Veselé Vánoce

That’s Czech for Merry Christmas if you haven’t figured that out already. I should tell you a little about what I have learned and experienced with the Czech Christmas traditions. First off on December 5th an andel, čert, and Mikolauš come around to the children and give them candy if they have been good. In English it’s an angel, devil and kind of like a Santa Claus. The children believe in these three characters kind of like how (some) kids in North America believe in Santa Claus. It’s really funny though as the devil carries around a big sack and threatens the children that if they have been bad then he will put them in the sack, but he usually just gives them a lump of coal.

Now as for the Christmas Day celebrations here in the Czech Republic that actually happens on the 24th not the 25th. Why I’m not sure. They do give presents but instead of Santa giving them they are told that they are gifts from baby Jesus. They typically have a huge meal in the evening, open presents, and then head to a midnight mass.

Now here’s where it gets interesting...the traditional meal is fish and not just any fish - carp. Now from what I know I would not consider carp a delicacy or something that I would consider special. More like they are bottom feeders in lakes and contain many bones in them. According to what I’ve been told the carp here have been farm raised, I guess that should make me feel better. Now where would you get these fish you might ask. The grocery store? Nope, you can get them right on the street. That’s right, about December 20ish or so people come with big tubs containing live carp and just set up on the side of the street. People come pick out their fish or more like the weight they want and then they kill it and filet it right there on the spot for them. I was Christmas shopping the other day, and was walking down the street with my head down and all of a sudden I heard a big THUMP! What the heck...just a guy killing a fish with a mallet. Crazy I tell you! Here are some pictures of the process of it all, and a video of it. I actually can't get the video up and running at the moment but will try again later today.



There can be quite the line up



Notice the fish scales and "stuff" on the street

The Never Ending Road Trip

Day 1:
My day started way too early at 5:30am. We were to be at the rink at 6:30am so we could be on the road by 7am. The destination for the day was Slovenia, not to be confused with Slovakia. Where is that you ask? Well it’s south of Austria and east of Italy if that helps you out. We were to play Maribor a team in our European Hockey league. After about 10 hours and a couple of bad Czech movies later we arrived in Maribor for our game. From the ten hours long bus trip I have to admit that my legs were in horrible shape, and I don’t think I have had a more terrible first period than I did that game. Finally in the third period I felt them come back to me. We ended up squeezing out a win coming from behind to beat them 4-3. From here we were off to Kranj, the site of our next game the following day. Why we just didn’t spend the night in Maribor I’m not sure. Kranj was where we were playing but not actually spending the night as we were to stay in the resort town of Bled. We finally get to our hotel at around 1:30am, but not before first going to the wrong rink to drop off our equipment, finally heading to the correct rink then waiting another half an hour as they forgot to bring the key to the dressing room. You would think this would be the end of our day but nope...apparently the hotel the Triglav team had booked for us was in fact a hostel. Our coach was not impressed at all, as this was way below his standards. I’m glad he has high standards but at this point I really didn’t care if I was to sleep in a 10 bed room, I just wanted to sleep. This was one huge mess to say the least. The people at the hostel spoke English so Sara did a great job translating in broken Czech between those people and our coach. After waiting outside for about 30min we headed inside with our stuff to spend the night. In the mean time Karl and Smarta, a girl on our team who speaks broken English set out to find another hotel for the team. The workers at the hostel had told us that we would not find another hotel anywhere at this time in the night. Well they were wrong as just up the street we found a great hotel that we moved to that night (morning). So after being up for 23 hours, we finally were able to get to sleep. I have to say that the funniest part of the night was when we were waiting outside of the hostel and the worker told us he had to legally close the hostel at 2am cause of some restrictions. This was relayed on to our coach, Karl, and he proceeds to pull out some card from his wallet, which saying it didn’t matter because of this. The guy was like that’s great, but you are dealing with different police here in Slovenia. So as to what Karl showed him from his wallet, I really don’t know, nor did I ask any more questions, but let’s just say my coach has some powerful friends.


Our coach and trainer cutting up salami and buns on the bus...very European

Day 2:
We awoke to some amazing scenery as we were staying in the pretty town of Bled, as you can see from the pictures below. Breakfast was at 10am and then we were able to go back to bed until lunch at 2pm. From there we were able to take a walk around the town, very picturesque. Then it was off to our game in Kranj at 6:45pm, which in fact we thought it was at 5pm. I should mention that this rink was still under construction and half built. The dressing rooms were mostly done but the stands and everything else still looked like a construction site. It was a terrible game as they are not very good but even with that we only won 6-2. After the game it was back on the bus for some more traveling as we were off to Italy for our next two games. We made it in to Bolzano at around 2:30am so it was actually an early night for us.

