I lied when I said I do things with my life other than play ultimate

So, the previous post mentioned how I have burst on to the ultimate scene in France. Considering that all that happened between that post and this one was a nasty stomach virus, a lot of school work, and another ultimate weekend, I think I'm gonna stick with just talking mostly about my ultimate experience. Unless you really want to hear about what it feels like to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in your room writing a paper and praying that dinner stays in your body...yeah, thought not.

Actually, though, there were some things of note: HARRIS came to visit, which was extremely fun (even though I was in the midst of stomach virus love). We made dinner for my host fam, and wandered around Lyon aimlessly, and generally kicked ass just by existing in the same place at the same time. Also had a small world experience when we ran into a guy who is in my French culture class who went to GHP with Harris back in the day. SMALL WORLD!

Also, I finally had my medical visit for my carte de sejour. This consisted of being asked to strip completely above the waist and getting forced against an X-ray machine in a weird Lady Gaga pose to make sure that I don't have TB. Really, France? Couldn't have picked a better way to do this? Also: found out that the above mentioned stomach flu made me lose 4 kilos (I think...I'm having trouble figuring out what my weight has been since I got here, so maybe the weight loss wasn't that dramatic). The accidental bulimia diet works like a charm, folks.

But then I made it through all these trials safe and sound and somehow ended up in a car on my way to Nimes Saturday morning, after a variety of am I going? I'm not going...yes I'm going! fake outs. As I spent most of the weekend either watching or participating in games, I did not see much of Nimes, which was too bad. Fun shout out, though: on the way home from the bar where the tourney hangout thingy was Saturday night, we drove past the colosseum place where I'm 90% sure I got lost when I was in 8th grade. Good times!

Back to the tourney, though. I must admit, I had a fabulous time. The ultimate culture that I'm getting to see here in France is really different from what I'm used to in the States; maybe that's because I don't play club ultimate back home, or maybe it's just how it is here. There's so many French traditions that I really like, particularly the circle that both teams get in after the game. You mix up so that you're between players from different teams, and the team captains thank everyone for a good game and talk about what happened to make the game turn out the way it did. It's also an opportunity for players to mention things that made them uncomfortable during the game, like contact/fouling, and discuss the rules again if there were any disagreements to make sure everyone's on the same page. And then there's the obligatory game playing afterward. I'm pretty sure part of the reason this doesn't happen in the States as much is because we tend to have tighter tourney schedules, and we do cheer the other teams...but still. I'm gonna try to bring it back with me as much as possible, I think.

I loved playing with my new team. It's hard because I've been out of the game for so long and I'm still not totally back in the groove; I had a couple moments where it all got clicking again, both on O and on D, but I wish I could have been more together for the whole weekend. Still, I love them, and I feel like I'm starting to make friends, even with the ones I can barely talk to because I still have some comprehension/speaking issues.

There were Americans there, too! Lots of them! On a team from Aix-en-Provence. Turns out that two of them know Alisha, Jon, and Jennie (and have played with them). Then there were another two who were linguists! One is currently studying Irish (linguistically, I mean), and invited me to come see the lab where she works/crash at her place. I love ultimate players!

Highlight of the weekend: when the Irish linguist and I were trading info, two of the boys from my team started yelling, "Hey, she plays for us...no stealing!" I def got a case of the warm and fuzzies.

Highlights from a weekend of Ultimate

I spent this weekend with the Ultimate Frisbee team that I found here in Lyon, which was basically their "team building" weekend or something like that. Essentially, we went to this community center, played all day long, had a party, slept there, then played for most of Sunday against a Swiss team. Most of my highlights come from the party, which was not ridiculous so much as silly beyond belief. Here's a list of what I think were the standout moments of the weekend:

In general:

• Made real French friends, as well as some international friends.
• It snowed. We played in the snow. It was awesome.
• Learned some interesting new tactics for frisbee.
• Got to watch part of the Lion King in French (as well as witness a large number of French adults absolutely glued to the screen behind the 3-year-old girl for whom the movie was intended)

At the party:

• Sang along to Bohemian Rhapsody in a circle with a bunch of French people. They know a surprising number of the lyrics.
• At one point found myself pretending to row a rowboat with 5 guys while a techno remix of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song played.
• Danced like I was in that scene in the Breakfast Club. Apparently French dancing consists of bouncing around and waving your arms wildly. It was awesome.
• Participated in a dance-off. Several, actually.
• Traded shirts with a guy. My sweater was worn by at least three guys. I traded again and ended up in another girl's shirt. Apparently this is a team tradition.
• Got serenaded in French while doing a semi-cha cha to a French song.
  
• Saw some guy-on-guy dancing. It's not an Ultimate party without it.
  
• At about 5am when there were only six people left, had a weird Mr. Scott-like dance experience which involved a rocking circle, a chain of people, and lots of spinning. Later witnessed more Mr. Scott-ish modern dance between two people who each appeared to be trying to fully encompass the other person with their body.
  
• At about 6am, realized the sun was rising.
• 7am: still dancing
• 7:30am: finally went to bed, slept for less than an hour.

Basically, as happens any time I do anything frisbee related, I am now wishing my life could consist of an endless steam of Ultimate during the day and hanging out with Ultimate players at night. Alas, this is not the case. But I'm really glad that I decided to go on this little excursion, even though I went to my first (and only) practice last Tuesday, so I was essentially with a bunch of strangers. Once more, another reason for me to consider the Ultimate community worldwide as some of the friendliest, most welcoming and accepting people ever.