Taiwan is incredible! Look for a blog post later tonight/today...we've been super busy practicing and going on adventures.
heart,
C & T
Saturday, July 11, 2009
My heart exploded last night.
Last night, Mike and some very dear friends hosted a happy hour fund raiser for me at Black Sheep Lodge, a new Austin bar owned by Austin Ultimate legend Keith Sandel. The UPA reimburses the team for a certain amount of travel expenses and we are doing team fundraisers, but I was surprised how quickly that stipend was depleted with all the traveling to practices and tourneys.
It turns out that living in Austin does have one drawback; it is geographically isolated from the Ultimate dense pockets around the country and therefore it is expensive and time consuming to consistently reach those pockets of high level frisbee fun. This is not a new development-- teams in Texas have always struggled with having to spend more money and time flying to far away tournaments for good competition-- but involved a lot of traveling within a two and a half month period. Team U.S.A. attended practices, tryouts, or tournaments in Florida/L.A., Denver, San Francisco, Atlanta, Seattle, and two in Ohio over that short time period.
So, that is why I am so incredibly grateful to all the people that have shown support (both physically and monetarily) to this cause. Thank you for working out or practicing with me and pushing me to be a better player and athlete, thank you for helping me attend the World Games and all those practices without going into extreme debt, thank you for teaching me, putting up with me, supporting me, and loving me. I can't thank you all enough, but I shall try. Special thanks to:
TUFF, Sheila Ogden, Bryan Campbell, David Natenberg and Ellie, Sharon and Steven Natenberg, Lindsay Lowe, Laney Bevill, Homie and Molly, Max and Casi Cook, Kiran Thomas, Sarah Blyth, Terry Jungman, Mia Iseman, Lisa and Brian Ward, Lorig Hawkins, Nazish Waliany, Vanessa Wagner, Hannah and Elliot, Rachel Massey, Mariah, Aaron Smith, Mark Krasniewski, Zack Sumners, Steven Alford, Mark Warren, Stoney and Ying, Matteo and Kim, Stephanie Redfern, Matt Clark, Ben Simms, Corina Lucas, Amanda Chisholm, DJ Loskorn, Stevie Franchise, Skizip Hobbie, Chase, Bjorn Schey, Judson, Scott, Wheels, Rory Orloff, Andrew Vickers, Andrew Foley, Don Tom and Judy, Adam Keeling, Marcus Gavin, Julia Echterhoff, Paul (TUFF), Fortner, Dana, Turco, Becky and Karen, Scott Gross, Michelle Ng, Madison Berger, Marjo Manalang, Kyle Kretschman, Rachel Nolan, Amy Kendziorski, AJ Moore, Chris Jew, Darbi Donaldson, Daneil Knoll, Kim Breese, Carlos d'Avis, Todd Geldon, Becca Shelton, Peter Lewis, Ellen Wyoming, Phil Wendel, Alexa Tang, Jason White, Crystal Willis, Kevin Gaffney, Cassey and Michael Crouch, Andy Crouch, Bea Brown, Faye Smith, and many others.An extra special thank you to Mike/Tank and Skizip Hobbie for putting the fund raiser together.
I'll definitely do my best to represent you all on and off the field in Taiwan.
Cara
Party pics!
Last night, Mike and some very dear friends hosted a happy hour fund raiser for me at Black Sheep Lodge, a new Austin bar owned by Austin Ultimate legend Keith Sandel. The UPA reimburses the team for a certain amount of travel expenses and we are doing team fundraisers, but I was surprised how quickly that stipend was depleted with all the traveling to practices and tourneys.
It turns out that living in Austin does have one drawback; it is geographically isolated from the Ultimate dense pockets around the country and therefore it is expensive and time consuming to consistently reach those pockets of high level frisbee fun. This is not a new development-- teams in Texas have always struggled with having to spend more money and time flying to far away tournaments for good competition-- but involved a lot of traveling within a two and a half month period. Team U.S.A. attended practices, tryouts, or tournaments in Florida/L.A., Denver, San Francisco, Atlanta, Seattle, and two in Ohio over that short time period.
So, that is why I am so incredibly grateful to all the people that have shown support (both physically and monetarily) to this cause. Thank you for working out or practicing with me and pushing me to be a better player and athlete, thank you for helping me attend the World Games and all those practices without going into extreme debt, thank you for teaching me, putting up with me, supporting me, and loving me. I can't thank you all enough, but I shall try. Special thanks to:
TUFF, Sheila Ogden, Bryan Campbell, David Natenberg and Ellie, Sharon and Steven Natenberg, Lindsay Lowe, Laney Bevill, Homie and Molly, Max and Casi Cook, Kiran Thomas, Sarah Blyth, Terry Jungman, Mia Iseman, Lisa and Brian Ward, Lorig Hawkins, Nazish Waliany, Vanessa Wagner, Hannah and Elliot, Rachel Massey, Mariah, Aaron Smith, Mark Krasniewski, Zack Sumners, Steven Alford, Mark Warren, Stoney and Ying, Matteo and Kim, Stephanie Redfern, Matt Clark, Ben Simms, Corina Lucas, Amanda Chisholm, DJ Loskorn, Stevie Franchise, Skizip Hobbie, Chase, Bjorn Schey, Judson, Scott, Wheels, Rory Orloff, Andrew Vickers, Andrew Foley, Don Tom and Judy, Adam Keeling, Marcus Gavin, Julia Echterhoff, Paul (TUFF), Fortner, Dana, Turco, Becky and Karen, Scott Gross, Michelle Ng, Madison Berger, Marjo Manalang, Kyle Kretschman, Rachel Nolan, Amy Kendziorski, AJ Moore, Chris Jew, Darbi Donaldson, Daneil Knoll, Kim Breese, Carlos d'Avis, Todd Geldon, Becca Shelton, Peter Lewis, Ellen Wyoming, Phil Wendel, Alexa Tang, Jason White, Crystal Willis, Kevin Gaffney, Cassey and Michael Crouch, Andy Crouch, Bea Brown, Faye Smith, and many others.An extra special thank you to Mike/Tank and Skizip Hobbie for putting the fund raiser together.
I'll definitely do my best to represent you all on and off the field in Taiwan.
Cara
Party pics!
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
World Games 2009
Mike and I are off on another adventure this summer, to Kaohsiung, Taiwan (ROC) to participate in the World Games 2009! The World Games are a sort of precursor to the Olympics for sports that don't have all the necessary qualifications to be in the Olympics yet but still have a significant international presence. Ultimate ("Flying Disc") has been in the World Games since 2001 in Akita, Japan. Check out the official website for more info on the Games and the sports/countries involved (linked above).
I owe my involvement in this whole adventure to so many friends, family, and Ultimate community members that have been so supportive of my Ultimate habit over the years, so I wanted to share the whole journey with you all. I'll be updating from Kaohsiung and beyond with frisbee and travel related posts if I have accessible internet. As far as I know they are not streaming the Flying Disc games, so this might be the best way to keep up with how Team U.S.A. is doing and what kind of crazy shenanigans we are getting into.
Cara
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