We found ourselves in a Spanish speaking country again last week, although very temporarily. Our visit consisted of a lot of ultimate, some relaxing, and reconnecting with some of our Uruguayan friends. Seeing them and chatting made me remember the joy and pleasure that writing this blog gave me when we were living in Uruguay and beyond.
I have decided to re-kindle my relationship with the blog. In reacquainting myself with the blog I noticed that I had several drafts of half finished posts. It seems that the longer I neglected sharing our adventures, the more burdensome it felt to catch everyone up. The end result was just a void. So… that being said, I’m not going to try to catch you all up. I’m just going to jump right in!
We (the husband, the roomie – yes the same one from Uruguay, and I) traveled to Cancun, Mexico the week before Thanksgiving to participate in the Panamerican Ultimate Championships. It is a 4 day tournament 聽of teams from North, Central, and South America competing, coexisting, and interacting in the wonderful world-wide ultimate community.
I was playing for a master’s women’s team from Atlanta, the Atlantiques! Yes, I know the name is awesome 馃槈 The husband and roomie played with Team Uruguay. They could only field a men’s team so I was out of luck, but that’s okay. It was the first time in about 4 years that I have played on a women’s team and it was a blast! We won the third place trophy in the women’s division with 14 players all over 30. For those of you who can’t quite grasp the awesomeness of this feat, just picture a small number聽of slow ladies schooling an army of 20 year olds for nine games over three days. Experience counts!
The Uruguay team almost made it to the quarterfinals, but a weird three-way tie in the pool threw them into the bottom brackets. It was disappointing, but everyone just seemed happy to be there and playing! Watching my old friends聽play made me super happy. They have come so far in the three years that we have been gone and it’s really gratifying to know that we have had a part (and continue to have a part) in their development and growth.
The weather was awesome in Cancun, especially for all those teams from Canada! The fields were really great, although聽they got a little muddy after a downpour on the second day. The only complaint I have, and I hear this is pretty common for international WFDF tournaments, is that the field site was really far from the lodgings and the arranged bus service was limited. All this basically meant was that we went to the fields in the morning and came home at the end of the day. This usually isn’t a horrible thing, but the AC of a hotel room is awful nice in the middle of an 85 degree F, 100% humidity day. We just kept telling ourselves… “We’re in Cancun! Life could be a whole lot worse!”
All in all… A fantastic experience and one to be remembered!
I wrote a bit about Asa’s tryout for Team USA over on our fitness page. Check it out if you’re interested in how he felt about the tryout and want to read a couple great articles from USA Ultimate about the tryout process on the East Coast and meet the final Team. You can find the post over at fitness.halupi.us or just click on the Fitness link at the top of the page.
So I think the last place we left you was with Matt in Thailand and Asa and I in some kind of crazy limbo living situation.
Well, I am happy to report that we moved into a nice two bedroom apartment near the beach in Jacksonville. We are planning on being here until August when I will surely have a job. Regardless of the job situation, we will find ourselves seeking a new abode somewhere.
Being near the beach is great and we are within biking distance of the grocery store, the gym, the bank, restaurants, the beach, and a dog park. Riding our bikes has been great and we hope to keep up the habit regardless of where we end up.
In other news, Asa will be trying out for Team USA (Ultimate Frisbee) in a couple weeks. This year’s competition is called the World Games and it will be held in August in Cali, Colombia. The USA is taking a 13 person mixed gender squad to compete. We’ll keep you posted on any news we hear.
With that, I think I’ve caught you up on the major events of the past couple months (yeah, not a lot going on). I will try to be better with posting fun stuff we do around Jacksonville. I even pulled out and charged my camera in anticipation!
I’ll just leave you with some nice pics of the St. Augustine Turtle Trot (5K) that Asa’s mom and I ran together a couple weeks ago. I won third place in my age group and got an awesome hand-carved wooden turtle medal (that the cat promptly knocked of our table and the dog promptly ate!).
Us after the race!
The beach at St. Augustine. Flat, warm, and sandy!
