Differences... This is just a small list of things that are different than what I'm used in everyday life. 1. Light switches. There are buttons instead of switches. A 2 by 3 in. rectangular button on the wall that you press for the lights.2. Toilets. Two buttons to flush the toilet. The toilets have a large button and a small button. Can you guess what each are used for? There isn't one flush knob. I think this is an attempt to conserve water.3. Dogs...they can travel anywhere and they crap everywhere.4. Cheese. It is sold in packages that are supposed to be resealable. Instead the cheese gets hard or moldy unless you wrap it in a plastic bag.5. Milk. It's sold to you warm. I never knew it didn't have to be refridgerated until it was opened.6. Rain. I thought only rain forests or countries that get monsoons could have rain everyday for months. It's worse here though because it's freezing rain and it often changes to wet snow.7. Manners. Ladies first, no! Does anyone say excuse me, no! For example...there are often long lines to get onto the crowded busses. People rush to the front, bumping into each other etc. and no one gets annoyed except me. Like if I am obviously next to get on the bus when some old man or woman or kid might just jump in ahead like I'm not there. People frequently bump into one another on the streets because the sidewalks are too damn small and they act like nothing happened. Oh yeah, the sidewalks...8. Sidewalks. What city designs it's sidewalks to be 2 ft. wide? I don't care if it's been that way for centuries fix it! 21 century, c'mon get caught up. I stopped getting bumped into the street after my second week here because I started lowering the shoulder and knocking people left and right. Kidding...sort of
9. Hankerchiefs, so foul! I mean, are you kidding me? Who blows there nose in a blanket and puts it in the pocket to be used over and over again throughout the day. That's filthy. Use kleenex people! I can't imagine the surplus of germs that gather in the pockets of people that use hankerchiefs. Everyone uses them though.
Training with OHL...So by now it might seem like I've been here in Europe on a site seeing trip, backpacking around to different cities, drinking, socializing etc. I didn't come hear to do that. I came here to play futbol. And I might have to snap, the new danger is about to ball out in the BE! It just so happens that I have some free time on the days we don't train so obviously I'm not going to sit around in the apartment. Besides if I did that there would be hardly anything to blog, right? And who comes to a country famous for it's breweries and types of beer and doesn't try atleast 85% of the product? Ok, so we're sqaure. I have been
training though, 4 times a week. The training facilities are nice. I've heard they are nicer than even some 1st division facilities. There are 6 training fields and one small stadium that is so picturesque of European club soccer. I love it. A small 1,000 seat stadium with a pub and clubhouse. Even when there aren't games you can find locals in the pub having a
Stella and shooting the sh%$. As far as training I expected a more vigorous training schedule as I am used to intense, tiring practices from my college career. I've seen the first team train and it's a little more like what I am used to. But playing with the reserves has allowed me to assimilate to the style of play here at an easier pace. Along with the fact that all the instructions shouted out are in Dutch it has also allowed me time to figure out the drills on my own without asking for a translation constantly. The players have all been very cool and helpful if I don't understand anything. The reserve team that I have been training with is composed mostly of players younger than me. Although some are older a good majority of them are around the ages of 18 through 20. Their practices are about 1 1/2 hours and are less serious and intense. Although the training sessions are good it seems like there's just less competetiveness. This is strange to me because I would think that on a team of reserves, where everyone is constantly trying to get moved up to the first team, that everyone w
ould be fighting hard in training, getting in on tackles, playing simple and quick etc. Maybe it's because I have never played on a reserve team before but I have been a substitute and when that was the case I would give it 110% so I could make the starting line up. I remain competetive in practice here though so hopefully it makes me look better. The players here are all pretty good technically but speed is not something I have noticed many players blessed with. I like this aspect because theres nothing more satisfying then knowing you can run past players defending you. I have to respect everyones passion for the game though. People get upset when they miss shots or make bad passes. People get really upset when they lose games, scrimmages, and especially if a bad call is made. Futbol, soccer or whatever you call it, here it's life. You live and breath it here and that's what makes it all worth while in my stay here. It's like finding your home away from home, the home in your heart for the sport you grew up loving.
