Costa Rican Ultimate

After my first day of class and afterschool futbol, I played ultimate with more than five people OUTSIDE on a REAL SIZED field that we were not sharing with cows. It is an understatement to say that I was thrilled. I have missed running around chasing discs and watching the game on the sidelines. Ben found this pick-up group through a few google searches and e-mails and eventually got in touch with Kevin and Amy, a estadunidense couple who has been living in here since the 1970s. They gave us a ride there and back--incredibly generous. They both served in the PeaceCorp in Costa Rica and then liked it so much that they stuck around, found jobs at the embassy, had children, and found a great group of josefinos (as San Jose folk call themselves) to play frisbee with twice a week.

It's an eclectic bunch with estadounidenses here for a few months or for the rest of their lives, Ticos from San Jose, twenty-year olds, forty-year olds, and a fair number of women. Some of these people have been playing together for more than 10 years, so it's great (and educational) to watch them play and to (unsuccessfully, generally) guard them. They have really good field-sense, or an understanding of where other people and the disc are on the field and where there is space to move the disc on the field.

The only down-side to the evening was that I got slammed by some guys twice my size when I was going for the disc. So my arm is a little sore. For all the Grinnell frisbee folk, especially my caps: don't worry, I got the D so its worth it. Ben, Jess, and I will definitely be back for another game next week.

(Oh, and you may have noticed that I used the term "estadounidense." That means US citizen because, as Ticos are quick to point out, America is an entire continent, not a country. Americans are people on that continent, so that includes Ticos, Mexicans, Argentinians, and Columbias (among many others) as well as Estadounidenses.)