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Well I called today and they said they had an opening the 7th, so I’m coming home early. I’m pretty stoked.
We play in the final on Sunday at 4, live on tvone. There was this huge controversy but in the end, the federation held a press conference today and announced they were wrong and we earned a spot in the final. BIG bonus is we win. I’ll try to post the results before I get back but who knows….later
Dan
- Mood:
ecstatic
Okay, so I just got back from the final four….what a weekend.
I got there, and that craziness happened with my paper, but that was just the start. Once I realized I had a week to do the paper I packed it in and just focused on volleyball. Here’s how the final four works here: the top four team is in the league all play each other and the best two records go to the final and the bottom two play for bronze….those matches happen the next weekend. So this weekend was 3 matches in 3 days.
We played the first match against Sanata, a pretty good team. We came out clicking and won in five sets. My ma sent me an email that said we read that I played bad which was erroneous. I played pretty sweet. So we won that match and looked good coming into the next night.
The next night was a live match against the team that lost in the other match the night before. So beat them, and their out and we are probably in. So before our match is the other mens match and it was crazy. Their was a bad call in the match and I could get into all the particulars, but the end result was that the team that was 1-0 on the weekend (had a win the night before) walked out on the match and refused to play. A forfeit is a loss 25-0 25-0 25-0. So the team should have scored no points. Instead of doing this, the federation gave them 99 points for the match. This will come into play later.
So we played our second match. We won in 4 sets in a pretty good match. We should have won in 3 sets but I biffed a ball out of bounds at 25-26 to give them the win. I got yanked in the 4th set for that one. Either way, we won 2 matches and thought we were good for the final.
We came back the next night to play the team that walked out the night before. They were 1-1, we were 2-0, and the other team (sanata) had just won their match to be 2-1. We needed to win the match or keep it close. I gotta say, it was a rough one. I felt like I had about 2 gallons of water in both my quads I was so sore. We won the first set then lost the next 3 in not that close of games. End result, we got booted from the final.
So then, our team is raising hell because the forfeited game should have consequently eliminated the team from playoffs. The tie break is points and for the match the team walked out, they gave them credit for losing 23-25, even though they never played.
It’s a really hard situation to explain but the owner of the team that walked out is high up in our federation so we got the shaft. Our management is in Jakarta right now protesting the final. They said if we don’t play in the final, our girls team and guys team wont play this coming weekend. Its and interesting situation. Either way, the weekend was awesome, it was some of the most fun I had playing volleyball ever, sucks we got the shaft but o well. Well im heading off to bed, see yas soon.
Dan
- Mood: content
i'm like "are you kidding me right now?" so i freak out for about 5 seconds and go into survival mode. i grab all the books i need and luckily i had my computer charged for the bus ride. i get on the bus and its balls to the wall. im writing like there is not tomorrow, only i have no research done so its slow as molasses. how am i supposed to fake a 20 page paper about how the topics we discussed in class concerning supervisory management can relate to my intended research project or thesis.....I DONT EVEN HAVE A RESEARCH PROJECT OF THESIS!!!!!!!
we get to the hotel and have to train right away. on the bus i got the paper outlined and 4 doublespaced pages done.....well 2 single space, i double space at the end. so i get back to the hotel, eat, and start working on the paper again, but o wait, we have team relaxation. FAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
So i'm sitting in the lobby wondering how i am going to finish a 20 page paper in the next 48 hours and going a little nuts. i figure, i better look at the website again and see the exact minute i have to submit this impending piece of garbage. WTF!!!!!!!!! the sylabus was wrong and the paper is due may 5th. i wasn't even made that i had been frantically working on this paper all day for no reason.
