Spanish lessons...or how to cheer on your daughter in Spain...

 After three long years of wondering where the girls play sports here in Spain, we've finally found some clubs that host women's sports. Andrea found her soccer team, or futbal as they call it here last Spring and was asked to join as the second alternate goalie. We were just excited to have Ann playing again. Interestingly enough over the summer she started to get emails that half the team was leaving our club to go to another one and they invited Andrea to join them. We were concerned about this for several reasons but mostly because we wondered if there was even a team left to play for. It turned out that there was still enough for a team. We really liked this club because they let the girls try out and keep practicing when they didn't really have to at the end of last season. They treated us with respect and the team really made Andrea feel welcomed so we didn't want to abandon them for a club that we had never heard of before. So we stayed and learned at the first practice that Andrea went from being the second Alternate Portera (goalie) to the ONLY Portera.  We are so glad we made the decision to stay.

They've played 4 games. Andrea played in three. She missed this weekend to take the PSAT's. Her first game they won 6-0 with some great saves from Andrea. The second they lost 5-6 . That was a tough one because she was hurt on the second goal and limped through the rest of the game. Our third game they won 13-0 with almost no action on her side of goal. This past week without her they won 2-1.  Below are pictures of Andrea with her team.


taking the field...

half time hijinks, giving pointers to a friend in goal

popping a ball over the top-nice save

the lonely goalie

no really

goal kick

A fellow parent helped me find the club in Sant Cugat that played basketball for girls. It took  us a few weeks to track them down and show up for a practice/try out. But once she was on the court it was great to see that huge grin on Alexa's face again. She said she was so happy to just be playing again. The coaches agreed that she was good enough but wanted to give her a probationary period where they would teach her the plays at practice and then in December we'd see if she was on the team. After a month of going to practice and not playing at games, Alexa was nervous this week about the possibility that she wouldn't make the team in December. So we asked the coaches again last night and they said, of course she will be on the team. They are getting the paperwork together for her now and hopefully withing 2 or 3 weeks she'll be all set to get on the court to play. Meanwhile the team has blown away all three of their opponents. And she's met some local girls who are excited to speak English with her...and she is excited to practice her Spanish with them. She met Olga (below in the picture) who is from Italy and has lived in the US as well.

One of the great things about this is the opportunity to meet local families, people who aren't just here for a year or two but truly live here. Both teams have very supportive families cheering them on during the games. This helps me to learn my "cheer" Spanish...Va Europa!, Defensia y Rebote! (rebound). I am completely out of my comfort zone though. The parents of the team mates are not like the parents at school or other people I've tried to talk with who are used to people butchering their language. The parents do try to speak to me, but speak so very quickly and I often get strange looks when I respond...heaven only know what I am saying. However, they seem so very friendly and I hope that at the end of the season I'll look back on this and think how funny it all was as now I understand everything they say. And all I can say is how proud I am of my girls who are not any more comfortable with Spanish than I am but are putting themselves out there to learn and fit in and go local. How far we've come in three short years.