One And All.

I play Ultimate Frisbee. It is something that I love. I am passionate about. And I never would have guessed that I would enjoy a sport so much.

Just the most intimidating line up ever. This is my team.

Anna and I enjoy making up games like this one, where I shoot her off my back.

My favorite of the team. We're just so happy to be together.

We call ourselves the Dynamic Duo + Shady.

If you were to ask most people that knew me 5 years ago, they would have never guessed that I would play a sport that consists of running, catching, laying out, and chasing after discs for hours - regardless of weather. I was a swimmer - always had been and never knew anything different. But the whole amped-up message that North Park gives about Ultimate hooked me. And I'm obsessed. I honestly can't get enough Frisbee in my life. I want to practice every day. I want to see my teammates (and the guys from the mens team) and hang out with them all the time. I want to be at tournaments every weekend. I want to be in shape so that I can play harder than any other team. I want to scrimmage as long as possible when the indoor turf is wide open. I think you get the point. I love the sport.

Worst weather we've ever played in.

I think it has to do with the fact that I joined Frisbee completely for me. Nobody said I had to. Nobody pushed me. Nobody in my family knew what it was. And I wasn't following in someone's shadow. It was all for me. And honestly, I was laughed at for saying I was going to try it out. It wasn't something that people expected, but I wanted so badly to try it out and see if it'd be something I enjoy. Obviously it was, as I'm now a captain and I have a passion for the sport exceeds my passion for a lot of other things in my life.

Draining the lactic acid from our legs at the church. 

I'm pretty sure I didn't even play at this tournament.

My team, Allihopa (which means "one and all" in Swedish), has our first tournament next weekend. I'm beyond excited. Spending every hour of sunlight outside playing the sport I love for an entire weekend will be fantastic. It's my favorite way to wake up in the morning - being one of the first to get up, and then being in charge of slowly waking up each girl scattered around the sanctuary of whatever church has graciously allowed us to sleep on their floor for the weekend. It's become tradition to "shnookums" each girl to wake her up. (A shnookums is when you nuzzle your nose and face into someone's neck, and say "shnookums" as you nuzzle.) We then sloooooooowly get ourselves ready for the long day of playing that's ahead of us, but we always leave enough time to stop for coffee/red bull before we go to the fields, and then we play game after game until our day is done. We usually get some delicious food at Chipotle before we make our way back to school, where I tend to pass out in the back seat.

Riding Dirty.

It's the best. The very, very best.

Weather.

I think the recent weather has completely confused my body.

In the past 3 months, I have gone from freezing cold Chicago/MN weather, to 70/80s in Zambia, to freezing cold Chicago, back to MN (where it's even colder than Chicago), to some nice Spring-like weather here in Chicago, where all I needed was a light jacket (the perfect day, right?), to Michigan where my teeth chattered in the car, to rain in Chicago. In respective order, are pictures of these events. Notice the huge range of jackets and bundled-upness of myself. Jeepers.

Not sure if you can see the scarf, but I was definitely bundled. And confused, based on the fact that I'm drinking an iced coffee.

This is in Zambia - on one of the last nights. Definitely in summer mode with my jorts and hat.

Back to Chicago! Bundled and freezing. (This is probably before Zambia, but you get the idea that it was cold..)

Then I went to MN, where I went snowmobiling for so long that I could hardly feel my toes.

Just this past week, I wore this jacket. It's a Spring jacket.

This is from 2 years ago, but it gets me excited to be on a beach again. Eh, Cayo Costa.

What is with this weather??

I will be the first to admit that I love snow. I love rain. I love leaves falling. I love sun. I really do enjoy every season, but this messed up switching and overlap has caused me to have a cold for weeks. My nose is constantly running, and it's one of those where when I look down to take notes in class, it runs worse than when I'm just looking straight ahead.

I'm glad that Chicago now has rain, rather than snow, because I've gotten a glimpse of Spring and it makes me very excited to start tossing a Frisbee outside, rather than in a humid hot-box called Helwig.

This preview to Spring also gets me very stoked for Spring Break, which is in approximately 18 days. I'll be heading down to Florida to go camping on an island called Cayo Costa. I'm excited to be in swimsuits and sundresses every day, I just really hope this Rudolph nose goes away by then.

Enjoy whatever weather you have today.
love love.
Chels.

Ba Gypsy.

First off: I apologize for the lack of recent posts on here. But, I promise this is a good story.

While boarding the bus one morning, Stefan, Ike, and Aaron started sharing a story about the night before. Sandy, their 14-yr-old host brother, was apparently fascinated by gypsies. He was asking question after question about them. "Have you ever seen a gypsy?", "Do you ever want to meet a gypsy?", "What do gypsies look like?", etc. We were laughing and talking about how funny it was that someone would be so interested in gypsies, but Sandy's a funny guy and we enjoyed the laugh.

Later that night, we were at a host family dinner at Mama Lillian's house. Nkhongono, Mama Lillian's son and the boy's little host brother, who hung out with us almost every day, started asking questions about gypsies, as well. I think he overheard us talking about Sandy's fascination, but it was funny that we had all these random questions about gypsies. I've honestly never put that much though into what it takes to be a gypsy. This proceeded into an obsession with gypsies for our little pal Nkhongono.

Stefan, one of our team leaders, had already started making lists of random things on the trip. Nkhonogono's new found obsession was just another reason for another list. So, the "what it takes to be a gypsy" list evolved. The list included things such as wearing hair scarves, wearing long flowing skirts, being able to see where your eyes are not (aka, using your peripheral vision), naming your child after a continent (like my host sister, Musonda did with her daughter, Asia), denying possession of gold in your pockets, actually having gold in your pockets, etc. (The list was VERY long). I think something about having sass was also on the list. I happened to be quite sassy with my team sometimes.

Anywho, after this list making, Nkhonogono looks at me as says "Ba Chelsey, YOU ARE A GYPSY!!" Apparently I met enough requirements on the list to be classified as a gypsy. Therefore, I am named Ba Gypsy. It stuck and was all that he called me for the rest of the trip.

This is what I was wearing the day I was declared Ba Gypsy. Feel free to decide whether or not you agree with Nkhonogono. (Yes, I'm wearing a skirt, too).