Amsterdam- Day 1

Last night was our first night in Amsterdam. Our Hotel is pretty cool. It’s older, in European Fashion, with tight staircases that end up almost vertical near the top floor. I’m rooming with Thunder. He’s a pretty cool guy, to be sure. Super nice and just a great guy. 

We woke up this morning for breakfast in the bar downstairs. Contrary to what you may be thinking, it was not a breakfast-and-a-pint kind of morning. It was pretty decent though- cereal, hard boiled eggs, ham, cheese, bread, coffee, orange juice… the usual. After that we had our first walk through style practice. Basically we walked to a field in our helmets and gloves and walked through some of our systems. Unfortunately it was on a super lumpy field, so my ankles were put to the test a little bit. Post walk through was a quick lunch with Thunder and some of the guys. We went to a nearby supermarket and got ourselves some buns and some sandwich meat. Thunder opted for the fresh strawberries as well and that was just a fantastic decision. 

We then had a scrimmage practice with Team Finland. We did some offence versus defense and some man-up versus man-down followed by a full field scrimmage for about 20 minutes or so. There’s been some definite improvement although it becomes apparent that guys get a bit jumpy when we get into real game situations. Overall, it was a good effort, but a few too many dropped balls and mental mistakes.

On a side note though, how cool is that. I played against the Finnish national lacrosse team. Lets just take a moment to think about that.

Moments over. But seriously, it was cool. They even had a guy who looked like a Viking, a legit Viking. He had shoulder length brown/black hair with a big mustache, that grew into a goatee. He was also massive meaning I tried to avoid him whenever I was stuck out on D (Yes, Dad I actually played some defense. We went over it a lot in practice with the offensive midfielders having to play on the back end). A couple guys also had dreads, making them look very [insert word here].

All in all, it’s getting easier to play with the team. I think everyone is getting more comfortable so we do look better and better as long as everyone focuses and sticks to the play book despite the fact that the playbook has numerous (and by numerous I mean thousands) of plays.

I’m having a great time, getting really excited to start the tournament on Thursday against the Swiss. Remember the Titans is also on TV, which automatically raises my overall level of jacked upness to a much increased level.

Off to dinner! I promise I’ll try and start writing a little more frequently. 

Just Leo, Corey, and Reginald chilling in the corner of my room.

I forgot to get a converter for the Netherlands, so I had to borrow Thunder's and use my UK converter to convert my North American charging cords in order to use the Dutch converter. In other words, a converter on converter.

Song of the Day:
Roadside- Rise Against
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLmTJpnqxj4