European Journey Part 1- Poland

Audrey and I started our European travels by heading to Krakow, Poland with the main goal of taking a day to see the Auschwitz Concentration/ Death Camp. We arrived on Thursday around noon and managed to figure out how to get from the airport to the main train station, which is where our directions to our B&B start. Unfortunately, we did not have a map, and it was extraordinarily hot compared to Denmark, so we wandered around in the heat, got directions twice, and after about an hour we found it. We felt like idiots since we missed the large sign for the Globtroter Guest House. Oh well. After we checked in, we walked around the area, and went to the Main Square. It is the biggest medieval square in all

Inside the Market

  of Europe. In 2005, it took first place in an international ranking of World's Greatest Squares, so it was a pretty fun place to hang out. The original planning dates back to 1257, however the building has been renovated quite a bit over time. The square is just a great place to people watch, as there are many street performers and some breakdance shows that take place. I would say we spent the majority of our time just sitting there.

Sign to entrance "Work Sets You Free"

Friday was our big day, and reason for visiting Krakow. We took a group to to Auschwitz. The ride takes you through the Polish countryside and winds around, but after about 90 minutes we arrived. It is just an eerier place. It's hard to actually wrap your mind around what happened there, but there are pictures and displays everywhere to remind you. We had a phenomenal tour guide

Rail leading into Birkenau for selection

who was extremely knowledgeable about all the topics. Again, its really hard to try to get what happened there, but when you close your eyes, you just get chills. One of the most intriguing stories from the trip, in my opinion, was told by our guide. There was a picture of the selection--when the trains brought in new people, they would get off and be selected to head to the right or left; one side lives to work, the other hits the gas chambers. There is a picture blown up on the wall of an SS member running the selection. Our guide told us that some time ago, a man was on the tour and recognized the SS man in the picture. Turns out it was his father. Imagine finding out your father was directly involved in the selection process. It's hard to really explain everything there.

Pool built to show Red Cross things are OK

There are rooms filled with luggage, as prisoners were told they would start a new life so pack everything up, one room filled with two tons of human hair, and another with shoes, brushes, all of that stuff. It really takes it out of you to see something like that. We headed to Birkenau which is about 3km away, but it was raining, so we didn't go too deep in. We got to see where prisoners would sleep and head to the top of a guard tower. Just a wild day overall. We returned pretty wiped out and just again, walked around the square.

Saturday would be our last day in Krakow, so we decided to head up to Wawel castle, since it looked pretty cool. We got there early at 10am and just walked around a bit. It was a bit confusing as general entrance to the huge castle and cathedral is free, but you had to pay to get into certain rooms and exhibits, but nothing really was there to tell you what exactly you would be paying for, so we just enjoyed some views from the castle. From there we walked around the Kazimierz area, which is kind of like the Jewish area with a bunch of synagogues. Nothing too special. We spent the remained of our Saturday sitting in the square until we took a shuttle bus out to where we were staying Saturday night, since we would be flying out of an airport 90 minutes away, at 6:05 am. The hotel was super nice, and we slept for a little bit before waking at 4:30 to get to the airport to catch out 6 am fight into Rome.

Krakow was awesome and the Polish people were exceptional nice to us. I'll be back to talk more about Rome, but as of now, Audrey is getting ready to leave and we are going to go to some souvenir places before my practice this evening.

When in Rome....sweat alot

I am currently in Rome for the last evening, just letting anyone who cares know that we are alive and nothing happened to us in Poland. Krakow was a blast, and we have seen and been overwhelmed by Rome. Our feet are exhausted and all my shirts well sweated through. Tomorrow we head to beach Italy before coming back to Rome Friday to catch a very difficult night train, that we luckily now have tickets for.  Ok, well it is now time for some pizza or something, goodnight!

PS- Kim, it has rained for a total of 2 hours so far on our trip, and I had watermelon gelato. I really hope I am alive tomorrow!

Becoming a Tourist

Audrey arrived safely early morning and we have been going pretty much ever since. She arrived bright and early at 8am, sunny smile beaming as she entered into Copenhagen. I looked like I could have been living in the airport for days with my shaggy hair covered by a hat, my gold digger hoody I threw on, and some sandals. The morning is not really my best friend these days. We got back and threw her stuff down and went out to visit Copenhagen. I acted as a tour guide and we walked the city. We started at City Hall by Tivoli and made our way up to the Little Mermaid. We walked the Strøget seeing many different street performers and food carts. It's quite a different pace than in March/ April when I've been there. We walked to Nyhavn and walked the harbor I guess, seeing the Opera House and stopping in at Amalienborg Palace. Our next stop took us up to the Little Mermaid, and we finished the afternoon with a sandwich at the train station taking us back into central Copenhagen to get on the metro home. Esben made some pasta for dinner and we enjoyed it outside with a nice evening and chatted for a while.

