Impressions of Finland

Well, I finally made it to Finland and I have been staying busy over the past 3 days. I have been having meetings with the team management, meeting many new players and practicing in our indoor dome facility. I have also had some time for experiencing my first Finnish sauna, eating some reindeer (sorry Rudolph) and other Finnish foods which I have yet to learn to pronounce. It has been a really interesting experience thus far. We are looking for more ways to continue to grow the football team over here and to continually find more sponsors for the organization. I was interviewed today by the main Finnish newspaper here in the city and they asked a lot of questions about American football and why I chose to come to Finland.
I must admit that I feel comfortable here and they have made me feel very welcome. There are some very talented players on the squad and also many younger guys who need more work on their technique and fundamentals. That is part of what will make it a great challenge here. There are a lot of opportunities to teach and work with players who are eager to keep learning the game. We should have around 45 guys on our team when everybody reports for camp in early May. When I come back over in early May, we will only have about 12 days before our first game. There is so much yet to teach and put in, so I will have to hit the ground running when I return in two months. I think the language will be tough to learn, but I am willing to give it a go. In fact, I already know more Finnish than French!!
Tomorrow will be a full day of practices and meetings and then I will board a train for Helsinki in the late afternoon to begin my long journey home. I have had a good stay, but I really miss my family. I believe they are really going to enjoy their time here this summer. The management here including Timo, Eero, and Mika have really gone out of their way to make my stay an awesome experience, so I want to take this opportunity to thank them again. I have taken some pictures and I will get those posted when I get back. I will also continue with a few more posts about this journey when I return. I have had some experiences that I am looking forward to sharing on the blog, so stay tuned. Lights out.

Napolean and I both got smashed at Waterloo.

Well, this is the best title I could come up with to describe my situation on Sunday. I woke up early Sunday morning and worked out in the hotel fitness center, had a quick swim. I then spent about an hour catching up on emails and the blog which all got erased when their computer network went down. I decided to get dressed, check out of the hotel, and then head for the train station. I took the train out to Brussels airport where I picked up my rental car. I ordered an economy car, but the man was out of economy models. Therefore, he gave me a Cadillac. Now, this is not a cadillac like you might find in the states. It was certainly a nice car, but it was probably about the size of a ford tempo. I was not very delighted to get this so called upgrade because one of the things I have learned about traveling overseas is that I DO NOT want to draw attention to myself. Anyway, I also rented a GPS and then I was on my way. I had a few hours before the Brussels Bulls played their game, so I decided to drive the 20 or so kilometers out to visit the battlefields of Waterloo. I have a great interest in the American civil war and World War II, but I decided that a quick visit to Waterloo was a good way to educate myself about this time period in European history. Even with the GPS, the battlefield and memorials were difficult to find because I did not have a street address. I finally found my way around 12:30, so I parked my car in a tourist lot about 200 yards from the attractions. I had about an hour and a half to visit the small museum and walk up to the Lions head monument. I finished up with my sightseeing about 2 and headed back to the car. When I got back to the car, I could not believe my eyes. The rear side passenger window had been completely smashed out of my car and all my belongings were gone. My belongings included all my clothes, work papers, football folders, playbooks, and drill notebooks that I have collected over the last 6 years. The only things they did not get were my wallet, passport, and camera. I was in shock to say the least. I soon realized that 4 other cars had suffered the same fate as me. Some had lost handbags, cellphones, house keys, etc... An American man let me use his cellphone, so I called the rental car company right away and told them about the incident. They recommended that I get a police report. The police do not come out to you here unless someone is dying or dead, so I had to follow a Dutch couple to the police station in Waterloo. The first one was closed, so we had to go and find the other station. After we reached the station, the next problem soon revealed itself. The police station was in Belgium, but the officers at the station only spoke French. One of the victims spoke the language, so he was able to get taken care of. One other lady knew enough to get by so they took her back in the office next. Third in line was the couple from Holland. They spoke Dutch, English, and German, but not French. They were frustrated with the arrogance of the officers so they left to go back to the Netherlands. And then there was me. My French consists of a few basic words like rendevouz, Renault, frommage, and of course, fries. These words do not get you far in a situation like this. Basically, I did a lot of pointing and sign language to get my story across. After about 15 minutes of frustration, a guy who looked like Larry the Cable Guy came on duty. He spoke a little English and said he would take care of me. He led me up some steps into some large offices where I sat down to fill out a report. He was nice enough to contact my car rental company for me and explain what he knew of the story. The fact of the matter is that this kind of thing happens often in Europe. They do not have the proliferation of violent crime as we do in the states, but break-ins and theft are a major problem. Pickpockets on trains and in the city squares are especially problematic. I finally finished my report and realized I now had missed most of the football game in Brussels. I drove back to the car rental agency and picked up another car just before they closed and then drove out to catch the last quarter of the Bulls game. It was hard to concentrate and enjoy the game as my eyes were fixated on the car the whole time. Anyway, the Bulls won the game and I went down and congratulated Coach Moreels before heading off in another direction. I was now ready to drive down south to Bastogne. Hopefully, tomorrow would be a better day. There was only one problem going into the next day. When the thieves had stolen everything from me, that included my medication. My medication is the blood thinners which I have been taking for the past year. I wanted to enjoy myself the next day, but I knew I had to find a way to get some medication to help me cope with my blood clots. That would turn out to be another challenge. Lights out.

