000 year old Confucius temple. it was a circus trying to figure out the subway but we managed and as always we getting stares like we were a traveling zoo. the subway it's self really packed. no seats available and we might as well have had a group hug we were so close. we only had to go 2 stops which was nice. after the subway we walked maybe 7 blocks to the temple which was smack dab in the middle of this shopping center. it's about 8 or 9 pm and this place was in full swing! there were restaurants, shopping, street vendors, gift shops, little boat rides in this man made lake. it all dwarfed the Confucius temple. we actually walked by it twice without knowing it was there. after taking pictures and walking around all of us were hungry. we decided to eat something familiar; McDonald's. now I'm not a big fan but it never tasted so good! and the caffeine from the coke to the edge off my headache. I'd had had enough for the night and was ready to go back to the hotel so me and half of our group took taxi's back to the hotel and the other group stayed to go on the boat ride. from what i hear a couple of them fell asleep on the boat which would have been me if i had stayed. i checked my e-mail quickly and jumped into bed. i don't remember hitting the pillow.

Argentina May 30th, 31st and China June 1st and 2nd

It's been a while since my last entry since I've been on the road so much as of late. which is where we pick up my travels. i didn't go to sleep the night we left for the airport cause i wanted to be able to sleep on the bus. the bus came and picked me up and i was immediately disappointed because it was a different bus than the last time we took a trip and they didn't have the beds. i got over it quick and fell asleep after meeting the president and another guy who i think is a part owner. they both seemed really nice and professional. we stopped and ate breakfast about a hour from the airport at would would be equivalent to a trucker stop diner in the states. the food was OK but nothing like i had been eating the past 2 weeks. we get back on the road and arrive at the airport. a couple days before we left i had giving my passport to the team manager because he was taking it to Bueno's Aries to get my visa for china. i hadn't got it back and i had been asking the coach about it and he said that we would be picking it up in Bueno's Aries when we got there. we got there a 3 hours early and i was getting nervous because he wasn't there and everyone was checking in. not long after he showed up with my passport and the other American Robert battle. a big guy from Phillie. i had seen him the day before at the 100 year celebration but didn't approach him because there was too many people talking to him. he's a real nice guy and it didn't take long to know that we were going to get along fine. overseas most Americans get aling but when you don't it makes it really difficult. as i was checking in i my agent comes up and introduces himself to me. his name is Jose and he lives in Rio DE Janero Brazil. first impression was good. he tries really hard to stay ahead of everything so things go smooth. he came early to the airport to the tickets so everything was fast. he buys me lunch he likes to talk about things that he does and that he's done. it's a bit annoying but i know he's trying to develop an image of who he is so i trust him. what he has done doesn't interest me as much as what he's going to do but i let him talk anyways. so we board this huge trans-Atlantic plane and get on our way. i ended up sitting in an isle seat in toward the back next to Marcelo (the other owner who cam on the trip with us). it's about 5:30 when we take off and were supposed to land in Paris sometime the next morning (June 1st). total flight time is 14 and half hours. we have our own TV just like the flight from Dallas to Argentina but after messing with it for a while i realize it doesn't work. i couldn't handle 14 hours with some entertainment! i ended finding another seat further up from next to Tyler (the American from Cali that live with his wife in Argentina). i never am able to sleep very well on planes so i end up watching 4 movies in a row (shutter island, invention of lying, brothers, and precious). not a bad line up i thought. after that i tried to get some Zs in. i think i ended up sleeping for about 2 hours which is isn't bad bit on a 14 trip i would have to liked to sleep more. here i go talking about food again but i was kind of excited to see what the food was going to be on the flight because we were flying air France. they had option of a chicken dish and a pasta dish. i opted for the pasta which was a rigatoni with red sauce and cheese on top. it came with some french bread, a small cubed potato salad (really good), a cheese wedge, and a small piece of chocolate cake. i was pretty impressed. we finally land in Paris and it takes forever to get through customs and get to our next gate. most of