My Adventures in Italy: Entry 1
What’s going on everybody back in the States, welcome to my blog. So I decided to document my current residency/trip to Teramo, Italy and blog it for everybody to view for different reasons. First reason, I want to look back at this experience years from now and remember exactly what I was thinking at that particular time in my life. Not wait as time pass or once I’m back in America to change my initial thought process on each week-to-week learning experience my mind is giving me at this very instance. Second reason, I really don’t have a lot of stuff to do here so far, why not make my time here useful and productive. Might as well use that degree for something right? Third reason, I have a horrible memory so this could help me out when remembering things that I probably would forget anyway. Fourth reason, I want people to know what kind of stuff I’m doing over here just in case they might never travel out the country, you can live through me a little bit I guess. Lastly, I know you all miss me, so this is my way of talking to everybody if I don’t on a consistent basis. I’m hoping I can post new stuff every week, especially if I don’t get lazy. If I do (there’s a good chance), then for sure every two weeks, we will see what happens as we go. I know my entries aren’t going to be all accurate grammar wise, so don’t judge me ok? I’m not trying to get an A+ here people. So lets begin!
Been here for little bit over a week now (Aug 30), my internet just got installed in my place the other day. I didn’t really know what to expect once I came to Teramo regarding my place, car, food, the people and the whole playing basketball in Europe. I decided I was just going to take it as goes, so I wouldn’t disappoint myself pretty much. Everything has been pretty great so far. My place is nice I think; it’s 3 bedrooms (my bed is a queen), 2 bath apartment. My three teammates that are American who lives in my building here are older than me and married at that. Plus, all their wives are coming to stay here in a month or less, so I kind of feel like I’m going to be really chilling by myself soon, but I got my PS3!
Kitchen (top) Living room (bottom)
Outside my room (top) Inside my room (bottom)
Bathroom 1 (top, tub) Bathroom 2 (bottom, shower to the left behind the door)
Second bedroom (top) Third room (bottom, dryer and closets)
View from the living room balcony (top, left side) View from the left side (bottom)
Traveling to get here, which took about a full day was cool. I slept for most of it so the time went fast to be honest. We landed in Roma by way of Madrid, Spain (that’s what they call it here not Rome) and drove to Teramo in the team van, which took almost 2 hours, I feel asleep for most of that too. Soon as we get there, we had a team meeting for everybody in the organization that lasted an hour. Most of the coaches and players speak predominantly Italian but one coach is a translator and most of the teammates speak pretty good English too. Then after the meeting was over with, they took us to the track! I was like, “What the hell is wrong with these people?” “Can’t they just see I got here for traveling across the world” Anyways, I sucked it up and we jogged for 15 minutes around the track as a team and then we called it a day. Since then though, we run in the morning, which I didn’t mind at first, but now is getting tired of it and then practice in the evenings. The gym is hot and humid as hell so when we’re done I’m always dripping with sweat all over, we will see if this keeps up.
The city looks old but has that beautiful, historic feel to it. I believe it’s about 50,000 people living here and about 10-15 miles from the Sea. Everybody I met here is nice and the ones I don’t know just stare at me because I’m tall, dark, handsome and from America and they know I’m here to play basketball for their city. It didn’t take long to know my way around driving in the city. There are a couple roads I stick to that take me where I need to go for whatever reasons, so I’m good for that standpoint.
Picture outside the arch (top) From the inside (bottom)
Food here is another story though. Ok, if you know me, you know I loved me some breakfast. That is my specialty and the only thing I can proudly say I can cook and better than anybody! Just imagined how I felt when I get here and found out that breakfast is not a main concern here. No waffles, no pancakes, no syrup, no grits, no omelets, no french toast, no breakfast sandwiches, no sausage (the way I like it) and especially no BACON!!!!!!!!!! Bacon is my crack! It broke my heart when I saw that. Luckily enough, the other day I found something pretty close to bacon and I have force myself to use it as my substitute for the moment. At night, there are I think 4 to 5 restaurants here that sever pasta and pizza, the local foods and that’s it. So for dinner, I have been going back and forth with pizza pasta or I make hamburgers at home. So to make sure I stay healthy and get my much needed nutrients, I added salada (that’s Italian for salad people, lol) to my every night dinner menu.
I’m going to end it here people because I feel I wrote too much as is. That, or I’m tired or typing, plus I need to stuff to use to write next weeks blog. I got to keep my material new and fresh so you all can keep coming back. Hoping the lucky few that were smart enough to look on my page or see the notification of this and click to see. I thank you for reading my first entry, hope it was entertaining. Ttyl!
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33poncho said 9 days ago
AlanaG said 9 days ago
As for the food, can't help you on the bacon, but you start cooking pancakes and eggs yourself... maybe you can get your teammates hooked
peterov said 9 days ago
stefanaccio said 9 days ago
http://teramoabruzzo.wordpress.com/
dGoodey said 9 days ago