Opposites Attract Pt.2

Welcome back to Overseas With A Carry On, the blog the about nothing!

Haha. That is an ode to Seinfeld, one of my favourite sitcoms. The show was literally about nothing in particular, just the daily life of Jerry and his 3 best friends George, Elaine and Kramer. In a way, this blog mirrors that - minus the 3 best friends. I just tackle these events as they happen, there's no rhyme or rhythm to it!

Dating back to the last post (if you haven't read part 1, I suggest you go back and get up to speed), I introduced to you many inverted practices that the Japanese do. The last thing we touched upon was driving and that's where we will take off.

"Japanese Style"

One of the first things I noticed when I arrived in Japan a few years back was that it seemed as every car had a television in it. This screen serves as a GPS system. It also serves as a rear view camera. Another thing I noticed was almost everyone reversed parked their vehicle. Regardless of where, how many other open spots were available or difficulty to squeeze in. It was just what they did and continue to do. This photo above was taken at a local grocery store. Each and every single car on that row is reversed in.

So, if you're ever in Japan and you see a car parked head first, it may be a lazy local but it's more than likely an out-of-towner like myself who doesn't know any better!

What's beef?

Last week I went out to dinner with one of my trainers. We went to a local Korean BBQ spot. In Japan, this style of cooking is referred to as 'Yakinku.'

Yaki, as I've been told, essentially means 'fire' or 'direct heat' and Niku means 'meat.' It's by far my favourite meal to enjoy while stationed here in Japan. I have had teammates who despise these type of restaurants.

"Why am I paying to cook my own food? If that were the case, I'd just cook at home. I'm paying to be served."

I understand that logic but I also enjoy the overall experience of going out for yakiniku. You get to converse, cook the meat to your preferred tenderness (I like mine medium-well) and many places offer a buffet style. 'Eat until your heart is content' is the motto I stand by!😊😁

How does this tie into the overall theme of inversion you ask? Let's take a look at these two cuts of beef shall we?

The cut of steak on the left is your normal North American grade beef. After being marinated and thrown on the grill, I don't know a carnivore who would turn it down. I want you to notice the trim of fat that surrounds the outside of the steak in comparison to the meat on the inside. That's grade A cattle right there. That's what you'll find at any butcher shop or supermarket.

Now, the cut on the right is none other than The Mamba aka Kobe beef. It is amongst the highest priced and most sought after cuts of meat. Hailing from the Wagyu cattle here in Japan, the stark contrast of fat strands on the interior is its tell-tale sign known as marbling. These strains of fat give the beef its flavourful, fatty and tender appeal.

There's actually an entire association dedicated to up keeping the standards of "Kobe" beef and ensuring its quality worldwide. But you all are missing the point here. The Japanese found a way to reverse the fat distribution in a particular type of cow. . .and this was done prior to cloning, genetic modification or lab created foods. Are you kidding me?!😲

Reading Japanese

Lastly, reading over in Japan. Obviously I can't read or write in Japanese but I can whip through a basketball magazine and examine the photos of NBA action. Believe it or not, these magazines are read from right to left. Yes, the spine is on the right and you flip the pages from left to right. Each time I grab one, I catch myself looking at the back panel and then realize I need to flip it over.

As far as reading, I have caught some older folks on the train rides reading books that have Japanese characters in columns. These books are also read from right to left and from top to bottom. This traditional format of reading/writing is known as tategaki.

Clearly this is something I won't have to worry about because I don't plan on learning Japanese anytime soon. I've been encouraged to try to learn: "Why don't you learn and pick it up?"

"My friend, do you think "picking it up" is as simple as learning Microsoft Excel? Re-evaluate your thoughts!"

Have you seen those Japanese letters? I have a better chance at becoming the president of United States, and I'm not even American (Not a political jab, I promise).


Well sadly, that concludes our "Opposites Attract" series. I had a good time brainstorming the content for these last few posts. Poking a little fun never hurt anybody right? I hope I was able to open your eyes to some of the backwards practices that force me to use a few more brain cells each day. They say fish is brain food and I do like a good piece of salmon, so I guess I can afford an extra thought or two.

To my loyal readers, thank you for your continued support. If this is your first time, I hope you make a return visit! If you have any questions or topic suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments section.

