Boston Invite

This past weekend Connie, Lex and I played with missCONNduct, the Connecticut Women's team, at Boston Invite. The first day started out rough - waking up at 4:45am to get there by 8am and then having to sit out the entire first game due to some weird subbing rotation because we had 20+ women. But when we finally got to play, the wait was worth it. We played some decent teams this weekend - a team from D.C. (perhaps the breakoff of Pi, the team Flip is on), 3 teams from Canada that all spoke French, a team from Minnesota called Pop(on which a former Ramona-ling from '99 played. It was really neat meeting her and chatting about the Ramona of former years), and the new Boston team called Hatch (playing them was like being a regionals all over again - there were a couple girls from Tufts, a few from BC, some more from Northeastern, etc etc. One of the girls from Tufts recognized me and asked if I had graduated from Yale yet ). Our final record for the weekend was 3-4.

A highlight of the weekend was when Connie threw a flick huck to win our second to last game on universe point. A flick huck!!!!! Connie!!!!!

Lex had a some great cutting and defending as well as driving. We were stopped on our way out of the parking lot towards home by our teammates because we had left the trunk open. Opps. And Connie and I were made fun of again for this last night at summer league.

I had a successful lay out for a run away dump throw :) and a few assits. Playing club is rough. The general feeling of the car on the way home was that we had never been this tired after a college tournament. But it was still great!

Overall, it was a really fun weekend. On top of all this ultimate playing, we also got to see a bunch of SuperMona - past and present - members. Sekol, Jasper and Friar - who from now on are the official favorite Superfly members - came to watch missCONNduct play for a few points. Raffi was also there and in is a close second with a clutch "Go Connie, Go Peach" cheer in our hardest game of the weekend. And on the shit list is Gabe - who did would not even wave to us from across the field. BOOO! However, it was really great to see everyone. Sekol, John Acheson, and Cantell are all playing for Colt 45 (Connecticut). Raffi and Gabe are playing for Philly Love (obvi). Friar and Jasper are play for Forge (Pittsburgh).

Aki was also there!!!!! It was really fun watching her mark up against Steffi (the '10ers freshman year captain) in her first game [Bashing Pinates v Mischeif]. Mona on Mona folks! It was actually amazing to see Steffi there. I haven't seen her since my freshman year, and she offered some words of encouragement for the coming season and captaining. Both of my freshman captains were there :) [Iris is on missCONNduct]

Other Mona players who I did not see/chat with much, but were there included Liz(Godiva), Tucker(Bent), Dorko(Bent), and the woman on Pop from '99. So, a great showing from Yale!

On Saturday night, I got to sleep over at Connie's sister's house, which is huge! We were so exhausted that we were barely able to shower and feed ourselves before passing out, but we did fit in a nice Cambridge stroll and some fro-yo (yum yum yum). And I got to sleep with Jenny :)

Miss you all! I can't wait to play in the fall with my dearest, darling Mona.

Love, Peachums

the great alaska jamboree

So this weekend was the one big Alaska Ultimate tournament, so here are the highlights:
-I joined a team that 2 of my summer league teammates were on. (An informal, 1 weekend type thing) As it turned out, most of the players had never played before, so we got killed all weekend (an admirable 0-6 record), but I had lots of fun. (I did a little handling...a testament to the badness of my team, and got lots and lots of playing time. so fun!)
-Saturday night was the big party (fun, but lame compared to supermona festivities). The theme was Red Neck mardi gras and I did a good deal of dressing up. [Think: rope suspenders, pregnant, braids, tattoos drawn in eyeliner (tramp stamp, a bicep tattoo and a chest tattoo)] So, I currently have the remnant of a heart that said "Billy Bob Joe" on my arm.
-After the games, the team captain was given a big bag of brownies and was offering them around. I knew to be suspicious but he said that they were normal brownies. Now, there was a little 10 year old boy (named Johnny) on my team. Johnny had a brownie. I didn't know this though. Johnny was at the party and swaying and talking about how the whole world was spinning. So I asked Johnny whether he had been drinking. He said no, so I was just confused, and let him be. He later stroked his brother's face. On Sunday, I heard the whole story and found out that the brownies were indeed special. Someone mentioned to Johnny on Sunday that there may have been grass in the brownies (that he ate Saturday), but we weren't sure that he knew what that was. Poor kid.
-I ran into someone wearing a CT ultimate shirt, so I started talking to him. I was trying to figure out whether he knew any Supermona people from summer league. He turned out to be quite a creeper (and gross and probably pretty old). (After our short conversation that ended, he followed me to my stuff and asked for my last name. why did I give it to him? He later nudged me and told me he'd like to see more of me in a very expectant tone. i said oookkay and told him i'm around at the ultimate fields at yale. uh oh...perhaps a large mistake. beware of alaskan creepers)