o yea, so the final four. it is 3 matches regardless. you play all the teams and two teams with the best record play the next week for the championship. there is a lot of money on the line for these wins so it is nice not to have to worry about that stupid paper. im on the biggest natural high ever right now without having to do that paper. either way, this weekend will be a blast, we play three matches in three nights and team is really clicking right now. ill post results when i get them. see yas
dan
- Mood: ecstatic
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2
enjoy
- Mood:accomplished
there is this guy next to me in the lobby right now reading what i am typing and blowing smoke in my face, but im pretty sure he can't read english....if you can, you are really annoying and get away from me dude, seriously
sorry about that. he actually just got up right now tho, maybe he read that. well like i said, we won the second half of the season and are squared away for playoffs. they start next friday. after the match last night, wow, it got a little crazy. we went to some club that was so tight and the pitchers were free all night, the foreigners got their moneys worth lemme tell ya. as such, my body is telling me that it needs about 48 hours to recoop from last nights ordeal....and we have practice in 3 hours, prolly wont be my finest hour.
alright, im gonna go hit up an outlet to spend some of my bonus. i dont know if i can buy stuff when i get back to the states, its just too cheap here id feel like a chump paying more than 10 bucks for anything....
julie, i got aj the cutest pro leaga shirt (thats the league name here). hes gonna look like such a stud.
later
dan
- Mood:
groggy
dan
- Mood: content
we have practice all this week twice a day then play on sunday. its a wierd situation. because of that one team that threw their match, we can win the league's second half with a win, and be eliminated from playoffs with a loss. pretty crazy. we should be fine though. I'm hoping that we get saturday night off because the other two american foriegners (dani mancuso and sandra...don't know her last name) are playing each other. i havent seen them play and niether team will make playoffs so it would be nice to see them play at least once. the matches are in jakarta (supposedly where are team is from) but it will take two hours for me to get there if i go. indonesia is nuts. the traffic is like nothing ive ever seen.
i kinda miss nebraska a bit. i dont know why, maybe cause i had a car. maybe cause i could eat anything i wanted. or maybe i dont miss it. i think id rather be here getting paid to play volleyball. i honestly felt a little wierd taking money to play. im like "your paying me to play this game, i guess ill take it" pay checks from work that you don't enjoy all that much seems so much more earned. if my body could take it, i do this stuff forever.
life is good, just miss my family
well im gonna get to bed....
dan
- Mood: peaceful
Well it ended up taking forever to get home from Jember. We left our hotel for the airport at 9 AM. On our way our flight got delayed until 830 instead of 6. We went to a mall and say a movie, Fools Gold. It’s the one where Matt McConehey is a treasure hunter….yea I had never heard of it either, so I slept. Well we get done with the movie and head to dinner then the airport. We get there at 630 for our flight but surprise, we’re delayed till 1130. If you are flying domestically in Indonesia, I highly advise against Malaya Airlines. So we finally get back to Bogor at 2 AM. Almost 20 hours of travel, what a mess.
So either way, we found out while we were traveling that before our second match was over, the team we beat the night before (who we assumed we eliminated from playoffs) made a deal with the team they would play next. I don’t know the particulars but the result was a thrown match and major upset in the standings. Now the team we beat has 2 wins, and we have 3 along with another team. Mathematically we aren’t in playoffs yet, so it gives us a lot more to play for this weekend. Well I just got done with breakfast so I need to get a move on the day. We had all yesterday off and morning practice off today. I’m trying to ahead with homework but it sucks. I’m half way around the world playing volleyball and I get a reality check every time I check my email and see something about leadership training, teaming, etc. I hate thinking about the hours it’s going to take to get my masters some day…..so I don’t think about it.
See yas.
Meske
- Mood: complacent
We played the host team Friday night in one of the worst matches I have ever played in. Sometimes it is nice to know that you can be associated with absolute garbage, which is what I was on Friday, it keeps you grounded. The funny thing was that our coach didn’t know when to put down a suffering and dying horse. I started the first game, played horrible and got pulled. Started the second game, stunk it up again and got pulled. Same thing game three, same thing game four. If you can picture the old American Gladiators, with the Eliminator at the end, well I was like the out of shape guy who couldn’t get up that hill with the moving floor. And they just keep falling back down a million times. We ended up winning in 4 games pretty easily. It was lucky the team we were playing was horrible.