Cars are allowed to drive/park on the beach as long as they have 4-wheel drive and pay the parking fee. I had to laugh at the little sedan that we saw driving down there. Hope they didn’t get stuck!
In January 2012, I left my job, sold almost all of my belongings, and said bye to family and friends to embark on a journey that I had no clue where it would take me.
In January 2013, I’m still on that journey, living on the opposite side of the world. This journey is transforming into a way of life, and different way of seeing the world.
We’re at a point in time that the internet allows us to create our own jobs, live anywhere in the world and work whoever we choose.聽Luckily, I’ve been able to keep in touch with friends and family online no matter where I’m at in the World. Skype, Google Hangout, social media, and this blog have been great at helping us keep in touch. PS: Thanks Randi for writing so much and pushing Asa and I to write a couple posts! 馃檪
Here it is…
January was a month of getting rid of the last of my belongings (thanks to advice from Joshua and Ryan) and saying bye to friends, family, my job, most hobbies. Luckily, friends are always willing to throw a party, especially if it means it’s the last time they’ll see you in many months if not years.
Thanks for the yummy cookie cake Michelle
I moved down to Palermo, Uruguay with Asa and Randi. They were pretty much the main reason I’m doing this. If they didn’t decide it would be alright for me to join them, I might have never made the trip. Asa and Randi, I owe you guys the World. You guys freakin’ rock! I hope you will come visit one day!
This is a good hair day!
I became conversational in spanish down there. We could have probably been fluent in spanish in 3 months, but making fun of each other in English was so much fun.
I was bad at taking pictures in South America. I’m blaming it on the fact that I didn’t have a working camera most of the time since the lens’ dinner of choice was sand.
Carnival in Uruguay!!
Candle Festival in Montevideo, Uruguay. They send boats with candles, flowers, and decorations into the water for good luck.
I met Carlos, JuanMa, and Maru in Palermo after finding out there was ultimate frisbee in Uruguay. Luckily they spoke enough English to communicate with us.
12-hour travel to play in the Bahia Blanca Beach hat tourney
I sang karaoke with 4 others in front of hundreds (it was the US National Anthem)
Champions!
I wrestled an alligator (crocodile)
Hey Mom! I’m a foreign TV star… in 2 countries!
I played in 4 Ultimate Frisbee tournaments outside of the US
In the voice of 300 Spartans…聽This is CIMARRON!
The AFDC and Spin Ultimate made it possible to donate 80 discs and jerseys to help South America further Ultimate Frisbee as a sport
I learned to salsa in Argentina at 4am. (I wouldn’t call it learning, more like drunken wobbling side to side)
We played fun tournament games
I learned how to play the piano… with my feet!
I had another going away party. This time it was for leaving Uruguay.
Viva Las Vegas!
I got back together with the family in Vegas. I went to my Sister’s and Blake’s (now brother-in-law!) wedding. It was a gorgeous and awesome wedding. It was a lot of fun. I lost money at poker (it was overdue) but had a blast with Derek, Blake’s family and my family! So many good times and fun things happened.
Yum! In-N-Out Burger with a creeper in the background.
Ziplining with Dad in Vegas!
Off to Puerto Galera
After too much excitement in Vegas, I headed out to Puerto Galera, Philippines to get together with a bunch of people from the DC聽and the TropicalMBA. Joining the DC was probably the biggest game changer this year as far as business is concerned. I won’t talk about that now.
In Puerto Galera, I caught some amazing sunrises, had a birthday applechicken with the crew at Badladz and tried to swim with Dolphins.
Birthday chicken apple lunch!!
Taking a short break from work!
聽聽
Beautiful view of Puerto Galera from the top of the jungle trek
Rented a villa with 2 friends for half a week in Puerto Galera. Our Dive master picked us up from our dock!
Survived a water buffalo ride!
The crew chillin on the beach
Tuk tuk transportation
Trying to swim with some dolphins
After this, I headed back to Manila for a few days to meet with some friends.
