...planes, trains, and automobiles

Preface: I apologize for being behind on my blog updates. I have seen and done so much in the last few weeks that an overwhelming procrastination has taken hold of me and instead of writing a little, I write nothing. Here is my first attempt to catch all of you lovely readers up on my life in Finland.

Let me break down my incompetency of being on time. I have already mentioned that I am not good with time, but most people who aren't exactly punctual at least choose crucial moments to awe the crowd with their promptness. Not me, I go for wow factor inspired by "Wow! She seriously missed it...again?" Like the time I missed my flight from San Diego to Las Vegas for my boyfriend's brother's wedding rehearsal dinner that I was more than generously invited to in the first place. Nothing like making a memorable first impression on the family by making us 2 hours late. "I am sooo sorry!!" doesn't really cut it. (Which, I am still so sorry about!!)

Now that you have a more concrete idea of just how serious this time challenge is for me, let me tell you everywhere I have been since we last chatted. While we have been apart I have traveled to Barcelona by means of a catamaran ferry, taxi, plane, bus, and another taxi. I have also gone to the Aland Islands with the team for our season premier game via a 32 seater jumper plane and mini, but still big to me, overnight cruise ship back home. That's a whole lot of times for me to get lost, be late or miss my ride.

Spoiler alert!: I made every. single. one....somehow.

As lucrative as women's professional soccer is here in Finland, I wanted to stay grounded and remain among my many fans so instead of taking a relaxing 3 hour flight straight to Barcelona, I decided to take the 6 hour route by flying the discount airline, Ryan Air. My morning started with a 90 minute ferry ride from vomit hell leaving from Helsinki to Tallin, Estonia. I was forewarned the night before by my host dad, "Let's hope it's a nice morning, the boat is small. If it rocks at all, you'll feel it." Holy cow did I feel it? Along with half the ferry. Of the 90 minutes, I felt decent for the first 20...and that's probably rounding up. Serious case of seasickness-can't wait for the next 5 hours.

From Estonia I flew to a small airport, 90 km outside of Barcelona so I followed the crowd onto a bus that shipped us to the city. Finally we got there where I did not even attempt with the public transportation system. I still struggle with the buses in Finland (it took me an hour and a half and 2 buses to get the 30 minutes home from downtown yesterday. Shameful.).  I jumped into a taxi, tried communicating with the very, very minimal espanol I know from middle school and hoped I end up at my hostel. And I did. Phew!

Fast forward 3 days--Barcelona...Gaudi...sangria...tapas...dancing...beach...futbol--and it's sadly time to leave the sunshine and head back home. My crazy trip starts at 3 am when I have to catch my 90 km bus ride back to the airport for my 7 am flight back to Tallin to wait 4 hours for my 3 pm ferry ride back to Helsinki where I will have one hour before soccer practice. Let's go!

I slept all day, every where I could. On the bus, in the airport, on the plane..couldn't tell you if I had a man, a woman, or Messi himself sitting next to me on the flight. I was a walking zombie, not the gross bloody kind on TV, but a mindless, emotionless, half-alive, half-dead kind just trying to survive one more day in this hectic, yet more coherent world called life.

I recover three days later with some tender love and care, food, and lots of sleep. Just in time too because it was time to start the much awaited Naisten Liiga with our first game at Aland. The flight there was short and cramped, but successful. The game seemed equally fast and relatively successful. We won 1-0 off a pk. I started as outside left mid, which is growing on me. I still feel a little awkward and lost sometimes and find myself creeping too far forward or too far inside, but I'm getting there. I'm just grateful to be on the field.

I have never been on a boat overnight or any type of cruise ship, so I was so excited for the trip home. And it was a trip!! The boat didn't leave until 11:30 pm so I figured we'd maybe grab a beer like the girls had mentioned and then go straight to bed. This mostly is what happened, but all the bells, whistles, Salsa band, and magic acts were not expected. It was your corny, stereotypical cruise liner entertainment, but on a tight budget. Multiple bustling bars, teenagers running around, not young, hip grandparents, but old, hip replacement grandparents playing penny slots all going on with the have-to-yell-at-your-neighbor volume level of the salsa band rocking in the background. What the heck is going on, where am I, and how did I get here? It was absolutely hilarious and true entertainment gold.

