Futbol this weekend was a little scrappy. On Saturday we won handily, but the coach of the other team started saying stuff to Cecy as we left the field and Cecy reacted in kind. On Sunday, we played this team who were just all around bitchy and yelled at the ref for everything. Plus they couldn't handle going shoulder to shoulder in the tackle, so when I went in for a tackle, the girl I stripped the ball off of kicked me in the back of the ankles. I appealed to the ref (successfully), and the girl was like, "Well don't push then." Later, I went into another tackle the same way and the girl tried to shoulder me back but ended up falling over. She and her teammates started yelling at the ref that I was pushing (which I wasn't, if you play football you know shoulder to shoulder is legal), and after that, every time I got the ball the other team was aiming for my ankles. The upside is that we won the game 2-0.
Today I had an interview with Catholic Charities in Minneapolis. I'm hoping to volunteer as a Food Shelf Translator at their south Minneapolis branch, where about half of the families who come in are Spanish-speaking and often have limited English ability. Assuming the coordinator I talked to today can get ahold of my references this week, I should be able to start fairly soon. I don't think it's a huge commitment, around 2-3 days, 4 hours a day, but it's good work, a chance to work on my Spanish, and it's something to do.
Other than that no real news. A quick update on Adriana, my injured teammate. She's home and recovering. A couple of my teammates went over to see her this weekend and said she's in a good mood, though worried of course about paying the medical bills. Like many Americans, she doesn't have medical insurance, so this will be a huge stress, but the most important thing is that she recovers well.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
A Hard Weekend
On Sunday afternoon, we were to play Tormenta in the Ecuadorian league. It rained off and on all day, and when we got to the field, it was very slick. Our coach warned us to be careful, as the field itself isn't in great condition anyways, and the rain just added to the danger of turning an ankle or knee.
Not fifteen minutes into the match, Adriana, one of our defenders, went for a tackle on a running opponent, lost her footing and slipped. It would have been a non-issue, except she caught her cleat in the mud. I had just stripped the ball off our opponent when the ref blew the whistle to stop play, and it took me a few seconds of seeing my teammates' behavior to realize that something very bad had happened.
When I reached Adriana, I saw that her left foot was turned at an awkward angle and there was a bump under her sock and shinguard that wasn't supposed to be there. She was yelling at Vanessa, our coach, to fix it, to do something, but there was nothing any of us could do, since none of us are trained medics. Sabina yelled for someone to call 911, and Vanessa did. Later, she told me that rationally, she had known she had to call 911, but it was like her brain had stopped functioning for a moment.
It wasn't until the medics got there and cut off her shinguard and sock that we really saw how bad it was. It was like her foot had disconnected completely from her leg and the only thing holding them together was some skin. Later we found out that it was only her shinguard that kept the bone from actually breaking through the skin. Everyone was really shaken up and emotions were running really high. It didn't help matters that the other team, Tormenta, were standing around laughing and joking like nothing was wrong. Some of my other teammates claim they heard them making snide remarks and deriding the whole situation. I heard nothing. But I did see them laughing and smiling, and both Romina and Sabi commented on it as we were standing there watching the medics wrap Adriana's ankle in ice. Romina wanted to know "Why the fuck are those bitches smiling?" and Sabi added, "There's nothing funny about this." Tormenta aren't known for respecting their opponents, and while I know there's no love loss between our teams, I don't put it past them to make snide remarks, even in such a serious situation.
I didn't really realize how shaken up I was until I got home and was able to kind of process everything that had happened. I guess I kind of got on auto-pilot and just started doing whatever needed to be done--gathering things up, making sure my teammates were okay, etc. It took awhile for it to sink in just how bad the whole situation was, how bad the injury was.
Vanessa called me last night to let me know that Adriana had had surgery to put some screws into her ankle. The dislocation had been fixed the night before, but there were still some broken bones that needed to be repaired. The big concerns now are how she heals, and how she and her family are going to pay for this. Vanessa mentioned that the league will probably take up a collection from all the teams to help with the costs.
