First Training at The Jumpers

Posted
September 16 2004

Last night, I talked to Jurriaan who told me we wouldn't have class today (I had no idea). This fortunate news allowed me to stay in bed as long as I wanted and catch up on some sleep I've been missing. I got up around 1:30 (that's not too bad). The weather was nice, and I was in a mood to play some music. Loud. Really loud.

After a few hours (and a lot of Hip Hop), I took the time to finally shave again (been a week … or two). While I was shaving, the phone rang. It was Roos. Apparently she'd been trying to call me all day (but I was either asleep or playing music really loud), and asked me to come to the Academy (even though we didn't have class). I put on some clothes, and went on my way.

I arrived at the Academy around 4:15. I was surprised to see there were quite a few people from my class; some of them even working. So the prophecy is true: this class is more driven than my class from last year. (Good.) The four of us (Roos, Jurriaan, Dan-Vi, and I) worked on our project (which we will discuss with Petr tomorrow). We didn't stay very long, but it was fun and even productive (sort of).

Roos went home, and the rest of us headed into town. We soon went our sepperate ways though; Jurriaan went with Dan-Vi, and I headed to the Postbank to withdraw some money.

I drew a number … 30+ before me. (Shrug!) I didn't feel like waiting inside, so I went outside. There I ran into a guy I hadn't seen in ages. I walked along with him as we chatted up a bit. After some time, I headed back to the bank, only to find they were 3 numbers ahead of mine. (Argh!) I drew a new number, but then a nice guy came up to me and handed me his number that he didn't need anymore. Now I only had to wait another few minutes.

I told the lady at the counter I was there to withdraw money, but that I didn't have a pinpass anymore. Even though I had informed with various people beforehand, she told me this is not possible. (Gah!) I thanked her, greated her, gave her a friendly smile, and went home, pissed.

I got home around 7, and shortly after, my mom came home, too. I played some more music (louder, even), had dinner (pizza), and packed my bags to attend my first indoor basketball training since … ever.

On my way, I was pretty nervous: the longer I was in the tram, the more nervous I got; there were even a few moments where I wanted to head home. I decided to pull through it (it wasn't that bad either; and I'm a heavy weight when it comes to stress). I wasn't completely sure where the building was exactly, but there were a few ball players that I recognized on the tram, so I just followed them.

When I arrived on the court, I felt much better right away. I saw a lot of familiar faces (from streetball, mostly), and went to the coach of the first team (why aim for second best?) to introduce myself. I told him who i was; that I've been playing basketball for a over a decade, but that I never played with a team officially; and that I wanted to see what this club is like, and perhaps run a few trainings. He said I could join in with the lay-up drills they were doing right away.

This—of course—was not a problem at all. The second traning, though, was a bit tricky. Not that I didn't understand, or wasn't physically able; I just have to get used a little. After all, these guys have been doing these drills at least twice a week for many years: I've only done then so many times, and that was years ago. It all felt right somehow, though. I could get used to this.

The rest of the training was for the people that have already been selected for the team, and will play there first official game this weekend already, so I sat the rest out. Between the vraious sets, I did some jump shots on my own, and didn't go too bad either. Everything felt good indoors, actually, even though I'm a streetballer.

Enrique (who was at the side line because of a knee injury) and I didn't sit the entire thing out; we left about half an hour early to shoot some hoops at our home court.

At Central Station, we switched to another tram, because we didn't feel like walking. I'm glad that we did, because at the stop there was a stunningly beautiful lady. She spoke English with her friends, and I'd say she's from India and about ten years older than me, and … daaaaamn … did I mention she was stunningly beautiful? Enrique agreed: we both had a hard time … er … nevermind.

Anyway. We did shoot some hoops at our home court. Some hoops (about four, maybe five) and headed home. Now I have to set up a webserver for our project group, and digitize the documentation of our work of today. I have to present it to the teacher in eight hours or so, and I have sleep, too. Bah.


ACJ

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