8/17/09
What up!?!? It has been a week of training camp and its Monday afternoon and everything is still pretty much the same. The same routine, the same food, the same types of practices and conditioning. We practice 3 days in a row 2 times a day and then on the 4th day we get half a day off. Last week we got the afternoon running off and today we got the morning practice off. That has been huge and keep my legs rested and plenty of time to write some blogs and catch up with people from home and be on Facebook way to much J! I still don’t have a phone and won’t get one till I go to Ukraine, which is next week, so it has been so weird for me not to text constantly. One thing I do when I am home is text or bbm all day long and not having a phone has been a big change of pace and a definite adjustment for me.
I have watched even more movies, and the main girl in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Rachel (Mila Kunis) is from Ukraine, so best believe if I find her twin in Ukraine I am coming home married (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, 3:10 to Yuma, Zoolander, Step Brothers, and Win A Date With Tad Hamilton). It’s crazy how fast I am going through the movies I brought, because although I have a lot of stuff throughout the day I have periods of like 2 hours where I cant really go anywhere and need to rest, so I have time to watch a lot of movies. Also, the T.V. in our room gets 3 American stations and its Fox, Discovery, and a Movie channel. I have been watching Sex in the City, thought I would never have to say that, but it’s the only thing on Fox in English over here and is kind of annoying, not a Jessica Sarah Parker fan at all, but love Samantha haha. I have also been watching Mythbusters, How To, Top Trumps, Destroyed In Seconds, lots of discovery channels that are very interesting and I have learned quite a bit about random things from watching this channel. Lastly, I have been watching a movie channel they have with movies that go straight to DVD at home and are terrible, but so funny to watch because I see actors like Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez in horrible roles!
I have been playing great basketball this last week as well, shooting the rock very well and even blocking some shots and getting a tip dunk on a 7 footer. Its unbelievable how at USC I was one of the least athletic, but here I am one of the most athletic. I love it! I would say the competition level is a little less than at SC, but the discipline and attention to detail is unreal. The foreigner’s they bring in are very good though, one team in our league signed Khalid El Amin (short, stocky point guard from UCONN national championship team like 10 years ago) to 1.3 million dollar contract for a year. We got our last foreigner this Friday, from Croatia, his name is Jurica Zuza and he is 31 and has played in the best Euro leagues when he was younger, still is very good, but looks like he is a lot older than 31. So we have 5 foreigners on our team PG Kevin Bridgewater, SG Jerel Allen, SF Jovan Koprivica, PF ME, and C Jurica Zuza and the rest are all from Ukraine.
I have had a lot of fun introducing Jovan to country and he actually kind of likes it. He calls me a redneck. It has been funny going through my iPod and seeing the songs that he recognizes though like some oldies, Michael Jackson, 2pac, and 50 cent.
I tell him about Incahoots and claim it’s one of the best places for girls in the world and he still claims that Belgrade, Serbia is the best in the whole world. Last night (Sunday), I was able to go out for the first time with the Kevin, Jerel, Jovan and Zuzu (all the forefingers) but we were in Serbia so Jovan could translate for us. I walked around their center or kind of like outdoor market. It reminded me of an older version of the Irvine spectrum. They have a lot of food vendors and tons of places with sweets that look so good! At 10pm at night its wild to see how many people are walking around and sitting in café’s all throughout the center drinking coffee or beer, smoking cigarettes and just hanging out. It’s very laid back and mellow, literally people being loafy (another word for lazy) all night. I tried a Serbian beer called LAV, it was pretty good. Tasted kind of like a normal American beer. Saw lots of cute girls out, but didn’t have a chance to really meet any because we had to be back by 12pm and the clubs don’t start getting wild till like 1, people just pregame in the café’s all night. I will have a chance my last night to show them the American rage cage, but it will be different without my dude Jake, cant wait for him to get out here, but still loving the experience and feel like I am getting better and growing everyday on and off the court.
