So a surprise to many, I am writing this from a bus that is traveling from Richmond, Virginia to Wilmington, North Carolina. Yes, I have made it back to the United States safe and sound, and thankfully I have an American passport or I may not have been able to enter in the current state the country is in.
My week began as usual in Truro. On Monday and Tuesday I went to the gym, and then trained at Truro College. It wasn’t until Tuesday afternoon that I confirmed my departure from the club to return to the USA to pursue opportunities here. It was obviously very disappointing to have to leave Truro, but for the interests of my young career, I think it will be for the best. Tuesday evening I said my goodbyes and then took an overnight bus up to London, where I arrived early morning. I walked from the bus station to Buckingham Palace to say hello to Queen Elizabeth and then I met up with a friend who I hadn’t seen in 8 years. She now is living in London, so it was great to see her for a few hours before I left. I headed to Heathrow Airport via the tube and checked in smoothly. 

I flew Air India from Heathrow to Newark, although we departed nearly 2hrs late, we weren’t too late arriving into Newark. Thanks to my US passport, as I walked through customs, I got a “welcome home” from the officer. Always makes me laugh! I then took the train from Newark to Philadelphia. At the station, I met a German man who was studying at University of Auckland back home in New Zealand, so we had a great conversation to pass time during the trip. I arrived into Philadelphia greeted by a big hug and a familiar face, my Aunt Anne. We headed home to drop my things off and then headed to dinner. It was lovely to be reunited with family and have nice conversation for dinner. After dinner, I re-organized my bags, as much of my stuff is stored at Anne’s from my time at University.

After a good sleep, I had a productive morning before I got on my next train to Richmond, Virginia. The ride wasn’t too bad and I was picked up from the station. When I knew that I was coming to Richmond, I reached out to friends who might know someone with a spare bed or couch, and the return was amazing. A wonderful family offered me to stay in a house that was vacant for the weekend as they were away. It was great to have my own space to relax in during the weekend, I just had to put up with two cats which wasn’t too bad. Friday morning I went for a morning run before I stocked up on groceries for the next few days before I relaxed until the afternoon.

The whole reason why returned was to pursue some opportunities with football here in the USA. The first one was an invite to a trial for the Richmond Kickers in the USL. As it goes in America, open tryouts, although being invited, can be up and down. There was obviously a stronger group of players that seemed to be seriously looked at, and thankfully I was in that group. Whether or not they liked me or not as a player was up to them. Over the course of the 3 days, there was a fair bit of football played, and I was pleased with my performance. In these situations, there is only so much you can do, and now it is in the hands of the Kickers staff. One surprise from the weekend was that of an old teammate of mine from back in NZ was there. James had gone to University in the States, however we had played together back in 2011 for Canterbury United when we won the National Youth League. It was good to catch up with him and play alongside him one again.

So it has been a hectic week for me, in pursuit of new opportunities and the week ahead will be an interesting one as well. For now it is back to training hard and catching up with my friend in Myrtle Beach!