I woke up the next morning from a gentle rocking of the ship thinking that it was all just a wild dream until we saw the tambourine playing middle aged woman from the night before gingerly eating her single piece of toast. Apparently all that enthusiastic ta-ta shaking and cha-cha dancing last night did a number on the poor girl. It's hard to bounce back after a whooping and hollering Viking cruise party like that.

Luckily, I was feeling great, but ready to get some restful sleep away from the madness at sea. Only at home, in your own bed, can the feeling of complete release take place and a state of relaxation and comfort start to settle in. It's so nice that I now find that peaceful, easy feeling (thank you, Eagles) in my little bedroom in Vantaa. It's becoming home.

Soccer update: We now have 2 wins. Undefeated so far. Woot! AND in our 5-1 victory last weekend against Ilves, I got my first official goal that actually counts. It was not a very exciting goal, in fact that ball just ended up bouncing right at me with no defender or goalie in sight and about 7 yards from the goal, but I'm okay with it. It's nice to see that life doesn't always have to be so hard. Next game is this weekend at home--looking for another 3 points!

Thanks for your patience and your endless support!

Peace and Love,
Cat

Afterword: It's been brought to my attention that I have some concerned readers that feel that my preferred rose-colored glasses view of the world is blinding me to the dangers that can lurk about. Thank you for your concerns; I am so appreciative that you care, but please don't worry,  I am doing and will continue to do great. There are many benefits of playing soccer, like being able to kick hard and run fast! :)

Picture time-->

The Port of Barcelona.

At Camp Nou, the FC Barcelona stadium with Aubree from San Diego. She is an au pair in Paris right now, so we planned to meet up over Easter weekend. So amazing to see her and get a taste of home. 

Casa Batillo designed by Gaudi. He is everywhere in Barcelona! Amazing!

Happy Easter! Enjoying the sunshine, sangria, and people watching- 3 of my favorite things.

Got the name "California girl" while roaming Las Ramblas. Is it that obvious...?

Outside La Sagrada Familia, Roman Catholic church designed by Gaudi. It started construction in 1882 and is still not finished. It was consecrated in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI as a minor basilica. It is HUGE! 

Inside La Sagrada Familia. Gaudi was inspired by nature is his design.  

The colors from the stained glass windows were breathtaking. 

It's amazing the power of the ocean has on me. It was so revitalizing to have a little sunshine and be at the beach. It made me miss home, but made me even more anxious for summer.  

First Finnish win! 3 points for PK :)

...the skinny on saunas

"SAUNA NIGHT!" Finally. It was the long awaited team night following our scrimmage last Saturday (where I finally broke the ice and tucked my first goal and got my first assist). It was the first night the team has been able to kick off our cleats, let down our pony tails, and let loose. To physically let loose, this infamous sauna night starts with an actual sauna. I had to ask at practice earlier in the week if "sauna night" actually consisted of a sauna or if that was just the code name so that we could talk about it at practice without our coach catching on to the real meaning of the festive night--drinking.

Well as it turns out a sauna is involved. Brilliant! Drinking while simultaneously draining ourselves of every possible drop of hydration. You can imagine what that combination does to a sauna of girls. Uh, reverse that, don't imagine. I will tell you instead, so stay focused.

Be there at 6, so I promptly wander in from the bus station around 6:45. Still don't quite have the bus thing down, but I at least found the place without getting lost, so that's progress. Apparently we have a sauna in our locker room at our stadium. Cool, right? I thought so too. With candy, of course, and lots of sweet, sugary drinks, which also deserves an 'of course,' as I learned Saturday night, the sauna night madness began.

About two hours into the whole experience, I found myself laughing out loud at what was going on. And no it was not the pink punch concoction that ushered in this fit of laughter, but more of a what-the-hell-is-going-on  giggle. Four hours of a naked team walking and dancing around, then sitting, again naked, in a sauna practically shoulder to shoulder just chatting and gossiping like it's no big deal. This would never happen in America. Luckily, I am not modest and San Diego is the land of less is more when it comes to clothing most of the time, I guess I'm used to it? Plus, I didn't want to be that awkward freshman that doesn't shower with the team on the first road trip because it's an open, group shower. There is always one, and all the upperclassmen always laugh at her behind her back claiming that "she is just so young and cute." Well, eff that! I'm not young or cute, so let's do this!!!

