Poland -> Manchester

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams… he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” – Henry David Thoreau

The adventures in Poland are over. I must admit that Wroclaw was a lot better than I expected. The city is nice, the people for the most part are nice as well, very quiet and show no expression whatsoever when you see them around or talk to them, BUT they are friendly once you establish some sort of communication (hopefully in english and not sign language). The weekend nights were a lot of fun! Man they play some great music (under my opinion/taste), I just couldn’t stop partying!

Talking about golf, my “horses” did very good again. Mark played as solid as I have ever seen him play, his scores in the last 2 days of competition did not refelect how good he is doing his “job”. If he continues to keep his head up and follow the path he is in, I have no doubt he will break through sooner than he expects. Felipe played great in England too. My understanding is that he is IN the British Open, one of the world's biggest (if not THE biggest) golf tournaments after his finish in this week's tournament. Guess we will have to wait a little and see.

Now for Mark, Mane and I Manchester awaits. We are back in London and will leave tomorrow Tuesday morning. Hopefully I will get to see and hang out a lot with my friend Daniel, teammate and roommate of mine in Arkansas. It might be too much fun!

Again, thanks to everyone for the emails and messages. Keep me updated on your life happenings!

Poland

Who would have thought, Mane, Mark and Mo in a town south of Poland playing golf. You just never know where you are going to end up in life, don't you?

Let's see... Wroclaw is a decent sized city (700,000) but with not much going on for tourists. The central square would be it, and a mall. The square is really nice though. Old buildings and even older brick churches. We had dinner in this underground restaurant where the waitress barely sporke english, but we got it done. Pork chops, saurkraut, steamed potatoes... now I know (and some of you have "politely" commented) that I talk a lot about the food and suggest that I should take care of my weight. Well, the reason I talk about the food so much is that I honestly believe you can tell a lot about new places and their culture by the food they eat! So I try real hard to taste the local fare as much as I can and I like to share my thoughts and experiences with y'all (still some Arkansan in me). We also went to a bar to watch the Champions League final (european soccer-football league) and finally figured out why I felt tipsy after having one or two beers... Polish beer have 12 to 15% of alcohol!!! So if any of you happens to come over here you are warned.

The rest of the city is a mixture of old semi-abandoned buildings and newer ones. Every building have something in common... they don't cut the grass!! Don't ask me why but it is weird to me. And the taxi cab drivers are VERY sneaky... same trip on the way there 16 zlotzky, on the way back 50 zlotzky... GET RADIO TAXIS!

The golf course is new and really nice. Mark played super solid today and he is tied for 20th. The goal is to win, but top 10 gets him to the tournament next week in Manchester, so we need to keep the good playing! Check him and Felipe at http://www.europeantour.com/ Felipe played solid in London as well and is very close to make it to the British Open!

Mo

London is sweet!

Weekend in London

So I did the tourist thingy with Alex as my guide Saturday. Took the tube to downtown and I came out RIGHT ON the base of the Big Ben. Very nice! Took a look at some churches, the house of parliament, the Thames river, the stiff guards (you know the ones who do not move), Buckingham Palace, and we eneded in an AUTHENTIC english pub (these are sooooooo cool!) eating Fish & Chips and drinking some Ales watching the final of the English Cup of footie (soccer, futbol).

Sunday, me, Alex, Charlie (another of my brother's friends) and a group of people went to Thorpe Park... rollercoasters baby! Had a great time getting my head spun around in London. The best ride was one called Stealth... 0 to 80 miles/hr in 2.3 seconds (that is like 120 km/hr) and ends in a loop. That would be the picture here besides the post.

We went back to Charlie's girlfriend's flat after the park, soooo nice, I love the flats they have here, they are not big but they are cozy in a way. I do need to recognize publicly the awesome culinary skills of Charlie. After the park we went back to his flat and ate some pork with asparragus, mashed potatoes and cracklings (pork fat burnt to a crisp in the oven), it was awesome! These english men know how to take care of themselves! Plus everything was accompanied with some nice red wine.... oh yes!

4am and I woke up, took a taxi to the train station, train to an airport outside of London, 2 hour delay and then off to Wroclaw. There is one thing I already noticed from Polish people.. they just DO NOT CARE. I got blown off by the first taxi I tried to catch because the driver was smoking a cigarrette. Then, the taxi driver that did take me did not put on his seatbelt for like 5 minutes, so that annoying beeping sounds went on and on and on... not to say that he didn't care much for sidewalks (veredas) yellow-red lights and other cars. We were riding wherever it was half flat towards the hotel. It was pretty hilarious actually.

Now I am about to ahve my first Polish meal, it is supposed to be something authentic Polish so we will see. Mark and Mane will be here tonight, can't wait to see them. I can't plug my computer so I will save it and probably write the next post later on this week. Thanks for the comments and emails!!!!!!

M

ps. London is great, I love it!

pss. my "horses" are doing great! Mark finished T10th in Italy and Felipe finished 2nd on his own at the Irish Open!!! If you are interested to follow, check Mark Tullo at the Challenge Tour and Felipe Aguilar at the European Tour @ www.europeantour.com

Houston -> London

London - Day 1

So Wednesday I caddied for Rebecca in the US Women's Open Qualifier. Unfortunetly we didn't do as good as we wished, specially when the caddie cannot read yardages! (sorry for that one Reb). On the good note, Nicole did qualify for the next round (Nicole was another of my proteges as coach), so we did go out in downtown Houston to celebrate Wednesday night!

