It’s been a while since I last wrote and I apologize to all you loyal readers out there, whomever you might be. I was quite emotional this past week and so I chose not to write. I find that I sometimes say things that are very impulsive only to later reread them and shake my head at being so melodramatic. But I will say that there were a couple of things on my mind during the Easter weekend; one is that on Saturday my dad would’ve celebrated his 64th birthday and the other is that two of my closest friends in the world exchanged vows in Maui and I would’ve given the world to be there. But I’m here and I’ve chosen it to be this way, so on she rolls......
I try not to pay too much attention to horoscopes, but they do say that Aquarians should surround themselves with people/friends and action when feeling despondent and not to retreat even though we might naturally feel inclined to do so. I do have to say this has been difficult for me due to my daily schedule. Let me map it out sequentially for ya: sleep, eat, train(practice or weights depending on the day), eat, surf the web, sitting meditation, read, nap, snack time, practice, eat, watch some Asian news, the occasional movie, maybe another round of meditation, read and then sleep. Repeat.
Needless to say I lost a little perspective!
Lucky for me my 30 day visa was up last week and I was able to break out of the routine with a short trip to Singapore to renew it. I showed up in the late evening on St. Patty’s day at Muddy Murphy’s to find my fellow Canadian volleyball friends who were well into the frothy broth. Bingo, back to reality! Singapore is very refreshing after a month in Indonesia. It’s almost like coming home to do your laundry as well as enjoying a few greasy North American meals before heading back to the battlefield. I hope I don’t make it sound too bad, but there comes a point while living in a developing country when one can start to go a little nutty!
We did win our last match of the first half of the season and are sitting 2nd in the league. I guess second isn’t good enough. We brought in Chinese reinforcements and now have three foreigners on the team. One is a middle blocker who happens to also be an ex-Chinese national team member and the other is another outside hitter, originally brought in as an alternative to our other outside hitter. Unfortunately the rules here in Indo allow teams to only dress two foreigners per match. I guess we’ll see how things go, but as far as I can see these gals are hot as s**t and they also have the advantage of being able to actually communicate with the coach. That’s big! A wise, but little, Indonesian man once said to me: “Just try your best. That’s all we expect of you.” Yes, my friend, I will.
The biggest thing for Indonesian volleyball also just took place over the weekend.....a little event known as the All-Star game. Basically there is a committee that selects 24 men and women from East and West Java and there is a huge flashy match somewhere in the middle. Here are a few highlights:
1)having not only a roommate, but it being the one and only other white girl selected to the All-star team.....Dani Mancuso, you are now my new BFF,
2)marching out onto the courts wearing what I would best describe as silk boxing robes (we kinda looked KKK, but whatever, the crowd loved it) and tossing them off as we were individually introduced to the crowd,
3)winning 20 million rupiah ($2200CAN) as Team Dynamic defeated Team Spirit,
4)watching Jake Cabbott get attacked by a group of Indonesian men as they all battled for his sweaty uniform after he won his match (his one-armed over-head dig was pretty sweet after all),
5)being treated like a celebrity with Dani as the only white girls at the entire show (did I mention that yet?) posing for endless pictures and shaking countless hands,
6)the hotel’s “Music Room” and DJ Tarheety (Liquid), yeah!
7)going for a 3am swim in the hotel pool just before the 4am breakfast.
So here I am, about to hit the halfway point of the Proliga here in Indo. The thing that you have to understand is that you never really know what is going on. Apparently we are going on a team roadtrip this afternoon to Malang, which is about an hour away, for a little r&r. The hotel does of course have a fitness centre and seeing as people around here don't like to sleep in we will be hitting it first thing tomorrow morning. But two days off practice sounds pretty good to me right about now.
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