A Chance to Relax and a PED rant

Finally a break.

 

The home ground.

We’re essentially 1/3 of the way through the season and we are about to take a well earned week off.  VPS has played 10 games thus far, and our 6-2-2 record is good for 20 points and the joint top spot in the league.  That said, we’re only 4-5 point above 8^th place so it’s a bit too soon to be putting our name on the trophy.  If I’m being honest, these first ten games really have not been the greatest soccer that VPS has ever played.  We’ve only really dominated one game (RoPS) and the rest of our wins have only come by one goal, some in borderline miraculous circumstances.  I’ll take the points though, and if we manage to continue at this rate then we’ll probably win the league.  But then again that’s a really big IF and the league still has a long, long time to go.  What’s for certain though is that we’re gonna have to get a lot better in every aspect of our game.

 

The last two games have been fun.  We won both and against Jaro we had a great crowd.  The Jaro game was especially nice because the atmosphere was in stark contrast to a lot of the other games we’ve played at home.  The fans were behind us from start to finish, and what do you know we got better and better as the match went on.  It’s almost as if our fan support pushed the team to improve itself! ;)  I took some video after the game, but I got just the ending of our two little celebrations.  You get the point though.  We were very happy to win.

 

 

I also got my first assist of the season so I was happy with that.  I’m a winger so my main job is to create goals, so in my opinion getting assists is more important than even scoring goals.  I hope to get many more as the year goes on.

 

The game against Mariehamn was memorable for only one reason: we won despite playing terribly and without either of our first choice center backs for 2/3 of the game.  Winning while playing bad soccer has kind of become a theme for our club (or perhaps a motif, for those of you who enjoyed English class in high school…I guess what I call English class would actually be Finnish class or Swedish class for most people reading this, but you get the point).  I would prefer that we played better, but I can’t really complain with the results.  Clearly it’s working for us and it seems we don’t need to dominate games to win, which is kind of good news.

Ball in the net against Mariehamn.  Jyrki scored and me and Anthony are happy!

 

If you're wondering what we were saying it went something like, "Keep walking this way so we can catch our breath."  I'm not kidding that's what we were actually saying.

I also got to see my good friend from Haka, Kris Bright.  We both kind of suffered through some really tough times in Valkeakoski and really only had each other (along with Nana Attakora) to talk to during that time.  It was great to see him starting and doing well.  Things aren't going perfectly at Mariehamn, but he's definitely having more success there than either of us had at Haka.  I also saw and spoke with a fellow Yank, my friend Monica Dolinsky.  We both grew up in Indianapolis with similar stories.  She was one of the top handful of soccer girls in the state and I was the same for boys.  We never actually spoke though until after college when we ended up in the same circle of friends.  Now our lives are mirroring each other again, at least in the geographical sense.  She was in Sweden when I was and now she's been in Finland the whole time I've been here.  I hope her next stop is southern France/Spain or something!  She plays on the top women's team in Finland so that's awesome for her.  She also gets to go home for six weeks this summer, so I'm a bit envious!

 

I don’t really have anything else to say.  At least nothing relevant to my life personally or to VPS.  Instead, I’m gonna go off on a bit of an off topic rant.  If you care to know what I have to say then by all means keep reading.  If not, then I’ll be back next week after I return from vacation in London.

 

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At one of our hotels, I watched a debate (from Australia, no less) about performance enhancing drugs, or PEDs.  Now before I go into my thoughts about it I have to say that I have never used any PEDs (at least nothing that is illegal.  I would classify anything other than food as a PED.) and that I don’t know anyone using PEDs.  I don’t think I would even know the signs.  The debate though kind of struck a cord with me because it confirmed in my mind something that I’d already been thinking: PEDs should be legalized.

