April Showers really do bring May flowers!

Sorry I haven't been posting a whole lot lately but my life has been pretty routine these last two weeks so I don't feel like I have too much to write about. The most exciting thing is that it has been getting really warm here during the day (like 85 or so) and really sunny. When I have breaks in my schedule at school I try to go outside to read and enjoy the sun. The picture above is the walkway near my school when I was walking with some of the other teachers to get lunch on Friday. On the weekends we go to Parque Retiro and I try to go play pickup frisbee on Saturdays when I can. Also the local bar area near our neighborhood La Latina has been full of people on Sundays since its so nice, so we usually go there Sunday nights to have a beer. This weekend we got to meet one of our friends Carlos' nephews David and Yago. David is 3 years old and Yago is 1 and half. They were both sooooooo cute!!! We went with them to the park and played with them. It was kind of weird talking to little babies in Spanish but they were both so adorable I didn't mind! Next weekend I am going to Mallorca which is one of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. I am really excited to go to the beach again and there is supposedly a lot of biking around the city which should be awesome! Also yesterday was Dia de la Madre (translation Mother's Day) here in Spain even though it isn't until next weekend in the US. So lots of love to my mom who is the best mom ever!! Don't know how I would have made it through life without her! I love you mom!

El Trofeo de La Abuela

Well friends and readers, spring has somewhat come to Madrid in that the weather has suddenly decided to be bipolar. Some days it is beautiful and sunny and warm like spring should be and other days we have lots of April showers. Lots of days we have a mix of the two. Nonetheless this weekend my ultimate frisbee team hosted our annual tournament for the fifth year. It is called El Trofeo de la Abuela (translation Grandma's Trophy) and it takes place in Alcobendas a town a little bit outside of Madrid. It was really nice to have a tournament here in Madrid and the grass fields were awesome! There were 12 teams there, most were from Spain but we had a team from Italy and one from Portugal. We started on Saturday playing the teams in our group which were Beefree a team from Italy and Fendisc, a team from Santander. Although we started the first game with some nerves we quickly settled into our style of playing and made less mistakes. We won our first game then a break. During the break however, we were busy working keeping score or selling drinks and merchandise. We played next against Fendisc and won that game as well! Our last game of the day was against a team in another group, Patatas Bravas from Barcelona. It was a hard game but we played hard to the end of the game and won. It was nice to finish the game going into the semifinals on Sunday. At night we ate a delicious dinner at a tennis club near the fields. It was one of the best meals I have had at a frisbee tournament!! After dinner we had the tournament party which was a lot of fun.

On Sunday morning, we didn´t have to play until 11 which was really nice. At 11 we were playing in the semifinals against one of the top teams, Guayota from Tenerife. Our goal was to get to the finals so we really wanted to win this game. It was a really hard game because both teams were very strong. We were neck and neck the whole game but we ended scoring on the last point of the game (universe point) to win!! We were ecstatic to go to the finals however we were up against a very strong team, Corocotta from Santander. Corocotta had won Costa Brava and we lost to them in finals in last year's Abuela. It was a rough start because it was raining and we were tired from our previous game. However we kept up and we went point for point with Corocotta. As hard as we played, we fell behind by a point at the end of the game and then Corocotta scored the winning point. They won 9-7 which was bummer for us but we were happy to make it to the finals and play a good game. After all the games we announced the final standings and gave our tournament gift. The gift this year was a wristband with the Quijotes logo on it. All of the teams were super excited to be sporting such an awesome team on their wrists haha! When the Quijotes were announced we collected our 2nd place trophy and our wristbands (as seen in the photo above)! Ole! A great ending to all the months we have spent preparing for tournaments. Viva Quijotes!

