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!