 

When most people hear someone say this the first thing they think is, “Oh no!  PEDs are bad and shouldn’t be in sports.  They take away the integrity of the game.”  But think about that…every professional athlete takes one thing or another to enhance his/her performance.  I make protein shakes almost every day to help me recover and to increase the effectiveness of my weight workouts.  Protein is perfectly legal and has no side effects that I’m aware of.  Surely no one would say that I am cheating the sport of soccer because of my protein shakes.  So my question is, “why are steroids or HGH or whatever else people are using illegal?”  These are also performance enhancers that when administered by a professional have little to no side effects.  Steroids can give you man-boobs?  Well I see man-boobs every single day so it must not be that awful.  I haven’t done a ton of research, but as far as I know, steroids and HGH have no devastating effects when taken properly.  If you don’t believe that, then explain to me why we give steroids to little kids who have asthma?  Or why steroids are in every hospital in the advanced world?  Every professional athlete would have equal access to these drugs, and if given by doctors then the risk would be minimal.

 

Speaking of risk to athletes, I don’t understand what argument can be made against PEDs that can’t be countered by an argument of things that athletes ARE allowed to do.  For instance if I break my leg tomorrow, I can go to the hospital and get a cocktail of drugs, use state-of-the-art technology and have surgery.  I’ll be back on the field in 5-6 weeks.  Is this natural?  Are the things that doctors would do to heal me not performance enhancing in a way that the body could never possibly do?  Then why isn’t leg surgery illegal?  I would guess there’s a better likelihood of me dying from complications from a leg surgery than from taking FDA-approved steroids on a monitored schedule.

 

The last argument against PEDs and the one that it’s opponents always fall back on because of its emotional appeal is the idea that PEDs ruin the essence of fair competition.  That sport exists to push the body to the limit and reward excellence.  For me, this is the worst argument of all.  Lance Armstrong used PEDs, but he still got his ass on that bike after having cancer and rode it across an entire country uphill.  I would bet that no one reading this blog could match what Armstrong did no matter what kind of steroids they had access to.  Armstrong is still a dick and a bad guy all-around it seems, but in my opinion that has nothing to do with the drugs.  That has to do with his over-the-top competitiveness and pressure to succeed.  The same applies to Barry Bonds, a former American baseball player who never tested positive for PEDs, but surely used them.  Steroids might have helped him gain strength, but there were plenty of guys in MLB that were stronger than Bonds and never hit half as many home runs.  There was clearly hard work and skill involved.  These athletes may have cheated, but only because the rules are stupid.  Armstrong and Bonds were both super athletes before they took PEDs, and both are healthy adults now after taking them.  So why are they so bad?  And before you answer that, consider that Lionel Messi took Human Growth Hormone (HGH) from the time he moved to Barcelona at age 12 until some time recently.  HGH is a banned substance, but since it’s a drug that mimics naturally occurring hormones there is no way to test for it.  Plus I’m sure he stopped taking them before he became a member of the FC Barcelona first team.  Messi is (rightfully) celebrated as a hero, even though he did effectively the exact same thing as Barry Bonds, who is a villain.  There’s a reason why Lionel Messi, who is 5’ 5” tall, has legs like a freaking elephant.  And it’s his inhumanly strong legs which give him his inhuman acceleration and agility.  I would argue that Messi’s athleticism is due in large part to HGH.  He was a great athlete who became the best soccer player in the world thanks in part to PEDs.  No one though would argue that Messi has cheated or that he has become the world’s best player because of PEDs alone.  So doesn’t that kill the argument that taking PEDs ruins the essence of sport?  Did Lionel Messi not work incredibly hard to get where he is?  And has he ruined the game?  Of course not.  But how much more fun would soccer be to watch if there were 25 other Lionel Messis?  How great could Michael Owen have been if he was able to use steroids to recover from all those injuries and HGH to prevent more from happening?  How much better would it be for fans if the greatest players could all play until 40?  These are not just hypothetical questions; they are the reality if we just removed the taboo of PEDs.  Science is at a point where taking things to improve performance are as common as lifting weights or running sprints.  You don’t like PEDs?  Well then stop taking your daily multivitamin or cough medicine when you get sick.  And don’t even think about taking Burana when you sprain your ankle.  That’s cheating!

 

The meme:

First Game Canceled and Helsinki

So our first game got postponed.  That sucks.

