Greetings Globalites.  It seems its been a couple weeks since I last checked in, so I'll start off with the most interesting news and work from there. 

First and foremost, I received an email from Craig Dufour the other day that was beyond terrific.  It appears as if Craig will be planning a visit here during November, most likely Thanksgiving time.  After a tough battle with mono, Craig is back to his old self and I couldn't be happier to hear he'll be coming over here.  Craig if you're reading this, get ready for a wonderful stay here in London.  I hereby pledge to show you a great time.  

Next, I must report that I next week is my first vacation and I will be using it to visit Amsterdam.  I picked up a travel guide at the library today and am looking forward to taking in all the city has to offer.  

Last weekend I was lucky enough to make my second trip to Wales in as many weeks.  I left around 10 AM with two of my teammates to make the 3 1/2 hour trek to Cardiff for a league game.  Unfortunately, many of the players on my team were not able to do the same.  We arrived with 10 players including a goalie.  In our lovely game of lacrosse that means you are without subs for your 60 minute marathon of a tilt.  Needless to say, it was exhausting.  We had a really slow start and found ourselves down 3-0 after the first quarter.  Quite the hole to dig yourselves in with such small numbers.  But we battled back and controlled the rest of the game and were able to cut their lead to 1 towards the end of the 4th quarter.  Unfortunately it was too little too late and we lost 6-5.  In happier news, my ankle felt alright and I played the whole game, chipping in on 4 of our 5 goals.  We then loaded up for the trek home, and adventure that saw me finally reaching home at 10 pm.  I was in bed by 10:30.  It was a tough Saturday, but I got through it in one piece.  Speaking of getting through things in one piece....

I was recently on the receiving end of an unfortunate exchange that turned into one of the most utterly preposterous experiences of my life.  Before I tell this story, I must offer a disclaimer, some Globalites will think this is quite funny, others will be slightly horrified by it.  So to set the scene, a bunch of my fellow Local Development Officers were in town this weekend for a youth tournament.  We went out for a couple drinks in Clapham Saturday night, and after a good old time with these friends of mine, a couple of us were making the trip to some of my friends house in Croydon.  We'd had our fun and we were ready to call it a night.  What happened next can only be described with one sentence: Some people are freaking crazy.  I was walking next to my friend Nick on the sidewalk, minding our own business when a lunatic riding a bike comes flying into Nick's back.  An accident (the bikers fault) but an accident nonetheless.  Well the biker went flying over his handlebars and hit the ground.  Nick was laying on the ground next to him, I imagine because getting hit with a bike doesn't feel too good.  I approached the two of them, and before I knew it, this mysterious evil prick of a biker jumped up, punched Nick in the side of the head and suckered me right in the forehead.  And as mysteriously as he arrived, he was gone.  This kid literally made the quickest escape I'd ever seen or heard of.  So me and nick are left there first, wondering what the hell just happened, and second, nursing our respective wounds.  The cut to my pride was bad, but the cut to my forehead was much worse.  I suspect he was wearing a ring or something because my cut required hospital attention.  My friend Lauren was nice enough to accompany me to the hospital where I did not receive stitches (and as someone who knows stitches quite well, I feel that they would have been the best route to take).  Regardless, we were there until four.  I didn't get to bed till five and had to wake up at 7:30 to go pick a bunch of kids up for this all day lacrosse tournament.  So I coached a team until 4, didn't win a game, and dropped all of the kids off to finally see home by 6.  I was banged up and exhausted, but no worse for the wear.  In the words of Charlie, the hero of the animated movie "All Dogs Go To Heaven", you can't keep a good dog down.

So here I am, bandaged forehead, flu-like symptoms, almost 8 weeks in, and loving every minute of it.  I wont complain about the freak punch to the head, because hey, shit happens.  I won't complain about the fact that my lax team hasn't had a league win yet, because I'm having a great time playing and our first W is on its way.  And I can't complain about anything else really, because I have a great job and am happy over here.  Well I do miss you guys, but you don't want to hear me complain about that.

PS -  Jen and Jordan, I watched handball on TV today, it was fantastic.

I still can't believe I was in Wales for the Ryder Cup

This last week could have only been capped off in one better way -- If our American team hadn't gotten demolished Sunday at the Ryder Cup.  Sure they made a valiant attempt at a comeback Monday, but I didn't get to witness that, instead I saw six matches with 5 American losses and 1 tie.  But all is well, I experienced what was definitely the best day since I've arrived here in the UK.  But I'll get to that later faithful Globalites, to keep things chronological I'll update you on everything else thats been happening first.

