staying active!

i joined martial arts, soccer, and volleyball as planned from day one. so far, it's been incredibly enjoyable. martial arts is every tuesday afternoon at 2pm. today's class was led by my friend elliot, whose focus is kung fu. the sun was beating down on us, but i loved learning the various kicks and the introductory kata. it was very rewarding!

tomorrow, i have my first soccer match against the hebrew school. we've only had two official practices, but i've been scrimmaging with some of the guys from japanese school---so hopefully, we'll be okay. after yesterday's practice of running warm-up laps, doing drills, practicing [easy] plays, scrimmaging.... i realized that i really missed organized sports. these nine weeks are hardly any time at all, but i'll take what i can get!

i'm not an amazing volleyball player, but i can hold my own. although the volleyball club has a set practice time, one can usually find a group of people playing on the court at any given time. i've walked past with an agenda before, only to stop what i was doing and join in on the game. and i just want to note that my teachers are SKILLED.

when these clubs aren't meeting, my friends and i hit the gym and/or pool. lately, i've been warming up on the elliptical for about thirty minutes, and then do some lifting (up to 70lbs on the lat pull now!) and abs/balance/ flexibility exercises (for cheerleading). i have yet to conquer my fear of swimming in the deep end of the pool, but i hope to overcome that soon. just before language school, while swimming in the big eddy (bath, nh) with jen h. at one point, i found myself not being able to touch ground. however, instead of panicking, which i expected myself to do, i calmly treaded water (while yelling for jen) and got myself back into "swimming position". after this experience, i'm confident that i'd be okay in the deep end---but still, it's a psychological thing...