Training Camp

Loyal readers,

Welcome to blog post number 2: Training camp edition (it also has a lot of photos, let me know if you like it). We just got back from a 10 day camp that took us to Antwerp, Belgium and Moscow, Russia. We played two games at each spot. It was a long trip, tested us in a lot of ways, and I’m sure will improve us tremendously.

Highlights: 1.) The games – it was my first experience playing games away from home as a pro, and playing in front of European fans was really cool. The drums, chanting, smoke, basically all the stuff you see in soccer matches, but inside. Picture from the first game in Belgium:

       

2.) Waffles. Our second game we played against the Belgian team Charleroi in their arena, and the unmistakable scent of Belgian waffles dominated the arena. It was, by far, the best smelling arena I’ve ever played in. It was awesome in every way.

3.) Our last night in Belgium we went out to eat in downtown Antwerp. It was probably because I was the rookie and this stuff was new to me, but I was taking pictures of everything while the vets acted like they had been there before (they probably had). Here are some pictures from Antwerp and our fruitless search for the nonexistent Hard Rock Café:

4.) Russia. Unfortunately we were only in Russia for two and a half days, and had two games, so no sight seeing. Thankfully, the hotel in Russia did have an American sports channel. I was able to watch the Reds and the Pirates. How neat is that? Also found this mustache in the lobby of the CSKA Moscow arena and it was too awesome not to show you guys:

This next section is devoted to Ali Mackay’s genius on snapchat. I guess he has a few hours every week where he gets really bored, and comes up with these works of art. Again, I share with you because they are too good to keep to myself and I’m a man of the people, remember?

            

Basically it was a pretty awesome week. My birthday was thrown in there as well. Never thought I’d be spending my birthday in Belgium. Maccabi went above and beyond by getting me a cake (Maccabi tradition also says that as soon as I open said cake, everyone gets to slap me on the back of the head/neck), so that was fun. It was awesome to get all the calls, texts, facebook posts, etc… wishing me well, so whoever did that, thank you. Whoever didn’t….nah I’m just kidding. That’s all I got for now, and now your reward (you guys probably just scrolled to the bottom anyway), the best links!

http://gawker.com/jimmy-fallons-latest-lip-sync-off-was-actually-epic-1382881971

(note: if you don’t love John Krasinski from the office as much as I do, which honestly isn’t possible, you probably won’t love that one as much as I do. Still good though)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKTh7zBIcrM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Terhj8mjPwY

(Probably the only thing I disagree with Dr. Cox on, Hugh Jackman is a beast)

thought this next one was pretty awesome as well. Thanks to Ben Allison for sharing. If you want some motivation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pEBz6PzF50

(Sly’s speech gives me goosebumps every time)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6CT3fIYoduw
gotta have a dog video

That’s it for now.

Up next: Last week of preseason training, then the real games start!

Thanks for reading,

Jake

Back to the Holy Land

Welcome to the first entry. First, my brother had this blog called the Jimmy Chitwood Diaries, and because it is an awesome name, I’m gonna steal it. Anyway, here it is (http://www.thejimmychitwooddiaries.blogspot.com), and enjoy. Hopefully he gets some spare time to start blogging again.

The reasoning behind the blog is fairly straightforward: I want to document this next chapter of my life.  A few weeks ago when I was packing, I came across an old English notebook from high school, and I was fascinated with how the mind of 17-year-old Jake worked. So, I want 40 year old Jake to know what 22-year-old Jake is thinking. So this will be a memoir, blog, and other random stream of consciousness I deem blog-worthy. And thanks to the feedback I got on Facebook, apparently some people out there want to read it as well. Since I am a man of the people, why not? I also know myself well enough to know that I’m terrible with taking pictures of important moments in my life, I settled on words. I will try to compliment this with a picture or video as well of course.

I think a disclaimer is in order: this will really be just my thoughts and musings. If it’s not for you, fine, it costs you nothing, pay me no mind*.

I do not think this will turn into a blog where I post what happened after each game, or each practice, etc… I’m not going to be talking about how I could’ve played better, why we won or lost, or anything of the sort. Hell, I don’t even know what I’m going to write about after blog #1. It will not be very in-depth about basketball.   I should say, it won’t be in depth about the basketball that I will be playing. I’ll probably write a ton about the Davidson Cats season. I also don’t want it to be a blog that just states what I did that day or that week. If it ever turns into that, someone tell me to stop. I obviously want to keep track of all the places we get to travel to and stuff like that, but that is a line I’m going to have to toe (bet you haven’t seen that sentence structure ever before Miss English Teacher). I just want to keep a good memoir to read back on later in life, and since people have said they’re interested in reading it too, I might as well make it public.

Moving to Israel:

The moving itself was the easy part. The packing, the flying, all that. Anything that had motion - cake. The hard part was when I stopped moving and tried to sleep once I got into my apartment. The first week in Israel was rough. None of my other teammates had arrived yet, I couldn’t sleep, and I didn’t have practice or anything to take my mind off the drastic changes that had just taken place in my life.

Things picked up, of course, and they’ve been going great.  As more of my new teammates got into Tel Aviv and practices started, I could focus on something I know – basketball. It’s been awesome getting to know my new teammates and playing a new style of basketball. Practices are different, but I like them a lot.

Life is pretty simple, and I get to do a lot of things I love to do. That is, I get to cook a lot (for those that don’t know, I love to cook, and am planning on seriously expanding my repertoire in the kitchen), play a lot of ball, play some video games and watch TV shows in my free time, and go out to eat a lot. Is it bad half had to do with food? I don’t think so either. The Tel Aviv restaurants have not disappointed so far.

The Mediterranean from north of Haifa:

The biggest difference so far? The driving. Oh my gosh. To put it mildly, driving in Israel is an eye opening experience. It’s hard to describe accurately, but it involves more horn blaring than you’ve ever experienced, and double the lane drifting. To give the not-so-worldly a glimpse, when traffic lights here are red, the yellow light flashes to tell you that it is about to turn green. Therefore, if you do not accelerate at the exact moment the light turns green, you will be honked at. After all, you were warned.

That’s it for now. Now that I think about there are lots of things I need to tell future Jake about, like trying to learn the language. Anyway, I hope future posts are more entertaining, but I had to get the intro and disclaimer out of the way. If you guys have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

Up next: at the end of the month we go to Belgium and Russia for exhibition games. Two countries I’ve never been to before, so it should be fun.

Because you guys deserve a reward for making it all the way to the bottom, here’s a reward! I’m going to try to share all the good links I come across, so here are a few:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd7c5tQCs1I

for all the newsroom fans out there:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/a2a20b0b1b/a-message-to-aaron-sorkin

And finally, my dad just adopted a new dog! A Greater Swiss Mountain Dog named Max.

He’s the big guy in the link. Can’t wait to meet this chiller.

http://youtu.be/kGzP5TK5csc

Again thanks for reading,

Jake

Footnotes:
*Hova