Sheltered American? Comfortable Germans?... You decide...

Rockin out to "Mercy" by One Republic at the moment... they have been around for sometime but I recently discovered their awesomeness and cant get enough of their music...

I have wanted to share this story since I have come to Duren…before I "reveal" it, reader beware! This story contains flesh and mental laughter… 

I have been a frequent fan of going into saunas since my first year playing volleyball in Denmark. For those who are unfamiliar with a sauna, simply put: its a room full of HOT air. And typically, Saunas have an oven with special rocks to pour water onto and make the room even hotter... here we go...

Early in the season before a practice, Hauke tells me that him and some other teammates are going to a sauna after practice and asked if I would like to go… I never pass on a sauna opportunity… However, I did not have a clean towel to go to the sauna after practice so Hauke gave me a towel to use…

Now I pause for a second to explain my idea of what a sauna is… Saunas are a place for men to gather to relax, get a good sweat, take a cold shower, and repeat as many times as they want. A room where the temperature can reach anywhere from 80-100 Celcius (175-212 degrees F). Germany on the other hand has  a completely different way of making the sauna "experience" more personal…

I pick up my story where I left off… my roommate Hauke gave me a towel to use at the sauna…we realize once we get to the sauna that it is a hand towel. What a classic mix-up, no big deal- out team showers infront of eachother daily so I'm comfortable showering in front of strangers, no bigge... for the moment. We walk into the locker room… its mixed sex… men and women, showering as naked as you came into this world.  If that wasn’t weird enough… children are roaming around while you are “free”. 

Okay showering next to other men, women, children… its all part of the experience right?… It gets better… Exit the locker room and join a field of naked people in a resort of nakedness… Covering up with a robe or towel? Optional! No one seemed to care! A handful of different sauna rooms and an outdoor patio with men, women and children sweating and relaxing to their hearts desire…

This cant be real, but there is more… written on a wall is the "Auff Guss" schedule… 

I had only heard of an "Auff-guss" and to experience one forced me to take a step back and truly laugh at my present situation… a man, working for this resort, was paid to enter the sauna with man, woman, and child, introduce himself to the room in German (I wish I knew what he said) and pour special types of water on the rocks with various scents: honey, ucaliptis, salt, lemon... and once those scents hit you, it clears your sinus like nothing you have ever imagined…then this "Auff-Guss-er" takes a towel and fans you and everyone else. Refreshing right? The heat is intensified when blown your way…for 10-15 minutes, he waves a towel around this small room forcing you to take in now ten to fifteen minutes of HOT air… If you move, it gets hotter, if you breathe hard, your lungs singe with heat, if you flex your knuckles or toes too hard, you begin to feel an even more intense heat… basically, a room like this forces to you relax to the point of “if you don’t relax, its gonna hurt more”…

Onward... after the 5 minute auff guss is up, everyone leave the sauna, this is where it gets friendly… my first German sauna experience was one that highlighted "salt"… after leaving the room, you are handed two handfuls of salt to rub over your entire body, face, butt… anywhere you can reach… cant reach your back? People are not shy to lend a helping hand and rub ya down with salt… hot people helping hot people!…you allow to salt to absorb into your skin for five minutes only to briefly shower your face and return into the sauna for another 10 minutes with the fanning and everything…

Remember that hand towel? I did my best to cover my "cash and prizes" but after seeing everyone free, I decided that I too can let it all hang out… I stopped caring about covering up because everyone around me did not care… I ditched that towel with a feeling of, “who cares!?”… 

so after showering in cold water and feeling refreshed, it was time to relax and refuel with dinner… yep, me and three other teammates sat down to eat dinner on the patio, again, the hand-towel... I was ever-so-free... and eating- what a great picture, right?…initiation to the team? Id like to think not because we all shared a good laugh about it… 

Imagine this with a naked guy...me...

after dinner, we had the option of going back into a sauna with another special scent- and the Auff Gusser man took large "venik" bush leaves and soaked them in water, soaked the rocks and then sprayed us with hot water… same amount of intensity but at least no strangers where rubbing salt on my backside this time… a little more comforting…

Am I a sheltered American? Or is Germany a bit to free? haha, you decide... making memories!

Its been a minute or two...

I come to you today after a morning practice while jamming out to VH1 "We love the 80's"... Currently showing, "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn

St. Louis Cardinals are World Series Champs, surprise visit home, saw a St. Louis Blues' win, growing a "Dirt-T", 6 hour train delay, update on the house repairs, and video analysis of my game... Just some highlights of what is to come- HERE WE GO

I could write an entire book about the St. Louis Cardinals' road to the World Series and then winning... but my computer doesn't have enough battery... In summary, the cardinals gave the best fans in baseball a reason to cheer even more loudly. In a best of 7 game series...the cardinals were down 3-2. It was Game 6 and the Texas Rangers were down to their final strike to win the World Series- not once, but TWICE... only to witness one stunning comeback from a "never say die" Cardinals team. Lance Berkman and St. Louid native David Freese were the RBI heroes that will forever be remembered in the 2011 World Series. The cardinals went on to win game 6, thus forcing a decisive game 7... Ive hear "you will never forget where in the world you are when your team plays/wins the World series"... well as a result of the time difference I had some planning to do if i wanted to witness the conclusion... Evivo Duren had a Saturday match and this decisive game 7 was being played at 7:30 Friday STL time which meant 1:30am Saturday Duren time... i decided it would be best to fall asleep early, and wake up at 4am to catch the ending. I woke up at 4am, tuned into ESPN America and the cardinals were winning in the 5th inning. They were able to hold onto that lead for the rest of the game and at 6:20am the final out took place- the Cardinals won... I quietly hopped around my apartment with my hands in the air because Hauke was sleeping. Then went back to sleep with a smile on my face and all together gathered 8 hours of sleep! What a Series!