 

As you may or may not know (or care), the game this Sunday against FC Lahti is now scheduled for July 31.  So we wait an extra week to start our season.  That’s definitely a good thing for the team, though not necessarily the greatest thing for me.  I’ve been starting every game in large part because Sebastian has been hurt/sick and we don’t have any strikers.  An extra week will probably go a long way to settling both of those problems.  Still, the interest of the team is obviously most important and I think we’ll be happy to get another good week of training in before the result start to count.

 

I’ll talk only very briefly about our last game, a Finnish Cup match against PK-35 Vaanta.  I played the full 90 as the striker and did ok.  We won 2-1 and Jarno scored both of the goals.  The first was a penalty kick and the second was a really good chip finish over the advancing goalkeeper.  We played great in the first half and were in total control.  We played awfully in the second half and were lucky not to go out of the tournament.  But, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good and now we’re in the last 16.

 

To be honest, the most exciting thing about this game was going to Helsinki for the first time.  I’ve spent a grand total of five months in Finland to date, and I’d never set foot in the capital.  That may not seem so weird to you, but for me –  a globe-trotting, big city-loving 25-year-old with disposable income and a hilarious amount of free time? – it’s almost criminal.  Anyway I finally made it down there and took some time before the game to walk around a bit of the center.  For some reason I only took one picture, but you get the idea.  It was a beautiful day even though it’s still very cold in Finland.  I can’t wait to go back to Helsinki, and a quick look at the calendar says that will happen in about six weeks.

 

Changing gears a bit, I’m very happy with how I’m fitting in with the group right now.  Of course I’m happy with how much time I’ve been getting on the field, but more specifically I’m talking about how I get on with the guys off the pitch.  I could legitimately call just about everyone on the team my friend, not just a co-worker.  At Haka it wasn’t like that, though I got along well with everyone there.  Ummm…..except for two or three guys who will forever remain nameless.  While it’s not necessary to be friends with your teammates, I do think it’s important.  Every season has its ups and downs.  Hell, every game has its ups and downs.  As a pro you’re supposed to take everything in stride and continue being professional every day.  But I can tell you for a fact that a team that is divided into cliques will crumble under adversity.  At Haka we were fortunate to be very together and we fought until the very end, with two wins and a loss at the death to the silver medalists of the league in our last three games.  A less together team would have thrown in the towel.  That said, the fact that VPS is so together and I fit in so well allows us to freely criticize each other without things getting personal or people holding grudges.  If you get into an argument with a friend at work, it’s easy to put that aside once you’re back home.  If you get into an argument with someone you simply know but don’t care for, then an argument can simmer for months and destroy any relationship that was there.  At the kickoff event we did a few days ago a lot of the players mentioned the unity of this team.  That wasn’t just a cliché, it’s a reflection of just how well this team gets along.  I think that bodes well for us.

 

Ok soccer-related stuff is over for now.  Everything below this point has nothing to do with soccer or VPS or anything else you probably care about.  You’ve been warned.

 

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I started watching Spartacus a few weeks ago and I have a, um, unique problem.  Before I get into what it is let me ask: Have you ever been watching a tv show or movie and noticed that one of the characters looked like someone you know?  Did it completely ruin the show for you?  Well, that happened to me as I tried to watch Sparticus.  I’m only telling this because I think it might be humorous to some people.

Anyway, for those who don’t know, “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” is a cable tv show in America.  Essentially the plot is that a once great warrior from the times of Sparta (obviously) pisses off the king or prince or whomever and gets eventually sold into slavery as a gladiator and his wife is taken from him and presumably sold into a different, more rape-ish type of slavery.  Now besides the fact that this is literally the exact plot of “Gladiator”, one of the greatest movies of my lifetime, it had me interested at this point.  Then the doppleganger. 

 

The freaking main villain of this show is a fellow gladiator named Crixus (sp).  Crixus is a total asshole, but is the greatest freaking gladiator ever.  He wants to murder the main character, but can’t because the people in charge won’t let him.  That said, he’s super ripped and all the women love him.  And he just so happens to be a dead ringer for my ex-girlfriend’s current boyfriend.

