So here goes~
My respect for NBA/NCAA basketball players (and just about any athlete) just jumped like tenfold during this trip. We had six games in four days, and boy was it hard. The first couple days we didn't have any games we just played a lot, went to the mall, studied, ate, watched tv, etc. But once the tournament started, my schedule was wake up 7:30; eat breakfast, wash up, rest a bit till 9ish; go to the schools to have our games starting at 10; depending on when the games were, we came back to the hotel at 4 one day and 6ish the next for the non-playoff days; then we'd come back and have dinner around 7; rest and sleep till 10; wake up, do devotions, team meeting, wash up till 10:45; lights out and instantly fall asleep at 11. Wow... Never was my schedule so empty yet so full. I felt like a rock... I napped on average 2-3 times a day and then slept again at 11 like it was my first time sleeping after an all-nighter. I wondered how in the world do professional athletes live like this? I mean of course they have rests and don't play games so close together, but still... They have practice every day they don't have games and plane trips so many times throughout the year. Crazy... Can't even begin to fathom their hard work and effort they put in to play the sport.
Another thing... Kazakhstan was a much friendlier country than Russia... All the people were really welcoming; I didn't have anyone stare weirdly at our group; and the cashiers actually smiled while serving me~ Heck, Sung Joo met three girls in the mall and somehow had dinner with them and had a mug, a calendar, and other funny stuff bought for him all in 3 hours. He never had met them before and probably will never meet them ever again... But yeah they said it themselves that Kazakhs are a friendly people~ I believe them... But one thing that made me a bit sad was that the economy wasn't very strong... The hotel workers were paid I think somewhere around 300-400 dollars a month? Of course that's a lot in the Kazakh money, but still, it just showed me the ridiculousness of Russia's inflated economy and a little guilty? I mean, the whole team used at least 100 dollars per person for themselves, and then the team probably spent another 100 per person doing stuff like the gondola, food, and other supplies. All in just a week... Blegh~ I feel bad again...
Ah~ but what made me feel a lot better was the dance/banquet thingy we had at the end of the tournament. All the schools that attended the tournament was invited to a big party in the gym at the end of all the events. Everyone danced.... I wasn't feeling too good (too tired and my foot was swollen) so I just rested and talked to some friends I met in Korea couple years back and stuff. Just watching my friends dance and all the others, I really thanked God again for the friends and school I had back in St. Pete. The director there said that most of the kids in that school weren't allowed to go to clubs (duh...) so whenever there was a party at the school, they would go all out... Some kids did stuff that were just inappropriate. Thankfully the majority of the kids were really nice, smart, calm, and proper kids. But I thanked God again after that party that IA was my school. I just love my friends and school that I don't know what I'll do without them... They've been such a huge part of my life~ Love y'all~
Lastly... I think I'm going to end on a semi-sour note, but oh well... The plan trip back home, I was so tired from waking up at 3 that I fell asleep on the plane. Why the heck does a stewardess wake up a sleeping person?!!?! I mean, it wasn't even meal-time!!! It was for a drink which I didn't even take!!! (Every time the stewardess came to our row for something, I would look at the row and see all the boys sleeping and I'd shoo the stewardess to the next row~ =)) Yeah so I was in a foul mood from being woken up when I hear a baby crying in the front of the plane. It cried incessantly for 15-20 minutes straight. I don't know what the heck the mother was doing, but it almost cried like it was breathing. It would inhale and have a distinct cry for 3-5 seconds, then it would exhale with a much louder cry for 5-8 seconds, followed by a 3 second break. It went on like this for so long that I couldn't fall back asleep so I listened to my iPod~ Only by listening to an audio book was I able to fall back asleep... I'm pretty sure when I was a baby (only a couple months old) and I rode the plane, I slept like a pillow...
So yeah~ But I'm all over the crying baby now~ haha Just a funny memory~ Now... What to write about next?
Our basketball team verse:
Colossians 3:23
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the LORD, and not for men."
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