Indoor Ultimate

This past weekend was my first weekend playing a full indoor, two day tournament.
2 days. 11 games. 5 people on the court at a time. Anywhere from 6-9 people on our team, depending on the game.

Games are 25 minutes each (or something like that), and the most popular throw to use is the blade. Or maybe the scoober. Or perhaps the hammer. But definitely nothing good and plain and simple like the backhand. Or the flick. This was SLIGHTLY irritating for fundamentally-boring me. Until I just started jacking hammers to the folks on our team. Even though a lot of them weren't completed, it was still more fun that way, and i began to see the appeal of indoor ultimate.

Being at an indoor tournament feels a little bit like lock-ins in junior high. You show up Saturday morning to this complex that has a dining area, some gyms, and a couple of locker rooms. And, really, you don't leave until Sunday evening. In that time, you play a lot of ultimate, but you also have a lot of down time. So during the day you throw around, you do some plyos in the hallways, you grab a coffee in between games.

After the games are over, you go out into the gym and find a spot with your friends to set up your campsite with all of your sleeping bags in a row. You shower. They provide dinner at the eating area. You stuff your face. You drink more coffee.

Then the games start. I think I played at least 7 games of twister. It was awesome. And card games. And suzy sticks (that is what the game is called when you try to knock the cup off of the stick with the disc, right?). Then we went "dancing"(this did involve walking outside of the complex to a different bar about 500 meters away). Dancing was lame. So I went back and passed out early.

Sunday morning = more coffee. Breakfast provided (cheese, bread, nutella, muesli). You roll up your sleeping bag, put on your stinky jersey from the day before, wonder why someone chose to hang their SUPER smelly socks from yesterday right next to your bag so that you gag every time you get close to your bag. And start all over again.

Emotionally, I think i am still recovering a bit from the tournament. Turns out it is pretty hard to go to something that you expect to be really familiar and then find out that it is run quite differently than what you were expecting.
The people that play ultimate are generally lovely everywhere, and I do appreciate how great this community has been at welcoming me. Primavera women are awesome - really outgoing and understanding and ready to listen. I don't know that i would be adjusting to life as well here if it wasn't for them. But I think the hardest thing about being homesick is that you never will know when it will hit (at least for me), and it is always the surprise of it that really is what gets you down. Every time I start to feel sad, it is like it comes out of nowhere, BAM.

But despite being a bit homesick (really only for a few hours Saturday night), I really did enjoy myself this weekend. It is fun to learn new things, new styles of play, and just watch different people interact. I don't think I am ever going to be a huge fan of indoor ulti, but it was a nice little glimpse into what people do here in the winters when they are waiting for real ulti to start.