View from my hotel room

Hanging out on the dock with teammates

Beautiful Scenery
Day 3:
It was a pretty uneventful day as we of course slept in and just hung out in the hotel and had an amazing pregame pasta meal. We were actually not playing in Bolzano that day but instead Agordo, located in a tourist town in the Alps. It was only about 150km away but took 3 hours to get there cause we were constantly on switch back roads going up and down a couple of mountains. The view was amazing and I really enjoyed the scenery once my gravol (motions sickness pill) kicked in. We beat them 9-3 and continued the winning streak. The owner of our team drove out to the game and afterwards celebrated the win by giving everyone shots of pure Italian whiskey. I’m not quite sure why, as the next day was our big game, but it was pretty funny none the less as he was really excited and was even giving out small shots to the young players on our team. After a fantastic post game Italian pizza meal it was back on the bus for our trip back to Bolzano, another three hours on the Alpine road and home around 3:30am.

Day 4:
Finally we were able to sleep in until noon, letting me have the most solid sleep I had gotten since being on the trip. We checked out of the hotel around 2pm but not first before having a crazy photo session by the hotel’s pool. I guess the team is making a calendar and so we were to put on our jersey’s and pants for some random pictures. I can’t ever see this happening back in Canada. The game against Bolzano was pretty huge for our team. They are in second place in the standings and we are in first. There are no playoffs in the league, why I have no idea, so according the point totals if we were to win that game then we would win the league title. We ended up winning 2-0. It was a pretty good game, I’m sure the scored would have been more to our favour if it wasn’t the fourth game in four days. Chelsa and I both scored and Sara had the shutout, so we were pretty pumped with our Canadian connection. It was great to celebrate after the game with everyone and what would be a Czech celebration without our coach buying the team beers at the bar after the game. It was then back on the bus for another 9 hour trip home to Prague. The first couple hours of the drive was pretty great as we pretty much drove through all of Austria to get back to Prague, but by 5:30am we were pretty delirious. Sara, Chelsa and I thought it would be great to top the trip off with McDonald’s breakfast at 7am on the way back to the house. Currently I am super exhausted and have no idea what time it is as my sleeping patterns are way off but am happy as we are now the Eastern Europe Women’s Hockey League Champions!




View from my hotel of the Italian Alps

Christmas Market!

Christmas time in Europe is just fantastic. They may not have the snow quite like in Saskatchewan or the cold, but they sure know how to do it up and make it festive. The big thing here is Christmas markets. Last year I was fortunate enough to head to Munich for a few days and partake in their huge Christmas market. That means tons of cute little stand selling all types of knicknacks and crafts along with all types of food and gluwein, which is hot mulled wine.

This past Monday on our day off, Chelsa, Sara and I headed down to one of the Christmas markets in Prague to do a little shopping and take in the festivities. The atmosphere is just fantastic and it was so much fun to eat hot candy covered almonds as well as different types of Czech pastries. Unfortunately it started to downpour while we were there - it's not quite cold enough for snow. So we took cover under an outside cafe where they have outdoor heaters and blankets. Really kind of cozy! Here are some pictures of the market. Enjoy!



Old Town Christmas Market



Chelsa and I eating traditional trdelik



Market at dusk



The market and I

I Hate Losing

Well as you can tell from the title, things did not go as planned in Berlin. We played our first game against Lugano, last year’s champion from the Swiss League. Since I played in Switzerland last year I have actually played against their team before. We were tied 2-2 going into the third period and then I’m not sure what happened as we let in 4 goals that period for them to win 6-2. We could definitely play with them, and it didn’t really help that we had 17 penalties to their 7. It was a crazy game to say the least with there rarely being a full five on five on the ice. We were disappointed with the loss but I think it did give our team some confidence it was the toughest game we have played all year.

Then the next game we played against a French team, they were not all that bad but we came out flying and beat them 8-1. So that set the stage for our game on Sunday night. We played against the German team, Berlin. We had both beaten the French team and lost to Lugano, therefore the winner of our game was to go on to Sweden for the next round as the top two teams advance. It was a great game to play in, the type of games that I wished I played in every day...reminded me of one of my college games with physical back and forth hockey. We ended up with a 3-3 tie after 60min and from there went into OT. IIHF has a 5 minute OT with 4 on 4 hockey. After that we were still tied and then went into a shootout. I wish I could say I scored the winning goal and we are now off to Sweden but that is not the case. I shot first and didn’t score...my success rate in shootouts is terrible and I’d be just a-okay if I didn’t have to participate in another one. We ended up going to the fourth round of shooters...sudden death. Well they shot last this time and scored. So we are not going to Sweden. I’ve lost some pretty tough games before, but losing in a shootout really stinks. I’m not a fan of those rules and would have preferred to play OT until someone scored.

