Wednesday, October 6, 2010

A Little Heart to Heart

Had my first truly different experience this afternoon.

My ears have really been bothering me these past few days, with all the hours I seem to be spending in the water. So I decided to take the night off and just give my exhausted mind and body a break. I went to the pool anyway, after the doctors appointment to get my drops, to talk to Antonio (the head coach) about my ears and just update him about everything in general.
Upon entrance the overwhelming perfumes and heat wave greeted me a bit to happily, along with the coaches topless, hairy chest. Here everything is very close, so he put his arm around me and we walked to some chairs to sit and talk. He told my host mom to go home and that he would drop me off at home on his way to his radio show. And then he promptly invited me to his house for dinner! Along with my host sister and Eaula, the teams educational director.
Our conversation traveled through many different levels: my family, my likes and interests, his dog, his love of flamenco dancing. He said a lot of stuff that I agreed with, when I asked him who the best swimmer on the team is, he replied with "the best swimmer is the one we can't see." Quite appropriate. I was surprised at the amount of topics I understood and was able to contribute to.
I received many humorous looks from fellow swimmers and many mocking smiles.

Quite an interesting experience. And now I have to stay up until 10:40, when dinner is, and considering I've been having trouble just keeping my eyes open during school, tomorrow is going to be quite the day.