Adventures in Thailand

As many of you know, basketball has always been my favorite sport. I play it as much as I can, (which isn’t as often as I’d like), I root for my hometown team, the Washington Wizards, and the only video game I’ll play is NBA 2K6 on my PlayStation. So when my buddy Kevin told me that he went to a game and met a few Americans who are playing for some Turkish teams here in Ankara, I got pretty excited. Then he got me a free ticket to the next game, which was today.

The arena wasn’t too bad, if in a little disrepair. It was kind of dark in there, not quite as well lit as the arenas and gyms I’m used to from playing back in the states. The teams that were playing were Turk Telekom and Darussafaka. The Turk Telekom team is based in Ankara, so I guess you could consider it our home team. We sat right next to the court, with 2 of the wives of the American players. Apparently, each team is only allowed to have at most 3 American players on their team; the rest must be Turkish. Turk Telekom has 2 Americans: Erwin Dudley, who played Division 1 College ball at Alabama and averaged 15 ppg and 10 rebs. a game his last year there; and Derrick Alston, who played his college ball at Duquesne and was drafted 33rd overall in the 1994 NBA draft by the 76ers. Also sitting with us were a few players from the other team based in Ankara, fresh off of a victory. I chatted with one of them for a bit, his name is Marques Green. He played at St. Bonaventure where one year he averaged 22 ppg and 8 assists a game. Not too shabby! He had scored 31 points in the victory I referred to above, which makes him the league leader. He had some interesting things to say about playing ball overseas. He had played for 2 years in France before coming to Turkey, and surprisingly enough, he says that he likes Turkey a lot more than France. He cited the friendliness of the Turkish people, and that Ankara has a lot more going for it than the little town he played in in France. He also gets paid more in Turkey, mostly because they don’t have to pay any taxes. These guys are set, man. If you have any NBA experience, your salary will go up exponentially. Some guys are making upwards of a million dollars a year. That’s chump change compared to the NBA, but this isn’t the NBA; it’s not nearly as developed a league, and Turkey just isn’t as wealthy as the US. Also, these guys are like us in the Foreign Service – they get their housing paid for, and some of them get cars, too. So that money is almost pure profit. Sounds like a good deal to me…

Anyway, back to the game; it ended up being a blow out – 93 to 71, with Turk Telekom winning. Most of the game the deficit was hovering around 30 points. As far as the style of game, it’s European; lots of guys jacking up 3s whenever they can. Any kind of low post play was provided by the Americans like Erwin Dudley, who comes in at 6′8″ 240 lbs. It was entertaining though. The Turks definitely know how to play, and can stroke those 3s.

I will definitely be going back to see some more games; I want to see Marques Green play; all the things I’ve heard is that he’s the real deal. He’s a point guard, only 5′7″ tall, so he must be lightning quick. He’s also a really nice guy. I also learned from this website http://tblstat.net, that Will Solomon, who played at Clemson while I was there, is on the Fenerbahce team from Istanbul. It’d be cool to see him play here in Ankara at some point. What a small world.

We have a lot of friends here in Ankara who have been in the Foreign Service for a while, and some who have not. Most of these people, just by taking this job, are inherently adventurous and unafraid of new things. So, they take every advantage and travel everywhere they can. In some countries, there’s just not a whole lot to see, or maybe it’s difficult or unsafe to get around. Turkey, however, is so full of interesting, amazing places and things to see, you could almost go somewhere every weekend and still not exhaust everything in the country after your tour ends. Many people at the embassy take advantage of this and go somewhere every weekend. On Monday of every week I hear from somebody about the trip they took over the weekend and how Mer and I need to go to where ever they’ve been.

I have been here for 9 months now, and I feel like I have missed out on going places. I still (I’m embarrassed to say) have yet to get to Istanbul, which so many people just gush about once they’ve been, Meredith included. I’m dying to get there, and I actually have a 3 day weekend coming up where Mer and I could get up there; of course, it’s during the weekend when people are throwing Halloween parties, which are always a blast. I know that Mer wants to go to them, and so do I… but I really want to go to Istanbul. Can you tell I’m frustrated? I know that for people back home, this probably seems like a stupid problem, or maybe even a great problem to have, but man, I’m frustrated with it. There’s too much to see in this country! I was supposed to get to Capadoccia, and then Israel had to go and invade Lebanon, forcing me to cancel my trip there! Arghh!! Winter is on the way, and judging from the last winter, it’s not very easy to get anywhere… I guess we’ll just have to go somewhere every weekend next year…

OK, I’ve vented.. We still have over a year left and will probably get to most places we want to go.. but it’s agony listening to all the places people go every weekend!

Meredith has gone back to the States for 11 days to attend one of her friend’s weddings, leaving me here in our apartment in Ankara to fend for myself.  I like to think that I am not completely helpless, however since we’ve lived in Turkey, with her not working, there’s only so much that I need to do around the house when she’s here.  She has the time and gets most of it done while I’m at work.

I have now assumed charge of our humble abode, and will try to keep it up as well as I can.  She left Friday morning on the eve a 3 day weekend – I got home on Friday after work, and promptly sat my butt down on the couch and started watching tv and drinking beer.  One area in which I will definitely not do very well while Mer’s gone is cooking.  She is a wonderful chef; I only help a little bit here and there.  My dinner on Friday consisted of one frozen chicken burrito.  Man was it good.  I did grill some steaks on the grill last night, which were quite delicious.  I have had my fill of meat for a while…

Of course I’ve been playing around on the computers, playing video games, etc.  The last time Mer left, I took it upon myself to install Ubuntu Linux on our really nice Apple G4 Powerbook; in the process I did something and fried one of the RAM slots.  We had to send it back to the states to get repaired.  I learned my lesson – never mess with your main computer – especially the one that your wife uses all the time   So this time around I’m staying away from the laptop.  I instead installed Linux on my crappy Dell laptop….  This post is quickly turning into a mess – kind of a stream of conciousness dump.  Sorry to anyone who’s reading it.

I have played a few video games as well; I used to be able to play video games non-stop for hours.  Now I can only play maybe one game of basketball or soccer, then I just lose interest.  I guess that it’s a good thing – considering I’m 27 years old and married, and will probably have kids in the next 5 years…  It seems as though my interests have shifted – I now just want to play around on the internet or with computers, doing constructive things.  Can you tell that I’m bored?  This post is a piece of crap.

‘On Golden Pond’ is on AFN Movie right now, I hear it’s not a bad flick….