Now on a more positive note...I did have a great time in Berlin. We sure didn’t see any of the sights (I have to go back) but I did have a great time with my teammates and felt like I got closer to some of them even with the language barrier. Our team played really quite well if you take into account that we win most games by quite a bit and only have a couple of games where the score is close. We did struggle in the defensive zone but that is to be expected as we are hardly there during games and our coach doesn’t seem to see a need in practicing it. I think the weekend was a good eye opener for the girls and maybe gave them a bit of confidence in that they can play with some of the top teams in Europe but also see that there is tons they can work on in order to make it to the next level.

Crazy Game

Yesterday I played in one of the craziest games yet. We were supposed to play a home game against Triglav, Slovenia which is a team in the European League that we play in. The starting time was set for 3pm but we didn’t actually start the game until 4pm. Why you ask, well the team apparently went to the wrong rink which was in Prague. We are affiliated with a professional men’s team which plays out of Prague in a beautiful new rink that seats about 15,000. Unfortunately our average of 50 fans a game wouldn’t really fill that stadium, so instead we play in Kralupy a smaller city about 30min outside of Prague. It actually suits our team just great as we have our own locker room and it’s a fairly nice rink. So upon Triglav’s arrival we find out they only have 8 players. Chelsa was not scheduled to play in our game because we are only allowed 3 foreigners to play in the game so she was sitting out and letting a Slovakia girl on our team play. Well little did she know but our coach offered her to go and play for Triglav. So what became her day off became probably the most defensive game she has ever played as we won 12-1.

We are to play Salzburg today and it should be a good game as we only beat them 3-2. Then this Thursday we are off to Berlin to play in the second round of the European Champions Cup. We’ll be playing three games Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with teams from France, Germany and Switzerland. The competition should be good so it will be a real test for our team as we have not been tested so much this season, so I’m really interested to see how we respond. The top two teams move on to Sweden where the finals will be played at the end of January. I’ll keep you posted on our results.

Czech Republic vs. Slovakia

Last Saturday night Chelsa, Sara, our friend Erin and I were luckily enough to be able to attend a Euro 2008 qualifying soccer match between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. I had heard about the game and wanted to go but figured that the game would be all sold out. Well low and behold it wasn't and we got great seats the day of the game for only about $25 Canadian. It was being played at the home arena of Sparta Praha which is one of the two professional soccer teams in Praha, and only a 20min walk from our house. The game was fantastic to watch granted it was raining for about half the game and had about -1C temperatures. The fans were super crazy and chanted cheers the whole time. But that was to be expected. It was pretty funny as we had no idea what they were saying and we all ended up jumping up and down to this one cheer that they always sang. Come to find out, thanks to our teammates translation after the game, that they were chanting "If you don't jump then you're not Czech". Sounds awkward in English but has a good rhythm in Czech, but was a good thing we jumped along. The Czech's won 3-1 so it was nice to be on the winner's side. The game ended with a five minute fireworks display which I don't know was going to happen, so it was a great end to my first international football match.



National Anthems



Action Shot



Police in riot gear just in case



Super fans!

Budapest Road Trip

Well I was back at it with games this past weekend after having the previous weekend off. We took a road trip to Budapest after practice on Friday as we played them on Saturday at 12:30pm. The road trip was pretty uneventful compared to other ones that I have been on. Granted I must say that I still have not gotten used to watching Czech movies. The Czech movies are pretty crazy, but they do throw in a couple of English movies dubbed over in Czech, and if we’re lucky we get English subtitles. It was a crazy road trip in the sense that we got our hotel in Budapest at about 2:30am, woke up at 9:30am then went and played our game at 12:30pm. Needless to say we did not get to see much of the city. It did look beautiful from the bus with a huge river flowing through the city. We won the game 4-1 which was good, probably could have won by about 10 goals but we were having trouble scoring. Then after the game I thought that we would eat in the restaurant like we have done in the past. Word had it that we were going to stop in Bratislava, Slovakia for super which was 3 hours away. Hum...that is totally different from any other team I have played on before where they pretty much shove food down your face after the game, especially when you play the next day. I had asked if we were going to stop at a gas station to get some snacks, our coach said we were going to, so I decided not to grab some food at the rink. Well two hours later we finally stopped for a “snack” at a gas station. Then we didn’t eat in Bratislava but in Brno which is only like 2 hours away from Prague. They must think we need to lose some weight.

