Indo Baby!!!

So after enjoying the slow-pace of being home in Vancouver for the past 4 months I once again find myself half way around the world. Destinations just seem to be getting hotter and the smiles on the faces of the people I meet are getting bigger.

After much patience, a little work on my part, and help from a few friends (who put new meaning to the word “free agent”) I snagged myself a contract with an indoor club team in Surabaya, Indonesia.


The league starts on February 23rd and when I hadn’t yet heard any word from Indo by mid January, I was beginning to get a little antsy. I was told that signing players at the last minute is just the way they roll and that I would probably get a phone call at some point soon telling me to be on the next plane to the southern hemisphere. Well sure enough, as I was putting on my snowpants at 7am on Saturday morning, getting ready to shred some ‘pow-pow’ up at Blackcomb, I received a call with a request to be on a plane the following Wednesday. I managed to sweet-talk my way to a few more days grace and found myself on Singapore Airlines just 7 days later.

So as I lie here in my air-conditioned hotel room, at the end of my first day of practices, I am still taking it all in. I really never imagined what it would be like in this country, but to relate it to past experience I will say this: it is a commuters nightmare similar to Rome, it emanates the poverty of Brazil, it is the fast-paced hustle and bustle of London, the number of motorcycles is only overshadowed by the number of actual people they manage to pile onto one, and every single person I’ve met or seen is as friendly and as smiley as The Gap’s “Greeter”.

Although Surabaya is the second largest city in Indonesia, white people are a very rare sight here. You can imagine what it’s like walking around the grocery store as a 6 foot, blond dreadlocked, pasty-white woman. I get so many stunned looks and catch the attention of so many people but I’m not sure whether to feel extremely flattered or just plain weird.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Will be attempting to blog much more, so hang in there…..

For now I take each day in Indo as was suggested by a dear friend of mine: “Never be scared and love your life”.