A little of this, a little of that

As has been requested, I am going to write a blog entry, and maybe write about what happened when Katy and Rachel was here, but then I also have Berlin, and then when Dean visited, goodness!

Hmm, all right, some highlights: Katy and Rachel visited me about a month ago. They live down south in Hessen (around where Frankfurt it) and their two week Easter break came after Easter. Katy thought that it would be good to come visit before the Berlin conference, and I agreed, and then we invited Rachel to come as well, because she is lovely. They got here on Tuesday (April 1st) later than they were expecting, but when you are doing the car pooling thing, you can't say exactly when you will get somewhere. Oh well, we then missed the bus to go to the beach, but it was such a great day out that we walked it down there. We were about an hour late to Frisbee, but there were still 7 people on the beach, so with the three of us, that was 10! I always love watching Katy play, and she is getting better and better. Plus the students from Greifswald are always fun to play with, we seem to have a really great team dynamic so far.

Hmm, another thing we did was go to Rügen, yeah, I am jumping ahead a few days, but that was really the grand highlight of trip, other than going out after Frisbee on Thursday with a few other players and staying out at the bar for a few hours with lots of laughing and slapping people's head (sorry Katy). Anyway, Rügen was great. It is the biggest island that Germany has, and the smallest national park. We took the train up there. It was quite the overcast day, so there weren't too many people out, but we enjoyed the time anyway. Before we hit the park, we walked around a port, and there I had an incredibly yummy fish sandwich (which was less than a euro!) and Katy and Rachel both got waffles. I took about 300 pictures that day, we ate sandwiches that probably had some sand in it (since we put everything in my bag, and my bag was recently on the beaches of Rimini). And the hike was beautiful! The island is on the Baltic Sea and has white cliffs facing it. No, I don't know if they are like the cliffs in Dover, seeing as I have never been there, but these were breathtaking, even in the cruddy weather. A highlight from that trip was meeting an older gentleman on the path. We were about to turn back, but he informed us that we were about 400 meters away from a gorgeous outlook, and then there was also a little restaurant we could go to if we wanted to rest. So we found the outlook, which was great, and then went to the restaurant. Katy and Rachel got some coffee and cake, I got some hot chocolate. Oh yeah, there was also a little children's play area! It definitely revitalized me and the sun came out for our walk back to the train station.

I will write about Berlin tomorrow, but here is what is going on right now: really not much of anything. I have been able to chat with some friends from home recently. Heather and I are going to have the greatest combined party ever! But I am afraid that her all important 23rd birthday will over shadow my homecoming party, since it is Michael Jordan's number. We are gonna play a mix of jock jams and German pop the whole night, get excited. I also talked with Emily, which was amazing! I have been running more, and that makes me feel really great. There is a half marathon in Crystal Lake in September, and I am pretty sure I am going to sign up for it, which means I have get running. On thursday, I ran my first practice ever! We had eight people show up, which is fine, enough to do drills and it makes explaining things a lot easier. I tried to run a hard but fun practice, and the people who were there said it went really well. And we will be heading to our first tournament in May, and we have 13 people signed up to go, woo!

And today is April 26th, which means exactly 2 months before I fly home, some people are really excited and some people really aren't, I am both.

How my yesterday was great

Here area few reasons why my yesterday was amazing!

1. The weather continued to be bright and sunny. While it isn't as warm as at home (we reached the low 50s in Fahrenheit), it is still enough to get pretty much everyone outside walking/running/on their bike.
2. Instead of going to class, I went on a bike tour tip with an eighth grade class. They are a really sweet class that I haven't gotten to know enough and I am still struggling with their names. But the teacher who invited me on the trip was great and kept telling me their names every time I asked.
   
3. I brought along a frisbee, and got about ten kids really excited about it. Mostly girls, but hey, that is who I am usually trying to recruit. It was really great, we played on the beach, and you don't have to be the best at sports to like it (at least at first).
   
4. Some of the students and I had a great conversation, I asked them what they wanted to be when they grow up, they asked me about where I was from.
   
