[shoot]

"Shoot!"
"But I wanna pass!"
"Shoot!"

These were words I never heard in America, well, the word "shoot" directed towards me.

Last night I perhaps had one of my favourite nights in Switzerland.

I've grown accustomed to joining groups in which I know no one. In this case, I knew one member of the badminton club, but I couldn't count on him to show up. I was off playing for 2 months due to my ankle but after it was healed, I jumped back in. All I have to do is show up and ask to play, I don't care who with.

I ended up playing with three guys for most of the time. There weren't any girls this evening, which I found odd. Just 7 guys and I. No no no, that's not why I enjoyed the evening so much. I do admit it was really refreshing to finally be in the company of people my own age. As an au pair, it's harder to get mixed in with the Swiss. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights are my chance to do that.

Anyways, this is something I wish we had in America. A place in the evening where you can just go and play a sport, nothing official. It's just pure fun.

"Aller!"

Ok, ok, I'm going.

I'm glad I'm not horrible at badminton. Am I good? Not the best. But can I hit it back and sometimes make the other guy miss? Yep.

After a while they asked if I wanted to play "basket."
Basketball? Sure... even if I haven't played it for some 3 months.
It's ok if I'm horrible, let's play.

And so, the game of 2 on 2 began. I was on Tobia's team and surprised the first time he passed to me. Dang. I must have looked so surprised, or horribly unathletic... I think it was a mixture of both.

Here's the thing. In America, I never got the ball. There were so many kids in PE class. It is horrible but at an early age in life, I was taught by my bigger, more athletic peers that if I ever, ever got the ball, I should pass it to one of them immediately.

So, here I am in Switzerland and I am being passed the ball.
Goodness, that is something new.
And my instinct is to simply pass it back.

A bit later, two more guys joined us.
Three on three.

A favourite phrase of the night was, "Shoot!"
It was some sort of cruel humour, but when we started out, Tobias would pass me the ball immediately, since I was open, and tell me to just shoot.

So I would shoot. Sometimes I would miss it but sometimes I made it! And that made me quite the happy girl. For once, I was given the chance to play. I was incorporated into the team.

They would sometimes give me a hard time for missing, but not in a cruel way. Just a way that made me feel like I wasn't just being treated like a guest. I know I'm the out one here. I'm American. I'm a girl. But I got to play and that made my day.

We simply played basketball, and I liked that.

Monday nights are good nights.