 

Now let me be clear.  I don’t care at all about what any of my ex-girlfriends are up to in the romance department.  In fact, I have a girlfriend of my own anyway (sorry ladies ;).  I’m also sure that this guy is really cool and nice and I’m sure if I ever met him we’d get along and all that.  But now “Spartacus” is essentially a show about my ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend being a general badass and totally dominating the main character whom the writers of the show intentionally make you relate to.  I’m not interested in watching a show that makes me feel like someone in real life is kicking my ass all the time.  I kind of want to keep watching to see Crixus eventually get defeated, but I saw something on facebook that implied that he’s still around in like season 3.  No thanks.  I’m done with “Spartacus”.

 

I told you that had nothing to do with anything.  Sucks for you that you stuck around and read the whole thing!

 

The meme (and GIF):

 

 

Holiday and Sunset Soccer

Hey guys and gals,

 

We just got back into training today after a few days of holiday.  Days that for me were spent in Valkeakoski’s gym and my apartment, so not very exciting.  I did however get a chance to do some good workouts so I feel very good heading into these last three games.

 

Even though I didn’t go anywhere, I still did have some fun.  I went out with a few of the guys and had a few beers on Wednesday.  We were just about the only people in the bar, but it was nice to spend time with my teammates, especially the ones I don’t see outside of training that much.  The next night me and the foreign contingent got together and played FIFA 13 and ate pizza.  It was a bit reminiscent of my middle school and high school days, but a great time all the same.  Friday I don’t think I moved off my couch the whole day and Saturday I went for a run.  That was the most interesting thing I did that day.  Holidays are probably pretty glamorous for some soccer players, but for us a holiday is nothing but a few days off.  I’m gonna need to get a lot more assists before I can afford to vacation on islands in the Mediterranean!

 

Today we had our first training back, and in an effort to maximize our holiday time, the training was scheduled for 6pm.  I nicknamed the training “Sunset Soccer” for obvious reasons.  I actually don’t mind training that late (normally we train either at 11am or 2pm).  In Sweden we trained at 5:30pm every day because a lot of our players either worked or went to school during the day.  I thought it made it easier to keep the same routine on game days.  In America we always trained at 9 or 10 in the morning, so when we played games our daily routine was completely different than when we trained.  I always felt like that put us at a slight disadvantage.  Anyway, the training was at 6pm today.  The only problem was that our field didn’t have lights!  As a result we couldn’t train for too long before nobody could see anymore.  A positive though was that my terrible shots that normally get saved were all going in the goal because the goalkeepers could barely see the ball!  I guess there are advantages to Sunset Soccer!

 

After my last post where I mentioned the pimp cup I got from KuPS for being one of the stars of the game, a buddy informed me that I actually had already been named as one of the stars of the game against HJK.  So I thought that the KuPS game was the first time I had earned the award, but it was actually the second game in a row!  Which begs a single question: Where is my Haka Pimp Cup?!

 

Looking forward, we’ve got three games left in two weeks.  The good news is that our last two games are against teams that really have nothing to play for.  The bad news is that we don’t control our destiny, meaning we need Jaro to lose at least one game.  The next game is of course important and will be difficult as we’re playing FC Inter who is competing for the league title.  I’ve seen Inter play a few times and I know the names of a few of their players, but honestly I don’t know too much about the team.  I watched them play Haka when I first arrived 11 weeks ago and they didn’t seem amazing.  Good but not intimidating.  The coach says he has a plan so I’m sure he has a good path to victory for us.  I don’t know what the plan is yet, but I’m fairly certain my role in it will be to, “Run Forest, Run!”

In unrelated news, I got home after training tonight just in time to watch some guy named Felix Baumgartner do a skydive-type jump from the edge of outer space.  I have absolutely no idea why anyone would want to do something like this, and I was nervous just watching him open the door to his little capsule.  You couldn't convince me to jump down a flight of stairs, nevermind out of a small space capsule.  I don't really have anything to say about the space jump, other than that Mr. Baumgartner is insane.

