Lacrosse Halfway Update

At the halfway point in the season we sit at 5-3 with a busy schedule coming up for the second half as we have several games to make up. We lost our most recent game to the Walcountian Blues.

Trip to Germany

So for the second straight year I spent Christmas outside of the US. This year I was in Salzburg, Austria following a trip to Munich, Germany. We arrived in Munich the morning of December 20th and were welcomed by 3 degree weather. After getting our bearing in the city and checking into the hostel we decided to get schnitzel and one of the local restaurants famous for it. Schnitzel is basically a fish fry but instead of fish it's fried pork. The servings at the restaurant were roughly the size of an elephants ear and needless to say I was unable to finish it despite my best efforts. Afterwards we headed to the most famous beer hall in the world, the Hofbrauhaus and had a few of their giant liter sized beers. These were honestly some of the best beers I've ever had. The next day we went on a free walking tour of the city which was one of the best tours I've ever been on. We realized on this trip that for some reason the less money you spend on a tour the better it usually is. After talking with our tour guide we decided to go on his tour of local beer halls that night. Ridiculous is the only word I have for it. At one point our entire tour group (consisting of 20 people) dined and ditched at the insistance of our tour guide. We had a good reason as the beer hall was trying to make us pay for food that we had already paid for but it was still crazy. The next morning I was hurting but we had to get up to go on a tour of the Dachau prison camp a few miles outside of the city. Despite my hangover this was an incredible place to visit. The next day we went to the place I was most excited for, the Neuschwanstein Castle two hours outside of Munich. The Neuschwanstein castle was the inspiration for the Disney Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disney World. The castle was amazing even if the tour was horrible. When we got back to Munich we got on a train which took us to Salzburg, Austria. Christmas Eve saw us going on a 'Christmas Tour' in the Salzburg area. It should have been titled the "Tour of small churches related to a Christmas carol...for old people and families." It was a tour that took you to places where 'Silent Night' was written and culminated in a annual celebration of the song. It was completely in German but it was still pretty cool to be there on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day we took in the sights of the city and enjoyed the many Christmas Markets throughout the city. That night we attended a Christmas party at our hostel with people from all around the world. The following day we continued to tour the city before catching our flight back to London. Tomorrow I'm heading up to Edinburgh, Scotland for the Hogamanay New Years Festival.

Thanksgiving and Mustaches

Pictures:

Top-Sunday Thanksgiving Table

Second-Everyone at the table

Third-Wednesday London Thanksgiving (I'm in the back)

Last-Good looking mustaches

The two most exciting things going on here at the moment are Thanksgiving and my distinguished mustache. I actually had four Thanksgivings. On Wednesday the London University team I coach had a Thanksgiving party which they did a really nice job with. Thursday me and my American friend Chris went to a local carvery and had a turkey dinner. While it wasn't quite American Thanksgiving it was still really good. Than on Saturday another American coach organized a Thanksgiving party at a pub complete with a full Thanksgiving dinner. To round out the holiday yet another American had a dinner at her house with the family she lived with. In summary I don't want to eat turkey again for a week but it was alot of fun even though I still would have preferred to be home with all of you. My sad excuse for facial hair came out of a English men's tradition called 'Movember' or 'No Shave November.' Basically alot of young guys grow mustaches to raise awareness/money for prostate cancer research. My American friends also grew them. Thankfully it will be gone on Saturday after my game. I recently booked my Christmas trip to Germany and Austria with four of my friends. We're going to Munich and than heading to Salzburg, Austria for Christmas Eve and Day. After that we're heading to Edinburgh for the Hogamanay New Years Festival.