the time was spent in this bus getting from one terminal to the other. it was stinky and humid. we sat in some line for probably a half an hour and i never found out why. when we get to our next gate we have had about a hour before we boarded. some of the guy walked around but i just sat down and relaxed. i was expecting more out out of airport. I'm not sure why, but it seemed a little old and out dated as well as being a bit dirty. oh well, i wasn't there long for it to matter anyways. we get on the next flight, another air France plane. this flight was about 11 hours and we were supposed to fly thought the night on this one as well arriving in Shanghai at about 9 am (June 2ND). i again had a isle seat sitting next to nobody i knew which kind of frustrated me. i was hoping to get a glimpse of the Eiffel tower. same set up with the personal TVs, but there was less room in between seats was didn't excite me or any other guy on the team. again i spent my time watching a couple movies (one was a new one i guess that had Jim Carey as a gay guy. a bit funny as well as uncomfortable to watch. the other movies i can't remember as i sit here and write!) i also read part of one of the 5 books i brought (already read 3) as well as sleeping for a couple more hours. i probably could have slept more but there was a bunch of Chinese guys sitting around me having a good ole high volume conversation. we finally land in Shanghai. it doesn't take to long to get our bags even though the airport is huge! the translator/Chinese representative met us right outside the baggage claim and took us to our bus. we were told that we were going to the world expo sometime today. it turns out that is we were to the hotel and clean up and drop our bags off that it would take 5-6 hours because traffic was gridlocked for some reason. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact the city has 15-20 million people! none of really knew what this expo was all about but we heard that they spent more money of this expo than they did on the Olympics and that we would be able to buy some stuff. on the way we all realized that this city was far bigger than any of us really imagined. on the way to the airport there was apartment and condo building as far as you see that were at least 30 stories high. they do everything big. i think they need to steal Texas's motto. it took about 30 minutes to get there and it it WA obvious as you showed up you were there. it was 9:30am and this parking lot that was at the base of this massive bridge (crosses the river that runs through the city) had to have close to 300-400 big greyhound type buses packing it. we parked on the side of the street which didn't look legal but there's not many rules for cars come to find out here. we get off the bus with our 2 day stench in our travel clothes (jeans and a club polo) and head off to the entrance. i guess the place didn't open till 10am but there were these gates that like you would have at an amusement park like Disney world that were packed already. i couldn't even guess how many people were there but we were at the end of the line!! as we were standing in line we met a couple Chinese guys from new york that spoke enough English to give us a crash course on pronunciation and a couple basic words (hello and thank you). they also gave a us a bit of an overview of what the expo was. you basically have a lot of individual buildings that represent each country and i think they have one for every country in the world. inside the buildings i think they had representatives from each country that designed the building on how they wanted the people that were visiting to view they're country. while we were talking nobody really noticed but we had quite a few onlookers taking pictures and staring so we gestured for s a couple of them to come over and we posed for pictures. i knew we were going to be in for a long day at this point. last time i was here if you take one picture then other flock to take more with you. luckily the line bottle necked into the narrow windy line you would find at a roller coaster so it made us a bit unapproachable. when we finally get in my agent seems to want to run things since he's dealing with the translator the most. we decided to go to china but we were told the line would already be 4 hours long and that we would have to go to a reservation booth so when we showed up later we could get in line. we set a time a place to meet just in case we got split up and headed toward the china pavilion. as we were walking it defiantly starting to get hot and we are hungry as well. it was only 10 so they guy didn't want to sit down and eat so we waited. the translator stopped at a stand and got all water on the water to help tide us over. i think a couple of the guys didn't like the idea of going to china and waiting line so they walked to Singapore which had a much shorter line. it still took an hour to get through this line and