Heartbreaker today at the buzzer against Aabyhoj. The team battled back and tied it up with 4 seconds left but they scored on an offensive rebound. On the bright side, Wire is turning into an all out scoring machine. He had 26 pts 7 rebounds and a modest 7 steals. If anyone wants to follow our live stats and check out who we are playing and more information on the league, check out http://www.canaldigitalligaen.dk
I was growing out a nice mustache in honor of Movemeber. I havent really had a good game with it but i was keeping it because we were winning and it's for such a good cause. My girlfriend was cooping with it but i told her i'd shave it before she visits (Nov 18th). But after this loss it's time for it to go. Check back in a little for a photo update-before and after.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Finally an update
First off, very sorry for not updating. I dont know why it has taken so long but here we go..
There is so much that has gone on these past couple weeks i dont know where to start but ill try and keep it brief. We have moved apartments, so there is no longer a bathroom issue. We moved out into Vaerlose, which is a 5 minute bike ride to our gym, and 25 minute train ride into Copenhagen. So we are further out into the country but its really nice not having a long commute to practice everyday. The only downside i would say is that the food options are limited. There this pizza place that has a good lunch special for cheap, but other than that we are making our own food. At first we were eating the same stuff. Ground beef or chicken with pasta or rice. But times have changed and we are getting better and better in the kitchen. Since we are not in the city and spending more $$$ on restaurants and kebab shops, we have more money to spend in the grocery store. We bought some steaks last night to celebrate our victory and those were delicious.
We have been lucky to have visitors the past couple of weeks. Adam's girlfriend visited in early/mid October and my parents came out right after. The benefit of these visits is that we got to play a little tourist as well. We were able to see all the sights like Tivoli (see picture below), Christiania, the palace, canals, Carlsberg Brewery, and lots of other cool parts of Copenhagen. When the rents were in town it was nice to go out to eat more and it was very nice of the to pick up the tab. My dad has taken a great liking to Tuborg Classic Beer so ill be sure to bring some home for Christmas.
Basketball has been going pretty well for us. Our record does not necessarily show it (3-6), but every game has been very close and we have been playing the top teams in the league. Some games it comes down to a couple of free throws or a turnover. The little things can sometimes have the biggest impact but we are getting better and better to limit those. Wire is an all out thief nowadays. In the past few games he must be averaging 6 steals and that's only what the scorekeeper has. One game he almost had a triple double with points, rebounds, and steals. I'm playing alright, wish i could be a little more productive but hanging in there.
After the win, we have a three day weekend that will be nice to rest the body. We will still lift and workout out, but it will be nice to not have to bang around on the court. We are thinking about taking advantage of the time and doing a little travelling but that's up in the air now.
I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloweekend..There isn't much dressing up here so that was a little disappointing but o well.
Here are some pictures!
Here is the Little Mermaid statue that was made in honor of HC Andersen, the famous author
Here is the sign that leads into Christiania. As you can read there are only 3 rules. Its a very interesting area and a little sketchy but any tourist should check it out. Its basically an old military barracks that was taken over by hippies. Don't worry, were were just there to check it out.
Shout out to whoever commented on the Cornell BB Blog and demanded an update.
There is so much that has gone on these past couple weeks i dont know where to start but ill try and keep it brief. We have moved apartments, so there is no longer a bathroom issue. We moved out into Vaerlose, which is a 5 minute bike ride to our gym, and 25 minute train ride into Copenhagen. So we are further out into the country but its really nice not having a long commute to practice everyday. The only downside i would say is that the food options are limited. There this pizza place that has a good lunch special for cheap, but other than that we are making our own food. At first we were eating the same stuff. Ground beef or chicken with pasta or rice. But times have changed and we are getting better and better in the kitchen. Since we are not in the city and spending more $$$ on restaurants and kebab shops, we have more money to spend in the grocery store. We bought some steaks last night to celebrate our victory and those were delicious.
We have been lucky to have visitors the past couple of weeks. Adam's girlfriend visited in early/mid October and my parents came out right after. The benefit of these visits is that we got to play a little tourist as well. We were able to see all the sights like Tivoli (see picture below), Christiania, the palace, canals, Carlsberg Brewery, and lots of other cool parts of Copenhagen. When the rents were in town it was nice to go out to eat more and it was very nice of the to pick up the tab. My dad has taken a great liking to Tuborg Classic Beer so ill be sure to bring some home for Christmas.
