Who thought you could learn so much from 8 little 5th & 6th grade girls?

I am on the OU Women's basketball scout team, which is made up of a few guys who practice against the Women's basketball team. This will be my 3rd season to practice against them. Since we practice with them we have the opportunity to coach at the basketball camps they put on in the summer.

I am coaching 5th & 6th grade girls. Today got me thinking of the future. I don't usually think about having kids since I think I'm a few years away from marriage and a few more years from having kids but today was a fun day. I don't ever talk to 5th & 6th grade girls but today after we played our last game we sat down in a circle and had 'girl talk'. It was hilarious.

At halftime of our first game one girl said, "I can't wait to go to pool." Well that started a whole conversation about whose going where to swim and how excited they are for camp to be over for the day. Needless to say we didn't talk about basketball much at halftime.

After our game we sat down on the floor just to chit-chat (because I think they're hilarious). I went around the circle and had them say their name and their favorite cereal. It then turned into your favorite song, movie, actor, candy, etc. They were so funny talking to each other and laughing.

I noticed the parents who sat around the gym and watched their child play basketball. I particularly noticed the fathers who were standing around the gym. I got to thinking about possibly having a daughter in the future and getting to watch her do the things she loves to do.

It's seems to me that whatever your child loves to do is what you (as a parent) love to do. If your daughter loves basketball; dads you now love basketball. If your daughter loves tea parties & ballet; dads you now love tea parties & ballet. If your daughter love to draw and paint; guess what dads, you now love to draw and paint!!!!

Fathers be gentle in word with your daughters. You can't talk the same way to your daughters as your sons, especially on the basketball court, football, soccer, baseball fields, etc. As I was coaching, a father who sat near our bench had a very stern tone with his daughter to "pass the ball, you aren't good at dribbling, pass the ball now!" The little girl turned around and looked at her dad and began to cry a little bit. What I read in those tears was, "Daddy, I'm trying my hardest. Please stop yelling, I just want you to be proud of me."

Anyway who am I to give parenting advice? I'm a 21 year old college student.

Who thought you could learn so much from 8 little 5th & 6th grade girls playing basketball for 3 hours?

Home Safely

Ryan and I got back to Bartlesville around 10 pm last night. I went to bed at midnight, slept through my alarm and woke up at 5:30 pm today. I guess I was tired. Jet Lag!!!

Snack Time

This cow was sick of eating grass and just wanted a candy bar and a coke. He is very sneaky. You can see the store owner is looking the other way.

IHOP: International House of Pancakes

So we had breakfast at a rest stop where Gowda, our friend, ordered us 'pancakes'. These pancakes were a little different. They were made with rice and you dipped them into a spicy sauce.

I gave the rest stop a new name: IHOP: India House of Pancakes.

My new friend Samuel & dinner at his house

We were invited into a families home for an evening meal and fellowship. It was an amazing time. I met a new friend named Samuel. He doesn't speak English but that doesn't matter. His mother cooked us dinner and he kept peaking around the corner to see if we liked it. It was really spicy and my lips were burning but it was really good. He would laugh at me because I'm not that good at eating with my hands yet.

We had bread, white rice, chili soup with cut up fish, what looked like re-fried beans, and a fish head.

It was an amazing experience. The evening is one I will never forget.

Do they think we are movies stars or just white?

The Indian people are incredible friendly. On our sightseeing trips we have taken many photos with random people who just want to be in our pictures. Ryan and I will be taking and picture together and some Indian people will be watching, so we ask them to take a picture with us and their faces light up. Yesterday at the Palace I was walking and a group of people, who looked to be my age, stopped me and asked me where I was from and then proceeded to ask me for a picture.

I have caught several people staring and laughing. It is really fun to talk to the kids because some don't understand what you are saying and just laugh.

We went to a fountain park last night and were the only two white guys there. We kind of stood out and that is probably why they wanted our picture.

Airport Security?

I was waiting for my bag at Baggage Claim in Bangalore India. While I was waiting for my bag I saw this package pass me. When has this package ever been allowed on a plane? Who let this through security? What does this look like?

It was hilarious watching this slowly pass me by.