we all started to wonder if it was worth it when we got in there. it was pretty anticlimactic. a bunch of pictures of Singapore and facts on the wall. then you started walk up this staircase that winded you up to this theater where we watched a music video dedicated to the country. it was in the native language with Chinese subtitles so we didn't get any of it. after that it took you up to the roof where they had flown in a garden of plants that were typical to the country. this was probably the coolest part and partly because you could see out over a lot of the other pavilions. we head down there stairs and wait for everyone to gather so we can go eat. this took forever because we didn't realize that my agent never came with us. he took the translator somewhere else. as we were waiting we saw a couple little buildings that was a Singapore gift store and a grill that sold Singapore finger food. Robert battle and i were starving so we got a couple snack until Jose (my agent got there). we got chicken satay with peanut sauce with rice. it hit the spot but we were still starving. Jose finally showed and we headed off to this Chinese fast food joint. they sold chicken and shrimp burgers as well as a chicken and thigh dish and wings. hey also had a shrimp wanton soup and something else nobody recognized. i ended up getting the shrimp burger, the spicy chicken dish, and the won ton soup. it was all really good. the chicken was a bit spicy which was funny because come to find out Argentinians don't really do spicy so everyone who got that dish couldn't eat it. it's a bit different than Mexico where they eat jalapenos like candy bars! after eating wanted to just walk around. there's a sky walk the runs the length of the expo grounds. we got on that and walked toward the china pavilion. the line was still so ling so we just decided to take pictures of all the places we wanted to see except Argentina and USA of course. they were at the far other end of the expo. so what was probably a 1 mile and 1/2-2 mile walk we got to Argentina. everyone was wanting to leave so Robert, Tyler, and i decided to split up and go see the USA pavilion and then meet up with them at the entrance. the USA pavilion was really nice with a really long line. we tried to sneak in the exit but we didn't blend in that well. this lady stopped us and asked us if we were trying to get in. she said we looked like VIP so she could get us in the VIP line but we would have to mingle and talk to people. that wasn't a problem for us. there was a class of students that was loaned up that we went over and hung out with for a minute. they were really cute. using the little English they knew. they would say "you are really tall and strong" or "i love you" and hello and goodbye. it didn't take long to get in but we realized we didn't have enough time to see the whole thing. so we just watched the opening video which a montage of random Americans trying to say hello and various other phrases in Chinese. it started off with most of them messing up but ended with them saying it correctly. it was pretty good. while we watching it the lady came in to tell us she was leaving and thanks for the mingling part. she also told us a bit about the USA pavilion. she said they raised 61 million dollars to build the project and get people to come over a help run it while the expo was open (which i think was 6 months). majority of the money was donated by big companies in the states; chevron, some banks, investment firm, and even KFC. i think over a 100 companies in all. she also told us that after the expo that the building would either be torn down and scrapped or more likely a Chinese company would buy it, take it down and reconstruct it else where for their own use. so after the video we darted out and met the team at the bus. it was about 3pm now and we are all feeling the rigors of traveling and walking around. we head head to hotel winding through this massive city taking pictures of the famous landscape of the downtown area and other cool buildings. we get to the hotel after about 40 minutes and it's not like any of us expected. it was a bit run down in a weird place in town, but nobody cared. at this point everyone wanted a bed to lay down on. we got a chance to lay down for a couple hours before dinner at the hotel. dinner was just like i remembered last time i was in china. i didn't recognize 80% any of the food by either sight or smell. i was able to get enough boiled eggs, rice, a chicken dish to tide me over for the night. after eating we went to the room and i jumped on the Internet for a bit. there hasn't been wireless anywhere we've been so i have to sit at the desk...i sound so spoiled! ha ha.. i thought i was going to be tired but i got restless and was up till 3 or so. i finally got to sleep which was good considering we had to get up the next morning to go to the city will be playing our first game in. wheeeww...what a couple days!

