Fencing and Miscellany

So today we had our first official meeting for fencing, and I have to say it was pretty freaking awesome. As I mentioned before, theres about 10 people in the group, many without much experience. There are, however, a few experienced guys and most importantly, a guy named Mahmoud who has been to international tournaments. I think he's the assistant coach (we apparently have a real coach too, though he just got married and is on his honeymoon. The honeymoon is a month long, by the way - they don't joke around about it around here. I don't think its even possible to come home with the marriage unconsummated after all that.), and he's obviously really good. He put us through our paces, with a really good warm up and stretching, and then other drills designed to tire us out and help us get back in shape (I need all the help I can get), without overstressing us. In case any fencing Swatties are reading this, I think I'll have a few ideas for when I get back. Also, we conducted much more of the practice in french than we do normally, so soon enough I should know all the commands - Randall, I know you can appreciate the coolness of that.

Incidentally, apparently the french command for "extend" is something along the lines of "elongez," or as pronounced by Mahmoud, "lonje." Not entirely sure if that's actually a word, but i'm guessing its cognate in english is elongate. This is relevant because the french for "lunge" is "fondez" or something like that. So when Mahmoud says "lonje," I instinctively lunge, and so i've been having a terrible time of it for that part. Hopefully it sinks in soon enough though or practice is going to be a comedy of errors.

Anyway, partway in to the practice, while the newer folks were doing drills, Mahmoud took me and a few of the other more experienced guys aside and kind of felt out our strengths. We didn't bout or anything, but I kind of got the impression we were being reviewed. I don't know exactly what it is, but Mahmoud is really good at explaining some things. He's already corrected a few of my idiosyncracies in my style, like in my lunge for example. He has a picture perfect image of how it should be in his head and can somehow make me do it too, which a lot of other people have had a lot more trouble doing. I'm going to try to figure it out, because however he's doing it, it'd be nice to be able to replicate it. I'm pleased to report that I acquitted myself well (thanks to Ben, Randall, Fletcher, Manoli and everyone else who helped teach all the disengages and remises and suchlike!). As I have three years of experience, I'm a rare commodity, so I seem to be of particular interest - as far as I can tell, in terms of raw time I outrank all of the other students, which is really a wierd experience. Also, though I'm not entirely sure, I think Mahmoud is grooming me/us few for tournaments here. He invited me and another guy out to MaHdi (other side of the Nile) on Saturday morning for more practice. In the meantime, I'll be doing some more practice on my own, mostly of the getting in shape variety. I've been to the gym a few times, and I've forsworn the use of the elevator from now on. As my room is on the sixth floor (with ground counted as floor 0), its a reasonable hike with a loaded backpack.

Anyway, on the schedule front, i'm still finalizing things, but it looks like I'm going to have a freakin' huge number of Political Science courses. I'm hoping to switch my only AM class to a PM one, and maybe switch another, so you'll have to wait a little longer (tomorrow is the last day of drop add) before I can give you all my final schedule arrangement. I think things will be easier than back at Swat, but i'm not entirely sure since i'm having a hard time working up the energy to do homework so far. I imagine I'll be rudely awakened next week to the realization that I need to stop being a lazy ass and start being useful. Good thing I have a few days left.