Ultimate is one of those sports with some down time, if you’re not playing. Kind of like swim meets, where you’re really active when your heat is up and then just kill time until the next heat or relay. Three girls need to be on the field at a time, though, so down time is a bit shorter, but long enough for some interesting conversations.
Last year, I wrote about my first Canadian movie-going experience, and how America is portray as a tourist destination. When you live in the States, you don’t think of it as a tourist destination. Generally. Some things are touristy, like Mount Rushmore, Gettysburg or the Grand Tetons.
I can’t quite get my head around this just yet. The idea of vacation is different up here. People go places to see places, not necessarily to relax or escape the rat race, the daily grind of work.
The other thing that occurs to me when hearing the States discussed as a tourist destination is just how vast America is, from every angle. Size, culture, ideology, politics, sports, food. The diversity is striking, from afar. Canada strikes me as vast, especially in land size. To hear Canadians talk about the rest of Canada, though, most of it can be written off. There’s vast land mass, sure, but past a certain point it’s written off as a frozen wasteland. And certain parts of Canada are only good to visit at certain times of the year, when those parts are teeming with life instead of frozen in hibernation.
Very different view of America.