Days 8 and 9 - May 24th and 25th

I woke up this morning relieved that coach cancelled practice because we got back so late the day before. I also think it had something to do with the club having its 100 year anniversary and the countries 200 years anniversary the next day. The only thing we had on our plate was to show up at the club at 9 for the opening of the club museum that they've been working on for while. I spent most of the day watching movies and reading a book. Fabri called me at about 5 and wanted to go shoot but wanted somebody to shoot with and he knew I wouldn't say no. We went up there at about 6 and shot for about 45 an hour. We couldn't do a lot of drills with movement because the floor was so dirty from them installing an air conditioner. I guess it gets really hot in this town in the summer and that’s during the middle of the season. Fabri was telling me that it gets so hot and humid that they sometimes have to have the games in the morning when it's cooler because the floor is so slippery. After shooting I went back to the hotel to get washed up and ready for the celebration. I didn't think we were going to be there long so I didn't eat before. When we got there the first thing I saw was this huge projector on the wall that had a countdown with 3 hours left on it. It was like new years. With a half an hour there had to be close to 4 thousand people in this old gym. There were speeches giving and a band to play music. I realized I was going to be here for while so fabri and I went to the hotel to eat around 10:30. We came back at an hour later in time for the countdown. These people were going crazy waving flags, sports jerseys, jumping up and down, and standing on their chairs 20 minutes before the midnight and who knows how long after. It was cool seeing a town so supportive and proud of their club. They also had a big fireworks show. The next morning came quickly. I got some breakfast at the hotel and rested until lunch. I’m glad a have fabri because he found out and told me that I’d have to eat at the other place the team eats at because the hotel restaurant is closed today. I walked over to his house and we went and ate. It took a while to get the food but it was. I had spaghetti with pesto sauce and piece of grilled chicken on top. After lunch I went back to the hotel to rest before practice. Practice was good but I felt like I was running through water. My legs didn't wake up till the end of the practice. The last game I played well and hit the game winner. After practice fabri and I asked coach if he could drive us to one of the only restaurants open being it was a holiday and he did. Fabri ordered empanadas (which are a traditional Argentinean dish) that were filled with ground beef and spices and I think a raisin or 2 to as some sweetness. They were really good. As we were waiting for our food the owner came out and starting talking with us. You could tell he loved what he did by the way he talked about food. He told us on Saturdays they have this "buffet" where they serve fiambres. It wasn't explained really well to me but it sounds like there will be a variety of meats (salamis, hams, beefs, chicken, sausages, etc) as well as cheeses. They told us that if we wanted to come that we needed to let them know because it was usually packed and they would need to save a table for us. I said yes before fabri could say anything. Anybody that knows me knows that I love food. Ha-ha. The owners so were nice, they even gave us a ride home. That is one thing I love about the Latin American culture. They are so giving. So off to the hotel I went to turn in for the night.

