new years in new countries

they've revoked the free drinks at work! the upper half of the fridge is empty, and what's left of the cokes and sprites, they've locked behind a plastic door. i've been toying with the idea of taking off the hinges (they look really dinky), but it'd be just like me to get fired for trying to steal diet sprites.

i left my voice in vietnam. i was captain of my hat team, and i was feeling a bit under the weather going into the venture...what they didn't tell me was that i had a co-captain, david jenson, who's the granddaddy of vietnam ultimate. needless to say, any attempt i made at organizing saturday morning was duly ignored and dismissed with the phrase, "you'll see when david gets here." for example, me: "so, are you guys more used to playing a vert or ho stack." them: "you'll see when david gets here." and so on. a couple of times, they even said, "you'll see when our captain gets here." which, was kinda, just kinda, a disheartening way to start a tournament given i was already feeling pretty crappy. anyways, the tournament only went up from there. i actually don't remember much from it...we were the team of the short connections, and we lost to the team of the huck and play d's.

personally, i was 0 fer 2 on hammers...i didn't bring my arm around far enough...the second one, i actually hit my mark in the chin with my bicep. my team never learned to stop crowding the disc. i think this was more an exercise in leadership than an exercise in ultimate for me. i felt like i was thrown into a whirlwind, and i won't really know what i learned until the debris settles. i did manage to affect one guy's play...the second day, his D was impeccable. the first day, we couldn't even get him to play in cleats. i don't know why some people respond to me and some people don't. like last year, i could totally fire henri up, but i think i just scared jenny. is it how i respond to the person?

anyways, the fields were gorgeous, the tropical fruit was genius, everything was dirt cheap. all in all, vietnam rocked my face. i could totally live there one day (for like three months or so). it was aptly dubbed the land of the mopeds. and there's people on every corner selling street food. i love street food. there's even a guy peddling around dried squid. like literally, the squid was strung out on a rack on the back of his bike. hoohaa! it's also kinda humbling being in a country that kicked your country's ass in a war.

oh, and i've literally lost my voice. i hold up signs that say "yes please" or "no thanks". people react funny when you can't speak. most of them start whispering back at you.