The next day we played Kladno, a team that is in our Czech League. Back in October we lost to them in a shootout. It was our first and only loss of the season. Well we came out hard and beat them 12-3. It was pretty crazy and I really don’t know how we ever lost to them. Our coach was pretty pumped after the game and actually said some positive things which doesn’t happen very often. I have to mention also that we will not be going to Russia any more. For some reason we have switched pools and no longer in the Russian pool but the one in Berlin. I was kind of disappointed in a way cause I was pumped to go to Moscow and maybe get a chance to see a couple of sights, but Berlin is pretty great as well. Granted I’m not sure how much sigh seeing well get to do, but I guess we have a better chance in this pool so should be are going to be in a different pool of teams and instead we are headed to Berlin in a couple of weeks. Apparently we have a better chance in this pool of making it to the next round. So I can’t complain too much as the finals are in Sweden and it would be awesome to go there!

Short Trip Home

Well it’s been awhile since I last wrote on the blog mainly because I was at home in Canada last week. My grandma has been diagnosed with cancer in her lung as well as a couple of places in her liver. So things are not looking too good. My parents were supposed to fly out and visit for that week but instead I came home to be with my grandma. I had a great week or more like 5 days hanging out at home spending time with my grandma and family. It worked out really well because we had the weekend off from games since most of my teammates were gone with the national team at a training camp all week. I did get on the ice a couple of times at home. A big shout out goes to my brother, Julie and Josh Horni for coming out on the ice with me, as well as my cousin Greg who skipped school to come and play net for me one day! It was really great to have that week off from everything and just hang out and enjoy what North America has to offer...I think I had Tim’s coffee every day! Now it’s back to the old routine in Prague. I was back at school today and I think I lost all brain power on the flight over. Not to mention I’m a little worried about practice tonight so hopefully that week off didn’t kill me too much!

Jackie...the Bum Wiper

My job at the Puppies pre school has just added another dimension to it. Now I know in the past I have talked about helping the kids pee when they are outside and the fact that they just go anywhere. As in the other day a boy decided to go right where he was playing in the park and unfortunately one of the girls didn’t see the line of pee and turned right into it. Not a good situation. Well amongst other things the kids need help in the bathroom. Chelsa and Sara have been helping the kids out already with this but I have failed to help or even notice that my job includes this aspect. I worked with Sara the other day and she gratefully introduced me to this new fact. It all started when I heard little three year old Jonash shouting from the bathroom. Hum...what is he saying or what does he want. That’s right he wants me to come and wipe his bum. So I approached the situation very cautiously thinking “how am I going to do this”, “I can’t touch this kid, I’m going to get sued” and all of the above. Well no need to worry cause I got a huge, huge wad of toilet paper to prepare myself. Well he bent right over while sitting on toilet and braced himself by grabbing both my legs... I guess he has done this before. I wonder where “bum wiping” will fit on my resume?

Pre School

I have had a couple of questions regarding what I actually do at the pre school that I work at. So I thought I would share what a day there entails for me...

It’s an early start to the day - for some that is. I have to leave the house by 7:15am in order to catch the metro at an early enough time. In the mornings it usually comes every 2 minutes so that’s not really a problem. It’s about a 35-40 minute ride by the time I switch lines and get to the end of the yellow line, Zličin. From here I take a bus out to Uhonisce, the town where the school is located. It’s a small town outside of Prague...like a suburb really. This hour and fifteen minute commute really makes me appreciate how close things are in Regina and how I can usually get to work in 15min tops.

I get there around 8:30am and then for the next little while spend time playing with the kids. This involves playing board games, computer games or really anything. There’s no lack of toys at the school. On average there is about 15 kids and at the most 20 kids. Around 9:30ish we have snack consisting of tea and a donut or something of that nature. It’s really quite cute as all the kids have their own mugs with their pictures on it-very good idea so as not to get their cups mixed up.

From here we move on to the Eclipse, what is that you ask? Well it’s where all the kids sit around in a circle and share with the group, if they want to, what they did the following night. It’s quite hilarious as many of the kids talk forever and could care less if anyone is listening to them, which is usually the case. After this comes a game of some sort involving English. We have in the past watched English nursery rhymes on video, read some English books and so one. Sometimes we even act out the rhyme or story. The kids just love this and it great time filler. It takes about 15 minutes to get the kids all organized with costumes or whatever before we start the story which is 2min at max. It’s pretty chaotic but quite funny to see the end product.

Next comes play time out side for about an hour or so before lunch. There is a fairly big back yard with a couple of play structures, a sand box and teeter todder. I spend about 20 minutes helping kids put on jackets/play clothes, taking of slippers , putting on shoes and throwing them out the door. Some days we take walk out to an old church with a large grassy area in the front. It’s really beautiful and a great place to play games. The kids love playing “red light/green light” along with “What time is it Mr. Wolf”. On Friday’s we head out to a small farm where the kids get about a five minute pony ride each. This of course is the highlight of the week.

