Monthly Outlook: June 2008

Recap: I didn't do one for May because I was in Spain! The trip was awesome, except for the end. Otherwise April and May also disappeared. I got an offer from Washington last minute and accepted it, passed my classes and dropped my GPA a bit because of the A- grades, attended the ceremony and was off to Spain! And came back and didn't do too much; read a book, sat around, then TENNIS!

Outlook: Tennis, soccer, tennis. I also start doing work, so I will be relying heavily on livestreams and ESPN360. Otherwise I hope to relax by writing more, singing, knitting, exercising, and learn more BCS!

Events/Activities: French Open, EURO 2008, Wimbledon

Goals: to get stuff done at work, to expand my BCS vocabulary and remember the grammar

(Fuck, I overwrote my March post with this one. Stupid program...)

Woot Tennis Rules (My World)

I'm in Ann Arbor, chilling on my computer.  My roommate is nice enough, but he's a mess and also has his friend permanently over.  Seriously I don't mind the extra person except for the fact that I'm paying $300/month for this room and they are basically paying $150/month for room.  Fuckers.  Oh well, will pretend that it's not annoying.  It's only for 2 months thankfully, or I might pitch a fit.  And call my tenant's mother.  What fun that would be...

The French Open is into the 4th round in singles and quite a few things have happened.  The Williams sisters have exited, along with Chakvetadze, Szavay, Bartoli, Mauresmo (unfortunately), Cornet, and a bunch of other up and comers and lower seeds.  On the men's side, Stan the Man lost to Gonzo while Ljubicic had quite a win against Davydenko.  Frenchmen are having a riot, taking out seeds like Berdych and Nalbandian.  Other notables not there anymore include Blake, Gasquet (pulled out before his match with Serra), Murray (lost to Almagro).  Well what can you do?

Mario lost to Federer today and I missed it because I was moving.  It had to rain and hail a bit so that we put back the time we were going to come up.  And then Fed had to be fucking dominant.  Well hope the best for Mario at Wimbledon.  He better be there and do well or else I won't get to see him play AGAIN and I will be fucking pissed off.

Otherwise I have enjoyed livestreaming tennis off of thetennischannel.com and I can use ESPN360 at the fishbowl so fun times.  Stupid NBC, what they show isn't covered by ESPN360 so I will make sure I am up and prepared for the final matches!

I think I have a new crush...

...on Gilles Simon.  It is crazy, really.  I suddenly became obsessed with him yesterday and it's blowing up in my face.  I can't help but want to know more about him, but I can't read French!  And almost all his interviews are in French.  Well, more incentive to learn French...  After all, French tennis players are HOT.  And tennis is still very popular in France, so they probably have the best non-official site coverage besides tennis.com and ESPN.

Gilles is actually quite girly-looking.  He has a soft face and he is quite thin, a "lightweight" they call him.  And he has said that he has "old lady legs".  He seems hilarious, and I love his hair when it is at the length it is about now: not too long nor too short.  And to think I was "annoyed" (not angry) at him for beating Marin twice in Grand Slam 1st round matches and beating Novak at the Open Marseille 13 last year while Novak was rising in the rankings...  Randomly his hair reminds me of Mario's.  I think I am crazy.

Talking about Mario, he didn't get to play today because of the rain at Roland Garros.  Please don't rain during play tomorrow!  Mario is first up on Court 16, so he'll probably be done with a set at least before I wake up.  I found some streams off of tennischannel.com, but today it only had coverage of courts Suzanne Lenglen, 1, 2, and 6.  I would have watched Richie if he didn't have that knee problem!  And though I am currently crushing on Gilles, I still think Richie is hotter in a suit.

Jelena is through, and her match play was quite bad, so pick it up girl!  Otherwise all of the rest of them play tomorrow because of the rain today.  And also, Viktor looked shitty.  Please play more aggressively like you did against Nadal.  Thank you.

Post-Day One of the French

The French Open started off well. Good weather up until the end, good results for my faves, and some upsets in the mix. Most importantly, Ana and Novak won! They weren't playing their best, but they pulled through. And tomorrow we have both Rafa and Roger playing, as well as my faves Mario, Marin, Amelie, Viktor, Richard, Jelena, and MariKiri. Crazily ESPN2 is not having coverage tomorrow. But I don't get ESPN2 at home so I guess I don't care. Oh well.

