A Night to Remember...

I am living with a family, last name Steinhilber. Great family. Big house. Fun kids. Point system??? What? My host mom, self titled "Princess Di" and "Kitchen Nazi," has this point system for when you do good things and when you do bad things. For example, if you clean the dishes without being asked you get positive points and if you don't clean up after yourself, you get negative points. The person at the end of the summer gets a prize from the apple store (keep in mind that for my birthday, they got me an iTouch... hmmm). Well, the point system can actually get pretty ridiculous at times. For example, leaving a bowl of cereal unattended for longer than 5 minutes can result in a big loss of pointage... or for example, if you are a girl, come over in a dress and you will get HUGE points for "looking good"... it really is quite hilarious. Guys on the team come over and take it serious.. they will do whatever it takes, including "throwing other guys on the bus," in order to get points. Matt (my roomie) and I could care less about the points.. they are more of a joke... a set of guidelines to abide in the house. With that being said... 

There are some offenses that are so bad or funny that they are never recorded... my job is to record them and let the world know...

The first tale goes like this... The first night I got into Cleveland, I set straight away to calling some of the guys I knew from previous times to come over and play RockBand (an amazing xbox game). Well, while we were playing, one guy played a very crude prank on another guy, (we'll call him Jcheek). When the guy (Jcheek) that the prank was played on found out, he went straight into "I'm gonna kick your ass mode" and they wrestled while we watched and he actually picked him up and threw him against a wall which ended up cracking the sconce... or cover to this light... it was a tiny crack and you can barely see it. Well, he didn't want to lose any points so he decided to switch it with another sconce on the other side of the room. What he didn't know was it was being noted by one guy (we'll call him Dano) that actually told him to be honest about it. But Jcheek decided to not say anything, thinking it would just blow over. 

A couple of weeks later, Dano and Jcheek came over for dinner and just as everyone sat down, Dano leans over towards my host mom, Princess Di, and says to Jcheek, "did you ever tell Di about the sconce you broke downstairs?" It was classic. Jcheek did not know what to say. He just sat there in shock wondering what she was going to do. He finally came up with "It was Shmericks FAULT!!! But the damage had been done... Dano proceeded to tell Di what happened and how Jcheek switched the sconces. Di, in a very cool way but with a scowl on her face, got in on the action. She told Jcheek that those sconces were $500 dollars and imported from Italy. If you could have seen the blood drain from Jcheek's face, you would have pee'd your pants... very similar to what I did... To this day, he still claims that it was his fault... but you have heard the truth...

A day in the life of a Cleveland City Star

Everything in Cleveland moves slow... the traffic, the people, the talk, the cops, and the way of life. Cleveland is a very blue collar city... It is a beautiful city... Green, hills, forest, rivers and streams, Lake Erie. However it is also the poorest major city in the US according to a study in like 2004 or 2006... From what I can see, from my extremely perceptive eyes (you can roll yours at this point...) is that there is not very much middle class. There are rich areas and there are poor areas. To me, it seems like either you have money or you do not! People here seem to be so focused, so worried about everything, and so straight laced, straight as an arrow that they forget to actually live life. So it is really funny to watch us (Cleveland City Stars or CCS boys) interact with people living in the area. We are all about spreadin' the love any way we can... whether its gettin kicked out of wal mart for throwin a football or tubin' down the chagrin river or takin' a palm sunday/Cleveland City Shake/Cleveland City Rocks from Dana or Kickin' each other in training day in and day out... We love to our utmost. 

Usually our days consist of trying to figure out what to do... We train in the morning and are done by 1 or 2 at the latest. We sometimes have player appearances and have to sign autographs. Sometimes we go into the inner city to hang out with less fortunate kids. Earlier this year, I went into a school to read to a bunch of crying kindergartners or another time we went to a middle school assembly where it was so loud you couldn't hear each other yell... No matter what it is or what we do, adventure always finds us and we love to take advantage of it. 

I keep bringing up Dana. Let me explain Dana just a little bit. Dana is a free spirit that everyone loves. He does what most people would never dream of, for example, putting the mascots head on in just his underwear in the middle of DC traffic with a guitar singing worship songs to cars as they creep by. No matter his antics or what crazy thing he thinks of, he always puts a smile on other peoples faces. With us, he helps to bring us together by his antics because we love to do it along with him and at the very least watch him do his thing. He is a liberator. He is not afraid of what other people think about him because his confidence is firmly rooted in the Rock. All I know is, he is one of the people who has affected me most in my life because of the way he lives his. If there was more people like him in the world, the world would never know what hit it and would be forever changed for the better. 

Time

It has been a little over a month since I have been back from Afrika... I have had to do a lot of processing and had to go through a lot of reverse culture shock (which as strangely as it sounds, unfortunately exists and is very strange). Afrika was dirty, poorer but never in need, chaotic, unscheduled, much more chill and much more random. Here, everything is in clean, richer but always needing something more, organized, time oriented, insane (cough cough anal cough) and insured. The quality of life is different. The attitude is different. The church is different. The football is different. The language, lingo, and accents are different. The food is different. My friend Gina just got back from South Afrika and she used a word that describes the way you feel when you get back: Numb. It is like de javu... Did I really just go there? Did I really do all that... Sometimes when I look at my pictures, I think I could have photoshopped myself into some of the pictures. It is so strange but never the less, I am excited to be back and excited to get going on what is next in life. 

Right now, I am in Cleveland playing soccer... well trying to play... training a lot. It is good because I am learning a lot about myself and God and people. With the attitude "God First, Team (others) second, I'm third," I show up to training everyday and put a smile on my face and push everyone on the team to be their best! The team is full of guys from all over the world. My favorite foreigner is probably a guy from Sierra Leone named Sallieu Bundu. His story is incredible. You might know the movie "Blood Diamond" with Leo Di Cap in it... Well, my friend Sallieu grew up in that... He doesn't know where his dad is because they were separated when they were seeking asylum in another country. He is the youngest of 7 and sends money back every month to help support his family and friends. He was telling me a story about how he thought he was going to die when a rebel came up and asked him for a cd... for his cd player. He told me about the dead human bodies piled up at graveyards because there was no one to dig graves... He is the nicest guy you will ever meet (and between us, has the body of a Greek God... we had to do body fat tests {while yours truly was at 6%, he broke the machine...!}). He is searching in his faith. He used to be a muslim but I believe he is here for another reason... His country after (give or take) 12 years of war is finally starting to calm down and peace is coming in. It is amazing how Time heals...

When I found out about his story, I felt like other people needed to know so I hope you do too!

Lately, I haven't really known what to write due to my inability to put anything into words... but I figured I better get on it before 2 of 4 readers decide to hurt me ;-). I hope everyone is well! I will write tomorrow and tell some stories that have happened here! Love ya!