Then we came back the next night to play one of the top teams in the league. I was surprised that I wasn’t fired yet, instead I started the match and actually played alright (I played like an all-star compared to the showing 24 hours earlier). The match itself was amazing. We won the first 2 games easily and were in control of game three before giving up a run at the end and losing 23-25. Then we started game 4 down 9-2 but pushed it to 24-24 and lost 28-30. Then we went to game five. We were down 12-14 and ended up winning 22-20, it was one of the craziest game fives I have ever been a part of. Well we came away with two wins and we all get a bonus for the upset the second night.
So there is the weekend wrap up. For the most part I felt really out of it this weekend with all my graduate school stuff going on in the states…I’m getting pretty far behind. I’m sure it will work itself out, that’s what happened with my undergrad.
I’m sitting on this bus right now that we will take for 6 hours, to catch a one hour flight, then drive 2 hours to get home. Maybe now is a good time to talk about some of the guys on our team.
Fajar, this dude is so tight. He is 27 and only started playing volleyball at 23. Before that, he was a kick boxer and MMA fighter. He showed me some video and it was nuts. He has the most bad ass scars on both forearms from getting mugged in his hometown. A guy came up to him with a machete and took two swings which he blocked with his forearms. He jumps like crazy and is super laid back, my kinda dude.
E-pong, he is hilarious. He’s in his middle thirties and has the coolest accent when he tries to speak English. He smokes about two packs of Marlboro Reds a day and struts everywhere (like a pimp kinda walk, its sweet).
Then there is Loudry. He is our setter and is 39. He works for the bank that sponsors us and in his contract with the bank it says he has to play volleyball. He played national team for some 10 odd years but now he is just a normal guy that sets for a pro team. He is the only Indonesian Christian that I have met so far and I had the best talk with him about just living that life in a place where they claim 90 percent of the population is muslim. He said it is almost like secretive to be a Christian here, but that there are a lot of people that are converting and that it is probably more like 70 percent muslim but the government says its over 90. He speaks really great English and is awesome to be around, very funny.
We have a bunch more guys on the team and they are all really cool guys. I haven’t met any Indonesians that aren’t sweet, there just happy all the time, its contagious.
Well the weekend started off a little shitty (I was really stressed about school and having a job next year.......I don’t really ever get stressed but this weekend was an exception). But it ended up great.
I am absolutely addicted to Freecell (I’m gonna play it right after I’m done with this) and the movie Superbad. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and buy it right now…..it’s scrumtrulecent. Wish I were in Chicago for the cubbies man. I can’t wait to get my fukudome jersey. We got the day off tomorrow so ill try and post again. I love the emails you guys send, especially the ones about AJ WIlley...what a cool guy. I can’t wait to teach him all kinds of hilarious stuff.
See yas soon,
Dan Meske, BNI Jakarta taplus, #18 (might be able to change my number back to #1 for playoffs, that would be sweet)
- Mood:
drained
Well it is Tuesday night at about 1 oclock AM and I should be doing homework. We are leaving in the afternoon for Jember to play our next series. The team trains tomorrow morning before we leave.....but it is optional, so naturally I said funk that, I’m sleepin in.
The series is in Jember which is a one hour flight then a four hour bus ride. I’m not looking forward to it. We play Friday and Sunday night. Friday is against Jember’s team and the place is gonna be crazy. It is the battle of the last place teams so it should be a dog fight. Basically the winner of this match will get the last playoff spot. If we lose, I could be coming back as soon as April 23rd. I am on the fence about winning the match to tell you the truth. There is little team chemistry here and basically it is all about playing well individually and making a pay check, it’s my kind of league. If we win the match, Ill be here tell mid may and have to do a ton of homework along the way. If we lose, I come home early and can finish all my projects with time to spare. Training twice a day is sweet and all, but I am just crazy tired all the time because of it.
As for the food here, we ate at a typical Indonesia restaurant the other day. It was the first time I tried Indonesian food since food poisoning-athon 08. It was so tight…..you just grab what you want and shove it in your mouth, no utensils. I hate white rice with a passion but I will eat it if I can use my hands. After the meal, we had avocado and chocolate smoothies. I know that sounds gross, but it was soooooooooo good. If you ever go anywhere and see that on the menu, get it……you won’t be disappointed.
