Inter-Hall Korfball

46 Flares 46 Flares ×

The sports you learn while studying abroad – korfball

Intense Korfball

I had my first assignment of the semester due this Thursday for my Medieval Castles class – a 15 minute presentation on Ayyubid Castles, exhilarating I know. I’m just pumped because I hate public speaking, even if it’s only in front of 20 people. Not to mention, I’m pretty sure I aced that bad boy. I had the same professor and the same assignment last semester, and I completely tanked it and still got a decent grade, so due to the fact that this one was infinitely better, I’m assuming I got a pretty good grade. No more assignments for another month.

On Tuesday night I played this game called korfball for my dorm in inter-hall sports. There’s usually a different sport every week, and I hadn’t played yet this year, so I figured it was time to contribute my amazing athletic talent. Since korfball has zero following in the US, it was a good way to get a little culture for the week as well.

If you’ve never heard of korfball, don’t worry, it might be one of the most ridiculous games ever invented. It’s played in a ton of obscure countries like Belarus, Taiwan, Serbia, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, and of course all of the UK. It was played in the ’20 and ’28 Olympic games so there’s no contention about its’ status as a sport.

Anyway, it’s a coed sport where the objective is to shoot a soccer type ball into an 11.5 foot hoop with no back board. There’s plenty more rules, but I’ll leave it at that and you can Wikipedia the rest. Here’s a Youtube clip – it was the first time I actually saw the game played. My team came in 5^th out of 6, but it was a good time, and I learned a new sport (which I will probably never play again), so it’s all good.

I went to a friend’s 21^st birthday party on Saturday night. It was in this nice hotel called the Rusacks on the 18^th hole of the Old Course which I had never been to but had walked past a million times. I ended up meeting a ton of people which was great because I only knew 2 or 3 when I first walked in. Nice place, friendly people, all in all a great night.

Didn’t get a round in on the Old Course this week, but I attempted to play the Jubilee today. Pretty miserable conditions (20 mph winds right off the beach) made for a miserable score, and it didn’t help that my game was off more than usual. As always, it was just good to get out, and as an added bonus, it didn’t rain.

We booked our hotel for our trip to Paris this week, so everything is just about set for that. We’re heading over there from April 4^th through the 6^th and it looks like it’s going to be a solid few days.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below and I’ll get back to you!

Don’t forget to Like The Blog on Facebook or Follow on Twitter!