The Good Life

It’s almost gameday, and I’m really excited for the string of games we have coming up.  We play three times in the next seven days starting tomorrow.  I’m in the starting team which is good.  We’ve got a lot of guys injured or suspended so we’re a bit bare bones at the moment.  Still, we just added three good players (tooting my own horn there) so we’ve got the ability to deal with players missing games.  I think we’ll do well, but come back in a day or two to see if I’m right!

My house is pretty cozy now.  My trip to IKEA helped, but I’ve also gotten a lot of help from the club in getting such a nice place.  I’ve shown you the pictures of the apartment so you can see that it’s really nice.  But the club has gone above and beyond to help me enjoy my living situation.  For instance, I mentioned here that I had been having a bit of a problem buying a bike.  I finally gave in a few days ago and asked the club if there was any way they could help me find and buy a second-hand bike.  Two hours later, a guy showed up at the end of training and just gave me a bike.  I had never seen the guy before, but clearly the club had just called him and asked him to bring a bike by for me to have.  Better yet, it didn’t cost me anything.  How awesome is that?  It’s not the greatest bike in the world, but it’s got two wheels and you can’t beat the price!

The next day, one of the people in the office came to me and asked if I had time to help him move a tv into my place.  When I told him I already had a tv, he said that this one was better and also had a cable box so I could watch tv.  A few hours later, I had this:

I didn’t even ask for that!  It was just another way that the club has gone to great lengths to make me comfortable here.  I honestly couldn’t ask for more.  No offense to my former club, but there is no comparison between ESK and FC Haka.  That’s perhaps not surprising, but it’s true.  Things at Haka are much better for me at the moment.

Some people may think that this kind of stuff doesn’t matter.  I mean, I would have eventually gotten a bike and I don’t watch much Finnish television.  But to know that the club would make such an effort to make me happy goes a long way.  I always give my best for the team, but perhaps there’s a little extra that I’ll be able to give to Haka that I wasn’t able to give to ESK because I’m so much more content here.  There is no question in my mind that I can take care of my body better here than in Enkoping.  I even have an oven, freezer, washing machine and shower!  I didn’t have those things in Sweden, so to have them here is like living in luxury!

The other day, I was hoping to go to IdeaPark in Tampere.  Essentially this place is a shopping mall, but it’s got its own cool name because malls don’t really seem to exist in Scandinavia.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to go because the team car was being used by someone else.  I made good use of my time though, and decided to take a bit of a walk around Valkeakoski.

I only walked around the areas on my path from the city center to my apartment, but still there were some beautiful places.  I’m enjoying the good weather that we’re having at the moment, because I know what winter is like here.  Remember, I was here in February.  For those who don’t remember:

And I’ll be dressed like that again pretty soon.  There may be some hope for decent weather in September, but October is a lost cause.  I know that as soon as the calendar turns over into October that I’ll have to put the t-shirts and shorts away until April.  So I’ll probably be going on some more walks soon!

That’s all.  Now the meme, in honor of USA Olympic Basketball.  Look at the picture closely and you’ll get the joke!