Eilat of Fun

The steam swirls off the shoulders and foreheads as the coaches yell gibberish Hebrew in the direction of the youngsters.  I stand in the huddle bouncing up and down to keep my blood circulating.  I’m wearing my uniform, shooting shirt, long-sleeved shirt, and team sweatshirt to keep warm.  My hands are engulfed by grey fleece glomitts and I am constantly blowing hot breath into them.  All I’m missing is a winter hat and snow pants and I’d be ready for the Ski Mountains.  Yes, we are playing in YOKNEAM/MEGIDDO, known as “the coldest gym in Israel.”   The game reflects the cold weather as both teams struggle to warm up from the field.  Megido is the last place team and we need the win to stay in 5th place.  Our rough start is too much to overcome and we lose to the last-place team for the second time this season.

Btw... I should probably change the name to 28-year-old rookie because my birthday was last month.

The Tivon Tarantulas (as I have eloquently named us) just haven’t been the same since we lost our starting point guard a month ago.  He was bought out by a division 1 team and they have yet to replace him.  His departure has left us very young and inexperienced at the PG position and teams are taking advantage of sending extra pressure our way.  After a 6-1 start, we are now 8-7.  My playing time is still sporadic and beyond frustrating.  No matter how well I play in practice or in my limited game minutes, the coach won’t allow me to be a major part of the team.  Last week I had a lengthy conversation with him about my situation and explained that I didn’t move across the world to sit on the bench.   It was a good talk and I thought we were finally on the same page.  In the next game, I played 10mins in the first half and then didn’t play in the second half.  Then I only played 6 minutes in our game this week.  So obviously, we are not on the same page… not sure if we are even reading the same book, newspaper, essay, blog, or magazine.   The most infuriating aspect is that I have played in much better leagues then this and have been a big part of the teams.  From my experience, I would say if a team is losing with certain players, you need to switch things up a bit and let other guys have a chance.  But what do I know, I’ve only lived and breathed basketball my entire life.

Aside from basketball, things have finally settled down.  I haven’t been robbed in over a month! I know, right! I even have a new badass computer that my teammate brought back from the states for me.  One thing about Israel is you can’t really buy anything of significance because of the extremely high prices here.  Also, with electronics, they use the Euro plugs which don’t translate well back home.   Overall, everything is about 10-40% more expensive here.  One nice thing is that tips are expected 10%-15% so it makes up for the higher price of food.  I actually feel very uncomfortable tipping so little so I usually leave more.   Cars here are the most expensive thing.  Because of tax and import laws, cars are typically 100%+ more expensive.  A 10k used Honda in the States is at least 20K here.  It’s the reason why so many people drive small, shitty cars. Plus gas is $9 a gallon.  Just like home, cars are a very obvious status symbol here, except that if someone has a large SUV or truck you know they have Shekel Shekels!

Recently I’ve had a rough time staying on a good routine.  The days here are all the same; either we have practice or don’t have practice.  Because of the time difference, I end up staying up super late to chat with people back home.  Then I wake up late (11-12ish).  I’m actually on a better routine than most Americans here.  Many stay up until 4-5 am and sleep until 2-3 pm.  My body just hasn’t adjusted to the time difference for some reason.   My days are typically spent trying to invent the next great product, surfing Facebook for no particular reason, trying to motivate myself to do something productive, watching last night’s TV shows online, or going to the gym to shoot.  I rarely get a chance to explore the country because I don’t have a car.  I’m sure once it warms up, my teammates will want to explore with me.  Until then, I sit around and wait.  Any ideas?

As I have mentioned in the past, our management here is a joke.  We still haven’t been paid this month… which was due on the 15th.  There are 4 owners and all of them lie.  One of the owners has chipped teeth.  I joke that they cracked because he is constantly lying through them.  Yeah I know that’s a bad joke but at least it was better than Obama’s “spilled milk” routine the other night… (I watch a lot of MSNBC and Fox News here)  It’s a very interesting dynamic.  They know we know they are lying, yet they still do it.  One of the owners, whom I won’t mention his name, but it rhymes with Kreekya, came to practice the other day to explain why we haven’t been paid.  He promised us we will be paid next Tuesday.  Next Tuesday was 2 days ago and we are yet to get our money. 

We had 4 days off earlier this month.  I really wanted to get away from Tivon for a bit so I headed down to Eilat with a teammate and a few other American’s who play on other teams.  Eilat is a resort, beach town located on the Red Sea.  It is the southernmost tip of Israel and borders Jordan and Egypt.  It is stunning, to say the least.  Obviously, January isn’t the prime time to visit a resort town but it was still nice to relax on the beach.  It was in the ’70s during the day so we could get a bit of sun.   We had heard rumors that there was a casino in the area.  Casinos are illegal in Israel for some reason.  Two of the guys and I decided we would hop the border to Egypt and try and make some Shekels.  We headed south and entered the gated blockade.  It’s not every day you get to go to Egypt.  To be honest, we were all a bit nervous about going.  I joked that we should turn on our phone tracking devices and check in on Facebook in case something happened.  We all immediately did it.    We entered the border patrol excited for the adventure.  We were quickly asked for our passports and questioned why we were going to Egypt.  My passport checked out fine, although they said I was missing a travel document.  They gave me a bit of a hard time and I realized that Ramon and Javi would have a bigger issue because of their American passports and work Visas.  Turns out Ramon could leave the country but upon re-entry would have to get a new Visa (3000 shekels) and Javi had never received his work Visa.  He was brought into a private room and interrogated for about 15mins. I was genuinely nervous he would be deported because he has been in Israel illegally for 4 months now.  His team never filed the correct paperwork for him.  Luckily, they let him go and we hustled our way back to Eilat. 

Other than that, things are copacetic.  I battle with myself daily on whether or not I’m wasting my time and avoiding being a grown-up or if I’m just living the dream.   Maybe it’s a little of both.  Sometimes I feel like an inspiration to those who want to achieve their goals, and sometimes I think I’m selfishly sidestepping responsibility.  I guess there is no way of actually knowing because you make your own reality.

I recently read a great article about the founder of Zappos, Tony Hsieh.  If you don’t know his story, make sure to look him up.  Although he has over 400 million dollars, he spends all his time studying happiness.  In the article he said… "People lose that sense of anything is possible when they grow up."  I find this to be shockingly true.  I guess I’m living my dream because I don’t want to lose my belief that anything is possible.  It’s not that I want to stay young; it’s that I want to stay a youthful thinker.  I don’t want my thoughts to be dry, I want them to thrive. I don’t want my thoughts to be dull, I want them to bloom.  I want to know that all possibilities are at my command.  I want to believe that my own mind and creativity shape my world.   I’ve definitely found this to be true in my own life.  I constantly make new goals for myself that I WANT to achieve.  But unless I start DOING something to achieve it, it will never happen.  It wasn’t until I started DOING instead of WANTING that I found success in this journey, and I believe this principle is true in every aspect of life.  If you have a goal and want something, DO something about it.  Nature will provide the tools to achieve once you walk towards it.