The Sri Lankan athletes and their partners went home yesterday. It was great having them here (though I admit, both Kev and I were feeling a bit frayed after twelve days of house guests!), and despite all my concerns and hesitancies about the value of nationalism, I was quite ridiculously proud of how many medals they collected -- one gold, five silver, and a bronze, in various track and field events. Some races, javelin, discus, shot put. Way cool.Of course, I am not sufficiently athletic-minded to actually go to the events (and as you can see from the photos below, Upeksha's partner, Kaush, was also more the reading-than-sports type). But we hung out a fair bit when they weren't competing, and it was much fun. Upeksha cooked delicious food for me (that smelled just like my mom's, and I still don't know why mine doesn't smell the same when I could swear I was following exactly the same recipe...sigh...). She promised to send me her recipes for cardamom rice and for pork curry. Mmm...
Thursday was the most time we spent together; I drove them through a howling thunderstorm (at one point I had to pull over because I literally couldn't see the road in front of me, and we killed some time in a dollar store until the weather calmed down a little) to confirm that the day's events were cancelled, then I dragged them on my errands with me -- first to Devon, where they picked up a surprising number of spices and things (Maria says that jars of coriander or mint chutney, for example, aren't easy to get in Colombo) and I got some stuff for the cooking class, then to the garden store, where I grabbed a few end-of-season discount pots, and finally to Ethiopian food, which they *loved*. Me too. :-)
Most evenings they went out partying; they have more energy than me. Somehow this past week, I kept crashing hard around 9 p.m. So tired. But happy.
They're going to show me around the next time I'm in Sri Lanka; Maria says she'll take me white-water rafting. Fun!
In order below: Kaush reading; Upeksha, Maria and other athletes; Upeksha and Maria with our flag and gazillion medals; Sumali and Maria out on the town. :-)
Cool! I had been wondering who your houseguests were.
Btw, your entry doesn’t mention the name of the event that they were competing in. Was that intentional? (I figured it out–the event name is just barely visible in small print at the bottom of the sign in the first photo if you know what to look for–but for those who didn’t know the event was happening, it may be confusing.)
Oh, no, not intentional — I thought I’d mentioned that a week or two ago, when I said they were coming? They were here for the Gay Games.
Unfortunately they are holding the wrong side of the flag.
I’m confused — there’s a right side to hold?