¡GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!

Unfortunately, "¡GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!" isn't the sound I usually hear while playing fútbol during breaks at the university. Since the only organized sport I've played since eighth grade is Quidditch, I would say my hand-eye, or rather foot-eye, coordination is severely lacking. Regardless of the fact that the last time I played on an actual soccer team I was más o menos six years old, I've had a lot of fun playing fútbol for nearly three hours a day, four days a week.

During a typical day at USFQ, our break from noon to three typically consists of one part lunch, two parts soccer. The physical exercise is great, and it's also been a fun way to get to know other people on campus. Since I only have two classes a day with the same group of people, it's been a bit of a challenge meeting other people at the university, even the other gringos that are studying here. Each day, we have a different group of people that come to play, from exchange students from Wisconsin, to local Ecuadorean construction workers and painters working at the school, to other Ecuadorean students from Quito. We even scrimmaged with one of USFQ's women's teams, which was pretty tough. I'm pretty terrible at soccer, but I have a lot of fun so I don't mind making a fool out of myself once in awhile. Well, maybe a bit more often than once in awhile.

I usually miss the ball when

I try to kick like that.

Hopefully my soccer skills will improve at least slightly, so I can go back to America and actually show that I did South American things for some amount of time. I even had my first header during one of our games! (Although I mistakenly referred to the move as a "headbutt," which prompted some laughs from my team. Oops.)