I know I know... I'm due for an update!

Sorry that I have been brutal with this blog this month! After the New Years hangover wore off, we just weren't up to a whole lot so I didn't want to bore you with lame updates! And then, I just got a bit out of the blogging habit after that. But I'm back! And now there is lots of time to recap. So I'll start from the beginning... of the new year.

The New Year's party was a complete wasted fest as suspected. The team had rented out the entire bottom half of a restaurant, which was really nice and we all just stayed there the whole night. I ended up taking zero pictures but Shannon has an entire camera full of some really embarassing ones. After having been in Hannover for New Year's last year, I knew a little of what to expect with the midnight fireworks, but it was even more insane by us this year. The air was so foggy with firework smoke and so loud with the bangs that it really did feel as if we were in a bit of a war zone! It's such a cool thing that they do that here. Dangerous! But cool.

Like I said before, after New Years, it was pretty boring around this place, we didn't get up to a whole lot. One of Kevin's best buddies and old teammate from Hannover, DJ Jelitto and his fiance came up for a day trip the week after New Years. It worked out perfect too that it just happened to fall on one of my days off. We go to show them a bit around downtown Hamburg and made them dinner before they were on the road again back to Hannover. A short trip, but a pretty awesome one... at least we thought so!

We do have a bit of big news to share. We are coming back to Hamburg next year! The Freezers have picked up the option to have Kevin back next year and we couldn't be happier! We've known this for a little while, but it was finally made public last week. Complete with a cheesy photo in the newspaper of Kev and I by the Alster. I will also continue working for the Scherenbergs next year which I am really excited about! 

Speaking of hockey, the team is currently in 5th place in the league. More importantly, what I know all of you are dying to hear about... it was "ladies' night" at the game this past Friday. The male strippers were not nearly as entertaining as the chicks from men's night, but it was still pretty funny to see. When the guys were in the stands during intermission, I actually felt a bit akward and embarrassed for them as they were walking aimlessly without shirts trying to find women to dance with. Still, the on ice lap dance was pretty great, especially when one of the dancers pulled his undies just low enough to show a little crack! I forgot my phone that game and my camera battery was dead so I don't have anything good of my own to show of that night. Everything below is from the Freeers facebook page!

Kev has a game in Berlin today and I actually have to get going because Shannon and I are leaving in about 15 minutes to go to it. We are headed to the game and then spending the night there with the guys to explore Berlin tomorrow for their day off. I'll have a lot to write about then! And my camera battery is charging now, so I'll finally be taking some pictures of my own again! Hopefully, when we come back, Kevin will be able to call himself an uncle. His brother Matt and his wife, Shannon, are due to have their baby any time now!Enjoy your Sunday! Tschüss!

Article Translation!

Finished! Termine! Done! Is it a perfect, exact translation? Not a chance! Do I care? Not one bit! For those of you that don't know, Kev had an article in the arena magazine this past month (see here). I had been attempting to translate it to English so our family and friends could understand it. I would probably have given up if I hadn't promised Harry/Pop (Kev's grandpa) that I would finish it for him. By Wednesday night. Well, it's now into Thursday here, but thank goodness for that 6 hour time difference because it is only 6:30 p.m. (or 5:30 if we want to do Wisco time!) on Wednesday back home! I made the deadline. So here it goes and no one is allowed to make fun of me for things that sounds silly, I did my best! :-)

Kevin Schmidt - Hamburgs Next National Player? (Kevin Schmidt came in the Summer from the second division club Hannover Indians and has in a short time been considered by the National Coaches)

It was October 21, when national coach Jacob Koelliker took a seat in the O2 World for the first time and looked for himself at the potential national player of the Hamburg Freezers. By the 3-2 victory against the Hannover Scorpians, a man stood out, who hadn't actually been on his radar. After the game, Koelliker asked the GM Stephane Richer about Kevin Schmidt. Not without reason: the defenseman is one of the rising starts of the current season. Many believe the new addition will make the jump to the national team. Certainly, the statue allows DEB Schmidt to become a national player in the middle of 2012, he must be an active pro for 2 years in the nation before he becomes eligible for "Team Germany."