I made it to my first Oud-Heverlee Leuven game yesterday where they lost 4-2. They play at a sweet, brand new stadion that holds roughly 10,000. It's a nice place for a division two club. The game was hard fought throughout the entire match. The match was spoiled though when the ref ejected a player for a weak tackle. He gave the player a straight red! I couldn't believe it. The only way that it might have been justified is because it was kind of from behind when the attacker was ahead of the last defender and clear to goal. Although there were about 4 other people around the ball and it just so happened the attacker was clipped. The ref was bogus most of the game anyway, making bad calls constantly. From talking to people here and friends, like Guchi, who have played f
utbol here for a while it is known that racism in European futbol has been an issue for a while. I knew this upon coming here and have been curious about its prevalence for some time. After all the program that sent me here, FARA (Futbol Against Racism in the Americas), is designed to promotoe cultural awareness in the game. Guchi has said he has recieved a couple straight red
cards before that were undeserved, some even were overturned by the futbol federation in Belgium for being fallacious. I've watched programs on HBO back home about racism in futbol and seen players walk off the pitch in games on TV because of racist fans. So in the game yesterday I couldn't help but notice a few things: There were four players on the field that were Black, three on KSK Ronse and and one on OHL. The black player on OHL recieved the red, ejected from the game, one on KSK recieved a yellow card for talking back to the ref and the other recieved a yellow card for touching the ball after a play was called. All were debatable calls, particularly the red card. Coincidense? I can't say. They maye have all deserved them but there was no replay screen to evaluate the plays. There was a total of five cards shown during the game. 3 out 4 Black players though? Those numbers made me wonder.
87 Dekenstraat, B13 ...
The is my Belgian address. Straat means street in Dutch. You can figure that out once you realize almost 90% of the street names end with "straat." It took me a week. It's not that slow so back up! I have since moved out of the hostel and into a studio for the remainder of my time here in Leueven. I made the decision to move here for two reasons: 1) in the interest of saving money and 2) because sharing a room with strangers every night gets old. My p
lace is about a 1/2 mile up from the main market and maybe a little further from the train station. Trust me, it wasn't fun walking my bags from the hostel to this place. It was about a mile and a 1/2 walk. Want to to look around the crib? OK, so this is my front door. I actually like it alot. Who wants one of those boring rectangular do
ors anyway when you can bump your head on the ceiling every time you go to unlock it and let yourself in? Plus, I always wanted to live somewhere once that is designed to be ultra contemporary. Come on in. This is the pad. I haven't mounted the flat screens nor the Monet's yet but I'll get to that this week. This is the living room, kitchen, bedroom, closet, and balcony. The mini fridge has been the best part because shopping in a Belgian supermarket is a real challenge. The people who work there are older and normally people in the older generations don't speak english as well as younger ones. The trip to the supermarket involved alot of pointing, nodding, and assuming. That is, assuming what I was buying was what the picture on the package 
looked like I thought it was. This is the neighborhood. It looks kind of old school but houses mostly students and temporary tenants like myself. Some parts look like they're straight out of one of the World Wars but for the most part the area is a comfortable and safe place to live. I haven't met any of my neighbors yet but I think a couple live in the apartment next to mine because there is a serious argument that occurs every night around 11 PM. I'll keep yo
u posted on who I meet around the way.
Liege...
On one of my days off from training I took a short trip to the city of Liege to meet up with my guy, Guchi. Liege is in south Belgium where people speak French. It is another older-looking city with a river running down the center. I would tell you the name of the river but Guchi didn't know its name. Guchi plays professionally for number 1 ranked Standaard Liege in the Jupiler League a.k.a. Belgian 1st Division. He has been named to the league's top 11 team twice as one of Belgium's best defenders while rep'n U.S. soccer at the same time. After I was scooped at the train station we went on a small tour of the city. It's located in between some small mountains which provided beautiful backdrops behind the citys buildings. Guch needed to get a his girlfriend a late Valentines Day present so a good part of my first day was taken up by visiting a loc
al Chihuaha breader where Guch found his Valentines Day gift. I had beef with the little rat from the start since it peed on me in the car on the way to drop it off at his girlfriend's apartment. We made up eventually though. That night I went to watch a Standaard Liege match against Guch's old team La Louvierre. I thought people tailgated hardcore for American football games but these people took binge drinking to another level. A
nd everyone pees everywhere! The stadium held about 30,000 and was packed. The game ended up in a draw but the fans were still happy. Afterwards we went out for some food and drinks and I came back to Leuven the next day.
London...
