Castellers in a squash court

Hi all,

It's been a while since I've written because it's been a while since we've made any castells. However, today we picked it up again, and, even though there were just three of us, I really want to try to stick with it. Thanks to the time change off of Daylight Savings Time, it now gets dark in Chicago around 5:00, so instead of meeting outside we met in a squash court in Henry Crown. It was actually a pretty good place to make castells!

Hallie, Allie and I practiced climbing our climbing technique against the wall, made a few free-standing pillars, and also made a couple of poms up to the acotxador. The poms are looking good - Allie has all the makings for a great acotxador, and even I was able to do it pretty well! Haha... we all hope we can get an enxaneta soon!

Even though attendance is down, I'm hoping it'll pick back up again once we get past midterm season. Also, I'm giving a workshop/presentation for two beginning Catalan classes on Wednesday, which I'm pretty excited about - maybe I'll be able to motivate some more people to join!

'Til next time - salut i castells!
-Sarah

*

Hola a tothom,

Fa temps que no he escrit res perquè fa temps que no hem pogut fer castells. No obstant, avui hem reprès els assajos i, encara que només erem 3, tinc moltes ganes de seguir endavant. Gràcies al canvi de temps, ara es fa fosc a les 17h a Chicago, així que en lloc d'assajar fora ho hem fet dins una pista de squash a Henry Crown (un gimnàs al campus). De fet, era un bon lloc per fer castells!

La Hallie, l'Allie i jo (quina coincidència de noms!) hem practicat pujant utilitzant la paret, hem fet alguns pilars net, i hem fet un parell de poms fins a acotxador. Els poms van bastant bé - l'Allie té pinta de ser una acotxadora molt gran, i fins i tot jo ho fet força bé! Haha... esperem tenir enxaneta ben aviat!!

Encara que l'assistència segueix baixa, espero que pujarà un cop passada l'època d'exàmens parcials. També, faré un taller/presentació per a dues classes de català aquest dimecres, i n'estic força animada - potser podré animar a més gent a participar!

Fins la propera - salut i castells!
-Sarah

Mini-practice / Mini-assaig

Hi all -

Not a whole lot to say today - we only had three people show up to practice, most likely due to the fact that it is already 4th week and midterms are hitting us. I'll have to come up with more ways to convince people that they can and should take a break from their studying to come climb on top of each other... However, the three of us who were there enjoyed about 45 minutes of practice in the quad, as it was actually quite nice out today. Since there were so few of us, we focused on pillars of 2, and everyone got to try both being on top and on the bottom. There were lots of random things happening in Classics Quad today, including several people taking pictures of lampposts (though I think they were secretly taking pictures of us :) ) and a men's a capella group that started singing as it walked by us, so we hardly stuck out!

The process of becoming an RSO is well under way - all the forms have been submitted, and we have a faculty sponsor! Hopefully I'll get word back from the committee soon. In the meantime, I really hope I can encourage more people to come to practice!

Good luck to everyone on midterms - salut i castells! (Now back to studying biochemistry...)
-Sarah

*

Hola a tothom -

No hi ha gaire a dir avui - només 3 persones han vingut a assaig, probablement perquè ja som a la quarta setmana del trimestre i toca fer examens parcials... Hauré de pensar en més maneres de convèncer la gent que poden i haurien de fer un descans d'estudiar i venir a pujar els uns sobre els altres! No obstant, els que hi erem avui hem gaudit d'uns 45 minuts d'assaig al quad, com que de debò feia bon temps avui. Com que erem tan pocs, hem fet molts pilars de 2, i tothom ha pogut ser a baix i a dalt. Hi havia moltes coses una mica estranyes passant al Classics Quad avui, com diverses persones fent fotos dels fanals (jo crec que en realitat estaven fent fotos de nosaltres :) ) i un cor "a capella" que ha començat a cantar mentre ens passaven... així que gairebé no erem distintius!

Ja hem començat el procés de fer-nos una RSO - hem lliurat totes les solicituds i ja tenim un representatiu de la professorat! Espero rebre notícies ben aviat. Mentrestant, espero poder encoratjar més gent a venir als assajos!

Bona sort a tothom amb els examens parcials (si en teniu) - salut i castells! (Ara a tornar a estudiar bioquímica...)
-Sarah

Braving the cold to make castells!

Despite the unfortunate October cold snap of the last few days, the heartier, more intrepid members of our club met today in the Classics Quad to practice! We actually did more than I expected, given the inclement weather. We practiced climbing with "our" tree a lot more, and we did our first practice pillar of 3 people, which we then repeated later with a different lineup of people. It went well, and people commented that they felt more comfortable up there than they expected!