Friday, Kim picked us up and took us to Roskilde to visit the Cathedral and the Viking Ship museum. We had original planned on going up to Helsingør and touring Kronborg Castle, but it was raining cats and dogs, so we chose Roskilde. Let me start by saying the Vikings were some badass dudes. They went everywhere and did what ever the hell they want. We got an idea of what their ships were like and if you saw a bunch of those coming up on the horizon, you'd be pretty scared. The viking museum houses 5 ships that were

 found like 50 years ago, but they weren't brought up for a couple of years. The story behind these is actually pretty neat. The Vikings knew the fjord had certain areas that made it easier to get through. In order to make it more difficult for anyone getting in, they sunk some ships to block off a shorter passage, making it extremely difficult to get through. The ships are basically in there as pieces put back together, nothing too whole, but you are able to get the idea of just how huge they can be. It was astounding. We were able to get an English tour, as no one was there for the Danish tour and our tour guide gave us a special one. Kim bought me a special book called "How to be a Viking in 13 Easy Steps". The first one is call yourself a viking, so I got that one down. The next is milk a cow. If anyone wants to help me with this one, let me know because it's really holding me back, and I want to be a viking so bad! Next in Roskilde was the Cathedral. It basically seems like the Westminster Abbey of Denmark, as it is home to all sorts of dead royalty and important people. Some of the tombs are just nuts, and others really got the shaft. It was a pretty sweet day in Roskilde.

After that, we stayed with Kim and went back to his apartment to ultimately eat dinner and watch the World Cup of American Football game between Germany and Mexico (Mexico won by a TD, pretty good game). We also watched America's Funniest Home Videos and some youtube videos and had a blast. We were cracking up like little kids with some of the videos. The winner of the night was great---it was two baseball players like maybe 8-10 years old who are wearing cups for the first time in their baseball uniforms. They have a baseball and are basically taking turns holding the ball and whacking their own and each others nuts to prove it doesn't hurt. It's just funny because that really what you do when you put one on for the first time.  Overall, it was a magnificent Friday.

Saturday, we started off the day by heading to Rosenborg Castle. I had already been earlier, but I couldn't hide this gem from Audrey. We bought a tour book to go along with it, as most interesting pieces have numbers that correspond to the book. The basements houses the crown jewels dating back to Christian 4 I believe. It is a pretty cool place. Saturday was a terrific day, so we went to one of the sausage vendors and hung out in the gardens by the castle for a little while. In the evening, we went out to Esben's parent's place for some BBQ with his parents and some family friends. Esben made a smoke some time ago and had smoked some trout, ribs, brisket, and lamb. It was freaking fantastic. His parent's live in the super cool farm outside Copenhagen, and they are beyond welcoming. They house has been in the family, and they feel pretty lucky to be able to live in it. They evening, food, and company were fantastic. Everyone is so welcoming, and when conversation would go on in Danish for a while, someone would also kind of summarize what was going on. It was a marvelous evening. We went back to the apartment briefly, then out to the Happy Pig in Copenhagen. Lars came and met us there and we sat and drank and listened to the live music until about 3:30. The performer was playing everything, from Jack Johnson to Lady Gaga, so it was some good tunes.

Sunday began around 11:30 when we decided to go to the Open Air Museum. It's this huge place that has a bunch of old houses from around Denmark. If they were not on the land originally, they were moved here. Some were extremely old, and a lot of them I couldn't stand up in. The thing I thought was the coolest was the beds. There were no bedrooms. The beds were built into like cubbies in the walls with a little hole that would be covered by a curtain. It was an absolutely overwhelming place that never seemed to end. We drove to the

beach to check it out for Auds, and there was some kind of beach party going on that was pretty cool. We got back and I followed the Women's Soccer World Cup. It was a phenomenal game from what it sounds like. It seems like FIFA is trying to hose the US, but we're just like get bent and go win. American Rules! In the evening, we went to Lars' place (AG was there as well) to watch the USA vs. Germany game in the World Cup of American Football. It was a replay from earlier in the day, and Kim was doing the commentary on the game. I cannot judge how he did, since I do not understand Danish at all. It was neat since the team USA head coach is Northwest Missouri's head coach. There is a lot of MIAA connections as multiple NW Mo and a Washburn player is on the team. Team USA's defense dominated and we won 48-7.

