Välkomnande, Tervetullut, and Welcome to my blog. So far everything is going really well in Finland! I landed in Kokkola and literally went straight from the plane to practice. It went really well and the team looks good. Most of the girls on my team can speak some english but almost all of them speak swedish; there are only a few girls that do not know any english and only speak Finnish. The head coach speaks finnish at practices and knows very little english. Practices have been fun, but I am lost at times, I never know what the coach is saying, but the girls are really good at translating for me. Overall it is a professional environment. Its funny if we wear the wrong thing to practice or if we are not early to practice the club can fine us! The newest rule is that if we do not celebrate after we score a goal then we will be fined. (I like this rule) It is definitly a different world over here. I am always around foreigners in the U.S., now it is weird being the foreigner! I think I now know how they felt when they first came to the U.S. 
Jamie, Lawerence and I had to do a photo shoot for the Kokkola cup brochure.
My first game was a home game. It was indoors; the Fins play their games inside until the fields are ready outside. We have a full field indoor facility we play at; it has stands on one side and we had a decent crowd come out. I did not know what to expect in my first game. The warm up was differnt than what I am used to. We started in the locker room; jamming out to some finnish/swedish music, then we go out to the field to jog a little. After, we go back into the locker room and the coach announces the starting lineup (I was on the list and I was little nervous but really excited) The coach goes over what he expects out of the team and each player starting. Then we go back out onto the field and do some speed ladders and passing sequences. Once we are done with that, it is back to the locker room to put on our game jerseys. Warm up is really short here! The starters then line up and we walk out with the other team. As we are walking out onto the field they play our team song. The song is pretty sweet and when I get it on my computer I will post it. There seems to be a ton of different formalities and traditions here. I love them all. So far in the season we are 3-1-0. I feel like im really starting to click with the girls on and off the field. Everyone is really coming along and I think we are going to have a great season! Our last game was a cup game and it was on my birthday. We won 5-0. It was a great birthday present :) Here is the team website. http://www.gbk.fi/ I will be posting more updates about the games soon.
On an off the field note, I am living with another American on my team. :) Her name is Jamie. She is awesome and is our goalkeeper; she is really good! When I first got here we lived with a host family until we got our appartment. They have five kids. Their names our Max, Ebba, Elis, Otto, and Mindy. (Ebba, Otto, and Elis are in the picture) They are all great and they can speak english really well. I am very impressed with them and they have even taught me more swedish! The whole family is really into soccer; everyone here is really into soccer... Instead of basketball courts on the playgrounds, there are soccer goals everywhere. I love it! The kids are always playing. The family is so nice and they are always making me eat; which is not a bad thing ;) The food and meals are very differnt compared to the U.S. but its a good thing I was always around Swedes in Florida and that I lived with one :) I am used to sandwhiches for breakfast, lots of cheese, cucumbers, coffee, different types of fish, meat sauses, and amazing chocolate and candy. Also, Finnish people love ice cream! It's everywhere. I read in the newspaper here that Finnish people eat the most icecream out of all of Europe. Crazy!
Now we are living in the apartment. It is pretty big and really nice. The team had almost all of the furniture in storage but Ulla (the team mom) brought us shopping to get everything else we needed. She is the best! Ulla cant speak any english; it was confusing in the store at times... One time I thought she asked if I wanted a tea pot, so I said yes and then she brougt Jamie and I to the front of the store and we had lunch. haha I never knew what was going on but I had so much fun and now I have a very broad furniture swedish vocabulary. It was a great and a very successful day.
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| This is our living room and we have a balcony :) |
There have been so many new experiences already and I feel like I have so much more to write. In just the little time Ive been here I have already played three games, got a bike, a Finnish phone, a bank account, moved into an apartment, went to ikea in sweden, and I saw four raindeer and a moose. Everything is really starting to come together. That is all for now but there will be many more updates coming soon!
Hejda!
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