It must be the socks.

Today we got fitted for socks. Pretty exciting, right? Actually, yes. The socks are VenoTrain sport socks made by the German company, Bauerfeind. According to the manufacturer, the socks increase blood flow in the legs and consequently reduce recovery time.


The socks are so badass that they gave us hand shoes (handschuhe = gloves) just to put them on.


Maybe they're a bit of a hassle, but they'll come in handy when we have to sit on a bus for 2 hours to play an away game.

Archived Quote - Shakespeare

Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none.

William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well.

Back to the Show

After scoring a goal in a friendly. Thanks Dad, for finding the picture.

I have a solid B/B+ game. It got me through college soccer, and it has taken me this far. It's a safe game, but I wouldn't say it's easy to play. It's not a flashy game, but over the course of a season you would come to respect its consistency. It's a game without risks and, consequently, without rewards.

This is the game I play, but I wouldn't say it's my game. What is my game then? Well, that's something I'm still learning. The only thing I do know is that there's more inside of me than that B/B+ game. I believe that if a person is able to play whole-heartedly, without any reservations, than their character is shown on the field. Over the next 4 and a half months I plan to let people start seeing my game, and hopefully my character as well. Otherwise, what's the point, right?

Trainingslager - "Training Camp"

Before an indoor training session in Berlin

Training camp for the 2nd half of the season has begun. Over the next 4 weeks we will have 2-a-day trainings and 1-2 friendlies (non-league matches) a week.

Some Highlights

Here are some highlights from our last league from the first half of the season:

Archived Quote - Yeahsayer

I'm so blessed to pass the good time
With my family and the friends I love
In my short life I have met
So many people I deeply care for.

Yeahsayer, Red Cave

Some love from the homefront

California

You know that point in your life when you realize that the house you grew up in isn’t really your home anymore… and that idea of home is gone… it just sort of happens one day and it's just gone. And you can never get it back. It's like you get homesick for a place that doesn't exist. I don't know maybe it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start. It's like a cycle or something. I miss the idea of it.... -Andrew, "Garden State"

In the words of a college roommate, I am fricken excited to be headed back to California. But at the same time, there's a bit of reservation in my excitement. After being away from the States for so long, I have noticed a shift in my thinking. This feeling first started after I moved to the east coast for high school and college. It was a feeling that home is not some far off place. Instead it is where I am - here and now. And I don't just mean Neustrelitz/Berlin, Germany, or Europe. I mean that I can be comfortable wherever I am standing.

However, this does not change the fact that so many people I love and care about are over 5,000 miles away from me right now. Well, for the next few weeks that will change and my home will be California with my family and friends. See you all very soon.

TSG Junges

They are all stoked because they just got some Christmas chocolate.

Archived Quote - Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
black as the pit from pole to pole,
i thank whatever god may be
for my unconquerable soul.

in the fell clutch of circumstance
i have not winced nor cried aloud.
under the bludgeoning of chance
my head is bloody, but unbowed

beyond this place of wrath and tears
looms but the horror of the shade;
and yet the menace of the years
finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

it matters not how strait the gait,
how charged with punishments the scroll,
i am the master of my fate;
i am the captain of my soul.

Invictus, William Ernest Henley

Schnee

Our league match was delayed due to the weather. So we had a friendly against Hertha Berlin's 2nd team instead.

Spieltag 14

TSG Neustrelitz vs Tennis Borussia Berlin

4:0 for the good guys!

Geburtstag

Harry Potter and David Hasselhoff
(their name tags in the game, not in real life)

Awesome cake

Neustrelitz Life

The Hafen (Harbor)

TSG youth team training that I help out with

Town square at Sundown

Above the Square

Archived Quote - Hello

Martin Solveig & Dragonette - Hello

Archived Quote - A Well Respected Man

The Kinks - A Well Respected Man

I want to be a good man. But I fear the life of boring man.

Berlin Life

Glow-in-the-dark Mini-Golf

Wii Ping Pong

Markthallen: Art, flea market, food, festival

Berlin Ice Bears 4 : 0 Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams (great name, right?)

Vampire Weekend Concert

Wasserball Champions League
Waterfriends (GER) 2 : 14 Brixia Leonessa (ITA)