Day 10

After our inspiring experience at the soccer game, Taylor and I decided to head out to El Rio the next day in search of some soccer of our own.  We made the lllooonnnggg walk down the city-long park until we finally came to the futsal court that we played on a few days before, but unfortunately, there was only one guy there playing by himself, so we decided to just keep walking on and see what the rest of the park looked like.  We found a few more playgrounds along the way (much cooler than any playgrounds back home, of course) and finally came to a big graffiti-covered structure surrounded by a pond that we thought marked the end.  As we got closer, though, we saw that there was a stone staircase leading up to the street behind it, so we climbed up and found a shaky, yellow bridge to cross that led us to even more green space on the other side.  There, we found a lake with those swan-shaped boats that you see people rent in cheesy romance movies, and a big grassy mountain with an off-the-beaten-path trail leading up to the top.  Of course, we took the challenge and made the climb.  Here’s the view from the top:

A great, spontaneous surprise to say the least!  We hung out up there for a little while, taking in the great view of the city, then decided to head back to the futsal court to see if any other players had shown up yet.  When we got there, five or six guys were standing around in the middle, just juggling the ball and messing around a bit, so Taylor and I decided that we might as well join, too, in hopes that a few more people would get there shortly.  Within 15 minutes, another group of four guys arrived and all of a sudden we had enough to get a game going.  I just happened to be wearing a white shirt, white shorts, white socks, and my brand new, shiny white shoes that I bought a few days before, so this time, instead of “El Grande,” my name was “El Blanco.”  Hmm…

After about 30 minutes of playing, five of our friends from the program showed up unexpectedly, along with our teacher and director of the program, and asked us if we wanted to play basketball with them on the courts nearby. Since they needed us to make it a real game with enough players, we obliged. 

Having played very little basketball in my life, I didn’t know much about where I should be or where to run or when to pass or shoot or dribble or ANYTHING, so I kind of just hung out around the basket and got rebounds and passed the ball as much as I could.  Defense, though, was a different story, as, unbeknownst to me, you just run around and guard the same guy all game and no one else.  Much different from soccer.  Fortunately (and a bit unfortunately, too) my team set me up to guard OUR TEACHER—an older guy, about 5’8”, with a real Latin passion for the game—so I just followed him around as close as I could on defense, and did my best to run away from him when our team had the ball.  Right away, though, he decided to dribble at me really hard and went for a tough shot near the basket, but I matched him in the air and swatted the ball away and out of the court completely! Everyone laughed including him, and I told him that it was beginner’s luck and that I’d never be able to do it again.  A few minutes later, though, he did a similar move on me and went for another layup and I swatted it away again—this time with even more authority!  Everyone laughed again but I could tell that he was a little irritated about it.  He put on a smile and pretended to punch me and told me to stop being so “macho,” and I just laughed it off.  But then it happened two more times, each one more forceful than the last, and everyone stopped laughing all together.  I felt kinda bad and could tell that he was getting upset, but I couldn’t help it—I was just playing the game as best as I could!  He did make a couple 3-pointers over me, though, so he did at least get me back in some way, but at the end of the game when we all high-fived and said good game, he leaned in and whispered in my ear, “Tengo miedo de ti“ (I’m scared of you!)  All I could do was laugh.

After the game ended, we hung around and watched two of the guys play one-on-one with a six-pack of cerveza on the line, then made the walk back across El Rio in time for dinner at the dorms.

After dinner, since it was one of the guy’s birthdays, we made plans with some of the Spanish kids to take us out for a night on the town.  We hung out in someone’s dorm room for a while, just waiting for 1 AM to roll around since no one in Spain goes out before that.  How crazy!  I was ready for bed and the night hadn’t even started yet!  Finally, though, our new friend Casi, a Valencian local, born and raised, lead us across town to his friend’s apartment about 30 minutes away.  There, we met a variety of people who were all from different parts of Europe: one guy was from London, one from Scotland, a girl from France, another from Germany.  I talked with them all about soccer and asked them advice about what places to see in each of their countries when I go on my EuroTrip in a few months.  They were all very nice and spoke pretty good English, and we had a good time.

From there, we took a cab across town to a discoteca called “SuperClub 95,” where the French girl got most of us in for free since she was on the VIP list.  Very nice!  Inside, we danced like fools on the extremely crowded dance floor, and enjoyed the mostly American dance music mixed with the fog and strobe lights that you’d expect from any dance club.  We had a lot of fun and made a few other friends over the course of the night, and didn’t leave until after 4 AM!  The walk back was excruciatingly long and we ended up getting lost and had to ask for directions from a couple bike cops a couple times, but we eventually made it back and went straight to bed.

I'll let you know what I did on Saturday after I do some more work on my presentation that's due tomorrow.  Until then...

Much love to all.

C