Monday, we had some plans to check out some stuff, but as soon as we got going, it started POURING down rain. So we came home and looked into what we should do in Rome. The weather cleared up eventually and because super nice, and we headed down to the beach. I finished my most recent Dexter book, which is now the 2nd book I have read on my own in 2011 (which is 2 more than I have read on my own since probably about 1995, when I became too old for Dr. Seuss).  I made some pasta for dinner and we had a pretty chill evening, since we had big plans for today.

We got up nice an early today to head to Christianshavn and check out Our Savior's Church. There is a huge like steeple I guess you can climb up and get some pretty amazing pictures of the area. We climbed the 400 stairs to the top and it was incredible. Pretty scary overall though. We got there at a great time, as we were climbing down, we passed so many people waiting to go to the top. We peeked inside the church, which was spectacular as well, then headed out to find Christiania. We got sidetracked a bit, and I got pooped on by a bird, but luckily I had another shirt with me. We made it there, and wow, it is a different place. I'll have my buddy Rick Steves help me out, from his guide book titled "Scandinavia". In 1970s, Christianians established squatters rights in abandoned military barracks. The main street is called "Pusher Street" due the former sale of soft drugs along. Now, there are a lot of stands selling jewlery and shirts, as well as some hash and other such items. My favorite thing was watching a guy with XBox games going stall to stall to try to sell them. There are a lot of no photos signs painted, and I witness a local yelling at a couple girls for taking a picture. So, unfortunately, Audrey was not able to document this. Here is wikipedia's take on Christiania.

From there, we made use of the fanastic weather and hopped on a canal tour. It took us around the canals of Copenhagen (obvious from the name). It was pretty cool to see the stuff from the water.
For those of you who don't know, there are a lot of canals and water in and around Copenhagen, as it was a major hub of trading and such since it is directly on the water. From there, we took on a traditional Danish lunch of smørrebrød. I got a sampler kind of which was a fried fish, two types of herring, roast beef, and some thing that was like a pot pie with chicken and asparagus. Audrey got the fried fish one, and munched on the herring, since I made her try it. From there, we went on a frantic search for ice cream. After turning many corners with no hope, we found one we remembered from Thursday. I got a large soft serve dipped in chocolate, and Auds got a couple scoops of chocolate chip and chocolate, since that's all she understood and was surprisingly unwilling to ask for help. After that, we walked to Tivoli Gardens. It has been a magical wonderland since 1843. You can read some history and what not about it. Apparently the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson tried to purchase it at one point, and when that didn't happen, he built his own. We spent the evening enjoying the gardens and walking around checking out the rides. We were short on cash, so we didn't get on any rides, we just sat on benches and enjoyed the park. While walking around, we found this sweet place that you put stuff on a stick, and dip it in chocolate and add a topping, so we had to do it. We got one with marzipan, 2 pieces of nougat, a strawberry, and a piece of banana, dipped it in milk chocolate, and topped with hazelnuts. We also used the last of out krona for the day on a cup of coffee to enjoy with it. It was as good as we dreamed. We got home a little while ago, and Auds added her pictures since I am worthless with that. Currently, the US is beating Mexico by 10, which I hope becomes a final so I can talk some smack to Carlos.

Tomorrow we are hitting up the Danish Resistance Museum and we don't really know from there. In the evening we are meeting up with Sanne in Vedbæk to possibly get on the boat and enjoy the harbor. Thursday we embark on our European excursion. I'll do my best to have some updates during that time. Hope everyone in the Midwest is enjoying 100+ temperatures, as its been in the high 60s-mid 70s here, and we'll hit some 90s in Rome. Until then, enjoy!

Summer Break

So I've been on the summer break for over a week now. Last week didn't feel like much of a break since I was busy from about 8am when I would wake up until 5:30 when I would get home. It was great having something to do, because I would probably lose my mind if I didn't work the camp. It's nice having something to look forward to when getting out of bed.