After being outside things become very chaotic...it’s lunch time. Kids come flying in from outside and take off their stuff in record time. The older kids are pretty good and usually do not need help, but with the younger ones it’s a different story. We have 3 year old twin boys that go to the school, and I think every day we lose their slippers and regular pants in which I spend about 15min looking for them before lunch. Lunch is catered in and consists of some sort of soup to start and then a meat and potato or dumpling type deal. Next it’s quite time, where some of the little ones actually nap. If they chose not to sleep then they sit in a chair around the perimeter of the room and Iranka reads stories to them. Iranka is another Czech worker who comes for the afternoon. This is my quiet time as well once I have cleaned up lunch and eaten some myself. Katie, another Czech worker comes after lunch and does crafts with the kids. I love doing crafts so I usually try to get in on the action myself if I don’t have too many kids to help.

After some more play time, my time is up and I can head home. I should mention that throughout the day I am endlessly blowing kids noses...is this what I have to look forward to in having kids? I found out that this really disgusts me, but maybe it is different with your own kids. I also help the kids go to the bathroom, if they chose to use it. An interesting note about Czech culture is that it’s okay to pee in public. We will be in a park and the kids will just whip down their pants and go...I’ve seen it all over the city as well. I’m not a fan of helping the kids do this. I also break up mini fights between the kids and discipline them as well when needed. This usually does not go over well as of course the majority of them do not speak well enough English to understand what I am saying. But in any language a no means no. And of course picking them up under each arm always works as well. After this experience I will be ready for motherhood, or this will make me think twice about it!



A picture of Chelsa and I with the kids after a theatrical rendition of "The Gingerbread Man"



A picture of Zdaneka taken courtesy of Chelsa. Now you know what I do all day!

Going to Russia...

Well it’s official...I’m heading to Russia at the end of November. This past weekend our team played in the first round of the European Women’s Champions Cup and won, therefore we are moving on to the second round which will take place in Moscow. This tournament faces off the champions of each European country. As in our team won the Czech league last year so we were invited into the tournament this following year. It is actually pretty interesting as countries have placed teams in the Championship Cup where I had no idea they even had women’s hockey...a.k.a Norway, Romania, Estonia and so on. We will now face a club team from Finland, Russia and Kazakhstan in the second round. I have no idea what Kazakhstan will be like but I know Russia and Finland will be tough as most of Russia’s national team plays on the club team we are to face. As a team we got flu shots yesterday after practice, so I am all set to head to the “motherland”.

Retirement is Officially Over

Well after spending about a month here in the Czech Republic, I am no longer retired. Unfortunately my days as a 24 year old retire are now over! Sara and Chelsa have been working 2 days a week pretty much since I got here and I on the other hand have been playing the role of a retire. Kind of nice actually, as it’s amazing how you can fill your day spending time on the internet, shopping and playing hockey.

My job is the same as Sara and Chelsa and I am now working at that same pre school 2 days a week. It’s not exactly a pre school but more like a glorified day care. It’s a pretty nice place situated in a 200 year old farm house that has been redone where the first floor is the whole pre school area and the 2nd and 3rd floors are where the lady who owns the school, Hanna, lives. The back yard is huge and have been professionally landscaped, so it's perfect for the kids! The big novelty is that it is an English orientated pre school, hence where we come in. Hanna does a good job talking to the kids in both languages so they can start to learn English at a young age. I'm basically there to interact with the kids in English and help them improve. The older kids are pretty good and understand most of what I am saying, but the younger kids look at me like I have 5 heads. I’ve survived the first week and despite not knowing the language I haven’t missed anything too crucial and no children have gone missing under my care.

Along with starting the job I have also enrolled in Czech language classes. Chelsa and I go to class on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s for an hour and half. (Sara goes with a friend Mon/Wed.) It’s the perfect amount of time and things are moving slowly which is great as second languages are not my forte...probably due to the fact that I never took French in high school and did not take a second language in college. I did not for see myself living in another country at that time. I currently know numbers and how to speak a simple formal conversation consisting of introducing my name and telling people where I’m from. I’m well on my way to mastering this language!!

Slavia Praha Road Trips

We took a road trip to Salzburg this past weekend to play a game against the Salzburg Ravens who are in the EWHL. The reason I am writing about this road trip is to tell you the difference between a road trip in North America and one here in Europe. We thankfully travel on a coach bus, slightly smaller than the ones back home, but big enough for our team. A bus trip to Salzburg only takes about 7 hours, probably about six or just under if you were driving in a car. Of course we have two bus drivers. People are not exactly troopers on the road like we are back in North America hence the two bus drivers. I’m just thinking about how many times I drove to Wisconsin by myself and did a 13 hour day in a car...they sure could not do that here.

