Sunshine!

We are finally getting to some sunny weather here. Everyone is keeping their fingers crossed that the horrible winter that Denmark has seen is over, but no one is really sure what to expect. I love this weather, it's not hot, not freezing, and the sun is shining.

On Tuesday of last week, Esben had some friends from when he went to the University of Illinois in Copenhagen. They went out Tuesday night, but I was too wiped from practice to join them. I met them on Wednesday and one of the guys knew a kid that played for a year at Truman. Funny story about that is he asked me, "I heard you guys have a tradition of slaughtering a pig before your first game, is that true?" And at first I was like what the hell, no it's not true at all. But then I got to thinking and started laughing. I believe Dan Bryar started that rumor to the freshman the year that his friend was there, and I guess some of them believed it. It was way too funny once I realized that.

We went to Rosenborg Castle here in Copenhagen in the afternoon. It was built in the 1600 I believe by Christian IV, who built a ton of stuff throughout the city and nearly bankrupt the town due to the extreme building boom he oversaw. If people pointed to a building and asked who I thought built it, I would say Christian IV, and probably have a good shot at being correct. The castle was pretty neat. You go in and go through room by room, and they have different paintings and various items on display from the time. They give you a little map that has about a sentence on each room. I could have bought a guide book with more information, but I decided not to. One of the coolest parts of the castle is the 3rd floor which houses the King's throne made of narwhal tusk. It is just an extravagant, lavish room and it was cool just thinking that 350 years ago, the Christian IV would just chill in that place. Another interesting thing, I believe, is that Christian IV died in on of the rooms in the castle, so it's a very historical place, and I enjoyed that part of it very much. The basement is home to the crown jewels and other items as well. It would have been so cool to walk around with such a kick ass crown. Must have been great to be a king 400 years ago.

On Friday, I decided to hop on the Metro and go the opposite way I usually go. My bus pass only covers 2 zones, and the metro goes into more, but I figured I could try to play dumb American if I got caught, luckily, I didn't need to, and it would probably be difficult for me to act stupid. I got off at one of the stations that had a pretty big looking mall right outside. I ended up just walking around for about an hour and checked out prices. It turns on Friday was the release of the iPad 2 here, so one of the stores had a line of people to grab one. I was told that Denmark has the highest price iPad 2 in the world, woohoo! I went into some electronic store to look around. I saw some video games, and they were selling for anywhere from 300-500 krona, which translates to about 60-100 dollars, for one game! I also looked at iPods, since I had a little scare with mine on Thursday. A 32 GB iPod touch runs for about 2,250 krona i think. That is about $400. So if my iPod does break, I will be screwed. I also went into this one sporting goods store kind of. It was just clothing and shoes. There was a Nike store attached to it, so I had to check it out. I looked at one pair of shoes just to see the price---800 krona. Sweatpants were 350 krona. That was about all I looked at. I noticed a North Face store before I left. I could only imagine the prices there!

I didn't do anything Friday night. On Saturday, I met up with two of the defensive lineman- Lars and AG. We went back to Lars' apartment and played some PS3. I got back to playing some Call of Duty, and I was absolutely horrible. It's been a solid month and a half since I have last played, so of course my trigger finger would be a bit off. I did have flashes of glory though, so they were able to see the potential I brought to the table. We then watched the Denmark-Norway soccer game. It is qualifying rounds for the Euro next year. Denmark scored a pretty sweet goal early on, but Norway scored with about 10 minutes left to even it up and it ended as a tie.

After that game, we watched the Florida-Butler game. Lars has played basketball for most his life, so he is a good fan. College sports aren't huge over here, so we found the game online and hooked his laptop up to his TV. It was such a frustrating game. Audrey and I fill out brackets every year, and despite both of ours being awful, all I needed was Florida to win that game. Of course they lose. What kind of play at the end of regulation was that. Dribble the ball at half for 15 seconds, take two steps and throw up a contested fade away three. I was so angry at that stupid play. It would have been great if he made it, but he didn't. I think Florida shoulda went down low to that one dude who was killing it all night, but I guess that made too much sense.

An interesting final four has taken shape, and I guess everyone is rooting for VCU now. Mizzou should hire that dude!

The week ahead is a pretty typical week, except we have a scrimmage on Saturday and then a party afterwards. It is Hawaiian themed. Unfortunately, I did not come prepared for this, and it would be too late for my dad to send his award winning Hawaiian outfit. I will definitely not buy anything here, so hopefully someone on the team has some extra Hawaii I can borrow. I don't want to be that boring American who doesn't respect party themes. Next week is game week, which is really exciting. Everyone is ready to play this team, and we are preparing our asses of. I love our team and cannot wait to see us play a real game against a good French team.

Until next time--