Imperia

Monday morning was hell. 6:00am. I wanted to throw my alarm clock as it alerted me to start my day. I would rather hear nails scraping a chalkboard for 10 minutes then hear that initial “bleep” of the clock in the morning. Following my initial loathing of my alarm clock was the realization that my whole body was in tremendous pain. The two year break from snowboarding was paying its toll now. Everything from the arches in my feet, up through my back and to the top of my neck was screaming at me that anything but staying in bed for the next 2 days was ill-advised. As much as I wanted to comply I had to get ready and meet the team as we were taking a road trip to Imperia for a day of training against their squad. Somehow I got myself to the rendezvous spot and instantly fell asleep on the bus. While I was far away and safe from my alarm clock I ended up snoring so loud that I woke myself up…I just couldn’t win.
Imperia which is located at one of the farthest west regions of the country is right near the border of France. It is a town that starts up in the hills and flows down through the valleys till it hits the sea and a very nice little harbor. The indoor pool was amazing and located right at the edge of the docks. After our morning training we walked all around the harbor and coastal part of the town until we hit the beach. While most of the guys were not that impressed by the town, I thought it was beautiful and made a mental note to return when I had the time.
I was excited to scrimmage with this squad because they have one of the few Americans that is playing over here, Jeff Powers. While I don’t really know him, I’ve been playing against him since I was 16 and was looking forward to finally speaking some normal English with someone. Powers is a stud, a very talented center who was a huge contributor on the USA silver medal Olympic Team. I haven’t played against him since I converted to a defender and was curious to see how I’d stack up. Unfortunately for me returned to the US for the holidays and wasn’t there.
They were a strong team and gave us a pretty good beating in our session. I don’t think it helped that Cano (or goalie) and I couldn’t move our legs from the day of boarding before. I thought I could swim through it and loosen out but it never happened. I was exhausted and sore the whole time. There were some moments of nice play and even a little fight between me and their other center stopped play for a while as we had to be separated. I was happy to see that Andrea (Captain) stepped in for me right away and had my back. You never really know where you team stands with you until something like that happens.
After our second training session of the day we left the Imperia and stopped in Savona for a very nice dinner. We have two players from Savona and it was really nice to see a little of their town. Andrea and Alessio ordered the food and it seemed like the dishes kept coming. The full and happy stomach put me right to sleep as I didn’t wake up until we were all the way back in Bergamo regardless of my snoring.

-Bus #10

Boarding

Sunday morning I woke up at 6am to meet Cano and his two friends Marco and Macro to hit the mountains for a day of snowboarding. We pilled in Cano’s car and started making the 2hr trek to the slopes. There are some resorts that are only 45 mins from Bergamo but his buddies wanted to go to this specific place in hopes of better snow.
Since I was gone all last winter in Australia it was my first time up in 2 years. I don’t consider myself a great snowboarder by any means but I hold my own and won’t slow the group down.
The snow was…how can I say this….SHIT. There was definitely a lot of it but it was far from fresh and almost completely ice. Ever since I was 14 I haven’t been able to enjoy myself boarding because the whole time I hear my dad’s voice in the back of my head, “Don’t screw your shoulder up”. First it was don’t get hurt so that I could get my simple minded butt into a good college, and then it was don’t mess up your arm and not be able to play when season comes around, and now they are actually paying me so I feel pretty obligated to keep my body healthy. Don’t get me wrong I didn’t just go heal side scootching down the runs on my ass the whole time but I definitely threw in a few extra check turns to keep me under arm-breaking speed. Even though the conditions weren’t perfect and I couldn’t get Pops out of my head it felt great to be up there.
The mountains are cool and all but I would still take the ocean any and every single day over them…just not really my thing.

