Orientation

So, uh, I really haven't had really had the time or energy to update the blog recently. However, I've had time to play ultimate frisbee and have my photo published in The Tech.

I've spent most of my time here playing soccer, joining random pick-up games that are going on at Brigg's Field or the Astroturf. Last night, I played with 15 Turks from Boston University, and tonight with 8 Kazakhs from the Cambridge area. I assume the Asian nationality du jour tomorrow night will be Uzbek. I've never played on AstroTurf before, despite hailing from the city where it was first implemented in a major sports stadium.

I have mixed feelings about it. After playing on the surface, I looked up its properties and player reactions to artificial grass. Generally, soccer players hate AstroTurf because the ball bounces too much, it's harder on the joints (therefore making them more prone to injury), and it causes terrible abrasions. Newer generations of artificial turf much more closely resemble real grass, but MIT's field has the original stuff.

My impression is that the AstroTurf installation at the Institute is extremely soft. In fact, compared to the fields where I played pick-up soccer in Houston, it's like walking on marshmallows. It's great. I generally play either goalkeeper or striker. Opposites, I know, but playing both roles gives you knowledge about how your opponent thinks and will act, which is a huge advantage for keepers against fowards as well as forwards against keepers. Anyways, this summer I really honed my goalie skills, learning how to make diving saves. The form was easy enough to master. I found the psychological block the hardest to overcome. Before diving, I would freeze up. My reflexes were good, but I was deathly afraid of the landing. Jumping as fast and as high as you can is difficult, knowing you are going to land on your ribcage. But I had no such block on the artificial grass! Even after experimenting and blocking some great Turkish shots, and finding that the landing hurts worse on AstroTurf, I was still flying left and right. The fall is cushioned, but you'll be in for a terrible scraping. I have a quarter-sized abrasion on my right hip, the result of a save over the crossbar of a rocket of a shot, and a rough spot on my right knee from a sliding tackle near the goal.

There's something about this weather. In Houston, we played outdoors in the baking sun. The temperatures were always above 97 degrees Fahrenheit, and I'd be able to take in a liter of water no problem after only 45 minutes of play. After about an hour and a half, I would have to quit, completely tired out. Here, though, in the beautiful 60F weather, I can sprint all around the field for more than three hours, barely breaking a sweat with almost no thirst at all. I guess all that Houston torture was worth something--I'm a juggernaut in weather less than 75 degrees.

So if you look at the time stamp, you will notice that this was posted sometime around 5:00am. This is because a) I don't feel like sleeping, b) I haven't blogged in a while, and c) I have something to blog about. But I could have written this at about 12am. I'm really writing this past 5am because for the past four hours or so I went on a campus tour. It was amazing. I met this great guy called Jack who showed me these cool hiding spots. Now I know where to run when I start smelling the bacon as I pull an epic hack.