I know I explained the camp a little bit from my first impressions on Monday. It was pretty much the same all week. Some of the kids were afraid of hitting someone else and hurting them, some were afraid of getting hurt, and some just really wanted to watch what was going on. Don't get me wrong, there was a fair share of kids going hard and enjoying every minute of it. As the week went on, kids got more of an understanding of the game and realized they won't get hurt if they get hit, and a lot of them just bounced back up. The big event of the week (for the coaches as much as the players) was a game between two teams drafted by the coaches. It was me and a senior team RB against two U19 players. We drafted a solid O-Line players, but what they lacked in OL/DL, they made up for in athletes. As much as I hate to say it, we lost the game HUGE. Our 1st, 3rd, and 5th pick, who was our RB, QB, and Center, did not show up for the game. We couldn't even get the ball back to the QB. We had one OL guy who really understood the concept of things, but really didn't execute. Our best OL was a receiver who played OL because he just wanted to hit someone. The hardest part of it all, was I could not communicate that well with them. The kids knew our plays by name compared to the other guys (who would huddle them up and show them cards of the play) which was great, but no one blocked anyone and when we did, it was a straight tackle, so it was funny. Towards the end, I just started using a white board to draw plays, and they seemed to work out alright. Defensively, we were always there, but our tackling consisted of reaching out and grabbing, hoping they would fall down. The best part though, was the kids enjoyed themselves and were introduced to American football. Hopefully some of the kids join the Gold Diggers, cause there were a few athletes (all on the other team).

Nothing too eventful happened besides that until Saturday. Esben and I were planning on going to the beach, but the weather forecast told us not to. About 3, we went to Netto to get some food and it was beautiful out, and we were kicking ourselves for not going. About 6pm, it gets dark and stars POURING down rain. It was the wildest storm since I've been here. There was actually thunder and lightning, which is something I hadn't seen too much of during storms. It was a solid downpour for a long time. It died down and I went with Esben to one of his friends apartments. They were all very nice and welcoming of the American. They all seem to have studied in American at some time. The best part was some other Americans showed up. I didn't really catch their full story, but they were studying somewhere in Copenhagen. They went to Oregon, so they enjoyed football, so Esben and I had to try to get them to come to a Gold Diggers game after the break. We may have got a few new fans!

Sunday, I went to the U17 National Team tryouts with Esben out in Herlev. It was super nice day, but very humid still. There were a lot of kids there, and our senior RB coach and our U19 head coach are coaches on the team. Johan, the Rebels head coach was out there, so I talked with him and Esben most of the time.

I celebrated the 4th practically the same way I would in America--with a BBQ by the water. I found my way out to Vedbæk, which is where we went out on the boat a couple weeks ago.  I was proud of myself, because the trains running for my ususal station, Nørreport, were not running due to the storms, so I read the stuff in Danish and found my way to another station, where the trains were running from. It's so simple, but I get super pumped when I do something cool like that. I brought a couple Budweiser and some sausages for the grill, however, there were already burgers and potato salad there. Quick aside about potato salad, I never really knew I liked it, and maybe it's different here or something, but I have enjoyed it very much when I have had it. It was a gorgeous evening there with Kim and his parents, Esben, Thomas (one of the coaches) and his family, and Johan and his wife. I ate like a champion and we made some s'mores and had some sparklers and firecrackers and those little spinny things that are a bunch of different colors. I thought it was funny because they asked what I usually do on the 4th, and I was just like well probably the exact same thing, just with different people (obviously). It was a fantastic evening, and I arrived home tired from all the eating.

The rest of the time, I have been relaxing. I do some Yahoo! Mock Fantasy Football drafts. Basically, they don't matter and its for practicing draft strategies or something. There are people that take it super seriously. I do it to make those people mad. Basically, I join the draft, and I draft only QBs. So I'll end up with like Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady before some people realize. It doesn't kick in until later when people are looking for QBs and realize I have them all. Some find it funny and others get extremely mad over the person messing around in a fake draft. It's mildly amusing for me and a good way to kill some time. I have also been cleaning some to make sure the place is presentable for Audrey. I'm super excited as she arrives tomorrow, nice and early in the morning. I keep telling her I'm going to make her wait in the airport for 4 hours like she did to me in London. I also gave her directions to my apartment, just to make her think I won't actually be there (of course I'm going to be there). I'm really excited because now it seems the summer vacation is starting, and I get to be a European tourist. I'll do my best to keep this thing updated as much as I can. So far in Denmark, we are going to Kronborg Castle on Friday with Kim and Saturday we are going to Esben's parent's house for some BBQ. I'm looking forward to that. Everyone has been throwing out things we need to do, so we will plan out how we will spend out Copenhagen time.

Hope everyone had a fun, safe 4th and the summer is going well!

The Most Exciting Game in Danish History, ever!

So it has been a lazy June for me when it comes to writing I guess. Sorry about that. I'll do my best to recap the last couple weeks.

After we played the Rebels, we had a bye week, which was pretty boring for me, mainly since U19 started their summer break as well. I met up a few times with some of the guys to do some running and that was about the highlight of my week I guess. I cleaned my room as well, but that last for like 3 days, and its back to crap.

