Huck, Bid, Pillage and Burn

When choosing a location for my study abroad experience, there were two characteristics that had an overwhelming impact on my final decision. The first was unavoidable, really, and had to do with my major pretty much limiting me to the English-speaking world. Sure, I could try and learn some engineering and math in a different language, but I don’t think I’d do very well. The second limitation had to do with ultimate, or, rather, the ability to play it this semester. I’ve put more effort into ultimate than any other competitive sport, and taking a semester off would have been a disservice to me, as well as unbearably torturous. Australia, and more specifically James Cook, provided a solution that fit both of these qualifications.

I’m going to be blunt here: James Cook University ultimate is not up to Swarthmore standards. This, I suppose, can be attributed to two things. First, ultimate was invented in the US only about 35 years ago, give or take, and has taken awhile to spread across the world. The US still dominates international competition. Second, Townsville has a population of roughly 100,000, leaving the available pool of people who actually know what ultimate is and care enough to excel at it limited at best. That said, there are probably 15 native Australians who actually know the rules, and when you add in the 5 or so Americans here for the semester who play regularly in the states, it makes the games bearable most of the time. You see, the overwhelming majority of the people who play here have zero clue of competitive ultimate strategy, which can be frustrating. They hang out in the cutting lane, throw only backhands and don't run through the disc. I know, I used to be one of those people, but after one learns the rules and offenses and the proper throwing mechanisms, it’s hard to go back.

We play three times a week: Monday nights, in a kind of intramural league; Thursday afternoon pickup; and Sunday afternoons in a special practice reserved for those people who know what they’re doing on the field. My Monday night team is lead by an exceedingly exuberant grad student named Megan. Our name is Wombat Combat, and we at some point will all have turquoise shirts (I think). Included in the league fees is a sweet Queensland Ultimate disc, which is great because all of my other discs have been lost or stolen at various tournaments. It’s a lot of fun, but we probably won’t do too well because I (me!) am probably the best thrower on the team. There are other, better throwers at JCU, but none on the awesome power that is Wombat Combat. Consider this: at Swarthmore, I am maybe in the top 15 (out of 22-3), and rarely played an offensive point. Now I am handling. This is good practice for me, but bad news for our team. Regardless, I’m just happy to be playing.

Ultimate has also provided me an opportunity for me to meet people. This is something that I am in general extraordinarily bad at, and the problem is compounded by (a) having a safety net named Natalie and (b) this is second semester, so people have already formed their tight social circles. It's hard to crack them. We've kind of befriended the other Americans in St. Mark's and have even planned a trip with one of them to the Whitsunday islands (sorry about the tourism link). It's a three-day liveaboard boat trip that offers opportunities for snorkeling as well as a chance to finally put those scuba lessons to use. But aside from that it's a little hard to make friends, especially when the Australians' favorite group activity is going out and getting blind drunk. Seriously, that happens 4-5 times a week for some people. Anyway, people who play ultimate are generally cool and that is true here as well, so maybe some good friends will be found there. Keep your fingers crossed.