Adventures in Manila Spirits/Asia-Oceanic Ultimate Clubs Championship

WOW.
I'm tired, sore, injured, swollen, sunburned and slightly hungover, but oh my god, I just had a most intense frisbee experience at Spirits/AOUCC.
Where, of where do I start?? There's so much to report, I really don't know where to begin! Maybe headings will work...

The team:
I got to play for the Iligan Red Horses, a provincial team from Iligan, Mindanao. Like I told my old teammates, it was def a challenge playing with a whole new team. For starters, they have a totally different playing style, which I won't go into so much detail here because, well the negatives might outweigh the positives :P
Throw in the language barrier... The Red Horses speak Bisaya, a dialect spoken widely in the mid and southern parts of the Philippines. They speak tagalog, which I speak too, but not when they're communicating on the field.
As for the people, they're all super nice and welcoming. Spirit-wise, they've got tons to learn... we almost got banned from the tournament because of their need to argue with calls. At one point, it was so embarrassing, I just had to walk away. I was extremely tempted to rip off my Iligan jersey and deny any affiliation with the RH, but alas, no such drama happened. Well, not from me anyway. In fairness, this is their first time at Spirits, and with AOUCC here as well, the spirit antenna got hyped up, but really, it doesn't matter where you play, ultimate is always accompanied with good spirit.
Don't get me wrong, I love the team, but I'm also really particular about spirit. Especially when it comes to ultimate. Hehe, that's what happens I guess when you're trained in Vancouver. I gotta say, I have to give mad props to one of the VUL teams I played with, Hand of Chal, for being the most spirited team I've yet to play with. I learned from the best, I guess! :)

The event:
Spirits/AOUCC was held in Alabang Country Club, some hour and a bit of a drive from where I live. Games started about 7.50, so waking up at 5.30/6am was kind of a drag. Luckily I got to hitch rides with friends of mine (thank you Lar, Danika and Jed!!), so the ride situation wasn't that bad.
I've been to an international tournament before, (the World Guts and Ultimate Championship 2008 in Van), but only as a volunteer. Haha, I remember lending my bike to a Mexican player and praying that he'd give it back!! I mean, what would he need a pink bike for anyway, right?
So yeah, I've never gone to a tournament as a player, and it was just crazy amazing and such an experience. First of all, it'd been a really long time since I played hard-core ulti, and wow, my body was shocked. The games themselves weren't too bad, its just playing four games in one day can take a toll on you.

The game:
We had four games on the first day and three on the last. We won three on the first and one on the last. During game three on our first day, I got kneed in the face by my own teammate. Long story short, our team was on defense and I was going for a block. My teammate didn't think I could get that much air, so he ran for the disc too. BOOM! Collision. Knee to face. Apparently I was unconscious for a while and things def got a bit hazy because I didn't know what happened after that. There was blood in my mouth and a throbbing pain on my face and in my brain.
I sat the rest of the game out and don't actually remember any of it. I iced my face for about three hours. Very difficult to keep ice as ice in a tropical country. I'm just saying.
I really wanted to play the next game so I persevered with the ice that was melting with the heat of my face and the heat of the sun.
It was super hard to chew (knee hit right jaw/cheek area), so I could only eat spaghetti and soup that day. Oh, and liquids ;)

The parties:
There were parties from Thursday till Sunday, but I only got to go to the Saturday and Sunday ones. The Sat party was zombie themed, and it was nice to see people dressing up and being really game for a change! That's one thing about the Philippines, everyone's always out to just look good; and bu good, I mean superficially, fashionable good. May sound shallow, but its true. Anyway, it doesn't matter as much because mostly the foreign teams that dressed up. Oh, and me and Lar! :D
My pulsating brain from the collision earlier in the day? Much mellowed after a beer or two :)
Kudos to the band for playing pretty awesome covers from Aerosmith, The Beatles, The Killers, Bryan Adams, The Darkness, etc.
Did I forget to mention it was an open bar?
Yes, when you party in the Philippines, its a completely different story when it comes to drinks. Apparently that was a norm.
Well, color me plaid but back where I'm from that's absolutely godsend. Either way, things couldn't get too out of hand, since everyone pretty much had games the next day. I must mention the Japanese team though. They are super fun. You can't understand a thing they're saying but really, it doesn't matter so much, haha! They do the most random dance moves on the dance floor and everyone does it! Course they want you to do it too, so they take you within their literal dance circle and everyone does whatever move they came up with at the moment. Haha! Good times with the Japanese fellows.
The second party was basically free-flowing booze on the field after finals and during the awarding ceremony. Its basically a beer garden, but you can drink as much as you want (they had water dispensers of beer), and random concoctions that people would put together. It was pretty cool and reminded me a lot of happy days back at UBC. Walking around barefoot, however was not such a good idea. There was beer spilled in a lot of places, so that was a bit messy.
You mixed and mingled and drank. It was an all around good time. What makes it a better time, of course is the eye candy. I must say, Lar and I definitely had a good time scoping out the other teams ;)

The sunburn:
I have the ugliest tan EVER. I def have sock tan lines, shorts tan lines, and I burned my back (I wore the sleeveless jersey on the first day). How the hell am I going to Bora with this monstrosity of a tan??

Oh, and also if any of you know my mother, please do not tell her about the knee-to-face incident. I told her I was hit by a disc on the face. Which has happened before.
And the free-flowing booze. That stuff should be kept at a down-low, away from parental ears.