After my first full week in Belgium I switched things up and hopped on a train to London. These high speed trains are no joke. Let me tell you, these babies can fly. They have transit lines that can take you to just about any city in Europe. Convenient ain't it, like the cell phone. The only way to ride is first class. No, I'm not being boozshy about it. If you book your tickets enough in advance, ocassionally, there are 1st class fares that are cheaper than standard class. Who wouldn't snag those seats? Having a couple cocktails is interesting at 180 km per hour too. My table looked like this on the way there. 
Not too shabby huh? Yup, that's smoked duck on the right, mushroom and sauteed apple with chocolate raspberry mouse. So two hours and 5 mini cabernets later I arrive at Waterloo station and meet up with Melissa, my girlfriend and partner in crime. Yes we're guilty, we have a history of committing acts with voluminous amounts of fun. We take the subway back to the hotel to drop off my gear and venture off into the city. London is alot like an American metropolis, the NYC of Great Britain, if you will. Albeit less skycrapers and homeless people it appeared to be the cosmopolitan hive I had imagined. Somehow it remained remarkably clean even though all the puclic trash cans had been moved off the streets since the London bombings. The people weren't particularly nice but since everything was in English we didn't need much help from anyone. One thing I have definitely noticed about Europe is that 1) everyone smokes and 2) Obesity is not an issue. I haven't seen one overweight adult since I've been here, any
where. Particularly in London there were mostly attractive patrons in stores and on the street. People do have bad dental hygene though. I don't know if it's the cigarettes or the tea or both. Masses of people need to pick up some Aquafresh Extreme Cleaning Empowermint though a.s.a.p. I'm done criticizing. Where was I? So we go to The London Eye first which appears to be the world's largest fairess wheel. It's absolutley enormous and towers over most of London'a tallest buildings. We wanted to catch
a ride but the lines were too long so we moved along over a bridge to see Big Ben and The Tower of London. Both were impressive structures and made you feel like you were back in medevil times. We continued our self-directed tour towards Buckingham Palace where we passed the Queen's Gu
ards. These so called "gaurds" weren't more than 16 years old. What were they going to gaurd? They're probably guarding their homework or a bagged lunch. It made for a good picture though so we took a snapshot. By now we had reached a crucial point in our day. The Manchester United/Liverpool game was about to start and we still had alot of site seeing to do. Granted it would only take out about 2 hours to watch the game somewhere, we could easily catch some more sites afterwards since it was only about 1 PM. I didn'nt make the decision though. I just kept mentioning that it would fun to watch an English futbol game if we found a pub close by. Plus Melissa is a sucker if any activity involves a beverage...she sure loves her drinks. We come across a vender and ask where a good place to watch the game would be and he recommends a sports bar up the street. We purchased Man. U and Liverpool scarves to show some team spirit but we had underdressed for our long day of walking around the city in the cold. I rocked the Liverpool scarf and she the Reds. The bar was jam packed with people and it took forever to get a drink. The ambience of the place was typical of an English Pub, loud laughing and
cheering mixed with excessive drinking. We joined the rawkus jubilantly. Liverpool ended up winning the game. The match was hard fought and great to watch there at the pub. Imagine watching the superbowl at a packed bar with flat screens every weekend though, rooting for your local futbol club. It's kind of like that. After the game we strolled into downtown London, the Soho section and commenced in mostly window shopping. There were too many things I wanted to buy and the American currency is like a Mickey Mouse dollar compaired to th British pound but I managed to settle for some jeans and a bag for my soccer gear. Carnaby Street is the London equivalent to 5th Avenue or Rodeo Drive. By the time we were done on our first day we were exhausted from all the walking. After a short rest at the hotel we went out for some dinner and stayed at the restaurant afterwards for some dancing as it became a Cuban club at night. The next day we planned to go to some museums and ride The London Eye but things didnt do as planned. We woke up to the phone ringing with a man on the other line asking if we needed the room cleaned. I said yes and around 1 PM would be fine, thinking it was about 11 AM. He proc
eeded to tell me it was almost 4. We had slept in like crazy but it was dark out all day. I know this because I had gotten up earlier. It had been raining and cloudy in the morning and into the afternoon. We improvised and hurried over to check out the Tate Britain, an indoor activity. The nightmare exhibit fearuting Fuseli and Blake was very cool. That night we ordered pizza and after the rain stopped we made it out to a bar called Digress. It was fun but Europe needs to hurry up and get some XM Radio and start watching more BET or MTV Jams since they can't getU.S. radio. People haven't jammed out to 80's pop or Vanilla Ice in a minute! Get caught up already! We drank and grooved until about 5 in the AM. Thne next morning I said goodbye to Melissa, hugs and kisses, and traveled back to Belgium. If I had't met up with my girl there, London get's a B-.
