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