I set my alarm for 6 a.m. to give us plenty of time to change and hit the beach. Unfortunately Marta and I were woken up prompty at 5:15 to everyone else in the apartment yelling excessively about nothing. No one realized how loud they were being, so Marta and just rubbed our bleary eyes and started getting ready. At least it was nice and lesiurely getting ready. That morning, we played a team called Arenosa which basically translates to sandy. Anyways, they pretty much wrecked us, given that they had a full line of subs and we had no subs. The positive thing is that this game was early enough in the day that we didn't have to deal with the sand/air/temperature being crazy hot. The sand was easily the worst part. It was burning hot, like nothing I've felt. I played our afternoon game in socks, and it was still unbearable.
Anyways, here are some pictures of the beach. The beach was beautiful, and there were quite a few of very pretty hotels and whatnot located right on the beach. There are lots of shade tents everywhere because the sun really is so harsh and there is pretty much no shade anywhere otherwise. There were lots of boats out 
on the ocean everyday we were there, and tons of people in the water, trying to escape from the sun. From the beach, looking inland, you could see the Sierra Nevada mountains which extend all the way to the northern coast on the Atlantic Ocean side and all the way south to the Andes. In some ways you might say I saw a little bit of the Andes, although it's technically an outcropping of montains that aren't really the Andes. Whatevs, one day I'll see them.After that game, Marta and I went to this little stand where they had arepa con huevo, which is a fried egg arepa, and is delicious. I wasn't hungry (I had Froot Loops for breakfast) and so I just hung out, but there were two younger guys there who were talking to me and Marta. They kept saying I was beautiful and whatnot, and were really surprised to hear that I spoke Spanish. They were kind of hard for me to understand, because they weren't very close to me and did not speak slowly at all. By the end of the snack, one of them was telling me that he liked me very much and that he would watch me at a later game.
After our morning snack, we watched the boys play (they lost) and then headed back to the apartment. I changed into my bathing suit and headed to the pool for a bit. Then back to the apartment for leftovers from the night before. There, everyone got into a nice healthy discussion
about frisbee, led by Marta, who was explaining a bunch of different plays, including Swedish/Johnson and horizontal stacks. Then, we had to head back out into the sweltering summer heat for our second game. For this game, the sand was really hot and we had to wear socks, which still wasn't anywhere near enough protection from the heat. On the line before we pulled, everyone would dig little holes to stick their feet so they could keep their feet from getting too hot. Later in the weekend, we would see teams sit down and pull their feet up when a disc went O.B. or if there was a discussion about a foul call. It was that hot. We won our second game pretty easily. We had two subs, but didn't use them much at all. I think each of us sat maybe one point.After that game, Marta's cousin Rey came and visited from Barranquilla. We went to get some fish to eat from a little stand near the beach. Marta and I ended up splitting a whole fish (head
and bones and fins and all) which was fried and absolutely delicious. The meal also came with patacones, which a flattened, fried green plantains, and arroz con coco, which is coconut rice. Patacones are freakin' delicious, one of the best things I ate in Colombia (although everything was fantastic) and the coconut rice was really sweet, like desert. We also had fresh lemonade poured out of this ridiculous big jug (it was like those plastic containers/barrels of pretzels you get from BJs or Costco haha) and it was AMAZING. SOOOOOOO good. Best lemonade I'd ever had in my entire life. It was nice and tart and that alone was enough to make me want to move to Colombia. Seriously.We watched some more games, bought the tournament shirt, and then headed back to the apartment to change and get ready to go out to El Rodadero. Before showering, Marta had me try on some of the dresses she brought to see if I could wear one because I was complaining
about how I was running out of clothes (I didn't really realize how much I'd be sweating in a single day. Nothing was re-wearable). I ended up wearing this cute white dress seen in pictures below. So anyways, Rey, Marta, Chile, Mattias (chile's boyfriend, who is from Argentina) and I took a bus into town. El Rodadero is basically a more touristy area, with lots of shops, and a really really busy beach area. On the beach at night, people can rent chairs and sit out there and hire out musicians to come around and play in their 
little circle, kind of like mariachi bands, but with different style. All along the street that borders the beach there are food stands (like at fairs and stuff) that were selling things like pizza, maiz, chuzo, jugos, gaseosas, etc. You could get anything your little heart desired. We all walked along the beach and sampled different things. We sat in some chairs in front of one stand to eat, and these two people (soda sellers) got in abig fight over whose chairs we were using. We had to buy drinks from both of them to settle the issue. It was pretty ridiculous. We ran
into one of those people who acts like a statue until you give them money and then they move. This guy's gimmick was to shake your hand but then suddenly "freeze" with your hand in his until you gave him more money. We shopped a bit, but didn't get anything. It was all really fun and laid back. I got to talk to the people there a little more, which was nice, because everyone on the teams had been talking about how quiet I was and they found it a little off-putting (did I blow anyone's mind about me being quiet? It seems a bit far-fetched, I know, but I was nervous to say the wrong thing in Spanish or whatever, which is dumb, but I couldn't help it). We took lots and lots 
of pictures of pretty much everything, including the sign for this restaurant that is a fairly popular fast-food chain that serves chicken. This was one of the very first things I saw when we got into Cartagena, from the window of our cab, and I couldn't help but laugh. I didn't see many mistranslations in Colombia, mostly because it was really uncommon for things to be translated at all. I couldn't help but think of bromances and what now. Let's see if you can spot the error. If you can't, perhaps it's time for you to go back to remedial English lessons...Headed back to the apartment, went to the tourney party. It was dumb. Left to go back to the apartment. Apartment was locked, but the window was open. We all climbed in through the window. Rey left. Marta and I went to sleep.
The next morning, the boys had a game at 7 a.m. so we were up bright and early again.We watched the boys game. They won, but it was the last game of the weekend for them. Then we headed over to our cancha for our game. We picked up an extra girl, Vanessa, who was super clutch. We still lost, and I was really hurting. I tweaked my ankle a bit pulling after the second or third point. The team we played had 15 girls, and just ran like crazy, which was exhausting. Skills-wise, they weren't any better than we were, but we just couldn't run with them. That team had a bunch of really young girls (some as young as 9), but they were all serious ballers. I just wanted to take some of the older ones back to UF for FUEL. Most of them had nice throws and endurance like you wouldn't believe. During that whole game, the boys from the arepa place the day before were cheering for me. We walked by that stand after that game, and the one professed his love for me and kissed my hand, which was completely hilarious. I was very touched, but had to regretfully turn him down. :-)
We went straight to the ocean after our game and cooled off a bit there. Then we watched some men's games, namely a game with the team Marta played with in '05, Arena Roja. After the game, I traded my black FUEL jersey for one of their red jerseys. I was so amped about it. The guy I traded with was really nice. He gave my jersey to his girlfriend, which I think was nice, since the jerseys were pretty new for them, I think.
That's all for now. I think I can fit the rest of the vacation into just one more post... hopefully.
As an aside, Fourth of July came and went. Nothing too special. Thomas had a party. I brought a bunch of frisbee people. I had a lot of fun. My frisbee friends really had fun. My students really are that cool.
Craig came to visit. It was really nice. It was too short of a visit (48 hours? not even), but nice to see him either way. He was super stressed about China, but if it's any consolation, at least he knows he has a job, unlike me. I'm still waiting. I'm expecting to hear for sure in the next week or so. I'm practically dying of nerves. Hold my hand someone, anyone?
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