I am sure you are all horribly disappointed that I didn't post a Meet the Group Monday. I apologize; its been a hectic weekend. Do not fear, the amazing-ness that is the Wales study group will be revealed in good time, one person at a time.
Anyhoo, this weekend, many members of the group took trips to exotic locales such as Geneva, Paris, and Dublin. I, on the other hand, took a trip to the not-so-exotic town of Taff Bargoed for the annual Kayak Polo Tournament hosted by Cardiff University's Canoe Club. I got a ride up with the team captain, Eira, and her boyfriend Dave. It was an amusing drive. Eira is Welsh and Dave is English, and they got into a small argument over which country is better. My opinion was sought and I sided with Eira; I have a warm place in my heart for Wales, obviously. I also pointed out that England has always picked on other countries. Dave pointed out that so does America. Touche.
We got a bit lost, but eventually found the campsite, which was about a mile up a steep, narrow twisty road in a farmers field. We set up camp then ran back into town to get Chinese take-away, which was delicious. Other teams from throughout the UK started to arrive and set up camp. Several groups had enormous tents, and we sat around together listening to France crush Wales in rugby. Other groups arrived and played Hot Car, which is a new phenomenon for me.. apparently, you turn the heat up in the car until it is unbearable. The first person to open the door to escape loses. An entire mini bus played the game and when they finally came out they were literally steaming. It was an odd sight. I felt like a tiny bit of a celebrity, since I made the tournament "international" and was wearing a hat with a toothpaste brand on it.
I slept well that night in a tent I shared with a nice freshman named Maria. We got up bright and early and headed down to the pitches, as the B team's first match was at 9:30. The Cardiff Canoe Polo club was split into three teams: the A team (all boys), the Ladies team, and the B team (girls and boys, mainly freshers). There were 9 people total on my B team. 4 boys, 5 girls. The tournament set up was very cool; we had three pitches set up on the lake, and the teams just hung around eating food and watching the matches, with time keepers and referees that were volunteers from each team. Our first game was atrocious. We blamed it on the cold; the water and air was so cold that it was hard to move your hands to paddle, and I was very grateful for my dry top (called a kag (sp?) in this country). We lost every single one of our five matches that day, but we had a great time and improved as the day wore on. The other teams we played against were primarily boys and a lot of them were big muscly boys. They all had fiberglass boats that allowed them to turn faster. A lot of times our goal was left entirely unprotected because we couldn't paddle back fast enough! Thankfully, the boys were good sports and even gave us pointers to improve our game. The Liverpool team was especially nice.
It was pretty amusing because a lot of people on my team don't know how to roll, which is an essential skill in kayak polo. There is a rule that states if you have the ball, the opposing team is allowed to push you over so you flip. Good players can hand roll up with the ball still in their possession; we clearly cannot do that. We had to ask politely for the other teams not to "bin" us as it is called, or if they did, to perform a T rescue so we could keep playing without swimming. Despite there precautions, people swam. I was binned once, and had to sub out because of brain freeze. At the end of the day, we were all frozen solid but content with our improved playing. I took a hot shower and headed back to the campsite to get ready for dinner and a party at a local pub.
The party was hilarious, to say the least. The theme was circus, and it seemed that only the Cardiff team really tried to dress up, though there were quite a few mimes and clowns in the crowd. The A team dressed up as strong men, the Ladies team dressed up as tigers, and the B team dressed up as..... bearded ladies. We looked fabulous, especially my one friend who looked like a cross-dressing Jesus. The party got raucous as the Bangor team consumed more alcohol, and there was a lot of mocarana dancing and congo lines. We were all pretty tired though, so we left early and fell asleep instantly after a long walk up the hill to the campsite.
The next morning, we packed up camp and headed down to the pitch for our last two games. We were particularly excited because we were playing University of London, which was as bad as we were so we had a fighting chance. The game was intense, and we played well and had great offense, even though our defense was slightly lacking. We won 1-0 and I almost scored a goal! The other team was really good natured as well and were happy to be playing against a team more on their level.
After that match, the weather turned for the worst. It started to rain and the wind started to blow, and I honestly can't remember ever being colder in my entire life! I spent another hour or so shivering, then got a ride to the train station so I could head home early and meet up with Sammi Steinfeld who was visiting from St. Andrews in Scotland. I felt bad leaving my team for their last match, but I was very VERY happy to get on a hot train whizzing me back to a hotter shower and hot food.
All in all though, it was a great time and it was really nice to feel like part of a team.
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