One more post for the day, because I think it makes for a fun update.

In coming to Scotland, I saw a really great opportunity to play some rugby with people that actually knew the game. I was hoping to play as much as possible and learn as much as possible, in the hopes of improving my game and learning enough to help make my team at Bates a better team when I get back. So, I decided to try to find out about the University team. Now, the University of Edinburgh has quite a good reputation for rugby. Their First XV are a very strong side, and they also have a Seconds and a Thirds as well. I knew I didn't stand a chance at playing with the Firsts, so I thought I'd play a bit of Thirds and learn a lot along the way. I went to the first training session of the semester and was proven right - I would indeed learn a lot, simply by way of being around players who were better than I was. It was a hard training, but great fun. I was told the next training would be a few days later, on Thursday.

Now, this was at the beginning of the semester when Edinburgh was suffering from a particularly harsh winter (according to the locals at least - they don't know what a real winter is like). There was a bit of snow on the ground, it was raining frequently, and conditions were generally ugly. So Thursday comes around and I show up to the field complex where the rugby pitches are. There were a bunch of guys there tossing a ball around and wearing rugby boots, so I was comfortable with the fact that I'd found my crew. Only thing was, instead of heading to the pitch, the boys headed to a tennis court and began their warmups and practice there. When finally we slowed down and got into stretching, I asked one of the boys why we were on the court and not the pitch. His reply was, "Oh, the Uni is real particular about their pitches. Honestly, they're a bit soft about it. We could've run on it tonight, but they're a bunch of..." You get the idea. This made sense to me until I realised what exactly he had said. "Wait, you mean this isn't the Uni team?" "God no. We have more fun than those boys anyway." "So what team is this then?" I asked. "We're the Vets," was the answer I got.

It turns out, I had found the R(D)VCRFC - the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College Rugby Football Club. The Dick Vet, as it is commonly known, is the University of Edinburgh's veterinary school, and among its students there are apparently twenty or so goofy men that are actually quite good at playing rugby. Their normal game jerseys are patterned like a maroon-spotted cow, and they talk animals and laboratories all the time. In one game, though, our opponents had the same colours as us, so we wore an old set of striped uniforms, on which the team's nickname was printed: the Rectal Wanderers. Clearly these boys don't take themselves too seriously.

Anyway, I've been having a blast with the rugby and have definitely gotten better by playing with guys better than me. I can't wait to use what I've learned back in the States. From now until exams are over, though, I doubt I'll have much of a chance to play - there's too much work to be done, too much studying to do.

Speaking of which, back to writing...