I bless the rains down in Africa...well the Canary Islands

Well after Costa Brava I had the rest of the week to go on vacation for Easter holidays...I know I'm super lucky. So Tory and I decided to go to the Canary Islands!! There are 10 Canary Islands, but we went to Gran Canaria which is one of the bigger ones. Annnnnnnnnd while I was there I found out that the Canary Islands are actually a part of Africa but are considered territories of Spain. So I went to Africa what what!! We arrived in the afternoon in Las Palmas(the capital) and went to check in for our bungalow, that's right our bungalow hahahha. We were in a complex that had a pool and we had our own patio which was really nice! After settling in, Tory and I got some lunch and went to sit by the pool. Later we went on one of many long walks on the beach, which actually reminded me of North Carolina beaches. There are famous sand dunes near where we are staying called Maspalomas that were really pretty. The geography in the Canary Islands was really interesting because it changed depending on were you are on the island. It was a beach where I was, but in the north of the island there is mountains and desert rock formations. It was so nice to be in a place that was warm and sunny all the time. The next day we woke up and hit the beach but much to our surprise it was reaaaaaally windy. I'm talking like covered in sand after 5 minutes windy. So after trying to stick it out on the beach for a little while we gave up and went to the pool. I wish I had a lot more to write about but the truth is that we spent everyday relaxing by the beach or the pool, soaking up the sun, and reading. At the end of the 4 days we were there I was really sad to leave paradise and go back to my normal life. I hope to get to see more of the Canary Islands and go to the beach! It was a great way to spend Easter break!

The beautiful beach!

Our bungalow, que romantica!

The Maspalomas Dunes

Feliz Pascua!

Happy Easter everyone!!! I am celebrating here by going to mass and making an Easter dinner. I just got back from the second part of my Easter vacation in the Canary Islands and I will be sure to post about it soon!

Lloret Costa Brava 2010...Frisbee Adventures Continued!!

So this week was my spring break at school for Easter and we got the entire week off which was amazing! I started the week off by going to play in the first major ultimate tournament the co-ed team, Quijotes, has gone to together this year. As I was informed by my teammates, this was one of the most fun tournaments of the year so I was definitely looking forward to it. We had been practicing hard all week and everyone was ready to go on Friday night. The tournament was on the beach Lloret de Mar which is near Barcelona. Although this tournament was one of the more expensive ones, it was nice because we got to stay in a 4 star hotel with an amaaaaaaaazing breakfast buffet! After the Welcome Party on Friday night we started off bright and early Saturday morning at 9 am. We played our first game and won pretty easily against a newer team. However, we lost our next game to a team from Santander Fendisc. But Quijotes rallied back in our last 2 games of the day to win! Then after beers, a shower, and lots of dinner we got ready for the Saturday night party. Costa Brava was really fun because it was such a big tournament, they had 24 teams playing from both Spain and the rest of Europe. There was even a team from Latvia! It was really fun to go to the parties and meet people from all different teams.

We woke up much more tired on Sunday from both games (running on sand is so hard!) and the party the night before. Quijotes came out really slow and sluggish in our first game and made a lot of easy errors. We did not play well at all and lost the game to a team we should have won against. Despite our lower morale, we had a long rest period and started our next game aggressively. We won that game and then went on to win our last game of the day!! Since we only had 3 games it gave me plenty of time to shower and take a power nap which was much needed. That night, there was a party as well and traditionally the Sunday night party is a costume party with a theme. The theme changes every year and this year's theme was eroticism! Every team goes together with their costumes and we decided to get some of those joke aprons with women's lingerie on them or a half naked man with as little as possible under them hahaha. I thought we looked awesome and had an original costume but we didn't end up winning the contest (it was a team that went with their bodies painted like they were wearing clothes). Well I thought waking up Saturday and Sunday was hard, but really Monday was the hardest!! Fortunately we had only 2 games Monday and we won both of them even though I was suuuuuuuper tired. The last game was the hardest and it was a close game but we pulled away at the the end by scoring the upwind point (which is more difficult because you are going against the wind). After a 3 days of hard games we settled in to watch the final between Guayota (a team from Tenerife) and Corrocota (a team from Santander). It was an exciting game which Corocotta pulled out in the end. After a long weekend of ultimate we went to the rewards ceremony to hear how we finished and we ended up finishing 9th out of 24 teams!! We had hoped for better but it was the same as we finished last year. I had an amazing weekend thanks to a great tournament!!!
Los Quijotes at the Costume party. So sexy!