Overseas With A Carry On will be unveiling something special for you in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

"Walk with me through the pathway of more success."

#OWACO

That's Gold!

Hello guys and gals, welcome back to Overseas With A Carry On! How is everything on your end? The majority of you are probably over the shock that the summer is over and school is in full swing. Some are continuing to plug away at your job or who knows, maybe you're just getting back from a well deserved vacation. Over here, I'm finally settled in and ready for the season to kick off. Speaking of settling in, this year was most definitely the easiest transition from unpacking duffel bags to looking like I belonged in my apartment...

(And yes, we are all duffel bag boys. I don't know a fellow basketball player that travels with suitcases. It's just the code we live by. Unless one is travelling with his spouse and/or children - that is the way the committee will permit such actions.)

...Usually when I arrive to a new team, we get straight to practice. Us imports are the last to arrive so we're technically behind the local teammates who have been around throughout the summer months training. In addition to jet lag, you haven't a clue where anything in the town is, you're adjusting to a new schedule and worst of all, your refrigerator is empty. There's a simple way to combat all of this and I'm going to break it down for you in a simple 2 step process:

Step 1: Re-sign to a team that you've previously played for.

3 years ago when I initially debuted this blog, I was playing in Evreux, France. It was a great learning experience for me both on and off the court. It had always been a dream of mine to play in France, especially after vacationing to Paris the year before (being bilingual also helped). The following year I made the move to Japan and suited up for Hamamatsu Phoenix. That season, we won the league championship. The town was and still is a small rural city so finding your way around was pretty easy. Moral of the story: Go to a place you're familiar with so there's no learning curve and it's just like walking down memory lane.

Step 2: Invest

Invest in yourself! I literally signed up and purchased my Costco membership the day before departing for Japan. As mentioned in step 1, being familiar and having prior knowledge that a Costco Wholesale store was only roughly 50 minutes away, I paid the cost to be a boss. With this little guy in hand, I was fortunate enough to make the drive the very next day and stock up on a bunch of groceries and necessities. Some items I'll have to buy over and over again and some, I'll never have to spend another yen on. 

I know some of my readers are still flabbergasted that Costco exists in Japan and are wondering if it's the same as it is in North America..it is! The huge inventory, big bulk packaging, exact same layout, etc. The items are clearly tailored to the local taste so, certain items that you are used to seeing back state-side/province-side will not be on hand. But in a land far far away from home, beggars can't be choosers. The only thing that could possibly beat having a Costco is having a military base nearby. Shopping in there literally makes you feel as if you've teleported back home! Here's a list of the US military presence in Japan.

And that's how you get over the hump of getting accustom to your new surroundings; make them your old ones. I've got the same jersey number, same apartment, same parking spot - I didn't even have ask for the wifi password, my devices connected automatically...

Onto more serious business, like the basketball in Japan. I enjoy it. The local talent continues to rise and are relied upon heavily to help a team win. Why is that you ask? Because over the last few years, there have been a number of changes to the rules of how many foreigners a team can have and how many can be on the court at the same time. Stick with me here...

This year in the new B. League (Japan Basketball recently combined both the professional BJ League and  the company sponsored NBL into one body), each team may have up to 3 foreign born players. In most instances these are Americans, in my case, a Canadian or Nigerian or whatever nation you want to peg me to. For 2 quarters of play, you're allowed 1 foreigner on the court at a time and for the other 2 quarters, you're allowed 2.

If you have a naturalized Japanese player, such as someone who is a foreign born player but has lived in the country for a number of years or married a local and has received a Japanese passport/citizenship, he still counts as a foreigner BUT is allowed to play as a "local" when his team is playing 1 legitimatel import. So in other words, his team could essentially play 2 foreign born players the entire game. If I recall from my business undergrad at Louisiana Tech, we call that a competitive advantage.

Oh yeah, this year teams must announce prior to each game which particular quarters it plans to use 1 import and which ones you plan to use 2. Will it be 2-1-2-1, 1-2-1-2, 2-1-1-2? You can come up with whichever pattern you like but this has to be declared and cannot change once it is set. It can though be changed from game to game. Weird stuff!