Brussels...
First I want to apologize for procrastinating on the posts. My bad if I actually needed to site see and get used to the life I will be living for the next month.
Anyway, I have had the opportunity to get around to some other parts of Europe. I went to Brussels for the day about a week ago. It's nice city, old and very European-looking. That is, it's less westernized. The buildings all look like they have been around since WW II. The city is lively as any other though. Brussels or Bruxelles, in French, is only about a 20 minute train ride west of Leuven and from what I saw it seemed like a cool place to live, work and go out for drinks. Some of the guys I have been training with say that some of the best clubs are in dowtown Brussels. That probably means I'll have to hit that up sooner or later. The bars in Leuven are smaller and a change of pace is always a good thing. I spent most of my time during my day there strolling around the city
seeing what there is to see. I think the nicest part of Brussels is an area called the Grand Plaza. It consists of small, winding streets with shops, restaurants and such. It's very simialr to Leuven but much larger. It would be a nice place to take your girl on a date or walk around on a summer night. Definitely a romantic place to spend time with your significant other. During the day though these tiny streets/alleys are packed with people. The neat thing about alot of the shops is that they display many of their products outside for people walking by to see. The displays are all detailed and arranged in attractive designs by the shop owners. It's sort of a way to show their craft not only as a baker, chef, or merchant but almost as an artist. Oh, Is that c
orny of me to say? Have a look for yourself then. I strolled past this seafood shop while I was on my to find a place to grab a quick snack. Now if this isn't the most creative way to arrange your food then I don't know what is. I think it was also because Valentines Day was a few days earlier. In case you didn't know Belgium is famous for it's waffles. We already talked about the brew and it's popularity. But so I've been baffled about the amazingness of these waffles. I could live off beer and waffles for atleast the next 5 years. They're that good. They aren't served on a plate with syrup, butter and silverware for breakfast like in the states. Rather, they're served by venders on the street as a snack like how you would normally buy a hot dog. They have a slightly sugar coated crust and are served warm off the griddle with a napkin. I ate 3 yesterday. And I ordered them all at the same time. Do you think I blew up my tourist ID? Maybe my glutton ID if nothing else. If you really want a taste of heaven you can step it up and get a waffle with chocolate or cream on top. When I was in Brussels I felt compelled to eat one of these as I passed by. This is what you would see if you wanted to eat like a waffle king like myself. 
When I came back down from heaven and licked my fingers clean I picked up a cell phone so I could maintain some contact with people here that I would need to get a hold of like the coaches or friends I've made etc. I can stay in touch with family and friends back in the states too. Yes I need one! All you haters who think I should be in Europe to get away from normal life are confused. Convenience is important and having the phone is perfect. You backpackers have nothing on me. Lastly, is it just me or does every major city have a China Town? I wound up walking right through it and not even knowing it until I looked up to see all those neon signs with asian writing. I started this blog early in the day and had to stop because I am moving out of the hostel into a studio. I forget where I was going with it after Chinatown. My bad. There's more to come anyway so pipe down. Until then. Be easy.
Leuven...
How do you picture a European city or town? Does that image include small brick streets lined with smart cars, pubs on every corner, tiny bakeries and shops of the sort? If it doesn't then you're picturing a city other than Leuven, Belgium. Stereotypical you might think. Why not though? It's exactly how I pictured the town and I'm not going to lie, it's definitely going to be a fun city to kick it in for the next several weeks. I've been able to step into a few pubs and restaurants to get a taste of what the local cuisine is like, of course some local beers too. Naturally the servers and bartenders had their own recomendations for the Amerikaan. They were rather enthusiastic about it. La Guillotine and Stella take spots one and two in "my favorite beers" list for now. Can you guess how many it took for me to figure that out? (Note: I can't express how comedy it is to hear Beyonce and Slim Thug on the radio right now while I write this. Guess I'm not that far from home.) I am staying at the Leuven Hostel and it seems pleasant. Well, I've only stayed there one night and slept easy. I've been told though, I have to move rooms because they are overbooked and I need to share a room with some people. Hmmmm. That's what hostels are all about I guess. No complaints yet. Most people speak English here so it's not like I'm worrying too much about communication. I'll probably get my own room back next week according to Roel, the hostel manager. He's cool, no worries. Besides, he's also the bartender there...word! Leuven is also quite the college town. I thought Madison, WI was a fun place to go to college but it's got serious competition over here. Katholik (Catholic) University, one of the oldest schools in Europe is located right in the heart of the city. Pretty much everyone you see on the streets is a student, undergrad or grad. Trains and busses are the preferred method of transportation here. The trains run similar to subways back in the U.S. except they're above ground and have larger cars. The cars are set up differently in that seats face each other in pairs with a small table in between. It's slightly more intimate than your average American subwar car but hey, it's Europe right? Speaking of which I still need to figure out how to use this public transportation so I can get to training later this evening. I forgot to do that last hour. Three words can explain...tipsy sight seeing . Until next time....Peace.