Attempting to throw a good backhand hahaha.

Buongiorno Venezia!

Well lovely readers, last weekend was extra special because I went to Venice!!! I realized that this is the first trip I have taken outside of Spain (minus going back to the states for Christmas) so I was really excited. I went with the guy I'm dating on the frisbee team Alberto, his roomate Jose, and Jose's girlfriend Ani who also play on the frisbee team. We arrived in Venice late Friday night and met up with 2 of their friends Lara and Alejandro who guess what...also play frisbee! Who would have thought? Anyway Alex is studied in Venice and both are living there for the year which was nice because staying in Venice is really expensive. On Saturday we woke up to eat breakfast and have some delish cappuccinos. Then we walked around the center of the city to see the big sights. Our first stop was St. Marks Basilica, the Doge's Palace, and St. Marks Square which were all really beautiful just like you see in the movies! I hadn't realized how many canals there were in Venice and that you can only walk in the city. We were in a pedestrians paradise where you could walk all over the city and never have to worry about crossing streets or traffic, it was fabulous! We walked some more around the city to see the ruins of a 14th century castle and then it was time for lunch so we ate pizza! The pizza was absolutely amazing because it had prosciutto and lots of other delicious toppings. After lunch we walked around the Grand Canal to take pictures. Then Alex and Lara made us spaghetti carbonara for dinner. On Sunday we got up to get some typical Venetian pastries that was like a sugared bread with dates in it and watch the Formula 1 race. Formula 1 is the european version of Nascar so classier but still just as boring. However, a Spanish racer Fernando Alonso was favored to win so we went to eat some snacks, watch the race, and drink a typical Venetian drink called a Spritz. After the race we ate some lunch and took a boat ride on the Valporetto (no I didn't go on a gondola because they were ridiculously expensive). The Valporetto is the Venice version of the metro so you just hop on and can tour around the canals. After so much walking I was pretty exhausted on Sunday so I slept really well. On our last day we went inside of St. Mark's Basilica and toured around some of the Murano glass shops that are really famous. I bought some souvenirs and we ate some more pizza! After taking sips of our last cappuccino, we headed back to the airport and back to the real world (sniff, sniff). As always, here are some pictures!

With a gondolero that looks super enthusiastic to be in this picture with me.

The Grand Canal and Rialto Bridge
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Alberto and I on one of the canals
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Cremas Beach Challenge

After a couple weekends of not doing to much because the weather has been really terrible here lately (lots of rain and cold boooooo), I got to go to another frisbee tournament!!! This time the tournament was on the Castelldefels beach near Barcelona and it was a women´s tournament. Since our team usually plays coed Ultimate we don´t have a ton of opportunities to play/practice with the girls we do have. However, the girls team in Barcelona organized a women´s tournament since there really aren´t that many. We had 7 girls from our team go to the tournament and another girl who plays for a team outside of Barcelona met with us there to play on our team. The tournament was on the beach which was really fun but I am quickly learning that beach ultimate is almost a different game than grass ultimate. It is a lot more difficult to run and cut in sand so everything takes a lot longer in beach ultimate and is a lot more tiring. Since there is no beach in Madrid we don´t have the opportunity to practice on beach, it is a bit of a disadvantage. However, I got to layout lots of times over the weekend so I was really happy!!! We played four games on Saturday against a team from London, 2 teams from Spain, and one from France. We won the first game but then lost the next 3. After a delicious dinner of salad, jamon, pineapple, and pasta and then a fun party on Saturday night we woke up ready to play Sunday! We won both our games on Sunday which was really exciting, finishing 3 and 3. Not bad for a team that never practices together. We are going to try to make an effort to practice together more as a women´s team so we can be ready for other tournaments. Although I really like playing coed, I do miss playing on a women´s team in some ways. At the end of the tournament, we finished 4th out of 7 teams. The icing on the cake to a great weekend, was that our team won the Spirit of the Game award!!! We won a giant plastic Chupa Chup (the lollipop brand here) filled with lots of lollipops! It was great to fly back carrying our massive lollipop with us through the airport. All in all, an awesome weekend playing my favorite sport!