Rumble in Rebel City

Wow, one thing I've noticed recently is the precipitous drop in readership on this forum, to the point of being dropped out of links sections on other peoples' blogs. I suppose I really don't have anyone else to blame for this than myself, since I didn't post for an extended period of time. As you probably have noticed (since you are, in fact, reading the blog right now) I have made an effort to blog more frequently again in the past weeks, although I find it very difficult to bring forth the time and effort in light of the amount of work i have for the masters course. So please be patient and show some understanding.

Regarding the masters and the work for it: this very moment I'm procrastinating on a microeconomics homework sheet (due tomorrow, 10 am) and a macroeconomics problem sheet (Thursday, 11 am). I think I'll be ok for micro, but unless someone bails me out on the macro by walking my incredibly unintelligent self through it step by step, I definitely won't be able to complete the work - just like every week so far.

In part I got myself in this position by deciding to take the weekend off from econ and go down/out to Cork - the Republic's second city and also the rebel city, where they drink Murphy's instead of Guinness - to play in what was billed as "the best ultimate tournament in Ireland." There were a lot of pros and cons to going, some of the most important ones being:
PRO:
- I get to play ultimate. I haven't gotten to do this much since the less than satisfactory ending (severing?) relationship with Truck Stop, a disappointing event for me not so much as a player, but more so personally. And with all the talk about the UPA series in recent months, I've been feeling the drive to go back out there and prove to myself that I may be out of shape, but I'm not yet the old, fragile, boring man I pretend to be these days.
- We were going to bring a returners-only big-boy (and girl) team and play some top competition in Ireland, So I knew I wouldn't get stuck playing shwag ultimate, which I hate.
- I'm incredibly stressed out, and I thought it would give me the opportunity to release some stress.

CON:
- It's far away, I had loads of work to do, and taking 2 weekends in a row off may not be a good idea. (I go to London this weekend.)
- Despite what we said earlier, the captain decided to enter 2 teams and thus I would be stuck playing with a bunch of beginners, which generally leaves me frustrated and not the funnest team mate. think of it as summer league in DC, but without Brody as my dump and him to make sure I'm less-than-sober for every fixture.
- Michael was throwing a birthday bash, and I knew that was going to be good.
- Co-ed team. Don't get me wrong, i like having female team mates, I just don't like playing ultimate with most the women out there. Co-ed's fun and all if there is coed juice involved, but when I want to play serious games, I prefer all male teams (or incredibly good women).

So late Friday afternoon I went home, threw some gear in a duffel bag and took the last bus of the day to Cork, arriving there around midnight. I used my Spanish skills to get directions to the hostel the team was staying in (I use so much more Spanish in Ireland than I ever would have imagined.... I go entire days speaking nothing but), and got to bed around 1, only to be woken by drunken room mates twice during the course of the night as they stumbled back in, and not recognizing me, make awkward conversation with themselves for a few minutes. After they had finally gotten to bed, I received a call from P., which they must really have enjoyed.

Saturday began with a game against Bologna, a top European team. Expectations for us were low (over-under on points scored was set at 2), but in a battle attrition we came out on top behind some strong play on the part of Dave (Irish national selection player) and this kid from Emory, Arville, who apparently has played with Sanda and Faust in BUDA. He was a huge asset to have around, as he could provide me with a passable dump, and between his flick and my backhand, we had an excellent deep game all weekend; despite being a split squad we made it to quarters. It was also during that first game that it became clear that I would handling most the weekend, also a new tournament role for me.
Weather conditions were about as perfect as they could be at this time of the year in Ireland, as we had about 12 degrees Celsius, and no wind to speak of, and it didn't rain at all in 2 days! I made it all the way down to playing in just a short-sleeved jersey in most games, and wore a baseball hat and not a winter hat. Considering pictures like this, and how warm it was that day, I was quite surprised by myself.
Overall, the tournament was worth attending, although I have to say that even the best tournament here would be considered a logistical disaster on the US college circuit, although the fields here were very nice and even were lined. if anyone remember Connor from Mary Washington - their one really tremendous played - I played him this weekend and we marked each other all game, and I also got to play and mark the top 2 players in Irish ultimate, both of whom were repping Johnny Chimpo - a worthwhile reference if ever there was one. Playing against that caliber of player also illustrated exactly how out of shape I have become, and how my vertical ability has decayed, so now I have targets to work on for the remainder of the semester.

The Saturday tournament party was themed as the Seven Deadly Sins, and so our teams decided to show up as a pride of lions - as did about 3 other teams. (Sloth was the other popular costume, for fairly self-explanatory reasons. I decided to go as a slothful lion, and just wore yellow shirts and had a whisker or two drawn on my face.) Nonetheless, the yellow body paint many people used gave Sunday morning a decidedly Simpson's look, as the color apparently had soaked into the skin and couldn't be removed anymore.
As usual, the party left me underwhelmed, until I was standing at the bar and decided - due to some bad advice - to just start taking bottles of cordial from behind the bar. Armed with those and a shot glass, Tommy and I then prowled the fiesta inducing young and old, male and female alike to take shots of "tequila/SoCo and lime" or "Jaegermester," depending on whom we were selling what color of cordial to. This was great fun and culminated in the following exchange:

German girl: "that isn't jaegermeister"

Tommy: "Yeah it is!"

Me: "definitely jaeger."

German girl: "No it isn't."

Me: "if it weren't jaeger, why would I do this?" [I chug half a Murphy's, grab the shot glass off the table, throw it into the pint glass, chug the other half of the glass, slam it on the table; then I raise my arms and yell:]

"jaegerbombs, I could f&€*ing shower in that shit!"