The International Division here at UL has done a great job of keeping the international students busy this semester. They have organized cheap trips and group gatherings. The main event on Wednesday night was learning to play Gaelic Football and Hurling! It was great craic!
The university brought in actual sports trainers from Country Clare to teach a bunch of uncoordinated, confused international students their national sports!
We began with hurling, which I already briefly described in another post. However, watching the game is nothing like actually picking up a hurley and sliotar (pernounced slitter, the ball) jogging out to the pitch yourself!
After our Hurling tutorial we got to try out Gaelic football! The game is played with a ball really similar to a soccer ball. But the rules of the game are a mix between soccer, basketball, and volleyball! You can bounce/dribble the ball once during a possession, and you can toe-to-hand the ball (drop it on your foot and bounce it up to your hand)... one of these 2 things needs to be done every 4 steps. Also, when you pass the ball to a teammate you essentially use a volleyball bump pass... you can never just throw the ball to one another...
It was crazy to learn and I'm sure we looked even crazier when we tried to play!
I will hopefully get the chance to keep watching both of these sports while I'm hear and continue to learn about them!
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