To start the trip we almost rear ended a car while driving through Prague. Luckily the driver switched lanes at the last moment or I am sure that we would have gone right over top of that little car. Oh yes and last trip we took out a construction sign on the road. I have complete confidence in these drivers!! Our staff are all males including the parents, cause it seems that only the dads seem to come to the games. That might explain the movie choice. We have watched English movies before with Czech dubbed over them, but this road trip was the first time that we watched a real Czech film...that made things interesting as at one point I looked up and saw a bunch of naked women doing sexual things to a man in the movie. Oh my goodness! Imagine watching those shows on a bus trip back when I played for Wisconsin, that would not fly at all! Sara got up at one point and started shielding the eyes of some of the younger girls on the team. Our coaches/mangers got a kick out of that but of course did not stop the movie.

Alcohol is freely passed around the front of the bus as well. I’m sure our coach had a couple of beer before the game. Oh yeah and to make things more interesting when we stopped for a pre game meal along the way our bus drivers had a cold one as well! Oh wow!

We made it okay so no worries with that, granted we were super late and pretty much got off the bus and played our game. (Felt like I was in high school again) We came through and won 3-2 which was great because we are still undefeated in the EWHL.

An Experience I'd Rather Not Have...

As I’ve said it before, “life is never dull living in Europe” and last Friday sure proved that statement. We were killing some time that afternoon before we were heading out to Melnik for a friends birthday party. So Sara, Chelsa and our friend Jason decided to go to this little flea market type shop not too far from our house. Jason and I were looking at some clothes up ahead of the rest of the girls when suddenly we hear Sara yelling our names really loud. I guess Chelsa had tried on a jacket and walked two shops down to show Sara. You have to realize that these shops are super small and are all attached so two shops down is like 10ft. The next thing Chelsa feels is a lady hitting her on the back. So Chelsa walks back and proceeds to say she’s sorry in Czech and she’s not trying to steal. That’s when Sara realizes what happens and we are called in to the picture.

You should know that the lady only speaks Czech so the whole communication barrier is a problem. I have no idea what she is saying and only understand a couple of numbers and “Policie”. Luckily Sara knows a bit of Czech and can figure out kind of what she is saying. The just of the conversation is that she want’s 500kcs which is only about $25. No problem, we’ll pay you that but then we want the jacket. Ah nope, that wasn’t going to work for her, she just wanted the money as a bribe or something for not calling the police. So Jason then gets on the phone and calls Billy. He is the head of Athletes in Action over here and is fluent in Czech. Meanwhile Chelsa is on the phone with Micheal, our agent and native Czech, trying to figure out what to do. They both suggest that we just leave. Well that is easier said then done. as the shops are packed tighly together with only about a 6ft wide walkway and a couple of exits to go to. So I’m in the lead and as soon as I start to go all the other shop keepers start swarming in front of me. Hum…I’m seriously thinking in my head that I’m just going to have to put my arms up and start plowing through. Well that didn’t have to happen because as I look back the lady has a death grip on Sara and wouldn’t let her get anywhere. It was quite a bit of yelling and commotion of course and I guess the lady had already called the police hence the fact that she did not want us going anywhere.

The police eventually get there and of course they don’t speak English. Luckily we had Billy who was on the cell phone to explain the situation to one of the officers. We get back on the phone and Billy says that we are to pay him 1000kcs. Okay no problem, we can do that and then get out of there. One problem...you have to have you passport on you at all times and since we were just going out for a walk/browsing only Sara had a copy of her’s. I had my driver’s license on me, so Sara and I were allowed to run back to our apartment and get both Jason’s and Chelsa’s passport.

What a mess! So by the time we got back to market, Jason and Chelsa were standing by the police car and had everything pretty much sorted out. At first I thought that the money they were going to pay was a bribe to the police but in reality it wasn’t. According to Billy we could have gone down to the police station and figured everything out or pay the fine…for what we’re not sure cause Chelsa is innocent and never stole the jacket…and just have things taken care of right there.

Needless to say we will be sticking to large shopping malls from now on.

House Pictures...

Living Room



Living Room and Sara's make shift room



Kitchen



My bed in our room



Chelsa's bed in our room.

Big Game, New Car and TV Star

We had our biggest game of the year so far last Wednesday against Slovakia. They are the defending champs of the EWHL and one of the best teams in the league. We played fairly well and ended up winning 3-0. It was a huge confidence booster to our team to actually play in a good game and come out on top. I found out after the game that we ended their 26 game winning streak. We then played Budapest on Sat. and still won 6-0, but played pretty ugly. According to our coach the whole game was “spatny” which means bad in Czech. He was yelling so loud and talking so fast that spit was flying out of his mouth. It honestly was pretty funny. We then traveled to Plzen on Sunday to play a team in our Czech league. Plzen is a really nice city home to the Pilsner Urquell Brewery which is a famous Czech beer over here. I’d love to go back and take a day trip there. We did win again, 5-0 to be exact, but more importantly I came out of the game with no injuries and only a few bruises. That team was so dirty that it was not a fun game to play in.