Whether there will be some sort of action taken against Tormenta remains to be seen. No one in the league likes them, precisely because of their lack of respect for other teams/opponents, and the way they acted on Sunday was inexcusable. Luckily (I guess) Adriana's injury was an accident. If it had been caused by a bad tackle, I think there would have been hell to pay.
For now, we're just focused on making sure Adriana is okay and her family has the help they need. So if you have any good thoughts to spare, please send them our way. Thanks. :)
Not fifteen minutes into the match, Adriana, one of our defenders, went for a tackle on a running opponent, lost her footing and slipped. It would have been a non-issue, except she caught her cleat in the mud. I had just stripped the ball off our opponent when the ref blew the whistle to stop play, and it took me a few seconds of seeing my teammates' behavior to realize that something very bad had happened.
When I reached Adriana, I saw that her left foot was turned at an awkward angle and there was a bump under her sock and shinguard that wasn't supposed to be there. She was yelling at Vanessa, our coach, to fix it, to do something, but there was nothing any of us could do, since none of us are trained medics. Sabina yelled for someone to call 911, and Vanessa did. Later, she told me that rationally, she had known she had to call 911, but it was like her brain had stopped functioning for a moment.
It wasn't until the medics got there and cut off her shinguard and sock that we really saw how bad it was. It was like her foot had disconnected completely from her leg and the only thing holding them together was some skin. Later we found out that it was only her shinguard that kept the bone from actually breaking through the skin. Everyone was really shaken up and emotions were running really high. It didn't help matters that the other team, Tormenta, were standing around laughing and joking like nothing was wrong. Some of my other teammates claim they heard them making snide remarks and deriding the whole situation. I heard nothing. But I did see them laughing and smiling, and both Romina and Sabi commented on it as we were standing there watching the medics wrap Adriana's ankle in ice. Romina wanted to know "Why the fuck are those bitches smiling?" and Sabi added, "There's nothing funny about this." Tormenta aren't known for respecting their opponents, and while I know there's no love loss between our teams, I don't put it past them to make snide remarks, even in such a serious situation.
I didn't really realize how shaken up I was until I got home and was able to kind of process everything that had happened. I guess I kind of got on auto-pilot and just started doing whatever needed to be done--gathering things up, making sure my teammates were okay, etc. It took awhile for it to sink in just how bad the whole situation was, how bad the injury was.
Vanessa called me last night to let me know that Adriana had had surgery to put some screws into her ankle. The dislocation had been fixed the night before, but there were still some broken bones that needed to be repaired. The big concerns now are how she heals, and how she and her family are going to pay for this. Vanessa mentioned that the league will probably take up a collection from all the teams to help with the costs.
Whether there will be some sort of action taken against Tormenta remains to be seen. No one in the league likes them, precisely because of their lack of respect for other teams/opponents, and the way they acted on Sunday was inexcusable. Luckily (I guess) Adriana's injury was an accident. If it had been caused by a bad tackle, I think there would have been hell to pay.
For now, we're just focused on making sure Adriana is okay and her family has the help they need. So if you have any good thoughts to spare, please send them our way. Thanks. :)
Friday, June 19, 2009
A Pleasant Surprise
When I was in junior high, I used to volunteer as a junior counselor for the summer program at the park behind my house. It was basically like mini-summer camp for neighborhood kids and ran most of the summer. There were also senior counselors who were usually high school or college age kids who actually got paid for their work. One year, I worked with a senior counselor named Omar. He was really friendly and easy-going and one time I even ran into him at Southdale Mall. We didn't keep in touch, though.
Yesterday, I went to Children's Home Society and Family Services to do an adopted persons panel for prospective adoptive parents. When I and the other panel members walked into the room, I noticed that there was an African-American man among the prospective parents, which is rare. Adoptive parents tend to be almost exclusively white. In any event, I noticed him, figured "Cool. Good for him," and that was that.
A few minutes later, however, when I introduced myself and said I had grown up in St. Louis Park, the guy lit up with this smile of recognition, and I thought maybe he was from St. Louis Park or something like that. And then, when the questions started, he raised his hand and said, "Julia, I don't know if you remember, but we worked at the park together." And instantly, I recognized him. It was most definitely Omar, from way back when. He joked a little about how it was nice to see me grown up, and I was just kind of speechless with surprise.