Day 4: India: 6.6.10

We got to sleep in today!!! We were scheduled to check out at 8 am and our driver would pick us up at 8:10 am to take us to the airport in Delhi. Today was the day we were heading to Bangalore or Bangaluru (it’s the same place). We got to the airport and they told us we were placed on standby, that wasn’t good. The guy went to another computer, checked something, came back and told us we had been bumped to first class. Oh Baby!!! We went through security and while on the shuttle to the runway where our plane was we met a group from Indiana who came to serve at an orphanage. It is called the Boaz Project. I wanted to tag along but I think I’ll have time to spend with kids in a few days.

It was my first time to sit in first class and we were treated like kings. Before we even took off they offered us cold towels and coconut water. The water was not good so Ryan and I played rock, paper, scissors to see who had to chug their water. I won. Once we took off they brought us our tablecloth for our tray. We ordered from the menu and they brought our food out relatively soon. It was a 3 hour plane ride but seemed shorter because I was so relaxed with my extended foot rest and lumbar support. Once we landed people started taking pictures and getting this dudes autograph behind us. We had to ask someone but we found out he is a professional & international cricket player. He is the Kobe Bryant of cricket is what I gathered. Anyway he road our private first class bus to the terminal with us because in India you get on and off the plane on the runway and get shuttled to the terminal.

We left the airport and drove about 30 minutes into Bangalore where we met Ryan’s friend at the apartment complex we are staying. Our 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, dinning room, kitchen and living room apartment is extremely nice. We are the first guests to stay in this guest apartment/house.

His friend ordered authentic Indian food and we ate and chatted for a few hours. We headed to bed knowing we get to sleep in. That’s a great feeling.

Day 3: India: 6.5.10

Today was another early one. We woke up around 5:15 am and the driver was waiting for us at 6:00 am. We booked our travel to Agra through a cheaper tour company so we didn’t have the same driver. Our driver looked a little suspicious, just to stereotype a little bit (more to come on that later…). We headed to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort. The car ride was around 3 hours, I lost track of time. I never know the time in India though. We took a rest stop about mid-way through the trip. Ryan and I didn’t really want to stop but it was okay. We talked to the security guard who was carrying a 12 gauge shot-gun. He handed me the gun and we took a picture together, it was pretty funny that he just handed his gun over to me. When you cross between states you have to pay a fee or tax, so when we would crossed a state line we would pull over and our driver would go pay someone. People would come to our window and beg for money or try to sell us something. At one stop a boy had a monkey on a leash and he wanted us to take a picture of it and pay him. The monkey did tricks and started to climb on our car. At another rest stop a boy with one eye came to our car begging for money. It reminded me of the movie Slum Dog Millionaire, when the head of the Begging Ring would handicap that children to get more money. That was hard to see. When you donate to those kids they usually don’t keep that money, their ‘boss’ gets it. In one town I saw several kids with the same tin bucket with a handle, so it seemed like they were working together.

I honestly didn’t know if we were going to make it back to hotel safely. The driver was crazy. We went around 120kph. There were several close calls and I think he had a little road rage. The roads in India are crazy, there are no rules. On the return home from our long day there were six rows of traffic on 2 lanes of cement. There were 3 lanes off of the road and 3 lanes on the road. There was constant honking which didn’t make much sense to me because there was nothing the person in head of us could do because he/she was caught in the same traffic. We almost hit several mopeds, bikes, trailers, buses, etc.

When we finally arrived a women hopped in our car, she was our tour guide for the day. We drove to Taj Mahal info center and from there took a golf cart to the Taj. They are concerned about the pollution damaging the monument so they don’t allow cars anywhere close. The Taj Mahal was beautiful and perfectly symmetrical. There are twin mosques on either side of the Taj Mahal. They had shoe covers for us to wear into the building, but mine broke so I wore my socks. It was kind of dark inside but you could still see the artwork and it was amazing,. It took 22 years to complete, which surprised me with all the detail that was in there. We walked around the garden a little bit then headed out.

We then went to the Agra Fort. It looked very similar to the Red Fort we went to yesterday. It was very interesting. I was hot and hungry though. The architecture and art was incredible. Closer to the end of the tour I was getting sick of hearing about all the work and design that was put into the fort. About how the carving and design was different in every room and hallway. I had the same feeling when I watch those Yacht or expensive homes shows. It gets to a point where it get a little ridiculous and out of hand. Just because the emperor had the money/slaves to be able to do that kind design frustrated me. Nonetheless the craftsmanship was outstanding and mind blowing. We were at the Fort for around 1 hr and 30 minutes. I took a picture with a random Indian kid and it was funny.