I am happy to report that we finally have a car! On Saturday we got a nice navy blue 4 door Skoda Octavia. We’re all pretty happy to finally have a set of wheels. We tested it out on Sunday as we drove it to Plzen. I have to admit that we bagged her pretty good and got it up to 200km/h, so no worries for us when we hit the German Autobahn. Driving in Prague is an adventure every time. Sara and I took the car out to the mall yesterday to try our navigational skills. We got there no problem but saw how crazy it is to drive here. Cobble stone streets are everywhere especially where we live, making the ride not exactly smooth. You also have to watch out for trams as they have the right of way. You can be driving down a cobble stone street and then suddenly the street runs out and all you are driving on is a tram land…so checking in the rear view mirror is key to make sure you are not going to run into a tram. Or in Chelsa’s first experience driving, she drove down the center of the road in a clearly marked tram lane. Thank goodness it was late at night and no trams were coming.

Then in practice last night I got interviewed by a Czech TV station. Channel 1 to be exact, It was pretty ridiculous actually as myself and Sara had to put on game jersey's for the practice for the TV footage. (Chelsa was sick so she wasn’t there). It was weird because the interview was during the practice, so I missed a good 20min of practice. The guy from the TV station spoke English so the interview wasn’t all that bad, although in usual interview cases the questions were pretty broad. I guess it airs tonight at 5:45pm so we’ll be going over to a friends house to watch it. Hopefully we’ll be able to tape it cause I think it’ll be pretty funny to see myself talking with Czech dubbed over top!

First Road Trip

After playing in our third EWHL game last Saturday, and beating the Vienna Flyers 10-1, we hit the road for our first road trip. It was also our first game in the Czech league. We drove to Litvinov a smaller town northwest of Prague. The drive was pretty nice granted I slept most of the way. Kind of nice to finally be traveling back on coach buses instead of small little European vans which I rode in last year in Switzerland. So far the country side reminds me of Wisconsin...lots of trees, hills and rocks...very pretty! Actually a girl on our team is originally from Litvinov and was giving me a little bit of a background on it. There are two huge chemical power plants in Litvinov, it actually looked like the plant that you would see Homer Simpson working at. Kind of scary really. Panchy, the girl who grew up there, said that when she was little they would sometimes have to wear masks walking out side. I guess this was during the communism days, and things have changed considerable. But it was funny to play a team called Chemopetrol. We won again, 10-0, ouch I know, but they were at least the most skilled team we have played so far.

In other news, Chelsa and I finally got our bed...Yeah!! We took another trip out to Ikea, I'm getting to know that store really well. We also picked up a wardrobe for Sara so she can finally have a place to put her clothes. You may wonder why it is a big thing to get a wardrobe as you would think that we would have closets in the flat. Well apparently Europe or at least Switzerland and the Czech Republic have not heard closets, cause I sure have not seen them. I wonder the reasoning behind this?

The Big Move

Well finally last week we moved into our new apartment or flat as they like to call it over here. I had no problems staying at Mr. Kott’s summer home but it is nice to have your own space, granted I will miss the English HBO channels as I was able to catch up on some of my movies. We were told that we would have a three bedroom flat, well that was not the case...we have one bedroom. Not ideal for three people. I was pretty disappointed upon hearing this, but felt a little better once I saw the place. It has just been completely renovated, so we are in a brand new place, new kitchen bathroom, etc. From that stand point it is fantastic. It was pretty much furnished as it would be for two people, a queen size bed (European Standards), some living room furniture, table and chairs, etc. Probably the most exciting feature about the flat was that we got a dishwasher. After three years, I will finally not have to wash dishes...yes I know I’ve had a hard life. Hehe. Although by North American Standards the dishwasher is super small. Mr. Kott gave his daughter, Bara, a bunch of money that we could use to help furnish our flat. So the next natural step in that process was to head out to Ikea. I must say that I had a blast shopping through Ikea picking out my bed, bed frame, sheets, dishes and so on. I am completely in love with Ikea after that shopping trip.

