BASQUETball!

Here's a post from the end of last week!

Oct 1

I am sitting in my hamaca (hammock) right now and it’s nearly midnight. My family is asleep, except for my papa who is still at Dominos working. I am leaving tomorrow for Playa del Carmen with 15 other Calvin students, and it’s a much needed excursion for me. I absolutely love my family here but I am looking forward to having a weekend where I can just BE – a tourist, loud, American. Or maybe this is a bad idea, to think that because I’m visiting a tourist area that I can let down my guard a little bit. We’ll see.

I have so much I could update you all on, but for now, I’ll tell you about the basketball team I joined at my University!

I was thinking about how I could include exersise into my lifestlye and schedule here in Mexico, when one of my friends from the Universtiy, Nora, asked me if I wanted to play basketball for the Communications team.

It’s basically like intermurals, except each carrera – or major - in the University has their own team. So for example, my team, Communications, might have a game against Political Science, or Nursing students.

My first practice was last night, and I was a bit nervous for two big reasons. 1 – I’m still sick (since last Friday) and didn’t know if I’d have enough energy and 2- I’ve had really bad luck and experiences with Bball teams because I’m not the most skilled player :P

Well, practice was fantastic! I’m pretty sure the coach thought Bri (another Americana on the team) and I were incapable of understanding the game because of the initial language barrier. He asked us if we’d ever played before. Then again, when he told me I was a post, I heard “eres la postre” which means “you’re the dessert”, so I guess he had good reasons to doubt.

But, for the first time in my life I felt like I was a valuable part of the team! I actually caught plenty of rebounds, made baskets, and was part of the plays.  (I AM one of the tallest on the team here!)

Things that made me laugh / smile:

5.  Some of the girls frolic when they run

4. A few girls wore ribbons in their hair for practice

3. Another girl wore yoga pants

2.      2. At one point we had all the girls lined up shooting baskets from the same point for about five minutes. I believe about one out of every twenty shots made it in the basket.

1.     1. The coach, after playing basketball pretty strenuously for about thirty minutes, disappeared momentarily, and returned smoking a cigarette!

That’s basketball. Our first game I believe is next week. I’m really excited. AND I think that all the endorphins from playing / excersising improved my Spanish momentarily. Seriously, it was just flowing in my mind on my bus ride home.

Also, here is a photo of my schedule here so you can see what I’m up to! I tried to include my bus time just to show how much of my day is spent travelling!

You can click on the photos to make them big enough to read, or here is a little guide:

Camión/ Bus    PEPS- Problemas economicas, politicas y sociales de México (economic, political, social problems of mexico, in the mornings) AND Baloncesto (in the evenings) - [Universidad Modelo]  Spanish 315/ 342 with other Calvin students  [El Divino Salvador, a church] Lingüísticas / Linguistics ( Monday and Friday) [Universidad Modelo] AND Evangelismo / Evangelism and Capilla / Chapel (Thursday)  [Seminario San Pablo]  Ethnographic study [Universidad Modelo and Sol y Luna]  Almuerzo / Lunch with my family! [mi casa!]

Love

Alexa