Then, it was the biggest game week for us in Denmark. We practiced Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Leading up to those days, I watched a lot of film on those guys to try to get a good idea of what they have and what they may try to do on us. Practices were practices as normal, and we got some really good work in, especially our Thursday practice, which may have been one of the best ones the DL has had since I've been here. It's a good feeling being pleased after your last practice of the week leading into the biggest Danish game of the year.

After practice, I went with Kim and his parents, and one of our DBs, Lindsø on Kim's family's sailboat. The night is the Danish Midsummer celebration. I got a quick history lesson about the whole thing, but as usual, it was too much for me to handle. I believe there were a couple holidays in a row, so they just made this one to make it easier. I'm probably wrong, but its a good try I hope. There are tons of bonfires along the beach, and the fires are highlighted by the burning of witch figures made of wood I guess. This has something to do with witch burnings of the past. I just remember they are burning the witch to send it back to Germany. We were joined by the Rebels head coach, Johan and his wife, and their American, Mike. They are some great people to hang out with, and Mike is obviously an extremely intelligent guy (I guess that's what happens when you go to the real Harvard). I had an incredible time on the beautiful boat. Kim's mom, Sanne had sandwiches made and drinks ready for us, which was specctaular! We stopped to get ice cream and I got the most mammoth thing ever. Four scoops, which I got caramel, raspberry, orange, and pineapple, topped with soft serve, and finished with two creme balls basically jammed into the side. It also came with some other toppings, but I was so mesmerized with how HUGE that thing was, I told my ice cream man to just add whatever he wants, and I got some sprinkles, and I don't really know what else, it was just a huge blue eating it. I'm not going to lie, I struggled to finish it, but I got it down! I got back home around 1, and got to sleep.

On Friday, I went to witness another Danish tradition. The kids of high school age have recently graduated form school (gymnasium as it is called), and they purchase these sailor hats that have different colors to signify different schools I believe. Its nuts to me they are just finishing up school and its the end of June. They start back up in the beginning of September. I had to ask a couple people about this, as I was super confused when I kept hearing about people having exams and stuff. I really thought it was just summer classes or something, but nope, still school. Ok, back to the grads. When they get these hats, they basically have the right to act however they want, and there is no problem with it. I'm glad I got this background, since I have seen people in the hats and had zero clue what they meant, and really thought kids were just into nautical adventures.

Then, there is one day when everyone from a class rides around in these big trucks and go to each persons house and grabs some food and a drink, and they always stop at this place in Copenhagen. I decided to check it out for myself, and it was pretty wild.
Kids are climbing on statues and going nuts in these cars; people are honking and cheering like crazy at them. I got some pictures and a video, and I must admit, I felt a little creepy taking pictures of random kids, but it was for an experience I'll never see. At least that's how I justified it. I am also like 90% sure there was some music video being shot, since there was this dude and a bunch of people off in a corner of the square area with loud music and a camera in his face and him singing and doing hand gestures. Maybe I saw a future international superstar!

Saturday I went to support the Rebels as they played the Demons. It turned out to be an extremely one sided, semi-snoozer as the Rebels won like 65-0. The Demons couldn't complete a pass, let alone a handoff as they seemed to fumble every drive. The Rebels are fun to watch and have been putting up points lately.

Okay, now to the good part I guess. I always have trouble remembering what goes on. We won 41-40 with a TD and PAT with about 50 seconds left in the game. It was a fantastic back and forth game. I had my first kickoff return ever after a horrible day blocking on kickoff return (I'm way too impatient and well, just bad at it). We have a certain return when it is kicked to the guy in my position. I have run it a few times in practice, and the other guys who usually plays where I have has done it a couple times in games. I was ready for the kick, which may have gone out of bounds, but I caught it and it like the split second between getting ready to catch and running backwards, I'm thinking fair catch-NO, make the catch- Yes. I catch it an see the guys really close to me and am now thinking there is no way I'll get back, so I should go out of bounds, but that was over ruled by doing what we repped. So I got about 5 yards back and knew I was going to get hit, so I made sure I wouldn't lose the ball and got tackled. For my career, I have 1 kickoff return for -5 yards, a real Devin Hester! My first play switching from nose to tackle, I almost, and probably should, have taken the handoff on an outside run play. Also, they did a stupid pass pro and were basically tearing me down. Again, I'm about 80% sure they though I was last years Ryan, since one play where their American QB (who played an awesome game, super tough runner) tripped over my feet after a pass when their guard was sitting on me while I was on the ground, which was due to me beating him then getting tackled (as it feels in my mind), which caused him to land on me and not get up, which is a holding, which I don't think will ever get called here, which happened a ton of times, one time I even had time while he was on me to say "get off me champ" and he started to reply as the play was ending "I can't you're too fast" which made me laugh that he thought I could get tackled, laid on, then hop up to my feet and make a play, but I'll take a complement (and that actually did happen, I got by and kinda stumbled to the ground and their QB was getting ready to throw as I feel, and I rolled but it was a 3rd down, so I didn't want to get a stupid penalty and I laid off. Turns out he didn't throw, so I reached out and grabbed his legs, which startled him, then our U19 LB who was playing that day crushed him, so it was awesome). Back to the QB tripping over my legs though--after that happened I was just like hey didn't mean to and gave him a tap and he just smiled and tapped back and said something about Cal Poly, where last year's Ryan went. I was just like nope, last years dude, which again is great that they think I am him, since he was such an awesome player! I got a lot of love from that team, mostly for things that aren't true though.

