Ben's Third Week

In week three I am now fully in the groove of what life will be like this summer. We coach the junior team 3 times per week, and we practice four times per week. Usually these are all in the evenings, sometimes as late as 8 pm since the sun doesn’t go down until midnight. During the daytimes Matt and I usually work out at a local gym, and enjoy our homemade Finnish food at Kulma’s Monday-Friday.
This past weekend was a lot of fun besides getting our butts kicked on the football field. Following the game a few teammates came back to our apartment and we showed them ‘beer pong’ (Beirut). This was the first time these Finns had played and we whooped up on them pretty good. Then there was a private party for our team and Indians alumni at a bar. Since the Indians were celebrating the 25th anniversary of the team a lot of alumni came back to celebrate. It was fun and interesting to meet players from the past, and hear about how different the organization used to be.
On Sunday we took a trip down to the city of Kotka, which is on the coast of Finland. Our Qb Nesi has a summer cottage on an island just off the shores of the city, so we went down there for the day. It was beautiful weather, and the island was very nice. We took a ferry over, and once there we enjoyed some backyard games, and riding a four-wheeler through small trails on the island. One of the games reminded me of the game Kubb (a version of which was created by my sister Meghan and hopefully many of you have or will enjoy a game sometime), where players attempted to knock over pieces of wood in order to score points.

Looking forward to the next few weeks as we have another game this Saturday against the Kuopio Steelers. Then the following weekend is midsummer celebrations. This is the all-day, all-weekend party that happens every year on the weekend closest to June 21st. This is because the sun is out for the longest during this day, which I guess in turn means we shouldn’t be sleeping that weekend.