Frozen Peas

Yes the title of this post is relavant to its content. kind of..

Tonight I had the pleasure of playing in the UNCA coed basketball championship game. I actually ended up on a team this year after a crazy string of events. The season was short but I had so much fun and definitely made me wish i still played regularly.
I am not the best player but I can still hit my shots and make some passes and hold my own. I have been playing basketball every since I could walk. My dad was pretty much a 5 ft. 5 super start in high school. I was never an all-star but I was constant, extremely competitive (still am) and I actually had a LOT of fun playing. The one thing about me playing basketball is that I tend to always walk away from a game with a multitude of bruises and scrapes. To me, that means it was a good game. If I didn't walk away with something hurting I knew I hadn't played hard enough. I think my knees are permanently purple from diving out of bounds and trying to scrape up a jump ball or four. My size has always worked against me so I have had to learn how to play smartly. One of the things about being short is that you are always at elbow height or being smashed into a pick if your team isn't watching out for you. Posting up isn't really an option. I swear to you that I lost a contact lens every game. I would have to pick it up off the deliciously clean court and put it in my mouth to 'wash it off' and pop it back into my eye so that play could continue. It is amazing that I don't have a disgusting eye disease.

I have always loved the after a game feeling of being exhausted and feeling a little beaten up. Tonight I got my money's worth in minor injuries. I walked away from the game with a bloody lip and knee, a bruised elbow, two slightly jammed fingers, court burned knees BUT with a championship t-shirt. Please hold your applause, this is big time stuff..

It has been so good to be back on the court again and almost makes me regret giving up basketball. But just almost. It has been so great to be able to play for fun. Hopefully I will continue to do so.

Oh, I forgot one small detail. I can get pretty fired up on the court. In high school I learned to channel it into playing harder. But sometimes an alternate me just kind of slips out and heated exchanges can happen. Especially when playing with guys. Tonight, my fiery side came exploding out after being intentionally elbowed by a guy on the other team after we were both going for a ball. In response I may or may not have just intentionally fouled him. To me, that is just lazy basketball on my part but sometimes you have to let them know that you refuse to let them walk all over you. In the end we made up and I apologized for everything and we walked away smiling.



heh heh heh. You thought I forgot the frozen peas. Nope! Right now, I am no attempting to ice my lip and elbow at the same time. Ice cube for the lip and frozen peas for the elbow. Peas are the best. It is a special scene really. My roommate asked me if I had been at a boxing match. Kind of feels like that but definitely worth every bit of icing.

So there is my random blog about intramural basketball and my weird injuries.
I am not fragile, I just play hard.

Oh, and you will be pleased to know that I received my first shirt with the outline of North Carolina on it. For our win, we received shirts that say Intramural Champion. Underneath the lettering is a small outline of NC with a star for Asheville. If my camera wasn't broken I would have posted a beautiful picture of me in my shirt. I will spare you this one time

I know, it was big time. I am proud (of the shirt)..

Troy and Abed

I have blogged about the NBC show called Community no less than 5 times I am sure of it. But here are some clips of my two favorite characters from the show, Troy and Abed. I would go as far as to say they are my favorite characters on TV right now. They always bring the laughs

I could go on and on...

And now I shall leave you with this:



"If you love brownies, you love life." Thank you Shirley. Couldn't have said it better myself

Granada!

Well. I have waited for some time to actually do this post.

Spain. This is where I will more than likely for the entirety of my next year in school. I turned in my application to study in Granada, Spain yesterday. Everyday I get a little more excited about the idea which will hopefully be a reality soon. I am a Spanish major at UNCA and have been talking about it for months trying to imagine what it will be like. I am hopefully going with a program called Granada Sur Experiences. It is a smaller program, which I like, and is in connection with the University of Granada.

As you can see from the above map with Granada circled in red it is a city in southern Spain close to the ocean but it is also at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. I really don't have much reasoning for picking this particular place. I spent a fair amount of time talking to a few of my professors and friends who actually studied there. I also seem to just 'run into' a lot of PBS specials on Spain and in particular, Granada. So I have decided to go there. I hope to see lots of this:

and maybe some of these:



And then stare at this view for awhile:




I think I could also be ok with being less than 45 minutes from this:

All this to say is that I'm going to start reading all I can about this fair city of Granada. From what Wikipedia tells me it is a great town for university students (check), has a great night life (check) and is a wonderful city (check). Who knows, maybe I'll even meet a cute Spanish boy... (don't worry Mom and Dad, I make sure he checks out).

Also, it will be great opportunity for me to take a few side trips. That being said, I am starting a list of all the connections I could possibly have in Europe while over there. So, if you know of anyone that wouldn't mind a surprise visit (planned of course) from an American college kid trying to see Europe, by all means let me know!!

Stay tuned for what will be more fabulous posts on this new adventure I may be having in the life of mine!