Apparently he and his wife are thinking of adopting, and they're considering both Ethiopia and Korea. He asked us if we thought it would be difficult adopting from Korea because of his race. I answered that it wouldn't be so hard here in the States, but if he ever went back to Korea with his child, it would be very hard, because Korean society is so conservative.
After the panel, I went over to talk briefly with him and his wife. He said he's living in Crystal now, and teaching in Richfield. He and his wife already have a 6-year-old daughter, and their daughter wants a little sister, so they are looking into adoption. I wanted to talk more, but there was another panel after ours, and I didn't want to hold things up. But it was just such a wonderful surprise to run into someone from so many years ago and have them remember me and be so friendly, and then even more so to have this new connection over adoption.
Yesterday, I went to Children's Home Society and Family Services to do an adopted persons panel for prospective adoptive parents. When I and the other panel members walked into the room, I noticed that there was an African-American man among the prospective parents, which is rare. Adoptive parents tend to be almost exclusively white. In any event, I noticed him, figured "Cool. Good for him," and that was that.
A few minutes later, however, when I introduced myself and said I had grown up in St. Louis Park, the guy lit up with this smile of recognition, and I thought maybe he was from St. Louis Park or something like that. And then, when the questions started, he raised his hand and said, "Julia, I don't know if you remember, but we worked at the park together." And instantly, I recognized him. It was most definitely Omar, from way back when. He joked a little about how it was nice to see me grown up, and I was just kind of speechless with surprise.
Apparently he and his wife are thinking of adopting, and they're considering both Ethiopia and Korea. He asked us if we thought it would be difficult adopting from Korea because of his race. I answered that it wouldn't be so hard here in the States, but if he ever went back to Korea with his child, it would be very hard, because Korean society is so conservative.
After the panel, I went over to talk briefly with him and his wife. He said he's living in Crystal now, and teaching in Richfield. He and his wife already have a 6-year-old daughter, and their daughter wants a little sister, so they are looking into adoption. I wanted to talk more, but there was another panel after ours, and I didn't want to hold things up. But it was just such a wonderful surprise to run into someone from so many years ago and have them remember me and be so friendly, and then even more so to have this new connection over adoption.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Back in the groove
I played my first full weekend of football this past weekend, and I'm a bit rusty, but by the third game (yes, third), I was starting to find my touch again. I'm playing in three separate leagues at the moment, and the teammates of one of my Ecuadorian teams (Virgen de la Nube Juventus) are trying to get me to join a fourth ("Solo cuando descanses, no tienes que jugar todos los partidos!"). Sounds grueling, but to be honest, I live for these kinds of weekends. The girls are a ton of fun to be around on all the teams, I don't feel at all like an outsider, and for a few hours, I can just play football and be myself.
Finn, a Thai classmate of mine from Taiwan, came to visit me last week. She's going to be starting undergrad studies at UC-Berkeley in September, and she's taking an English class there over the summer, but she had a couple weeks between when she arrived in Berkeley and when classes started, so she hopped on a plane and came to visit. We spent a lot of time just hanging out and talking, which is what we so often did in Taiwan, but we also went over to the Mississippi River and took a boat cruise upriver and went to Lake Harriet to have ice cream and see a concert at the bandshell. Finn is from Bangkok, and she spent the past two years in Taipei. She was used to big-city lights and noise, so the suburban Midwest was a big change. I think she really enjoyed it though, and in any event it was just really good to get together again. Hopefully when Anna goes out there to start her graduate studies, she and Finn can share an apartment. Finn's relatives live right near campus and have a two-bedroom apartment that they're willing to rent out for a very reasonable price.
In other news, getting my Spanish visa looks like it's going to be the hardest part of this whole going-to-Spain deal. It's all paperwork and certificates and official seals, and the word is that the consulates are super strict about every little detail, so if you screw one thing up, you're out of luck. I guess after dealing with various other countries' government bureaucracies, though, I'm not overly stressed about whether things will work out. I nearly drove myself insane last summer with getting my Taiwanese visa and other things, but it all came together in the end and I had wasted a lot of energy stressing over nothing.
