NICK'S NOTES NUMBER èr
May 29, 2008 - So today’s Thursday and everyone is getting really excited to leave in a few days. Guys are starting to do the rituals that really remind you that you’re leaving really soon. We’ve been exchanging money to the New Taiwanese Dollar, finishing any research on the culture and taboos in Taiwan and so forth. I don’t know why, but for me, changing all my money to Taiwanese dollars is what gets me – it acts as a reality check that we really are leaving soon! We’ve also been buying the little pins and trinkets that are customary to exchange before every international basketball game – a sign of sharing the culture and inviting friendly competition between countries. I’m not sure if this occurs in other sports, but I think it’s a great tradition and really sets the tone for any relationships between the players.
We’ve had a good week of practice leading up to our departure so far. Practice has been pretty intense, which we will need to bring to the games in Taiwan. We had a summer league game on Tuesday night, and some of our young guys stepped up and played really well. With Rob Paris and Nick Magalas gone for the night to attend the Team Canada open tryout, some of the young guys, especially our guards like Justin Holmes, Sebastian Magalas and Anthony De Giorgio really stepped up their game and played well for us. I think that’s a good indication of the years to come, and it’s great to see them shine.
We leave at 11am on Saturday, and the time change between here and Taiwan is 12 hours. I’m not really sure if I should sleep on the plane and then be awake when we get to Taiwan, or what time it’s going to be in Taiwan when we get in. I’ll have to figure that one out to try and sort out a reasonable sleep schedule in an attempt to beat the jetlag. I found though that when we went to Japan, the time change didn’t hit until the return trip. Guys were pretty energetic when we got there (I’m sure the adrenaline of being in a new city and seeing everything for the first time helped a bit), but I can remember the day after we returned from Japan, everybody was a mess. Not being able to keep their eyes open during the day, but completely alert come nighttime.
Anyways, I’m going to head off and, for real this time, next time you hear from me we’ll be overseas!
Cheers,
Nick