The meme, in honor of US Vice President Joe Biden:

 

Matchday 28 and Terrible Boredom

I’m finally back.  I would post more like I did when I was in Sweden, but there is truly nothing to talk about most of the time.  People wouldn’t think that a professional athlete’s life would be boring, but I don’t think I’ve ever been so bored in my entire life.  I can’t even do extra workouts because I’ve been specifically instructed by Juha to stop that so that I’m fully ready to play when called upon.  Speaking of Juha…

 

As soon as my post went up last week, I looked at the tv and Juha was on the screen analyzing a Champions League game between Manchester City and Real Madrid.  It was ironic because I spent most of that post talking about how nothing interesting ever happened.  I’d tell you what he said, but I have no idea because I don’t speak a word of Finnish and because the tv was muted.  That’s just how I watch tv here.

 

Fast forward to now, and things are better than before for me personally.  Not good per se, but better.  I played in the last game, albeit only for a few minutes at the very end.  I only touched the ball once, and that was to win a 50/50 ball that we didn’t keep.  I didn’t even have enough time to break a sweat.  It’s for sure better than not playing though.  Unfortunately, we lost the game 1-0 and now sit at the bottom of the table since the team previously behind us won.  Once again we played well, but we just didn’t get the results.  I have my ideas on how to improve things, but they’re not really important because no one listens to me anyway.  Maybe one day I’ll reveal my secret formula for success!

Me slightly happier than before.

 

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That was the ‘Line of Relevance’

 

Everything above it has at least some relevance, everything else I’m about to write isn’t relevant to anything.

 

Today I did absolutely nothing.  It was a day off for the team and those are the worst days for me.  They drag on forever and I spend most of them just at home.  Today was no different.  In fact, I didn’t even leave my place today.  Normally on off days I go for a run, but the instruction from Juha means that I’m not doing any extra running of any kind.  I barely even ate today.  I’ve just been sitting in my living room playing PS3 and surfing the internet all day.  I downloaded and watched Prometheus, and I wasn’t impressed.

 

Times like these make me really miss living in America.  While of course I had times where I was really bored in America, I always had something to do.  Baltimore (and more specifically Towson, MD) was fun and exciting and Harrisburg had a few things to do as well.  I also had a lot more in common with my US teammates than I do with the guys here or in Sweden.  I miss watching college football on Saturday afternoons on TV.  Now I can still watch games, but only on a crappy internet stream and at 8 o’clock at night.  It’s just not as fun.

 

Another thing that sucks about being abroad is that all my friends from back home are going forward with their lives.  One of my good friends is getting married this weekend and I literally didn’t even know.  I’m terrible at keeping in touch with people back home and finding out about this wedding just kind of hammered that point home to me.  I knew he was engaged at least.  But it just sucks that I’m not going to be able to be there and show my support.  If I lived in say, Philadelphia, I’d be on a plane right now to go to the wedding.  Instead, I’m sitting in total boredom in small town Finland.  I knew what I was getting into when I left America though.  Most of the stresses I’ve gone through were fully known before I ever set foot in Europe.

 

Oh yeah before I go I have a quick question.  My house has been really cold on some of the colder days we’ve had here in Valkeakoski.  Does anyone know how to work the radiators?  It seems like it should be really simple since it’s just one knob, but I’ve turned them all to different points and none of them have any heat at all.  I just assume that there is some sort of central radiator and it’s not turned on yet or something?  I’m only living here for a month more, but I don’t want to spend that month freezing my ass off.  Hopefully someone has the answers!

 

 

The meme:

Gambling is Fun

Hey everyone.  I don’t have anything whatsoever to talk about soccer-wise.  I mean there is stuff to talk about, I just don’t feel like it.  Instead, I’ve decided to discuss my new habit that is rapidly starting to seem like an addicition.  I’m talking of course about online gambling.

