I feel strange identifying myself as "sporty" in the title of this blog, but today (and most likely only today), it's a very appropriate opening to what can only be considered the most successful day of my recreational sports career. Here are the bullet points:
1. Beginning of week: Drinks with friends to celebrate finishing some work. It was super fun because at the end of the night, I ended up teaching my British friend how to do the two-step in the middle of a Dutch bar. I had a blast....never in my wildest dreams did I think that would ever happen to me. I could get used to that.
2. Rest of the week was mostly just work...sort of blah.
3. Today was incredible. It deserves a lot of bullet points, so I'll break it down.
a. I got a full 12 hours of sleep last night. I haven't had that in a few weeks, so I felt so good today. Refreshed and ready to go.
b. One of the girls from work convinced me to go with her to the company's field hockey tournament. I'm not in a position to say no to anything really, so I said yes, thinking I was just going to be watching. This was a few weeks ago when I was very green with the team.
c. On Thursday, the same girl told me I needed to get a teeth protector for this weekend's tournament. Sister say what? A teeth protector? I'm not even playing, I said. She said if I didn't play, our office would be disqualified for not enough people or we might have to split up and play with the Rotterdam or Amsterdam teams. Unacceptable.
d. So I said sure, because again, I can't say no to things right now. This morning I walked to her house to meet her and another girl from our team to drive to Rotterdam for the tournament.
e. We ended up picking up 2 other guys from the office. 5 people, 5 hockey sticks and assorted gear in a Ford Fiesta headed to Rotterdam.
f. It was so cold here today. I saw sleet for the first time when we got the second guy. That's how cold it was. I had on 4 layers of clothing, so I felt toasty in the Fiesta, but outside was a different story.
g. Rotterdam, however, was beautifully cold. Sun was shining....I got some Vitamin D and it wasn't in pill form!
h. 2nd guy we picked up brought me an extra stick and shin protectors and the girl from work brought me an extra pair of hockey socks. I didn't realize that the correct attire for hockey for girls is a skirt, but there were others there who had on pants too because it was so cold.
i. I put on the gear and let me tell you - it is something else to have those huge shin guards on. I naturally run/walk very funny due to a fun disease....I found that these helped a ton. I actually felt like I was walking and running straight....like an unintended pair of orthopedics. It actually felt good. We'll see how it feels tomorrow though.
j. We started off with a clinic first, where they split us by skill level and had an instructor teach us different activities at a station and rotate. The instructors were professional hockey players in Rotterdam, so it was the best of the best. The only slight problem was that all of the instruction was in Dutch. I followed mostly by the demonstrations and just tried to repeat. Occassionally they would give me direct instructions in Dutch and then forget and give it in English. It was pretty funny to learn to hit the ball from Dutch instructions. Forced me to pick up the Dutch meanings of what was going on. Speaking of which, I can now say 1-4 in Dutch, Good Morning, Good Afternoon and See you in the morning and See you later. Super proud of that.
k. The stations went ok. I'm not a natural, but I think it also helps that I'm naturally lower to the ground and the sticks really aren't that long. I really don't have to bend down that far.
l. After the clinics, we had lunch and then began the tournament. We ended up having 2 subs (lies, I tell you!) but I ended up really wanting to play after the clinics. It's all fine and good to hit a ball around some cones, but I was ready for some real action.
m. We played 6 on 6 on smaller fields than normal. My team set low expectations for our results...most of them expected us to lose all 5 games we played, so that made me feel better. I've only played sports with other public accountants one time...let's call it the Great Volleyball Incident of 2005, where my arm was tatooed with the word "Spaulding" from the ball being jump served to a team where I was the most experienced player (co-ed Level C intramurals at A&M and 94-95ish at Trinity). Let's just say it was not a great experience. My public vow has been to never play any sports with a bunch of public accountants because in general, it gets too competitive and just not fun for those of us who enjoy sports as recreation only. I'm not judging the other side - there's a time and a place for competition, I just think people need to judge more judiciously where they are at when they decide they want to jump serve while up 65-10 in a 30 minute timed volleyball game. Maybe it's just me.
n. Ok long rant done. I honestly thought it was going to be like 7th grade PE, only instead of Mrs. M yelling in English, it would be someone on our team (or the other) yelling in Dutch about my lack of speed, ability and coordination. However, I was very wrong. The Dutch are GREAT at playing a sport for fun and not worrying about the score. The last time I experienced that was playing basketball/volleyball intramurals with LSF in college. I remember how much fun it was when J led our team in basketball and made sure everyone got the chance to score if they wanted to and was actively included in the game. That's exactly how this was. They first asked me for the team cheer, and I said it should be "Defense" since we didn't have high expectations of scoring a lot. So we shouted Defense and got under way. We definitely had the most team spirit. They put me back at the goal, only because I wasn't quite sure what I was doing having only you tubed field hockey the night before. If I had wanted to play up front, they would have said yes - no doubt.
o. I guarded that goal all afternoon. We played 5 30 minute matches, tied one, lost 3 and won 1. I touched the ball in every single match (and my teammates got really excited every time I did). I blocked a goal several times (at least once per match). It was really fun. The only thing bad was my teeth protector was slightly big. You know when you go to the dentist to have x-rays taken? I always gag when they do that because the adult version is too big for my mouth. I should have gotten the kid version. Don't worry mom, I wore it the whole time and only gagged once every 5 minutes or so when I forgot to breathe out of my nose. When there's a next time, I will definitely get a new one - kid version.
p. After, there was a trophy presentation (which those guys in Amsterdam won). We came in 4th out of 6 which was much higher than anyone thought we would do, so it stirred more of a response than the actual winner.
q. I will say I was sort of a novelty there...none of the other American secondees showed up from other offices, so there was a lot of easy introductions because a lot of teams were interested in the fact that an American showed up. I don't know why the others didn't - it was far and away the best thing I've done with the company to date. I met the most people, had the most networking opportunities and actually had fun in the process.
If you aren't up on field hockey, I would suggest you tube. It's a pretty interesting sport...one that I will most likely do a better job of following the Dutch team.
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