I woke up the next morning, relaxed in my hostel, and went over to the airport to fly back to Lima. After my one hour flight, I went to the ATM to take out a few more dollars. Once again, being me, I left my debit card in the machine. THE SECOND TIME THIS TRIP. Total lack of awareness. Luckily this time, a woman found it, gave it to airport security, and they tracked my down while I was waiting in the airport for my ride. I signed a few papers and got my card back. Lesson learned (again).
Alexandra's Aunt picked me up, and we went back to the grandma's house for lunch. They continued to impress. I was pretty sleepy after a few nights of 3:30am wakeup, so I took a little nap in my prepared bed. I woke up and hung out with the cousins for my remaining time. Check out the pics/vid. I went to the airport veeeery early, still paranoid from my previous close call, and waited in my gate for 2.5 hours before we boarded at 1am for the red eye (like father like son!).
I was so excited for my personal TV screen, but we had another type of plane without the TVs, so my buzz was quickly killed and I dozed in and out of cat naps the whole way home. I arrived in Santiago in zombie mode at 5:45am, and caught a bus back home, I got my money's worth on the adventure!
Sidenote: the rest of this entry is only basketball stuff, so those of you who are only into my travel adventures should stop here to avoid disappointment!
I have been in Santiago for a few days now, but I quickly hopped back into my daily grind. We had a basketball game Tuesday night (loss), and Wednesday night. We needed to win the Wednesday night game to get to the playoffs, but things didn't go according to plan. With about 5 minutes left in the game, a player on our team fouled another player, which resulted in a pushing and shoving match between two players. We all hopped off our bench and ran over. A few kids got into some wrestling/pushing/shoving, and I was standing guard helping up one of my teammates that fell down, practicing my new Spanish curse words. Both benches were cleared and kids were flying around in every direction. We were ALL promptly expelled from the game. Only 4 players from our team, and 3 players from the other team were not expelled.
We continued the game 4 vs 3, but in a very physical game, two more of our players fouled out, leaving us with 2 vs. 3 for the last few minutes. We lost by a good chunk of points, and everyone is suspended for the first game of the next semester. Not what we had in mind!
The official season is done for la Universidad Alberto Hurtado, but I still have my other league "Winnipeg". We also had the biggest game of our season on Saturday night. Winnipeg used to be one large team, but we had too many players, so we split into two teams. The team we played on Saturday was the other half of our original team, so the competition was fierce.
Our big man, la mano, didn't show up for the game. He is about 6'5'', and a very good defender. In his absence, I had to play as our Center for the game. Luckily, we were playing this game in Chile, and at 6ft, I was still the tallest person on the court. I won the tip off and the game started. I had played HORRIBLY in our two losses at my University, so I was eager to make up for it, and I played pretty well. I made the first basket, with a foul, and our team got pretty siked up for a good game. It was a great game, and we went into the half completely tied.
Our Winnipeg team has no coach, we just have a team captain, Marcelo. Everyone on the team is Marcelo's friend, but some people are better than others. It makes for a sticky situation when it comes to winning/keeping friends. Our starting 5 players were playing really well, and we stayed in the entire first half. At half time, I offered to bench myself to give the other players a chance. I took a seat, with our second tallest player as well, leaving us with four players under 5'9'' on the court, bad news. Our defense could not hold up, because we had very little height, and we quickly got down 8 points. At the start of the fourth quarter, Marcelo told the two new players to take the bench again, so the original starting 5 could play...drama!
We put the drama behind us and focused on the task at hand, winning the basketball game. We started strong in the fourth quarter, all of us hitting clutch shots. I would get the ball underneath the basket, and when the double-team arrived, I would dish it out to one of our players for a three pointer, CA$H MONEYYY. The players on Winnipeg are better than our University team, and its fun to play with a bunch of talented guys. We played strong offense and defense, and with 30 seconds left, the game was tied.
The other team brought the ball down, looking to take the final shot. I was playing defense against their tallest player at the time (this guy was actually taller than me). They passed the ball to him down low, he started backing me up, using his power against me. I did a VERY risky move, and as he was backing into me, I fell down to draw a foul. It worked! Hooray! The other team started complaining, my team was congratulating me, and with 15 seconds left, I went to the foul line for a "1 and 1".
1 and 1 means: you take a foul shot, if you make it, you get another. For some reason, I was very calm and collected, and despite the jeering/distractions from the crowd and other team, made my first shot, earning me another. I sunk my second shot as well, putting us up two points with 15 seconds left, we were in good shape.
The other team in-bounded the ball, but we intercepted it right away! The fouled us instantly, and our player went to the foul line with 10 seconds left for two shots. We were already up two points, with two more foul shots...GAME OVER (maybe). He missed his first shot, but made his second. We were up three points when the other team brought the ball down with 9 seconds remaining. 8, 7, 6, 5...I was playing light defense on my big man to avoid a foul (they needed a three anyway). Someone launched a three pointer with 4 seconds left-MISS. There was a long rebound, recovered by the other team, a quick pass out to another player, and with 1 second left, he launched a three pointer, ball cocked over his shoulder like a shot-put. The ball was in the air, the buzzer sounded, and it rattled in the hoop. Everyone went crazy. Overtime.
The other team rode their momentum, our team forced too many three point shots, and we lost by 4 points in overtime. It was a heartbreaking loss, but an amazing game nonetheless.
Sunday I woke up early with my Chilean mom and our neighbor, we went to mass then to lunch at a friends house at the base of the Andes mountains (picture). Everyone was so nice, we had empanadas, rice, ribs...it was delicioso! I am getting ready to start another normal week, and actually work on SCHOOL WORK for the first time this semester, so don't expect anything too interesting for a little bit. Thanks for your support I'll be home to see all of you in two months!
No comments:
Post a Comment