Its seems strange to think its been well over a year since I have last typed away about my overseas adventures- the oddity of time passing, seems like I can never quite grasped how both fast and slow it goes. It seems like last month I was packing up my body bag sized suitcases in my Athens apartment, having last taverna dinners with teammates and friends toasting a safe trip over wine and greek salad, and jetting around the Greek Isles one last time. But here I am again and I have to say it feels good to feel the clicking beneath my fingers, putting words to the myriad emotions of welcoming a new city into your daily life. This past year I enjoyed being home but I definitely looked forward to a new exciting life in a strange foreign land. I didn’t have any idea where I would end up and didn’t care so long as it was a ‘good situation’ which consists of a multitude of factors, some involving basketball, others having to do with how many fun American players live nearby, none of which you ever seem to know until your thrown off the deep end. But I have learned to swim regardless of what the unknown waters bring at me. And that is a big reason I wanted to go somewhere new.
I loved Athens, I loved Greece and I love the people and life I had there. I will always want to return. And yet it was time for a new challenge, Athens felt like home yet without my family around to share it with. And while I am young and adventuresome I want to take advantage of my opportunities and see the world. I like the idea of a completely new place, the sounds and smells opening up your senses again, the fun of learning a new word from your teammates and saying, ‘how much is this’ all practice long so you don’t forget the new phrase, I enjoy walking down the streets of a strange city-seeing locals making their living in a corner shop, sipping tea with their friends, buying fruit and nuts from a wheelbarrow vendor trying to avoid irreverent drivers. You see the world, and its not revolving around you. My life opens up before me, everything I know is thrown in the air when I step off that plane. And the beauty of living overseas is that the pieces of my life fall in unexpected ways- everything I thought I knew, all that I expect from the comforts of daily life are challenged. And I never know how I will change. Sometimes its insignificant things, like discovering that I like olives or have a propensity for Persian blooded Turkish men. Other times it’s the huge revelation that your life is your own, and cultural expectations don’t bind you to a life that doesn’t fit you. The freedom in that is powerful. Maybe you don’t want to stress about things that don’t matter, maybe sitting down for coffee instead of getting it to go fits you better, maybe the very fabrics of your daily life need shifting in order to live YOUR life to the fullest. In a nutshell, you relearn your self. You get to start over in a way, mold your habits and your expectations with a blank slate in front of you. The big issues of life, religion, cultural norms, the multitude of reasons we get out of bed in the morning are all illuminated by the small seemingly inconsequential fragments of life. Living in a foreign land is like the light being turned on to the world. Its like looking out from a snow globe that’s been shaken. Its life rediscovered.
I am so in the moment overseas. I witness my life in every little way. I notice the smile of a stranger, the way the cashier at the bakery hands me my change, how little children run in the street. I try new food that I can’t pronounce, not knowing even if it is a meat or a bean. I look at peoples body language and I connect with perfect strangers over a thumbs up or a laugh. My mind is stimulated by a trip to the grocery store. Life’s littlest errands become adventures, challenges in the produce section, frustration and exhilaration at the deli counter, surprises when I return home with balony masking itself as sliced turkey, shampoo dressed in a conditioner bottle. There not all good experiences but they are life, they are chances to experience something new, it molds me into what I want to become. And in many ways it humbles you. It puts you in a weak situation where you have to sink or swim, where you often times make an ass of yourself but the in the end it creates an empathy for other peoples struggles. You can identify with almost anyone challenging themselves, stepping out of their comfort zone, experiencing life to the fullest.
But it has its difficulties to be sure. Its exhilarating to mold a new life for yourself in a new country but its unnerving as well. As great as it can be to throw the pieces of your life in the air and watch them fall into place, it’s a huge leap of faith where your whole base disappears from under you and you feel so completely alone in the world. A strength comes from that in the end. But in the beginning you know not who you are or where you are going and it’s the most unsettling feeling you can imagine. Its not just out of your comfort zone, its more like not having a zone at all. Like free floating in a world where nothing looks familiar and no one knows you or loves you. You become completely ungrounded. You have to explain yourself and watch yourself and remember that these people are learning you just as you are learning their culture. Its a very satisfying feeling having experienced that and come through it stronger and more confident but its not easy. Its interesting seeing new American players overseas for the first time, feeling all those lost feelings for the first time. You can literally see it in their eyes; unhappiness meets loneliness meets a deep seeded fear of not having control of the situation. No one knows how to react first off. Inevitably everyone gets together to bitch at first. I can’t talk to any of my teammates! My apartment stinks and the water leaks. My team has not gotten me internet yet. What is with the toilets (more on that later because I haven’t gotten over them)? Why do they drive like bats out of hell (definitely more on that later too)?
Its always so funny to tell people at home where I am going, what I am up to next in my latest adventure. The questions immediately flow. “Do you know anything about the team?”- no. “Where will you be staying?”- I don’t know. “Do you know any of your teammates?”- no. “Do they speak English?” – I don’t know. “When do you leave?”- I don’t know, they haven’t told me yet. “Do you know anyone within a thousand miles of you.”- no. “Is someone picking you up at the airport.” –gee I hope so. It’s the first of many examples displaying the mindset of an American, of which I will have to check at the door of the airplane. Come to think of it, Greece kind of checked that side of me for good. I just don’t stress about the things we seem to think will stop the earth from rotating. So needless to say, I generally sign a contract for a team somewhere in the world, not worth much more than the paper it is written on, pack my vitamins and contact solution, and get on a plane and off I go. It seems weird saying it out loud and yet it seems in some crazy way normal to me. So here I am and as for new and exciting? Turkey certainly fits the bill…..
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