-Bus #10

Italian Christmas

At age 24, I’m starting to become a little skeptical of this Santa character. Maybe he just didn’t get the address change, but I woke up Friday morning and searched my apt high and low not finding one single Christmas present. I was so confused…
There wasn’t much time to dwell on my conundrum because I had to shower down, get dressed up, and meet Roberto for Christmas mass. He brought me to his local church that his family attends fairly regularly. When I inquired about going to church the day before I asked him if it was catholic, he looked at me contemplating how dumb I really was and responded, “They are ALL catholic churches”. It was a full house and everyone was in their Sunday’s best. I didn’t understand much but it was really nice just being there. Plus you always have to make sure you are at church the two days that the Big Guy takes roll; Christmas and Easter.
When the ceremony ended I dropped Roberto back at his house and got ready for Christmas lunch. Sessa (Matteo Sessantini) invited me to share Christmas with his family and I was more than excited to accept. In Italy instead of having a dinner celebration they have a large lunch gathering. We drove over to his grandparents house where I was introduced to his parents, sister, grandparents, Aunt, Uncle, and his three cousins, and the dog Tango; My Italian family for Christmas!
The afternoon started off with appetizers and drinks. Then we moved into the dining room and had more appetizers and wine. A few more rounds of appetizers and a few more glasses of wine and we were finally ready for the main course, a beautifully cooked fish. Everything was amazing and by the end I was so full I couldn’t move. There were lots of questions for me and I was lucky because along with Sessa, two of his cousins spoke English very well. Everyone was so nice and I felt very lucky to be surrounded by these amazing people on this special day.
After the meal was finished his little 10 year old cousin popped out of the room and returned with an accordion almost the size of her. She busted it out of its box and set up some music and started playing some American Christmas songs. This was probably my favorite part of the night as everyone crowded around her and tried to sing along as she fought her way through the songs. While her playing wasn’t that smooth it made it all the better. If she would have played them perfectly I would have been very very impressed but the way she was struggling showed how hard she was trying. It was too precious.
The concert was amazing and now it was time for the games. The dining table was cleared and everyone sat down and we played a bunch of different Bergamasco card games. It was really fun and reminded me of something my own family would typically do after a holiday meal with all the cousins. By six O’clock I was drained. I was full and tired and very happy. It had been an amazing day with great people. My Italian Christmas.
-Bus #10

So Thats What You Call Snow

So I might have been a little premature with my excitement. I saw a little more white on the ground than the frost I would see some cold mornings back home and I felt I had to yell the thrilling news from atop a mountain. I would find little piles of snow in the park and think, “Look at all the SNOW!” “How cool is this!”. I had to actively search to locate small patches and I was still as excited as a 5 yr old xmas morning. I feel like an Idiot now because that was only a hint of what was to come.
On Monday afternoon, after a hard day of sleeping in, reading, and watching Sports Center 3 times on my computer, it was 6 O'clock and time to head on over to the pool for practice. I gathered my stuff, walked out the front door, put a dumb and confused look on my face and asked myself, “Dude, where’s my car?”
Unbeknownst to me it hadn’t been snowing a little during the day; it had been SNOWING! I was stuck in my footsteps looking up and down the street, “What the hell happened?” I felt as though I was in a completely different place. It had been dumping all day long and everything was looked magical. It seriously felt like I walked onto a set of a movie, I couldn’t believe that much snow had landed outside my door without me knowing.
I looked down the street and could barely see the clown car. I was covered in so much snow it completely blended into the whiteout that was everything else. With snow piled up all the way to the wheel wells, there was no way I was going to be able to drive it to practice, let alone move it from that spot for the next week.
I called up Cano and he said that he was at the university but would be there in 10 mins to pick me up. He arrived with Michele sitting shotgun and they immediately started going off about how stupid it was that we had training. We putted down the road but once we hit the main street it was apparent that we weren’t going anywhere fast. It was complete gridlock and it took us 20 minutes to travel the 100 meters to the main light.
Captain and Co captain up front had a quick discussion and decided that there wasn’t practice tonight after all. The called up the coach, told him the situation, and then flipped a “B”. I thought I was going back home but we went straight past it and ended up a few mins later at their university. We exited the sanctuary of the warm car and shuffled through the kneed deep snow and arriving at the study lounge. “Why the hell are we here?” I was contemplating as Cano opened the doors to a room full of drunk idiots running around. He informed me that one of his friends had just graduated that day and they were all celebrating; in the study lounge of all places.
Bottles of cheep champagne floated around the room and the kids confidence in their English skills as well as their fascination with an American present was peaking. I quickly became the center of attention, but not in a good way. They would ask me questions about home which was cool but then they started, as they always do, trying to make me say stuff in Italian. When it’s a drunk college kid trying to make you say something in Italian, it’s not so much to help you as it is for his own amusement. They try to have you repeat all the bad words and sayings and they think it’s a riot. I felt like a monkey. At one point I had to remind them that just because I didn’t know their language didn’t mean that I was retarded. It really made me think back on all the foreigners that I’ve met, befriended or just casually conversed with back home. While they would try their best to talk to me in English I would always subconsciously make a judgment on their competency as a whole based on their level of communication. Thinking back on it now makes me feel a little sick as I’m sure I talked down to or even treated someone as if they were slow because they couldn’t fluently speak MY language. It is a whole new experience being on the other side but I believe it is good as it has not only opened my eyes to my previous behavior but also motivated me more to work diligently to conquer Italian.
After the booze fest in the biblioteca we traversed over to a restaurant where I had my 5th pizza this week. The whole time it kept snowing outside and after the meal we congregated in front of the pizzeria for a huge snowball fight in the plaza. The snow was perfect; fresh but because it was so cold out it was incredibly dry. A quick scoop with your right hand, one molding pat with your left and this baby was compact and ready to rifle. This probably wasn’t the best idea for a sore shoulder. I knew firing light pieces of snow in the cold as hard as I could without warming up was going to set me back a little but I couldn’t pass this experience up!

