As I shame myself for sporadically writing this blog I find it a personal victory to finally be caught up with the publishing of this post.
Yesterday I returned from the small country of Bahrain. An island kingdom is the Arabian Gulf about 45 minutes flight time from Kuwait International Airport.
While I admit I didn't even know Bahrain was a country until I moved here, there were a lot of things I didn't know when I arrived in the Middle East. Like, for example, how to play Gaelic Football. And yet, there I was. Thursday night, boarding a plane to participate in my very first Gaelic Football Tournament.
As you should know, any event run by the Irish is a good time (insert any event hosted by my father: Melvin C. O'Leary Jr.) and this tournament was no exception.
The team arrived together Thursday evening and shuttled to the Pars International Hotel. The night was an early one as we were up the next morning having breakfast and out the door by 7:30. We played with two different kinds of teams: Senior and Social. Both the lads and ladies had good representation for each and we began the day strong making it to each others matches for extra support.
A quick explanation of Gaelic football: it is a combination of rugby, football(soccer), a dash of basketball, and a sprinkle of volley ball warm up drills. There are two, 7 minutes halves (that feel like 7 hours when you're playing) and two ways to score: by obtaining points over the end posts (1 each) or goals in the net (3 each). 9 people on the field at once.
Playing on one of the social teams lent itself to a lot of fun throughout the day, even when it got hot and you felt like you couldn't run anymore. Due to some last minute cancellations of our players we were actually down teammates and ended up recruiting a few total strangers (who had never played Gaelic football before) to join in our crusade. Again, some things are just more likely to happen at an event run by the Irish. The whirlwind really added to the experience in that by our third game our little hodgepodge of players really felt like a team. Now, this isn't some hockey movie, we didn't win a single game, but we had fun, which was what it was all about.
The day was still young as the after party began (at 4pm I'll add in). We showered and changed at the facility and enjoyedd a long afternoon and evening of eating, drinking, live music, and a good time with friends.
I called it a relatively early night to accommodate my early flight the next morning and just like that, it felt I was returning to Kuwait.
The experience was exceptional, finally getting to play as a team in tournaments really put the training in perspective and I'm looking forward to our next tournament!
Please enjoy the only picture I took this weekend featuring a bad angle of me but a rocking pic of my all-star teammates :) ---->