Strolling the street market, buying treasures at the craft market, eating out in Tecate, maybe a dance…

But definitely…

          Soccer!

It's 8 o'clock, and we're really late for the farewell soccer game that was supposed to be happening at the park. We load up in two cars and bounce to the soccer field, where dusk has fallen and soccer is in progress. We join the play and immediately the game becomes the visitors (us) against the home team.

The soccer field is huge. Some of us get winded just running the length to assume our spontaneous positions. The ball is quickly in play. Cars pull up around the perimeter of the park, shining their headlights onto the field. The home team scores quickly. It's immediately obvious that our team is no match for theirs, particularly in dribbling. One guy in a blue shirt and pants takes us on one by one. He fakes left, fakes right, and leaves us standing in the dust.

Ninety percent of the play is around the home team's goal. A bunch of us defenders (Jamie, Erin, Chris) attack with enthusiasm, and occasionally the ball gets kicked toward the other side of the field. In the blackness, how can you tell where the ball is? You look for the cloud of dust and the soccer player running alongside of it. We finally score, then the home team scores, and then we score again. We scored the second time, Alex tells me later, because he was so tired that he was lying down next to the goal. All of a sudden, the ball bounces out of the sky to land beside him. So he gets up and kicks it in to score.

The game is intense and so much fun. We call it quits at 9:15, and by a miracle (or their kindness) the score is tied 4 to 4.