Alive and well in Brussels

I arrived in Amsterdam a bit early on Saturday morning, so I was able to catch a fast intercity train to Belgium within minutes of getting off the plane. The train took a mere two and a half hours to get to Brussels, so I decided to do a little wandering around the city before checking into my hotel. Brussels is a beautiful city and the architecture really grabs hold of you as you wander from street to street. The Grand Place area is especially spectacular with large spires on many of the buildings and ornate scenes of many themes represented on each structure with great artistic detail. One is surrounded by chocolate shops and waffle stands at every turn. After a few hours of walking around and getting acquainted with the city, I headed back to my hotel. Once I checked in, it was nearly time to meet with Coach Lesley Moreels from the Brussels Bulls football team. Lesley and I met at the hotel and then he took me on another brief tour of the city. Coach Moreels is the president and coach of the Bulls. He is very passionate about American football and he started his own team from scratch about 4 years ago. He has over 40 players on his senior squad and his junior team is really developing well too. Lesley has two American import players on the squad and 9 coaches, of which a few are American as well. We went out for dinner at Brussels Grill and the experience was typical of the non-rushed meals that I have come to apreciate over in Europe. We probably talked about football and life for nearly 3 hours before finishing . Finally, after a potent espresso to cap off the evening, Lesley gave me directions to the stadium where his team would be playing the next day. All in all, a good first day to my trip had begun. Lights out.

Spinning my wheels....

Well, I'm on the road again - or I will be in a few minutes. My first flight was delayed yesterday due to a huge snowstorm here in the Midwest. I finally gave up waiting after 7 hours, rented a car and drove home. I'm booked on the same flights again today so hopefully I have better luck. Stay tuned. Lights Out.