"There aren't many good German Offensive-defensemen and Kevin is still young. He has a promising future for himself," says Richer. Schmidt himself takes such praise with much goodwill if equal to knowledgeable about the national team topic, almost a little embarrassed. "It would be an honor for me, to be able to represent my country on the ice. And I fully admit this is a goal I pursue," says the German-Canadian, who has a German passport since 2010. His father, Horst, was born in Stuttgart and emigrated at the age of 3 months to Canada. From there, the Schmidt family pursued ice hockey, now the career of their 25-year old son. The defender regularly reports to his parents and especially his brothers, Jamie, Michael, and Matt, who all played hockey, how well it is going for him with the Freezers and how much he likes and can learn from Ex-NHL-players Schubert and Traverse. "My family, of course, is very happy for me. It was a big step in the DEL and I'm very happy that I'm off to a good start here," says Schmidt, grateful that he gets so much ice time and is able to be in the Powerplay. "I want to justify the trust of Benoit Laporte. I work at it every day."

It was already clear to Schmidt at a young age that hockey would take him to Germany, sooner or later. Due to lack of perspective in North America, he moved to Germany in 2010. Actually, it was hoped by the defensman, he wanted to make the direct jump into the best days of German ice hockey. In retrospect, he is glad to have taken a detour in the second division. "It was good to gain experience on the big ice surface. Perhaps the direct jump to the DEL would have been too great. The hockey is just different here than in North America," says Schmidt who achieved 11 goals last season for the Hannover Indians. (I couldn't understand the next sentence but it said something about not yet scoring a goal in the higher league but waiting to do so and is still a hit in the Freezers jersey.) "The guys naturally joke about my stoppages (?)," says "Schmidty," as his colleagues call him. "In which: So I'm not completely without a goal. In the game against the LA Kings, I've finally taken care of a goal!" he makes clear. "That was a very special moment, I will probably report (?) for a long time: Jerome Flaake saw me at the far post, passed, and then it was easy!"

Similarly, it was easy for the defensive talent to makethe move to the Elbe. With girlfriend, Autumn, the 25-year olds like to explore the city, go shopping, or enjoy a coffee. "Hamburg has a great history, amazing architechture, and is just worth living," says Schmid, who grew up just outside of Toronto and is an avid supporter of the Maple Leafs. So it's not surprising that the high-school-graduate was early on skates. At three years old, he took his first steps on the ice. He practiced on a frozen lake with hs grandfather. As a teenager, Schmidt also tried in the meantime to be a Lacrosse player. "Who knew, I would become as well as professional. But today, I am happy about my career as a professional Hockey player," says Schmidt who makes no secret of hw ambitious he is. He's part of a team that has a chance at the title, he says. "And that, I always dreamed of. That was my goal!"

SO! I'm so glad that's done. It's just too bad that I have to thank Google Translate way more than I had hoped. Sorry about things that sound silly or completely incorrect. It's definitely not the perfect translation, but I hope it is close and even more, I hope you all enjoyed my attempt! Seeing as it is now almost 1 a.m. and I'm exhausted from German, I'm headed to bed. Gute Nacht!!!

Trying new things!

I feel like we have been pretty busy around here, so there hasn't been too much time for a blog update! I have really been starting to get into a class/work routine. Bea and I have discussed and came up with more of a set schedule, which is wonderful, because the first couple of weeks we were basically going day to day. I would head to their house in the morning not even sure what time I would be coming home at. But now we have set 3 days a week aside for me to come work. Mondays and Thursdays I go straight to their house after class, stay until seven, and Fridays I go there from 10-5. This leaves me with only having class Tuesday and I get Wednesdays and the weekends completely to myself. It also works out great with Kevin's game schedule that I shouldn't have to miss any.

However, we did already pick a Sunday afternoon game for me to stay home with Ida, and for Hans and his parents to get to go to Kevin's game! Hans has never seen a hockey game before but after seeing Kev occasionally, he talks about Kevin and ice hockey a lot. He is always asking me where Kevin is and what Kevin is doing during the day and gets really excited to see him when he picks me up from work. Other than that, on the work and class front, things have been going really well. I am beginning to understand a lot more of what Hans and his mom say to each other and communicating with Hans is slowly but surely getting easier!

Source: Google Images

Since I titled this post trying new things, I should probably give a little update on what those new things are! My brother will be proud to know that I drove Shannon and myself to the boys' game on Sunday. The catch here is that means I drove stick shift!!!!!! After a couple short lessons my first week here, I had been completely dreading getting behind the wheel and basically avoided it as much as I could (which has made me a pro with the train/bus system!) But Shannon was a trooper and took me to the empty Ikea parking lots to practice before the game and I drove us to it, and Kevin made me drive back home after! This may seem trivial to some people, but I have been so nervous about this stick shift thing so I am pretty dang proud of myself! :-)

The other new thing we tried was SUSHI! Now, I have had sushi a time or two before, but Kevin has never put in a full effort to try an entire meal of sushi. We went with 3 of the other couples last night to a sushi restaurant of one of the famous sushi chefs in Hamburg. I personally really liked everything we got and although Kev liked it, he definitely isn't sold on having it regularly. Supposedly Olivia Palermo (a New York socialite and from MTV's The City, for those of you that don't watch trashy reality shows) was eating at this restaurant while we were. I wasn't made aware of this until we were leaving so I didn't actually see her. I need to make sure everyone knows that being from a small midwestern town, I would really appreciate if people do an obnoxious point or shout the next time we see anyone remotely famous! I mean, come on, I'm just trying to be one of 'those people' sneaking a candid shot of the famous person!

