Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester Utd. He's 23 and considered to be one of the best right now. All rights to the owner of the photo, of course.

The problem: how to get out of the house a bit and liven up an exercise routine that consists of only running. The solution? Join my program's fútbol team.

I was very excited by this prospect because fútbol is the national sport here. Little boys play it at recess and older ones fill the courts at night. Everyone has a favorite team and can give you a list of solid reasons why their team is best. One of my professors is a diehard fan of the popular Real Madrid (former team of David Beckham) and often finds a way to work her love into our sentence examples.

Due to our school's late classes, our first game was scheduled for 9:00pm. I was a little bummed--cuz, hey, dinner's at 9:30!--but was thrilled for the chance to play a game I haven't played since high school. We walked about 40 minutes to courts that actually more resembled basketball courts. Our "fields" were made of gray brick and there was no grass to be seen; their only concession to being a place to play fútbol were the two goals at the end.

Our team spent about 20 minutes warming up and then the game began. It was quickly evident that some members of both teams had played before. There were also several that hadn't played in quite a while, but we all blended together. Our team got an early lead and kept it to win in a 4-0 shutout. Wahoo! This was lucky for us as the games are set up as a single-elimination tournament.

I had a good time, though I sat out for most of the game and simply cheered my teammates. I was playing in the game before thinking that I wanted to steal the ball from some over-six-foot-lanky blonde. What I didn't realize was that Mr. Looks-Like-a-Harmless-Surfer actually had knees of steel so when I accidentally kicked him, I pretty much took myself out. Ugh. Poor foot still hurts!

Because of the upcoming Semana Santa, our next game won't be until March 26th. Wish us luck!