Guga's match was the true highlight of the day, and from his interviews I really wish I could have watched him play. He seems to have the biggest heart ever, and truly is a beautiful person. Unfortunately his glory was before my time, so all I have is his parting words and the image of a great man, humble and gracious and loving. His retirement from singles is now official; the recent retirements have contributed to the nostalgia that I am currently "suffering". We all grow up someday; grow up, grow out of, grow apart. The weathering of time changes us; we both want to keep and tear away parts of our past. And I didn't really start following tennis until 2004...4 years and I have already formed so many bonds, seen people like Tim Henman mark my heart and forever leave it scarred, other people like Joachim take a bit when I wasn't watching, other people like Andy Roddick find it hard to weather the storm. Days like today remind me to celebrate the human heart as well as the human spirit, to remember the tennis player's service to the world as a person and not just a tennis player. And so far it has not been hard to find a reason to smile through the sadness.

Scoreboard-Watching

I have just found another way to add "excitement" (but really stress) into my life - watch scoreboards for gymnastics! I was watching the scores of Sasha and J-Ho for the Men's Visa Championships in Houston (USA men's artistic gymnastics) and I was freaking out, especially with the 14.2 or so on floor for Sasha. His score for floor looked like he completely messed up something - a low B score and a deduction. And his high bar score made it look like he fell on that. J-Ho's B score also suggests a fall; stop doing that! But he did well to come back and tie for first with David Sender (not bad at all)! Sasha is at 6th and he better stay there or else... If Paul Hamm had competed, he would have creamed the competition. Seriously, it's competitive but it's not. The one thing is that I WILL catch gymnastics on TV this time. I will find a way...

I also finished up the Champions' League final (it took forever) and it had quite nice drama. The play deteriorated after regular time, but the slap was hilarious. I mean, it wouldn't be hilarious for them but it was hilarious for its ridiculousness. And penalties had DRAMA. Well, if you somehow cared about the result and didn't know it by now, too bad. It was overall a good match and all, but I feel like I watched it just because it was the last club match of the year, and because it is Champions' League, which I have followed for the whole season. Otherwise, even despite the international cast, it was still 2 English Premiership clubs going against each other and for some reason it meant that I didn't care as much. Seriously the gap between teams in the top four of the English Premiership and the rest is way too big. That's why the LIverpool drama was awesome at the beginning, because perhaps some other team would qualify. The title race being down to the wire at least made things interesting at the end. It was like having playoffs but not really. Champions League is more like playoffs and is more interesting in that sense. But I feel like this is a bad trend to keep having 3 out of the 4 semifinalists as English teams. Real Madrid needs to seiously do something in the Champions League. Atletico de Madrid will be there next year, but I'm not sure how well they will do; it's not like they tore up the UEFA cup or something.

Anyway, back to scoreboard ranting. Though you can't control any of the scores you watch, I think soccer scores are the hardest to watch. I basically will try my very best to distract myself with something else if I somehow can't watch that particular match live. Otherwise gymnastics scores are much more stressful than tennis ones. Tennis ones update so much faster because it is scored at a quicker pace; you also have some idea what happened because they'll at least tell you unforced error or winner or whatever, so you may have a feeling that something's bad before the crash happens. Volleyball scores get pretty tight/stressful towards the ends of sets; like tennis, they change quickly. But I would still rank tennis score-watching as rougher than volleyball's simply because I care more for tennis. Yeah, I am biased. Whatever.

French Open 2008 Preview

I can't believe it, but the French Open starts tomorrow! And it's the only slam that has a full day of action going on, and that full day includes an 11 AM match for Ana, with Novak on center court afterwards. Also, Janko is playing tomorrow. And no Rafa or Fed tomorrow. It's kind of strange that way...

Thankfully for me, none of my favorites face each other in the first round. Vania and Viktor managed to make it in because of withdrawals, and otherwise almost all of my players will be playing. Lindsay had ruled herself out months ago, and Sania Mirza, who is sort of a player I like, is out with injury. The only one I'm worried about majorly is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, since he just withdrew from his Casablanca semi with a knee problem. His knee, according to reports, is swelling up again. Even if he decides to play at the French, how long will his knee hold up? And with Wimbledon soon, a tourney where he could do better than the 4th round... Gael is slightly questionable with his groin problem, but I think he will play. I really hope he does well, because the French crowds love him.

Talking about Frenchies, I hope Amelie can put something together. They aren't putting as much pressure on her this year, so hopefully something can happen. Alize Cornet will be carrying the pressure because of her Rome result, and because Marion Bartoli is sucking. The French used to have Nathalie Dechy...what happened to her? Then again some people like Dominik Hrbaty have completely disappeared, so things definitely happen...

Mario has a first-round match against Andreas Seppi, which I think is winnable. But then again he just lost to Robby Ginepri on clay! Talking about Americans, Andy Roddick gets injured the one year he could probably get past round 1, and the Americans will have someone in the 2nd round because Robby Ginepri is going against Donald Young. Scoville Jenkins might make round 2 as well, if Tsonga has to retire or withdraws and is replaced by a lucky loser.

