Soccer on the Sand

Because there's no good alliteration for football.

Anh woke up all the guys a little before 8 for tea. Tea was actually at 9. We thought it was at 9. Ah, well. Ended up sitting with Harish and Anh before everyone else got there, people gradually filtering in. We heard a great story about a project Harish did on the marketing of Gandhi, wherein he talked to the producer himself for about four hours. After that it was over to the rolling beans, omelet, fruit salad and pineapple juice, internet internet internet, battery die, chill, little more internet. I tried to work on my essay but I've hit something of a roadblock.

Sat around for some of the afternoon, went to dinner around four. There was mass confusion when it come to the money and Michelle trying to pay with a card and all this shenanigans, but finally Swaffy, Michelle and I went to the winery, I had cheesy garlic bread, chicken burger with cheese, and a sweet lime soda. It was all very good. Michelle paid with the money she owed Denny, I came back and chilled with Nate and read for a little bit.

The other night while we were at meditation, Nate had played soccer with some guys down on the beach. He was going to meet them again today at 5:30 to play again, and I tagged along. We sat for a while, didn't see Nate's guys for a long time, or only saw one of them at a time. There was this little black dog that thought it was a big dog (reminded me of the Hestons' Ebony), which was hilarious to watch. Also people playing soccer, different crowd, some people in all white playing a game similar to catch with a small red ball that they tossed waaaaaay up into the air, horses, pony-drawn carts, people walking, parents, children, couples, people sitting, you get the idea. Busy place. Finally two of the guys Nate met showed up and the four of us started doing some passing, nothing serious.

They were both pretty good, juggling and that sort of thing, I mostly just passed. I wasn't as good as the other three, of course, but my passes were usually on target, my trapping was... eh, okay, I didn't do too bad. Playing on sand is different. The ball bounces at weird angles, your feet slide into it, the ball goes into the surf. This was high, dry, soft sand too, not even the packed wet stuff. After a while another two guys showed up, Nate was feeling tired and headed out (not like we ever sleep on this trip), so there were five of us. Couldn't play real football, so we played “foot volleyball.” It's like volleyball with soccer rules. 3 v 2, I was on the 2 with a guy whose name I later learned was Rippol. Or something like that. He was REALLY good with headers me... not so much. I got a few good ones, but just a few. Still, we were winning for a while somehow, and even when it tied up they never got very far ahead of us. After the first few points they drew a second line in the middle to settle arguments about whether or not the ball had gone high enough before it landed. I don't even know how that game ended, eventually a guy named Ajay joined my side.

Eventually Jake and another of their guys came down and we played 4 v 4, two sandals formed each goal, Jake joined Rippol, Ajay and I. At first I was up front, then I played back a bit, then they told me to go up front because I wasn't doing so hot, then they forgot about that immediately and I had to go back again. It's a very... different game. This was closer to the surf, so more on the hard-packed wet sand, though the tide was going out so that changed over the course. People here don't even TRY to avoid the game, so you have to watch out for people going through (Nate accidentally hit a kid when we were passing it around, the guy's father was really nice about it though. We let the kid kick the ball a couple of times and all was well.) Well, watch out for, and often continue to play around them even as they go. Not just people, though, but all the other games around you: had to kick back the other soccer ball's game many a time, and I never handed the guys back their red ball but we had to as a group fairly often. The horses weren't usually a problem, but the pony-drawn carts got in the way a fair bit. Our ball got stuck under the wheel of one once. We lost 3-2 or 4-2, though whether or not the goal counted if it went over a sandal seemed to change situation to situation. Ah, well. I spent a lot of time running after balls, too, but yeah, it was a lot of fun. Informal, though they were as serious on handballs as any game I've ever seen. Finished, headed back up, pretty tired, got a cold shower (more on that later) and here I am back at the Rolling Beans.

Sunday, February 21st, roughly 7:30-8:05 PM local time