5. Angelina (the teacher who invited me) and I went out for a "coffee" meaning I had a hot chocolate. We chatted about lots of things, mainly school, but it was still nice to be outside of the school setting with her.
6. I had my first outdoor on the grass Frisbee practice yesterday. There were about 25 people there, mostly beginners, but they all seemed very happy to be there. I got a lot of responses for our upcoming tournament, and it seems like many people are looking forward to Monday and Thursday practices.
7. Went to the KSG afterwards, and people there seemed happy to see me, and I was happy to see them! The presentation was about being Christian and the politics of Germany, I pretty much zoned out for about an hour in half and caught myself day dreaming a lot.
   
8. Spoke to friends last night on the phone, woo! First, spoke to Dean, a Frisbee friend I met in Italy, then I actually got to talk to Ryan, for a whole hour! That was the icing on the cake, since we haven't talked like that in months.
   

And now I am done for the week, get to plan a practice for today, and basically chill out.

Paga: Monday, finally, the last day

After the terrible weather on Saturday, waking up to the sun on Monday was quite a blessing. It was our last day of play, one game, and the weather looked great. We would be pairing up against the American Gladiators again. We had beaten them pretty easily the first time, but we knew that it wouldn't be that easy. Our team was pretty much ready to go, we were clearly tired, but maybe it was the good weather that energized us. The game started out like most of our other games, they were able to get about four points on us at some point. There was part of me that thought, well, I guess this is it, again. At one point, the score was 9:5, them. We then scored the next point, and the two point cap came on, so game to 11. And then, we seemed to get into a rhythm. We weren't playing to win the game, we were playing to win the point, which ever one it was. That was a big difference, at least with me, just fight right now, and then we will worry about the next point. We then found ourselves up 9:10, the American Gladiators then scored another point. And there we were, universe point, who ever scored the next point would go home feeling like winners. There were probably a few turn overs in that game, but then there was a beautiful put to the back of the end zone, and Mike was there, layed out, dragged the line, and caught the most beautiful disc I think I have ever seen. Best Paga ever!

They were pretty bummed to lose the game, but we were still able to have a great post game chat and played a few games. Brendan led them in a common Irish cheer, and then the played Cowboy, princess, spoon with us. If you know mix and mingle, then you know this game. If not, when someone shouts out cowboy, you get into a pair, one player gets on all fours, and the other is the cowboy. For princess, it is partners again, and one of the players picks up the other (like you are carrying them over the threshold). And spoon is for three people, and you have to lay on the ground and spoon with two other people. As the game started, a player on the other team made eye contact with me, and we then were the first in the cowboy position. You are supposed to mingle with everyone, but the two of us stayed close by each other. After a while, both teams caught on as people were getting eliminated, and tried to keep up separated, but he would just rush over and we would end up not getting eliminated. At the end, there were three of us, two American Gladiators and me. They called out princess, and the other girl was shocked that he still threw me into his arms. For the win they wanted to play pokey, but I knew that I could never win at that, so I suggested that we play slap, where you try to hit the other person's bottom before they hit yours. I ended up losing, but then one of my players took him out, so I feel like it was victory in the end.

The rest of the day was quite restful. The nice weather didn't stay that much longer. The Austrian junior team won the juniors group, and it was a team that I got to play a few games with back in September in Erlangen, which was so fun to cheer them on at Paga! Huck Finn (and American team) won the mixed section, Bliss won women's (for like the 8th year, out of 10) and Scandal won open! Scandal is a team mostly based out of Chicago, and I met their captain last time I played Paga, and that was so great to cheer them on!