Basketball has been going pretty well for us. Our record does not necessarily show it (3-6), but every game has been very close and we have been playing the top teams in the league. Some games it comes down to a couple of free throws or a turnover. The little things can sometimes have the biggest impact but we are getting better and better to limit those. Wire is an all out thief nowadays. In the past few games he must be averaging 6 steals and that's only what the scorekeeper has. One game he almost had a triple double with points, rebounds, and steals. I'm playing alright, wish i could be a little more productive but hanging in there.
After the win, we have a three day weekend that will be nice to rest the body. We will still lift and workout out, but it will be nice to not have to bang around on the court. We are thinking about taking advantage of the time and doing a little travelling but that's up in the air now.
I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloweekend..There isn't much dressing up here so that was a little disappointing but o well.
Here are some pictures!
This is Tivoli, the inner-city amusement park. It is usually closed during the winter months but opens up for Halloween and Christmas. It has a cool Disneyland vibe to it.
Here is the Little Mermaid statue that was made in honor of HC Andersen, the famous author
Here is the sign that leads into Christiania. As you can read there are only 3 rules. Its a very interesting area and a little sketchy but any tourist should check it out. Its basically an old military barracks that was taken over by hippies. Don't worry, were were just there to check it out.
Shout out to whoever commented on the Cornell BB Blog and demanded an update.
Monday, October 3, 2011
First Week of Games
Well it has been some time since the last post so i think it's a good time to update you folks. It's a monday night and we just finished our half price pizza and some ice cream so i am pretty full and happy.
We have played 3 games and lost 2 of them. Each game has been very close and our 2 losses were ones that we definitely could have won. But the great part about this season is that we play each team 3 times. Then comes the playoffs. It's a refreshing break from the incredible pressure on each Ivy game. A loss sucks, but it's not the end of the world here and we look for ways to improve upon them and get better for the next time we meet them.
Our first game we played in Aalborg, or the "land of the gypsies" as Mads would say. It was a 5 and a half hour train ride for us so it was a longgg lonnng day. Our train left at 8-we arrived at the gym by 2, played the game at 3, and took the train back. We ended up getting back around 1am. For you Ivy fans, its about the same as driving to Dartmouth-playing-then driving back. For you geography majors, Aalborg is on Jutland whereas Copenhagen is on Sealand. Aalborg is located up north and the train ride took us across a massive bridge and through lots of farmland. The game was a lot of fun; it was the league opener and they had a good crowd come in. It was pretty even throughout the game but we broke it open in the 3rd quarter and didn't let up until 5 minutes left in the game. We turned the ball over 5 out of 8 possessions or something like that and our lead dwindled quick. Soon we were up by 2 with 2 minutes left. Axel hit a big 3 for us and Wire iced the game with some free throws and we ended up winning by 3. A great feeling to get the first professional win.
The next game was our home opener against Falcon. Our club did a great job bringing packing the small gym and the atmosphere was terrific. Falcon was a very aggressive, hard playing team with a lot of Danes that had played together for awhile. It was close throughout, it seemed like we were always down 5 points and whenever we got closer,one of their guys hit a clutch, tough shot. It was a tough loss to swallow but just extra motivation for next time.
Our third game was in Aabyhoj, 3 hours away. Another frustrating loss. They came out to a hot start and wire and i got into some pretty bad foul trouble but we turned it on in the second half. Aabyhoj has 2 American forwards as well and they were pretty good. One of them was hitting ridiculous fade away 3's with the shot clock expiring - shots we would love him to take. We were right there again and ended up losing by 4 but im confident that next time will be much more successful for us.
It has been a lot of fun playing these games but winning would make it 10x better. We are still adjusting to the style of play and the refs. Refereeing over here is hit and miss. Sometimes they call the ticky tack stuff, sometimes they dont. You never know what you're gonna get. We have a "cup" game tomorrow against SISU so hopefully we turn around this small losing streak.
My mom's friend Karen is in Copenhagen and she took Adam and I out to a terrific lunch and walk along the canal. My mom was supposed to come too but some family illness has delayed her adventure out here. Nonetheless, we had a great Danish lunch consisting off pickled herring, a fish called fraise, roastbeef, chicken salad and bacon, and cheese and grapes. All of that with dark rye bread and butter and topped with a cold Carlsberg beer. This was the first real Danish food we've had and it was pretty good. We were both worried about the pickled herring but with the rye bread it was great. We also walked along the canal and up to the "Little Mermaid". Apparently the creator of the tale was a Dane and there is a small mermaid in his honor. Not very big but "very sweet" as Karen told us.
