Hi again! Lets take a little time and get everyone caught up with whats going on over here.
We have still been riding the winning train and remain undefeated. Here are the standings from league play about half way through the second round:
| Elitedivision Herrer | |||||||
| detaljeret stilling... | |||||||
| K | V | U | T | Sæt | P | ||
| 1 | Marienlyst | 13 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 39-4 | 26 |
| 2 | Middelfart VK | 15 | 13 | 0 | 2 | 41-10 | 26 |
| 3 | Gentofte Volley | 14 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 32-16 | 20 |
| 4 | Aalborg HIK | 13 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 21-26 | 12 |
| 5 | Hvidovre VK | 13 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 19-30 | 8 |
| 6 | Skovbakken Volley | 13 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 19-31 | 8 |
| 7 | Holte IF | 12 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 11-29 | 6 |
| 8 | Lyngby Volley | 13 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 3-39 | 0 |
We have a HUGE game this upcoming Sunday, and no Molly didn't step on the caps lock. This is a big game. It is the Danish Cup final vs Middelfart, where we expect to have +2,000 spectators. As you may remember we choked last year after a 2-0 sets lead, and this year we look to make things right. The game will be streamed live on the internet for free. The game is scheduled for a 4pm start in Denmark that means 9am start time for everyone back in Chicago. Do the math if you are somewhere else! So this gives you a nice warm up for the Bears game! You can watch your two favorite teams win championships, what more can you ask for on a cold Sunday in January? As soon as I find the link on the website I will post it so make sure to check my Facebook page again later in the week.
Christmas break was a blast. Joey, Schøler, and I rented a car and drove up to Norway to visit Joakim, a teammate from last years team, and do a little skiing and relaxing. We had a nice ride but the road conditions were not so kind. The car had summer tires on and it made the trip quite slow. Not until later did we find out that it's not even legal to drive in Norway without winter tires. Something we weren't prepared for, and the thought really never even crossed our minds. But we managed to make it all the way into Norway after driving for some 7 hours. We found Joakim's street and we just had 300m to go but the hill was to much for the car/tires. We could not get up the hill. We had gone so far and got so close but all the snow on the hill made it impossible to for us to climb. After 10 tries/failures we drove the car to Joakim's brothers house and left the car there because if we couldn't get up the hill to Joakim's parents house there would be absolutely no way we could make it to the cabin where we would be staying.
Joakim's parents were nice enough to let us borrow their car for the few days we were there and we arrived at the cabin about an hour later. The cabin was located in the middle of nowhere really surrounded by trees and about 150m from a lake. Talk about getting some peace and quiet. Joakim described the cabin as being very modest. It was true. There was no heat, hot water, or inside toilet. There was a wood burning stove and a fireplace that we had to keep going at all times in order to stay warm. The temperatures were dipping into the minus 25-30 degrees Celsius range which is pretty damn cold. The modesty of the cabin was a nice change of pace though, we had no distractions of computers, tvs, or cell phones. We just had a fire some food to cook in the fire and of course some ice cold øl to enjoy. The first night we were pretty tired from the drive so we ate/drank/talked a bit and called it an early night.
The next day we took a walk to the lake Minus 25 degrees the night before and I'm sure the 30 days before it were just as cold so the lake was frozen solid. Joakim brought 3 ice fishing poles and a giant ice drill, or as the late Billy Mays might call it "The Awesome Frozen Auger!" It was hard work spinning that bad boy through 6 inches of solid ice. Once we got three separate holes drilled we took out these tiny Fisher Price looking fishing poles and dropped the lure down into the dark abyss below. We asked Joakim what were the chances that we would catch something. He said slim to none. He had been out there for years and never caught anything! Oh and we were fishing without bait so the odds were definitely not in our favor. After 20 minutes we started to get cold so we packed up the fishing poles and decided to just take a walk on the lake and take in the scenery. It was a clear day and by then the sun was just setting (3:30pm) and it was a very cool scene.
Patiently Waiting for a Bite
Baby Fishing Poles
Frozen Lake
Suns Dips Behind the Trees at 3pm
It was starting to get dark and we wanted to get Joakim's neighbors sauna going so we headed back in off the ice. The sauna was another wood burning stove so it needed to be prepped and filled with plenty of wood. I was in charge of getting the fire raging inside and the other three were in charge of cutting a big enough hole in the ice to jump into in between sauna sessions. Both tasks took about 45 minutes. Once the temperature was reached in the sauna-shed the madness began. We had a big tub of ice water filled with beers so we could make sure we were hydrated properly! The heat was intense inside once water was applied to the rocks it was incredible. We lasted as long as possible then made a break for the lake. The water was of course very cold but we were so warm that wasn't such a huge problem. The biggest problem was running barefoot 30m through the snow. We could stay outside for upwards of 15 minutes as long as our feet were off the ground and mind you it was at least -15 C outside. We repeated this for about 2 hours, well actually time wasn't a factor we ran out of beer, so the beer lasted for two hours is more accurate.
After we made some dinner. We had some pitas that we grilled on the fire that were filled with cheese, bacon, and/or ham. They were pretty good after we got the hang of how to cook them and not burn the bread. We also had some smores. No graham crackers but we had a close enough substitute.
The next day was our ski day. We drove up to Kongsberg. Same place that I went with Joakim last year so I was familiar with it. The other three guys snowboarded and I used skis. It took Joe and Schøler a while to get the hang of the boards so me and Joak made a few extra runs in the beginning but after a few more they were keeping up with us and we all were able to stay together for the rest of the day. It was sooooo cold. The first time I went down my exposed face almost peeled off. Only one time down we had to go back to the ski shop and get some ski-masks. My eye lashes were freezing shut when I closed my eyes it was that cold. All in all it was an awesome day, we had a blast.
Drive in to Kongsberg
There were Icicles hanging from my eyelashes!
A big thanks to the Larsen's for letting us bunk up at the cabin and again for using the car. Without it we never would have been able to do anything. Tak!
Christmas was also a great time. Sad to not be home for the holidays, but I was in good hands over here for the holidays. Christa's parents had a Christmas dinner on the 24th. Where we had a great dinner, danced around the tree singing Christmas carols, and opened presents. The following day there was another party at Christa's parents friends house Per and Helle. Joey took the train to Middelfart and came along with us for this one. We had many types of food. Many beers and of course Snaps shots. Snaps Akvavit is the traditional liquor that Danes drink at Christmas time. It is a strong booze not the smoothest shot in the world with a hint of a piney finish. I would never buy it and drink it for pleasure but, but what can you do it's tradition. The 25th is a big night for people to go out to the city after dinner so we headed into the city like everyone else. Normal night nothing out of the ordinary other than at the end of the night it was impossible to get a taxi. The next day there was yet another party. Yes that is right three in a row. This one was a Christmas lunch in Abenraa at Christa's fathers sisters house. Which is south Jutland. The lunch is a lot of bread and fish followed by cheese and bread. There is a lot of food, Christmas beers, and of course Snaps again. It was a great three days lots of celebrating.
New years eve celebration came next. Schøler hosted a NYE party. There was about 15 people there for the duration of the night. At midnight just like every year the streets erupted with fireworks. I thought ze Germans were coming! It was an impressive sight. The sky wasn't as clear as last year but you could still see legit fireworks in a complete 360 turn all around us. It was a fun New Years.
Thanks for checking in. If anyone wants to contact me you can call/text me at (708) XXX-XXXX. I don't have voice mail so maybe it would be best to text and I can get back to you. Hope to hear from some of you guys back home. And remember to check back in a few days I will post the Pokal Final live web feed address which again will be this Sunday at 9am CST! All for now.