Unintentionally though, I proved myself to be more comfortable than I had planned because pulling a typical, mindless move-- I forgot a towel. So while all the girls would wrap themselves up to and from the sauna or shower, I remained unwrapped and had no option but to be overly confident and just strut it out. It was ridiculous! A good portion of my time out of the sauna was spent standing in the shower area waiting to dry off. Which, by the way, is not a fast process when you're in a confined space that naturally turns into a humid steam room from the heat of the sauna combined with the water from the showers. But don't worry guys, I'm cool, still just drying!

After a few mandatory licorice flavored shots (they love licorice!) and some more dancing, we all got ready and went out to a club called Apollo. It was huge with three levels and two separate areas, the dance floor club part and an outside looking courtyard area that was confusing and had free Wi-Fi. Free Wi-Fi is my best friend, so Apollo therefore became the hottest spot in Helsinki. However, my buddy Apollo is a night-owl and doesn't close until 4 am. The two grandma Americans, who are used to last call being 2 am at the latest, had to call it an early night, so we decided to leave. Two Americans out on their own for the first time in downtown Helsinki, how bad could this be?

After strolling the streets for a while, fervently trying to find pizza after being denied a slice from a place called Pizza Express because appropriately they only sell chicken sandwiches, we resorted to settling for an average chicken sandwich. And what had once been an effort to having an "early" night turned into a not so early night because of this dang pizza, err, chicken place. Home, that now was all we cared about and how we were going to get there was going to be interesting.

The buses were chaotic and there was absolutely NO chance we would end up anywhere close to our houses if we took a bus, so making the first good decision of the night we decided to take a taxi. 30 Euro later we pulled up to Cynthia's house. Wishing to wake up in my own bed after a night like this, I asked the taxi driver how much it would be to bring me home too. "30 to 35." Well, shoot, I only have 18. "That's okay, you pay me when you get home." Sweet, let't ride.

It's 5 in the morning and I find myself with a driver who doesn't understand my English and somehow convinces himself that "football player" translates to hooker.  Awesome. No, I am not going to be your new girlfriend and yes the road is in front of you. Well,  the silver lining in the situation is that it will make for a good story in the morning. That is, if I get home. And, I guess one perk of my taxi driver thinking I am a hooker, is that being a woman of the night who is prematurely taking a taxi home to her cute suburban home clearly means that business isn't good. He must have felt bad for his new, struggling girlfriend because he didn't make me pay any extra.

Kiitos senor! Yes, home sweet home, my bed is just a few steps away...

No house keys. Feck!

Perfect ending to a seriously dysfunctional and amazing night? Waking up my sweet host family to let their demented American hooker into the house. Embarrassing, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. I am relieved when a cheery smile answers the door and the warmth of the house welcomes me in.

I'm still recovering from the intense sleep deprivation and immense full body dehydration, but can't wait for sauna night number 2!

Other stuff, like soccer:
-Sweden was awesome and I have complete confidence that PK-35 is going to rock Finnish soccer this season. We went 1-1-1 for the weekend, which is a great result and we were really happy with it. We are good and the girls are such amazing people and players. I couldn't be happier with the team!
-Stockholm was beautiful! The characters I met in the hostel were too funny . The motto of the couple days was "You can't make this stuff up." Like the weird, black, studded  leather jacket wearing emo girl who refused to talk to anyone and fell asleep around 8 every night in her sheets that had giant pictures of cats all over them.
- We have this weekend off and season starts next weekend. AH! Can't wait.

Glad to see that Barca won last night because I'm off to Barcelona for Easter weekend. The city should be happy--Jesus and football!

Thanks for reading and your support!
Peace and Love,
Cat

PICTURE TIME:

Sauna night fun before heading out! 

Apollo, inside outside part.

Stockholm florists. They were all over the city. It was adorable! 

Old town Stockholm. 

Stockholm! 

Stadium of our tournament in Sundsvall, Sweden.

Sundsvall, Sweden.