Throughout this blog I am just going to talk about our plane ride, first impressions of the country of Romania, the people, our practice schedule and any experiences we have here so enjoy! =)
RaNgeD and I had left Washington on March 15th and were headed to the other side of the world. We had a full 13 hour flight ahead of us and couldn't be more excited for what was in front of us. Myself not being the best gamer, saw this opportunity and jumped on it. I had a chance to focus on playing Starcraft for 8+ hours a day and pursue my dream of being a progamer. The best part was it was in another country and we were getting paid for it =)
We flew out of Seatac and were nervous as hell for what was lying ahead of us. The plane ride turned out not being as bad as we thought because of the company we had from the drunken little old man and tipsy old lady next to us. We were able to hear stories from the old man's past and laugh at his sense of humor. Shortly into the flight (after a glass of scotch and a beer) the old man was cracking jokes, hitting on the stuardist, bumping his food tray in the back of a mans heads while calling him a "lady". We didnt get much sleep, especially myself, being afraid of heights. We hit quite a bit of turbulance over greenland and it scared the hell out of me haha. We finally landed in Frankfurt, Germany and had a 90 minute overlay to Romania. Nothing too special from the overlay to Romania.
Finally we were so happy to have landed and get off the plane once again. Andrei (CEO of Newrosoft) picked us up and showed us our apartment, where we werent too sure what we thought of it at first. After dropping off our luggage he brought us to the companies office, which I can say for myself I absolutely love. We have a solid setup and i believe like 27' monitors. I personally use a basic dynex keyboard and a cheapy $10 logitech mouse. The PC I am currently on has 4GB of RAM, an AMD Phenox II x4 965 processor, and an ATI Radeon HD 4600 series gfx card. (should be streaming within the next few days here). The other employees at the office here are really nice and outgoing. No one appears to be shy here in Romania. and beer is the way of life!!! haha. They have beer at mcdonalds, gas stations, malls, anywhere you can think of. Driving is off the wall. There's honking, cars passing by you on the other side of the road a few inches away, trams everywhere, people running in the road (also it appears cars have the right of way vs people). All the locks on doors are upside down compared to the US, cars park on the sidewalk as well haha. The women here are absolutely beautiful. It's pretty much a dream come true in how many beautiful girls walk the streets here. In Cali, it is said we have the "hottest" or the most amazing looking, I would have to argue this with the beauty of these girls. WoW is all I can say! =) Getting used the language barrier is the hardest part of living in another country. Not knowing the actual language makes it rough and not very many Romanian's know English, now I know how it feels for all the hispanic people in California hehe ^,- RaNgeD keeps trying to buy water and every bottle he gets seems to be carbinated since we cant read labels haha.
Monday through Friday we show up at the office at 9am and leave around 6pm. Right now our practice schedule isn't really anything in particular other than getting used to the EU servers and mass laddering, watching replays and watching each other play while giving suggestions. Although we have only been here for two days I have already noticed a shift in my play for the better. Small things here and there that I am learning and changing. Team NrS currently only consists of 2 players, being myself Justin "sLeEpy" Peterson and Austin "RaNgeD" King. Both RaNgeD and I were able to get in the same Masters division together and will be working our way to the top of the EU ladder. Last night we were talking with Andrei in regards to adding players and we'll be looking for additional teammates as well as practice partners, 2 for each race. In addition to this chat, we were able to eat dinner with NightEnd at a pizza joint. NightEnd is a very awesome guy, let alone an amazing player, be sure to check out TSL games today. The pizza is absolutely AMAZING here! As well as the beer we had (Skol), which I would have to say was somewhat similar to a lighter flavored Heiniken.
The city of Bucharest appears to be quite a bit economically lower than what I am used to in California, however it gives the city alot of character and it's colors. Stray dogs run rampant on the city streets looking for food and fighting for survival. Being an animal person it's a little bit sad but then again, I think it beats being put down in the pound!
Stay in tuned as I will be posting more and more blogs. Get to know Team NrS and watch our progression as well as results in tournaments.
NrSsLeEpy.567
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March 25th, 2011 - Blog #3
March 31st, 2011 - Blog #4