May 12th, 2011

Bonjour!

So yeah, this morning started out at 11 am. Yah, no big deal. I haven’t been able to sleep past 6:30 am for the past 4 weeks, but yeah, that’s a 6 hour time change for you. I know I already talked about, so deal. We got to the lobby and I decided to use my sweet American twang to get us a little breakfast. And of course, I succeeded…Duh. After some solid breakfast, Jeff and I had a nice little stroll to the tournament site. I tried to not stick out in the crowd, with my huge black and yellow (uhh huh, you know what it is) Babolat bag and my huge shades…but it’s kinda hard when you’re in such a beautiful town. I have my camera out the whole time taking pictures of beautiful architecture and wonderful scenery…Let’s see how many times I can say beautiful in this blog. Anyway, once we got to the tournament site, we saw only one other player on the court, my good friends Coco, Gully, and Chuck. We got on court, and it only took about 45 minutes of the 60 minute practice Jeff and I had, for the old man to finally get loose and get more than 6 and a half balls on the court…Ha…Old man… OK OK, he’s 40. He’s not old. Calm down people. After that, lunch happened. I don’t know if you guys knew this, but Gully and Coco are famous for carrying a Backgammon board, and they are always playing. And I mean, ALWAYS. Once we arrived to the table, we ordered the most safe dish in Europe, which is Pasta Bolognese. It’s beautiful…except when they put 1 pound of shredded cheese on the top…Not a big fan people, not a big fan. Whilst eating, and after Gully and Coco finished their eighth game of lunch, we decided to share absolutely hiloarious and strefful experiences from the glamorous life on the WTA Tour. From missing flights, to lugging about 350 lbs of luggage throughout a Spanish speaking city, the stories were funny and loud. We were the only crazy table in the restaurant, and we liked it. After lunch, merci, we got back on the dirt. Coco and I played a few points after some hitting. There was one shot where she dropshotted me and closed the net ( a dropshot is a ball that lands right over the net, and is a very short shot.) As I was about to hit the ball, I fell on my right hip, and scraped my right calf and arm. After hitting the ball, Coco comes up to me whilst I am on the floor and asks if I was ok. First thing I say “Did you win the point?” - “Yeah…” — “DANG IT!” I walked up and kept playing, and as I was about to return her serve, Jeff looks at me and says “Welcome to the dirt kid.” Jeff, I don’t know if you knew this, but I turned 21 last week…Just saying, old man. After practice, we went upstairs and tried to get transportation…..Last time I checked, 15 minutes doesn’t mean 90 minutes…does it? That’s how long we waited for transportation to the hotel. Are we in France? I thought we were in Belgium… Waffle. Another dinner in the Grand Place? Dang it Jeff! Why do you have to bring me here. Jeez… I am currently writing this from our designated hangout which is two streets, one alley, one alcove, one tunnel, and one set of stairs into the abyss. Till tomorrow. Au revoir!