Sunday Juha,
Tatu, Coach and I went to Tampere
to scout Kuopio. We play them next Saturday. Stan
and a couple Pori Bears also planned on meeting me at the game. We spent the afternoon just talking and complaining
about how crappy their field was so I didn’t get much scouting in. Kuopio
is very big, they ran the ball just about every play, when they did pass it they were intercepted or it was incomplete.
So the scouting report we came up with is to throw 9 guys in the box and make them throw it. I hope to play some corner
cusp we're going to man up on the receivers. Offensively we will spread them out and throw like crazy.
Monday I had
a doctor’s appt. and he told me not to play. I didn’t like that decision so I got a second opinion and the
sports medicine guy told me since I never had a headache or nausea that I could play if I would just take the week off prior.
So as of today I plan on playing.
Food
I have gotten
over the newness of this place a little and now I really really miss the food back home. There are some pretty good
restaurants but nothing like chipotle, bone daddy’s, Chili's, Huds, R&C, or even Arby's for that matter...Chop Chop,
Kabuki, Hummers....Ah I miss it all but only 3 more months haha.
My favorite
thing so far, other than Arnold's donuts, is the
pizza from a local joint here. There is a large Turkish population that lives here and they can cook a pretty solid
pizza. Scanburger (one of the places I eat free) always seems to provide a good meal too. Hailee cooks a home
meal everyday and serves it buffet style. She is a dang good cook and she looks out for me. I wasn’t eating
well the first few days, so she took it upon herself to call my coach and tell him. She was concerned that I didn’t
like the food, but it was just that I hadn’t gotten adjusted to the time change and wasn’t hungry. Lately
she has cooked several good dishes... today she had a potato and ham dish that was amazing and the other was a hamburger steak
(i think) with gravy that was to die for! Mix that in with my daily donut from Arnolds, my Kaakou from Coffee House,
and Augusto's burritos for dinner and I had a pretty solid day of eating. Still miss American food though!
Coffee
House
The coffee
house is like my second home. I spend hours up there everyday. I usually meet up with Juha or Aku and we see someone
else there everyday. The girls are beginning to know me little by little and now they dont laugh as hard
when I miss pronounce Kaakau (hot chocolate). I drink that usually everyday or a coke and we just sit and talk,
watch the people or I play on my computer. The whole Manski has internet which is sweet!
Smoking/Drinking
The culture
difference is amazing here! Two of the big differences are smoking and drinking. Everyone (and I am generalizing)
smokes and drinks here. Drinking age is 18 and I dunno if there is a smoking age. But it is common to see a group
of high school age kids sitting in the park with a dozen or so cases of beer. It is Legal to drink on the streets, and
in the car. As long as you are not driving drunk you are not breaking the law. Also, smoking is so common.
It seems like I see kids, as young as 12 or 13, smoking on the streets. Not only that, but my teammates smoke, receivers
too, which seems so hard. It shocked me the first time I saw these guys light up during halftime of the game last week!
It calms them down, as long as it helps I guess. It was also funny when I was driving around with Mikko last week and
a guy pulled up beside us and made a gesture like he was smoking, Mikko then whipped in behind him and we followed him to
a parking lot, they got out smoked a cig, talked, and then we got back in the car and left. That is just a social activity
that I have never seen. Literally there for minutes so they could smoke together then we were on our way!
