Defensemen, A Goalie, Middies, and Attack

A game played by those before me

Generations back

A game that has never failed to bore me

Back to when I was two years old

The game that consists of stick and ball

Will and might

fight and fall

Defenders, a goalie, middles and attack

Depending on what you are you know when to “fall back”

The life I’ve spend in front of the goal

The life I’ve spent playing a game that never grows old

The life I’ve spent loving the game

The life I’ve spent hoping one day I’d rise to fame

Nothing will ever change the love for the game

Live. Love. Lax.

Lax on lax off.

Lacrosse.

Quebec, Canada

Recently, about 139 seventh graders travelled to Quebec, Canada to experience the culture and a new country. Quebec is the closest city in North America to a European town, the trip was truly enjoyable. In this blog writing I am going to present my version of the adventures we went through, and the new knowledge we have gained. So sit back, relax, and enjoy!

I woke up on the morning of May 14th, 2015, thrilled for the journey I was about to embark on. Many traveling with me had travelled on this journey before. They had crossed the border, been asked the questions, shown their birth certificates. I had never done this, I had never been out of the country. Sure it was just Quebec, but from the moment I woke up I could feel the blood rushing through my body and the thoughts rushing through my head. I was leaving the USA for the first time, I was going to Canada.

Quebec City.

The first day was not very eventful. It mainly consisted of an eight hour bus ride, longer than usual because one of the busses broke down. When the busses arrived we boarded and departed. When buses 2 and 3 arrived in Quebec we went to the Chemin du Roy Sugar Shack where we ate dinner. It was a very good dinner. We then embarked on a walking ghost tour, afterwards it was off to bed. At 1:30 in the morning I woke up and was having an allergic reaction to soy. One of my roommates had slept through the whole reaction, but soy is soy, and I was alright.

Old Quebec. In Old Quebec,
you can purchase many souvenirs.

The second day was very enjoyable. The only non-enjoyable part was when my roommate, the same one that had slept through the allergic reaction, took a 25 minute shower. My other two roommates and I barely had any time to get ready, and one of them was screaming at the one in the shower so loudly that she could be heard on the floor above us. There were complaints. We then went to breakfast and loaded the bus. That morning we walked high in the sky above roaring rivers. I had to wear my rain jacket. While we were there, we did a scavenger hunt. We had to walk on bridges, they seemed unstable. However, that was a highlight of the day. After that we went to lunch and then toured a church. The church was very Medieval styled, it had a lot of artwork. Very Roman-Catholic. We then went to tour over a waterfall in cable cars. That was the end of the events for me. After that the day consisted of dinner and swimming.

A cable car over Parc de la 
Chute Montgomery.

The third day, last full day, was the best full day. We started the day off at the Citadelle, an active military base. While we were there we took a tour and watched a reenactment. After that, we went to the mall. My friend and I were on a search for berets, at the end of the trip we found them, but the cost of one was worth half of my money. While at the mall, my friends and I “lunched” at PFK, otherwise known as KFC. However, I did not know where we were eating until the near end of our lunch. After the mall, we took a tour around Quebec, self-guided. We got to go to the top of a tall building and look over the city. The Observatory. After that, we journeyed down to Old Quebec where we purchased souvenirs. After another military activity, the seventh grade headed to dinner where we feasted on Greek food. Soon after, we had another military activity, and then we went bowling. The bowling was probably one of the most humiliating things in my life. I had never been so bad at anything. My team consisted of six girls, I came in last. Three-quarters of the way through bowling I finally figured out how to hold the ball. Just as one of my teammates got two strikes in a row! After bowling we all “settled” into bed, when really my room and I were debating on whether or not to play poker with kit-kats.

The seal show at the Quebec Aquarium.

On the last day, we started off with an American breakfast at the hotel, we then checked out of our rooms and went to the aquarium. The aquarium was very enjoyable. While we were there, we got to check out many cool sea creatures. We also watched a seal-show! After the aquarium we boarded the bus for our seven-hour voyage to America. I slept for half of the bus ride. When we arrived back in Maine, I was sad that the trip was over. However, after I got off the bus and saw my dad waving at me I remembered that this is home.

Yellow Card

It was late on a Monday afternoon. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the air temperature was seventy degrees. I felt the same enthusiasm and drive to win as I do before any lacrosse game. For multiple years this sport has been my life, I had learned the game from my former all-american father, and for generation after generation the sport has been in my blood. I had grown up playing the boys game. When I first started playing girls lacrosse, the rules and regulations seemed complex and unnecessary. After a while, my “boys shot” and I finally began to understand what was expected. This I thought, until for the first time in my life I achieved the not-so-impossible yellow card.

Image Link: http://media.nj.com/the-times/photo/2013/05/-80b9bc98e5d5f3c3.jpg

A yellow card might not seem like that big of deal, and it wouldn’t have been so horrific for me if the conditions of the yellow card were different. The ref of the game was normally a high school ref. She was tall with gray hair and glasses that reflected the sun. From the beginning of the game she had taken a disliking to me. When one of my defensive teammates was given a penalty shot (which I find kind of funny), I ran in front of the goal to block the goalie’s view. The goalie on the opposing team was skilled, I had blocked her view and my teammate had made the shot. The ref was not happy. When in the lineup again, me at attack, she started screaming at me as the draw went up.

“Was that you that walking in front of your teammate!? Bad girl!” She bickered at me.

“You’re my ref not my coach” I reply under my breath.

But a couple of word exchanges in the middle of the game isn’t something worth giving a yellow card for. When the other team and mine had switched sides, a mark of half-time being over, I was in possession of the ball. I can shoot very hard, and from a great distance. Right as I got inside the twelve meter line, I take my stick with the ball in it, and shoot the ball out. The goalie is stunned, and the ball goes in. It’s all happiness for me for a moment. But reality comes “creeping along” again, and the ref gets angry. She starts yelling out mistakenly at my teammate, who had not taken the shot, only to realize it was me who had shot the spectacular shot.

If I had taken the shot in boys lacrosse, it would have counted.
Image Link: http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/03/56/30/976402/9/628x471.jpg

“That was a dangerous shot! Your teammate was right in front of the goal!!”

“She moved there!”

The ref then takes me aside and lectures me more.

“You idiotic girl you could have hit your teammate!!”

After a couple minutes of being verbally abused by the ref, she tells me to get off the field.

“What do you mean get off the field?” I ask, confused.

“Yellow card. You’re off for two minutes. Go.”

She then hold up a yellow card as I frolic off of the field, shocked. In the bleachers, the crowd is more confused than I am, especially my father. The game starts again and Falmouth is one player down. Due to the ref’s hatred towards me, she keeps me off for much longer than two minutes. By the time I re-enter the game, we are losing 7-2.

At the end of the game we had lost 8-3, or something like that. It wasn’t our best day. However, from the game, I had learned one important lesson. If you’re playing girls lacrosse your teammate moves in front of a goal, don’t shoot.

Go Falmouth!!
Image Link: http://cdn1.sportngin.com/attachments/text_block/0158/7418/FalmouthLax2_medium.jpg