Last year things weren't so messy - each team had a limit of 3 imported foreigners. You were allowed to have 2 of them on the court at any time. As far as naturalized players went, I believe (don't quote me) they still counted as a full import. You could not have 3 foreign born players on the court under any circumstance. In the NBL is where I believe that player would not count as foreigner. I didn't compete in that league so my word is not gospel, just an educated assumption.

Back to my first year in Japan, each team was allowed 4 imported players but the playing time split was altogether different. The 1st/3rd quarters allowed 2 on the court and the 2nd/4th allowed 3. As you can see, it can be a bit difficult to predict match ups and thus affects scouting, recruiting and so on. A few years prior to that, the league allowed each team to have 5 imports! Over the years, the numbers have dwindled and jobs have become more scarce. I think I speak for the majority of my counterparts when I say it's a blessing to know you are employed come the beginning of September.

Over the years, we've all heard and seen a lot of transitions and changes in food and society wanting becoming as healthy as we can be. First it was becoming a vegetarian (yeah right), then some upped the ante by becoming vegans, others went gluten free and some opted for the "Paleo" diet...

I've had a roller coaster ride trying to balance being healthy, not depriving myself of fuel, being a foodie and dealing with the local menu. On the following entry I'll dive a bit into some changes I've made to my personal diet. Until the next entry, thank you all for reading. 

If you enjoy what the content, please hit the follow button, drop a comment, share it socially, etc! I'd love to interact with some of my readers and hopefully answer questions you all may have. Thanks for reading and stay blessed. 

#OWACO

Special shoutouts go to my trainer back in Toronto, Vlad & Co. at +Real Basketball Training Inc.! He trains the top talent in the city at all levels from youth to such pros as Anthony Bennet, Brady Heslip and  Dwight Powell to name a few. You can check him out at his website www.realbasketballtraining.com 

P.S. We lost 3 greats over the past few months to retirement - thank you to the Black Mamba, the Big Fundamental & the Big Ticket on illustrious careers.

#Legends

Toronto to Tokyo

"Welcome back to Overseas With A Carry On. I'm your host, Olu Ashaolu.

                                              **Applause**

On today's episode we are going to discuss the immaculate #Summer16 and what lies ahead for the basketball journeyman from Toronto."

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That would be the intro if I was a television host like Ellen, Oprah or Dr. Oz.

To those of you reading for the first time, greetings & salutations! I'm glad you took the time to inquire about my livelihood and experiences;and to those routine readers who continue to show support, I thank you.

Earlier this summer I ran into a long time friend of mine who I grew up with back, back in the day. (I'm talking early 90s!) We began chatting about life and hoops and how far we both had come giving the circumstances we rose from. He then asked me what the latest was with my blog and why I stopped writing. I always hate getting that question because, well, I really had nothing substantial to give him as an excuse. I promised him I would get back to it and voila, here I am. Man of my word; master of my domain.

Where should we begin? Last season I played my second consecutive year in Japan which was a first. A first in the sense that, prior to returning to Japan, each of my past experiences of playing overseas were in three different countries. In 2012-13 I was in Spain. In 2013-14 I took my talents to France. Finally, in 2014-15 I made the leap out of Europe and decided to stay put the following year. I felt as if I had found my niche in this league. What more could I ask for? A safe environment, a high level of basketball, professionalism and a secure economy that would ensure my payments would be on time. Needless to say, I'm back for a third go round and have no intentions of leaving any time soon.

Okay, I got sidetracked, back to the summer!

So I arrived home in late May and was ready to hit the ground running! It had been a long and tiring 9 months away and as we all know, there's nothing quite like home. Now if you know me, you know food is the way to my heart. As you may or may not know, Canada as a country does not even compare to the United States when it comes to fast food franchises per capita. And yes, I know, I shouldn't be eating "fast food" (or is it good food, quickly), but after a 9 month bid, I think I'm due for a cheat meal or two...or three...mmmaybe four? Who's really keeping count?

                                                           

So upon my arrival home, my 16 year old niece had an AAU tournament down in Lexington, Kentucky and the thought of seeing her(and fast food) entered my mind. I had yet to see her play live and was extremely looking forward to seeing her in action. One of the major setbacks of living this life overseas is missing out on these priceless moments with family. As I enter my basketball prime and she continues to get older, these precious opportunities to watch her play at the amateur level begin to dwindle. So needless to say,  I decided to shake off the jet lag and drive down with her father, my brother, and take in some high school level hoops.