Attn. New Social Chairs

I know we haven't announced social chairs yet, but I KNOW what we're doing after SB 10. http://www.themovieinsider.com/m4382/ramona/

Hooray!

In other news, DC is great! It's hot, but great!

I've been playing as much ultimate as possible here. Unfortunately, that's not a lot because I have a 40hr work week and evening classes from 7-9:30 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Matty Barr has been a great ultimate buddy! In summer league, I discovered that all I have to do to get the disc when he picks up is run deep! Hooray! We're playing corporate and weekend league together. It's really unfortunate that my classes have stopped me from playing advanced league. Oh well.

I'm also playing for this women's team called Pi. The captain is ridiculous. Think about someone who works out as much as Liz, but looks way scarier (and incredibly INCREDIBLY muscular). She has us do really intense workouts. Man oh man. Unfortunately, I can only go to practice 2x/wk because I miss those darned weekday practices.

Oh, and I found a mixed team to play with when I get back to Minnesota. They're not that good (read: they're pretty terrible), but I would rather play with a bad team than no team at all. I'm also on the sub list for summer league there. Charks is playing rec league, and I think she's subbing for advanced. I don't believe she's written about it yet.

Speaking of Charks, I had this great email exchange around my first week in DC. It goes something like this:

MN Summer League Captain to Flip: I got your email from the waiting list. I need a sub for my team. Would be be available and interested in playing?
Flip to Summer League Captain (CC Charks): I would love to play for you, but I'm in DC. However, I have CC'd a girl on my college team who can probably do it. Her name is Charks.
Summer League Captain to Flip (CC Charks): Thanks for getting back to me, Flip. Charks, are you up for playing tomorrow?
Flip to Charks: hahahahahahahahahahahahah
Charks to Flip: i hate you.

Needless to say, I'm having fun messing with Ramona while I hang out in DC.

I gotta get back to work. This took a lot less time than I was expecting. More blog things to follow!

my new training buddy!!

announcement!:: i have a new official summer training buddy, and i'm quite sure he will help me to become harder, better, faster and stronger.

the fact that jospin is only 11 (he turns 12 in february, though he has claimed to be 12 already on multiple occasions. menteur) is entirely beside the point, because the kid has mad skillz. he is one of the kids at the orphanage, and i scoped him out (athletically speaking) the first time i saw all the kids play foot (aka soccer) in the yard. well, my instincts were right-- apparently he goes to a special school where you spend the morning training to become a professional soccer player!!

well, i had been challenged to a race by this other kid, bertrand, a few days ago, and when i went to pick him up (putting me at a distinct disadvantage- i had to run 15 minutes to get there!), jospin wanted to come along. it turns out that jospin, who is exactly 10 years my junior (his bday is feb 6, just 10 days after mine), is also exactly my speed, making for sick competition. i was reaallly fighting to win each of our sprints, but i confess, i don't think i won any of them, and am pretty sure jospin was a step ahead of me on the last one.

now, because i'm a dumbass and was running on a tweaked calf (maybe i could beat my new nemesis uninjured?) i have to RICE it a few days cuz it's really hurting. but i'm very pleased to have found such a good match and will continue to ignore the fact that he wasn't even born yet when i was in fourth grade, when he beats me at suicides next week...

i will try to report the results of our contests faithfully and accurately as they come. in the meantime, i am practicing my scoobers and low throws with my 12 year old 'brother', aptly named modeste, who has a sick backhand.

hope you are all happy and well!!
xox, clo
ps for those of you with time/interest, i have put a couple updates on the ol' summer blog (tho no pictures yet-- i'm really hoping to figure that out this week)- www.rightnexttonigeria.blogspot.com

Mandatory Coed Showers?