Getting ready to go

Today was a very busy day as I wrapped up my teaching responsibilities for the week, finished my midterm grades, and tried to pull all of my travel info. and itineraries together for the next 10 days. I've spent the last couple of evenings at the gym with the kids playing some basketball and teaching them some passing routes. My 9 year old daughter now understands how to run an effective flag route and she is very proud of that accomplishment!! Tonight was family game night at the Slivoskey household, so we spent about 45 minutes playing their favorite game Cranium. The game requires one to utilize his or her artistic creative side, and my kids enjoy witnessing their father's futile efforts to make objects with clay or draw various clues for the game!!
It is nearly 2am now and I received word earlier this evening that my first flight has already been cancelled. I won't be flying to Boston after all. I will now be flying out of Aberdeen tomorrow afternoon and then direct from Minneapolis to Amsterdam. The weather here is supposed to get rough, so I may have some trouble getting out of the midwest. I am going to attempt to do some posts while I'm on the road, and also get plenty of pictures up on the blog site. I look forward to meeting my new players and the staff and coaches of the Seinajoki Crocodiles. The only negative of the trip for me is not seeing my family for 10 days. The kids have really grown to love traveling and they seem a bit disappointed that they are not going along. Well, I am going to sign off for now. It is nearly morning and I still have some packing to do. Lights out.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Well, I'm getting prepared to leave for my trip to Finland. I will be leaving the states in just 2 more days. My trip will take me to Amsterdam, Holland and then I will board a high speed train and travel down to Belgium for 3 days. I am meeting up with some coaches in Brussels and scouting a European League Football game just outside the city. I also plan on meeting up with my boss from the college and one of my colleagues from our teacher ed. department They will be traveling over there during our spring break to teach some classes at a Theological seminary in Brussels. The last part of my travels in Belgium involves going down to Bastogne for a day to visit some World War II battle sites, memorials, and museums. I am a big WWII history buff, so this is right down my alley. The area around Bastogne is where the Battle of the Bulge took place as Hitler made one final offensive to defeat the Allied forces. Many Americans lost their lives in and around this rugged area of Belgium known as the Ardennes. Some of you may have seen the series "Band of Brothers", which is based on the experiences of the soldiers who fought in this area. After my time in Belgium, I will be heading back up to Amsterdam to fly out to Helsinki, Finland. I have one night there and then the team is flying me up to Seinajoki for a visit and a 3 day minicamp. I am excited about visiting Finland and getting to meet the other coaches and many of our players. We have a series of meetings and practices planned over these 3 days, so it should keep me fairly busy. The visit to Finland will also help me get acquainted with the area where we'll be living for the summer. I'm hoping that I will have some decent weather on this trip, so I can take in some sights and not have any issues with my travel itinerary. I had some rough weather when I visited western Europe about 3 years ago to visit my friends Darryl and Alex. It was a true planes, trains, and automobiles experience. It goes a little something like this.
I flew into Munich, Germany in late February and the weather was fairly rough on the way in. My friends picked me up and we spent a very dreary day visiting Dachau. Dachau was a former concentration camp used by the Nazi party in WWII. The Nazis imprisoned, worked, tortured, and executed many Jewish citizens. It was a very somber experience. After our time there, we spent a day or two in Farchant, Germany, which is a quaint little village in the German Alps where my friends lived. Alex left to visit her family in Italy and Darryl and I returned to Munich to catch a flight to Poland. We had decided to fly up to Krakow to spend a few days getting acquainted with the city. On the day we were supposed to fly out, the weather really turned for the worse. Our flight to Poland kept getting delayed and the snow just kept on falling. Flights were getting canceled as the day wore on. We finally boarded the small aircraft in the late afternoon, but the weather just wasn't letting up. We sat on the plane for over an hour and watched them de-ice the aircraft. Finally, they decided to cancel our flight because visibility was so bad and a Russian airliner had skidded off the runway. We got off the airplane and the scene back in the airport was complete chaos. There were hundreds of people everywhere who were stranded. Lines snaked for what seemed like miles as people tried to get rerouted or put on any flight that might get them where they wanted to go. All flights ended up being cancelled and the airport ended up cancelling all flights again the next day as the worst snow storm in 50 years descended upon Western Europe. Darryl and I endured one long line, got a refund on our tickets and resolved to try Poland another time. Our gameplan was to take the tram to the train station and then take a train back to his home in Farchant. This would normally take just over an hour by train. We got tickets for the tram and then rode this to a station where we would pick up our train in about 20 minutes or so. When we walked outside to the boarding area, there was a train on the other side of the tracks that was full of people, but not going anywhere. The wind had now picked up and temperatures were well below 0 with the windchill. It continued to snow as we waited, but nothing was moving. We waited and waited and waited and finally gave up after about 2 hours of standing outside. It was now late at night and word spread that all the trains had stopped running because there was so much snow. We decided to leave and wander into Munich to see if we could find some accomodations. Finally, we located a hotel in the city center and rented there last available room. The next morning we tried to get a train, but the city was absolutely shut down. We decided to eat lunch in a local Italian restaurant and ponder our next move. About this time, we ran into one of Darryl's co-workers in the restaurant. We devised a plan to find a taxi driver who might brave the conditions and drive us back to Darryl's house. Darryl's colleague Henry also lived in this area. The only problem was the weather and the fact that Darryl lived about 55 miles away. Much of the trip would be on the autobahn, but what kind of taxi driver would be willing to take this on? After helping a few taxi's get out of some snowdrifts, we posed the question to one young driver. Surprisingly, he said yes. The three of us combined our money and off we went. We dropped one girl off in the city and then headed for our destination. The roads were treacherous, but our driver seemed to be fearless. He had fought in the war in Yugoslavia about 6-7 years before, had spent time in prison, and had now emigrated to Germany to be a race car driver, uh, I mean taxi driver. We were doing 70-80 mph on the autobahn on snowy ice covered roads!! The driver spoke some broken German, so I pleaded with my buddy to inform him to please slow down because I wanted to see my wife and kids again. He would slow down for a few minutes and then periodically had to be reminded again that we really did value our lives. After what seemed like an eternity, but was really only about an hour, we reached our destination. It had been a long few days, but we had survived this whole ordeal. This is one plane/train/automobile trip that I hope I never have to repeat. Lights out.