When we arrived in Lexington, it was like a holy food haven. Whatever I wanted was at my tip of my fingers; I just had to make a selection. Sounds easy enough right? Wrong! I decided to go with these four selections as they each resonated with a certain location and time in my life.

Raising Canes took me back to my college days in Ruston at Louisiana Tech University. It was the first time I discovered these finger-licking-good chicken strips. I opted for "The Box" combo: 4 strips, slaw, fries and Texas toast. I'm not a big guy for fried chicken but when it comes to Canes, count me in!

Chick-Fil-A reminded me of my prep school breakfasts down in Atlanta, Georgia. Back then, 2 dollars could get you a moist chicken breast sandwiched between a country biscuit; I'd top mine with grape jelly and be high off life. I know my Canadian and non-southern American readers are probably throwing up at the combination of fried chicken and fruit preserves but, hey - "It's a southern thang," and when in Rome...well, you know the rest.

Jimmy John's! How could anyone ever go back to Subway after the freshness of JJ's. I first tried Jimmy John's in 2011 when I was out in Indianapolis training for NBA pre draft camps. The #16 Club Lulu is my go-to. I actually had a friend whose nickname for me was 'Lulu.' Thinly sliced turkey, lettuce, bacon, piled high [I always get it] on whole wheat with added banana peppers and cucumbers. Throw in some kettle cooked jalapeño chips and you've got a 5 star meal loaded with spice and kick that's in your hands less than 60 seconds after placing your order!

Last but not least, Sonic. You've always been there for me. Whether it was back in the day playing video games on Sega Genesis (#ThrowbackAlert!) or throughout my prep school days in the south, or even up to my days in college, you never wavered. Be it your Sonic Burger specials, pancake sausages on a stick (they discontinued those), Sonic Blasts on the late night creep or your ice-cold slushies at Happy Hour on a hot summer day, you always had my back. I like that.

I must say, 'twas a great weekend after months of rice bowls and limited American options. For those who actually care about the AAU tournament, my nieces' team did walk away victorious. But prior to leaving the tournament, my Snapchat was hacked by a very outgoing 10 year old who happened to be the younger sister of one my nieces' teammates. Take a look...

I'm not sure if Lebron actually has that type of range though 😏

When not road tripping south of the border you can catch me doing a number of things within the great city I call home. Such as getting word the night before that Maxwell is in town to perform and purchasing tickets 20 hours before showtime.

This was only my second time attending a live concert, the first was Jay-Z & Justin Timberlake a few years back. They opened their concert tour in Toronto and to say it was epic would be an understatement. I was on my feet for two hours straight rapping just about every Jay song and pretending to keep up with JT and his vocals. Those tickets were were also purchased last minute. I guess I've got to get a better pulse of what's going on in my city huh?

If I'm not at a concert you can catch me on Friday nights participating in the Nike Crown League summer pro am. Basically the 'who's who' of pros, high school talent and everyone in between come back and play weekly games. It's one of the only times you can get a quality run of 5-on-5 in the city so it's something we look forward to. If you're lucky, you end up on the custom Nike Snapchat filter with your patented one handed dunks..

Lastly, when I'm sick of being indoors and I just want to get away from the city, I take a 90 minute drive out to the Falls of Niagara and sit back and gaze at the great piece of nature that I'm proud to call Canadian. The United States does have a portion of the Falls that fall (you see what I did there) on their side of the border but, it's nowhere as breathtaking or majestic as the Canadian side. Just a friendly FYI, hehe.

As you can see, the turn-up was very real in the summer of 2016, or was it "lit"? I'm not sure what lingo you young folks denote as cool nowadays. I didn't even mention attending the DVSN concert, our caribbean parade 'Caribana' or all the food festivals that are hosted throughout. When it comes down to it, I've got to make up a 9 months of inactivity and cram it all into 90 days. I've got to build enough memories to last me the grind of a full season so I'm not becoming homesick or selling myself and my team short by not being out-of-it mentally. To be honest, I've never gotten to that point of just absolutely departure, but there have been some close calls over the years. I'm human. Home is where heart is and Toronto is not an easy place to leave. Well, come the summer time. Come winter, you can have it. I want nothing to do with Toronto when snow is involved. Nothing. Rien. Nada!

