The Ultimate experience

Remember back in college when I quit tenis in my first semester to play Ultimate Frisbee instead? It was a fun time, I made some really good friends and learned a lot about a new game. However, I havn´t played since, although my Ultimate passion has never died and of course I brought my frisbee to Chile.

As I remembered from Mexico, frisbee doesn´t really exist in many other parts of the world (although I now know that Colombia and Argentina are Ultimate leaders in S.A....with Chile right behind them...? Quizás) so here in Chile I often felt like my efforts were in vain, but I always took my frisbee everytime I went to the beach, to an asado (barbecue) or to the park. Of course my gringo friends would throw with me, but its not the same as throwing with someone who´s equally passionate about the game (as I am)!

So at one assado a few weeks back, I was surprised to find that someone had picked up my frisbee and was looking for someone to throw it with. Turns out, he was from Spain but plays Ultimate with a group of students here in Santiago...and the rest has been history.

I feel a little bit like I´m back in college with all these Ultimate fanatics, because literally, these chileans have the exact same team spirit and love for the game, even though half the terminology is in english, there´s no where to buy discs here and people in the park give us really wierd looks when we play.

It´s really neat. In a completely machistic culture, they still play mixed (guys and girls together) and don´t seem to think its wierd at all even through the norm here is for women to barely play sports at all.

So that´s my newest adventure here. Of course, there are so many super chilean parts of the ultimate team, for example, they´re super flojo (lazy) and sometimes they call me, text me, and post on my Facebook that there´s gonna be practice and it´s gonna be soooo fun, then I go and no one shows up because it´s overcast...

Or the way that I´ve gone to multiple practices and still only met about 8 people who play for the team when I keep hearing that there´s like 20 of them, then I go to an asado, and eeeeveryone is there, people I´ve never heard of. Chileans prefer partying to practicing (although this is similar to ultimate frisbee culture in the states as well, I suppose).

And lastly, they are so incredibly kind and inviting. Here I am, this random gringa who shows up and can´t always understand them but knows how to play Ultimate and they are so happy that I am there and love hearing about my experiences with Ultimate from the states and learning what all these ultimate words they say when playing, actually mean.

My moral of this post, is my love for how all interactions here are always cultural experiences. Whether I´m playing sports, walking down the street, grocery shopping or hanging out with friends. There´s always something to learn and something to teach. I´m learning Spanish frisbee vocab and teaching what I know about different ultimate plays. It´s the perfect intercambio.