So the game. It was back and forth as the Towers scored first and held as much as a 13-14 point lead. I lost track of the score since we were playing on their practice field with no scoreboard. It was most evident I had no clue of the score when we scored the game tying touchdown with less than a minute left. Leading up the that, the D was on the field, and I was almost positive we were down two scores. We forced a turnover on a bad 3rd down pitch and received the ball on their like 25 yard line. Things happened and they got ball back then we forced a punt and got good field position, then, our QB, who kicked ass as well, took it in for the score. I think that's what happened, I can't really remember. At that point people were real excited, and I'm just thinking okay, lets get this onside kick. I asked one of our DBs what the score was, and he said we are up 1 if we make the PAT. Now I'm shocked and hoping I didn't jinx anything as field goals and PATs were hard to come by that day. When they kick went in, we went nuts, it was great. The Towers had 40 seconds to cover the field, and started off going backwards with a couple illegal formation penalties. After a long heave with 1s left was batted down, we erupted as we beat our rival team! Everyone was jumping and hugging each other, and I just stood on the field yelling, rather tired with my arms in the air when I was greeting by a sprinting O-Lineman. I knew this was a huge game, but when offensive lineman sprint, you know they are excited about something! It was a true team effort, as everyone played a part--a couple of our U19 guys who played had a direct impact, from 2 point conversions to touchdowns on bad punt snaps to just playing hard throughout the game, these guys have a bright future if they absorb all the coaching. It was a great win and a fantastic way to start our summer break.

This week I am working basically a little camp for local kids ages 10-15. The first day was a blast, but it was a little awkward for me. The kids have never played football, but really, have NO IDEA what it is, besides throwing a ball around maybe. In the States, the kids may have never played, but they know the names of positions and what lineman do and all that. Here, I had to start from the ground and was thinking back to when I just started, what I was taught. You can tell a lot by a kids athletic ability by the way they get into a 3 point stance. The hardest part clearly had to be the language. Most of them understand English pretty well, but some are better than others. I had some help at some points and once we got some Danish translation for what I would be saying, things seemed to go a little smoother I would say. I also got really sunburned on my forearms and face, so now I look stupid. I also have this ridiculous longer hair, so I'm going to have an even dumber looking head tan line when I get this stuff. I'm definitely going sleeveless tomorrow.

The summer break has started for us, and Audrey is coming over in about a week. I'm super excited, mainly since its been forever, but also, I would probably lose my mind trying to figure out stuff to do during the break. She gets here early on the 7th, and we have a week in Copenhagen before we leave for a 10 day trip with stops in Krakow, Rome, and Munich. I'm really looking forward to it, especially since we have been planning for a while, and its all set now, we just have to do it.

Happy early 4th of July to everyone back home, I'm going to find some way to celebrate American style, might have to drink a Budweiser!

Long Time

Sorry its been so long since last time. Just got a bit lazy I guess. We went to London to play the Blitz in the EFAF Semifinal and lost the game. Some of the guys left Friday night and others left Saturday morning. I was on the Friday night flight and we didn't arrive to our hostel until about 2:30am I think. That was mainly due to my 90 minute wait getting through passport check in London. There was just a huge line, and 3 people working, so it moved extraordinarily slow.

It was neat being back in London again, this time for a football game instead of leisure travel. The field was pretty terrible-- it had to be the worst field I have ever played on. It was only 90 yards and hard as a rock. I think everyone's knees and arms were scraped from the ground.

