November 2, 2006

 Our World Cup trip began on Thursday, November 2.  My mom, dad, and I caught a flight to Caracas at 1pm.  Easy flight to Caracas through Atlanta…. Only 3 ½ hours from Atlanta.  I was impressed with the airplane food… it was some sort of stuffed pasta. Pirates of the Caribbean played while I worked on Kaizen by diandra. (check it out at www.kaizenbydiandra.com)   I was able to get a lot done mainly because I couldn’t go anywhere, and found no other distractions sitting in row 22 seat A. 

Passport control was no trouble at all.  The first thing I noticed when stepping in to Venezuela for the first time was the spotless floor in the airport.  Everything was very clean.  It was a very good first impression. 

Grabbed our luggage and headed out to find a group from the World Cup there to greet us.  We were the last to arrive, so we took our luggage out to the bus and shoved everyone’s luggage in.  It was a big bus, but not big enough for everyone’s luggage.  They piled the luggage high inside the bus on the seats.

The driver popped his head in the bus and said, 10 minutes, be right back.  In Spanish of course.. but thanks to my four years of Spanish in High School I know the basics.  10 Minutes in Latin American time isn’t the same as 10 minutes in American time.  45 minutes later we were off.  The hotel was about an hour away.

We arrived at Tamanaco Hotel Intercontinental around 1am.  After spending 40 minutes in the check-in line, we arrived at our rooms. I noticed a few guys in the lobby with White Sox bags.  I asked them if they were from Chicago, and it happens that they actually play for the White Sox. I thought that was extremely ironic.  Baseball is very big in Caracas.  Maybe they came to do a clinic or just to visit their coach’s home country.

The rooms were clean, not very new, but very functional.  The TV worked and we actually had US stations to watch.  I especially liked watching E!

 

November 3,

There are 2, 144 bolivars to $1.  That gets confusing.  Too many zeros for me.  We figured out if you take off all the zero’s and divide by two, or thereabouts… you get what we are paying in dollars.

Had lunch at a restaurant by the pool.  I was impressed I understood what the woman asked us when we arrived at the restaurant.  In Spanish, she asked if it was ok to sit us at a table of six.  There were already two women there.. but if we didn’t mind sitting at their table we could sit right away.  We decided we were hungry enough to do that.

I ordered an awesome pasta dish.  Broccoli sauce, with ham.  My dad got Pizza, and my mom a chicken sandwich.  I was relieved to know we wouldn’t starve all week.

Hung out outside for some of the day, walked around hotel to some of the small stores to find some water.  Caracas is a beautiful place!  The mountains are really great.  We were told by many not to wander around by ourselves, and especially not at night.  Everyone is very warm and friendly.  Although many do not speak English, they try hard to communicate.  You would be surprised how far nonverbal communication goes.

We knew Dan, Jeri, and Lucas would get into Caracas at 3pm so they would probably be at the hotel by 5pm but when we asked a tournament official about that he said no way.  The traffic during the day was terrible.  They would be 5 hours on the bus.  Yikes!  I gusss it’s lucky we came in really late at night. 

 They finally arrived at 9pm! 

 

November 4, 2006

 

We knew that breakfast was included in our rooms, however, we had no idea what that consisted of.  We were pleasantly surprised when we went to breakfast and had a very large buffet of breakfast food to choose from.  Eggs made to order, bacon, oatmeal, cereal, lots of fresh fruit and killer juice!  I had some fruit loop cereal which is a misnomer because they were actually fruit balls.  No loops.

Our hotel sits on top of a mountain.  In order to get down to the street we have to walk down a very large, steep hill.  We were determined to do that today to go to the shopping center down the road.  Unusual to see Christmas decorations up in the mall already!  Weird.  I guess since they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas is the next holiday up.  First time I have heard Christmas music in a very long time.

After walking around the mall for a little bit, we got dressed and headed for the bus with our equipment.  It was great to see all the countries staying at our hotel gather together to get on the bus.  It’s always such an honor to be representing the United States doing what I love to do. 

We were on the bus for about 45 minutes and checked in balls right when we got there.  There was a policeman on motorcycle following beside the bus the entire way to the bowling center.  When you arrive at the bowling center you are met by a lot of soldiers carrying guns and other weapons.  You wouldn’t believe this, but one of the soldiers in the bowling center actually had a sword on him!  Whoa.  People carry swords? 

The bowling center has a lot of room in the settee area, a lot of seats for spectators, and very high ceilings.  The space feels big.  Interestingly enough, they were still pounding the lanes in when we got there.  They had just installed them, and the scorers.  They were doing the finishing touches.  They cut it pretty close.. doing a complete renovation of the lanes and scoring units in just 7 days!  These lanes have never been bowled on.  They are HPL and who knows how they will play.  I have never ever bowled on brand new lanes before. 

Opening Ceremonies was tonight.  Although long, it was interesting to see the Venezuelan life displayed throughout the ceremony.  Dancers with masks paraded around the lanes bringing us closer to their culture.  I loved catching up with old friends I have met throughout the years.  I even met a guy from Uzbeckistan!  I introduced myself to him because I wanted to say I met someone from Uzbeckistan. It was neat he knew who I was, and was very friendly. After the ceremony they had a live band there playing authentic Venezuelan music (very loudly)

You can tell the Venezuelan Federation is very excited to have the World Cup in their county.  Their pride oozes throughout the center.  Everyone here has been very accepting, and very helpful.  I expect great things this week.