The next couple of days were spent setting up our furniture, and going to the huge Tesco which would be about the equivalent to a huge Superstore or SuperWalmart to finish shopping for our household items aka coffee machine, kettle etc. I brought along a tin of Tim Horton’s so it was pretty sweet to finally have a cup of that. Our apartment is still not set up completely. We are missing two mattresses, and have two temporary ones at the moment. Chelsea and I are sharing a room and could still use a big armoire. Apparently they don’t know what closets are over here. Even in Mr. Kott’s nice summer house, there were no closets, just big dressers and armoires. Sara is out in the living room, so with an armoire and some curtains it should work to have a make shift room. Internet and cable are supposed to come this week, but we’ll see about that. Luckily about 2 blocks away is an Internet cafe that has WiFi so that’s where I’ve been checking up on emails and such. Things are slowly coming together, but it seems as though they are on a different time line then we are back in North America, aka I’m still missing a washing machine. So hopefully this week all the pieces will come together.

First weekend down...

Well I managed to surrive my first weekend in the Czech. We had practice again on Friday night and then played two games on the weekend. I should explain that my team plays in two leagues here. One which is the Czech national league, and the other one being the EWHL, or the European Hockey League. The teams in this league are Salzburg, Vienna, Zargba, Slovakia, Slovina, Budapest, Berlin, and I think that's it. I am not completely sure on that one though. So we played our first EWHL game and played against Zargba. I think that is how you spell it...it is the capital of Croatia for those of you who don't know. Unfortunately they were pretty bad. I guess they are not playing any home games because they are having problems with their rink. That pretty much explains everything. We won the first game 12-0, then the second 14-0. It was pretty tough to get up for the second game after beating a team by that score. Yet my coach was not sastified with that and at the end of the second game with 6 minutes remaining he said he wanted us to score three more goals. Hum...I guess he does not believe in the mercury rule. I honestly felt bad for the other team.

I am happy to report that in my first game I did not get any penalties! But of course of in the second game I got 3, and actually one on my first shift...oops. So I made up for the first game. It was nice to get on the ice and into a real game with the team. I must say that I look pretty European on the ice with my jersey covered with sponserships. It's a home jersey but the front is actually half red/half white, hum...that could become confusing. But I enjoy having red and white colours again, kind of like the old Wisco days. I post some pictures when I get a chance.

Practices are really interesting with the whole langauge barrier. By the end of last season in Switzerland I was at least able to understand practices for the most part and had all the German hockey terms down....here that's not the case. I have absoultly no idea what my coach is saying, and forgot that helpless feeling. I only know the word 100% because that is what he says all the time, as in we need to be doing the drills full out. I usually have some one by my side who will translate after. Sara and Chelsa are pretty good with the langauge and can usually help me out. I am trying to learn a Czech word a day, and so far that's going not too bad. But I am honeslty horrible when it comes to second langauges so this will be interesting!

Finally in Prague

Well after three flights, 20 hours and four countries later I finally made it to Prague. My flights were fairly uneventful with a bit of turbulence on each one. You would think that being a seasoned flyer turbulence would not faze me but for some reason as I get older I get more nervous flying...go figure. I flew from Minneapolis to Amsterdam and upon arriving in Amsterdam I knew I was back in Europe for two reasons...first off I could smell smoke as soon as I got off the plane, as smoking in public is still acceptable there, two I drank coffee. European coffee is about ten times as strong as Tim's or any coffee back home. For some reason I forgot that and order a large. Three sugar's later I still could not drink it...I sure will be missing my Tim's. Arriving in Prague was an interesting experience for me. Upon walking off the flight I saw a lady holding a sign with my name on it. I was pretty delirious by this time I had to say to myself..."Hey that's me!" Oh wait, I actually said it out loud. She said "follow me" and at this point I did whatever she said. Following her through the side door and onto a shuttle bus I started to question my decision. But upon arriving at the VIP airport room I knew it was a good decision. I guess my manager has good connections and hates to wait in airports so I got treated fairly well, relaxing in the leather couches while the lady took care of my bags. I must say this was the best arrival to any destination I have ever had.

Chelsea and Sara joined me soon after in the VIP room. For those of you who do not know, they are my Canadian teammates and friends from home. It was great to see some familiar faces. After discussing details for awhile, my passport was returned to me...did I mention that I didn't even have to go through customs. Now that is sure is different than Canadian standards. From here we drove to my manager's summer home. Our flat will not be ready until Monday so until then I am staying at his country home. Not too bad as it is huge with a a pool and a high gated fence all the way around. He doesn't speak English but his daughter does so I am very thankful for that as the awkward moments are cut down a little bit. After eating there it was off to practice...a quick welcome into the country and then a reality check as to why I am really here. Practice was less than stellar as I had flying legs but it was good to get on the ice. From the rink it was back to the summer house and off to bed for my much needed 12 hours of sleep. Unfortunately it was not enough and I am still tired so I am signing off and heading to bed.