Before the game, we found rocks and even glass on the field. The Blitz had to walk the field and pick up all the stuff. Pretty great start for a semi final of an international tournament. It was a warm day as well, but we came out energized and ready to go. We started off to a quick 7-0 lead, but the Blitz appeared to be charging back. After a couple of the tough stands by the defense, including a Blitz fumble on the 1 yard line, the Gold Diggers still head a 7-0 lead after one quarter. The Blitz scored their first TD on a passing play in the second quarter, but we blocked the PAT, still giving us the lead. A late field goal gave the Blitz the lead they would never lose, as they went on to win 23-7. The defense showed some real toughness, playing a total of 72 plays, mostly banged up, on the hottest day we've had so far. It was a tough loss for all, but we now narrowed our focus down to one thing--the Danish National League. I went out with a couple guys for a low key night and caught an English breakfast Sunday morning (2 fried eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes, beans and some OJ----since you may have been wondering Jimi), and we left Sunday afternoon for home.

The U19 had their last week of practice before the summer break starts, preparing for their second matchup with the Cadets. After beating them 30-0 (forfeit in the first quarter) the first game of the year, it was a bit hard for some of the guys to find motivation.  we jumped out to a 28-0 lead in the first quarter, but they scored on a long pass to make it 28-8, and you could tell some of our guys were frustrated. They scored again, catching our whole defense basically off guard on a quick snap QB sneak play for a 25 yard run, and you could tell this just drove some of the guys crazy. We took a 55-14 lead into half, scored 14 points, and ended the game due to the mercy rule. There was some frustration from some players after the game as well. Also, we made the players who didn't turn in their Jersey on time clean the field, and apparently the punishment didn't sit well with some of them, as we had the coaches, and one very helping family, along with the same 2-3 guys that help out every week, help take down the tower we film from. It's amazing to me that they made a mistake and are frustrated with being punished, something as simple as cleaning up a field, but I guess it's a different mindset.

Also, we have an attendance policy with the team. It is mainly about discipline and playing the people who are at practice getting better, because they deserve to play. As coaches, we have not been doing the best of job enforcing this, but we put our money where our mouth is and rewarding those who come to practice regularly, and left the guys thinking about their practice attendance for the summer break. I absolutely loved it, because I feel that once you stop coming to practice, you are satisfied with where you are. When you are satisfied with where you are, there is someone out there working hard to get better and will catch up to you. No matter how good you are at something, you can always be better, whether its one small detail or just focusing on doing everything right. I understand its different here too, with the guys having exams, jobs, and a long travel time to get to practice, rather than high school back home, where you spend a day at school then go to practice, but there are guys on our team that manage to do everything right and show up all the time, and I love it. On that note too, as coaches on the U19 level, we are trying to prepare them for the Senior Team. While we do want to win now, in the big picture, we are trying to make the club better as a whole, so when we may lose some guys on the senior level, the younger guys are ready to step in. Hopefully they use the summer break to really evaluate how much they are putting in the necessary work to reach their goals, long term and short term.

So that's enough about the U19 drama, I guess. The seniors bounced back and beat the Rebels 48-20. As stated before, the Rebels have a dangerous American QB/WR, who, luckily for us d-linemen, played receiver all game. I don't think the DBs enjoyed it too much, but they have a better chance of chasing him around then we do. Our offense was rolling and our defense did their part. We were pretty limited with some banged up guys, as I assume they were as well. Their RB was missing, so they really didn't attempt to run the ball. They had some short crossers working, but eventually just chucked it out to the American who caught everything, then required 3 guys to bring him down. I was pretty tired after the game, but I would have been 10 times more exhausted had he been running around playing QB. We now have a week off before game week against the Towers. It is a HUGE game as we have a bit of a rivalry with those guys. They come in with only one loss, coming in a nail biter to the Triangle Razorbacks in Jutland. I'm not sure what kind of numbers we will have, as we have some banged up guys and the summer break is right around the corner, but I'm definitely pumped for my first Danish game that has some meaning to it. I know our DL guys are ready to go, as we are running and doing some drills on a couple of our days off. This game means so much to everyone, so I'm looking forward to an intense week of practice. It's also our last game until the beginning of August, where we open up with the Towers again. These bye weeks are kind of odd for me, because I'm not used to them, but I like them. It gets me real jittery to get back out and play football, and I'm just looking forward to practice next week.

Alrighty, hope summer is great back home and the crazy heat hasn't been too bad for everyone!

