Ciao Ciao

I have to say the first week here was a little difficult. I always seem to forget that about moving to a foreign country. My memory always fails me in that regard since it automatically returns to the most recent abroad experience, the end of a long stay where my life was comfortable though never boring, where I knew a little of the language and had friends to go for coffee with. My last weeks in Greece and Turkey were always packed in with fun, club hopping and long lasting dinners, cafes by the sea and hugs that left me wanting to always return. I really couldn’t have asked for better countries to make a life away from those I loved. Greece and Turkey opened their arms to me and made me feel at home.

I don’t think hospitality anywhere in the world can really compare to the Mediterranean. They take it personally. So when I say it’s been an adjustment here in Central Europe, I don’t mean it as a criticism, it’s just a little different. I think one would have fun and meet people in Greece/Turkey even if they had their mind set against enjoying themselves. Someone would inevitably grab their hand and lead them around the restaurant dancing in a line (or on a table), someone would insist they drink some coffee or tea from their shop, someone would probably take them home and have their mother cook for them. Slovakian people are a little more reserved and since their English isn’t quite as good and its not a huge American tourist spot breaking the ice has been a little more of a challenge. Breaking the ice in Greece and Turkey consisted of walking down the street; here I have had to use a pick ax, a sledgehammer. It’s not to say the people here are mean, they just aren’t showering you with kisses at every possible moment.

That being said, there are nice people all over the world, and now that my teammates are warming up to me, I am sensing the same warmth I’ve had with so many other teammates around the world. Their affection is just a little longer in coming. Which is fine. I do know that language has a big part in this; literally we have serious difficulty communicating. There is not one person on my team even close to being fluent, the person everyone turns to when I say something they don’t understand. Instead we laugh a lot, meaning we all laugh collectively at me.

The first road trip was interesting. It was the day after I arrived in Europe so I slept most of the seven-hour trip, waking to find myself in the Czech Republic. No one here thinks anything of going to Krakow for the day like we did yesterday. Its like driving to Portland, or a road trip to Nebraska: no one exactly stops to take pictures at the “Welcome to Oregon” sign. Its weird for me though, spending three hours on a bus and then having a completely different language, currency and customs to deal with. Not that I am complaining, in fact, I am planning on going to Budapest tomorrow since we have two days off.

The language barrier is pretty high here. My teammates have taken some English in school but they really don’t understand much unless I talk to them like a three year old, and even then it’s a struggle. My first few days here I kept telling myself people always know more English than it seems in the beginning. (I’m not the most outgoing person if I have to rely on my Spanish for instance.) And since my Slovak consists of “thank you”, “I’m hungry”, “I’m tired”, “fuck”, and “11”, I was really hoping that I was right. Especially since I am the only foreign player for now. Yikes. The upside is that they say, "ciao" for both hello and goodbye. I'm practically fluent!

That first road trip was good though. Like I said, it’s always a bit of an adjustment going abroad. I go from literally talking all day long in America, to friends, family, the baristas, etc. to feeling lucky if I can pronounce ‘thank you” correctly. So, I turn into a bit of an introvert by necessity. I read three books the first 5 days I was here! (Anyone feel like sending me a book? I swear I'll read it even if it's titled "George W and his wisdom on birth control, gay rights, and abortion." Heck, I might even read the Bible as long as its in English) But since we were on a road trip I spent time in hotel rooms, out to eat, and on the bus with teammates for four days. Slowly, we started having inside jokes which mostly consisted of them trying to get me to swear at my coach in Slovak, them asking me to teach them different ways to say “bitch” (I thought of five; ho, whore, tramp, skank, and hooker), and everyone in a hotel room laughing as I mispronounced a whole paragraph from a Slovak magazine.

By the ride home I was orchestrating English lessons with half my team and the whole junior team where I slowly (I mean really slowly) said sentences, asked them questions, and corrected their English homework. As I have always said, its humbling learning a new language and watching these young girls stammer out sentences shyly as I butcher another Slovak word is a bonding experience unlike any other. And when one of them gets up the nerve to practice her English and asks me in the middle of the bus “Are you abstinate?” I have to try to suppress my shock and explain the differences between American and British English, all the time laughing on the inside.

Off to Budapest for the weekend! Ciao

New adventures....

As soon as I got on my international flight from Chicago, it started to sink in that I would be going to a really new environment, a new culture and a new part of the world that I really had never been exposed to. The thrill of learning about a new place always excites me. I feel like I understand Greeks and Turks, the history, the religion, and the stories that make up their collective social base. And now I am on to Central Europe where the history of the people is ancient and recent all at once. The reality of communism is raw and freedom is fairly recent. On the flip side, the future of EU membership and economic stability create hope and it’s an interesting dynamic to be around. Slovakia is the youngest country in the world if I am not mistaken and its kind of a cool thing to see a country so young and growing so fast.

