weekend o' sports

Amadeo, my french friend from Emmanuel is a tennis instructor and can take anyone who wants to to go play tennis at the courts where he teaches. I hadn’t been able to go the times before because it takes so long to get out to Rueil, but my Saturday (Oct. 20) was fairly open and it sounded like a nice way to pass the afternoon. I met up with Sarah A and we took the bus out to Rueil to meet Andrea and Amadeo for some tennis. Now the last time I was in Paris I did no sports. No physical activity. Nothing. So I did not pack for it this time around. And of course now I am in a rock climbing class and going to play tennis with friends and don’t have appropriate clothes. So I was wearing my lounge pants, a long-sleeve T, and my non-athletic sneakers. Amadeo took one look at me and said, “That’s what you wear to play tennis?” Yes, that is what I wear to play tennis in France when I packed nothing athletic!
Anyway, poor Amadeo. He’s a great tennis player stuck with 3 girls who, let’s say, are less than pros. But he was a good sport about it, and taught us how to do things properly.

That was the day I discovered that I have never played tennis with a full serve in my life. I also discovered there is a reason for that: I stink at serving. Seriously. I’m moderately athletic, but this is something that falls outside of my skill range. Once the serve was over I wasn’t too bad, but on games when it was my serve, other people didn’t get to touch the ball much...and the games were over reeeal fast. We played in one of those white tent domey things where if you leave the door open it’ll collapse. And it was chilly in there, but we had fun and it was good exercise. We played for two hours and then Amadeo made us have a play-off between the three of us at the end (drop serves not real ones!) and I’m proud to say I won, although I don’t think it was a result of talent.

That night was the Rugby World Cup Finals: England v. South Africa. I wanted South Africa just because English rugby fans are jerks. Basically the same reason I don’t like LSU. Some of the girls were going to get together to watch it. English rugby fans were everywhere that day in strange outfits. On the metro on the way down to meet the girls I was standing next to a group of young guys and a girl and they were already well into their bottles of wine and being really obnoxious. One of them wanted to ask me a question and have me weigh in on their inappropriate conversation but he didn’t know what language I spoke, so he proceeded to attempt to ask me in about 4 languages if I spoke English. I emphasize the word “attempted”. I stared back blankly and shrugged my shoulders. Pretending not to speak English is pretty entertaining because then people think they can say whatever they want because you don’t understand. Anyway, the rugby match was at least more exciting than the semi-finals, and South Africa won, and I only felt bad for Johnny Wilkinson (leader of the English team) because he’s just so pretty.

Sunday was a lovely day. The fall sun took the chill out of the air. After church we wanted to get something to eat, but instead of going out, a guy from church volunteered to cook if someone would run to the market. So the young adults all stayed and cooked lunch in the church kitchen. And since it was so nice, we set up tables out in the courtyard and had a very tasty lunch out in the bright autumn sun. It was really a pleasant afternoon. I thought that an afternoon couldn’t be any nicer, but I would be proved wrong later in the week.
Ciao!