After the Taj and Fort our tour guide took us to two stores. The first was a place that does the same marble/stone design that was in the Taj. He then took us to their show room to try and sell us a marble table or something. At one point he was explaining how one semi-precious stone glows in the dark and right when he said it all the lights went out in the room. We didn’t know some guy was standing in the back it was funny. It kind of sucked because we knew that we weren’t going to buy anything. The second place was a place where they made exotic rugs. It was very impressive.

The ride back to New Delhi seemed SO long. About half way back the wind started blowing extremely hard and it rained. It also hailed for 30 seconds. Once we got back to Delhi our driver (the suspicious one) stopped at this shopping market, got out of the car, and made a phone call. At this point it was dark and kind of rainy. I rolled down the window and asked him what he was doing and that we were ready to head back to the hotel. He said his boss wanted to come talk with us. So we waited like 5 minutes and he still didn’t show. At that point I was getting a little nervous. Ryan and I planned what we were going to do in a worst-case scenario. A little more time passed and he was buying time. The boss showed up so I grabbed the backpack and we hopped out of the car. We talked with him and he just wanted to talk with us and ask us how we enjoyed the day. After we talked for about 5 minutes we got back into the car and made it back to the hotel. Everything turned out okay.

We ate at Hard Rock Café that night. The day wore me out. You know when you get so tired you don’t even want to eat? That is how tired I was and I just wanted to go to bed. After dinner I barely made it back to my bed before I passed out.

Day 2: India: 6.4.10

Today began bright and early. I was very rested and woke up on my own at 5:00 am local time. We had it arranged to meet our driver at the front door at 6:00 am. We arrived on time and they had our breakfast ready, cucumbers and cheese sandwiches with fruit, juice and water. The sandwiches were surprisingly good. We hopped in the car, which was very nice, and began the first leg of our journey, which only last about 5 minutes. We left the hotel with intentions to drive to the Taj Mahal, which is about 3 hours drive away. Our driver Soben received a call from the front desk saying that the Taj was closed because it was Friday. We returned back to the hotel to wait till 8:30 because nothing opened until 9 for us to see.

Our second try was successful. We left the hotel and headed to see the sights of New Delhi. The roads/traffic were crazy. We almost got hit several times. Our first stop was the Lotus Temple. You have to take off your shoes before entering the temple so you put them into a gunny sack and hand it to someone who gives you a wood chip with a number on it to return your shoes. We were the only white people there and we really didn’t know what was going on. We went in, sat on the pews, watched people, then everyone got up and left. It didn’t even look like people were praying.

After the Lotus Temple Ryan and I took a tour of Old Delhi. We hopped on a bicycle taxi and headed down the narrow streets. I was very excited about the tour, we were headed into a cool area. We went to a big market area, which was divided into sections by categories; food, peanuts, chili, flowers, clothing, books etc. They were kind of like districts in New York or other big cities in the U.S. He rode us down narrow streets and by little shops. I don’t know how many people we almost hit. I could reach out my hand and take something from a shop or tap someone on the shoulder. We were SO close to people. We got off the bike and went on foot for probably 30 minutes. He took us in some back alley’s and by some food places. We passed through the ‘chili district’, our eyes started to water and the sent was very strong. We arrived at a back market area, which was hidden from the main street. There were several levels, people lived on the two upper levels. I asked him if he could take us up to the top, he did. We climbed some very scary, dark stairs but eventually reached the top. We were walking on the rooftop of several buildings and could see a very long way. It was AWESOME. We noticed that there were no tourist that looked like us around. He took us to places that he actually went to where he buys goods for him and his family. He drove us on the main roads to get to the Red Fort and I thought we were going to get hit by a car. I barley had to reach out and I could touch passing cars.

We then toured the Red Fort after Ryan got ripped off by a man selling little toys and books. We bought tickets and entered the fort. We didn’t realize how big the fort really was. We walked around forever and then everything started to look the same so we left. I was looking for a man who was selling beards out front of the Fort. They were fake and he was wearing one, it was hilarious to see. I wanted one.
Soben picked us up from the Fort and we headed to the India Gate. It was a cool monument for the fallen soldiers in WW2. Some children came up to me and wanted to take a picture.

