Week 9's weather has been the best since I got here. That is very good news. Not only was it nice weather for 2 days in a row but it got up to 5 days in a row of nice weather. Finland is showing me something in the last month of my stay.
On Tuesday we started the Madden Olympics. Scott and I were representing the U.S. and Kimi for Finland. Well, the U.S.A won this battle and we blew Kimi out of the water. In one game against Scott, Kimi got up and left after a 35-0 halftime score. So the U.S. won this battle and is up 1-0. More Madden Olympics later in the entry.
On Wednesday Scott and I didn't actually go to hockey camp, but we went to a practice facility of a junior hockey team. We were there with Coach Sepa and we taught the kids how to play American Football. Some of them already knew how to play or at least some of the rules. Overall, they had a great time and were enjoying every minute of it.
Sepa did most of the explaining to them in Finnish and me and Scott helped out where we could. They started with throwing the football, then by the end of the day they were playing 5 on 5 flag football. It was neat to see them pick up the sport so fast. Plus, it was the first day in Finland that I actually thought it was hot outside. There had been days where it was warm, but Wednesday was hot. It was good to be outside and sweating a little bit. There are pictures on the side and below.
On Thursday, we went to the beach. Coach Sepa started his vacation this week so we went to the beach with him. We went to a nice little summer town called Naantali. He said the town is empty in the winter, but in the summer it is full. Again, almost everyone in Finland has a summer home. The little town was real nice right on the water; it had some restaurants, shops, a little harbor, and its own beach. This place is so nice that the President of Finland has her summer home right across the water. (She can take a boat over to Naantali which would be about a 2 minute boat ride. And yes, the President of Finland is a woman. You can see a very distant picture of her summer mansion below.) We walked past all the restaurants and went to the beach; it was another beautiful day. After we were in the sun for a bit it was time to take a dip in the sea. It was ice cold. Sepa called it "refreshing," I called it "ice cold." But we still got in and it was okay once your body got use to it. It was just really nice to get to a beach and be in the sun.
On Friday, we went to a beach again, but not the same one. Kimi took us to one of Ruissalo's beaches. Ruissalo is an island right next to Turku and it is the island which had the Ruisrock music festival. This beach didn't have a little town with it, but is more of a public beach where you can park and walk to it. It has beach volleyball nets too. Friday was nice, but we weren't there too long because we had a game the next day.
On Saturday, we snuck by the Crocs for the second time by one point. Read that game review here.
On Sunday, we promised Sepa we would go back to the beach again. We went to Ruissalo so we could battle in some sand volleyball. This day was just as nice as the past 4. Now the water was getting used to the warm weather as well and warmed up a bit, so it wasn't as bad. Ruissalo's water has a lot of mud and rocks underneath, so it isn't as nice as the sandy beaches and waters of Florida. But still not bad. Sepa met up with one of his friends there so we could battle in sand volleyball. I guess we could add this to the Olympics as well. Shockingly, the older Finns took down the young Americans in the first two games. Miscommunication and unorganized serve receive killed the American squad; however, we would battle back. After a swim and a little break we went back at it again. This time the young Americans proved to have learned from their mistakes a few hours previous and won both games. Everyone was pretty tired, so we called it a draw. After that Kimi showed up and we bumped the ball with him a bit as well.
After the beach Kimi took us to his restaurant for some drinks and some hot wings. In the meantime, Offensive Coordinator Hatsa called and wanted us to come over for a Barbeque. So Kimi dropped us off at Hatsa's where him, Rio, and Mikko were waiting on us with a ton of food. They went to the grocery store after a long day at the horse racing track and bought tons of food. You know you are never supposed to go to the grocery store when you are hungry. But they did. They had cheesy garlic potatoes, pork steak, chicken breast, bacon mushrooms, garlic bread, another type of steak, sausages with sauerkraut, and a dessert. Needless to say, the five of us didn't eat all that food and we were stuffed.
Then we decided to continue the Madden Olympics. In the first game, I faced Hatsa and he took me down in a massive upset. (Random team selection with 2 min qtrs.) Then Mikko took down Scott in another upset. I beat Rio. Then in the biggest upset of the night Hatsa took out Scott. In that last game, since it was only 2 minute quarters, Hatsa kept the ball the entire 1st half and scored with only seconds left. By this time we realized the 2 minute qtrs was not a good idea. Therefore, Finland won the second battle of the Madden Olympics. Although the U.S. team may protest this round since the 2 min qtrs was an unfair setting rule. More on Madden Olympic news in weeks to come....
That pretty much summed up the week. It was a very good week since the weather heated up and actually felt like summer. We got to go to the beach 3 times this week... that was huge.
This coming weekend we play the Pori Bears who are now in second last place. The team has already played them once, but it was the week before Scott and I got here. After the Pori game there is only one regular season game left before the semi-final and final games...
