barrio ballinnnnn

So some of you may have seen my facebook status that I played with a semi-pro ecuadorian team last night in basketball. That is SLIGHTLY true. Let me fill you in on the whole story. . .

So I wake up yesterday around 10, because we have afternoon classes all this week. Which means later this week will be a bull rush of going out at night and living our lives. By the way, saying ¨we´re just living our lives¨doesn´t translate at all over here. Nor does ¨I am balling (estoy pelotando).¨ Ok, maybe I took the word for ball, turned it into a verb, and conjugated it but honestly Ecuadorians should get that. But I digress. . .I wake up and go on the internet to check my emails. Garrett hits me up and gives me the run down. . .here´s more or less what he said:

Garrett: So I told my host brother that I play basketball at the Carolina park. Apparently my host brother took that to mean that basketball is my life, that I love to play, and eventually I´d want to play professionally. So he contacts one of his basketball buddies, asks if I can try out for the team, even with the possibility of getting paid. He then proceeds to tell me in english, ¨You had a dream and I made it come true in two hours!!¨ He then goes into about 6 motivational speeches, saying ¨I believe in you. You have to trust in yourself that you can do it!¨

Uh, yeah. So Garrett invites me to play. . .and of course I´m down. When else would you get an opportunity to play in a setting like this?

So we go to class from 1 to 5, and then Garrett and I get sandwiches which made us feel like absolute ASS because the dude smeared waaaaaaaaay too much mayo on them. I don´t even like mayo, so I was dying. After getting to Garrett´s house, eating some soup, and watching maybe a good hour of auto-tune the news (youtube it if you haven´t heard of it because it is HILAROUS), Garrett´s brother comes to pick us up at 8:15. Oh but wait, he was supposed to meet us at the stadium at 7 and this other dude was supposed to pick us up (who by the way, didn´t show up at all or call to say he couldn´t). Typical Ecuadorian time.

So we get in a cab which looks like something out of Tokyo Drift, almost kill a grandma and ourselves twice on the way over to what we are told is a colluseum, and also get told about 55 people are going to be there to watch us play. We also were told by the host brother it might be a good idea to get some pills in order to open up our respiratory system (or at least thats what I think he said) because the game might get tough. So obviously Garrett and I were looking at each other like WTF.

We arrive a good hour and a half late, walk into the gym, and see. . .maybe 8 people. 3 of them being girlfriends or female relatives sitting in the stands. Down below there is ONE semi-pro ecuadorian player, his uncle, his buddy, and this guy who kinda looks like a cross being Cheech and Chong. Apparently this was just to see if garrett and I could play on a legit semi-pro team, and needless to say we made the cut haha. I was insane tired by the second game, but was still draining shots because people here play with a girls ball. Not tryin to put ya´ll down ladies, but since the ball was way smaller it was so much easier to toss it up. Garrett was told that he was ¨very strong and had good form¨and I was ¨had very good technique and could create.¨ YEAH AMERICA.

We walk back to the semi-pro players (whose name is Miguel) house, where we have some water, talk about sports and his wife, get mauled lovingly by his dog, and listen to him play spanish songs on his acoustic while him and cheech-and-chong sang to us. It was just a really neat experience being surrounded by Ecuadorians (and Garrett) and just LIVING and being wrapped up in it all. I dont know how many opportunities one can get to do what I did last night (or other days / nights as well), so I just feel like I´ve been really blessed to do what I´m doing. Of course, I spend the time too wishing I could have certain people around to share it with me, but one day. . .

anyways I´m getting told I don´t post enough pics, so here is sort of near where we played at last night I think. . .It´s by the University of San Francisco, and this is the Plaza of San Francisco. So I assume it´s nearby. The churches in the colonial part of town here light up at night, some with vivid purple, blue, or rose colors. . .it´s gorgeous.

I´ll be doing a ¨day in the life¨ post soon, since some of you have been asking what a typical day is like. I guess I really haven´t done that yet haha, so I´ll get on it! Until next time. . .