After more than 9 years, I'm finally going back to Taiwan this summer again, I've finally decided yesterday. I guess I wasn't sure I'd go because of financial issues, and potential complications with summer jobs etc, which I couldn't justify to myself to take on for the sake of a two week vacation in Taiwan, but two factors have finally convinced me otherwise - the deteriorating health of a lung cancer-ridden aunt of mine who has known me since my infant years (a Vienna Music Academy peer of my mom's at the time, she would take care of me while my mom was away for classes), and an unexpected refund check from Swarthmore College for excess tuition paid which my mom has offered to use to contribute to my flight ticket. In addition, I'm going to try to arrange for a rental cello during my time in Taiwan and give sort of a private performance with my brother for my aunt. She is herself a professional pianist, and although she has heard me play the piano multiple times, I don't think she's ever heard me play the cello, and certainly not over the past nine years since I've moved away from Vienna. She's cared for me so much in the past, and continues to do so to this day (insisting on cleaning my ears for me everytime I see her); if it is in my abilities to give her some joy in this difficult time, then I find it to be my duty to do everything possible to make that happen.

I guess target time frame for the trip is going to as soon as possible...classes end on the 12th of May for me, so the Mannes orchestra concert at the Philly Kimmel Center with the Philadelphia singers (performing Beethoven's Missa Solemnis) on the 14th is my last school commitment. Which means probably sometime late in the week of the 15th is when I'll be leaving for Taiwan...

It's no secret that as is the case most people who grow up in Austria (or Europe, or pretty much the entire world except the US?), I'm a pretty big soccer fan...but except for a short stint during my elementary school years where I was member of a soccer club team, college intramural soccer was the most competitive soccer I've ever played. And needless to say, that wasn't very competitive. So yesterday, I made this dream of mine to play in a somewhat competitive environment come true when I had my first game with my new team, Franklin FC, in a South Jersey adult amateur soccer league! The team's based in Cherry Hill, NJ (about 50 min from where I live) and named after Penn's Franklin Field, with which I'm guessing some of the guys must have some history - of the teammates who came to yesterday's game, there were two (including the captain, who was the person who invited me to join this team last summer) that I knew through my lunch hour soccer sessions last summer when I was working at Penn.

Anyhow, but it looks like I'm getting the real deal here...yesterday's game was tough. The opponent team's players were all physically in relatively good shape and more or less pretty skilled (and those that weren't as skilled had good coordination with the more skilled players to the lack of skill wasn't as big an issue). My team also seems to have nice potential, but it seemed like we just weren't coordinated very well yet. We also only had 1 sub, which makes a big difference in a full 90 minute game. So during the first half, the other team (Deptford SC) totally outplayed us, creating far more scoring chances and conceding only one semi-decent one to us. The halftime score reflected that: they went up 2-0, the first a nice volley shot off a corner, and the second following a nice run by their fastest guy through our left side of the defense and a low pass into the front of our goal where it was picked up and shot into goal by one of their forwards.

I played horribly too during that first half...I haven't played a real game since those lunch our soccer sessions at Penn I mentioned earlier last summer; and while I do occasionally run up flights of stairs both at Mannes and at subway stations (with cello in hand, that's quite a workout), that certainly was not nearly enough to keep me in shape for this kind of activity. During the entire first half, I almost felt like two different people, my brain being one, giving all those commands to accelerate and suddenly shift weight to change direction quickly, and my body being the other, trying its best to keep up with those instructions, but not quite cutting it. My touch was off, my eye-foot coordination was off - I just couldn't do anything with the ball. At one point early in the game, I physically fell because I could literally feel myself wanting to do some body contortion that I'm used to being able to do, but my body just giving up and saying "no." I was supposed to be the fastest and most agile player on our team, but during the first half, I was everything but that. The groin muscle I pulled the night before (my brother and I had a phase of hyper-ness and silly-ness where we did a little circus number - me carrying my brother on my back, both of us extending our limbs out, and me shifting weight onto my left leg and holding the right one slightly angled to the side - you know, kinda like a sea star I guess is what I had in mind :-P) didn't exactly help either.

Second half was a lot better though. After the halftime break, I requested to stay out for the beginning of the second half to recover a bit...after a while I went back in and felt much better already, quicker to accelerate, sturdier on my feet. I actually won tackles, despite my light body frame :). And a couple good ball receptions and controlled passes. As a team we played better too, tighter defense, more organized offense. We scored a goal to make it 2-1, a beautiful lob over the oncoming goalie by one of our forwards, Dan, after a free-kick and headed pass by Ed, the captain. Unfortunately, they had a nice counterattack down our left side followed by a lob over the goalie to put the margin back to 2 goals. The game ended 3-1 for them.

Our next game is in two weeks...I can't wait!

Oh, and on a completely unrelated note: I want [this phone]!! It's a smartphone, it's a flip-phone, it's sexy as hell. If only the screen were just a tiny bit bigger...but I can't wait for this thing to be released, hopefully before I go to Taiwan so I can pick one up during my trip there.