Thursday, March 24, 6:00
This past weekend was a *BLAST*. It was so much fun; I arrived in Lloret del Mar, where the tournament was, on Sunday afternoon. After dropping my stuff in Cedric's room (my friend from Geneva), I went to the fields - and by "fields" I really mean "beach." We played on the sand, which was fun but rough - rough on your lungs and rough on your feet. We wore socks but our feet were still red and bruised afterwards! I watched the first game the team played, and then warmed up with them and played for the second one. I played in three games total over the weekend; our last game on Sunday and the two games on Monday. We won all the games I played in, no thanks to me. I think I screwed up more than I helped, but I at least scored one point, played acceptable defense, and provided a back-up female for the team, which was actually quite important. In co-ed ultimate with five players (beach ultimate has 5 players; regular ultimate has 7 players), you are required to have at least one woman, but usually two on the line. Wiztoo (my team) only brought three women, so I was the fourth that allowed the others to rest a bit. Anyway - the point is, playing was really fun, if a little frustrating, but the best part was getting to the know the team better. I trained with the Wiz in Geneva, but we only went to practice; we didn't really socialize, so I didn't get to know the team very well. But when you're at a tournament, you go out to dinner (well, you go grab pizza), there are parties, down time at the hotel, breaks and in-between periods on the field, etc. You get a chance to talk to people, and hang out. And I was pleased to discover that all my French hasn't evaporated. Of course I had some difficulties switching back, but it wasn't as difficult as I had anticipated.
Some highlights of the weekend:
- taking the time to go for a solitary walk on the beach during the evening on Sunday, all the way up to the lookout point to appreciate the ocean and sunset.
- playing "Commando", a fun, funny drinking game with the team. It's kind of like Simon Says, only in French and you don't move around as much. It felt SO GOOD to be part of a team, with all of us yelling and making a scene together while other people stared.
- the party on sunday night: it was at this club in Lloret, we got a free drink, and the music was good.
- the ride back to BCN in Kian's "camping car" (that's french for motor home, or trailer); we played this complicated card game which means I now know some of the french vocab for playing cards.
- coming home at 3am after the party to a room I was sharing with Maggie; being woken up at 4am by two boys from the team, who were like "Can we sleep with you? we don't have our key." At least I think that's what they said ... to be honest I was so sleepy and it was all in french so I might have misunderstood. The point is that we fit 4 people in 2 beds and chatted/laughed until 5am. Then we got up at 9am to play two more games.
- getting a "bean burger" from burger king at 2:30am, after the party, and being surprised that it didn't totally suck ... I think this might have had to do with the fact that I was 1) still tipsy and 2) totally, completely starving.
What was also awesome was that everyone on the team had a flight back to geneva from the barcelona airport, so we ALL went back to BCN on Mon. night together, met up at Placa Real downtown, and went out for a night on the town. It was hilarious -- we were *those tourists*, singing and being really loud and obnoxious. For some reason, when I think big-groups-of-loud-obnoxious-tourists, I think "American." But there we were, singing "Cantare" at the top of our lungs in French, ordering litre after litre of sangria pretty much wherever we went, and just generally laughing and making a ruckus.
And finally, what really rocked my world was that it wasn't at all expensive. I stayed for free in the hotel, I didn't pay a player's fee because I only played for less than half the tournament anyway, I ate a free breakfast and got a sack lunch from the hotel for food on Monday, and although I caught the bus there for 8 euro, I came back for free in the camping car. Happiness!
Then, Kian, one of the players, stayed with me for 2 days because he was waiting for his girlfriend to come in on Thursday. So I wasn't lonely like I thought I would be for this week (since I have forced vacation). The day before yesterday we went to Parc Guell, this really REALLY cool park designed by Gaudí (who else?). I took pictures and will put them up soon. And yesterday we went to Hospital Sant Pau - an amazing hospital designed by ... (drumroll please) not Guadí! I know, it's interesting to note that there were actually other architects in BCN besides him. although you will be amused to note that I don't recall this guy's name. Anyway his style is very similar to Gaudí's, and the hospital is made up of several different buildings, all with cool intricate weird funky colored patterns. Strangely, it's actually a functioning hospital ... so you have all these tourists, and then doctors and patients. It's kind of odd; like would you really want to go to a hospital where someone is clicking a picture of the ambulance you arrive in?
AND, what's super cool is that THIS weekend is the barcelona lindy exchange! so lots of swing dancers from all over europe will be in town and there will be dances every night from now until Sunday. The only problem is that it's pretty expensive and I haven't asked if i can work to diminish the cost. Hopefully since I'm in the scene here I won't have to pay so much, and I can work the door for a few hours in exchange for a significant discount.
This is one of those weeks where I am just so excited to be here in Europe doing fun, unexpected, enriching, cool things. Yay!
Language spot:
1. You know the expression "My ass," as in:
Person A: "Bush won the last election fair and square."
Person B: "Yeah, my ASS."
Apparently it doesn't exist in Spanish; you cannot say "mi culo" with any sort of meaning. However, it's identical in french. "Mon cul" translates perfectly.
2. For those who know french:
Birds of a feather flock together = Ceux qui ressemblent, s'assemblent.
