Day 11 - Kuwait
After class today I headed back to the hotel to find that somehow my computer at home is no longer Skype-ing with any measure of usability. We had grown to accept the fact that they had to type instead of talk and that was working fine. But the video became choppy and suddenly, things went haywire. Being 6500 miles from home meant that I couldn't just duck around the corner to fix it, so I tried to fix it via Remote Access. In the process, I lost remote access.
What a nightmare. I gave up and took a nap, waking up at 7:00pm, in time to meet some new friends at the tennis courts. Remember Keith and Leah? Well, as it turns out Leah and a few others gather regularly here at the hotel to play tennis twice a week. Seeing how it wasn't far for me to go, I accepted the gracious offer to join. After warming up, we started keeping score.
Ten minutes later, it was 2-0 in favor of Leah.
Casually she called across the net, "Do you want some water?" I was thinking to myself, "That, plus an oxygen bottle and a decent backhand would be good too." But I soldiered on, thinking I would eventually find my groove.
Ten more minutes later, it was 5-0 Leah.
Now these water breaks were a nice time to catch up on fluids and oxygen, and chat a little bit. This is when Leah mentioned she played tennis all through high school. That made sense as she was placing shots to all corners. "How long have you played?" she asked. "What time did we get here?" I replied, knowing that I borrow somebody else's tennis racket only once every four years. I suppose it's my personal Olympic sport.
An hour later the court reservation expired, and as we walked off I was still trying to wrap my head around the 0-6, 2-5 drubbing I took. Even without any tennis ability I still have a competitive streak that, while much softer than in years past, just won't ever go away. The two games I won? Breaks. I can't serve worth a darn. One of my two aces was so slow and short it caught Leah too far back. I was surprised it cleared the net; I think she was surprised too. But after my misadventures on the cardio machines downstairs, I would much rather chase tennis balls around outside. Plus, in the heat, it's much easier to work up an impressive sweat.
Back in the room I got back to trying to troubleshoot the problems back home with the computers. We're back to where we were as of yesterday, but the sound is still not working properly. I put in a phone call to a friend back home to swing by and see whether he can figure it out reasonably quickly.
Emotionally, today was a tough one. No, not because I had such a poor showing on the tennis courts. That was to be expected, and the exercise was the high point of the day. In large part beacuse calling home wasn't working as it had in the past. Things weren't humming along like they did last week. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I'm just not feeling right today. Hopefully I'll wake up to a better day tomorrow. God knows what I need, and I'll trust that he provides it.
What a nightmare. I gave up and took a nap, waking up at 7:00pm, in time to meet some new friends at the tennis courts. Remember Keith and Leah? Well, as it turns out Leah and a few others gather regularly here at the hotel to play tennis twice a week. Seeing how it wasn't far for me to go, I accepted the gracious offer to join. After warming up, we started keeping score.
Ten minutes later, it was 2-0 in favor of Leah.
Casually she called across the net, "Do you want some water?" I was thinking to myself, "That, plus an oxygen bottle and a decent backhand would be good too." But I soldiered on, thinking I would eventually find my groove.
Ten more minutes later, it was 5-0 Leah.
Now these water breaks were a nice time to catch up on fluids and oxygen, and chat a little bit. This is when Leah mentioned she played tennis all through high school. That made sense as she was placing shots to all corners. "How long have you played?" she asked. "What time did we get here?" I replied, knowing that I borrow somebody else's tennis racket only once every four years. I suppose it's my personal Olympic sport.
An hour later the court reservation expired, and as we walked off I was still trying to wrap my head around the 0-6, 2-5 drubbing I took. Even without any tennis ability I still have a competitive streak that, while much softer than in years past, just won't ever go away. The two games I won? Breaks. I can't serve worth a darn. One of my two aces was so slow and short it caught Leah too far back. I was surprised it cleared the net; I think she was surprised too. But after my misadventures on the cardio machines downstairs, I would much rather chase tennis balls around outside. Plus, in the heat, it's much easier to work up an impressive sweat.
Back in the room I got back to trying to troubleshoot the problems back home with the computers. We're back to where we were as of yesterday, but the sound is still not working properly. I put in a phone call to a friend back home to swing by and see whether he can figure it out reasonably quickly.
Emotionally, today was a tough one. No, not because I had such a poor showing on the tennis courts. That was to be expected, and the exercise was the high point of the day. In large part beacuse calling home wasn't working as it had in the past. Things weren't humming along like they did last week. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I'm just not feeling right today. Hopefully I'll wake up to a better day tomorrow. God knows what I need, and I'll trust that he provides it.