I'm finally settled in here, complete with having found an ultimate team. They are called the Frizzly Bears, and there's coed and women's. I went to practice my second day here, and since they don't have enough women, I was immediately invited along to tournaments. I'm the youngest, and many of the other women are really really good. Everyone forgets that I don't speak any useful German, so now about half of my functional German vocabulary consists of ultimate words (and the other half has the pharses needed to buy ice cream).
I went to German College Nationals last weekend (in Halle)! It was really fun; it was an open tournament, so I got to mark up on guys and girls of all different skill levels. They have a really cool end of the game ritual: Players come off the field and shake hands. The players rom both teams get in a circle, interspersing as much as possible. The captain of the losing team first talks about the game, and then the capitain of the winning team talks. They talk both about what the other team did well, and what they could improve on. Then, one team walks on the inside of the circle, and the other in the oposite direction on the outside to slap hands, and thank each other for the game. I also learned a sweet new WAH style game, it involves being bunnies instead of chopping down trees. We also played rock pape scissors with cowboy, ninja and grizzly bear.
At the end of the day, we walked to the showers, walked into the bathroom, split up guys and girls, and walked into a locker room shower, only to find it full of naked people. If you wanted a shower... To make things worse, the water was cold. Gaah. An interesting introduction to the German ultimate community. One of the girls on my team joked with the guys that at least it was less awkward because we wouldn't really ever see them again. We went out to an italian place for dinner... and ran into that same guy. Awkward?
There's a mixed tourney this weekend. I'm waiting to see what could be more interesting.

OMIGOD I'VE NEVER BLOGGED BEFORE!

Yeah, not even Livejournal. Take that! You are all surprised, I'm sure, given my prolific posting.

Well, chickadees, it seems that Corvallis Ultimate might not be of the caliber of Seattle Ultimate. That remains to be seen, but still, it was a shock to be one of the better players on the team. I mean, I got broken twice (slap on wrist), turfed two or three short upfield flicks, and was a bit of a butterfingers tonight. That being said, I could hear the other team deciding who would mark me, saying "she's good." What a boost to the ego! Intimidation factor! Yesss! On the next point I let loose a forehand huck that my teammate had, erm, difficulty receiving, I was so exhuberant.

But not to let hubris get ahead of me (since I'm DEFINITELY still huffing and puffing from that ankle)--I focused on trying to make every disc mine, and on being very heads-up. There was a lot of swill for the taking, especially since the wind picked up as the game wore on, and it was great practice not only for throwing and receiving in the wind, but for being a field-aware player. It was a fun exercise since the kinks in the teams' fundamentals will take a few weeks to iron out and it is useless to set a stack and yell at everyone.

Most importantly, I must mention that my team captain is a beautiful geologist. I love this fucking coast. I think he's dating someone, though. Damn. But he's really fun and chill and I'm sure he will dump her when I tell him about Oregon coastal upwelling and continue to bust ass on my in-cuts. It's only a matter of time. (Reality: BOO no prospects thus far except for a cute student in my building! EFFFF!)

In other news, the beer here is fantastic. What a mecca. And even if there are no boys in the picture, there are zillions of attractive granola men with beards and roadbikes everywhere. Better scenery than the mountains, even.

I love you all, strive on loves, strive on!!!

xx,
Dewey

Up!

I just saw it with my sibs. I cried, it was perfect.

Afterwards, Shawn (10 yrs old) zig-zagged through the theater seats and up the stairs to this door which he thought was locked but I just pushed the other side and it popped open -- TO THE ROOFTOP OF THE THEATER. So we filed out! By that time it was dusk, and the sky was aglow with red and pink. At first I thought I had to hold the door open (otherwise we'd be locked outside), but luckily explorer Shawn found the stairs, which descended into the parking lot. Perfect.

Hope Mona's collective summer is full of new heights and adventure.


