First, a run down of the summer so far, and the plans for the future.
June 6 - 12, 2010: Left Tucson and headed for Portland, OR. Most excellent time, despite catching a still rainy portion of weather, and missing the supposedly unbeatable Oregon summer.
June 13: Played with my club team, Barrio, at the small tournament Mohini in Flagstaff AZ. Due to plane complications from Portland, missed Saturday's games, but did get to play on Sunday and enjoy the company of a tight team.
June 14: Day at home, trying to sort out details of long term departure, and saying some temporary goodbyes.
June 15 - 18: Drive out to San Diego (excuse me, Del Mar) CA to visit Joey for a couple days, and help him move all belongings back to his parents' house in Phoenix.
June 19: Pack and depart from Tucson for a long time. First stop, NYC.
June 20 - 22: Arrive on the red-eye to the Big Apple. Stayed with Joey's grandparents in White Plains, watched some World Cup games at an excellent Belgian themed bar by Union Square. Excellent weekend Brunch special of full English breakfast, served with your choice of Belgian beer (I chose Delirium) for a mere $10. We befriended the waitress by walking into the not-yet-open bar and asking if we could watch the game.
June 23 - 26: We (now myself, Joey, Shep) fly to Budapest. We stay with friend of friend Denes Halmai while we're there, and I suffer from near constant deja vu, perhaps culminating with a walk to my old flat.
June 27 - July 10: Prague and the World Ultimate Championships 2010. This can hardly be done justice in the run down, but the rough break up was a week of pre-tournament practicing with my NZ team, followed by a week of tournament. The infestation of 3000+ Ultimate players from around the globe into Prague was fun to see and be apart of. I now have two Canadian Jerseys, one Swiss jersey, and one highly coveted Japanese jersey from the notoriously excellent and cool Buzz Bullets. Also one remaining Kiwi jersey, sporting our mascot the Duke of Wellington. Present from Tucson, AZ on a total of 3 teams are: Joey, Shep (Magon of Auckland); Jodi, LP, BG, and myself (Duke of Wellington); and Austin (Mental Toss Flycoons).
July 11 - 12: Watch World Cup finals in Munich with Joey, Ben, Austin, Shep and Jodi. Next day we visit the most impressive and coolest museum I've ever been to: the Deutsches Museum of Science and Technology. It has been my largest regret of the trip that I didn't get to properly enjoy this museum. In the scant 3 hours we were there before it closed (and we left for Slovenia) I saw a tiny fraction of the exhibits. Someday I'll come back.
July 13 - 21: Enjoy the captial of Slovenia, Ljubljana, as well as all the country has to offer. This includes glaical lakes, caves with HUGE chambers, hikes along drinkable and beautiful rivers, and a delightful cafe scene in the captial itself (pronounced something like lieu-blee-ahn-ah). Also one brief trip down to Croatia (would have been longer if I were not now stricken with Strep Throat) where we enjoyed the rocky coast and day one of the 57th year of the Pula film festival. We saw the premier of The Show Must Go On (incredibly impressive, and gets my highest recommendation if you should happen to notice it in an artsy theatre near you).
So yeah, I am sick. I was diagnosed yesterday, and will take dose 2 of my antibiotics in a few hours. Hope to be better soon.
THE FUTURE
July 22-23: Spent entirely in transit from Ljubljana to Budapest, to NYC, to Wildwood, NJ.
July 24 - 26: Largest Beach tournament in the world (okay, cheating a little here because play is 4 v 4 instead of 5 v 5 which reduces team size, which increases number of teams) in Wildwood. I have been once before, two years ago when I spent the summer working outside of Worcester, MA at a summer camp for boys with type I diabetes, and it rocked socks off.
July 27 - August ???: Back to Portland, OR. For some time now I've been considering living here, and beginning back in April, have been making trips to 'visit' this place. But now I'm really just hooked and can't stop going. Might just stay up there until ECC (August 14-15) to save myself the plan ticket from Tucson to Seattle. Then I might put off home a little longer to visit Joey and a friend from NZ who will be traveling up the coast to SF. Then a little longer to hike Mt. Whitney with Joey. Sometime after that I'll be in Tucson once again.
August ??? - December: Living in Tucson, working as a tutor/substitute teacher/BICAS employee (?)/other for the semester saving up money. Plans are to relocate to Portland, OR sometime thereafter.
Sure, I'm excited. You betcha.