What up!?!? It has been a week of training camp and its Monday afternoon and everything is still pretty much the same. The same routine, the same food, the same types of practices and conditioning. We practice 3 days in a row 2 times a day and then on the 4th day we get half a day off. Last week we got the afternoon running off and today we got the morning practice off. That has been huge and keep my legs rested and plenty of time to write some blogs and catch up with people from home and be on Facebook way to much J! I still don’t have a phone and won’t get one till I go to Ukraine, which is next week, so it has been so weird for me not to text constantly. One thing I do when I am home is text or bbm all day long and not having a phone has been a big change of pace and a definite adjustment for me.
I have watched even more movies, and the main girl in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Rachel (Mila Kunis) is from Ukraine, so best believe if I find her twin in Ukraine I am coming home married (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, 3:10 to Yuma, Zoolander, Step Brothers, and Win A Date With Tad Hamilton). It’s crazy how fast I am going through the movies I brought, because although I have a lot of stuff throughout the day I have periods of like 2 hours where I cant really go anywhere and need to rest, so I have time to watch a lot of movies. Also, the T.V. in our room gets 3 American stations and its Fox, Discovery, and a Movie channel. I have been watching Sex in the City, thought I would never have to say that, but it’s the only thing on Fox in English over here and is kind of annoying, not a Jessica Sarah Parker fan at all, but love Samantha haha. I have also been watching Mythbusters, How To, Top Trumps, Destroyed In Seconds, lots of discovery channels that are very interesting and I have learned quite a bit about random things from watching this channel. Lastly, I have been watching a movie channel they have with movies that go straight to DVD at home and are terrible, but so funny to watch because I see actors like Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez in horrible roles!
I have been playing great basketball this last week as well, shooting the rock very well and even blocking some shots and getting a tip dunk on a 7 footer. Its unbelievable how at USC I was one of the least athletic, but here I am one of the most athletic. I love it! I would say the competition level is a little less than at SC, but the discipline and attention to detail is unreal. The foreigner’s they bring in are very good though, one team in our league signed Khalid El Amin (short, stocky point guard from UCONN national championship team like 10 years ago) to 1.3 million dollar contract for a year. We got our last foreigner this Friday, from Croatia, his name is Jurica Zuza and he is 31 and has played in the best Euro leagues when he was younger, still is very good, but looks like he is a lot older than 31. So we have 5 foreigners on our team PG Kevin Bridgewater, SG Jerel Allen, SF Jovan Koprivica, PF ME, and C Jurica Zuza and the rest are all from Ukraine.
I have had a lot of fun introducing Jovan to country and he actually kind of likes it. He calls me a redneck. It has been funny going through my iPod and seeing the songs that he recognizes though like some oldies, Michael Jackson, 2pac, and 50 cent.
I tell him about Incahoots and claim it’s one of the best places for girls in the world and he still claims that Belgrade, Serbia is the best in the whole world. Last night (Sunday), I was able to go out for the first time with the Kevin, Jerel, Jovan and Zuzu (all the forefingers) but we were in Serbia so Jovan could translate for us. I walked around their center or kind of like outdoor market. It reminded me of an older version of the Irvine spectrum. They have a lot of food vendors and tons of places with sweets that look so good! At 10pm at night its wild to see how many people are walking around and sitting in café’s all throughout the center drinking coffee or beer, smoking cigarettes and just hanging out. It’s very laid back and mellow, literally people being loafy (another word for lazy) all night. I tried a Serbian beer called LAV, it was pretty good. Tasted kind of like a normal American beer. Saw lots of cute girls out, but didn’t have a chance to really meet any because we had to be back by 12pm and the clubs don’t start getting wild till like 1, people just pregame in the café’s all night. I will have a chance my last night to show them the American rage cage, but it will be different without my dude Jake, cant wait for him to get out here, but still loving the experience and feel like I am getting better and growing everyday on and off the court.
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