Novak, of course, is on Rafa's half of the draw. He goes first against Denis Gremelmayr, which I feel will be a 4-set match. Ana gets Sofia Arvidsson, which shouldn't be so bad. Marin has a tough but winnable match against Robin Haase, Gael Monfils faces Arnaud Clement, Richard Gasquet faces Florent Serra (PLEASE WIN RICHIE), Viktor Troicki faces Marc Gicquel, Andy Murray faces Jonathan Eysseric. Maria Kirilenko faces Maria Elena Camerin, Dinara Safina faces Kateryna Bondarenko, Vania faces Violette Huck (winnable? but goes against a frenchie), Sveta faces Aiko Nakamura, Michaella Krajicek faces Sanda Mamic, Amelie faces Olga Savchuk (PLEASE WIN AS WELL), Jelena faces Monica Niculescu.

Ok, Tsonga is officially out! (I just checked the site.) NOOOOOOOOOO. He's having the knee operation so no for Wimbledon too... But he probably should get one, hope he is back in later this year or in 2009 with awesomeness!

On the men's side, Rafa should win. On the women's side, the whole thing is wide open after Justine retired. I'm going to guess that someone from the bottom half, or Jelena, Ana, or Serena will win. I hope it is a Serbian, but if Dinara or Sveta put something awesome together, I would be really happy. Probably not as happy as a Serbian winning. But even happier if Amelie won! Or if Gael on the men's side won! That would be basically miraculous. I both hope and expect Novak to reach the semis, so best of luck to my faves! I'll probably post again after tomorrow's action.

It's been a while...

Hey, what's up?  I'm finally back in the U.S. after my 2.5 week vacation in Spain.  It was amazing!  Basically I need to make more money to afford to go back there again.

School ended easily and graduation was what it was (got a great seat though) and then on the 29th we were off to Spain.  Madrid, Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada, Barcelona, then back to Madrid.  At Madrid we visited the royal palace and the art museums like the Prado, the Reina Sophia, and the Thysson Bornamisso.  We were present for a few holidays, mainly May Day and Dos de Mayo, a Madrid holiday commemorating an uprising against the French during Napolean's time.  We also took a trip to Segovia and did football-related stuff: touring the Santiago Bernabeu and attending an Atleti match.  Madrid was definitely my favorite place.  I absolutely love the metro system there, and people actually spoke Spanish to me.  Unlike those other places...  Anyway we then went to Sevilla by bus.  Cheapest and best scenic bus ride ever - like 18 Euro for a 6 hour bus ride!  Sevilla, since we were in the old part, was very touristy.  Lots and lots of french-speaking tourists.  As the days went on, the tourists increased, as expected.  And Sevilla got kind of hot until it rained.  Which ended up sucking for the time we were in Granada.

But first, after seeing the Cathedral and the Alcazar and the Plaza of Espana (definitely check that out if you are in Sevilla), we went through Cordoba to get to Granada.  We went to see the Mezquita, and we would have seen more if we could have stored our luggage somewhere.  But all of the lockers were full by the time we got there, since they shut down the lockers in the train station and the bus station had like 15, so we took our luggage with us to the Mezquita and took turns sitting outside with it.  Anyway we then were in Granada to see the Alhambra, which required us waking up at 6 AM in order to get an early spot in the line to buy tickets.  Unfortunately the rain made it quite cold in Granada - maybe 50 F or so.  The Alhambra is huge, though.

After Granada we headed into Barcelona.  We had hoped to get a train ticket, but it was full by the time we tried to book, so we took a 13-hour bus.  Basically we didn't get too much sleep.  We went through Valencia, though, and it basically looked like a city.  And there was Catalan on the signs.  Catalan, by the way, looks like a mixture of Spanish and French, with some words looking like combinations such as "sortida" for exit.  In Barcelona there was a lot of Gaudi things, such as Park Guell and Casa Battico.  The City History museum was so cool, especially when we could walk around some of the Roman ruins.  The souvenir shop owners in Barcelona were insane.  Basically it's impossible to buy anything without being bothered first.  Well my only souvenirs from Barcelona were from the FC Barcelona store and from an El Corte Ingles, which is the huge department store chain in Spain, and at that place I bought a CD for a Madrid-based band.

So everything was going well until the "last" night.  Well it was supposed to be the last night except we were robbed and my friend's passport was stolen.  That fucker had no idea how much of a disaster that was.  We were scheduled to fly out the next morning, so we had hoped we could quickly get a passport and catch the flight.  However, we found out that the embassy was closed because of a holiday - a Saint's holiday on May 15.  So luckily the Madrid hotel that we stayed in before had a free room for the night and we stayed an extra day as well as paid a shit load of money to get a new flight home.  But after 3 flights, we finally made it home.

So I am home, and I am doing fine.  I have things to catch up on, as usual, but it really does feel nice to be home and especially eat non-restaurant food.