Not my night

Went to ultimate practice last night. Hadn't been since our tournament in Milan 2 weekends ago. Here's how it went down:

5:45 p.m.  Caitlin gets home from work, exhausted from a full day with kids and a late party with my classmates on Sunday night. She runs a bath; I run out for a few groceries.
7:05. Dinner! Chicken, cheesy cauliflower and bok choy. But I only have about 2 minutes to eat, because:
7:15. I head over to the bus stop with my ultimate gear. It's a cold night, and as soon as I get to the  stop I consider heading back to grab a thicker jacket. But no, here comes the bus, I'll just hop on.
7:30. Wait a minute, why is this bus turning across the bridge? Aw crap. I'm on the wrong bus.
7:35. Get off the 271 and walk back over the bridge. Watch as the 23 (the correct bus) speeds down Lungotevere.
7:40. Back to the bus stop. Maybe I should just call it a night. Clearly getting on the wrong bus was a sign. I should quit while I'm ahead. After all, I'm still feeling the traces of a cold, and it's a chilly night, and there probably won't be enough to play 7-on-7 at practice, and it's nice and warm in the apartment, and I forgot to bring my book ... but oh, wait, here comes the 23. Fine. I'll go.
7:50. Hop on the 23. Phew. Right bus this time. And there's even a seat.
8:10. Off the 23, walk to the park. Lights are on, but no one's out there yet. Oh well, folks might be running late.
8:15. Still no one here. Guess I'll do some jogging.
8:20. WTF?! Guess I'll try to huck some discs from one goalie box into the other goal.
8:25. My arm is thrown out. And I still haven't made one "goal." Let's try some rollers.
8:30. Eff this. I'm outta here.
9:40. Back home. Oh, new message from Roma Ultimate: "Practice cancelled." Arg.

Ultimate v. Gaelic

Sorry for the delay. We've been quite busy with end-of-year school stuff. Of course, for one of us, that means exams, presentations, projects. For the other, it's parties, field trips and cave paintings. Also, for some reason we decided to fill up our last weekends of the year with intense activities. On Dec. 1-2 we played an indoor ultimate tournament in Milan. The following weekend, we drove to Padova to play Gaelic football. They were both crazy, intense, hilarious, at-times scary experiences. Here is a breakdown by category:

TRAVEL
Ultimate: Two days before departure, the assigned driver of our car had to pull out due to a family emergency. So we all had to buy train tickets. More expensive, sure, but much faster (300km/h !!!) and generally nicer than being crammed. We took Italo, a much nicer company than Trenitalia. Only downside: the family next to us was watching The Lion King. In Italian. With no headphones. Yes, it was cute hearing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" belted in Italian, but I couldn't concentrate on anything else. Another problem: we had no method of getting around once we arrived in Milan. So we had to bum rides from random people all weekend. Which turned out fine, I guess, but was certainly annoying.
Gaelic: No train this time. It was 5 people in one car (a large sedan, by European standards), all the way up to Padova. But after leaving Caitlin's school just past 5 p.m., we hit nasty traffic (highway construction on Friday night of a holiday weekend!? WTF!?), then nasty weather (snow!? WTF!?). Throw in the uncooperative Tom-Tom, and the drive took a whopping 10 hours. That's right, we pulled in at 3 a.m.

ACCOMMODATIONS
Ultimate: We slept on a gym floor with about 100 other ultimate players.
Gaelic: We stayed in a beautiful agriturismo, complete with parlor, huge kitchen, spiral staircase and fireplace.

