I love to write and I’m so excited to be in Queretaro, Mexico coaching + playing with Malaki UFC (Ultimate Frisbee Club) so I will be blogging about my trip. There will be lots of randomness – I’m very aware and pay attention to a lot so you might think some of it is weird but if it’s in there, I thought it was neat enough to mention.

Neat thing I saw on the ground: Baggage truck pulling a chuckwagon with wooden barrels on the runway at the Calgary airport.

Neat thing I saw in the air: The captain made an announcement when we were flying over the Grand Canyon so I got to see that from the plane.

Annoying thing: The flight attendant on US Airways giving a long speech about an air rewards credit card.

Nice little thing: Having an empty seat next to me on both flights.

Random thing: Watching other people try to sleep is entertaining – there really isn’t a comfortable position and you see people try everything.

Something I enjoyed: Reading “The Art of Learning” on the plane. The book arrived last week, generously sent to me by Michael Lawler, a former coach o Boston’s Brute Squad, a women’s ultimate frisbee team, as his way of thanking me for posting his videos on the Ultimate Rob website.

The first part of the book describes chess in such a brilliant manner that I immediately appreciate the complexity and skill involved. The second part, which I have just started, discusses Tai Chai and the practice of Push Hands, a competitive sport which incorporates a lot of the Tai Chai movements.

So far I’ve learned the difference between entity theorists and learning theorists which leads to understanding how we best learn and how that core approach to learning will determine how we perform under pressure of when faced with a new, difficult problem.

Something pretty cool: I was the only Canadian on the flight to Mexico from Phoenix.

Something gross: Airport fast food restaurants and the smell that lingers in the plane from everyone having just eaten it or eating it on the plane

Temperature thing: It is so hot in Phoenix and not a good hot either. It was around 115 degrees F when we landed. Makes me enjoy Calgary’s summer much more.

Something this trip has fueled so far: The desire to travel more! I’ve been all over Canada and the USA but this is my first trip outside of those 2 countries. It’s more than I could have ever imagined and I want to do more.

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Today I leave for Mexico. Specifically, Queretaro. But I’ll be flying into Mexico City. I’ve known for a while that Mexico City was huge population wise and it has always impressed me how big it is.

I’ve always been fascinated by numbers – I still remember how amazed I was in grade 6 when I found out the population of California. For Social Studies, we were each given a state and we had to research and prepare a report on the state. I got California and I was blown away when I learned that they had more people in the whole state than we did in our whole country. That opened a whole new world for me and really put a lot into perspective – about how many people there really was in the world. Up to that point, I hadn’t really traveled much other than crossing the border with my family once in a while, so I felt like California was some foreign land. When I was in grade 6, we definitely didn’t have the internet – and we actually used floppy disks that were floppy.

Anyway, fast forward to 2011 and 17 years later and today I will be flying into Mexico City, with a population of almost 9 million. Now, I grew up in a town of 6,000 and although I’ve lived Halifax and Calgary and spent time in big cities, this is a whole new experience for me.

I notice the little things and I can only imagine what it will be like flying into such a massive city. I’m excited, nervous, scared but mostly just incredibly grateful for this opportunity. That opportunity will be to coach + play with the Malaki Ultimate Frisbee Club (UFC). It’s because of Ultimate Rob that I was able to get to know their captain, Victor and it’s because of him that I have this amazing opportunity.

Have you experienced something similar? When you had a change in perspective? I’d love to hear your stories!

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