Saturday, May 9, 2009

1st meeting with the Finnish National Team

     Today was our first day working with the Finnish National Team.  This team is comprised of the best players in Finland from all over the country.  They are training for international competition for the 2010 World Championships.  We did a lot of drill work with them today including a fair amount of contact drills.  Our scrimmage with them is set up for 11am tomorrow morning, and I am anticipating a tough challenge for the Crocodiles.  
      The day started off on the wrong path for me today as Ben and I had some alarm clock troubles.  We set our alarm last night and then plugged it in to the 220/110 electric converter.  Over the course of the night, the converter caused the time to be off by nearly 2 hours.  I had some meetings set up with the Finnish National Team coaches for around 10:00.  So I was unpleasantly surprised when there was a knock at the door at what I thought was 8:30 am.  As it turned out, it was really 10:30 am and I was already more than a half hour late for the meetings.  The team manager was barking at us and telling us to hurry up and get ready.  We hurriedly made it to our facility and I had a quick meeting with their coaches while apologizing for the mishap.  The day would get worse as the rain came down in buckets and we got 5 or 6 guys banged up.  I spent 2 hours in a Finnish hospital as one of our British linebackers hurt his shoulder badly and we thought it might be broken.  Thankfully, it wasn't fractured and we might be able to get him back before too long.  The one thing I found interesting about the hospital here was seeing the nurses move through the hallways of the hospital on bicycle scooters.  I have never seen anything like that.  Apparently, it is a way for them to move quickly from room to room in the emergency area.  
      I also have some other new developments here.  My apartment is now equipped with high speed internet and I now have use of a car for the season.  I will take some pictures of the new ride and try and post them tomorrow.  Hopefully, the weather will be better tomorrow and I can post some pictures  from the scrimmage too.

                           Lights out.

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