Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Maggie gives update from France

French Volleyball

Halfway through the semester, I joined my Sciences Po’s volleyball team. We practiced only once a week and played in tournaments when it seemed to work around our schedules, making the ambiance quite difference from any American volleyball team. Though the atmosphere was more social than competitive, playing for Sciences Po was a great way for me to make friends and memories! Because my school has a lot of international students, half of my team was French and the other half German. Communicating on the court was interesting, not only are volleyball systems and styles different across countries (and continents), but communicating in a foreign language when a game was close was an added challenge! You don't exactly learn volleyball vocabulary in French class. However, volleyball is still volleyball no matter what language or country it’s in.

One of my favorite tournaments we played in was an all-sport competition between all of France’s Political Science Schools in Strasbourg, France. The rivalries were intense (I don’t think I’ve ever been heckled so intensely!), but after the games all of the fans and players were joking around and laughing with each other. And of course winning the volleyball championship was awesome!

--Maggie

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