We had less people than last week, so we couldn't make any 3s, but we did make a tower of 2 - that is, two stories of two people in each story. We also had dosos climb on top of 3 bases, which went somewhat more smoothly than last time, since I had remembered the correct order of steps. We made one construction where we had dosos climb on 3, then an acotxador climb up to the level of the dosos. Everyone seemed pretty stable, but one of the bases was having a rough time, so we took it down rather than having the acotxador climb all the way up to her position.

What I think I enjoyed the most was making more freestanding pillars of 2 people. We had several different people try it, both on the bottom and on top, and the combination that felt the most stable (Antonio on top of Sarah) even walked a bit! Lots of fun.

I want to thank everyone that came out today - I think it was really important that we kept practicing despite the cold, partly so as not to forget and partly because several people who were walking by stopped and watched, and we may even have a new recruit! Possibly the best moment of the afternoon was the kid riding by on his bike while we made our tower who pulled out his cell phone and said, "Mom, guess what?!" I'm going to try really hard to get us an indoor practice space for next week, though, because, sadly, I don't think it's going to get any warmer. I will keep everyone updated. 'Til then -

Salut i castells!

*

Malgrat el fred sobtat i desafortunat dels últims dies, els membre més valents i intrèpids del nostre club ens hem reunit avui a Classics Quad i hem assajat! De fet, hem fet més del que esperava, donat els temps. Hem fet moltes espatlleres amb el "nostre" arbre, i n'hem fet la primera de 3, que hem repetit després amb una alineació diferent! Han anat bé, i alguna gent ha comentat que se sentien més comodes allí dalt del que esperaven!

Teníem menys gent que la setmana passada (sens dubte degut al fred), així que no hem pogut fer construccions de 3, però sí que hem fet una torre de 2. També hem fet pujar dosos sobre tres baixos - ha anat millor que l'última vegada, gràcies al fet de que jo havia recordat l'ordre correcte dels passos. Hem fet una construcció amb dosos a sobre tres baixos i després hem fet que l'acotxador pugés fins al nivell dels dosos. Tothom estava força estable, però un dels baixos estava patint una mica, així que l'hem desmuntat en lloc de fer que l'acotxador pugés fins a la seva posició.

El que jo crec que més m'ha agradat ha sigut fer més pilars de 2 nets. Ho ha provat gent different, tant a baix com a dalt, i fins i tot la combinació que se sentia més estable (l'Antonio a sobre la Sarah) ha caminat una mica! Molt divertit.

Vull donar les gràcies a tothom que ha vingut avui - crec que és molt important que seguim assajant, malgrat el fred, en part per no oblidar i en part perquè molta gent s'ha aturat a mirar-nos, i potser tenim algun nou reclutat! Possiblement el millor moment de la tarda ha sigut quan un noi que anava amb bici ha tret el mòvil mentre feiem la torre i ha dit, "Mare, saps què?!!" :) Intentaré aconseguir-nos un espai per assajar a dins per la setmana que ve, però, perquè tristament no crec que les temperatures pujaran. Ja us ho diré. Fins la propera -

Salut i castells!

First practice pillar of 3! / Primer espatllera de 3!

Climbing up to make a tower / Pujant per fer una torre


Our little tower :) / La nostra torre petita :)

Yay local media! / Uee mitjans locals!

Check out this article about us in the Weekly! http://chicagoweekly.net/2009/10/07/people-tower/#more-1665

Mireu aquest article sobre nosaltres al Weekly! http://chicagoweekly.net/2009/10/07/people-tower/#more-1665

Pictures from Sunday / Fotos del diumenge

Here are some lovely pictures from our practice on Sunday, courtesy of Dan. Note that I'm grinning in all of them - it really made my week!

Aquí teniu algunes fotos de l'assaig de diumenge, gràcies al Dan. Noteu que estic somrient en totes - era el millor moment de la meva setmana!

Putting on faixes (which weren't really faixes) / Enfaixant-nos (encara que no eren faixes de debó...)

Teaching the position of acotxador / Ensenyant la posició d'acotxador


Complete! Carregat!


Dosos on top of 3 / Dosos a sobre 3

Pillar of 2 / Pilar de 2 net

Enjoy!
Gaudiu-ne!

Welcome! Benvinguts!

Hi everyone! Welcome to the blog of the newly-created Castellers of Chicago. We're just beginning to establish ourselves and take the first steps into formal existence - becoming an RSO, recruiting people who are interested in learning a crazy new activity, creating this website, and, of course, having our first meeting and practice! I know we'll have a lot of challenges to face, but I'm very excited about our possibilities.