Outside of the workout club

Outside of my Hotel

The street I walk down everyday

Zuccardi Vineyard

The staple wine Santa-Julia

Wine tasting room

Part of the vineyard

7000 wine barrels

Day 5 May 21s, 22nd, and 23rd

Uneventful night and morning, Ate the usual breakfast, lunch (didn't have a morning practice), and rested before practice. Practice was the same as usual but my team got stomped in the one game we played. No excuses and earned it. We also had it at 6pm instead of 7pm because we were leaving at 11pm to go to a city called Mendoza to play a friendly game against a team that was put together there. So I headed back to the hotel to eat and get packed up. Before I left the gym the coached asked me if I wanted them to take my basketball shoes. I told him no that it was ok and I’ll take them myself. I guess that's one thing I’m' trying to get used to; a professional team that take care of washing you practice and game gear. I kind of like it. Fabri told me they would take my shoes and give them to me at the game and that they do it for the whole team. I’ll take advantage of that next time. It makes it easier to pack. So I get back the hotel back and pack and eat and head for the bus. The bus is really nice. It’s got about 5 really comfortable seats in the front with little table in between some them. The back is full of bunks. With 2 on the floor we slept 11 back there. They were all made with pillows and sheets. The trip was supposed to take about 10 hours but it took 12 because we were behind slow trucks and couldn’t pass. half of the team including the coaches sat more in the front and 5 of us (fabri, Juan, Andres, emi, and I) sat in the back playing Uno till we got tired and then slept the rest of the way there. I woke up before most of them and started a book I brought. when fabri wakes up he informs me that the city of Mendoza is at the base of the Andes mountains (makes me think about the movie "alive") and that it's not far from the highest peak in Argentina (he said about 7,000 kilometers). Unfortunately when we got there it was cloudy so we missed out on the view but it was nice to see a big city again. We get to the hotel about 1pm and grab lunch/pregame which consisted of 2 big slices of quiche (one spinach in crème sauce and one ham and egg) and spaghetti with tomato sauce and a white cheese grated on top. That’s when they dropped a surprise on us. They told us to go rest for about an hour and a half and be back down to the lobby at 4 because we were going to go tour a famous winery nearby. I thought it was kind of weird being on a game day but I didn't question. I think it was out president’s idea. So I go to my room and flip through some the channels and on every other channel they have this parade going on. Come to find out on this next Tuesday Argentina will 200 years old and they are celebrating for the whole week before. I don't know what it will be like in Sunchales but BA (Buenos Aires) was parting. I ended up watching watch an episode of friends, two and a half men, and the big bang theory. I head down to the lobby and meet one of the other Americans who had just flew in. His name is Tyler field and he's from a small city about 1 hour north of San Francisco. He has been playing and down in Argentina for 8 years. He married an Argentinean girl about 3 years ago and got his citizenship last year. They a young girl and one on the way and they live in Buenos Aires where he flew in from. So we jump in a van and head to the winery. It took about 30 minutes to get to the exit for the winery. It was 7 kilometers off the highway and all 7 kilometers for as far as you could see were filled with grape plants and olive trees. Really beautiful. We arrived at the compound called bodega familia zuccardi. We walked in the gate and took a right went to the where the tour starts. We had about 5 minutes so we walked around the store they have. The whole building were in was made of wood. Lighter than cherry and beat up a little. Very rustic and dimly lit. So are tour guide shows up and she takes us through the whole process starting where the grapes get dumped after they are picked. She walked us through the process till they were barreled for aging. I’m glad Tyler shower up because he speaks both English and Spanish fluent so he was able to fill in a lot of what I wasn't understand (which was quite a bit). She then walked up into the tasting room which was attached to shop were in before we left. Everybody was a little on edge about tasting in front of the president before a game. He didn't care at all and urged us all. The served 3 wines (white, red, and a sweet dessert wine). I only tasted the dessert wine because that is what my wife likes on occasion. I was going to get some but trying to keep it safe through china would be almost impossible and Tyler said they sell most of their stuff in trader Joes. After tasting a bunch of the guys bought some wine and we headed back to the hotel to change and leave for the game. We only had about 15 minutes before we had to leave. We get to the game and everybody is tired. But we get ready and go take care of business. The team wasn't that good but they've been playing together a lot longer that we have. We had a lot more talent and we got stronger as the game went on. We ended up winning 92-77. I started off shooting bad but came back in the second half. I ended up 13 points, 5 reb, 5 assists, and 3 steals in about 25 minutes. The website said I had 9 but everybody points were off. The coach was happy with the win but knew we had to get a lot more intense and crisp if we were going to compete in the tournament in china. After the game we showered up at the hotel and went to a restaurant were the other team was at as well. It was a BBQ place like I ate at the other day but nicer. We all got full but we didn't leave the place till 3 in the morning! That was the presidents doing. It looked like we couldn't leave till he was ready and he was having a good time and he was also drinking a little. Come to find out Argentinean like wine like Mexicans like their beer. I couldn't believe how many bottles of wine these people went through but nobody got out of control at all. Right before we left it started to hail and rain really hard and everybody ran to their car to try and move them under something. I guess they get pretty bad hail storms out here. This one didn't end up being one of them. Just a lot of rain. We finally left at 3am like I said. We played a couple games of Uno and hit the bed. I again woke up earlier than most and earlier than I expected, 10am. We still had 5 hours left in the trip so I grabbed my book and read. While I was readying my coach asked me if I wanted some ma-te which is tea. They serve it quite differently. They have a little cup in which they pour the tea mixture (what you would probably find if you ripped open a tea bag) and pack it to the brim. Then they pour a couple ounces in the cup. They have a special straw and it is pinched on both sides so you don’t get the tea and not the tea mixture. It reminded me of passing a peace pipe around. After one person finished their couple ounces then more would be put in the tea pot and it would be passed to the next person. I asked if there was a special purpose to the tea (is it supposed to relax you or give you energy?) and they told me that there was nothing special about it and that it was just tea. Kind of cool experience though, and good for bonding. After my tea and went back to my book and until my Uno opponents woke up and we played till we got back, which was 4 Sunday afternoon. So here I sit after taking a shower waiting for the restaurant to open so I can eat and come back and get caught on some much needed sleep. Love you family and miss you all!!