It's hard to believe it has been a month already but it has been a lot of fun and we have already experienced so much. And we've done it without having a fully functional bathroom. Well Adam's girlfriend Alex gets in tomorrow for a visit so i better help him clean. Until next time!
Skál,
aro
We have played 3 games and lost 2 of them. Each game has been very close and our 2 losses were ones that we definitely could have won. But the great part about this season is that we play each team 3 times. Then comes the playoffs. It's a refreshing break from the incredible pressure on each Ivy game. A loss sucks, but it's not the end of the world here and we look for ways to improve upon them and get better for the next time we meet them.
Our first game we played in Aalborg, or the "land of the gypsies" as Mads would say. It was a 5 and a half hour train ride for us so it was a longgg lonnng day. Our train left at 8-we arrived at the gym by 2, played the game at 3, and took the train back. We ended up getting back around 1am. For you Ivy fans, its about the same as driving to Dartmouth-playing-then driving back. For you geography majors, Aalborg is on Jutland whereas Copenhagen is on Sealand. Aalborg is located up north and the train ride took us across a massive bridge and through lots of farmland. The game was a lot of fun; it was the league opener and they had a good crowd come in. It was pretty even throughout the game but we broke it open in the 3rd quarter and didn't let up until 5 minutes left in the game. We turned the ball over 5 out of 8 possessions or something like that and our lead dwindled quick. Soon we were up by 2 with 2 minutes left. Axel hit a big 3 for us and Wire iced the game with some free throws and we ended up winning by 3. A great feeling to get the first professional win.
The next game was our home opener against Falcon. Our club did a great job bringing packing the small gym and the atmosphere was terrific. Falcon was a very aggressive, hard playing team with a lot of Danes that had played together for awhile. It was close throughout, it seemed like we were always down 5 points and whenever we got closer,one of their guys hit a clutch, tough shot. It was a tough loss to swallow but just extra motivation for next time.
Our third game was in Aabyhoj, 3 hours away. Another frustrating loss. They came out to a hot start and wire and i got into some pretty bad foul trouble but we turned it on in the second half. Aabyhoj has 2 American forwards as well and they were pretty good. One of them was hitting ridiculous fade away 3's with the shot clock expiring - shots we would love him to take. We were right there again and ended up losing by 4 but im confident that next time will be much more successful for us.
It has been a lot of fun playing these games but winning would make it 10x better. We are still adjusting to the style of play and the refs. Refereeing over here is hit and miss. Sometimes they call the ticky tack stuff, sometimes they dont. You never know what you're gonna get. We have a "cup" game tomorrow against SISU so hopefully we turn around this small losing streak.
My mom's friend Karen is in Copenhagen and she took Adam and I out to a terrific lunch and walk along the canal. My mom was supposed to come too but some family illness has delayed her adventure out here. Nonetheless, we had a great Danish lunch consisting off pickled herring, a fish called fraise, roastbeef, chicken salad and bacon, and cheese and grapes. All of that with dark rye bread and butter and topped with a cold Carlsberg beer. This was the first real Danish food we've had and it was pretty good. We were both worried about the pickled herring but with the rye bread it was great. We also walked along the canal and up to the "Little Mermaid". Apparently the creator of the tale was a Dane and there is a small mermaid in his honor. Not very big but "very sweet" as Karen told us.
It's hard to believe it has been a month already but it has been a lot of fun and we have already experienced so much. And we've done it without having a fully functional bathroom. Well Adam's girlfriend Alex gets in tomorrow for a visit so i better help him clean. Until next time!
Skál,
aro
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
This Week in Pictures
So i've taken some pictures on my camera and blackberry the past week so i figured that would be a good way of getting started today.
First we have a sneak shot at a large man sitting right across from Wire. This may not look strange at first, but there is no one else in the train car. The guy wondered into our car, looked at the 4 person seat in front of me that was completely open, then decided on sitting directly in front of wire.
Here is one of my well prepared snacks of the day-frozen green beans with the special dark Danish bread with raspberry jelly. Gotta be creative over here. I think i put some frank's red hot on the green beans for that extra kick.