Huge Week for the Gold Diggers

It's the beginning of a very important week here as we prepare for our game against the London Blitz in the semifinal of the EFAF Cup. The winner of this game gets to take on the Wild Boars from a place in Serbia that I cannot spell off the top of my head. As a team I know we are excited to play in a game of this magnitude and are embracing the challenge.

Well, let's rewind to last week. On Thursday I helped out on behalf of the team at a field day basically for kids in the Søllerød  town area I guess. There were hundreds of kids, it was unbelievable. I got there with two other players around 12:30 and left at 4:30. We brought some shoulder pads and helmets and some bags for the kids to beat up on instead of each other. The kids loved it, and I wish I would have taken a picture of the little kids in big ass pads and stuff. We had a couple kids that were there a long time. I made good friends with a little guy named Bjorn. We really couldn't talk because we knew little of each others language, but we was able to say some things such as "thanks" and "my name is". At one point he told his friend to say that and say what his name was, but I didn't catch it. I thought it was so neat that a little guy was trying to speak English to talk to me. I'm pretty sure I taught him how to say throw, since we played catch for a long time. It was an absolute blast.

The most difficult part was obviously not knowing the language that the kids were speaking to me. I would either respond by just saying English? (Ron Burgandy style) or taler engelsk and they would understand. If they looked puzzled, I would call one of the other guys over. The really neat thing would be when the kids would try to speak the language. I just know that if I were younger and learning a new language, I would be a bit shy to try to speak it. Towards the middle part of the day, I may not have understood everything, but I could pick up on words or actions and realize that kids wanted help with shoulder pads, or a helmet or something like that.

After that, I had the U19 practice as we prepped for the biggest game of our season so far against the Copenhagen Towers. It went well and we felt rather prepared going into Saturday.

Friday was a fun day as I met up with AG, Lars, and Simonsen to see the Hangover 2. We went to Simonsen's apartment and killed some time playing Call of Duty and NCAA Football before we had to leave. We then got some food and devoured some all you can eat ribs before enjoying the movie. The Danish movie theater system is much different that in America. Here, you have to reserve your tickets in advance and go pick them up in the theater before the show. Seating is assigned, and I'm not sure if you can pick you seat or really how that works, so there is no benefit to getting there super early for a movie to get good seats. We all thoroughly enjoyed the movie, as we have been talking about seeing it since the trailer came out. I enjoyed the laughs very much. We then went out for a bit, but I left early as I had to get up for the U19 game against the Towers.

I woke up in top form ready for a battle as we took on the visiting Towers. The game definitely lived up to the hype as we took home a 26-15, well earned victory. The first quarter was a battle for field position as we had the ball deep in our zone a few times. The offense and defense played a good game and allowed us to win. As a DL, we played some pretty solid football, but we made some costly assignment mistakes that hurt us at times. They did a great job taking in the coaching of the week, which was a big focus on hitting the QB when we get the chance, and boy did we rattle him! My favorite play of the game came in the 4th quarter as we are battling in a tight game. The Towers have the ball in their zone and throw complete a pass. Our DB is there and catches up to him to strip the ball and we recover it and are on the verge of returning it for a touchdown when the play just kind of stops. Apparently there was an inadvertent whistle somewhere along the way, which means the play never existed and is replayed. Great. The U19 has had at least 3 inadvertent whistles in their games this year, which is 3 more than I have ever had in my life. Don't know what the deal with that is, but whatever. The very next play, instead of tucking our heads and getting pissed, the Towers run a screen pass. Like a fantastically coached, smart DL, we have a few guys putting pressure on the QB, and our end reads the screen and covers the RB. The QB throws it past the RB right into one of our DBs hands. This time, no inadvertent whistle, Gold Diggers ball. One thing I noticed that I really loved seeing on that play when I went back to watch the film was one of our DBs. This DB, who is a smaller guy, went to take on their biggest OL with no fear at all, just trying to block for our guy. I absolutely loved it! The game ended and we celebrated a hard earned victory in a great game.

One of the parents takes pictures of the game. Here is the team after the big win!

After the game, I went over to one of the OL's apartment which is right by the field. We stuffed our faces with barbecue, which was absolutely delicious. I love barbecue and am so happy with the insane amount that I ate. We also watched the Champions League final and hung out. It was a lot of fun. I ate so much food, that I really didn't eat much of anything yesterday, I was so stuffed from Saturday night. Today, the weather got nicer and it didn't rain for the first time in what seems like a week. Like I said earlier we are prepping hard to travel to London and get the W. Hopefully the next time I right, we will be headed to the finals of the EFAF Cup!