I slept on a boat in Manila
Enjoyed the Manila Skyline at night
Off to Bangkok, Thailand!
After the Philippines, I flew over to Bangkok for a big meetup of about 70-80 Dynamite Circle members from all around the World.
This was my view for three days in Bangkok.
We met for three days in a convention center. I met people who hide from the public, well-known influencers, people just starting out on their entrepreneurial journey, and established ballers who are all living the lifestyle of their choice from wherever they want around the World.
I was bad at taking pictures here.
In Chiang Mai
Posing at a temple
Words of wisdom at a temple
Met up with Joel within my first few weeks in Chiang Mai. I was introduce to Melina and Orn then, two awesome people. Robert was laughing so hard he forgot to open his eyes.
Sick mustache, Joel.
Marvin was traveling through so we went to the sticky waters where you can climb them. We decided some sort of Yoga pose would be best.
Cliff jumping in Chiang Mai.
Lantern release – sending bad thoughts away. Bringing in good thoughts.
Thousands of lanterns released at Yi Peng lantern festival during Loi Krathong. This moment was incredible. At one point in time, I couldn’t even see the sky there were so many lanterns right above my head.
Celebrating Turkey day with Apple Pie Shots
Temple in Chiang Mai
Manila Spirits 2012
Cabs R Here losing the 3rd place game to Derek Ramsey in Rock-Paper-Scissors
聽
Was introduced through a Sam to Sam. Played with him in Manila
Dancing with the Aussies and Canadian!
Photobomb #1 – Beer me!
Photobomb #2 – epic makeout scene
Photobomb #3 – Like a Boss
Surviving the Mayan Apocalypse in style!
Taking pictures of myself… as always
Cabs R Here!!!
What the Deuce in Chiang Mai’s first ultimate frisbee league.
Family sent me awesome christmas presents!!
White elephant present – awesome Thailand Tshirt
Meeting up with cousins Jimmy and Janie and friend Sandy after their domination runs in Chiang Mai.
Coffee at Ristr8o with the #DCCM crew on Christmas day
White elephant gift exchange
Christmas day street food dinner with cousins Jimmy and Janie!
Some lessons learned:
People all around you have a strong influence on who you are as a person. Surround yourself with people you look up.
Different cultures around the World can take a while to adapt to. By having a strong core, open eyes and ears, and the ability to see other’s points of view, you can go extremely far in life and be extremely successful (no matter what “success” means to you).
When you let yourself be open to opportunity, doors start showing up in front of you and you just have to choose which ones your going to open and which path your going to go down.
Learning a language is hard, but you’ll get a lot more respect and your stay will be easier if you learn some basic language and show you’re trying. You’ll also get good mental benefits from learning to speak a new language.
Leverage your hobbies to create strong and lasting friendships wherever you go.
There is something unique about Ultimate Frisbee and spirit of the game. If you play ultimate frisbee, make sure to look for ultimate everywhere you go. You will instantly create awesome friends and people all around. I have made so many friends this past year through ultimate and everyone is awesome in their own way. Whether I was partying in Uruguay at 6am with you, dancing/drinking in Argentina, surviving the Apocalypse with the Aussies in Manila, or playing league in Chiang Mai, you guys have been freaking awesome!
This journey would not be the same without ultimate and all the people I’ve met playing ultimate along the way. If there is anything I can ever do for you guys, you know where to contact me!
The same can be said for anyone in the DC. #DCCM, you guys rock! I’ve had a blast in Chiang Mai. Now, it’s time to move it to #DCPai and get more serious about health, fitness, work, and productivity.
It’s not as easy as it seems…
Going out and traveling sure does seem like fun, but there are a lot things that make it difficult. In the beginning, you have to give up on a lot of things like going out and drinking with friends a lot, skipping over to another country for fun, doing expensive dinners. You really have to be the boring friend sometimes who sits inside on a Friday evening and throughout the weekend getting the work done. Your good friends will understand, but most won’t.