Finn, a Thai classmate of mine from Taiwan, came to visit me last week. She's going to be starting undergrad studies at UC-Berkeley in September, and she's taking an English class there over the summer, but she had a couple weeks between when she arrived in Berkeley and when classes started, so she hopped on a plane and came to visit. We spent a lot of time just hanging out and talking, which is what we so often did in Taiwan, but we also went over to the Mississippi River and took a boat cruise upriver and went to Lake Harriet to have ice cream and see a concert at the bandshell. Finn is from Bangkok, and she spent the past two years in Taipei. She was used to big-city lights and noise, so the suburban Midwest was a big change. I think she really enjoyed it though, and in any event it was just really good to get together again. Hopefully when Anna goes out there to start her graduate studies, she and Finn can share an apartment. Finn's relatives live right near campus and have a two-bedroom apartment that they're willing to rent out for a very reasonable price.
In other news, getting my Spanish visa looks like it's going to be the hardest part of this whole going-to-Spain deal. It's all paperwork and certificates and official seals, and the word is that the consulates are super strict about every little detail, so if you screw one thing up, you're out of luck. I guess after dealing with various other countries' government bureaucracies, though, I'm not overly stressed about whether things will work out. I nearly drove myself insane last summer with getting my Taiwanese visa and other things, but it all came together in the end and I had wasted a lot of energy stressing over nothing.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Back home
Well, I am certainly the worst blogger in the world, and I'm not sure anyone is still even reading this, but I figured I would make another effort this summer and into next year to try and keep this updated on a more regular basis.
I've been back in Minnesota for just over a week now, and the jet lag is finally starting to ease, though I did conk out for a good hour or two this afternoon without even realizing it. The key has been to simply stay out of my bedroom at all costs until the evening. That, plus lots of coffee and other caffeinated drinks.
It's hard to reflect on nine months living abroad. I'm glad to be home, I missed the quiet, Midwestern lifestyle pretty much the whole time I was in Taiwan. But my life in Taiwan was good, great even, and the life skills I learned during my time there are invaluable, as are the friends I gained from the experience. I'll be the first to admit that going to Taiwan for nine months to study Chinese after graduation was not my first choice, but in retrospect, it was probably a better path than going straight to graduate school. I gained some clarity about myself and where my interests lie, clarity that graduate school in the States wouldn't likely have given me.
At the moment, I'm facing a jobless summer in Minnesota, which is a little daunting, but a position as an English conversation assistant awaits me in Cebolla, Spain come October, and while the stipend for the position is hardly worth mentioning, it can't be worse than my first two months in Taiwan, when I was living on 50NT a day or less because the scholarship money was delayed in coming through. And with the economy the way it is right now, I'm just grateful to have something lined up for the future.
I've been back in Minnesota for just over a week now, and the jet lag is finally starting to ease, though I did conk out for a good hour or two this afternoon without even realizing it. The key has been to simply stay out of my bedroom at all costs until the evening. That, plus lots of coffee and other caffeinated drinks.
It's hard to reflect on nine months living abroad. I'm glad to be home, I missed the quiet, Midwestern lifestyle pretty much the whole time I was in Taiwan. But my life in Taiwan was good, great even, and the life skills I learned during my time there are invaluable, as are the friends I gained from the experience. I'll be the first to admit that going to Taiwan for nine months to study Chinese after graduation was not my first choice, but in retrospect, it was probably a better path than going straight to graduate school. I gained some clarity about myself and where my interests lie, clarity that graduate school in the States wouldn't likely have given me.
At the moment, I'm facing a jobless summer in Minnesota, which is a little daunting, but a position as an English conversation assistant awaits me in Cebolla, Spain come October, and while the stipend for the position is hardly worth mentioning, it can't be worse than my first two months in Taiwan, when I was living on 50NT a day or less because the scholarship money was delayed in coming through. And with the economy the way it is right now, I'm just grateful to have something lined up for the future.
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