I get a little excited by rugby, okay?

OH MAN RUGBY IS MY FAVORITE THING EVER EVER EVER IN LIFE.

First game(s) today. We played Georgetown and Catholic on the most ghetto-ass pitch ever - that is, it was to one side of a REAL pitch (because that wasn't open until NEXT weekend), and instead of like, touch lines and all that OFFICIAL stuff we had... cones. And flags.

And okay, so both the team and I did decently but need to work on continuity - Georgetown (which is D2 to our D1) beat us in the 3x20minutes we played, but we beat Catholic HARDXCORE in the 3x20 minutes WE played.

BUT OF COURSE - the most awesome part was fo' sho the social. Since we played Georgetown first, they left, but we did social with Catholic, which is absolutely my most favorite thing in my life. It was everything a social should be.

And, of course, I reconnected with the 5 or 6 Catholic girls I already know (from PRUs or from the last time I socialed with them) and they were all "YES! AU and Catholic should see each other more often! Catholic should see YOU more often what is your phone number." I mean, basically I adore these girls and would most definitely hang with them again HURRAH.

And SERIOUSLY - does life get any better than this? Does it?!

NO. No way :D

I adore my Kyoto ruggers <3

I just checked the KWRFC website and photos from my going away party have been posted. Oh man... how much will I miss hanging out with these girls?!

Whoever typed up the commentary (probably Shima) said so many sweet things about me. For example, that I was a positive force since I joined the team, that my funny/strange Japanese is endearing, and I sing karaoke well ("even though they don't have karaoke in America, she was good!"). Besides all the ridiculousness of my teammates.

I can't believe I didn't spend more time with these girls. I mean, I can - my Japanese is just not up to snuff, although it is MUCH much closer after 4+ months - but they're such fun, and I say that when I didn't even know what was going on most of the time.

It's a small rugby world after all

So I've been poking around the blog Saturday's a Rugby Day, which is about women's rugby... and kept running into things that reminded me that this is my world. Not just one I look into or enjoy, but a place I play in, live in.

First off was the article about Division I national championships. For the third year in a row the final match has been between Penn State and Stanford; this year, Penn State won.

Cool, right? But what's even better - Penn State is one of the three teams in PRU Division I. The other two are Navy - and American. And last time we played Penn State? We held our own. We didn't kick ass (even if it felt like it) but we did damn good for a club side team with barely a grand of financial support a year from our university.

Then I read an update on the MARFU U23 team at Ruggerfest. Not only does it specifically pick out one of my teammates for comment (and why not? 'Cause Sheri seriously rocks), but I've played with at least 3 other girls on the MARFU team (PRU what!) and have met one of the other women mentioned in the article.

It doesn't hurt that today was an especially awesome rugby day here in Kyoto - our original ground was rather small and full of baseball players, so we ended up holding a rather abbreviated practice in the tryzone of a lovely turf field (with no baseballs flying through the air to endanger us). But then we just chilled and watched the men's games going on - it was a serious of short matches versus alumni sides of Hanazono High School, celebrating the school's 50th anniversary (or so I surmise). I got teased by my teammates when a touch judge missed a lineout because he was too busy hitting on me, learned one of the girls can breakdance (and boy was she was excited when I told her about AUWRFC danceoffs), and just had a generally good few hours watching some rugby.

That day back at the beginning of sophomore year when I decided maybe rugby could replace martial arts as my "get beat up for fitness" activity? I made one of the best decisions of my life.