April training on the pantano

A common complaint heard from Madrileños this fall has been about the abundance of rain we've had. What may be a reason for complaint to some isn't for others, as those who sail the Pantano de San Juan are thankful for a high water-line this season. 

The pantano last season: 

The pantano this season: 

Mid-March on the Med

This past March I once again had the opportunity to take the RCNM Optimist Race Team on a weekend training session in the Mediterranean. Taking advantage of a long weekend we left on a Friday for a four-day trip.

The trip to Burriana, a town close to Valencia, was a bit rough as the team truck suffered a flat tire only a half hour from our destination...

An early start on Saturday morning, we unloaded the trailer,...

rigged the boats,...

briefed the on-water session...

...and we were ready for some sailing!

 After two and a half days of sailing through weather of all sorts, it was a successful weekend for the team.

A year later and back in the Canaries

After many trips to the UK this past year I have become aware of how much of a wuss I am when it comes to the cold... An embarrassment to all Canadians at home and abroad, I was thankful to be heading to a warmer climate the week after the UK exchange trip. I was off to the Canary Islands for a beach hat tournament called TIBU, Torneo Internacional de Beach Ultimate. After attending the tournament last year and having a blast it was inevitable that I return for a second year.

Post-layout at TIBU in 2012

Photo credit to Herm

The tournament is held every year in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and is a 3-day tournament, Friday through Sunday. Arriving late Thursday evening we were just in time for the welcome party and, as it was a hat tournament, the team lottery.

A sandy Herm enjoying the little shade to offer on the beach. 

Aman, fellow Quijote, and I, after laying out/face planting to catch a disc...

All photo credit to Herm

After a full day of games, with the occasional break for a free massage, each team went their separate ways for dinner and assembled later in the evening for the costume party. The theme, slightly unconventional but appropriate to current events, was Higgs' Boson.(For those unfamiliar with it check out this video, as shared by the host team, Atis Tirma.) Players not sure what to do with the theme came up with some interesting ideas, most involved polka dots, lab coats, or, for Herm and I, crashing into to each other and throwing out a paper plate with "Higgs' Boson" written on it...

Tournament organisers as 'Boson Catchers'

Photo credit to Atis Tirma

Photo credit to Heidi, our team captain

Unfortunately, my team (pictured above) lost every single game at the tournament... a humbling experience to say the least. Nevertheless, the tournament was a ton of fun once again, especially as Herm and I celebrated our one-year anniversary.

Herm and I at TIBU in 2012.
Photo credit to Rebe

A Canadian chaperone in England

Now in the beginning of April this post is long overdue. The week after the tournament in Catalonia in February I was off to England to chaperone a school exchange trip. I was involved in planning the trip with two other teachers at Gabriela Mistral. It was a group of 29 students who were coupled with English exchanges from the Alton Convent School, an all-girls Catholic school in the small town of Alton, an hours drive south-west of London. The students were billeted with the families of their exchanges.

Preparation for the exchange involved getting the students to keep a Travel Log which would include entries prior to the trip, daily entries during the trip and post-trip entries.

We arrived at Gatwick airport on the Thursday and we hopped on a bus to Alton. Once we arrived our students had the chance to meet their exchanges and attend their afternoon classes with them. It was an eye-opening experience for the Spanish students as the English education system, especially that of a private school, is quite different from that of the Spanish. At the end of the day the students went home with their exchanges and the other teachers and I stayed at a local hotel, The Swan. The hotel was quite interesting as it dated back to 1377 and received some famous guests such as Jane Austen and Queen Elizabeth.

On Friday we were off to Winchester for the day to do some sightseeing. One of the other teachers had prepared a scavenger hunt for the students to carry out throughout the day.

Our students spent the weekend with their exchange families and so I was off to London to see Herm. I met the students again when they came into the city on the Monday. I was in charge of planning their day in the city and so I had prepared a Student's Package which included the schedule for the day, a questionnaire and a map.

The students thoroughly enjoyed the city, the walking tour not so much, their interest was focused on getting photos with red telephone booths and buying everything with a Union Jack on it... Nevertheless, the trip, although nerve-racking at times, went really well and the students had a wonderful time. The English exchange students will be coming to Madrid at the end of April and the teachers and students involved have been preparing for their arrival since our return from England.
Check out Alton Convent School's website about the exchange!

2013 sailing season has begun!

These past two weekends I have been coaching the Real Club Náutico de Madrid Optimist Race Team, a team I started coaching last year after miraculously discovering the sailing niche in otherwise dry Madrid. Despite the agreeable weather Spain's reputation promises...the conditions have not been great.

The first training session last Saturday, February 23rd boasted a steady 35 knots, gusting to 50...and cold, oh so cold. Suffice to say not weather Spanish kids aged 10-13 can hack.

After a typically long Spanish lunch the wind died down enough for us to head out. The kids, however, were not keen and didn't last long in the cold. 

The second training session's conditions weren't any better. Thankfully the cold wasn't present but unfortunately neither was the wind...

Thanks to the kids' keen coach, we head out nevertheless, getting in a few tacks every occasional gust.

The next time the team and I meet we are off to Burriana once again, to a training centre on the Mediterranean coast. 