It got cold and rainy, and the shower was greatly appreciated. We had to say good-bye to our duke that night, went out for dinner, had to walk a few kilometers in the rain and wind, but the place we at ate was pretty wonderful and not touristy. They gave us real portions for what seemed like a bargain compared to what we were used to paying at the beach. Then it was time for the last party. But the last party was actually a bit lame. Maybe we were all just tired and didn't really want to mingle, but it was kinda quiet. The teams I had been hanging out with (besides my own) had all left. Around midnight, a player I had met the first night was going to the British pub in town, where all the British teams end up. Yeah, not only do they see each other all the time in the UK, but they decide to have their own party at a british pub? But hey, that turned out to be more fun than where we were. Five of us headed down there. I got to chat a bit with Russ, and then I looked around. Yeah, a whole bunch of people who already know each other, that's not intimidating or anything. But I was determined to mingle, went to the bar, got my beer, and noticed a cute looking guy in cast at the bar, hmm, easy conversation starter. Well, what started as a simple story (he broke his arm a week before Paga, so sad!) turned into an eight hour conversation! We even got kicked out of the bar, then watched the sunrise over the Adriatic. Perfect way to end Paga '08? Yes.
Bottom Row: Holly
Second Row (from left): Maria, Mike (Chunk), Jan, Bojan, Choi, Chelsea, Thierry
Top Row: Simon, Anna, Brendan, Michael, Bob, Ines, Andy, Lori, Martin, Emily

Paganello: Sunday

This is it, this was the day that made everyone miserable at Paga. The weather had been cold and windy, but not rainy, at least not too much.

Our first game of the day was not too early, so that was nice, but it was at this time that I noticed how tired I was. I thought that I was doing pretty well, but even with so many subs and not drinking all that much at the parties, and not even staying out too late, but the lactic acid was filling up quickly in my legs. This was my worst game by far. I had an extremely easy point block on me and an incredibly scrappy catch in the end zone. The thrower probably threw the disc two meters to me, and I was wide open, but for some reason, it still caught me off guard, and I fumbled with it twice, fell over, and ended up finally just holding it against my chest, which was how I kept posession of it. It was pretty much after that that I wasn't played all that much for the rest of the day. But I had also played a lot during the first two days of play, and Simon was trying to equal playing time (at least that is what I am telling myself). We ended up losing (again), with a score of 10:5, ouch.

Between our games we were all mingling, watching games and eating a bit. It was during this time that the cold rain started coming down. Everyone who wasn't playing ran into the giant circus tent, there was barely any room to move. That was something in itself though, fitting that many people into a small space. People were wet and cold, some were in good moods, some teams were trying to warm up for their games. I watched about ten minutes of another game before I gave up because it was so miserable out. The weather didn't let up for the rest of the day. And I am declaring those the worst conditions that I have ever played in, and hopefully will ever play in. Yes, I am from the Chicago area, and it gets cold and wet there. But I have lots of layers and cars to keep your stuff in, and also am always wearing shoes! That was the thing that really did it, it took about five minutes to lose all feeling in almost all of my toes. Both teams played really hard, the other team, Gronical D, called a lot of calls that normally aren't called at that level of frisbee, so that caught us off guard (like off sides). I finally got my lay-out D in the that game. For those of you who don't know, that is when I am on defense, and a disc is thrown to the player that I am guarding, and I need to dive to make sure she doesn't get it. It was something I had wanted all tournament. The teams kept just switching points, and the other team scored one upwind point, and that decided the outcome of the game. The final score was 7:6, them.

During and after the game, most of my team was asking how I was doing, if I was too cold. I thought that I was fine, and doing the same as everyone else, but apparently I looked a bit blue in the face. Our team had somewhat split up where we were staying , and some of the players' hotel was right by the beach, and Martin was going back to the hotel to warm up and suggested that I come. That was probably the best thing I could have done. It took about 15 minutes for me to warm up in the shower. Usually I am worried about my fingers and toes, but when my stomach took a while to warm back up, I realized that I really had been cold down to the core.

And our last game of the day, it was still cold and rainy, but it was the last game of the day. We went out and ready to finally win. It also helped that the team we played was pretty terrible. The only things I can really remember is standing and warming up by Alison (Si's wife) and hoping that my name would be called so I could go play some more. Early on in the tournament, two players had started calling me Hoff, which I am totally fine with, even encourage. But then Simon, who called the lines, started calling me that, but I wasn't used to that, I was used to hearing the e at the end of my name. Oh well, I still got to play.

