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You get to meet Olympic champions during practice :D (in my case, it was Britta Heidemann, Olympic champion women's épeé 2008).
Really, I went to fencing practice for the first time after over eight years (i.e. I left my old Berlin club over eight years ago and trained with a club in TTW) and while we were doing the warm-up (pretty hefty one, considering it was just hobby fencing practice not the competitive athletes), this tall blonde girls walks in and I'm all like "Do I know her? Have I seen her before some time?" but dismissed it and went on warming-up... until I saw the back of her jacket saying "Heidemann". My next thought was "The Heidemann?" but celebrity shy as I am, I took care not to stare. Thankfully, there was a whole bunch of boys in their late teens or early twenties (I was so... surprised... there were like ten male épeé fencers and one girl... in my TTW club I was lucky to find two opponents for the evening...) who obviously were pretty smitten with her which cleared up the question pretty fast. Needlessly to mention, all of them got an autograph (come to think of it... apparently, she carries her autograph cards around with her... mh...). Boys that age can just be so cute sometimes :D
Anyway, after two times of judo and one time of fencing, I have to say I'm so glad I got over myself and found the courage to join a new club (both judo and fencing are departments of the same club). The funny thing was that one of the girls at fencing told me she could remember me from eight years back (she's my youngest sister's age group and the sister and I both used to train with them, with my sister later joining the club because she found the conditions much better there than at our home club). But then again... for a few years all three of us were a pretty common sight in the Berlin fencing community and we look pretty much... distinctive (i.e. we're apparently easy to remember). I so hope I can take part in a few competitions this year because fencing without competitions is only half the fun.
The only bad thing is that the club in TTW obviously lost my beloved épeé, i.e. my weapon. Now a weapon is naturally the most important thing for a fencer and mine was... perfect, or at least the grip was. The point not so much so I gave it to my coach at the TTW club to repair it, expecting it to be back in my fencing bag one or two weeks later... but it never did return. Seriously, I have no idea what they did with it and I will probably never find out. Maybe they threw it into a mini black hole or something. Anyway, there's a competition the weekend after the next where so I'll hopefully get to buy a new weapon. Definitely need one because the Berlin club has exactly one right-handed épeé for the fencers without a weapon.
Also, concerning judo... Jeez, I keep wondering why exactly I thought it was a good idea to take it up again. It's painful and the week after practice I always feel like an old woman because of all the sore muscles and bruises and I also probably forgot practically everything I learned four years ago (I did make it to yellow belt which is... I have no idea which kyu that is but it must be something around eighth or seventh). But then I always remember that hey, legally thrashing people and ogling half-naked guys (unfortunately, not so much in the Berlin club... they all wear t-shirts under their gi... meh). Also, giving me hands-on practice for writing hand to hand combat scenes (and I do seem to have a certain fondness for them... but God, what would I give for just one unarmed combat scene with Lorne on screen... just ONE, dammit!) and a chance to let out all that pent up frustration (even better than at fencing because using your bare hands is a lot different than using a weapon).
Okay, so... enough gushing about sports for today. Oh no, wait, just one more thing: I'm going skiing this weekend! Yay *flails Just when I thought I wouldn't get to do it this winter, my sister invited me to pass the weekend with her and she lives in a little town that's maybe an hour or a half away from several very small but cosy skiing resorts. Whee!
Also... go German Olympics team! Go ZDF mascot (ZDF is one of the two German national PBC stations broadcasting the Olympics)! Go Eurosport commenters (Eurosport is the only cable station that broadcasts the Olympics here... and I have the very strong suspicion that they usually start broadcasting an event with giving their two commenters a six pack of beer, tell them to have fun and then head off to the nearest pub...)! Olympics! YAY!
Really, I went to fencing practice for the first time after over eight years (i.e. I left my old Berlin club over eight years ago and trained with a club in TTW) and while we were doing the warm-up (pretty hefty one, considering it was just hobby fencing practice not the competitive athletes), this tall blonde girls walks in and I'm all like "Do I know her? Have I seen her before some time?" but dismissed it and went on warming-up... until I saw the back of her jacket saying "Heidemann". My next thought was "The Heidemann?" but celebrity shy as I am, I took care not to stare. Thankfully, there was a whole bunch of boys in their late teens or early twenties (I was so... surprised... there were like ten male épeé fencers and one girl... in my TTW club I was lucky to find two opponents for the evening...) who obviously were pretty smitten with her which cleared up the question pretty fast. Needlessly to mention, all of them got an autograph (come to think of it... apparently, she carries her autograph cards around with her... mh...). Boys that age can just be so cute sometimes :D
Anyway, after two times of judo and one time of fencing, I have to say I'm so glad I got over myself and found the courage to join a new club (both judo and fencing are departments of the same club). The funny thing was that one of the girls at fencing told me she could remember me from eight years back (she's my youngest sister's age group and the sister and I both used to train with them, with my sister later joining the club because she found the conditions much better there than at our home club). But then again... for a few years all three of us were a pretty common sight in the Berlin fencing community and we look pretty much... distinctive (i.e. we're apparently easy to remember). I so hope I can take part in a few competitions this year because fencing without competitions is only half the fun.
The only bad thing is that the club in TTW obviously lost my beloved épeé, i.e. my weapon. Now a weapon is naturally the most important thing for a fencer and mine was... perfect, or at least the grip was. The point not so much so I gave it to my coach at the TTW club to repair it, expecting it to be back in my fencing bag one or two weeks later... but it never did return. Seriously, I have no idea what they did with it and I will probably never find out. Maybe they threw it into a mini black hole or something. Anyway, there's a competition the weekend after the next where so I'll hopefully get to buy a new weapon. Definitely need one because the Berlin club has exactly one right-handed épeé for the fencers without a weapon.
Also, concerning judo... Jeez, I keep wondering why exactly I thought it was a good idea to take it up again. It's painful and the week after practice I always feel like an old woman because of all the sore muscles and bruises and I also probably forgot practically everything I learned four years ago (I did make it to yellow belt which is... I have no idea which kyu that is but it must be something around eighth or seventh). But then I always remember that hey, legally thrashing people and ogling half-naked guys (unfortunately, not so much in the Berlin club... they all wear t-shirts under their gi... meh). Also, giving me hands-on practice for writing hand to hand combat scenes (and I do seem to have a certain fondness for them... but God, what would I give for just one unarmed combat scene with Lorne on screen... just ONE, dammit!) and a chance to let out all that pent up frustration (even better than at fencing because using your bare hands is a lot different than using a weapon).
Okay, so... enough gushing about sports for today. Oh no, wait, just one more thing: I'm going skiing this weekend! Yay *flails Just when I thought I wouldn't get to do it this winter, my sister invited me to pass the weekend with her and she lives in a little town that's maybe an hour or a half away from several very small but cosy skiing resorts. Whee!
Also... go German Olympics team! Go ZDF mascot (ZDF is one of the two German national PBC stations broadcasting the Olympics)! Go Eurosport commenters (Eurosport is the only cable station that broadcasts the Olympics here... and I have the very strong suspicion that they usually start broadcasting an event with giving their two commenters a six pack of beer, tell them to have fun and then head off to the nearest pub...)! Olympics! YAY!