In a bid to stay chronologically relevant, I am posting the details of our trip to the 2009 Badminton Collegiate Nationals a mere 17 days after it ended. That’s only a postponement of 1/26th of a year, or so. That’s such a small fraction, I may well have just stepped off the plane yesterday!
An annual gathering of the nation’s most dedicated badminton players who happen to be undergraduate college students, this year’s tournament was hosted by Irvine Valley College in Irvine, CA from March 20th to 22nd, 2009. Yeah, we went to California to play badminton. Jealous? You should be.
We have risen.Our journey has us trapped in those giant Pringles cans with wings for about 3 hours at a time. Departing from Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), we have a short layover in Houston, Texas at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). Well, it was scheduled to last about an hour, but extended to easily double that when our initial plane was found to have been malfunctioning mechanically. How naughty. Appropriately agitated and seated on a new plane, we finally take off for John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Orange County, California.
It’s pretty empty ‘cause it’s pretty late.With not much time to practice on a Friday night, we grab our rental cars, check into our hotel rooms, and head out to gorge ourselves on Chinese buffet. We would easily burn off those calories the next day when most of the action would take place at Irvine Valley College’s gym. This is what we came here for. Not for the beautiful weather, flash cars, or sandy beaches, though there was plenty of that. No, we were here for domestic-class collegiate badminton.
Saturday arrives and we find ourselves on the courts awaiting our competition. I’m not sure how to write about our badminton matches except that West Coast players are formidable and relentless. Yehan played his Men’s Singles semifinals and finals matches on Sunday with his Drexel crew intensely cheering him on. And our support clearly worked. Yehan Ranasinghe became the 2009 Badminton Collegiate Nationals Men's Singles Champion. Drexel University placed 5th as a team.
Great sportsmanship from both players.With the hard work over, we had some time to relax and enjoy ourselves at In-N-Out, the beach, Vietnamese restaurants and yogurt bars. Suffice to say, we partied with reckless abandon. (Hey, I don’t know who’s reading this thing.) We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on the left coast and returned Monday evening to Philadelphia.
California, we’ll miss you.
The trip’s photo album is here.
And just in case you missed the reference to Coolio’s Fantastic Voyage…
-VK
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