And so the journey started Thursday morning. The first freaky stop was believe it or not the Detroit airport. It looked like something out of a Stanley Kubrik movie, all futuristic and stuff. I walked through this hall that might have been about 300 yards long with lights of all colors flashing through the oval-shaped ceiling, making a sort of pattern around but at the same time with no pattern at all. There was a soothing music going on as well, kind of like the one you would hear in a surreal doctor's waiting room or something. It is hard to describe as you can tell. Then I walked in the terminal with fountains with jumping water squirts, indoor train and live birds going around the ceiling (although I think the birds were not supposed ot be there). My last meal in the US... a Big Mac!!

And I was off to London!!!

I arrived at 6am local time, grabbed my bags and off to the subway. Nice trains, kind of small but alright... and I get to see the city; so much brick, and green, and trash, and dirt, and clouds, and different kinds of people... just like I imagined it. Although the streets are not very clean, the air feels fresh, the trees are very green and healthy and the green mushy outgrowings on the brick walls give hundreds of different tonalities to the walls. Hooray for the rain!

I made it to my brother's friend's (Alex) apartment on East London and after a little altercation with the neighbors, I got in, left my stuff and went downtown to meet Sarah, a high school classmate of mine who lives here with her husband. I had some time to kill so I started walking around the subway station she told me to meet her at. Lots of little parks, and two story buses, 1920-gangster-looking taxi cabs and then I ran into the British Museum, which has free admission! So I decided to do the "right" thing and culturize myself. Man, they have stuff from EVERYWHERE in the world, I mean, from every single important civilization that was mentioned in my history classes throughout the years. It just made me think on how far the British Empire's "hand" has reached out into the world in history. Pretty neat stuff.

Then I met Sarah for lunch... Steak and Kidney Pie!! delicious!!!

I met Alex at his flat that night, we went out for dinner at his girlfriend's apartment and we went clubbing walking distance from their places. We went to this club called 93 Feet East where they played live music. Little place with a unkept sort of feel to it, and guess what, the live band was playing COUNTRY!!! All this travel for this? Alex commented how weird it was so we left for another club called Cargo. There we danced a little and tried the local cider to end the night with a Salt&Beef sandwich (meat & mustard on a bagel).

cheers mates!

Farewell / Hello future - Adios/ Hola Futuro

english first - el post en chilensis viene abajo

even though i have not made it to Europe yet, i left Arkansas for good yesterday monday may 12. sad? yes! happy? yes! it is a mixture of feelings, after all it was some loooong 7 years in Conway. i got there 1 month before 9/11 happened... it's been a while. for those i didn't have the chance to say good-bye properly i offer my apologies. be sure i take the best memories with me of everyone and everywhere, i will miss y'all!!!! (notice the proper use of slang by a Chilean trying to speak southern)

ok, now i am in Houston TX. Rebecca (one of the girls i coached) is playing the US Women's Open qualifier and i will caddie for her on wednesday. on thursday at noon i will leave from Houston to London via Detroit, getting there friday at 7 am. i will spend the weekend in London.

then the real adventure begins! or work, however you want to put it...

for those who don't know, for the next 4 weeks i will be caddying for my great buddy Mark Tullo, who is a professional golfer playing on the Challenge Tour (equivalent to the Nationwide Tour here in the US for those who know about it). i will meet him and his lovely wife Mane on Monday in Poland of all places... i am looking forward to the polish sausages with sauerkraut.. yummy!! anyways, here is the schedule on where i will be with Mark and Mane:

week starting May 18 - Wroclaw, Poland
May 26 - Manchester, England
June 2 - Madrid, Spain
June 9 - Lumbres, France (not for sure yet)

after this i will go to Germany and meet my other great buddy Felipe Aguilar, who is also a professional golfer but plays on the bigger European Tour. the tentative schedule of my trips with him is:

week starting June 16 - Munich, Germany
June 23 - Paris, France
June 30 - Kent, England
July 7 - Glasgow, Scotland
July 14 - Lancashire, England (British Open! - not for sure yet)

like i said, all the dates are tentative, the only thing for sure now is that i'm arriving to London and that I'm going to Poland.... after that who knows!

after all the studies and lessons and everything, it is caddying what's getting me places.. weird

Mo

version espanol!

a pesar de que no estoy en Europa todavia, ya estoy en camino. deje Arkansas ayer lunes despues de 7 largos anos. tengo una mezcla de sentimientos por supuesto, un poco triste pero tambien contento por todo lo que vivi, la gente que conoci y las oportunidades que se me vienen por delante. asi que bien!

en este momento estoy en Houston Texas. manana Rebecca (una de las jugadoras de las que fui coach) juega la qualy para el US Women's Open y le voy a hacer de caddie. el jueves parto desde Houston a Londres via Detroit. llego el viernes a las 7 am y voy a pasar el finde ahi para partir el lunes a Polonia a juntarme con Mark (Tullo por si no lo ubican, gran profesional de golf) y su estupenda esposa Mane, a hacerle de caddie en su incursion por el Challenge Tour. el itinerario tentativo que seguiriamos seria Polonia, Manchester, Madrid, Francia (ese no es seguro). de ahi me juntaria con Felipe Aguilar en el European Tour para seguir en Alemania, Francia, Inglaterra, Escocia, Inglaterra (British Open... ojala!! vamos que se puede!!)

como ya dije todo es tentativo, lo unico seguro por ahora es Londres y Polonia (vaaamos con las salchichas y el chucrut!!!)

saludos a todos!

negro