This was taken over the weekend at our Vaerlose Basketball Klub Jamboree. The club is made up of teams of all ages and during this jamboree, all different age groups intermingled and played. The youngest- #4 in this picture would be awarded 5 points for every basket, whereas the older players were only awarded 1 point. Needless to say, i went scoreless on the day. However, my team went undefeated and destroyed wire's team in the first game. But it was a lot of fun to meet some of the younger players and parents involved with the club.
Right after the Jamboree, there was a fundraiser bike rally. The players and people involved with the club would get sponsors and bike around the designated area. Each lap might have been 1km or so and sponsors would say, "i'll give you 10kr for every lap" type of thing. Apparently the players on the elite team were making 30 kr ($5-6) per lap. Some of the guys, Peter and Axel, were flying and made 14 laps within the time limit. I think me and my partner Oliver made 11 or so. Our club chairman Kim, was also pretty fast, but decided to take a beer break on lap 7. I think he made a good choice.
Later that night, the women's team invited us over for a cocktail party. Wire and I first went to Oliver's place to hang out. While we were there, we were youtubing funny videos like the Battle at Kruger, Planking, Owling, and riskiest of all Batmanning. If you click any of the links, make sure you watch the planking one. But after getting some good laughs at those, we headed off the Trina's (sp??) house where they had some mixed drinks in bowls with tons of long straws hanging out. They had this amazing cookies and creme jello/pudding shot which i need to get the recipe to. And in Danish tradition, some form of strangle licorice liquor. After a few drinks, the planking came out and the above picture is what we will call the 'bar stool plank". Wire and I had aspirations to do some batmanning but it proved too risky. We also tried to bring some American culture to the Danes with some Devil Went Down to Georgia but apparently they are the biggest fans. That didn't wire and i from singing it loudly. It was a great night and we gotta thank the girls team for being great hosts.
This week is the World Cycling Championships which apparently is the biggest sporting event Copenhagen has ever hosted. We are a short bike ride away from the course so i'm sure we will check that out at one point. More importantly, our first real game is on Saturday so the season is upon us. Definitely very excited to get started! That about it from around here,
Skál,
aro
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Food and (American) Football
So aro has given me a homework a assignment a while ago to do a blog and like usual I get it in at the latest possible. We've been here around two weeks now and so we've had to figure out some food options. It's pretty basic for breakfast with cereal and eggs and toast, etc. but aro decided to get fancy and try some pancakes this morning which were pretty good, so i'll probably up it to omelets pretty soon. For lunch and dinner we've been making a lot of pasta with some meat sauce because it's pretty easy and cheap. If you wanna grab something quick out to eat, for some reason there are a ton of pizza and kebab shops everywhere, so we have had some kebabs although the massive piece of meat on a rotating pole looks a little suspect. It's actually pretty good though and our teammates say it's quiet healthy too. We just found out Domino's has half off pizzas every Monday and Tuesday so that is a new option for us. There is one thing that really grinds my gears here though and it's that none of these places to eat will give you ice water, or not that I've seen yet. Most of them sell bottled water and a few rarely will give you tap water upon request. Aro and me were sitting down eating at a pizza place one day and I asked the guy for some water and he gave me a glass of tap water which was fine (prefered ice with it but better than nothing), than another guy comes in and I ask for a refill on the tap water and he wanted to charge me 5 or 10 kroner (1-2$) so we ended up just refilling in the bathroom sinks instead. So we are gonna have to get the ice trays going at the apartment.
There has been one place however where the food and water and atmosphere couldn't have been better, and that was last Sunday when we were at our team chairman's house Kim. Kim and his wife are hosting one of our teammates Axel and they had me and aro and Jaime from the women's team over to finally get to watch some NFL games. Since we are 6 hours ahead of eastern time in the US, the early games didn't start until 7 so they made us an excellent dinner with more than enough food to fill all of us up and them some, including dessert later on. All of us at his house and some others are actually doing a pick'em league against each other, where you pick who you think is gonna win every game so it got a little heated once the games began. I must say I had an excellent week 1 but it was just a practice round unfortunately. It was so great to be able to watch a game rather than just follow updates of it on the computer for once. Of course aro was still checking updates every two minutes to see how poorly his fantasy players on other teams were doing. The announcers were in Danish which was kind of funny, but didn't really notice after a while just tuned them out. Me and aro made a very important purchase of an xbox and right now all we have is Madden so we are getting our football fix in through that as well. We drafted a team and picked up probably the biggest stud of the league, behind WR Bryan Walters of course, FB John Kuhn. Also nothing to do with the blog but be on the lookout out for the Panthers to potentially upset the Pack this weekend.
