random thoughts about paga 21

every year, paga divides my life: pre and post. this year was better than the last in that more international friends came, so the social scene wasn't dominated by the brits (seriously, there is a herd party every weekend that is more fun/less awkward than the crown & roses drinking game scene--btw, my scale of good times is by the amount of alcohol required before you're having one. altho there is ample drinking opportunity w the herd, i find myself jolly even without the liquor). oh yeah, and the herd were there this year, yay!

but then again, this year was not as good b/c we lost in the finals to fembot ballers 13-6...i don't think they were 7 points better than us. takeaways? losing sucks. i need to get more stable on my around backhand breaks. it's ok to hold the disc for a bit before throwing...tend towards the ange.

moments for the highlight reel: i tipped a callahan to myself in the semifinals against the russians (bonus points for demoralizing the russians), i got a poach D on one of the best japanese cutters, and i got a point block on one of the main czech handlers (both for immediate conversions). nothing spectacular on O, i'm afraid...something to work on.

the rest of paga was a blur...even without copious amounts of alcohol. lets see...shenanigans in the arcades:

• we managed to top last year's elephant debacle by getting 5 people on a mechanical horse while ppl dressed as old men waved their canes at us (they then blocked up a roundabout by crossing extremely slowly..the cops got involved).
• ange and linz are, as suspected, both ace at various tabletop games (air hockey, foosball). i sucked only marginally less than neibh, who may or may not have had an injured shoulder.

otherwise:

• i ate the obligatory amounts of gelato, strazzopreti, calamari (ie LOADS)
• went for a cold dip in the mediterranean (my first)
• caught up w the asian friends (jake, jim, doc, sherry, steph & trey, who are now ENGAGED!!!), the hot lava friends (alice, minh, beth), the mit friends (lori & christy, who is now PREGNANT!!!!), and the european friends from hotpot last year.

ok, now i'm less sleepy, so will get back to studying the kidney.