That's the Way We Get By

Have you ever had an Asian physicist that you just met that calls you Amy tell you to "go! go! go!"? Well, whenever the time comes; should that ever come to happen, it means you have to go. Go go. As in, get off the bench. And onto the ice. So that's what I did.

I had two straight hours of hockey practice last night. The girl's team was... was. A few people knew English. There were a lot of teenage girls, so I was somewhat intimidated. But hey wait. Aren't I a teenage girl? Oh yeah. But anyway. We ran for a few minutes around the rink then did stretches and those infamous butt kicks, and stuff.

I sat next to Tina in the locker room. Tina, if I didn't already tell you guys, is like the person that runs the team... sort of. She's the Captain of the team, is Canadian, and called us about me joining. She's nice I guess. And then also there was this other girl/young woman who was nice. She talked to me a little bit before running and stuff. Pretty much everyone knew French. Some didn't know any English.

And then it turned out it was also team picture day. So I had to change my jersey twice or so. I was located on the left. Well, right when you look at the picture. But it was sort of weird because I mean, I might not be on that team really. But anyway. The team had a mascot; some guy wore this huge like... doll thing. The team is called the Demoniaks. The logo sports something like a rabid doll. The website is in French, I must "warn" you though.

Hockey is a tough sport. If you didn't already know. There was this main coach guy who spoke French but knew some English. He was pretty nice, actually. We had to wear practice jerseys. Mine was yellow. There were 3 other yellows. I later learned the colors were for the different lines.
So anyway, here's an excerpt of what was going through my head/was slightly whispered occasionally during practice:

OH MY GOD. I suck I suck I suck I suck I suck. What WAS that?!?!?! That was like not even... no. UGH how did I miss that pass?!??! What is wrong with me?!?!? I suck I suck I suck.

I say that a lot to myself. And there's a reason. Because see, I do miss passes. I make stupid mistakes. Which cause me to come to the conclusion that: I suck at hockey, and/or my teammates think I suck at hockey. I guess you could say I'm pretty hard on myself on hockey. But at least when I make a mistake I know I did and insult myself right?

Well actually. Maybe that isn't a uh.... good thing.... but whatever. The drills weren't really even that hard, but it takes me awhile to get drills. And I don't really get when the coach uses that white board. With the X's and O's stuff. So I made many many many mistakes on the drills, even on the easy ones. Eventually the coach guy saw that some of the drills were too complicated for me so he put me with this other line doing this more simple drill. Even then I took a while to do the drill right. Sigh.

But it wasn't that bad, I guess. At the end, that one other lady that was nice asked me if practice was too hard or too easy. I almost laughed in my head. How could that be easy? I told her it was sort of hard. But it was ok. Then I stayed for the CERN practice, which was awesome.

There were a lot of new people. At the end the coach said we weren't allowed to invite more people. As I mentioned earlier, there was that Asian guy. He was ok though. But being not called by your name is annoying. Very irksome. We scrimmaged. My dad played goalie again. He needs to work on his five hole. That one guy that last time talked to me a little bit (I still don't know his name) told me what I was doing was good. He was on the other team, but while I was playing he said I should keep doing what I was doing. So cool. He gave me the advice, "keep your head up and don't panic". Good advice I say.

It's weird though, because on the faceoffs I play left wing, then in the offensive zone I play defense, but then defensive zone I'm sort of both... I guess I prefer defense.

In a way I like the CERN team better. Well, maybe that's just because I've been going to it more. As I step on the bench for the next line, I recieve the occasional head pat, knee pat and/or stick-butt pat. Which is like... acceptance. Well, that's assuming those are encouraging gestures. As opposed to negative ones.

After practice the guys drank beer. No drunkness, don't worry. Then the nice guy told me about the best hockey player in France. He was the guy wearing a Los Angeles Kings jersey, and he WAS really good.

We got home at around midnight as usual. But I wasn't even that tired. It was dark, and when you inhaled it was that thick, warm and soothing air. It would've been a really awesome night. "Would've" is the key word here. And "key" is the key word for that last sentence.

It turned out we didn't take a front door key. Which meant ringing our apartment constantly for 10 minutes, while calling with my dad's cell phone. Which also meant waiting with two large hockey bags in the morning in a strange, hard place. But eventually this French guy came. So he opened the door and we all fit in the elevator. He knew English. Then we had the wrong key for the apartment. Which meant more of the same: ringing the doorbell constantly while calling the phone. That doorbell was loud, mind you. LOUD. You could hear it from pretty far away. So the neighbors must hate us. And then every few minutes it would turn pitch black and I'd have to turn on the lights again. Eventually, my mom came. Apparently Zach had heard the noises, but didn't think about them much. So... ok? Yeah that was sort of our fault. Yeah we should've brought a key. But yeah we can learn from our mistakes.

Today was picture day. I was right in the middle of my class picture in the front row. I hate being "short". Then we took individual pictures.

In English, we got these like test packet things. Purple. They say "SATS" on them, but I don't think they're for the SAT. We have to read short stories/texts for a timed amount, then answer questions for a timed duration. I hate timed things. I hate competition. I hate tests. Why does school have to be so focused on tests??!! What about learning?!??! My full (or partially full) thoughts on that subject can be read in a future post.

I've decided again to start complaining. Well, not complain really. But on the way home I decided to make a music video or something. Like, a documentary on this trip. Which seems like a good idea. I'd have to do it on a break though. And where did my trumpet inspiration go?!?! I was almost unenthusiastic to practice it today. But yeah.

And then, suddenly, Stop and Stare started playing. And when that chorus came, what happened was what I have described several times before. It has to do with complaining.

Let it be known that I am now like obsessed with Crosby, Stills and Nash. And Spoon.

If you love a friend (as a friend) you should tell them that. And never take them for granted. And hugs are good, too. Way under-rated.

(Yeah that's right, I'm talking to YOU, Albert. And Ms. Bad-at-flirting if you read my blog. And Jenners and Yu.)