I can't remember if it was this game, or if it was the last game on Saturday, but I made a play that I am still extremely proud of. Even though I have been playing frisbee for four years, I still feel like I have lots to learn, and really only learn when I go to tournaments because the teams I have played on were either at my level or below it. Anyway, one of our handler's, Andy, threw me a gorgeous disc to the end zone, but it was a floating and was a bit high. I needed to decide whether to jump up for the disc or turn and run for it. I knew that if I missed the disc, I would not have enough time to recover and run for it (which might have been a possibility on grass). In that split second, I turned and ran and had to lay out for it, but it was easily within reach. Things like that make me realize that I am getting better and playing smarter.

As I said, we had a fairly easy win with 5:11, finally! After the game, I pretty much ran into the tent, collected my stuff, then ran back to the hotel. But stupid me forgot that I was wearing another player's coat, and I had played the last point. When my name was called, I threw it to the sideline and totally forgot about it when I ran to the tent. I was reminded the next day of this, and went back to look for it, but it was gone, which sucks, a lot. It is just another way that I am still irresponsible. He said I didn't need to replace it, and it is one of those things I will pay forward.

That was also the first night that we didn't head directly to dinner, and had a fun time somewhat hanging out with the American Gladiators (mixed team from Chicago). We found out that we were playing them the next day for our last game. Food was great that night. The party was fun, we didn't dress up as anything crazy, it was the theme night, but oh well. I had made a bet with another player from another team the night before, and won that bet, so I got a free drink. After be bought my drink, we just stood next to the dance floor for about an hour in half talking to each other and other people who came up to us. It was quite fun just watching everything that was happening around us. We both had games at 8.30am the next morning, and were then really lame and headed back pretty early.

Paga: Saturday

Here I go again, really, I will catch up soon, maybe today, that would be great. Just a little about today, the weather is finally nice. It is sunny and not too windy out. The temperature isn't the greatest, but this is a heck of a lot better than yesterday or the day before or the week before.

Anyway, Saturday of Paganello saw more losses, in fact, we lost all of our games, which was a huge let down. The first team was played was a team from the Czech Republic. The weather that day stayed pretty solid all day. Again, we came out not that strong against them. I can't really remember all that, but the score reporter tells me that we lost 15:3, wow, didn't realize it was that bad.

Our next game was against a team called Croccali. We had to wait for the game before ours to finish. There were two women's teams playing, both seemed to be pretty inexperienced and there were lots of turnovers. Our game probably started about 15 minutes late, but we were trying to warm up the whole time. The weather had turned cold and windy at this point. This was actually a game that we came out to fight. I think they were leading at the beginning of the game, then we actually were able to come back and take the lead. But it was quite heart breaking, because we lost 9:7 in the end. No one on my team was smiling or joking around after a close loss like that. The other team was quite keen on playing some post match games, but none of us were really in the mood. During the game they had us play, one of our players, Simon, hit another player, Emily in the face with his hand, and she ended up with a pretty bad bloody lip. It really just seemed to go with the mood of the day.

Our last game of the day, we played a team called Frizmi from Slovenia. It was a tough fight, but I think that we had lost the heart that we had in the previous game. It was getting colder and colder, and we had to play at dusk. They ended up beating us 9:6, another game we let get away from us because we couldn't start well. Even though we ended up losing, we were still in better spirits than the last game. We played the game "Find the Duke." Not sure if I have already described this, and if I have, oh well. My team was based out of Luxembourg, but we only had one person who actually holds a passport from the country. So we all had to go around and say a sentence in our native tongue. We had one player who was from Bulgaria, and the Slovenians understood what he said, so that was quite comical. When the duke was revealed they couldn't believe it because Bob, our duke, goes to university in Austria, and they have played tournaments with him. I think seeing their reaction to our game was really what brought our laughter back.

The party that night was held at a club, which was pretty great. When we got in, we first watched the freestyle competition, which was so impressive. Then it was about midnight, and the open team I was chatting with the night before found me and bought me a drink, since I had pretty much stopped drinking alcohol from New Year's. We all danced the night away and the DJ for the second half of the night was Simon from my team. About a third of our team was on the last bus home, which probably wasn't going to bode well for us the next day, but hey, we were just having a good time bonding, right? That is important for any team.

