Drew Housman, who graduated from Calabasas High School in 2005, went on to play 4 years in the IVY League at Harvard. With much success at Harvard, earning All Ivy League honors in 2007 and 2009, Housman has taken his basketball career to the professional level. He is now playing overseas in Israel. Follow him through his interesting and entertaining experience as a professional athlete in a foreign country.

This is the very first post that Drew published on his blog after arriving in Israel.

First Days In Israel

Posted Sept 5, 2009

After getting off the plane I had to go with all the rest of the people who were making Aliyah to a shuttle that took us to some far off office that deals with immigrant absorption. I was the first person in line but the last person called to be processed. Maybe they figured it was more important to get to all the families and couples before the one person who was by himself and under 25.

Finally getting processed went something like this:

“Do you speak Hebrew?”

“No” (Hearty laughter, most likely at the fact that I am becoming a citizen of a place that I have never been to and I have no knowledge of the language.)

“OK, sign here.”

This was followed by putting my signature wherever she told me to. Everything was in Hebrew, so I could have been signing over all my money for all I knew. I don’t think that was the case, since before she sent me on my way she gave me an envelope with 1200 shekels. It was pretty cool to have so many 200 dollar bills in my wallet, but I soon realized 1200 shekels equates to about 37 US dollars.

I was greeted at the airport by the two gregarious Israelis who are the owners of the second division club. We then went and grabbed a quick bite to eat, followed by the drive from Tel-Aviv (where everything happens and there are young people, buildings, beaches, stores) to Tivon (which they told me is known as a “nice place to live” which I guess means only old people, quiet homes, pigeons and stray cats.) But hey, we are pretty close to Lebanon, so maybe there is a whole lot going on over there that I can check out.

Back to the car ride, I have to mention how these dudes made about 50 phone calls during the hour long drive. They would just go from one to the next, sometimes with both of them on speaker phone at the same time. It was a lot of Hebrew coming at me at once, and I can safely say I did not under-stand one word. People always say “O, you’ll pick up the language once you live there.” I can absolutely 100% guarantee you that will not be the case. Hebrew is nuts, and I cannot get over the right-to-left reading thing. All the newspapers open up backward, and it is very disconcerting.

We finally arrive, and I go into a back room. I get all these cords hooked up to my chest and back, and they tell me to begin walking on a treadmill. Walking quickly turns into a jog, which turns into a run, which turns into a sprint. All uphill mind you. I guess the goal is to get you to 90% of your aerobic capacity. Throughout the running the other workers kept coming up to the computer and making gestures that seemed to me like they were impressed with my numbers. Who knows if that was really the case, but I’ll keep telling myself that. After what seemed like a half hour of running it was finally done, and I was dead tired. Like really, really, really exhausted. I asked the woman working the machine how I did and she said very well. I asked her if I did better than my room-mate and she replied that I did way better. So I am feeling pretty damn good about my aerobic capacity at this point, and saunter into the doctor’s office feeling like the man. Then, the first thing the doctor tells me is that I am out of shape. I was thinking whaaaaaaaaaaat?

He looked at my little readouts and said I had an athletic heart but that on a scale of 1-10 shape wise I was a 6.5. I don’t know if I believe him. In fact, I am sure I don’t believe him, but whatever. If I am a 6.5 now then I was about a 1.8 last year at Harvard, yet I was able to finish every running drill.  Something does not make sense.  Who knows if doctors out here have real credentials. He then gave me the expert advice that I needed to use one of those leg machines that you sit down on and work my legs one at a time, because my left hamstring and right quad are stronger than their counter-parts.  The day I ever use one of those machines again is the day I die, or if our crazy, misinformed strength coach makes us, which I doubt will happen.  One good thing is that we kind of get to do our own thing strength training wise.  If someone were to force me to do deep, heavy squats that would have made my life so miserable. 

We have early practice today so that people can have Shabbat dinner, which I will be spending with some of my roommates family, followed by going to experience some of the Tel-Aviv nightlife, which everyone says is awesome.  We now have a plumbing crew here to fix our terrible water pressure and patch up holes in the pipes so the 3-pound cockroaches will stop coming into our kitchen.  We are on the up and up!  So, that is my update so far.  More to come later.

To read more on what Drew is up to click HERE.