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!