Something my classmates and I had long been preparing for had finally come:
Olympics week.
The Olympics are just a week full of sports. There's almost no classes (they have the first period of every day) and then the actual Olympic games go from 10 until 3. Every day for one week.
I was very excited for it.
I had been preparing with my classmates for a while from the time I arrived to the school. I had been in school for about 4 weeks by the time the Olympics had arrived. So for a decent amount of time.
Unfortunately, because of my trip, I was only there for the Olympics 3 of the 5 days. But I'm so happy I was there even for 3 of the 5 days.
Compared to many of the girls in my class here, I'm a reasonably athletic person. Which is something I did not expect coming in, but I certainly wasn't complaining. So when my classmates would see me do as little as participate in gym class, they wanted me to come be a part of their Olympic teams. For everything. Whoop.
There were a lot of things leading up to Olympics week in preparation. We had to practice some, and we also had to get our uniforms and jerseys. My class didn't have any, because it was a totally new class this year. Before this year, all of my classmates were in other pre-existing class, then had to leave to form this new group of people. So everything the other classes had, we did not have. But it ended up working out.
Finally, Olympics week came! We had our uniforms, we had been practicing, and we had plenty of spirit to pull us through.
The first match for my class on Monday morning was girls basketball. I went in, ready to play. Until I was told that I couldn't play. Because I'm not a "real student" at my school, and they have no record of me whatsoever, I couldn't play. They keep records of all of the teams and what happens during the games, and it didn't make sense to have somebody the school didn't have a record of. So I spent that game standing out and cheering. I had a great time cheering, although I'm also one of those people who always wants to go in and fix anything that is going wrong. And I couldn't do that. So that was difficult, but it was ok.
The next game was boys football. I also stuck around my class to cheer for them during that, too. That was a good game, and our class won! It was so much fun hanging out with everybody, shouting all of the cheers, banging on the drums, and holding up our banners. When I said we were spirited, I meant we were spirited.
The next game was girls football. I ended up being somewhere with somebody else during part of the game. But when I came back for the last half, all of my classmates were yelling at me to go get in the game. I was very confused, because I thought I couldn't play. But low and behold, something went through that now us exchange students could now participate in the games. Being not a very good football player, I got in as quickly and eagerly as I could. I played a middle wing position, but I ended up playing all positions at some point during the game. Which is a not great quality to have for team sports, but I would just end up running everywhere wherever I would find a problem was happening. It wasn't long before I scored the only goal of the entire game. And soon after that, the game ended. My classmates were so happy, and they even had a record that I had made the goal. Even though I'm not really in the school system. It was a really great feeling and amazing way to end the day.
The next day, on Tuesday, we had a few more matches lined up. We had girls basketball, boys basketball, girls volleyball, and boys volleyball. I played in both girls basketball and girls volleyball- although neither of those games were my greatest performances, I think that together my classmates and I worked well together as a team. We did our best, and that's what counts. We were also very close to winning both of those matches, which was also a little disappointing. But it was alright, because the boys of our class ended up playing great that day. They won both basketball and volleyball, and played very well together. Us girls also had a great time cheering for them in spite of our lack of success. It was a really fun but tiring day.
My last day of the Olympics was Wednesday. It was a really sad day, just because I wasn't ready to leave my classmates for an entire week. But I was also so excited to go on the trip the next day. Wednesday wasn't a super eventful day, but it was a good way for me to leave things. The games for my class consisted of girls volleyball, boys volleyball, and girls soccer. Whoops, I meant football. I ended up only playing in the girls football game for that day. And it unfortunately didn't go as swimmingly for me as it did the first time. The game ended 0-0, but we played very hard. I played very aggressively, as I've always been taught. But these Peruvian girls play like sissies. I'm just saying it as it is. I got penalized and fouled more times than I would like to think. The same thing happened a few times during basketball, but not as much. I think part of the problem might have been that I wasn't considering exactly how much bigger I am than the other Peruvian girl, so I know they didn't like that. But that's not going to stop me from using what I have to my advantage.
For the rest of the day, I cheered on my class. With all of our spirit of class chants, dances, drums, banners, etc. I also cheered on some other classes if I was with the other exchange students. Unless my class was playing against them, then they got a big fat boo. The girls volleyball for the second day also didn't go that great, but the boys once again did an outstanding job playing volleyball. It was great being able to at least celebrate that with them. Even though it was a great day, it ended way too fast. I really wasn't ready to be done with the Olympics.
As for the next 2 days, I kept myself updated with how my class was doing and continued to cheer for them. They didn't end up doing that great for the rest of the week, but it was ok. They just had to remind themselves that they were a brand new class and new group of people this year. Although, our class did have one great victory. The boys won volleyball! So we had one thing to carry with us from the Olympics. It was such an amazing and great bonding time I got to have with my classmates and make even more great exchange memories. As the games are what we worked so hard for and continue to put so much thought into, it's even the little things in between that I will remember. All of the goofing around and cheering that really brings us all together.
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