Basically ate sushi with her last night
Source: Google images

Anyway, that's the news around Hamburg these days! Kevin's brother, Mike, and his buddy Brad are due into town on Friday for a visit, so I'm sure I'll have crazy stories soon. I'm bracing myself already for these two boys! Only kidding, Mike, can't wait to see ya!

I suppose before I go, I should give a bit of a hockey update. The boys won their game Friday night and lost this past Sunday, so they are currently sitting in 5th place in the league. Sometimes the league website, http://www.del.org/ puts up highlight videos of the previous games so scroll around that website if you'd like! Tschüss everyone!

Circus Krone

Yesterday, Kev got to head over to a teammates house and have a feast for the Canadian Thanksgiving. Can you believe that they told me I wasn't allowed to come since I'm American?? That's because they didn't, I couldn't go because I had plans to go to the Circus with Hans and his dad. Circus Krone is Europes largest and oldest circus, so knowing that, I was pretty friggin excited! Circus Krone is based in Munich, but they are currently on a summer tour through Germany. The circus has animal trainers and performers from 14 different countries. I'll let the pictures do the rest on this one!

 

 

 

 

Kevin left this morning for a little road trip. The boys flew this morning to their game against the Straubing Tigers and they will fly tomorrow to get to Köln for a game on Tuesday. A few of the girls and I may be going to the Red Hot Chili Pepper concert tonight, but we aren't sure yet! Have a great start to your week everyone! Tschüss!

Post #1 and lots to say!

I caved. I got sucked into the world of blogging! Kev and I wanted to have an easy way to let everyone we care about know what's going on over here in Deutschland and this seems to be it. I've already been here for almost 3 weeks, so there is a lot to update you all on! Since I have been here, Kev has started the regular season of games (and the team is 2-0!), we've gone out a few times, I have started my work as a nanny and have also begun German classes! We have gotten our apartment to feel a bit more like home after a few IKEA trips, have explored our neighborhood and a little bit of downtown. I've met the other guys on the team and their families, sig. others, and we are more than happy to be in Hamburg with this team!
Kev had his first regular season game last Friday and it was a home game so I got to experience my first time in the O2 World Arena. There were over 10,000 fans in attendance and these fans love their hockey and their team! The Freezers won 4-2 and below is a video of the team's introduction.

In the past 2 weeks, I have been spending a lot of time with the family I work for. The kids' names are Hans (3 yrs.) and Ida (5 mo.) Hans has tons of energy and right now it can be challenging because he does not know English and my German is not near good enough to communicate well with him. I began my German course this past week, so hopefully that will help out soon! The mom, Bea, has forced me to become more acquainted with their area by sending me out on errands and such. She is around a lot since she is still on maternity leave, which is nice to help with my communication with Hans, and she is also just a fun person to be around! Ida is a really easy baby that doesn't cry much, although she's getting to the teething stage and is beginning to be a bit restless. Yesterday, I made some sweets with Hans and we made my homeade kit-kat bars. It's not a type of dessert that Bea or her husband, Oliver, had before, so they were thrilled to try some American sweets! And they may even like sweets more than me, so I know we'll be getting along just fine! Hans and his mom even made me a cake for my birthday!

Hans put KS on the other side for Kevin too


Since I have been pretty busy lately with class and work, and Kev with hockey, we have not been able to explore Hamburg as much as we would like. The Scherenbergs are leaving tomorrow for a vacation so I will have this entire week off and hopefully we'll be able to venture out downtown more. The class I attend is right in the heart of downtown in a beautiful area with tons of shops and restaurants, so hopefully we'll stay around there after my classes next week! (Pictures to come soon of that area!) Last week we went to the main shopping district of downtown which has more high end shops. I don't know if I'll be doing much more than window shopping in that area! Below is a picture of Hamburg's Town Hall and another area of downtown. We tried to sneak inside the Town Hall but the only way to get inside is to take a tour so we may have to look into doing that!

Town Hall



Yep, we get this view regularly!



Well, I think that is enough for the first update. I promise it won't take 3 weeks to get another one! Tschüss!