All in all it has been pretty busy. My last couple days have been crazy. We played Saturday in Malang, traveled back to Jakarta Sunday, went to Singapore all Monday, trained today, then leave tomorrow for Jember. O yeah, Singapore! Wow! What a city. It was cleaner than any city I have ever seen or could imagine seeing. It was full of attractive Europeans and killer malls and restaurants. I would rank it in my top five cities all time. Top five cities I have ever been to, come to think of it…..
1. Is there any doubt, Chicago baby. Family, friends, cubbies…..and the list goes on and on.
2. Oland. This is an island city near Stockholm I went to sophomore year of college. The island itself is 5 kilometers wide and 60 kilometers long, so basically the island is all beach. We played a volleyball tournament there and it was amazing.
3. Singapore….wow. Beautiful city I could totally live in my whole life. Nice people who all speak English. Easy to get around and clean enough to eat off the floor anywhere.
4. Austin. Went there when the huskers played. Live music everywhere and a great city with great whether. Texas girls are A plus…
5. Malmo. Capital of Sweden. Brick roads and a great downtown. Right on the ocean and a 15 minutes train ride from Copenhagen. Also the best breakfast I have ever eaten at the hotel we stayed at.
Worst cities I’ve ever been to:
1. Lincoln, Nebraska (come on now…..)
2. Any city in Wisconsin other than Madison (packer fans, ah)
3. Altoona, Pennsylvania (reminds me of pete hanson, but that’s not why its on the list, pete is the shit)
4. The whole country of Canada (this would be first if it weren’t for their poo-teen)
5. Quincy, Illinois (played there 4 times and it was 4 times too many)
Just kidding with the Nebraska comment, the city is growing on me…..slowly. Love and miss you all. Sweating my ass off in jember as i post this......
fondly,
Dan
- Mood: good
Im in jakarta right now and staying at the girls place because i leave tomorrow morning for singapore to renew my visa. ill be in singapore for the day, then come back and train on tuesday. we have 2 matches this weekend and we have to win one to stay in the playoff hunt. ill have more time to post tomorrow in singapore. see yas
meske
- Mood: relaxed
i look like i have been wearing a skin tight purple shirt the last 2 days, im really friggin burnt. the thing is, the people here dont understand sun burn cause they are all black. we were playing last night and everyone kept hitting my back and they didnt understand why i was almost in tears. kinda funny
im at this mall that is like 4 blocks away from my hotel but i had never been to until today....what a mistake. this place is so nice. it looks like an embassy to get in there though, it is far from the road and cars have to open their trunks to get in and there are metal detectors everywhere. this guard at the door stopped me. his name was abdual. he asked me where i was from then said, "you are very handsome" (i nodded), then he said" i am very handsome too"......i said, "well good for us abdual". its was an awkward exchange to say the least.
im at this donut cafe with free donuts, needless to say i am about 4 deep.....carbo loading ya know?
well i came here to do hw so im gonna go. miss you all. julie sent me a great april fools email that almost made me jump out of my chair.
see yas
dan
- Mood: thankful
We just got done with our “team bonding” weekend and it was pretty sweet. We got to the hotel around noon, it was this nice resort with two huge pools, right on the ocean. We ate, swam, and then had this seminar thing that was ridiculous. It was all about positive thinking and some kind of Indonesian voodoo about energy and what not. It was all in Indonesian so I’m sure a lot as lost in translation.
When we got done with that, all the foreigners got a bunch of Bintang (Indonesian beer) and played some drinking games till dinner. We ate, then went to the hotel disco to hang out. When that got old we went in the ocean for a late night dip, it was awesome, the ocean was like bath water it was so warm. We went back to the disco in our suits all wet and drank wine till we all packed it in.