The woman sitting next to me offered her story as soon as I politely told her to get out of my window seat. As she struggled with the tray table while speaking to the flight attendants in fluent Polish, I thought to myself how much more interesting the people are on international flights. The Seattle/Chicago flight had me sitting next to a fat businessman flying back home to DC. That’s as far as I got before falling asleep. Fascinating.

Anyway, this woman started telling me how she was going back home to Poland for the first time in 38 years to visit her sister who was 5 years old when this woman left. Her husband of 40 years had just died and she kept telling me to be young and have fun and not to wait till your old because you never know if you’ll get it all in. She was telling me all this while fumbling with every possible object in site that was attached to the airplane. She might not have understood how to get her seat in the upright position but she certainly had some wisdom of the years. After seeing two ends of the political spectrum, Soviet Communism and American Democracy, she decided the best place in the world would be where you could follow your heart with open opportunities but not worry about crime when you walk down the street. Doesn’t that sound nice….

Between reading “A Thousand Splendid Suns” and Isabelle Allende’s “ My Invented Country “ and listening to this woman’s story of leaving Communist Poland for a better life in America, not returning for almost 40 years to the country of her birth, and having children who speak no Polish, I just can so appreciate the enormity of leaving your home. I can’t imagine what that would be like but I do know the sadness I have seen in expats eyes, even choosing to leave your home country would be overwhelming, but to have to leave would be completely heartbreaking. A little deep I know but this is what I think about when I have 9 hours on a flight. Let’s be honest though I was passed out for 5 of them. The Polish Airlines idea of entertainment is a little different than British Airways, the Chip n’ Dale cartoon didn’t exactly keep my attention.


I arrived at Krakow airport and found my manager soon after setting down my bags. We got in the car and chatted almost the whole 2 ½ hours to Ruzomberok, until I could no longer keep my eyes open. We talked about the team, about his brother playing basketball at Butler University, about Slovakia, about Las Vegas, and everything in between as we drove through the Polish countryside, reluctantly (on my part) continuing along to Slovakia even after seeing the turn off to Auschwitz. We talked about the communists and how his dad still remembers when people would be shot if they tried to cross the border into Austria but how soon they wouldn’t have any border control because European Union countries will surround almost all sides. See what I mean about the old and new history?

The rolling hills were absolutely beautiful, tree covered high lands, cottages and streams on the lowlands. We passed cows and flocks of sheep grazing in the sun, and steep roofed Polish homes with gardens of vegetables. After we crossed the border we wound around the two lane highway, the snow capped Tatras Mountains in the distance, a 400-year-old castle balancing precariously on a cliff above, old communists block apartments dotting the small villages. Soon we rolled into Ruzomberok, the ‘city’ of 30,000 people that will be my home for the next 8 months.

The city itself probably isn’t much to write home about but the surrounding scenery is breathtaking. There are mountains everywhere you look, lush trees on most, bare, grazing land filled with sheep and horses on some. A river makes its way slowly through the center of town and chimneys from a factory billow smoke.
My manager and I make our way to the gym for the tail end of practice where I meet my new teammates, none of who appear to speak English, but are nice and welcoming. I reluctantly declined not to join them all at our sponsor’s spa due to the fact that I needed to see my apartment and sign some papers. I was assured that we go to the spa twice a week as a team so I’ll have plenty of opportunity to indulge in this wonderful cultural tradition. I met my coach who seemed nice enough and our massuese/trainer, who looked like an eastern European shot putter, which coincidently is exactly how I like my masseurs to look. Sure enough, after practice today I was on his table half naked getting those kinks from the sleeping on the flight worked out. I am such a massage whore.

My team is quite on the ball it seems, or perhaps my standards have just been lowered that much. The fact that my manager called me before I left the country was the first sign; I think that’s a first. I always seem to sign contracts and get on planes, hoping that someone read the itinerary and will be picking me up on the other end. So he was five minutes late….. He actually had a computer printed sign with my name on it to hold up and it was in a plastic sleeve! I guess my standards have been lowered. You know its bad when you start noticing plastic sleeves.

My apartment is in a small former communist block building, meaning its ugly as hell on the outside and the toilet is by itself in a 3”x4” room, and all the walls are straight and box like and painted stark white. Everything else though is new and fully stocked. I even had small requests this morning before practice and about fell over when I walked in after practice to find the clothes horse I asked for placed in my bedroom. I waited 4 weeks for a cutting knife in Turkey because I asked for it and was too stubborn to just go out and buy one myself. I even have a brand new DVD player next to my TV, something that has always been in my contracts and never ever actually in my apartment.

More soon, I just got back from Czech Republic and have plenty to write about….