What's up everybody!?!  It's been a while since I last posted, so we have quite a bit to catch up on.  First of all, Happy Easter to everyone back home!  I miss you all, and hope everyone's doing well.  The last week was so filled with stuff going on that I haven't had time to sit down and write about what's been going on.  Soooo let's start off last Saturday the 12th.

I woke up early the morning of the 12th for my first official weightlifting competition at the gym here in Furstenfeldbruck.  There were probably 20 people or so participating, some pretty amateur lifters, and others had the whole outfit on and everything.  I got first in bench press, and tied for second in squats so they gave a cool little trophy and certificate.  The female bench press world record holder named Regina, who is a trainer at our gym said she was surprised and impressed.  So right after that Ian, a couple teammates, and myself went down to Munich to scout the team who is supposed to be like the best in our conference.  They were okay, but I'm really excited to play them.  Anyways, from Munich, we started on our first official road trip up North.  Our first stop was in Frankfurt Germany.  It took us about 3 hours or so to get there, and it was my first time driving on the "Autobon" which is just the no speed limit freeway.  It was awesome.  I was driving so damn fast.  I got up to 186 km/hour and the car started shaking, and people were still flying by me in their German made BMWs and Audis.  We only have access to the internet when we have WIFI, so we had to navigate all of our trips before we left.  We got the freeways down pretty well, but once we got off it was the most confusing driving I've ever done.  Eventually we made found a spot and got to our hotel.  Frankfurt is a lot different than Bavaria.  Not as clean, a lot more crime, and a lot of young people getting crazy off alcohol and drugs and all kinds of stuff.  We got there around 10:30 at night, so we just dropped off our bags, asked the front desk man for some advice on what to do, grabbed a beer (with a dude we randomly met who was from New Jersey) and hit the streets running!  A couple from Spain asked us where there was partying going on, so they joined us on our walk to this downtown bar area.  It was a nice walk along and over a river to this really happening party area full of bars, mini clubs, and hookah lounges.  We sat down at a hookah lounge and ended up meeting a group of young people from Florence, Italy.  They were in Frankfurt at some political conference, and there was like 8 of them or so.  We talked and hung out for a while, then accidentally broke the hookah so we all ran.  It was epic.  There was a lot going on down in that part of Frankfurt.  We saw a dude literally beating the shit out of a girl, cops fully beat up and take down one dude, and more.  We walked back to the hostel after a great night and passed out around 3 or so.

The next morning we woke up and mapped our way to Amsterdam through Cologne, Germany.  We drove about 2-3 more hours to Cologne, mainly to see the famous Cologne Cathedral.  It's simply the most beautiful structure I've ever seen.  I can't even describe it in words because it's so wild to look at.  It was built in I wanna say 800 something? and it's HUGE.  It's got the most amazing drawings on the inside of all of these ancient bible stories.  It sounds corny but that place literally was breath taking.  I swear I'm gonna get some pics up soon.  Anyways, we only spent about 2 hours in Cologne and got back on the road towards Amsterdam.  We picked up a couple of hitch-hikers at a gas station right as we were leaving Cologne, and they happened to be going to Amsterdam also.  It was a guy from Berlin, and a girl from Poland so we had some really interesting conversations to make the 3 hour car ride go really fast.  They really helped us navigate to our hostel, thank goodness, because the Amsterdam traffic and streets are pretty tough to navigate.  On that note, Amsterdam is insane!!!  Like literally, you guys know me, I love big cities and stuff, but this place was just madness.  We stayed in a hostel like right smack dab downtown for two nights and got a really solid feel for the city.  It's very expensive, and very touristy, but the rules are super loose.  The coffee shops are actually really damn cool.  You can just walk in, buy the ganga, burn it, and just hang out in the sickest smoke rooms ever.  There's guys standing out front of all these restaurants begging us to come in and eat.  There were all kinds of really cool food spots and bars and the city is just buzzing with young people.  We saw a soccer mob running around with a flag, looking for a fight with anyone.  Red light district is literally just women standing in windows with red lights trying to get you to come in.  It was crazy, but the people are really nice and quick to help you out with anything you need.  So from there, Ian and I traveled to a town called Koblenz to stay with a teammate's girlfriend and her family.  They were amazing hosts, and made us an awesome dinner, hooked us up with our own room in a huge house, and were just extremely kind.  The next morning we woke up and headed back to Frankfurt to pick up Coach Larry Dixon from the airport.  This guy is a 69 year old Texas man who has come here from Texas for the last 7 years because he loves coaching here so much.  He has the most insane coaching credentials you've ever seen.  This will be his 50th year coaching, and he has coached for names like Lou Holtz, Bill Parcels, Jimmy Johnson, and has coached for the Dallas Cowboys, Arkansas Razorbacks, Texas A&M and many others.   He's literally a football God, like top 20 football knowledge in the world, and that is no exaggeration.  I've been talking to the guy nonstop, and I'm going to learn an insane amount this year from being around this guy.  Anyways, we drove him home Wednesday in the day, and then headed to our football camp the next morning in the Alps!

Every player and coach in the states will tell you that camp is by far the worst part of the season.  Although this camp was only four days, I've never had so much fun doing football in my life.  We got a lot done at the first 4 practices on Thursday and Friday.  I'm doing a ton of coaching here, and playing exactly what I want to be playing on offense and defense.  Saturday we had a morning practice and after, the whole team went to this giant indoor pool facility right next to the hotel.  It was wild.  It was the most fun I've ever seen grown men have without alcohol in my life.  We were running around this place going down these huge slides 15 at a time, chicken fighting, jumping off the diving board, it was so much fun.  Then later that night we did these team bonding exercises that were both fun and great for us all coming together.  We scrimmaged Sunday and came home today.  First camp I've ever had beers at after practices as well.

It's been an action packed week, and now Ian and I are back at home in Furstenfeldbruck.  We're getting ready for a scrimmage a week from today, so we have some work to do this week for sure.  Season is approaching, so it will probably be a few weeks before we get to travel again.  It's all good though because I love being here in Fursty.  It really feels like home, and we have a great group of friends that we chill with all the time.  I couldn't ask for anything more from this experience thus far.  I miss you all, and I hope some of you can visit!  Until next time peeps!!