Disclaimer: The first half of this post will be about Ultimate Frisbee. If you don't like Ultimate (crazy) / think it's not a real sport (clearly haven't played) / confuse it with Disc Golf (just wrong), jump to the second half which is about burning a 50-foot tall wooden man in a park.
Just got back from my first Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Europe! Oxford sent a 9-person team to Mixed Indoor Regionals; 5 guys, 4 girls, half of whom had never played together.
They play five to a side on a much smaller field than in the U.S. (about gym-sized), which makes for a totally different tactical game. Lots of trick throws, hammers, and blades; really precise throws because the end zone is so short. It favors players with quick acceleration and good defensive skills. I had to adjust to cutting on such a small space also; it's easy to overlap cuts and deep cuts have to be timed really well to be successful since the end zone's so small. Zone defense, clam defense and iso offensive strategies are seen a lot, but obviously set up differently with only five. A common one was to send two people to the end zone and let them hang there while the other 3 worked the disc down the field.
There were 4 bids to D1 Nationals. We won 4 games straight on Saturday, finishing in a rousing win against arch-rivals Cambridge. Sunday we lost the first game, which meant we had to win the next three to make it to D1. WHICH WE DID! Skilled but still fun-centered team; I had a blast. Plus we took the Spirit Award! Which apparently means I have a medal waiting for me. I get to play in Nationals! Eee!
Other interesting Ultimate differences: They don't provide food but they do provide accommodation for tournaments (Church floors; why doesn't the U.S. do this?). Indoor games are only 23 minutes long but really fast-paced. They call Ninja, other games etc. "calls" and playing savage is playing "Iron Man." Both teams meet in a circle after each game and each captain gives a short speech about the game. And they do disc races with straws?! Wimps, I know. Also I'd have to say, judging from my limited experience my U.S. Ultimate friends would definitely out-drink the U.K. ones. We'll see if that prevails throughout the year.
Okay, now onto things non-Ultimate players will find more interesting...
So, as you may or may not have realized, Saturday was the 5th of November. Remember, remember the 5th of November? While everyone in the U.K. does, because....
It's like the 4th of July. No joke. Commemorating the day that Guy Fawkes failed to blow up Parliament results in a fair-like celebration with fatty food stands, live music, seas of people, fireworks, aaaaaandddd... A HUGE BONFIRE. HUGE.
We drove back from Regionals Sat night to go to the Oxford celebration of Guy Fawkes day. Walk into the park at 6 p.m. (it's dark out) and see hundreds of people in the dark, fatty food stands, music, a HUGE wooden man structure ~50 feet tall. Apparently this used to represent Guy Fawkes but the Catholics protested and now it represents the Devil.
Terrifying, right? Look at those teeth! Now imagine them looming 50 feet above you. And then there's some fire dancing all voodoo-style, the Fireworks go off, and then they burn wicker man. Just torch the entire thing along with a huge bonfire in the background. It ends up looking something like this...
Topping my list of ridiculous traditions I've seen here in the U.K. HUGE. SO BIG. Biggest fire I've definitely ever seen. I will post better pictures of wicker man on fire once my friend uploads them.
This week: less work (thank goodness, I had 14 extra hours of class last week, ugh). And a regatta (crew race) next Sunday? Stay tuned!
LP
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