I haven’t mentioned much about what I have been up to in my free time in the afternoons.
Well, if we are lucky and it is not raining I sometimes like to go for walks with my camera, of just wonder round the community just enjoying what there is.
Recently, I have been spending time collecting recipes from people so that I can cook all these wonderful meals when I get back.
But, something that we have started to do more often on the Saturdays when we have most of the day off is play football.
Now, there are a couple of difficulties with playing football, or any other team sports involving circular objects for that matter, on top of mountains.
The 1st problem is space. Thankfully the community has cleared a plateau at the top of the community for exercises and other activities along with volleyball, so that took the form of a football field. It was a little smaller than normal and distinctly lacking grass, but with a couple of rocks marking out the goals a competitive game of footie could take place and that’s all that mattered. The game normally fields 3 players on each side but every now and then we manage to goad some extra players into playing for larger teams.
However, I think the biggest difference between Durika, mountain football and the traditional football, is very noticeable after a goal is scored. Here, instead of just running round the pitch like a glorified headless chicken, celebrating, you have to try and find a way to incorporate chasing the ball down the hill down the hill into your celebration. The other day Devin was made to chase the ball all the way down to where our cabin was! (That is a long way by the way) Fortunately, it got stuck by a rock because otherwise it would have rolled down the road or even down the valley!
But it does mean that the games are more even than traditional football, because the team that scores on a regular basis tends to find themselves running down and up the hill on regular basis, so after a couple of goals everybody is at the same level. Haha.
As you can guess its so much fun. I must admit that that is probably the thing that I miss the most about home (on the flat), being able to play team sports. But it is hilarious when the rules are ignored and end up resembling a game more similar to rugby than football (it tends to be the girls that get the most aggressive, hahah).
So there you have some of the things I get up to in my free time. However, it seems that all the exercise that I do during the day doesn’t sap me of all my energy. To be honest, I tend to feel as though I am totally spent before I go to bed. But, according to all the other members of my cabin (5 of them that is), I have been doing some extra exercise in the nights as well.
Last night I was having a full on conversation in Dutch to an invisible audience and the other night I was supposedly found punching my mattress. Devin said that a few minutes later, as if I was just making sure it was totally dealt with, I could be heard scratching at it. I sure showed that mattress. Haha
Needless to say, night times are quite eventful.