DCA and JFK...
I feel like everyone I talk to who's gone over seas has felt like the process of getting there was always a hastle. It's fair to say that the sh@$ is a hastle, for real. I started the trip off on a classic note. Forgetting that the trip is an international trip from the "start" (as in when you get on the first airplane of the trip) I arrived at the check in counter late, even for a domestic flight. Once I realized I had been standing in line for almost 45 minute behind a bunch a people trying to get to MIA, but didnt understand there f'n flight had been canceleled because of a snowstorm, I buged my way to the front. After checking in the ticket attendant warned me I might not make my flight because I had checked in so late, the fact that it was international etc. and my bag weighed too much and so on. I hustle down to security where they, of course on this trip, decide to make me walk through the metal detector twice and remove my belt and gum from my pockets and other bs. I get through, not noticing that I've left my belt at the security check point, beginning to high ass it to the gate where they tell me "I'm really late." And I'm like "nah, really." So they say I can board. Or is it opposite day? After calling down to the plane to say they have one more passsnger I notice an ominous smirk on the gate attendant's face. "They're not lettin you on" he says accompanied with a tacit grin. I'm like WTF! Of course I miss my first international flight. And you know how it goes... Once you miss the first flight then the next one gets messed up and so on until you have to reschedule you're entre life to fix this issue! So I'm sitting there wondering what I'm supposed to do now. I don't even have my cell phone so I can call my parents to come scoop my sorry ass up after they jsut dropped me off. But luck was with me this afternoon, unlike the back to back green, infinity sign in Vegas at the roulette table two summers ago. That's right I'm still salty, I would have been $700 up on my fist night. The guy picks up the phone again to talk for a moment and the informs me I can get on and that I'm a lucky guy. There was a hint of dissappointment that he wouldn't be able to ruin my afternoon. I'm like ok homie just open the door. So next I'm at JFK after waiting in line to get through international security trying to find a seat at the gate but can't because the entire terminal had turnded into a Buena Vista Social Club concert. One of my guys is Dominican and I love the kid to death. These people are wild. Other than acting overly ecstatic to be in an airport, maybe they just talk loud, they straight up didn't follow directions for anything. I don't know if it waas because they didn't hear the gate attendants shouting out "quiet down" or if they just love life so much they're just lively all day. But they were not helping the traffic patterns of other international flight passengers that evening. The gate attendant even had to stop loading the plane to San Domingo twice because of the rawkus. I wasn't angry though. There were too many funny scenes to get heated about it. The best was a group, Mom with two daughters, one a teenager and other a todler, who were getting there thing together in hurry. The older daughter was holding the younger's hand while the other hand of the younger held onto a full, super sized, cup of coke. Naturally the coke fell out of the hand after about 3 steps and shot up all over the the older daughter's outfit. The elder screams loud enough to scare the peoplein the the next 3 terminals and stomps off. Meanwhile the younger decides to start eating the ice off the floor. I don' know why that is funny. Maybe it was my subconscious effort to remain calm. 7 hours and 30 minutes later I'm in Brussels. It was supposed to be a 6 and 1/2 hour flight but we sat at the gate for 45 minutes to get de-iced and for sh#$'s and giggles. The de-cing only took 10 minutes. Anyway I get to Brussels and then take the train to Lueven which is about as cool as any Euro town can get. I just had my fourth 11% alc. Cristal bier and haven't slept in almost 24 hours. It's begun to snow and I'm going to try to figure out the public transportation system around this town so I know how to get back and forth from training. Did I just say training? I almost forgot why I was here. First entry taken care of. More to come (and pictures). Peace.