The exchange rate is like 46 rupees to 1 American Dollars.

We ate lunch at McDonalds. All they had were chicken items on the menu. We invited Soben to eat with us and he was very surprised we asked. We were parked in a maze of cars and it took several minutes for us to get out. After lunch we headed back to the hotel. I fell asleep and Ryan worked on rescheduling plane tickets and finding a cheaper car to take us to the Taj Mahal tomorrow morning. We now will leave New Delhi Sunday morning.

We wanted to eat at the Hard Rock Café in the mall that is connected to our hotel but there was a DJ performing there that night. The cover charge was 1500 rupees. We then decided on TGI Friday’s. I ordered the chicken strips thinking that they were going to the normal chicken tenders, they weren’t. The dish I received was not the dish I saw on the menu. It was good though. After dinner we returned to our room and hopped on the computer, then lights out.

India Trip 2010

We left Bartlesville OK, @ 10:00 am on Wednesday June 2nd. Ryan (my older brother) and I were excited for the trip. This is the first international trip we've taken together. We ate Wendy’s for lunch because it is one of my favorite fast food restaurants. From Houston we flew to Newark New Jersey. We sat next to Gordon, a pilot who trains and flies Triple Sevens (777), a type of aircraft. I saw Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty from the plane and they looked so small. We ate McDonalds as our last ‘real’ meal for a while. Ryan & I flew out of Newark NJ Wednesday @ 8:30pm and landed in New Delhi @ 8:03pm Thursday. It was a 13 hour flight. We passed the time by playing video games that were on the headrests in front of us. We played poker and Ryan beat me most of the time. We then moved to mini golf and I completely dominated him. Since we are both very competitive we started betting push-ups on the games. For every stroke the loser was behind at the end of 9 holes had to do 10 push-ups. Ryan wouldn’t give up even though he was racking up the push-ups. The last game we played I was 1 over and he was 11 over…….that equals 100 push-ups alone in the last game. It was pretty funny.

Ryan owes: 263 push-ups
I owe: 101 push-ups

I watched two movies on the flight, both were good. The first movie I watched was Enemy of the State and it was good. It’ll make you paranoid that somebody is watching you, but besides that it’s great. I watched Shaw Shank Redemption next. It was a slower movie but still a good one.

When we landed in Delhi we passed through customs without one question being asked. We went and paid a cab service to take us to our hotel. Ryan paid the guys 1000 rupees when it was only 300 rupees and he forgot to ask for change so we had to turn around and get our money, luckily we weren’t to far from the stand. We walked out of the airport looking for a cab with the license 699. He drove us to our hotel. It was dark and hard to see things but the drive was crazy. Horns were honking and I thought we were going to wreck 3 or 4 or maybe 10 times. Motorcycles were weaving in and out of traffic and bicycles would just cross the road in front of us as if there was no traffic. The yellow lines, or stripped white lines don’t mean anything (nobody abides by them), our driver was splitting the center line most of the time.

We arrived at our hotel in southern down town area of New Delhi, which is called Saket. It is a Hilton Garden Inn. The room is amazing! I don’t feel like I’m in India right now. We can adjust the softness of our beds and there is wireless internet. Our hotel is connected to a mall that has a Hard Rock Café and a TGI Fridays (those are the two billboards I saw as we drove in.)

I didn’t sleep at all on the plane ride and I’m ready for bed. It’s been a long day of travel and I’m looking forward to seeing and experiencing India.

Live Life to the Fullest

I am at a point in my life when I need to start thinking about what I want to do with my life. I will be a senior in college at the University of Oklahoma this coming Fall. My time as a college student is drawing to a close and that is exciting and scary to think about. I am trying different things to see what I want to pursue after college. I want to remember these things and this is why I'm blogging about it. I don't think to many 21 year old guys blog and so I might rethink my decision but I'm not your normal 21 year old. I want to live life to the fullest and change the lives of people I come into contact with. I want to remember the fun stories of events and situations. I want to remember the people I meet and the conversations I have with them.

I want to challenge people to live differently. This could be a good way to do that for all the people who read. So be looking for fun, sad, exciting stories in the life of a young man trying to live life to the fullest.