-Bus #10

Winter Party

Sunday afternoon was the annual Christmas celebration for all of Bergamo Nuoto (Bergamo Aquatics). It was a full day party that gathered all the teams that train at the facility; Swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, and of course water polo. While the festivities were mainly geared as a showcase for the younger programs to show their parents a sincro routine or a new dive, they also wanted some of guys from the mens polo squad to show their face and help out. I arrived to the pool and clearly was not ready for what I was getting into. There must have been 200 kids running all around the pool deck completely crazy like they just downed 15 pixie stix.
I am quickly becoming some sort of a celebrity to the little polo kids. They always rush up in groups of 4 or five like they have something very important to tell me. About halfway through their intense story they finally realize that I can’t understand them. They look to one another to see if anyone else could translate but they r all around 10 or 11 years old and only know the basic English introductions. Because I’m about at the same spot in my quest to conquer the Italian language the conversation dies and it quickly turns into a wrestling match where they all try to bum rush me and I end up throwing them all in the pool. They love it, coming back for more and more wanting to be thrown higher and farther.
After all the sincro teams (ages 8 to 26) gave their performances they gathered a few people from every one of the programs and split them up on two teams. There must have been 20 people on a team with 2 guys from our mens squad on each. They then put the goals in the pool and threw in 6 water polo balls and had a fun scrimmage. The best part was when the really little kids got too tired and they came up and used me as a buoy. I would then swim them down near the cage with them on my back, steal a ball from one of the teenage polo punks and let the little sea monkey that was warped around my neck take a shot. They were so stoked!
After the polo match they split up everyone into teams of 10 and had a relay race. The senior sincro squad made a personalized speedo for me that said “I ♥ Sincro” on the back in green sequence pieces. They thought it was hilarious and I didn’t care so rocked it while they sported their “I ♥ Water Polo” suits. I think our team cheated and only had 8 swimmers because we finished way ahead of everyone else. Our kids didn’t seem to notice as they celebrated by holding up their finger to show their friends on the other teams that they were #1.
It was a great day where I was able to meet a lot of kids, parents, and other supporters of the aquatics programs. I really feel so fortunate to have come to such a great town with amazing people.

-Bus #10

It Always Tastes Better When You Win

3 in a row…That’s what you call a streak! Saturday night it was go-time as we faced off against Trieste. Our last game before the winter break and a chance to stay at top of the leader board. I remembered my shirt this time and was able to participate in the pre-game introductions. It is a pretty cool experience standing up there, I felt like a mercenary about to go to battle. I had my teams gear on, my “mean face”, and I was ready to do work.
I got my second consecutive start as I matched up with their left-handed center. The game was back and forth the whole first quarter until our captain/coach snipered an end of shot-clock bomb from about 12 meters. I was pretty impressed but even more excited to finally get a stoppage in play. I finished out the rest of the first quarter trying to front their center as much as possible and calling an “M” zone when I felt myself losing position. Collectively we played strong defense but couldn’t get the ball rolling offensively. At the end of the first period of play the score was tied 1-1.
In the second our attack seemed much stronger but we just couldn’t pull away from them. We earned numerous man-advantage situations but we were unable convert. We were definitely dictating the game but the scoreboard wasn’t showing it. It wasn’t until the third till our ball really started finding the back of the net. We continued our momentum through the 4th and finished with a 9 to 6 victory. No goals from their center and he only got me excluded once (towards the end of the 4th , I believe it was a scoreboard kick out but they didn’t score on it anyways).
After the match everyone was in great spirits! We headed to the upstairs part of the restaurant where it was roped off for our dinner function with Errestampa. It wasn’t as much a dinner as it was wine and hors d’oeuvres. We all grabbed a glass of red and had a big cheers ( or chin chin). As I’ve said before; good wine, bad wine, I can’t tell the difference. I do know that when you win, whatever it is always tastes a little better. I continued to float around from table to table trying all the different types of sliced meats, fish, sausages, crackers, lasagnas and of course CHEESES! There must have been at least 10 different types and I made sure I tried all of them at least 4 times. That’s a lot of cheese.
The party was great as I was introduced to a lot of the people from the company who wanted to meet the American player. I even talked with the head of Errestampa and his wife for a while. They are a very nice couple and the husband spoke very strong English. They were curious as to how I was enjoying Italy, why I choose Bergamo, what I thought of the water polo and team, and of course how I felt about the snow and temperature (-9c last night burrrrr).
When the gathering started dying down I dropped downstairs to grab a beer and shoot the S#%* with Sergio (our acting coach and restaurant owner). I always look forward to these chats as they usually lead to him showing me a new type of food. I want my mom to know how good of care he and the rest of the team have been taking care of me. I am definitely not going to go hungry under their watch!

-Bus #10

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