Love,

Sonic

WARNING: really long post ahead..

well, mona, if i was looking for adventure, that's what i got.. i am safe and sound in benin and will hopefully have some photos soon.

for now, the past two days, play-by-play: my guidebook said "you have to be suicidal to ride the motorcycle taxis, whose drivers are like kamikaze pilots on crack"... which was too bad for me because the second i found kantos, my host, in front of the airport, we hopped onto some moto taxis and rode into the Cotonou night, through strangely quiet streets to a hotel. my room was nice but pretty lonesome for my first night in a foreign land, as kantos dropped me there and said he'd get me in the morning. in situations like these, i've always found it best to be colmpletely surrounded by people so you don't have too much time to think about why the hell you're so far from your family and friends. well, pas de probleme because in the morning, we climbed into a regular old sedan taxi (after riding zemis (motos) thru a total downpour) with 6 passengers on top of the driver! the totally smashed windshield was a reassuring bonus.... so i was reeeally glad when we got to lokossa.

lokossa is not exactly a city, or even a town by our definition... there is one paved road running through the center (or rather, it seems that lokossa just bubbled up outward from the road- it sprawls in all directions, so it's not quite accurate to call it the "center")- anyway, if you make a bunch of turns on dirt paths off the main road, you get to the path that runs up to kantos's family's compound. there is electricity, incl. a tv and light in my room, but no shower (a bucket behind the house)... and no toilet, just a latrine (aka deep pit in a cement room behind the house that reeks more than anything i have (or will) ever experienced in my life- the only way not to gag is to hold your skirt bunched up over your nose and breathe through it. it almost makes me look forward to my 2 weeks au village, where the great outdoors will be my bathroom.)

kantos is really nice, as is his wife, kristianne. they have 5 kids-- the oldest, olivier (whose name i can only remember as lawrence olivier) is 14, then another son whose name i keep forgetting who is 12, a daughter-- cynthia carolyn(!) who is 8, and baby twins adovan and naima, born last october. it is really nice living with kids-- they are so easy to talk to, and i'm pumped to teach the older ones ULTIMATE (the boys are already on summer vacation so we're starting today!). their compound is connected to that of a few other families, and they all seem to live like one big extended famille- tons of little kids running around. most people here speak either fon or aja (in fact, most speak both), but apparently one of the neighbor families speaks yoruba!!!

when we pulled up to the house, the women's cooperative was meeting under a tree right out front (about 20 or 25 women ranging from teenagers to old women, plus a bunch of kids), and by the time i put my stuff down, they were singing and dancing, so kantos brought me over to introduce me. a couple women were dancing in the middle of the cirle and then they asked me to dance for them (a la africaine!) so alors-- i had no choice but to dance!!! fortunately one of the women took pity and got up to dance with me, but it was quite an introduction!

after that, kantos took me for a little stroll around the "neighborhood" and reintroduced me to some of the women, in particular, a 22 yr old named emiliane, who is preparing for college entrance exams. i was instructed to help her pick these plants and learn how to prepare dinner. the traditional food is called igname pile- it consists of pate, a mush a bit like really smooth mashed potatoes (made from cornmeal) and la sauce, which is a mush of leaves/veggies and sometimes meat or fish. probably the messiest food you could conceive of to eat with your hands, but that's what they do. no stoves here- you cook in a pot over an open fire in a hut outside your house. it's the real deal, that is fo sho.

anyway, a bit of homesickness comes and goes, but i mostly have my eyes and ears wide opoen, trying to absorb this incredibly different, vibrant world i fell into and working on my far-from-fluent french. (i have a blog, http://rightnexttonigeria.blogspot.com/ , which i'll hopefully get to update every few days with pictures and news. right now all it has is this post, but i'll probs post my pics there because the internet here is reaaaally slow and i don't think i have the patience to upload them twice.) i miss you girls and hope all's well aux etats unis!!

Guess who was watching my summer league game last night?

a moose!! He stood there the entire time right by the sideline eating grass.
and its 60 F and sunny here in Anchorage. :)
I miss you all.

Checkin in from Dub P.

Also raining/thundering here in the BESTCHESTER.

I'm still eating bagels and other leftover tourney food from this weekend...

Is that weird?

Hello from the dirty, dirty

It's raining so hard in New Haven today! I wish we were all here and could have a sick, nasty layout practice. Oh, damn, never mind. It just thundered very loudly.

Okay, back to work now. But I want to hear about everyone's adventures!

Love,
peachy