The Final Out

Which brings me to this past week (Nov 7-14) and a surprise visit home. This surprise break in the season was announced by the DVL (Deutsche Volleyball League) 5 weeks ago to make room for the National Team to prepare for the Olympic Games coming in 2012. Since our club is busy through most of the week of Christmas, i saw this as the only opportunity to visit home... and why not make it a surprise, right?  My brother in law, Henrick picked me up from the airport Monday evening and took me to Cugino's Restaurant where my family was patiently waiting for a "surprise celebrity" as Henrick told them... Mom and Dad thought it was the Mayor, no joke! Walking in asking, "whats up guys?"... jaws dropped all around... Surprise was a success! My brother later greeted me with a whisper, "did you get fired?"... good times!

Katie, Sara, Matt, Emily, Nate, Abby, Unkie Joe

Abby, Emily, Nate

Jamie and Da Don

During my time at home, I had a chance to visit most of my hometown friends, saw previous coaches, reconnected with my Longboard, and saw a St. Louis Blues win! It was nice to get out and see a Blues game with Dan, Kristen, Dj, and Jamie. The Blues were under the direction of a new coach, Ken Hitchcock and looking good. Shutting out the Tampa Bay Lightening 3-0.

Dank and Me

My family and friends also noticed something new with my face... tattoo? nope... piercing? nej nej... Facial hair? Schon! My teammate Matze and I are attempting to grow what we can (we agreed, no mustaches) until Christmas... I was drilled by a few friends for this attempt of physical "maturity"... and I thank them for being honest... because I agree and this is a look I will not keep on December 26th! No close up picture... and you are welcome...

It was also really nice seeing work on the Deimeke house since the tornado damage back in April. The contractor says Mom and Dad should be able to move back in by Christmas- we will see! There is still quite a bit of work to do. But almost every day, there was a hand-full of work trucks at the house working so it was nice to see the work in progress! In addition to all the repairs, Mom and Dad decided to change some things that would add some value to the house... here are some pictures of progress...

Our new back door!

Sun room

We have Heat again!

Front porch

When November 14th came around, I was shocked at how fast the week at home was. Time flies when you have fun. It was hard to say goodbye again to my family and friends, but this trip home is something I needed to regain focus on my volleyball life here in Duren. So after nearly missing my connecting flight to Frankfurt, I thought nothing else could go wrong. I arrived in Frankfurt a half hour later than expected and this is where the day's, "mood" takes a turn. After going through customs, I went to the train ticket counter and bought a ticket home after which the nice lady working told me, "the train you are taking should arrive in a minute" all while pointing to the platform number where the train will arrive. I thought, "this day is too easy, I have not waited at all!"... so I went down the escalator and sure enough, the train was just arriving! I hopped on the train, pulled out my book and started reading (Steve Jobs biography, a good read so far)... After an hour, the employee working on the train who checks tickets approached my seat, checked my ticket and delivered the bad news... I was on a train going the OPPOSITE direction...Stuttgart anyone?... I exited the train at the next stop and asked the ticket counter about my new route back to Duren. I waited an hour inside the train station for my new train to Koln Hbf which is my connecting station back to Duren... From here, it is an easy route back to Duren... just find a train heading in the direction of Aachen- a city 30 minutes past Duren. So I found a train heading towards Aachen, got on, asked the people around me if this was a train heading towards Aachen: all said, "yes"... so I was relaxed, right? for about ten minutes I was relaxed... and then NOPE- "Train Ticket Checker Guy" found me and told me this train was a direct train to Aachen and I would have to get off there and find another train to Duren... Unreal... So I got off in Aachen, checked, double checked, and triple checked the next train to Duren and finally got to my final destination. Just under 24 hours of total traveling time from STL, I arrived safely in my apartment. Needless to say, I slept like a baby that night

After returning to practice and getting back into a volleyball routine, I was delighted to hear about our next training idea involving instant video feedback. A video projector was set up courtside at practice for individual skills. This meant that we could perform a few volleyball moves, and then watch ourselves perform those moves on the projected screen. As an example, this morning the serve receive players met to work on serve receive. We would receive three balls in a row, exit the court, watch ourselves perform those same three balls in a row, and repeat the process for the duration on the practice... Personally, I find this to be the best coaching tool available and I hope to see more of it as the season continues...

Its good to be back and playing again but I had one AWESOME trip home. STL, see you again in May. Duren, you are stuck with me until then!

Boom