Spain

At the beginning of April, I went to Spain two weekends in a row. The original idea was to stay for the week in between, but I had to be at the office for a few meetings (You can check out what I was up to in Switzerlnd here). The first tournament was La Abuela in Madrid, which was hosted by Quijotes, the team that I trained with duringthe first semester of my masters program.  It was a mixed tournament and played with Headless, one of the clubs here in Zürich. I didn't know it until afterwards, but it was part of the tryout process for the A Squad that they will take to the mixed Swiss nationals. There were mainly Spanish teams and we lost to the hosts twice, but did really well in all of our other games, so we finished second. I arrived in Madrid midday on Friday and  I had intended to finally visit the Reina Sofia, but touristed it up with some teammates visiting the Templo de debod and eating shrimps near Sol, instead. It was a great weekend: getting to know the Headless people better, (re)exploring Madrid (I tried and failed to find the bar where some friends and I were served a bowl of spaghetti with 3 forks as a tapa!), and seeing old friends again. So many memories of the good ole days!

Second place feels pretty good! (photo stolen from Q+D's facebook page)

The next weekend, I was back in Spain --this time flying in and out of Barcelona-- for the Costa Brava Tourney on the beach of Lloret del Mar. Lloret is kind of Spanish equivalent of Myrtle Beach, but for very distinct demographic groups: 16-19 year olds who are there to party and the 75+ crowd who is there to do the same. I played with Red, a team from Leicester, England. I had played at a few other beach tournaments, including Burla, with the team's organizer. The team didn't have many girls, so I think he asked all of the women he has ever played ultimate with to join. A weekend of ultimate on a sunny Spanish beach with a mini-castle in the distance? Sign me up!  There were three other pickups, one off whom came to Zürich and trained with my team the next week! The team was so much fun and very welcoming (sometimes it can be really awkward to be a pick-up).

The idea was to land in Barcelona in the morning, do something cultural (probably something Gaudí-related) and then head to the beach, but I just skipped the culture (again) ... I hope Barcelona will still be there for me to visit properly later. Usually, beach ultimate is played on sand, this beach was comprised mostly of  rocks like you would find in an aquarium - quite painful! We only won one game, but had a blast losing (and won the party... but I didn't really pull my weight in that aspect)! Swimming in the frigid sea is just what my body needed. My knee had been feeling strange for a few months and floating around let it realign or whatever needed to happen for it to get back to me not noticing it. However, trying to touch the bottom of the sea on the first day was just what my sinuses didn't need and I randomly had salt water coming out of my nose at inopportune times throughout the afternoon and evening.

The first party theme was "Happy Birthday." Here are several of the teams in costume. The winning team all dressed up like Marilyn Monroe in matching white dresses.
(all of the photos from this tournament were stolen from Simbie, a teammate)

!

 As it was the 10th anniversary of the tournament, we spelled out HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY in tin-foil and then danced until about 4 am!

Then played ultimate the next day, luckily the first game was at 11, so there was time for some rest.

The beauty rest was important for the "Black-tie" event that evening (It is a little difficult to look formal with only   and a day's notice of the theme, but we look pretty good- improvised ties and all!), which was followed by more dancing.

All and all, there is a lot that I don't miss about Spain: (most of) the food, not being comfortable with the language (I have started trying to learn again for professional reasons: I now know 242 words according to duolingo), it taking forever to get anything done, and the confusing university procedures, but in small doses of leisure it was perfect!