 

Valkeakoski is terribly boring for a person like me.  I know I’ve said it many times before, but I just can’t seem to enjoy the city.  In Enkoping (Sweden, for my new readers)  I at least lived within walking distance to everything so I could take a walk and kill some time.  Here though there’s nothing within walking distance.  And it’s not the same going around town on a bike.  You can’t really enjoy the environment and area when you’re going on a bike.  I’d go on day trips to Helsinki or Tampere, but they are really expensive.  As far as I can tell a return bus ticket to Helsinki would cost a minimum of 40 euros.  In Sweden the Enkoping to Stockholm trip is a similar distance and costs half that.  As a result I haven’t yet visited Helsinki and spend far more time in my apartment than I did in Enkoping.  That is what has made me turn to the dark world of online poker and sports betting.

 

Most people reading won’t know this about me, but I love online poker.  I discovered it in college along with two of my roommates and we played a lot.  In fact, we cheated (too hard to explain how really) and eventually got banned for life from one website, Full Tilt Poker J.  It’s kind of funny now to think of the fact that I’m banned from life from something haha.  Anyway I mostly stopped playing entirely after college and never deposited more than $50 at a time.  It was just a fun thing to do that killed a bunch of time and gave me the possibility of making some money (which I did as a matter of fact).  Before now, I had never done sports betting of any kind.  However, the combination of intense boredom and the terrible influence of my teammate Kris has tumbled me into the world of gambling.

I typed bwin into google and this popped up.  I had to post it, right?

First, I should say that I have not and would never bet on Haka or any team in our league.  I know Finland had a match-fixing situation not too long ago and I don't want that idea to even begin to get into people's minds.  That said, about two weeks ago, I signed up on a sports betting site, bwin.com, and deposited $40.  In two days I had lost everything.  But, you know how gambling works, I decided to put in another $40.  This time though, I set a limit of $100 a month to put into gambling sites.  That’s sports betting and poker together.  I haven’t been doing so well, so I’ve decided to make wild, over-the-top bets to hopefully win a ton of money.  This could be a very good weekend for me financially!  Or I could be out $100 bucks.  Oh well, it’s adding some excitement.  Maybe if I start doing well I’ll put my PokerStars name on here and take on challengers!  Worst case though is I lose a small amount of money.  If that’s the case, I’ll think of it more like paying for multiple hours of entertainment rather than money down the tube for nothing.  I mean, how many hours of entertainment can you get with $40?  Well now that you mention it, I could buy a video game with that money and play indefinitely.  But I don’t need your smart-ass back talk.  Just let me enjoy my gambling!

 

My only other thing to mention is that I recently completed the planning of a vacation with Celia.  We’re going to Morocco!  It should be really fun, and I’m hoping she doesn’t come to her senses and decide I’m not worth vacationing with between now and then!  If you’re looking for a vacation destination I would recommend taking a look at Morocco if you go in the spring or autumn.  Winter is too cold at night and summer is too hot.  It’s also quite cheap.  Our entire 10-day vacation will cost about 800 euros not including food and souvenirs.  And I’m splitting that cost with Celia (unless my sports bet win this weekend!) so I’m only gonna spend 400-550 euros once you include the things I’ll buy in the country.  It’s the type of price even a cheapskate like me can afford!

An actual piece of art from the Tate Museum of Modern Art in London.  Better than a mirror.

 

That’s about it for now.  I still love my apartment, though I can’t figure out how to turn the radiators on.  My bike is working fine, though the ride each way to training is getting a bit tedious and the extra workouts I’ve been doing have made the ride difficult on my legs.  We play IFK Marieheim tomorrow, and I’ll talk about it right after or on Saturday.  I’m not starting, but I hope to get in and make a positive impact.  We’ve had a really good week of training so the mood around the team is positive.  I know I’ve said that before every game, but I’ve meant it every time and I still do.  Root for us and if you’re in Valkeakoski come out and cheer us on tomorrow!