Quick update on the bike situation, they are rolling good these days, mine was stuck in first or second gear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esJPVkJDgAU (0:15-0:19, this came on one of our 2 english tv channels and that's what reminded me of) for a while so I had to pedal 5x as fast to attempt to keep up with traffic but all good now.
Always hyggeligt,
Wire
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Apartment Update with New Toy
Wire says he's going to write soon so be on the lookout. In the meantime, here's a little video. Sorry its rushed, gotta play Madden
-aro
-aro
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Working with the Kids/Tourist Day
Well i've got an hour before i have to leave for practice so i figured i might as well give you guys an update on the past couple days.
Yesterday was a busy day for us. We had to wake up early (8am) and take the train to the suburbs to work a sports camp with some members of the women's team. *sidenote* thanks to the women's team for making us that amazing brunch after we came in from the woods!* We had no idea what to expect but we figured that a bunch of 9 year old should not be a problem. The school told us we had to share half of the court with handball players and that we should be creative because handball is extremely popular over here. We set up a fun obstacle course that ended in the kids trying to make it in the hoop. Silly, but good stuff. I have never in my life seen so many little blonde kids running around. 9 out of 10 kids must have been blonde. What was really interesting was that whenever an instructor was talking, these kids were quiet, attentive, and taking in everything. After about 45 minutes we could see that some of the kids were getting bored so we changed the obstacle course a little and ended it with Wire and I lifting the kids up and letting them dunk it. We didn't want to pick anyone up that didn't want to be picked up so we were saying "liftus?" (sp???) a lot. Some kids loved it while some would just rather shoot it. It was a lot of fun trying to communicate with the kids because they didn't speak English but everyone in the would knows what a high five is so we gave out plenty of those.
Practice has been picking up recently which is good to get the legs back. No subs which gets tiring but once we're in shape we'll be fine. Yesterday was the first real tough day with lots of up and down and live play. Everyone is playing really hard which is good but i can see everyone is shaking off some rust. I think everything will come together really well when we get our rhythm down and play with each other more. It's a great group of guys and it feels nice to be welcomed into the team.
We took our free time today and went out riding our new bikes into downtown Copenhagen. It's really amazing how easy it is to get around on the bike. I took some pictures so rather than write about it all i might as well show you. Enjoy
Yesterday was a busy day for us. We had to wake up early (8am) and take the train to the suburbs to work a sports camp with some members of the women's team. *sidenote* thanks to the women's team for making us that amazing brunch after we came in from the woods!* We had no idea what to expect but we figured that a bunch of 9 year old should not be a problem. The school told us we had to share half of the court with handball players and that we should be creative because handball is extremely popular over here. We set up a fun obstacle course that ended in the kids trying to make it in the hoop. Silly, but good stuff. I have never in my life seen so many little blonde kids running around. 9 out of 10 kids must have been blonde. What was really interesting was that whenever an instructor was talking, these kids were quiet, attentive, and taking in everything. After about 45 minutes we could see that some of the kids were getting bored so we changed the obstacle course a little and ended it with Wire and I lifting the kids up and letting them dunk it. We didn't want to pick anyone up that didn't want to be picked up so we were saying "liftus?" (sp???) a lot. Some kids loved it while some would just rather shoot it. It was a lot of fun trying to communicate with the kids because they didn't speak English but everyone in the would knows what a high five is so we gave out plenty of those.
Practice has been picking up recently which is good to get the legs back. No subs which gets tiring but once we're in shape we'll be fine. Yesterday was the first real tough day with lots of up and down and live play. Everyone is playing really hard which is good but i can see everyone is shaking off some rust. I think everything will come together really well when we get our rhythm down and play with each other more. It's a great group of guys and it feels nice to be welcomed into the team.