Un cap de setmana de diversió a Catalunya (A weekend of fun in Catalonia)

First weekend of February I had the opportunity to participate in the Liga Catalana, the Ultimate Frisbee league in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Interestingly, Catalonia is much like Quebec in that a good portion of its population is independentist. Its capital is Barcelona and, along with Spanish, its official language is Catalan.

Foto credit to Wikipedia.

Fellow guiri and Dulcinea, Chelsi, often participates in their league and decided to organise a women's team to enter in one of the Liga Catalana's weekend savage tournaments. Beach Ultimate is played 5 against 5, and savage means that there are no substitute players, always the same 5 on the field throughout the whole game.  It was my first savage tournament and was a ton of fun.

Photo credit to the Liga Catalana.





Our team was composed of three Quijotes players (Chelsi, Rosa and I) and two players from Catalonia (Anna and Esti). A rather haphazard team, we were the self-proclaimed Arreplegades, which, as I understand it, means 'the pick ups' in Catalan.






The tournament was on the Sunday and took place on Castelldefels beach, south of Barcelona. We left Madrid the Friday prior and returned Sunday evening. In an attempt to keep things cheap I was lucky enough to stay with an Arreplegades and Quijotes team-mate, Rosa. A native Catalonian, Rosa is from Centelles, a town north of Barcelona. Their annual Carnaval festivities were taking place while I was there (pictured left). Throughout my stay in Centelles I was exposed to a lot of Catalan, either chatting with Rosa's family or friends. I found the language to be a mix of French and Spanish and although I couldn't understand everything I was able to understand the general topic of conversation.




Talking with Rosa's family, who are pro-separatism, gave me a perspective on the province of Catalonia I had never been exposed to before. Being from Quebec, the controversy of separatism is not a foreign concept to me. However, being non-separatist myself, it was really interesting to listen to their thoughts and ideas about the topic.

The name of the tournament was Campi Qui Pugui, which translates to Every Man for Himself.
Never having played together, the Arreplegades went in with no expectations. Despite that and an extremely breezy day (pictured right) we ended up making it to the finals, winning all of our games in pool-play. Once in the finals we unfortunately got killed... don't remember the score, probably because I've blocked it from my memory... An awesome day of savage play nonetheless! After the long day of playing we hopped in the car all sweaty and sandy and made the 6-hour drive back to Madrid.

Photo credit to the Liga Catalana.

The Liga wrote up a summary of the tournament, for anyone who can read Catalan... if you're missing that skill set you can simply check out some photos from the tournament. 

Glückliches Neues Jahr! Bonne Année! Happy New Year!

Just a few days after Christmas, Herm and I made our way to Gatwick Airport for a flight out to Munich.

This was my second time visiting the city and I have to say that I am a fan. Last time I was in Munich was in 2010 with Bronwyn, whom I was living with at the time in Logroño, Spain.



Bronwyn and I visiting Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Royal Castles outside the city in 2010.

We arrived and went straight to our AirBnb apartment. It was perfect accommodation, good location and cheap. Upon our arrival we were welcomed by marzipan on the pillows and various informative brochures on the city. 

We spent our time touring all over the city. Doing the usual touristy stuff, eating some great food and tasting some amazing German beer.





Augustiner Weißbier

Nürnberger Rostbratwurst

Lowengarten, an amazing German restaurant close to our apartment.

For New Years, our friend Max, a native Bavarian, invited us to a New Year's party with friends of his in the city.

The party was a blast. As midnight neared we went outside to a nearby park (where the annual Oktoberfest celebrations take place). The tradition in Munich is to set off fireworks and so Max bought Herm and I a ton of them to set off in the park. It was a bit sketchy as there were groups of people every 10 feet setting off fireworks... despite the apparent danger, it was an awesome sight!














On New Year's Day we picked up our rental car and set out on the autobahn.

Not knowing what specific car we had reserved we were pretty psyched to find out it was a Mini Cooper. 

For those who don't know, the autobahn is the German motorway that has virtually no speed limit... 

We drove west, crossing into France, to Strasbourg. We stayed in an apart-hotel for 3 nights making various day trips. 

On the first day we checked out Strasbourg for the morning and in the afternoon we drove down to the town of Colmar. 

Herm and I in Strasbourg.

Eating tarte flambee, typical of Alsace,
and vin chaud in Colmar.

On our way back to Strasbourg we had a craving for fondue (yes, neither French nor German....) and so we found some in Obernai, France. 

The next day we drove to Freiburg, where Herm's grandparents are from.

Herm eating some Curry Wurst in front of Freiburg's Cathedral. 

Stopping in St. Peter, a small town Herm remembered visiting as a kid. 

We also made the time to drive around the Black Forest and the Canadian in me was quite excited to see some snow. 

Wurstsalat, a typical dish of southern Germany. Unfortunately I would not recommend it... 

We drove back to Munich the day before our flight back to London. On our way we stopped in Karlsruhe to visit our friend Andy who had been living in Madrid not too long ago. He showed us around the city and his university campus.

Since we had an insanely early flight we decided to stay close to the airport. We ended up going all out on a luxury hotel right at the airport. 

The television even greeted me... :-)

Herm and I in the Black Forest

(Photo courtesy of Herm's skills)

Happy (Belated) New Years!

(Throughout our trip we sent a few postcards to our good friend Reca, take a look at a blog post of hers about receiving them! Quite funny...)