First comes the worst of the news, Kaeden did not make the top 10 in the Sunbeam contest.  A big thanks to all who voted and don't worry, he doesn't seem too worked up about it.  And hey, 40 out of 25,000 aint bad.  I like to think he placed 11th anyways.  

I've started getting some kids together for a tournament at a nearby club on the 17th.  I'm aiming to have 2-3 teams to compete in the u-12, u-14 and u-16 age groups.  Its been difficult getting commitments out of the kids, but they have really started to enjoy playing and I think some of them are really excited.  I brought my helmet and stick in to my last couple sessions and the kids absolutely loved them.  They thought they were just the coolest things they'd ever seen and all took turns passing them around.  Its nice to see them getting so excited about it all and it definitely makes my job 10 times easier.  

On to this weekend, and what a hectic but terrific one it turned out to be.  I laid low Friday night and just hung out with my friend Nick, who is the LDO at a nearby club.  Saturday we had a game at 2:30 against Hillcroft.  We would have been the favorite going in but most of our players were in Prague for a big annual box tournament.  As it was, we played with two subs.  It didn't take long for me to twist my ankle again and I was done for the day.  We lost 11-4 and it was a frustrating game top to bottom.  We played way too much defense and had a tough time getting things going offensively when we did get the ball.  At the end of the day we had a lot of shots sail wide and a lot into the goalies stick.  But we're back in action next Saturday out in Wales against Cardiff and hopefully will be able to right the ship and get to winning some lacrosse games.  Post-game I ran home and after a quick shower and some take away fish n' chips, I was on a train bound for Reading.  I stayed in Reading with some of my LDO friends Saturday night to cut off a good portion of the journey to Wales for Sunday's Ryder Cup action.  My friends Pete and Scott had two of their buddies visiting from Manchester (one of which is actually the LDO at Erin's club) and we all had a fun night together out in Reading.  I woke up Sunday and hopped on a train for Newport, Wales and began one hell of an adventure.  

The train ride to Wales was about an hour and twenty minutes.  From the train station, I jumped on a shuttle bus over to the course.  As I'm sure many of you saw on TV, Celtic Manor is absolutely gorgeous.  It's surrounded by rolling hills covered with big green patches of farm plots and little country homes.  It was almost as enjoyable taking in the scenery itself as it was watching the incredible caliber of golf being played.  I posted up for a while at the 12th hole where I was able to watch each group come through.  12 Is a shortish par 4 with a hazard in front of the green.  I was able to see the tee shots in the distance but the real excitement was watching these guys hit their approach shots.  It was incredible, out of the 6 groups I think I saw two guys miss the green.  I was standing right behind the pin on the back of the green and was about 15 feet away from the players when they were closest to me.  I watched them scientifically line up their putts, always conferring with their teammates and taking no less than five minutes on each one.  When a European would sink one, the place erupted.  When an American would sink one, myself and about five others could be heard cheering.  But I did get a head nod out of Dustin Johnson.  After the last group had come through 12 (Mickelson and Folwer), I hiked up to 17.  17 is a 200 yard par 3 that the European team completed dominated.  I saw Rory McIlroy and Grahame McDowell lock up a win against Zach Johnson and Hunter Mahan on a big birdie put by McIlroy, as well as Ross Fisher and Paddy Harrington complete a win over Dustin Johnson and Jim Furyk.  After all the remaining groups had finished up on 17 I watched the end of the day's action behind the 18th green.  All in all it was a tough day for the Americans, but a great day for me nonetheless.  As I hiked back up to the Bus pickup, Celtic Manor sitting in my rearview, I thought about how lucky I was, and how I'd never forget my day spent at the Ryder Cup.  

Then came the difficult part -- getting home.  The mad rush was on at the train station as hundreds and hundreds tried to board the train back to London.  It reminded me of a video I once saw of an unfathomable amount of people cramming into a Japanese Subway train (here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8FQsg12hoY&feature=related ).  I had to stand shoulder to shoulder with people for the next two hours until I finally arrived at Paddington Station in London.  From there I hopped on the Tube (underground) to London Charing Cross where I boarded a 15 minute train to Orpington.  Once I was back in Orpington it was only a quick taxi ride home.  After a 3 hour journey, my bed has never been so comfortable.

So that basically brings me back to now.  Very tired (I stayed up last night for most of the Pat's game, great win by the way), and ready for bed.  A special thanks to Mom and Dad for making this weekend possible with the best early Christmas present of all time.  Also a shout out to the one and only Josephine Unger, the girl has been an absolute champ since I've been here.  Hope you're all well out there Globalites, wherever you may be, and I'll check back in soon.  Chainsaw Bonesaw, over and out.