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Before I flew to Mexico, I was already looking for a team in Puebla to play with, but only 1 person replied and he stopped contacting me after one email. A few days after I arrived in Mexico, I decided to give it another try and contacted a women's team further from Puebla. They ended up directing me to the Puebla women's team and that's how I first found the Lobas. 

One of my first few trainings with the Lobas!

My first night training. It was that night that I realised mosquitos were more of a pest here than in Singapore. Thank you government for all the dengue prevention measures. 

The Lobas is a team based in BUAP, the public university in Puebla. The team is fairly new with girls from BUAP, BUAP alumni, and some players from another mixed team. On my first day of training, I met the same guy I traded shorts with in Italy during WUCC 2014. In my first tournament with the girls I found out that he's actually a very very good player, on the Xalapas team.

In August, I started training on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday with the girls. After only 2 weeks, I went on my first tournament with them. The CNU (3rd) is sort of like a regionals tournament, just not compulsory for the womens. For the mens, the results determined their ranking and was used to decide which team to enter into the nationals. As a result, there were only 3 female teams that participated, and we all played each other twice for the 2 days of the tournament. Which wasn't bad, because we improved and changed our strategy with each game we played and it was intense. I met some of my favourite female mexican players there too <3 In that tournament, we ended up 3rd, i.e. last (ahaha), but best in terms of spirit. Somehow I ended up being MVP of the entire tournament too. Which is very very surprising, given how amazing some of the other players are.

And then we went back to another month of training. During that month, I realised that nobody really comes for training on Saturdays - on good days there were 6 people. And that training always starts 1/2 to 1 hour after the stated timing. Mexican culture. And in September, we went for nationals in Guadalajara. It was fun. We met some new teams, I taught the girls some end zone set play from Singapore that was really effective for them, and the whole team improved so much as a whole. We ended up 5th out of 10 teams. And somehow, we ended up playing the same 2 teams in CNU, twice this tournament again. One of my fondest memories was our stay with the Talaveros in the hostel as well. We booked the whole hostel and everyone shared the space. We all struggled to get up in the morning, rush through breakfast, knock out on the bus, warm up in the cold and basically lived as a team.

And then it was back to trainings, but this time I had to pick which team to play for, for Ulticopa, a mixed tournament. I was pretty lucky that this tournament existed, because this half of the year is Opens season for Mexico. At that point in time, I was going for Monday trainings with another team Red Eyes, but eventually I got poached to Talaveros. While Lobas training was more relaxed and focused on getting the basics, Talaveros' training was like being back in SMU again. Training always started with a 25 mins PT, and there are lots of set plays and structure. Also training was in English! Finally, I didn't have to guess what the drill was about, because the coach was more comfortable in English. And yeah, there's actually a coach too.

And then Ulticopa came about at last! On Saturday morning, we met up and drove down to the competition venue. We had 4 games on the first day, and unfortunately lost 3 of them. Of the 3 losses, I would say only 1 could be won. The other 2 teams were pretty good. And throughout the day I played as both a cutter and a handler, which really pushed me out of my comfort zone. At night, we stayed in cabins with a kitchen but no utensils/food, and everyone brought stuff to cook. Except for our room. One of the girls brought enough for salad and we exchanged it for burgers and pasta from the guys. We had cake too. It was so good we kept the second half for the next day and finished it on the fields. After dinner everyone went for the party, and danced to reggaeton. I still can't cumbia nor salsa, and I believed I have tried it enough times to know that it'll take me awhile to get use to parties like these. I still love Mexico regardless! Day 2 was 2 very difficult victories. There I met one of my favourite female players again, and we traded shorts! Eventually, we emerged 5th and ended the day watching the finals - What The Huck vs HomeGrown. The 2 teams we played and lost to on day 1. 

And thats the last tournament of my mexico adventures!

I am still in a league that has been happening since August - though I have only played twice, cos I'm always travelling out on weekends. 

I could have also played in PAUC - there was a Brazilian team looking for a girl, and I could have gone as a volunteer and watch the games - the temporary coach for Lobas is one of the organisers - but but but I decided against it, because 1. I can't communicate with them, 2. I already booked a tour to Calakmul, 3. If i did play, that would be too much frisbee vs travel. But I still very much want to go. And right at this point, the guys on Talaveros who volunteered for PAUC are sending in live updates of the game, which makes me feel really really jealous ); 

But regardless, last Sunday really felt like the end of my Ultimate Frisbee Journey in Mexico. Reflecting back, it hasn't been easy. Especially since I stayed in Cholula and trainings are all in Puebla. I use to take an hour to travel to trainings and 1.5 hrs to travel back. I always had to cycle back from the bus stop at 9pm+, when its dark and cold, and I have no time to dry my hair after bathing. It wasn't easy going for training and trying to guess what everyone is saying half the time too. But overall, I realised most of the friends I have made, are through Ultimate and that's what I love about the community. Everyone is so open and united by the love for the sport. There may be misunderstandings, mistakes and differences, but all these are resolved on the field, through the sport. 

Everytime I think about leaving now, the first thing that I know I will miss would be all the friends I have made here. 

Chatting with Edmundo - the person who spoke the most English with me

Sharing similar experiences with Erin - the girl from Texas who arrived at the same time in Mexico and Lobas as me

Getting high with Syn - the happy pill who never runs out of energy on and off the field, 

Getting help from Mariel - the coordinator who gets everything done and have connections everywhere

Getting help Edith - the most sincere and helpful teammate who helped organised the Singapore dinner with everyone

Getting a ride from Ricky ('s Dad) - the 2nd best player on Talaveros (ajajaj)

Training under Rey - the only other asian I've met and coach of Talaveros

Having tamales and mole by Pao - the fastest girl on Lobas who is always hot on my tail on defence Cutting from last in stack with Yeni - my favourite lobas teammate and cutter

Playng on the same line as Moni - with her super cool thigh tattoo and positivity

Downing a mezcal from Ani - who's always dressed so indie-ly and is the strength of Lobas

Chatting with Eder in UDLAP

Partying with Sergio and Hector/Hitachi in Zacatlan 

Asking Anaya to be the first cut from last in stack instead
Burgers from Efren 

Getting dragged to dance with people by Fahrid 

Dancing awkwardly with Pipe cos neither of us dance
Hugging Gaby cos she doesn't like to dance too
Milla the ballerina 

...

and many many more people <3