SPORT
Ultimate: It was my first indoor tournament. And after the first point, I realized just how different it would be from regular ultimate. The courts were laid out on top of indoor tennis courts. So, incredibly small. Hammers and blades were commonplace. Bone-shattering metal support beams were a meter away from the sidelines. Discs hit the roof or walls an average of 4 times per game. Also, the games were incredibly fast. Thirty minute limit, continuous play, rolling subs. It was pretty darn cool. I think we should bring the continuous play to mainstream ultimate. Even at major tournaments, the 5 minutes between points thing gets to be a slog.
Gaelic: Saturday morning, we were told our matches would be canceled. Too much snow. Our captains were furious. "We made that godawful drive. We are playing Gaelic football today." Sure enough, after a few hours of searching and pleading, our hosts found an artificial turf field. It's blanketed in snow, sure, but playable. We get a few minutes to warm up, and realize that ball, when rolled over the snow, collects a ring of snow like a miniature planet Saturn. Pretty hilarious. Temperatures are right around freezing, but once we start playing, it's fine. This is my first time playing a Gaelic football game. I play midfield, meaning I run around like a chicken sans head. I attempted a couple awful shots but didn't score. But it's cool: we were up 9-0 at half and finished with a 22-5 win. That's right: I am an Italian Gaelic Football champion! The Roma women were not so lucky: After the sun went down and temperatures dropped below freezing, the Padova girls won 5-1. Still, it was a historic match (an historic match?): The first women's match ever played in Italy!

PARTY TIME
Ultimate: We arrived on Friday to a party. In normal circumstances, we'd boogie down, but after a hectic day and tough time finding our ride from the train station, we just wanted to find our crowded gym and crawl into our sleeping bags. So instead of asking for a (potentially inebriated) ride home, we trudged through the freezing rain to find our gym. We got lost in a muddy field. Briefly considered sleeping in it. On Saturday, another party and another muddy walk home. And I learned something: the only thing worse than performing "the worm" at a dance party is trying but failing to perform "the worm" at a dance party. Do not post that video.
Gaelic: Our hosts arranged a nice aperitivo for all 4 Gaelic teams. But the forgot to remind the servers to provide food to all tables equally. We were crying with hunger and pity while watching the host teams eat seconds — thirds! — of lasagna. When finally fed, we were interrupted by balled-up napkins flying at us. It was a host team's table, trying to hit me ("Shaggy! Like from Scooby-Doo! Get him!"). We left early.

TEAMMATES
Ultimate: We were on different teams for both tournaments, which was unfortunate. My ultimate team hailed from San Benedetto. Great guys. Only a few spoke English, so it was a great opportunity to practice my Italiano. I learned quite a bit, mostly how to cuss. We were mostly new players, but a couple of really athletic dudes who could run and jump. In between matches, we'd go have a coffee and some pasta at the bar and talk and laugh. Fun dudes. Caitlin's teammates were also fun. They were playing nearly savage (6 members, 5 play at a time), so they were all getting plenty of running. They were also mostly Americans, and spoke mainly English.
Gaelic: Irishmen and -women spearheaded the founding of the teams, and most of the players on both teams are from the UK. A few Italians are sprinkled in there, too. I found myself using Irish slang: "lads," "pitch," "boot," "quid." Some of the lads on the team really know the sport, which is more than I could say. A really fun sport, one that we hope to continue playing.

Overall, vastly different weekends with vastly different sports. We had loads of fun playing both. But we think we might have to choose one to focus on this spring.

In any case, we have a busy few days before we head back to the States. We have a few dinner parties, a date with tram jazz, ants to kill in the bathroom, and a new private Italian teacher to book. All in all, it's been a fun month!

Bathtub follies

Just tried to shave while taking a bath. Not recommended. You win this round, bathtub.

4 day weekend!

We have a four day weekend and are excited to spend time in Rome seeing the sights. I had a busy few weeks at school with conferences and a big Thanksgiving lunch with over 60 guests! It will be nice to take it easy for a few days. Here's a cool photo of Andy.

Flooding photos

To catch the morning bus, Caitlin crosses over the Tevere at Ponte Sisto. It's a lovely pedestrian-only bridge that's often sprinkled with musicians and young lovers, beggars and drunks, tourists and night owls. It's also a great vantage point to observe the Great Italian Flood of 2012:

Normal river height

Wednesday 14 Nov

On the left, a photo shamelessly stolen from Google Images. On the right, a snapshot from Caitlin's morning commute on Wednesday. Note the water level against the wall on the far bank. And that water, as you can imagine, is moving.