The next day was an early wake up call (8 AM) for breakfast. At 9 we went to the ocean till lunch. We jet skied, rode this crazy banana boat thing, got massages, and boogie boarded. The banana boat was sweet. It was a five person towing thing behind a boat and when you fall, it hurts. Its 5 sets of limbs just flailing around and hitting each other. The massage was awesome too. They had these little women in big straw hats give us massages with our toes in the ocean. Only problem was that they were just pouring tons of baby oil on us and I burnt like a Canadian, no joke. I’m on the bus right now writing this and I hurt pretty bad, but tomorrow I’m sure I’ll be golden.
We have training the next two days then its off to some weird town for anther match. Management really wants us to start winning some matches so I really hope we do.
Dan
- Mood: hot
its a touristy resort (which MIGHT mean a few white women) where we are jet skiing, drinking, and hanging out. its gonna be awesome.
we leave tomarrrow morning at 830 for jakarta to pick up our womens team, then we all take the bus 3-4 hours to this resort.
we will be there all tomorrow and monday then back to training tuesday. these people sure know how to treat their players. they are all muslim so they dont drink. when we go to dinner as an organization (owners, coaches, etc.) everyone is ordering the foreigners (us) tons of beers and whatnot. they might not drink but they sure like watching others do it.
this resort is supposed to be really sweet so im for sure gonna take a ton of pictures. I havent yet found out how to get pics from my camera to this computer so thats why i havent posted any yet. once i figure it out, ill get some pics on here. i told ma, i shaved my head completely and have a goatee (well, a 14 year old style goatee).....but i think it looks tight......
dan
- Mood: chipper
hey everyone, im posting this while im online so it might be kinda short. i usually write them at night before i go to bed and then copy and paste them, the internet here is like 5 bucks for 3 and a half hours, im frugal.
i just remembered that i am going to bali in may, its part of the contracts with the foreigners. we have been training 2 times a day for the last 6 days and im tired. we have no match this weekend so the training was uped. They make us squat like 500 pounds so we jump higher. the coach always makes fun of me for not jumping high, but for a white guy with a million knee surgerys, i think i do damn good, pardon my language.
well this weekend will be a team building weekend with our girls program. we go to some beach for jet skis and what not for all of sunday and monday. im pretty stoked. all i want right now is a case of natty light and a beach, maybe some tunes.
i just watched the last pirates of the carribean (yawn). all i do here it seems is eat, sleep, train, and watch dvds. that last part should be do homework but im just so tired these days. o well, tomorrows a new day. im gonna take some melatonin and hit the sack. miss you all.
dan
- Mood: sore
All the meals are about the same. They have white rice (sometimes fried rice at breakfast), fried meats, grilled meats in a spicy bbq sauce which I find disgusting now, big fried chips/crackers/ I dontknow what they are, and some kind of chicken soup. I really can’t imagine ever eating that stuff again after the last week, ahhhhhh.
We have eaten once at a traditional restaurant. It was amazing. They were like like hut tables that surrounded a pond. We ate on the ground and all the team ate with their hands. They just take the rice, mush is in a ball with random stuff and throw it in their. I’m sure if these people we in the
They do have KFC, A and W, and an American pizza place called papa rons. I ate at papa rons for every meal yesterday. As far as my contract goes, I get all 3 meals comped at the hotel, but right now, I can’t stand the site of that food. The thing that stinks is that our team has a deal with the hotel for the food, so I can’t just ask for the money for those meals and go buy food. Speaking of buying food, I found frosted flakes here. Yesterday, in between meals, I finished a whole box. Sunday is a day off then it’s back to two a days Monday. I should be fully recovered by then………hopefully.
See yas
Dan
i dont know when the last time i was home for easter was, but it should have been this year. o well. its sunday night here and i am trying to catch up on homework.
friday night i just hung out in the room and ordered a pizza, it was nice. then saturday i trained in the morning then headed to jakarta for the day it was so fun.
i left around noon and hit a couple museums from like 1 till 2 (lame). then i met up with this canadian on the womens team, saxony, she is super cool. we went to wendys (also super cool) and hit a few malls. their movie selection at this mall was off the charts. i spent 25 bucks on 45 dvds. i got a ton of seinfeld, simpsons, and old movies. after the mall we went to the girls place, which is a million times nicer than ours. we hung out there till they picked us up to drive around the city. it was nice to see the city but my driver is like the craziest guy ever and i fear for my life everytime he drives. this is not an exageration. for example, on the highway, when two cars are going the same speed and its only two lanes, you wait for one car to pass the other. my driver, splits the uprights and floors it between the cars. thats like his trademark.