Search for authenticity

I will continue over the next few days with a few more travel stories, but I decided to take a time-out from that and post on something that I have been thinking about more lately. I have been asking myself more as of late, "what constitutes an authentic life?" If I am honest with myself, I must admit that the decision to go to Finland is about more than just an opportunity to coach football overseas and live out a sort of adventure. The pace of my life here in the states, especially over the last 6 years could best be described as a whirlwind. My roller coaster lifestyle has left very little time for reflection. I began to feel very empty, drained, and my existence was defined by a continual "list of obligations, pressures, and things to do." I knew things were out of balance and my family and I needed a change. Working 70+ hours a week and not eating right, sleeping much, or getting enough quality time to spend with my family left me feeling that a change had to be made. I had lost touch with myself and that included my dreams, passions, and energy for life. The culture we live in justifies all of this behavior because working and staying busy is how we too often define ourselves or measure our self worth. Where was the joy in my life? I have to admit most of the people I was around were miserable too. I was allowing myself to live in a box that I had created and much of what I was experiencing daily was self-imposed. Nobody was holding a gun to my head and demanding that I carry on living this way. The reason I continued down this dark road is that I got comfortable even when living in dysfunction. My desire to be a people pleaser probably also contributed to the mess I was in. I was always taking on more at work, and then I was the one who would suffer for it. The decision to change had to come from within. I realized that I needed to awaken and begin to swim upstream against the current. My goals were actually quite simple. I wanted to create more time for personal reflection, live a more simple life, get outside and explore nature and all that God has created, tap into my passions and creativity, and reconnect with my family in a deeper and more lasting way. Many of these ideals are what Henry David Thoreau was searching for when he went to live at Walden Pond in 1845. Thoreau felt that outside forces dull and subjugate the inner man, especially materialism and constant labor. He emphasized the importance of surmounting the obstacles that materialistic society places in the path of the individual. When he made his journey to Walden, he sought self-improvement and a desire to cultivate his intellectual and spiritual needs. The world we live in and the busyness we are all a part of can really choke and suppress what we might be. Essentially, I am talking about living more in the present and leading a more deliberate life. I definitely don't claim to have life figured out by any means, but I have noticed a difference since I decided to put the brakes on. I feel very grateful for all the people in my life including my family and friends. I am so proud of my children and Estalita and sometimes I just can't contain all the love I feel for them. I'm sure struggles are still going to come our way like they always have, but I'm hopeful that our new path will bring about greater insight, inspiration, and appreciation of this journey that we are on. Yes, I have chosen to be a coach in Finland, but even more importantly, I am on a quest to live a more deliberate and authentic life. I just want to encourage you today to chase after the life that you feel called to live. The culture you live in will always tell you that you need more "things" to make you happy. Here is a short story that illustrates the contentment and fulfillment that can be attained through living a simple life. The story also illustrates how others/society will try and influence us to pursue principles or ideals that have less meaning and significance.

How Much is Enough?

The American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fishermen docked. Inside the small boat were several large fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied only a little while.

The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked, “ but what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fishermen said, “ I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life.”

The American scoffed, “ I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.

The Mexican fisherman asked, “ But how long will all this take?’

To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”

“But what then?”

The American laughed and said that’s the best part. “When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”

“Millions?” asked the fisherman, “Then what?”

The American said, “ Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evening, sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos!”

Author Unknown

Lights out.