For the handful who noticed that my posting has been sporadic, it’s because I’ve been off in a far away land, where they speak an unfamiliar language and eat strange and exotic foods.  Most noticeable to me was that all of the children wore white clothing and black masks, and held swords of a particular type and thrust them at each other with great regularity and vigor, while older men yelled things at them in even odder sounding tongues.

But now I’m back.  After swearing a blood oath to never fly Delta Airlines internationally again, losing one of the wheels off the traveling fencing hardshell case, as did everyone who flew Delta, eating the meal of one infinitesimally small piece of amorphous chicken covered in a concealing red sauce with a side of potatoes, all of which was deemed sufficient to cover two independent ordinary meal periods, and a seat distance in front of me that required me to wear my reading glasses to see the seatback movie screen 3 inches from my eyes, I was allowed to touch American soil again.  It’s fun to leave.  It’s good to come home.

Spain is a wonderful country.  The people we met were enormously friendly and welcoming.  No, they service staff were not particularly geared toward service, their primary reaction to all issues being “oh”.  But after a bit, you realize that by reducing ones American-style expectations a bit, on an hourly basis, one reaches European equilibrium and a zone of familiarity.  Then, one can appreciate their charm.

Outside of the hotel, the food was fabulous.  Inside, it was bewildering, as in “what is that?”  When one can’t distinguish fish from lamb, cooked to a savory medium gray, it adds a certain mystery to meals.  But a drink called tinto de verano, the wine of spring, smooths over many culinary issues and produces a joyous celebration of flowing cheap rioja, improved by a lemon and soda water, or as often happened, 7-Up instead when they are moving quickly.

For anyone wondering, there were fencers from Spain, Ukraine, France and the good ol’ US of A at the former World Cup venue in Almeria.  After mixing and matching for ten days, a two day tournament concluded the trip.  The tournament divided the groups into two age groups, akin to what we call cadet and junior here, as well as a world class group made up of national team fencers.   While they all fenced together prior to the tournament, and I was surprised and delighted by how competitive bouts were between national team fencers and some of the younger fencers, the tournament divisions, which of course included separating fencers by gender as well, were intended to fit the normal international competition mold.

After the first day of the tournament, my own tax dedication was the first seed, having demolished his competition by winning every bout and not allowing more than one touche by any fencer against him.  But of course, when things are going too well, it naturally means that they should screech to an immediate halt until the next day.  And so the wind blew.

In his quarterfinal bout on day 2, a fencer named Sasha from the Ukraine cranked up his game above and beyond anything he had shown previously.  With his coach screaming unfamiliar words, which we believed to mean that if he lost he would be sent to the gulag, and his little dog too, Sasha fenced his heart out and the score was tied at the end of regulation time, 12-12.  In overtime, Sasha caught a slight fold in the jacket just enough to compress his tip, and the battle was done.  Mine ended the day in 5th place, which was good but fell short of his hopes.  It was particularly difficult to watch first and second, Sasha having been eliminated in the semifinals when he fell to the floor in exhaustion, both Spanish fencers from Burgos, who mine had beaten handily the day before.

It was a long time to spend away, but a wonderful experience.  Now I have a remarkably long list of things to do, and given that few people will take calls from me at 9 in the morning on Malaga time, only limited time to do them until my clock readjusts.  So for those who kept abreast of my personal details, thank you.  And for those who also followed loftier matters, like law, so much has happened in my absence (which is very wrong, since it was the end of August) and I appreciate how many others posted about these far more significant issue so that I could keep abreast, even from Spain.

And now I’m back.