Lainey's first soccer game

Sunday May 23rd

Lainey and Chloe at their first soccer game =)

My first 10k run was today and it was wonderful I did way better than I thought I would I ran the 6.4 miles in 1hr 12sec. Then Andrew and Lainey came and did a 1/2 miles run and they were so awesome Lainey killed it she ran so big and while she was running she said "mom, mom I'm tired" and I said "Do you want to stop" and she said "NO" and ran the whole thing. Andrew was so ready he started out really strong and then got a little tired but he still finished strong. I was so proud of them they did so great.

Day 4 May 20th

Woke up this morning around 8 and forced myself to go back to sleep for an hour cause I couldn't fall asleep last night again. Our practices don't end till 9 so I don't eat till 9:30 usually (last night 10) so I think my body just takes a bit of time to wind down. Anyways I got packed up for weight and a shooting practice and headed down to eat the usual breakfast. I didn’t see the mini fridge the first couple days but it had some cheese and ham in it so I put that one some toast and it gives me a little more fuel than just jelly. After breakfast I headed off to practice. Nothing new. Just weights and then we paired up with teammates to shoot. I was with Marcos who plays point and 2 guard. He one of the few guys that speaks a little English. My shot felt good and I beat him in the one contest we did. It’s tough because you have to be focused because everyone can shoot open shots here. After practice I got some shots up with one of the point guard’s emi (spelling). Walking back felt good. Its shorts and t shirt weather for me. 65 and a bit humid. I showered up when I got back to the hotel and watched the rest of a movie that I started last night. I think it was hot tub time machine. Pretty hilarious. Right after the movie I got a call that my food was ready do I took my iphone with me a made a bunch of calls while I ate. My phone shows up an unavailable or 0012345. So if you see that answer because it's most likely me. For lunch I had round ricotta filled ravioli. It also had some pieces of bacon or pancetta (Italian bacon) in the cheese. The dish felt a little undercooked to me but I ate it anyways. I also had milaneza again but it was chicken not beef. If you order just milaneza its just beef. To get chicken you order milaneza suprema. It was really good. After lunch I sat out by the pool and played a Sudoku on my iphone. The sun wasn't out but the fresh air was nice. I went back to my room and rested till practice which was good. We went over the plays and scrimmaged a bit. My team won all three scrimmages. After scrimmaging I got some more shots up, stretched and came back to hotel to eat my usual late dinner. Dinner was really good. I had gnocchi which is potato pasta with tomato and white sauce mixed. I had them put some steak on top. After dinner I had some ice cream and that put me into a food coma. I was stuffed. After I got back to the room I realized my room hadn't been cleaned since I’ve been here. It really hasn't needed it but it's getting there. I asked fabri about it and I guess I have to leave my key at the front desk while I’m gone. I’ve looked forward to talking with my family all day because Lainey had her first soccer practice which finally came around 1am my time, which was ok because I don't have an early practice tomorrow. It sounded like she had a lot of fun running around with her best friend Chloe who is on the team as well. Reena said she got upset when someone stole the ball from her. She’s gets her competitive nature from her mama. I can't wait to get back and watch her. Got to get some rest now. We have one more practice tomorrow and then we head out to a city called Mendoza to play a practice game there. One of my teammates told me the city is at the base of the Andes and isn't far from the highest peak which is 20,000ft or more.

