Heading for England and Opening Ceremonies

The entire reason for our trip was to watch Jack play in the U23 World Frisbee Championship. He was selected as one of the top ultimate players under 23 and was representing USA in the tournament which was a huge honor. The tournament was in St. Albans, about 30 minutes north of London.

We flew out of Dublin first thing Sunday morning and landed in England by 9 AM. Then came the terror of the week. We rented two cars for the week. It turned out great because we were able to split up and run errands separately but driving is TERRIFYING! They should not allow Americans to drive without a driving test or some sort of instructional video first. It was stick shift which came back to me pretty quickly but the left side driving and the round-a-bouts....oh the round-a-bouts! They are multi-laned and everywhere! Derrick did an excellent job navigating and getting us where we needed to be while I focused on keeping us alive.

We followed Mom and Dad to the train station to pick up Jay and then immediately got separated from them. We didn't have GPS or cell service and we were in the middle of down town St. Albans driving for our lives. We finally found a grocery store and went in for wifi. Luckily we had the Airbnb app and were able to find our house and get an address from there. Derrick wrote down the instructions for the 12 minute trip. This was the most intimidating thing I had ever seen.

That would be 7 round-a-bouts and u-turn!!! It was the scariest drive ever but Derrick did great keeping us on the right track and we made it! We made it all week without a wreck and by day 4 I finally felt 80% at home on the roads. 

Our housing was adorable. It was the guest house of Garry and Lynne. They live on a farm and have vegetables and fruits growing and about 100 free range chickens! Here's our guest house.

And here is Garry and Lynne's gorgeous house.

Later that day it was time for the opening ceremonies and the showcase game between the USA men and the Great Britain men. The fields were amazing and it was a very well run tournament. They had food tents, wifi, trainers, gear tents, and a ton of volunteers.

The grandstands had all of the participating country's flags across the top.

We spotted Jack before the opening ceremonies and got to spend a little time catching up and hearing all about his experience up to that point. We felt like we were meeting a celebrity!

During the opening ceremonies all of the team marched out with their flags flying. It was a very cool sight and we went crazy for the USA teams. 

 

 Men's team bringing up the rear in the USA procession.

 

 

After the opening ceremonies they had a showcase game between the USA and Great Britain men. It was very cool to be in the grand stand watching and cheering for team USA. It was even cooler to watch jack score the first goal! It was pretty obvious that both teams were nervous and amped up with the big crowd and the windy conditions but the USA was able to pull out a pretty solid victory!

Team introductions

At the end of each game the teams circle up with players from each team next to a player from the other team. It's called the spirit circle and it's a time for players to talk about the game, air grievances about calls or rough plays, or congratulate players on a good game. Each team also selects the mvp for the other team for that game. This really only happens on the international level and I think it's a great way to unite the countries and end the game on a good note.