Bye Weeks

It's been a long two weeks with no football. However, the U19 team has had some practices, and a couple of the guys have joined me in doing some running. I can't wait to get back into the swing of things this week.

My time off hasn't been anything too extraordinary. I did a lot of walking on the Strøget and grabbed some souvenirs, and did some outdoor reading on days that didn't rain. I would just go into the city and either find a bench or walk until there looked like a good place to sit.  The weather is getting colder and the nights are coming sooner. I found myself wearing pants and a hoodie, in August, for the first time in my life.

I did have some fun over the break though. Last week, I joined the Running Backs, QBs, and Offensive Line for their annual all you can eat rib meal. We went to one of the RBs places and he cooked up 50-60 KILOS of ribs. There were maybe 14 guys. It was the most amount of ribs I have ever seen at a single place. I ate 3 racks of ribs, which was incredibly difficult, but I couldn't have some leftovers on my plate, so I cleaned everything. After the eating, and letting everything digest, we played some Rock Band, as well as Dance Central on the Kinect. There is nothing better than watching some O-Lineman dance to a Lady GaGa song. I participated a couple times, and even won a battle once, but it was far from anything glamorous. It was a ton of fun and a lot of laughs. From there, we headed into the city to some bar. A couple of other guys were there and we all just kind of sat around and talked, played some foosball,  and had a few drinks. I didn't engage in too much of that, but I'll go into why later. I had a couple of shots of the Danish snapps which is absolutely miserable. It was pretty fun.

The weirdest part came when some girls that were talking to a couple of the guys asked why I was always speaking English. My natural answer is well that's the only language I speak. They said I had a Danish accent which I, and everyone else, felt was strange. I showed them my Missouri license as proof, but I guess they still thought it was some elaborate prank. It was weird to say the least, but hey, at least I sound like a Dane, even though I can't do more than count to ten in the language.

From there, we went next door to Heidi's, because "they don't care if you dance on the tables." We arrived, and I see one of the big OL clearing off a table and next thing I know, he's on top dancing. One of our QBs join him, and next thing I see, tons of people throughout the place are on top of tables. It was so funny. I headed home around 4 with some of the guys. I got home and went to sleep around 5, only to wake up at 6 with what had to be the worst stomach ache ever---from the large amount of ribs I digested. My body was just confused. I looked outside, and it was a yellowish-green color, and just pouring down rain. A bit scary. I know that The Office is on from 6-7am on Saturdays, so I popped on the tube, and watched for about 20 minutes before I fell back asleep until 11.

Now Saturday was quite a day. I ate a quick breakfast and headed out to Holte, which is a bit by our field, to help out the team hang up some poster's for the upcoming election. I'll first dive into my understanding of the electoral system, then tell you about the poster hanging process.

So the Danish Prime Minister can call for an election whenever he wants. Apparently he recently did that, but before he can do it, he must get the Queen's approval, which is more just tradition--she's not going to say no. So then that happens, and people within the part run in different areas. The parties that get the most votes then get to elect the Prime Minister or something like that. That's where I get confused. I just know that people aren't directly voting for the Prime Minister. So the parties select who will run where. I guess to make an example is say that a party has Tom, Dick and Harry running. Tom will run in New York, and ONLY people in New York can vote for him, Dick runs in St. Louis, and ONLY St. Louis people can vote for him, and Harry runs in Denver, and ONLY Denverians can vote for him. That explains why there are signs for like 50 different people are up everywhere throughout the city. Also, smaller parties just put up signs with their party names. I don't know too much from there, but that's all I gathered and really understood from all the people I talked to.

Now to the signs. There are signs about the size of a medium poster, that we tie up to phone poles using like zip ties I guess. I went around with on of the DBs, JC, to hang up around 150 of these. We spent a solid 5 hours doing this in the rain. It was not the most exciting thing I have ever done, and the first time in my life I have supported any kind of political action. It's just funny, because these posters are EVERYWHERE. Basically any place you can hang them, there are 6 there. It's just nuts. Everyone agrees that the poster's don't do too much to sway an opinion, but it's just a custom. The elections are in a couple weeks, so I'll keep you guys updated with the winner. I think it would be really funny to somehow bring home a poster of the winner, just to have one. A bit weird maybe.

The rest of the time was nothing special. I saw the movie Horrible Bosses a couple days ago with AG. It was a great evening--getting out of the apartment and all, and a really funny movie. AG, like everyone else, works during the day, and I'd seen him at practice from work and know he's a sharp dresser. I really wanted to bum it up at the movies, but knew I would be with the most stylin man in town that evening, so I had to appear presentable. All in all, it was a good evening. Last night/ this morning for me, the Bulldogs opened their season against Northwest for the Hickory Stick, the last meeting until 2014 I believe. I woke up at 2 am here to listen with high hopes for all the guys. It was weird listening to it, and hearing the names of all my buddies and not playing. I guess it's something I'll have to get used to. It started off close, but Northwest pulled away in the 2nd quarter for a 65-3 victory. The offense seems shaky and Northwest won the rushing and turnover game, as well as convert 9 of 13 3rd downs. It's hard to beat a good team like that when they are able to convert on 3rd downs. I went to sleep at halftime, with an unpleasant feeling, but I know that Northwest rolling is incredible. I truly believe the guys will bounce back and have a good season. I'll be doing my best to listen to as many games as I can.

This weekend, I am meeting up with one of the OL, and going to his parents cabin. We are just hanging out, and doing a hell of a lot of BBqing. I look forward to it very much.

Lastly, I am missing another one of my grandma's birthday parties. It's been 6 years of football keeping me away, especially from the pool which I miss like crazy. This should be my last year away, and I wanted to wish her a happy birthday. I will never forget begging for grilled cheese sandwiches as a youngster, and usually eating my cousin Alex's leftovers. I like to think that's how I became a big guy, and why Alex remained an average sized human. Hope the weather is nice and everyone has fun!