Day 3 May 19th

Woke up at 10am this morning. I couldn't fall asleep and ended up knocking out at 2:30 am which I’m glad weights and shoot around were optional. I went to eat breakfast (the same thing as yesterday) came back to the room and decided to go get a couple of shots up. I got dressed and went to the club were fabri was lifting some weights. He said if I wait a couple minutes for him that he would shoot with me. I was waiting in the weight room with him doing some abs and lower back stuff on a mat. After about 10 minutes fabri took off to his house to meet the guy who was hooking up the internet. He said he'd be back and then we’d shoot. I finished my workout and decided to go shoot because I didn't want to be there all day. I got 20 minutes into my shooting drills and he walks in the gym mad cause they guy didn't show up. He said it was typical here in Argentina and I told him that's the way it was in Mexico as well. It’s funny because they don't even call. They’ll show up later ready to do whatever their supposed to do like they never missed the first appt. So we shot together of another 30 minutes and I headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up and eat lunch. Walking to and from practice is nice. It only takes me about 10 minutes but it a nice warm up and I get to see a bit of the city. A couple things I’ve noticed are that there are probably as many little motorcycles and bicycles as cars on the street. I haven't seen a car bigger than a ford ranger here that wasn't strictly meant for hauling materials. I’m not sure if the need isn't there or gas is that expensive. I saw a gas station and after doing the math I think it's about $4 a gallon. Also instead of speed bumps there are speed dips. If you didn't see them coming or know where they were you could really mess up your front end. There are lots of stray dogs that steer clear of you. Not sure why cause I haven't seen anybody beating or mistreating them. And the sidewalks seem to be the property owner’s option to have one or not. On the corners it's usually grassy. I’m not sure this is typical of all Argentina. When I got back I got a chance to see the family on Skype. My daughter Lainey asked if I could just come home for a minute to play with her outside and then I could go back to work. I love her so much! I tried to explain that I couldn't but by the time I was done explaining she was on to something else. I then lunch with consisted of a chicken breast, plain white rice with parmesan cheese, and a salad that consisted of cut up tomatoes, lettuce, and what tasted like vinegar and lemon juice. The chicken was a little dry which wouldn't have been as bad if they brought what I ordered which was the same thing with a creamy mushroom sauce on top. That’s ok. I didn't do anything about it because they bring me my food from across the street and I was being lazy. After lunch I head back to my room to and try to get on the internet which isn't working and I’m not sure why. They are doing construction somewhere in the building but because everything is tile it always sounds next door. I eventually went down to the lobby and the guy at the desk reset it for me. The rest of the time before practice I relaxed and started to watch the movie "legion". The internet is slow so I let it download while I was at practice. Practice was good. We did the usually stretch, warm up, and shooting and then we went over the systems half court and full court. I got a little winded after the second but a good winded. My team won all our games except one. After practice I talked to the coach for a second and asked him there was anything he wanted me to change. He told me to shoot more and that he trusted my decision making skills. So that was good. After practice I found out one of the guys that's been practicing with us is leaving tomorrow to play with the national team in some tournament in San Antonio. He wanted to eat at an Argentina parrilla or a BBQ and invited me to go with him and a couple guys from the team. It was really good. It was kind of an all you can eat place. They just kept bringing out mini BBQ's with different cuts of meat on it. The first that came out shocked me a little. It had tripe (intestine), kidney, some sausage as well as a blood sausage. I ate a little of everything and it was all surprisingly good. I’m not sure I would eat much more kidney but the rest was ok. the next to come out was I think brisket but it tasted like they boiled it first and threw it on the BBQ so the outside could get crispy. When they asked for another cut they said they were out of everything else so we kept eating the brisket till everyone was sick. For the sides they brought 2 dishes that I’ve never seen before. One was French fries that after they were done were thrown in a pan and eggs were cooked with it. Odd but good. The other was grated carrots with scrambled eggs lumped in the middle. I don't know what it is with eggs but I’m sure I ate enough protein for the week. As we were leaving my teammates pointed this huge concrete fenced compound that was the house of the richest guys in the area. They said he was the owner of the biggest insurance company in Argentina. That was the other company that I could remember in my first blog. Know I’m back at my hotel winding down watching the Lakers beat up on the suns. Got to rest up because tomorrow is a double practice day.