First Snap

First day is almost in the books and the adventure thus far has been a great life experience...

I woke up for my flight in Chicago on Thursday morning to do some finishing touches to my packing. Next thing I know, I have: a shoe (yes just one), my toiletries, and a couple shirts that I refused to leave behind. Like any genius traveler, I continued to try and cram these into the non-existent remaining space in my last suitcase. It was a duffle bag, so the body weight strategy wasn't going to work on this one. Obviously, the zipper broke and duct tape saves lives. So, the duffle bag was now a beautiful flat silver in color. "Should be easy to spot in the baggage claim area though", was the first thought to run through my mind.

I show up to the airport a flawless 2 hours ahead of my flight and every time at the airport, the longest line is always the one you have to stand in. I shuffled along awkwardly with my carry on, duct tape duffle bag, and 2 standard suitcases. I was flying Polish Airlines to reach just North of Serbia by a couple hours so I was one of the few American-born people in line. I noticed random glances and people staring at me, so I started to think... "I am decked out in comfy Jordan gear with my large headphones carrying all this stuff." But that just wasn't enough of an excuse as to why these foreigners were shooting glances at me every time they thought I looked away. I walked by a kid and his dad and the kid took like, an 8 take of me. Not the standard double take. Then I hear a word that sounded like "Rafa" uttered under someones breath. Duh, my stupid long curls, headband, and tennis racket sticking out of my backpack in conglomeration with my Jordan shorts that looked eerily similar to Rafael Nadal's man-kapris was the reason these people were staring at me. I'm sure once they noticed the duct tape bag mid-way through their personal investigation, that the possibilities of me being Rafael Nadal were zero.

I hop on the plane excited to get my flight underway and over with. After about 6 hours we're nearing England and the pilot comes on the intercom and says these words, "Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, we have to make a security emergency landing in Glasgow." He said it in Polish first, so I got the privilege to see the expressions and responses from other people while I waited for it in English. What the **** is a "security emergency"?! Then all these people started to stand and turn around to look towards the very back of the plane and speak amongst themselves. We landed, 4 police officers came onboard, went to the back of the plane, did something, and removed someone. The curtains in the back were pulled as soon as the announcement was made, so who knows. After that, the flight was just dandy! (sarcasm font needed)

The 1.5 hour layover/security emergency removal made me miss my connecting flight to Sofia, Bulgaria so I had to make a change to catch a flight to Vienna, Austria then head to Sofia from there. At this point it was just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other, keeping my head down, and executing until I arrived. I remember repeating "It could always be worse." in my head over and over. People are extremely well dressed in Austria and my connection to my plane towards Sofia went smoothly. 

I arrived in Sofia, not knowing it was in Bulgaria not Serbia. Naturally, I waited for everyone to leave the baggage carousel area to snatch up my semi-embarrassing although extremely efficient duct tape duffle bag. I've never been that guy that can feel cool about having a white sheet of paper with black standard Times New Roman font listing his name, but this time I was. I had no idea if the guys I was being picked up by were going to speak English. An awkward split second went by and then Aleksander said "Can I help with the bags?" So refreshing to hear that. 

We hopped in a van and started to drive; slowly but surely the conversation grew into a masterpiece of exchanged ideas about the world, food and drink, customs, weird stuff the US does, etc. Serbians are extremely well educated people, far above the average person in the states. Not saying much, but still, I had no idea. We arrive in Nis and it's not much different from Iowa climate wise, besides the mountains surrounding the city. We arrived at the building, crammed into a small elevator and rode up towards our condo we'll be living in for the next 5 months. After the elevator, I didn't know what to expect. But, like anything in life, don't judge a book by it's cover. Wireless internet, cable, wood floors, full kitchen, 1.5 bathrooms, 2 balconies, 3 bedrooms, and a maid surprised me to say the least. I met my roommate and Cornerback Randy Fesser and so far he's nothing short of a great person.

The Head Coach, President of the club, a random friend of theirs, Randy, and I all went to a nice restaurant for some Serbian cuisine. It was a great way to start off the new life here with a variety of dishes and tastes I had never imagined. For example, meat jello. Salty, foggyish, nasty jello with meat in it. Even Coach Simovic doesn't eat it. But obviously, I gotta live life to the fullest. So I gutted it against his advice. It is just as bad as it sounds from my description. But, everything besides that was fantastic.

The first day of practice was today and coach came over to pick us up and show us a few things. We walk in the indoor facility and instantly my eyes hit the tennis court. It was clay! Never seen one before so I was like a little kid testing it out a bit on my walk by. We warmed up and started with drills on the turf side of the facility and instantly I felt that football warmth hit my heart. I was doing it! It had been so long since I had the opportunity to do this in a team atmosphere and I ate it up immediately. I was quiet to start but then Coach Simovich came over and reassured me to be vocal with our guys and help on ANYTHING I see that we could improve. 

Once he cut me loose, it was on. I switched up drills and worked a lot of hand speed with our d-linemen and edge blitzing with our linebackers. I visibly watched players get better throughout practice and that was so fulfilling. I've really started to find a passion for coaching and I now know it's something I want to do for the rest of my life.

 For it only being the first day, I'm so happy to be here and have had a handful of mini-adventures: managed to blow half the fuses in our condo (attempting to hook up my XBOX to the non-compatable outlets), took a cold shower (because I didn't know we had to turn on the water heater ahead of time), missed the exchange rate place's hours (because it's a Saturday and they close at 3:30? Who does that.), tried rushing the passer without any pads or helmet (1 pass rush=1 fat lip), and ran my own debit card at the grocery store (In Serbia everyone hands the card to the cashier and they run it for you, so I got some pretty hilarious looks after I swiped it.)

Everything that I thought I knew about Serbia was wrong. I'm glad that I get the opportunity to live and learn firsthand from this amazing place. I experience something new everyday and am trying to really focus on living every single moment to the fullest extent. First full week of practice approaches and I can't wait until I wake up in the morning and remember where I am.

-One Life

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out." -John Wooden