"Compter un, deux, trois, quatre..." Ultimate in Dijon

The quotation in the title is how you stall count in French. The funny part is when the offensive player throws the disc, they yell "UP!" in English, even though the rest of the lingo is totally French.

Last Monday was my first practice with Les Discjonctes, a club team in Dijon (which I originally believed is associated with the University of Burgundy, but now think it's just a club team, since many of the players seem to be older than college age). Practices are Monday nights from 9-11pm in a gym and Thursday nights from 7-9pm outside. I missed last Thursday's practice because I was in Vienna, but I went to my second practice on Monday.

There were 19 players - 17 guys, 1 other girl, and me (which is not a bad ratio, in my opinion). I found out my first night that routine of practice is very similar to the one I am used to with RUCKUS back at Wake. The 10-15 minutes before practice starts is spent just throwing the disc with a partner, warming up. Then we run some laps around the gym, do warm-ups, and stretch. Then we run a drill or two. The drills usually simulate the proper technique for cutting on the field, and all of the ones we have done so far are exactly the same as drills I have run with RUCKUS. That takes up most of the first hour and then the second hour is dedicated to scrimmaging (the best part). The first time I went we had 15 people total and we played 5 versus 5, with subs. This past Monday we played with three teams of 5 (plus subs), rotating a new team in every three points. When they picked teams for the scrimmage I was picked during the first round - to my great pleasure.

I can't really explain how much I have enjoyed playing Ultimate here. It's only been two practices, but both of them have been awesome. It might be because I am doing an activity where I can really compete (without a real language barrier stopping me) or just the joy of physical exertion in the form of organized competition. I personally think it's the latter. I was incredibly sore after the first night of practice, and only slightly less so after the second. It was much too cold for me to run while I was in Vienna, and my 9am classes on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings make it impossible to run those mornings (I have to leave 20 minutes to ride my bike to school and it's not really light outside until 7:45am-8am).

Les Discjonctes have only one tournament in the fall, and it's November 8, the weekend I am going to be in Dublin. It's sort of a bummer, but I will be perfectly content just to practice. I think the team members think I'm a little crazy, because the last two practices I have been so eager to run around and play. I didn't realize how much I missed it until we started warming up that first night. Just the feeling of the disc in my hand got me excited. Okay, blog reader, you're probably pretty tired of my Ultimate Frisbee obsessing, so I'm going to conclude there.

To answer a question from a response to a previous blog post: CIEF (Centre International des Études de Francais) is the department within the University of Burgundy which organizes the classes for the international students who come to study abroad in Dijon. All of my classes through CIEF (and I have 5: one on Monday, one on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, and one on Thursday) are with other international students and they're all focused on some element of the French language. The two other courses I am taking "La France Contemporaine" (culture/sociology class) and the art history class, are both Wake Forest-only courses, although they're taught by French professors.

Another extracurricular activity you might find interesting is a course on wine and wine-tasting being taught to the Wake group by Jenn's host father, Monsieur Lafond. He makes his own wine and is something of an expert (he actually came to Cincinnati in the early 1980s to do a wine tasting for some company, which was held on the skating rink on Fountain Square). Tonight was our second meeting, and we tasted the same Aligoté that we tasted the first night. M. Lafond is trying to get us to recognize this particular wine so that we can then use it as a point of comparision for other wines in the future. The course is focused mostly on Burgundy wines, although he has been comparing the techniques used here in Burgundy with those used by most vineyards in the U.S. Monday's session was all about the reasons why Burgundy wine is unique (geological and historical reasons mostly, lots of calcium in the soil and monks who were very assiduous with maintaining certain cepages). Tonight was about viticulture and vinification (how the vines are cared for and how the wine is made). Our next meeting is next Monday, and I'll let you know how it goes!