laxland

yesterday was a day that will go down in history as one of the funniest days of my life.

there is only one lacrosse team in Beijing (yes, out of 22 million people). today was the first practice that my work schedule has allowed me to go to, so i was PUMPED. a girl who played at Cornell was there, so that was great to be challenged, but the best part of the day was how SILLY it was. The rest of the players were Chinese girls and guys, none of whom were wearing actual athletic attire, and most who were, well, terrible/terribly silly. i met a girl named, wait for it....RAINBOW, who jumped while she talked to me, while she tried to catch the ball, and while she stood on the sidelines. she also simultaneously cheered for me whenever i did anything remotely well. we split into 4v4 and played on 1/4 of the field for ten minutes, when all of a sudden everyone stopped because they were too cold. granted, it was one of the coldest days since i've been here, but it was still 45 degrees! you guys know me, i was like "oh come onnnnnn, ten more minutes" - they reluctantly gave me five. after Cornell girl left, i was matched up with this guy, who was rather good, and man, at one point he schooled the crap out of me. i cut to defend him, and my poor little tennis shoes on the wet turf were not having it, and i busted. he of course thought it was hilarious (which it was) and continued to toy with me the whole time like, "commmeee and get me IF you can." (keep in mind we couldn't speak the same language, so this was all in mime). i think the ratio of "amount of fun i had:amount of competition" was the highest it's ever been. THANK YOU, CHINA.