Whatever you do, just make sure you follow Derek Sivers’ motto: it’s either “HELL Yeah! or no.”
Most people won’t understand what you do. They see the great pictures, the travel, the fun, but they don’t understand the struggles and the work you do.
Leaving friends is hard. Sure, I’ve made great friends along the way, but with everyday I make a new friend, that’s a day that’s passed that I haven’t seen an old friend from backhome.
The hardest part is probably leaving family. Luckily I can video chat and skype with my family back home, but it’s definitely hard celebrating birthdays, holidays, especially Christmas without the family. Technology doesn’t always work and frustrating times come along that. You just have to accept the fact that s#!@ happens sometimes and there will be another time to say hi!
You have to be like water in a stream, flowing over and around the rocks, the hard times. I think there’s a Chinese proverb about that.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned this whole trip, and it’s something I knew and learned from Mo, quality relationships are pretty much the most important things in life. Without trust, friendship, support, prodding, and pushing from peers, mentors, mentees, friends, family, others, life can be A LOT harder than it has to be.
Go out and create great relationships. Keep in touch, help others, and connect people when you can! Be good to others.
I could write this post about business stuff, finances, etc, but the most important thing to me is connecting, helping, and having fun with people.
2012 was a year of travel and creating incredible friendships.聽
I’m looking forward to 2013 to be a year of creating and deepening relationships and fine tuning my habits and rituals to be more productive and grow my business efforts this year.聽
Don’t worry, Mom! I’ll work on taking more and better pictures and keeping everyone updated!
2013 is a year for shipping. Get your work out! Go big or go home (going home isn’t an option here). Do something that matters and the world will reward you for it.
We’re coming into the last couple of days of our time here in Uruguay. This weekend was a busy one filled with last hoorays.
We went to our last board gaming night on Friday where we played some new games and some old favorites. We got to see some friends and say our goodbyes. We were welcomed back to our apartment at 5 am to a car alarm that proceeded to go off until about 9 am. We did manage to get some sleep, but not much.
On Saturday night we headed to our friend Chandro’s house for a small going away party (a despedida) for us and another frisbee player, Yasu who is leaving Uruguay on Monday. We had a great time “shooting the s*&t”, although between severe lack of sleep and too many people trying to talk at once, we had a bit of a hard time following the spanish conversation at points.
Here we all are hanging out!
The frisbee team got us gifts: posters with photos of our time with the team and some really cool coffee cups!
We will be headed back to the states on Tuesday night. We fly through Miami and arrive in Los Angeles on Wednesday morning. Then we’ll be taking the Amtrak surf liner up the coast to San Luis where parents will hopefully be waiting with open arms and extra sharp cheddar cheese!
For those friends that we leave here in Uruguay: We thank you so much for your wonderful hospitality and friendship, your understanding of our horrible spanish, and for making us feel so welcome so far away from home. We won’t forget your friendship and hopefully we will meet again. Nos Vemos!
For those friends and family in the states: Thanks so much for following our adventures and giving us your support and love on our journey. We’ll hopefully see you all soon!
The three of us went to Buenos Aires last weekend for another frisbee tournament. It was a savage 7 tournament which means that each team is only allowed to have 7 players, and for those of you that don’t know, there are only 7 players on the field at a time (i.e. everyone is playing all the time, there are no subs).
The tournament was at the Universidad de Buenos Aires which had nice fields and a great sports complex, complete with tennis courts, basketball courts, handball courts, locker rooms, and cafe.
Matt and Asa put together a team that included a bunch of Buenos Aires all-stars. I’d say it turned out pretty well considering they won the tournament.
I went along for the ride and to be team photographer. We had a great time. Here are some pictures of the boys doing what they do best!
This past weekend we found ourselves in Buenos Aires again. There was a small ultimate tournament there that Matt and Asa both played in. Asa and I booked a hotel in the downtown area of Buenos Aires because we didn’t know the field location until two days before the tournament. Luckily for us, the public transportation in Buenos Aires is very extensive and includes buses, subways, and trains.