 

The meme.  This one is for the alchoholics out there haha:   

Bored

There hasn’t been so much going on in good ‘ol Enkoping recently.  We’ve had training a few trainings and a day off, though we haven’t really accomplished much in those trainings.  The only real relevant takeaway in terms of this blog is that I’m back in the starting lineup as the right winger.  I’d say this was an accomplishment, but in reality it’s more a consequence of all the injuries and player departures that we’ve had.  Still, I think I’m a good option there so I have no doubt that I’ll play an important part in helping us get our 2^nd win on Sunday.  We play one of the bottom teams so it’s very important that we get the three points.  It’s also very important for me to play well, because I need to get a new contract.  If ESK doesn’t offer me one, then I need a few more good performances to help me get opportunities elsewhere.  There’s no news on my contract situation at the moment.  As soon as I hear something I’ll let you know.  At the moment my Swedish and Finnish representatives are MIA, so I’m feeling a bit alone in this process right now.  I’m sure they’ll come around though.  I’ve worked with both of these guys plenty of times and they always find me something good.  The saying goes, “a team can have enough defenders, a team can have enough goalies, a team can have enough midfielders…but a team can never have enough strikers!”  That saying is very true, so I know I’ll find something.  I’m getting a bit old to be playing in the lower divisions, so hopefully wherever I land will be in a top division somewhere.

On to things that are slightly interesting, at least to me.  I don’t know why, but there seem to be an extraordinary number of old American cars in Enkoping.  I’m not talking 1990s, I’m talking vintage 1960s or 70s Chevys and Fords riding around town.  The drivers of these cars are exclusively high school aged guys, so I’m assuming it’s some sort of weird high school fad here.  But it makes me wonder, how did these cars get here?  Of course, I know that these cars were sold here decades ago and just have survived til now.  They’re also probably the cheapest cars available since they are all in general disrepair.  On the flip side, it’s still weird to see a bunch of American cars here.  Especially cars that you barely ever see in America.

In case you were wondering, I am becoming a bit famous around these parts.  I’ve been recognized around town a few times in the last week!  Everyone loves a Yank Abroad!

Sadly, that’s all I have for now.  Like I’ve said a few times before, I live a life of total boredom.  I wish more interesting things happened here, but they don’t.  Soon the transfer window will open again and my life will get (for better or worse) a lot more interesting.  Stick with me until then.  Things will get more entertaining!

Things in America I Miss

Sometimes when I’m going off talking about random things going on in my life and season, it’s easy for me to forget just how unusual my life is.  I’m 24 going on 25, and I live in a northern European country playing the game I love.  Even though things are not going as well as I had hoped, I’m still happy with my life right now.  I also have high hopes for what the future may bring and I don’t plan on leaving Europe anytime soon.  That’s all well and good, but there are some things that I truly miss from America.  I figure I’ll use this post to list those things I miss.

1.       Amani – Amani is my niece and I miss her more than anything in this world.  I obviously haven’t seen her since I got to Europe.  She’s now 10 months old and I just want to give her the biggest hug and kiss and carry her around!  I will go back to the US in November, so I’ll see her then.

2.       Fast Food - When I initially put this on my list, I hadn’t been to a fast food restaurant in weeks.  Still, I rarely eat fast food here.  In America, I would get fast food a couple times a week.  And that’s not just McDonald’s, I’m also including Chipotle and Taco Bell and Chinese food and other fast foods.  In America I always took for granted that there would be plenty of fast food places within a reasonable distance.  Here, there’s only a McDonalds that takes me 20 minutes to bike to.

3.       Driving – Unlike most people, I love to drive.  And I don’t mean driving fast or aggressively, but just cruising around.  I love the freedom of having a car.  You can take a day trip much more cheaply and easily than with public transportation to any place other than Stockholm.  When I first moved to Baltimore, I spent three hours just driving around the city getting to know it.  As a result, I felt like I knew the city of Baltimore far better than I know the equivalent area in and around Enkoping.

4.       Political Television – Even though I rarely mention it in the blog, I am a big fan of politics.  One of my true interests in life are the dynamics of politics in America and the game of politics.  To me, politics in America have turned into something fascinating and very frustrating at the same time.  Also, I think there’s something to democracy the way we do it in America.  It seems counterintuitive, but it takes more than a good idea to get things done.  You have to be able to work with people and with challenging ideas.  And all of this typically plays out in front of dozens of cameras and countless media sources.  It all makes for incredibly entertaining tv, which I can’t see most days because the stations don’t show in Sweden (and I don’t have a tv anyway.)  Also lumped in the group of stations I miss are HGTV, DIY Network, Cartoon Network and Comedy Central.

