When heading to Bologna I considered playing Ultimate Frisbee because I had heard from previous students that they had played with a club team while in Bologna. When I arrived, I talked about it to Ellen Laird, the Program Associate, who contacted the head of the CUSB Frisbee club. The club included multiple men’s, women’s, and mixed ultimate teams that compete at various levels. I had the chance to play with both CUSB Shout and CUSB Yell as well as participate in both mixed and women’s winter leagues.

At the beginning of the semester, most of my teammates tried to speak English with me, but they worked to teach me all of the Italian vocabulary for Frisbee throughout the semester. By the end, I would definitely consider myself “fluent in Frisbee”, which made both practices and games a lot more fun. While playing with them I traveled to Fano, Italy and competed with a team made up of people from all over Europe. Additionally, Bologna hosted its own tournament with teams from all across Europe. At that tournament they hosted a dinner on Saturday night where they had two entire pigs roasted, a tradition for celebrations in Bologna. Through both of those experiences I met a lot of people and learned more about European culture than I ever could just sitting in a classroom. Additionally, in Bologna there are two other Frisbee clubs, one called Discobolo and the other Alligators. CUSB hosted winter leagues with all the members of three different clubs playing in teams together. This was a lot of fun and allowed me to meet an additional group of local students.

Every part of the experiences, from being in multiple Italian group chats to getting rides home from practices on my friends’ Vespas, was truly incredible and helped me make genuine friendships with the Bolognesi. To anyone who is considering playing Frisbee with CUSB, I highly recommend it! This experience changed my worldview and was, by far, the best part of my semester abroad.