We took our free time today and went out riding our new bikes into downtown Copenhagen. It's really amazing how easy it is to get around on the bike. I took some pictures so rather than write about it all i might as well show you. Enjoy
the new whips
action shot of Wire riding. This was scary for me to do because i'm still not great at driving with one hand so give me credit
the good ol' sausage wagon. All over the place
Pedestrian squares all around with lots of shopping, cafes' etc. About a 10-15 minute bike ride
funny matching Danish couple
I love Danish bakeries. For about 2-3 bucks you get an amazing Wienerbred which is pretty much a "Danish" back in the states except much much better here
Nice looking canal. I feel like i've seen lots of pictures like this in my planning classes.
Feel free to comment on these posts if you have any questions, suggestions, or anything. This blog has gotten a pretty good response and that's nice to see. I'm working on Wire to write some more so expect more of his posts later so you don't always have to listen to me.
Skål,
aro
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Walking Home
Quick update- we have both purchased bikes after a long day of looking and ready to start riding dirty throughout Copenhagen. We had the day off today which was nice but might start watching the Denmark vs Norway soccer match. Lots of Norwegians out here causing a ruckus. Here's a little video of our area
Monday, September 5, 2011
Watch out for Danish Bears...
Warning, this is a long one. Alright so the last 36 hours have been pretty unforgettable here in Denmark..Yesterday, Sept 3rd, we had to be at the gym by 9 for team meetings and such so we had to leave our apartment bright and early. It takes about 45 minutes by metro to get to the gym but we get to ride it with a couple of the other players so that makes it better. We had to pack warm for our overnight camping trip in the woods and we were all expecting something of a bear grylls vs rabbit kind of trip.
When we arrived at the gym I was able to meet the whole team and coaching staff for the first time and all that. Everyone speaks english very well and the only other foreigner is Axel from Iceland. We went through a presentation on what drives us as basketball players and what the critical points behind success. Interesting stuff but hard to write about. We had a nice practice after that went over some of the plays which reminded me a lot of the ivy style--lots of back doors, flare screens, etc so we were able to catch on quick. We finished with a scrimmage and i think they were all impressed how well wire and i played together. Good stuff, but the real fun started with our "teambuilding" adventure.
We met up with Reno, our ex army officer, who specializes in these wooded adventures. We did some basic team building assignments around the gym and then he split us in groups of three and gave us all a map with an x on it and said 'run". We all take off thinking its a race and about a mile later. The x was probably 2 miles away so it was a tough run especially after a practice. In a nutshell, each X gives us another X to run too. 2 hours later we all meet up in the woods of Vaerlose and begin the Ropes Course excercises that make planning and teamwork essential. We get to our campsite we are greeted with more maps of the essentials of the night (firewood, food, water, tarps) and off we go again to try and find this stuff. By this point im dragging and everyone is exhausted. But we get the job done and have a nice night, cooking out fish and potatoes on the fire. What made this night special was when our team president, Kim, showed up with a bunch of Danish beers and passed them around liberally. We were all sitting by the fire sipping beers and telling funny basketball stories (most of which were about past Americans and a 7'5 guy named Ivan). This was a first for us, drinking beer with the entire team, including coaches. As it got darker, one of the player passed around a nightcap, some whiskey. No one was drinking to get drunk and it just a nice moment for everyone to laugh and be tired.
Around 11 our leader tells us we have to have firewatches. This means that we will be in pairs and take hour shifts to make sure the fire doesnt go out. There's 13 of us so from 11:30-5:30 we will be watching the fire. We pair up randomly with people we dont know well and Rasmus and I unluckily drew the 2:30-3:30 shift. So once we slept for an hour, we were woken up to watch the fire. Brutal. But it was a good time to relax and get to know my teammate better. It seemed that once i was asleep we were woke up again at 5:30 to clean up and get moving on the day. Pretty brutal. By 6:15 we were off on another hike which seemed to last forever. Wire and I tried to keep our spirits up by talking about fantasy football and what we would do for a huge breakfast. We make it to the checkpoint only to see a river in our way. Along with the river are two long ropes and our leader tells us we have 40 minutes to get everyone across this 30ft wide river. I'm thinking great, its early, im tired hungry, and im going to be getting wet. A long story short, its up to me to get across in 2 minutes. Wire made it across nicely so im thinking this shouldn't be so bad. In the middle of the river its really wobbly and my knees are underwater. But everyone is cheering me on and its exciting to know that we will finish this difficult challenge. High fives all around but we are on to the next assignment very quickly. We complete the next quick assignment and that leads us to the beach of a very cold Danish lake.