Well, that's it for walking down memory lane. Now it's back real life, back to "work." I get to play basketball for a living, it's not exactly work if you love it right? Back to not being able to read signs or speak to anyone but my fellow imports. Back to long nights of watching Scandal, Narcos and whatever drama series lands on my Macbook screen. Back to chopsticks and meals for one. All in all, I don't think I'd trade it in for anything!

Thank you for taking time out to read the first post from this 2016-17 campaign. In the following entry I will let you in on where I am in Japan, the team, it's history and so forth.

Oh yeah...

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As a token of my appreciation for tuning into today's episode, everyone in the studio audience is going home with a free video. Check the link below and enjoy!

Olu Ashaolu Highlight Clip

Once again, you are watching Overseas With A Carry On hosted by yours truly.
This is Olu signing off, until next time...

O.W.A.C.O.

P.S. If you are not able to watch the videos within the entry on your device, please open this webpage up on your laptop/desktop.

Damnnnn Daniel..back at it again!

Well, well, well.

Where do I begin..How about with those who don't remember who Daniel is...How could you forget?

In other news, it feels like it was just 2014 and I was back in France eating a croissant (or two..maybe even three), Obama still had a few years left in his presidency and the 'Running Man' dance still had some dignity

Fast forward two years and a lot has changed - for example, I'm no longer playing in Europe, Donald Trump is running for President, hover boards came and went & lastly, if you've watched 'American Crime Story; The People vs OJ Simpson', you can't help but wonder how he got off.

But that's neither here nor there.

As for the 2+ year hiatus? All I can really say is, my baaaaad y'all.

No, really, there isn't a reasonable answer as to why.  Perhaps I got caught up with Hello Kitty and anime over here in Japan and I lost my way. Or maybe it was the struggle to use chopsticks that left my hands in no shape to type. Or quite frankly, it may have been the back-to-back games every weekend over a 52 game schedule that left me utterly fatigued.  Whatever excuse you chose to accept, I humbly accept and am indebted to my readers who questioned the disappearance of the entries. Don't get me wrong; ideas and blog posts filled my brain but I just lacked the thrill to translate those thoughts from my head to the keyboard. It was more a case of 'I didn't want to force the issue.'

I didn't want to force the content.

If I was and am going to deliver an entry, I want it to be original and authentic. Genuine. At the time, I simply didn't feel it, was so I decided to spare you my prattle and wait until the time was right - and as the saying goes, "The time is now."

It's a rainy Wednesday afternoon here in Osaka, Japan. This is where I have called home for the past 8 months and counting. As I sit on my 2 seater couch of my 1 bedroom apartment, I relish in the sound of the rain on my window pane. The bedroom and living are separated by a typical Japanese sliding-door mechanism that I find to be absolutely genius. You can close off and separate each or combine both and have large open space in seconds - flexibility at its best!

As I peak out the window to nothing but grey skies, gloom and the sounds of trickling rain, I think about the past season. The ups, the downs, the highs, and the lows. We finished 6th in the tough Western conference of the Turkish Airlines-sponsored 'Basketball Japan' League. A difference from my 3rd place finish on my former team the previous season, Hamamatsu Phoenix.
That Hamamatsu team featured a great group of both local Japanese talent and imported American (and Canadian, hehe) muscle. That team went on to defeat the #2 ranked team in a best-of-three series on the road to punch our ticket to the final 4 in Ariake. The final 4 was then switched from a series set-up to a 1 game elimination set-up à la the NCAA March Madness tournament. We defeated the #4 ranked team in the west and then went ahead and beat a very good Akita team who were ranked #1 in the East.

And just like that, I became a champion on the big stage. Prior to last season, my previous two seasons as a pro in France and Spain both ended in a semi-final loss. But this time, things would be different. It would be me running through the confetti shower; it would be my teammates and I rejoicing and celebrating unbridledly...and we did just that!

