WHAT UP ITALY!

So after huge demand (mainly by my mom) and the inspiration of another (Mat MacDonell-Follow him as he plays for my old team in Australia http://macattack16.blogspot.com/ ) I have created the over-posted and underintertaining blog http://www.poloandpasta.blogspot.com/

Lets knock out some of the basics to get you all caught up ... I left out of Oakland Airport Monday morning at 6am and flew to Denver, over to Newark, then jumped the pond to Rome and then straight up "the boot" to Bergamo, Italy ... my new home! At the Airport I was picked up by Simone and Dario the president and manager of the team. They immediatly drove me to the pool so that I could see my new battlegrounds. The club is Amazing! It has a sports complex with an indoor 50m pool, a diving tower, basketball arena, weightroom, and a full restaurant where I will probably be eating most of my meals. Outside the complex is a large park area with two more pools (a 50m diving tower and another) which we will not use until late in the season when summer approaches ... its already starting to get pretty cold.

After they gave me a quick drive through my new city-Bergamo. I will hit you with more facts about the city later but lets be honest, If I started with the vitals Boaring you right now you would prob stop right here and never read again. Its amazing, just take my word for it right now. They Droped me off at the Holliday Inn-my temporary home until monday when my apt is done getting painted and furnished.

That night, after only 20 hrs of traveling I had to go to practice as everyone passed judgementon their new import. "Who is this new undersized 2M Guard who thinks he can play in the Italian League?" I could feel their eyes as they sat with their gavels ready and watched as I took my first warm-up shot ... a skip-cage cross from 4spot that sneaked under the arm and hit Goalies upper corner ... this will mean nothing to you but I really think this is one shot that I will never forget as lame as it sounds. Everyone knows that first impressions are everything and thinking about this very moment had been eating me up the whole flight over. The rest of practice flew by and before I knew I was in the club restaurant having a beer and meeting the team. The guys are great. Most of them are around the same age, early to mid twenties with a few older guys in their early 30's. I was really stoked to find out that most of them speak fairly decent English and they are very excited to practice it with me!

The next few days I have just been trying to get settled in ... We have a pre-season Tourny starting today at our pool against 3 other teams that will be in our division during season-Shit here comes those Gavels again. I am off to the pool now but I will keep you all updated ...

-Bus # 10
Oh yeah, I was lucky enough to get my number!