Our leader is waiting at the lake and he explains that in order to get directions for the next assignment, we have to swim out into the lake and retried these bottles filled with instructions. Attached to the bottles are bricks so it requires 2 players per bottle. Everyone looks at each other with a smile and we all think there is no way of getting out of this. We quickly decide to go in our firewatch pairs the first pair strips down naked and runs into the water. Everyone begins stripping and deciding which bottle to go after. After the fact, Wire compared the scene to a True Blood moment when Erik Northman comes out of the water in his birthday suit. It was hard not to laugh. Before i know it im in my birthday suit and running into the water. For all the Cornell guys, It ain't gay. The water was freezing but it was hard not to laugh at the situation. Especially when i look behind me and see 4 more naked dudes running into the freezing water. It a pretty far swim and seems even further with the bottle and brick but we make it back to the beach just fine and happily put our clothes back on. Everyone is still laughing about the situation. What made this event special was that no one bitched about this at all and we attacked it as a team. I think a lot of teams in the states would have a couple guys saying no way. I think my Cornell teammates from past years for the most part would have jumped in the water the same way we did. I believe it's these little things that make a team strong and hopefully that will reflect on the court.
The last assignment was to find our way back to the gym which was about 5 km away. We thought about running but thank god we didn't. We were definitely glad it was over but it was a great way to meet everyone and get to know them on a personal level. This will make the first week of practice much easier. I am used to having close teammates coming Cornell and i assumed that would not be the case overseas. However, Wire and I are lucky that this group of guys is very welcoming, friendly, and curious about our lives. Hopefully these relationships grow and we can use that chemistry on the court and get some W's. Shout out to Randall. Well that's all i'm going to write for this one, i have a couple pictures and ill try to post them later. We are off to get signed up for some wireless and try and find a cheap bike to get around.
Skål,
aro
When we arrived at the gym I was able to meet the whole team and coaching staff for the first time and all that. Everyone speaks english very well and the only other foreigner is Axel from Iceland. We went through a presentation on what drives us as basketball players and what the critical points behind success. Interesting stuff but hard to write about. We had a nice practice after that went over some of the plays which reminded me a lot of the ivy style--lots of back doors, flare screens, etc so we were able to catch on quick. We finished with a scrimmage and i think they were all impressed how well wire and i played together. Good stuff, but the real fun started with our "teambuilding" adventure.
We met up with Reno, our ex army officer, who specializes in these wooded adventures. We did some basic team building assignments around the gym and then he split us in groups of three and gave us all a map with an x on it and said 'run". We all take off thinking its a race and about a mile later. The x was probably 2 miles away so it was a tough run especially after a practice. In a nutshell, each X gives us another X to run too. 2 hours later we all meet up in the woods of Vaerlose and begin the Ropes Course excercises that make planning and teamwork essential. We get to our campsite we are greeted with more maps of the essentials of the night (firewood, food, water, tarps) and off we go again to try and find this stuff. By this point im dragging and everyone is exhausted. But we get the job done and have a nice night, cooking out fish and potatoes on the fire. What made this night special was when our team president, Kim, showed up with a bunch of Danish beers and passed them around liberally. We were all sitting by the fire sipping beers and telling funny basketball stories (most of which were about past Americans and a 7'5 guy named Ivan). This was a first for us, drinking beer with the entire team, including coaches. As it got darker, one of the player passed around a nightcap, some whiskey. No one was drinking to get drunk and it just a nice moment for everyone to laugh and be tired.
Around 11 our leader tells us we have to have firewatches. This means that we will be in pairs and take hour shifts to make sure the fire doesnt go out. There's 13 of us so from 11:30-5:30 we will be watching the fire. We pair up randomly with people we dont know well and Rasmus and I unluckily drew the 2:30-3:30 shift. So once we slept for an hour, we were woken up to watch the fire. Brutal. But it was a good time to relax and get to know my teammate better. It seemed that once i was asleep we were woke up again at 5:30 to clean up and get moving on the day. Pretty brutal. By 6:15 we were off on another hike which seemed to last forever. Wire and I tried to keep our spirits up by talking about fantasy football and what we would do for a huge breakfast. We make it to the checkpoint only to see a river in our way. Along with the river are two long ropes and our leader tells us we have 40 minutes to get everyone across this 30ft wide river. I'm thinking great, its early, im tired hungry, and im going to be getting wet. A long story short, its up to me to get across in 2 minutes. Wire made it across nicely so im thinking this shouldn't be so bad. In the middle of the river its really wobbly and my knees are underwater. But everyone is cheering me on and its exciting to know that we will finish this difficult challenge. High fives all around but we are on to the next assignment very quickly. We complete the next quick assignment and that leads us to the beach of a very cold Danish lake.