Unfortunately we were unable to duplicate that feeling this time around. We came up a week short of the opportunity to play for the title. 7 days. 168 hours. 10,080 extra minutes in our season and we could have been playing for all the marbles. It hurts when you put it into those kind of terms. Although, there's gratitude in knowing we left it on all on the floor. Listening to motivational speaker and workout junky CT Fletcher speak, he says "there's victory & satisfaction(13:07) in knowing that you gave your absolutely best and falling short." We left nothing in the tank, the opposition was simply better on that day - and I can live with that.

As the summer approaches, the usual schedule entails: rest, rehab, recovery, train, continue to develop and progress, kick back and enjoy the weather, eat as much comfort food as possible and get ready for the grind yet again. The summer is short so I've got to pack in as many moments and memories as possible in a 80-90 period. I've done the math and from my calculations, 3 days overseas is equivalent to 1 day back home. So if you look at it in that light, you've got to make everyday worthwhile and productive. You can always get material possessions back but time, time is of the essence. Spend it wisely.

I hope that you all forgive me for Houdini disappearing act. I will definitely be more consistent in the following season wherever it is I end up.

I may even surprise you with a pop-up summer entry or two! Stay tuned..


P.S.

Kobe we will miss you.
RIP Prince.
Thanks Drake for Views.
Twitter/Instagram contacts are posted in the banner but I've recently joined the Snapchat gang: O_Ash

Thank you all for reading and supporting the journey thus far...I'm merely a kid playing the game he loves who just happens to be 'Overseas With A Carry-On.'

#OWACO

Update: I began this entry about 10 days ago. It has sat here on my laptop waiting to be editted and published. Big shout out to the home team Raptors for beating the Cavs last night. Everyone thought we'd simply cave and be swept but that's not in the cities' DNA. You all need to put some respect on our name!

Oh Canada/Shut up and Drive

Happy Sunday everyone!

I would like to start this weeks' post with a little song I like to call my national anthem.

*Ahem*

"Oh Canada, our home and native land. True patriot love, with all thy sons command..."

You know the rest - or at least you should! Today makes the second time you should have heard it as the men's olympic hockey team took gold over the Swiss in a 3-0 victory. Our women's hockey team also took gold against, our southern neighbours, the United States in a 3-2 victory just days before. Being Canadian, everyone else in the world believes that I play or played hockey and that I should somehow, be immune and enjoy cold weather.  Those are misconceived notions that I will live the rest of my life having to disprove. A little tidbit about todays' early morning gold medal game: the city of Toronto council voted and approved bars to start serving alcohol at 7am in the order for spectators to enjoy the monumental hockey game. Molson Canadian and Labatt Blue beers for breakfast? Don't you wish you were from Toronto?

Downtown Toronto, ON after the Gold medal game

Okay, enough gloating and boasting. Let's look at a few differences in regards to driving overseas and driving back home.  For starters, as mentioned in previous posts, driving a manual car in as opposed to driving an automatic will be an adjustment for many.  Prior to my first contract in Spain, my agent advised me in the months leading up to my departure to practice and at least get comfortable with the basics.  Needless to say, I was TURRIBLE. [Insert Charles Barkley voice.] Getting from stationary to first gear was the most difficult change of gears because it required the most precision, a delicate touch and a keen sense of balance between clutch and gas.  If you do not complete a smooth exchange of releasing the clutch and applying gas, you'll do what I did repeatedly: stall out!  Even worse than stalling out from being parked is stalling out on a inclined road...with angry drivers behind you...hooking their horns and perhaps screaming curse words in their native tongue at you. 

*Deep Sigh*

It happens to the best of us.  Last year in the small town of Càceres, Spain, I would go out in the late night to hone my skills. There weren't many vehicles on the road at that time so it was then where I was able to build my confidence and apply it to day time driving without any pressure. A few times of getting comfortable with the clutch, getting from 1st to 2nd gear on a hill and parallel parking - I think it's safe to say I'm somewhat of a pro these days.

Next on my rant is topic of size! If you think back to any old European film clips you may have caught growing up, I'm quite sure you remember seeing vary narrow lanes and/or vehicles that resembled more of a go-kart rather than a Ford Focus.