Buenos Aires is full of buses and anyone can take them for a small fee of about $0.25 US, and they go everywhere in the city. The following are a couple of problems with taking the bus.
1. Figuring out which bus to take. There are more than 100 different bus routes throughout the city. Luckily there is a nice website that can be used to find the correct route, that is, once you figure out how to use the website!
2. Finding change. There is a coin shortage in Argentina and the buses only take change. Stores will ask repeatedly if you have correct change and will sneer at you when you don’t. There are several card payment systems that have been installed in all realms of public transport in the last 5 years. On our last visit we obtained a SUBE card which helped us on our way.
3. If you’re in a hurry, forget it. Take a taxi! Traffic can be really bad in the city and the buses take forever.
The subway in Buenos Aires is fairly easy to take, but it is sometimes very crowded, only goes to certain locations, and can be a mecca for thieves who work together to target tourists. When my parents visited us in Buenos Aires their camera got stolen on the subway, despite being very vigilant.
Knowing these things, we decided that we would investigate train options this time around. We took the train the last time we were in the city and thought it was nice. Upon investigation, we discovered that there are not one, but three different train lines servicing parts of the city. Only one of these lines is included in the website (above) that shows the bus routes. We found the line that stopped near our destination and could get there and back for about $0.30 US each. Trains left every 15 minutes all day long and we could arrive at our destination in 11 minutes. The equivalent bus ride would have taken upwards of 45 minutes.
The train station at our destination
The three train stations are next to each other. Lining the streets outside the stations are vendors selling everything from donuts to alarm clocks to shoes. Beyond the vendors, in the street, is one of the most extensive bus stops I have ever seen. There were more than 5 lanes that buses could enter, which each had approximately 20 stops arranged adjacent to each other. It took up almost two whole blocks.
Only a small portion of the bus stop. Each covered area is the stop for a different bus line.
Here’s to public transportation making our lives easier and relatively hassle free!
We had the pleasure of joining the Chiale family for an Asado last weekend.
This family has been every kind of nice to us. The three sons, Carlos, Juanma, and Maxi led the welcoming charge from the frisbee community when we first arrived. The Chiale family put on a wonderful birthday party for Carlos, which we were lucky enough to attend. Carlos generously invited us to join him and his parents at a f煤tbol game and we have participated in numerous activities, both social and ultimate related, with Carlos and Juanma. We have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the Chiale family and are so lucky to have found such nice people so far from home.
Matt posted previously about an asado he had in Buenos Aires, but this one was a little different because of the weather. It was cold. None of us wanted to stand outside to watch the meat cook, so we took the token photo and then spent a good amount of time inside chatting.
From left to right: Juanma, Asa, Randi, Matt, Carlos, and Maxi. Photo credit: Juan Carlos Chiale!
The asado meat and the chorizo were both really tasty. We had french fries with egg and spinach mixed in and some salad as sides. Dessert was an incredible dulce de leche ice cream dish with pieces of cake mixed in and meringues on top. Oh and don’t forget the Uruguayan flags in the dessert!
After we were done eating we made our way to a local f煤tbol field where Maxi, the youngest brother, was having his weekly game. They unfortunately tied 2-2, but Maxi scored a goal!
Thanks again to the Chiale family for making us feel so welcome!
Just a quick post for anyone wanting to see a bit more from the ultimate tournament we attended recently in Buenos Aires. This is a little film put together by one of the girls on our team. Enjoy!
Update: We’ve been told this video doesn’t work in the US due to copyright from the audio. Anyone else, enjoy!
We were in Buenos Aires a week and a half ago for the biggest ultimate frisbee tournament of the year in this part of the country. Asa and I met the rest of the team at a hostel in the center of the city shortly after they arrived on wednesday afternoon. It was an awesome hostel; close to all the major tourist attractions in the downtown area, they served breakfast, and always had hot water for the showers. They were also able to fit all of us into two rooms!