either way, after the drive, we went to the really nice upscale mall in jakarta which was amazing. is was just really nice to be somewhere really clean. for dinner we met with our team rep and her sister, plus two girls from another club, both americans. we ate at the hard rock cafe and i tested my stomach with beer. it held up so i ended up staying in jakarta for the night to go out. us four went to this bar/club with a bunch of aussies. it was a really fun, chill time.
in the morning, we went to the pool and layed out most of the day before heading back to bogor. i borrowed saxony's first season of heros and it is amazing. its hard to stop watching and start doing hw, which i need to do now.
amazing weekend that kinda made me forget that im here to play volleyball.....
happy easter and i wish i could be with you fam! eat some dobaush for me, ahhhhhhhh, dobaush
dan
So its Friday and all-star weekend. Its nice, I got this weekend off and the next week is our teams bye week, so it’ll be a long time till we play again. Still training though.
I found a link to the recap of our last match. Just click the word video on the page. You won’t see me doing anything and the quality is shaky, but you can get a feel for the crowds. I’m the only white guy in there……
http://www.liputan6.com/news/?id=156386&c
Man, these crowds are the coolest. In the international game, rallies rarely go more than one time over the net. So when there is a dig, the crowd goes nuts for the rest of the rally till there is a kill. Plus, these gyms must be 100 degrees and no air conditioning. People are sweating all over each other and so into the matches. It really is the coolest place I have ever played. Hopefully I will get a few broadcasts to bring home.
As for the weekend, I have practice today and tomorrow, and then I'll go to
I miss everyone back home and the food………ah I could go for anything American right now. You can get American food here but its not the same. A big ol burger from Champps would be the best. Instead, Ill have to keep ordering room service in the hotel and wonder how many different ways the staff can mess up my order.
Later,
Dan
p.s. I gotta give Jim thanks for the tip on bottled water for brushing my teeth. maybe my one post was misleading, but I wasn't drinking the tap water here (you think im out of my mind?!!?!) I was just saying i miss the ability to drink tap water.....its a nice american luxury
- Mood: rejuvenated
Okay, so my appetite is back and we are starting practice again in a day of two. I had to post this though.
I can not stop thinking about chocolate chip pancakes. If anyone has the means, if I were in the States, I would go to (in this order)
- The country cup
- Moondance Diner
- First Watch
- Village Inn
- IHOP
- Denny’s
Then I would order the biggest stack of chocolate chip pancakes. Like 3 of the big ones. O man, I would rock that so hard.
Unfortunately breakfast here is horrible. Anyone that knows me knows that I love breakfast all the time. But here in
So the breakfast buffet at my hotel is rice, shrimp lo mein, fried calamari/chicken, then some mystery stuff. It is absolutely disgusting, but these people love it. Then everyone washes it down with a healthy glass of guava juice, coffee and cigarettes. O yea, that’s another thing, EVERYONE here smokes. And people can smoke everywhere, its gross. This guy on our team, Teddy, smokes like 2 packs a day. He smokes like 4 cigarettes at dinner and right before and after matches. It’s hilarious. Pre match meals, our whole team is lighting up, coaches and players, it’s something else. It made me think of the story Dave told me about Dalibar with the Bulls back in the late 90’s. Apparently that guy used to smoke at half time of games and it drove all the other players crazy. That’s just how it is here with these guys.
The all-star game is this weekend cause it is the mid-way point of the season. I am an alternate and glad I'm not going cause I prolly lost 10 pounds in the last 3 days.
Slowly recovering,
Dan
p.s. I can’t wait to show everyone the jerserys we wear for games, they look like chip and dale outfits. No joke, tight short shorts and tight sleeveless shirts in black and pink. And the back of my jersey says “DANMESKE” in one word….and I wear number 18, lame.
