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 POSTCARDS FROM NFL EUROPEMar 15, 2006, 9:02:24 AMPOSTKARTEN AUS EUROPA Hello from Germany Chiefs fans, Sorry it took me a little while to post an entry from overseas, but I’ve been trying to get my bearings and had a little trouble with email. I think things have smoothed out a little now.
During that first day, we got to check out the facilities, walk around the city, and make a little trip to Walmart. We thought the Walmart would be just like the one in America, but boy were we wrong. I was totally out of my element while I was shopping there. Everything was in German and all the products were different name brands. I basically had to shop by trial and error. I’m sure I’ll have to make another trip sometime this week to get some more products. J.J. Smith and I even tried to get a shopping cart, but then realized that you had to pay for the shopping carts. We didn’t know how much they cost or how to rent them, so we just gave up and decided to carry shopping baskets with us. That was just one of our many problems. Also, I found out unfortunately that Gatorade does not exist in Germany. Hard times. The first couple of days we were here, we just had walk-throughs to get our legs loose and our bodies back from the jet lag. But today, we had our first real practice. It was good to get back into the flow, especially for me since I missed most of last week. We actually have a nice practice facility here in Frankfurt. There is a big sporting complex here which is primarily used for the city’s soccer club. Our stadium, practice fields, locker rooms and weight room are all in the same spot which is really convenient. A German soccer team practices right next to us, so it is neat to see them work. I definitely want to get to a German soccer game while I’m here, especially since soccer is so big here in Europe. That is why our facilities are so nice, because they just updated the whole athletic center for the World Cup that will be in Germany in June. I have no problem reaping the benefits of the World Cup. The only negative of the facility is the weight room, which is very small and cramped. But I guess that is not a priority for the soccer team since they have fewer players and completely different needs than a football team. Another adjustment I had to make in the weight room was dealing with the metric system. I am used to pounds, but everything in the weight room is listed in kilograms, so that leads to confusion on how much weight I am really lifting. I joked around saying that I should carry a calculator around the weight room with me so I can calculate the conversions between kilograms to pounds. The weather has definitely been a change from Tampa Bay, but not Kansas City. The temperature is usually in the 30’s and it has been snowing the first couple of days that we got here. Being a California boy, I’m thankful for my experience with the Kansas City winter during my rookie season. Without that I wouldn’t have been ready for this weather at all. But the problem out here is that we do not have an indoor facility, so we have to practice outside no matter what the weather is like. During the season with the Chiefs, we always practiced in the indoor facility whenever it got cold or we had weather problems. Unfortunately, we do not have that luxury here. I’m noticing tons of other interesting aspects and differences here in Frankfurt, so I will keep you guys informed as I go along. We have the night off tonight, so this is my first chance to check out the night life in Germany, so I will make sure to let you guys know how it is. I heard there are a lot of great pubs out here. Thanks for checking in Chiefs fans, and I will keep you all updated. Will |
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Life overseas has been very interesting so far. There are
a lot of differences, but I guess that is what makes it fun. We arrived in Frankfurt last Tuesday at 7:30 a.m., after
catching a red eye flight from Florida. So the lack of sleep really did not help the transition. The coaches made sure
to keep us up all day Tuesday, so that way we could sleep at night to deal with the German time change. I assure you we
had no trouble falling asleep. |
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