Ballin'

It is amazing how sometimes, even though our life can be subject to changes of place, that some patterns and aspects about our lives somehow remain constant.  Today is Friday and even though I'm sitting on my bed in Montevideo, Uruguay very far from home, it has been a pretty typical Friday for me.  For the past six years or so of my life, my favorite way to spend my Friday night is playing basketball.  During my high school years in Platteville, when I was in college at Beloit and Gustavus, and when even when I was studying abroad in the Dominican Republic past fall, shooting around or playing pick-up for a few hours is a great way for me to cap off the week and destress.  So it was really great for me that I have FINALLY found a place to play in Montevideo.  One day with Club de Niños, the younger kids at La Obra, we went to a park so the kids could play and I saw there was a gym.  I asked a guy that worked at the park and he gave me a slip of paper listing all the activities at the park.  Lucky enough, it read Basketbol Viernes 20:00.

 Today I went to the park at 8:00 PM and found the gym.  I was a little nervous because it can be hard to integrate yourself into a pick up game if you're new, especially if Spanish is your second language.  Fortunately everyone was really friendly and after shooting around for a bit, we got started. I was also lucky that nine other people showed up, so with me we had ten.  It was an interesting mix of players, ranging from two kids that I think were brothers to an older, let's say more rotund, guy that wore a sweatshirt and a hat while he played that, I swear I'm not kidding, miss a single shot.  However, with in 5 minutes someone twisted an ankle so we resorted to playing half court.  It was a lot of fun, even if I'm a little rusty and out-of shape.  My jumper was really off and it was really bothering me until I realized, when I took the ball to the basket and hit my finger on the rim, that the baskets were definitely NOT ten feet.  Also, they don't check the ball at all here which gives games a much different rhythm than in the United States.  Fortunately, thanks to playing one-on-one with a Serbian friend when I was at Beloit, I'm got accustomed to not checking the ball.  (I still prefer checking the ball though)

To me, it's fascinating seeing all the variations of basketball around the world.  Playing basketball in the US is much different in some ways than when I was in the DR and here in Uruguay it has a different feel to it as well.  For example, tonight you could definitely see the influence of soccer in the way passes were thrown into space and it was expected to make a give and go practically every time you passed the ball.  It was like there were 10 Steve Nash's playing pickup with each other.  In contrast, the court I went to in the Dominican Republic had a much different feel. There were a lot of guys that had spent time in NYC and there was a lot more focus on isolations and individual play.  In the end, it doesn't really matter what style you play, what matters is that the ball goes in the basket.

After about two hours, the gym closed and I caught the bus back to the student residence.  I will definitely be going back next week because it was a blast and playing sports is a great way to learn Spanish.  There is soccer on Monday and Wednesday nights, so hopefully I can make it to some of those as well.