on peut dire que je suis BAMF

I feel it necessary to share the awesomeness that was 75% of yesterday. One of my student's friends whom I've met once before invited me to play soccer with a group of doods that get together every Saturday just to play casually. I said heeeell yes, but in my head I was thinking "omfg. Am I insane?" Playing with guys is hard enough, but not only that -- I'm foreign and struggle with french... Merde!

I was really nervous when we got there, everyone looked at me incredulously, like "oh, here we go. Some fool decided to bring some dumb broad to play." I should note as well that it is very, very unusual for a french girl to enjoy soccer, let alone play it. I tried to be as enthusiastic as possible, and it helped that my friend let me borrow an old pair of cleats, making it easier to play in.

Well, we got going, and soon after I proved I wasn't completely incompetent, the guys were actually passing the ball to me, for reals. In America, (in my experience) when a girl plays with a group of guys, they all tend to be ball-hogs and real trou des culs because they think they're better. But these guys were really cool! I was also a bit worried about them being more aggressive than I'm used to, but I was shocked because whenever I fell down (which as I'm sure you all know, happens a lot even off the soccer field), they stopped outright and said, "pardon, pardon! Ça va?" and would help me up. Which was great, because while they were apologizing, someone could easily nick the ball off them.

With so many people there, we played 6-on-6 with two games going on at once. Halfway through, we switched teams and took a break and as I was making my way across the field, I overheard someone from  the other side say "that team can use 7 people since they're playing with a girl!" and the doods from my team were like, "no, no! She is really a good player!"

And at that moment, I was so incredibly stoked, so awesomely thrilled, felt like such a BAMF because I actually managed to impress these french guys, that I looked over and gave them the dick-in-a-box gesture -- which, if you're unfamiliar with it, looks a little something like this...

It was a really, really fun day for me, not only because I haven't played soccer in such a long time, but it was such a gorgeous day outside and I felt a sense of belonging, against all odds. I don't mean to sound like an arrogant ass, but that is pretty f-wording AWESOME.

However, if you recall, I said that 75% totally rocked. The other 25%.... was rough. I went out for dinner and drinks later that night with two of my students and their friends and while we were sitting at the bar, I felt my ankle really starting to swell and, by the time we left to go to another location, it was so swollen that I couldn't even stand on it. I really don't remember rolling it during the day, but we did play for three and a half hours, so it's entirely possible. I felt bad, I didn't want to go home but I was in some serious pain. I ended up being driven home early and completely passing out after taking a heavy dose of ibuprofen with some frozen veg on my foot.

Needless to say, today I'm a bit sore. But I'm leaving in a few hours for Biarritz because it's vacation time, nerds.

xoxo biiiiiisous.