Our leader is waiting at the lake and he explains that in order to get directions for the next assignment, we have to swim out into the lake and retried these bottles filled with instructions. Attached to the bottles are bricks so it requires 2 players per bottle. Everyone looks at each other with a smile and we all think there is no way of getting out of this. We quickly decide to go in our firewatch pairs the first pair strips down naked and runs into the water. Everyone begins stripping and deciding which bottle to go after. After the fact, Wire compared the scene to a True Blood moment when Erik Northman comes out of the water in his birthday suit. It was hard not to laugh. Before i know it im in my birthday suit and running into the water. For all the Cornell guys, It ain't gay. The water was freezing but it was hard not to laugh at the situation. Especially when i look behind me and see 4 more naked dudes running into the freezing water. It a pretty far swim and seems even further with the bottle and brick but we make it back to the beach just fine and happily put our clothes back on. Everyone is still laughing about the situation. What made this event special was that no one bitched about this at all and we attacked it as a team. I think a lot of teams in the states would have a couple guys saying no way. I think my Cornell teammates from past years for the most part would have jumped in the water the same way we did. I believe it's these little things that make a team strong and hopefully that will reflect on the court.
The last assignment was to find our way back to the gym which was about 5 km away. We thought about running but thank god we didn't. We were definitely glad it was over but it was a great way to meet everyone and get to know them on a personal level. This will make the first week of practice much easier. I am used to having close teammates coming Cornell and i assumed that would not be the case overseas. However, Wire and I are lucky that this group of guys is very welcoming, friendly, and curious about our lives. Hopefully these relationships grow and we can use that chemistry on the court and get some W's. Shout out to Randall. Well that's all i'm going to write for this one, i have a couple pictures and ill try to post them later. We are off to get signed up for some wireless and try and find a cheap bike to get around.
Skål,
aro
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Some Apartment Pictures
For all of you wanting to get a closer look at our apartment. There's a video but i dont know how to upload it.
living room pre-unpacking
wire's little room
balcony
view
bikes everywhere
bathroom needs work, tiling shower. that carpet there covers a huge hole too. gotta be careful
my room
living room pre-unpacking
wire's little room
balcony
viewbikes everywhere
bathroom needs work, tiling shower. that carpet there covers a huge hole too. gotta be careful
my roomFriday, September 2, 2011
My First Days
So I arrived yesterday around noon after a long day of travel and only one missed flight from Oslo to Copenhagen. I got to get a quick nap in then had practice, then got my first real taste of nightlife in Copenhagen. Couple of the fellas took me out for some of "probably the best beer in the world" Carlsberg. Then i got to actually ride one of my teammate's bikes home and proved the saying "just like riding a bike" completely wrong. ARO got in today and tomorrow we have a teambuilding trip where we will be spending the night in the forest with our Ex-Military leadership coach, so that should be interesting. We also can't bring food so a couple of the guys on the team have a strange feeling will be killing and eating a jack rabbit? Our teammate Peter claims we will have to snap its neck, skin it, gut it, and then cook and eat it so we'll see how that goes...so I'm gonna have to get my Bear Grylls on.
Skål,
Wire
Skål,
Wire
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
The Day is Here
Well, the adventure in Denmark starts in 24 hours. Wire is on the plane somewhere over the Atlantic while i wait until tomorrow at 9. Packing is a little hectic-pretty hard fitting your life in 3 suitcases. It's these days that i regret having big feet. My flight tomorrow is Newark--> Iceland --> Copenhagen so im hoping this "extra leg room" seat has plenty of extra for me. I'm definitely very excited to get going, but the nerves have been kicking in. I feel so lucky that i get to go with one of my best friends to a amazing city with an organization that has been nothing but friendly up until this point.
I figured that I would take a shot at blogging so i can keep whoever is interested updated on the happenings in Denmark. I bough a new camera so hopefully you end up seeing some nice pictures as well. I'll also see if i can get Wire to do some of his own posts and have some fun while doing this blog.
Alright back to packing but i hope to update later on this week.
Skål,
aro
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