Let me introduce the idea of this blog a little bit. I'll be writing it in both English and Catalan, as my intention is for it to serve as a way of keeping friends and followers both here in the U.S. and in Catalunya up to date, as well as a space to document the process of creating a casteller team and where its members can give their own comments and feedback about how things are going. At the moment, we're tentatively having practices every Sunday from 4:00-6:00 pm in the Classics Quad, and I'll try to update the blog every week after practice (hopefully with pictures of what we've done!).

So, with that, I'll jump right in today! We had our very first meeting and practice this afternoon, and I was definitely pleased with how it went. There was a decent turnout for a first practice - 11 people overall, though some came and went. We learned a lot and made a lot of different small constructions. I started out teaching people the technique of climbing, using a tree for support. Some were more successful than others, but everyone tried hard, and I'm sure that with a little more practice they'll all get the hang of it! Then we moved on to freestanding structures, starting with poms (poms are the top part of a castell). We made several poms up to the acotxador, the "squatter", and one complete pom, up to the enxaneta (who was me - actually the first time I'd successfully done it, haha!). We were somewhat limited by our lack of faixes, though we did have a couple of cut up sheets, but we decided to try a few structures with a base of 3 people on the ground. First we put dosos, or "twos", on top of a base of 3, and then we put another tier of 3 on top. Both went well!

We took a break and made a freestanding pillar of 2 which was actually quite stable, although everyone got a little nervous when it tried to walk! Finally we made some more poms, having different people climb, and we had a few small tumbles, showing that it's OK to fall as long as people are spotting you. Everyone was pretty worn out by this point, so we decided to call it a day. I was so excited to hear that people had really enjoyed it, and wanted to come back next week!

That's all for now - hopefully I'll have pictures to post soon. Also, there should be an article about us coming out in the next edition of the Chicago Weekly, so keep your eyes out!

Salut i castells!

*

Hola a tothom! Benvinguts i benvingudes al bloc dels nous Castellers de Chicago! Acabem d'establir-nos com a un club i fer els primers passos cap a l'existència formal - fent-nos un RSO (Organització Registrada d'Estudiants), reclutant gent que vulgui aprendre una nova activitat una mica boja, fent aquest web, i, clar, el nostre primer assaig! Sé que no serà fàcil, però estic molt animada de les nostres possibilitats.

Deixeu-me introduïr l'idea d'aquest bloc una mica. L'escriuré en anglés i català, com que vull que serveixi per mantindre informats a tots els meus amics i seguidors tant aquí als EUA com a Catalunya, a més a més que com un espai on documentar el procés de crear una nova colla castellera aquí i on els seus membres podin donar els seus comentaris i opinions sobre com va la cosa. Pel moment, assajem cada diumenge de les 16h a les 18h, i intentaré dir-vos alguna novetat cada setmana després d'assaig (espero que amb fotos!).

Bé, amb això, començaré sobre avui! Hem tingut la nostra primera reunió i el nostre primer assaig aquesta tarda, i estic contenta amb com ha anat. Hi havia força gent per un primer assaig - 11 en total, encara que alguns han vingut i altres se n'han anat durant les dues hores. Hem après molt i fet moltes construccions petites. He començat ensenyant la tècnica de com pujar, utilitzant un arbre per fer espatlleres. Alguns han tingut més èxit que altres, però tots han intentat, i estic segura que amb una mica més de pràctica ho podràn fer tots! Després hem fet algunes estructures petites, començant amb poms. N'hem fet uns quants fins a acotxador, i un fins a enxaneta (qui era jo - de fet, era la primera vegada que ho havia fet, haha!). Estàvem una mica limitats per la manca de faixes (encara que sí que teníem algun llençol tallat!), però hem decidit fer algunes estructures amb un pis de 3 baixos. Primer hem posat dosos sobre els 3, i després hem fet pujar 3 segons a sobre els baixos. Tots dos han sortit bé!

Després hem canviat una mica i hem fet un pilar de 2 net - i força estable, encara que tothom s'ha posat molt nerviós quan ha intentat caminar! Finalment hem tornat als poms, fent que pugés més gent, i hem tingut algunes petites caigudes, mostrant que no passa res si caus, mentre hi ha gent voltant! Aleshores tothom estava bastant cansat, així que hem decidit plegar pel dia. Estava tan animada de sentir que a la gent li agradava molt i que bastants volien tornar-hi la setmana vinent!

Bé, això és tot per ara. Espero tenir fotos aviat! Ah, i també, hi haurà un article sobre nosaltres a la propera edició del Chicago Weekly (un diari escrit i editat per estudiants), així que aneu mirant el bloc!

Salut i castells!