The tournament itself was held at Parque Sarmiento on the west side of the city and about an hour travel from our hostel via either a subway and bus ride or a train and walking.
The tournament schedule was as follows:
The tournament schedule had clinics on thursday designed to help players with their throwing and defensive skills. It was run by some of the organizers of the tournament. There was also a clinic designed to discuss spirit of the game. They discussed things like interpretation of the rules and how to deal with disagreements on the field in a sportsman-like manner. A much greater focus is placed on spirit of the game and camaraderie here than in the United States, although it still forms the foundation for the sport in the states.
Thursday ended with two showcase games; one women’s and the other men’s. The women’s showcase game was played between the first (and only) women’s team from Buenos Aires (formed last August) and the rest of the girls from the tournament. This gave the Buenos Aires team a chance to play together and start figuring out how to work as a team. The men’s showcase game was between the Argentinian men’s team and 2-3 all-stars from each of the other teams. The Argentinian team will be attending World’s this summer in Japan. I played in the women’s game and Asa, Juanma, Cabra, and Juan Diego played in the men’s game.
Friday and Saturday were pool play days. There was one pool of 5 teams and one pool of 4 teams. The team from Colombia had some travel troubles and had to stay home at the last minute, hence 9 teams instead of the planned 10. We drew a spot in the pool of 5 and had to play Brazzinga (the top team from Brazil) in our first game. It took us a bit to figure out what we were doing and managed to keep the score fairly close. It was a hard game to have first and we ended up losing.
Our second game of the day was against the Cadillacs, a team from Beunos Aires. We worked together really well, with everyone getting good play time and we won. This was the first game that Cimarr贸n has won as a team!!!
Saturday started out with a game again Del Rial, or the mustachios. They all had drawn on mustaches and were giving gifts of stick-on mustaches. This was a hard game to have first in the day. They had picked up a couple of the Columbian players that happened to make it to the tournament. They were young and fast and moved the disc really well. We tightened things up a bit and made some strategy adjustments and won Cimarr贸n’s second game!!
Our second Saturday game was against a team from Chile. We rotated everyone through the lines and tried a little zone. Cimarr贸n won it’s third game!!! This was enough to put us second in our pool and in a cross-over quarterfinals game against the Bah铆a Blanca team. This team consisted of people from Monte Hermoso where Matt went to play the beach tournament in February, so he knew most of them. The game was a bit rough with calls and was more aggressive than any of our previous games. We stuck with it and Cimarr贸n won it’s fourth game!!
That put us into the semifinals Sunday morning against Big Red, Buenos Aires’ best team and the team that had won the tournament last year. We came out ready to go. We started playing a zone defense with two ladies in the cup and were able to shut down their offense for a bit. We were down for most of the game and brought the score back to 10-10 with us on defense. We threw our zone and got a turn. Asa sent a deep shot to Juanma who was wide open. Juanma ran toward the back of the endzone and tried to “toe” the line, but to no avail. We set our zone again, but Big Red managed to work the disc all the way back up the field and score. Cimarr贸n lost the semifinals by one point.
We still had the third place game to play against Sol, the other Brazillian team, but we had worn ourselves out playing Big Red. Cimarr贸n lost the 3/4 game, racking in a fourth place showing at the tournament.
Cimarr贸n’s end record was 4 wins and 3 losses, a remarkable tournament for the team and all of it’s players! Other players and teams continually commented on the improvement in Cimarr贸n’s players and team strategy from last year’s tournament. There was also a general excitement that Uruguay was building it’s ultimate program and actively seeking ways to improve and participate in the region.
Cimarr贸n also managed to get some awards at the end of the day: Asa won male MVP for the tournament and Randi won Defensor Feminino.
Thanks needs to be given to the organizers of the tournament for a great show. Also, thanks to all of you on the blog who have been with us from the beginning, providing financial and emotional support for the team here in Uruguay. The tournament was a great culmination of two months of hard work and there’s no doubt that Cimarr贸n will continue to improve and participate in future regional events! Thanks again!
Halupi 