5.       Pop Tarts and Grape Jelly – Most of the food that I eat in the US is available in Enkoping.  For some reason though, there are no Pop Tarts or Grape Jelly.  I can kind of understand pop tarts, but grape jelly?  I figured that would be pretty universal.  I mean, Enkoping grocery stores have a zillion marmalades and jams but no jelly.  And when I asked the guys about where to find grape jelly, they didn’t even know what I was talking about.  Thus, my daily peanut butter and jelly sandwich is really a peanut butter and marmalade sandwich.  Nothing like what mom used to make.

6.       The last – and honestly most important – thing that I miss is the commentating brilliance that is Ray Hudson.  Anyone who watches GolTv back in the US knows about Mr. Hudson.  He is the greatest, most hilarious commentator who ever lived.  I can’t describe his delivery better than just putting in a video, so I’ll put one here.  I have to preface it by saying he has a severe man crush on Messi and Riquelme.  Enjoy and I’ll post again soon!

You're welcome.

Random Thoughts

Welcome back!

I don’t have so much to talk about so I’ll just throw out some random stuff I’ve been sitting on for days or weeks.

First, I read the soccer blog BigSoccer.com almost everyday and I noticed that in the forum about me there were some match reviews posted.  I had absolutely no idea that this existed, but I did some searching and found the website.  It’s a newspaper called unt.se, which covers Uppsala.  For my first three matches, I got (on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the best), 1/5, 2/5 and 3/5.  My first game I got the worst possible rating!  Haha I’m not too concerned though.  It seems more like the writers have very high expectations for me than me actually playing poorly.  For instance, in the match where I got a rating of 3, the explanation said that I was going to be an important player for ESK all season long and that I dominated the left back.  Pretty glowing description for a middle of the road rating lol.  I tried to avoid these types of reviews because they don’t do me any good to look at, but now that I know about it I’ll read it after every match to see what they have to say about me.  I just can’t help myself.

Next, I swear Fruit Loops here are different from America.  I’m pretty sure that all four of the O’s on the box are supposed different colored.  The Fruit Loops I get from the grocery store here though double up on the purple loops.  Kind of shady.  I think Sweden gets the defect Fruit Loops that Americans won’t eat!

In the couple months that I’ve lived in Enkoping, I have watched an absurd amount of Netflix.  There’s no real follow up to that.  I’ve just watched more Netflix than any person who claims they are employed should.  Here's not-so-great picture of my setup with the projector.  It looks really good even though my phone camera doesn't show it so well.

Here in Sweden there is a strange obsession with USA and UK flag things.  Everything from clothes to purses to pillows to wallpaper are covered in the red, white and blue.  In fact, I saw this display at one of the home furniture stores.  I don’t know why it’s this way, but I can only assume that it’s because everybody loves America.  And if they can’t get American stuff they’re willing to settle for UK gear.

I have a bike that Robert let me have for the season.  It makes a huge difference in my day-to-day life, but there’s one big problem: There is a 100% chance that I fall off this bike at some point.  I haven’t ridden a bike in probably 15 years and every single time I get on it I come close to falling immediately.  I also tempt fate every time I turn, carry groceries, look behind me or go on/off the sidewalk.  I just hope that when I do finally fall that nobody is around to see it.  I’m pretty sure that when I fall though it will be in front of a bunch of judgmental middle schoolers.  They can be so cruel and they’re just getting good enough at English to really make the insults stick!

I’m glad I got this stuff off my chest.  None of it has any relevance but oh well, it’s my blog I can write about literally anything I want.  We’ve got our next game on Saturday so I’ll have some more to write about then.  Take care!  I leave you with a picture of my niece, Amani.  When I left America she was so small, but now she's growing into a little lady.  She even has teeth!  In this picture, she has wiggled her way into the space on the side of her bed and gotten herself stuck!