Rimini: Friday

Yes, I am aware that I haven't updated for about three weeks, and for that I apologize. Hopefully you are ready for an influx of updates. Last I left off I had probably just left the Thursday night party. We ended up leaving pretty early (for Paga). One reason was because we wanted to get a good nights sleep, the other was because we didn't want to get totally drunk, which meant we just watched other people do that, and that is only fun for so long.

Anyway, we had three games on Friday, and our first was at a great time: 10.30am! The other team was seeded much higher than us, they were the home team, play together normally, and also play on the beach. My team was made up of 17 people (yes, that is a lot, especially for beach). We had 7 women, or maybe 8 (one of our female players came in really late and ended up missing the whole day because she was so exhausted). Needless to say, we got beat pretty badly the first game. The final outcome was 15:2, yikes.

In between games, a few of us headed over to the merchandise tent. I knew that I would only be looking, since coming to the tournament was pretty much breaking the bank. While we were over there, I saw a player with a "Chicago Ultimate" bag, and therefore had to talk to him. He ended up playing for a mixed team that is mostly based out of Chicago called the American Gladiators and we were going to play them our next game. I then met a whole bunch of the other players, and got a little homesick. And on top of that, they were staying at the same hotel as us, on the same floor! So that made for a fun rest of the tournament. It was great playing them the next game as well, and we won! My team had my say the talk at the end of the game, since I could speak to them on their "native tongue." The final score of the game was 10:6.

Our last game of the day was against the paris team. We needed to win this game in order to move into the top bracket. Before the game, I chucked around with Choi, a girl from Singapore who is studying in Austria this year. She is absolutely adorable. It started to rain a little, but I was refusing to believe that the weather could go sour. It did end up holding off (that day), and even though we were psyched up to play, the Paris team came out really strong. We would give up at least four or five points at the beginning of the games, and coming back from that was really hard. I felt like I didn't play very well, except for a totally sweet grab at the end of the game. It was the last point DeLux scored. It was meant for someone else on my team, but floated over him and I was able to grab it before it flew out. Unfortunately, it extended my right arm a little too much, so it was aching for the rest of the day (but was fine the next day after taking some ibuprofen). After the game, they played a few games with us, and then I got picked up by two (attractive) french men. While I was sitting on their shoulders, another girl on the team tied a piece of cloth on my ankle, which is a Brazilian thing. I got three wishes. Two of my wishes came true (they were that no one on my team would get seriously injured, and that we would have a great time). The final score of the game was 9:5.

We had our only full team dinner after that, and I think we ended up being 22 people all around a huge table, and it took probably about 3 hours to get in and get out. I got to sit by the team coach, who has been playing ultimate longer than I have been alive, so it was great just chatting with him and the other people around me. We finally showered after dinner, which was marvelous, because sand ends up everywhere. Most of the other teams had already gone and were desperately looking for food.

The party that night was quite a bit better, mainly because I ended up meeting an open team and chatted with them most of the night. Choi and I had grabbed some water and were heading back into the party tent. While heading, we saw some people playing a game that looked similar to something I had learned at camp. So we started chatting with them. They were both American, and one of them is a grad student at U of I! And then I said I played for Valpo, and he said that they would have played me then. I then said, well , you would have played our open team. But no, he coaches the women's team at U of I. Then I realized that I had seen him, or at least. Most of the women on the Valpo team really don't like him, I had no problem with him. We then walked into the tent with them, and then another player came up to me, and was like, "Lori, do you remember me?" Clearly I didn't, but then he said, "It's Alex!" Click! Alex, met him at Paga in '06 at an ice cream shop, him and teammate, then I got him set up with Wayne and April for World Cup stuff. Anyway, Alex was playing with this team that I had just met, crazy! Anyway, I went on to meet the whole team that night. Choi and I finally rejoined our team for the last 45 minutes we were there and danced the night away. It was lovely!