Evreux, France

Many roads like this would be an assumed 1-way street in most North American cities, but here this is a 2 lane road with bilateral traffic.  The sole reason why streets like these can allow for the 2-way traffic is thanks largely in part to the vast number of compact and economy sized vehicles.  Below I have gathered a collage of a few smart-car-esque sized cars throughout the city.

With the average price of gas in France being €1.52 per liter, you can see why such smaller vehicles are more common than typical large sedans or SUVs found stateside.  I see a lot of people walking throughout the town (especially the elderly) and many others using other means of transportation such as scooters and motorcycles.

Last but not least, let's discuss location and placement.  At many street lights in my town of  Evreux, street lights are not suspended high above but are placed at eye level on electricity poles. I understand the logic but when you're the first car at the intersection and you're looking up for a green light and the lane beside you begins moving, well you guessed it. You'll hear the sounds of horns behind you and you'll catch a few hostile gestures if you peek in the rear view mirror. You will receive this kind of treatment when 1) driving slow in a unfamiliar city such as Paris and 2) doing so while trying to locate street names.  For the most part, many street signs are not as they are back home and you will not find them attached to a pole. What you will find are signs with street names plastered onto buildings that happen to be on that particular street. Once again, I can kind of understand the logic but I would simply prefer things to be like they are back home in North America. But that's wishful thinking and that's what makes the experience of working overseas such a memorable one. Stepping out of your comfort zone, adapting to a new lifestyle, engaging in a new culture is all apart of the it - you just didn't see it written in the contract. U.N.E.N.O.

Until the next my fellow readers, 

Thank you for the support thus far.  Feedback is always welcome. Please leave any comments or questions below or feel free to contact me at oluash@gmail.com

Olu

#OWACO

P.S. I was dead on with my 2014 All Star Game prediction! The Eastern Conference took that in clean fashion but I did not foresee Kyrie Irving winning the MVP.

Introduction To O.W.A.C.O.

Welcome to O.W.A.C.O. 

Thank you for taking your time to visit my blog.  My name is Olu Ashaolu, I am from the great city of Toronto, ON, Canada but thanks to basketball, I have spent the majority of the last 10 years traveling to various other places in the world.  The idea for this blog originated over two years ago throughout my final year at the University of Oregon.  I began to fall victim to the oh-so-modern times and became more and more involved with online social networks.  I gained a bit of 'popularity' thanks to great collegiate student sections and their adoration for dunks. (Poor me).  Twitter is one of my favourite tools due to its simplicity and speed but with a 140 character limit and no longer in school, I was in need of a more spacious and slightly more formal way to express myself.  Blogging seemed like the perfect hybrid between a tweet and college term paper.  And with that, voilà , here I am today proud to present O.W.A.C.O.  From my high school adventures in Hotlanta, Georgia to post-graduate college classes out in rainy Eugene, Oregon to playing professional basketball in Europe, it has been an exciting roller coaster of events.  I plan to bring you not only the basketball experiences, but the social life happenings that my peers and I go through on a regular day-to-day basis.

I titled this blog "Overseas With A Carry On" because, that is exactly what life is for me 9-10 months of the year.  I can remember the very first night I slept in my apartment last year in Spain.  It was my first professional contract and I was playing in a small southern town called Cáceres.  I remember taking a look at the 'Maps' app on my iPhone and pinpointing my location and being in disbelief that I was actually on the other side of the globe.  As far as the 'carry on' part is concerned, you can always find my peers and I with our backpacks/book-bags.  Whether heading to practice, heading to a game, running errands or boarding a flight, it is just something we basketball players always seem to have with us. It's essential and has become apart of the culture - like Nike elite socks.  :-)

As mentioned above, these entries will not be solely basketball-centric, but also personal experiences, thoughts and everyday chit chatter on topics that may be of relevance. Anyone who knows me can tell that I am a huge Seinfeld fan; if you're familiar with the famous American television series from the 90s, you'll understand why perhaps I should subtitle this as, "O.W.A.C.O. - The Blog About Nothing."  All that's missing is a coffee shop, an ex-girlfriend-turned-best-friend like Elaine and an eccentric neighbour a la Cosmo Kramer.  Don't worry, finding a friend like George Costanza will be the least of my worries!

Until next time, 

Olu