Road to World Cup

YES SIR! We made it into the quarter finals, and I am in a very buyoant mood! Our team Los Illegales won the first game since our opponent didn't show up in time, which was almost a week ago, but tonight our opponents were not going to let us get away so easily. No, the Langers (don't know what the name is supposed to mean) proved to be a worthy opponent indeed.
Fancy my headband? It is quite necessary as it effectively prevents sweat from getting into my eyes.


In fact, the way the evening started did not bode well for us. Tuija, Steffi and Orbitz were sick, Tuija so sick she couldn't play at all. Tavo was busy studying, which was a sorry excuse at best. This girl Caroline had forgotten the whole game...in addition to these major problems, we had some minor ones as well, such as people forgetting their IDs home, thus being unable to register for the match. Well, that was something that could be helped.

Just as it looked that we might have to forfeit due to lack of players, everything fell into place. Most people showed up, we got Thamir with us as well; a MAJOR boost to our team. Cassandra had her ID with her after all...suddenly, we were more than ready for the Langers.

The game started very even, with neither side being able to take control of the game. Their offense was clearly the strongest part but our defense met the challenge with dignity. Our keeper, Chau, was constantly on point as well. Big Bag (Victor), Goofy (Arno) and Sangie (Cassandra) managed to create some dangerous situations at that end, but to no avail yet. Then suddenly at like 10 minutes, our team was on the attack and Sunshine (Lena) ran up the left side and tried to go for the ball...however, their defense man got to the ball first and unleashed a vicious shot right into their own net, and from outside the box! Yup, that dude is going to the chairman of our future fanclub it seems. 1-0 for Los Illegales!

We held up very well the rest of the half, and the second half started with Los Illegales in the lead. By this time we had Thamir on the field as well, and we were slightly in control in the beginning. Thamir and Goofy engineered some particularly dangerous attacks at their end but Goofy did not managed to score despite some good attempts. However, soon both sides were showing some signs of exhaustion and the tempo was considerably slowed down. The Langers started to press harder and managed to bag a goal, though it was merely a stroke of luck. Their winger tried to cross but the ball curled into the far corner of the goal, hopelessly out of Chau's reach. No goalkeeper could have kept that one out. After that goal both team had a few chances to take the lead, with us again getting the more dangerous situations. However, even after extra time the score was still tied at 1-1. Time for penalties.

Seriously, I would have never believed I could be so nervous and excited about our little soccer tournament here. Their first shooter unleashed a thunderous shot into the upper right corner, and I was getting a bit worried; what if all of their shooters were this good? However, Big Bag showed what the French national pride is all about and evened the score with an exemplary shot, perhaps the best penalty of the evening. Their second shooter was almost equally impressive as the first one, but Sangie was up to the challenge as well, scoring a flamboyant top-corner goal. The Langers' third shot found its way into the goal as well, but Thamir came through and scored with infinite confidence. The next Langer went for the lower left corner but Chau Mein leapt like a panther and just barely managed to block the shot. Our moods were naturally up at that point, as Goofy got ready for his shot. However, Brazilians are not known for their level-headedness and he shot the ball towards the sky. I can tell you the tension was really up at this point but it only got better. See, their next shooter launched a vicious shot towards the top of the goal but Chau blocked the ball with the speed of a cobra! After that, Florent confidently finished his shot leaving their goalie empty-handed and we celebrated our deserved victory!

Our winning team! Sorry for the blurry pic, wasn't taken by me :P That's Orbitz, Goofy, Sangie, Thamir, Sunshine, Florent, Joanna, Victor and myself. Steffi and Chau kneeling in the front.


Now, even though the Langers played relatively well, they were what we thought of as stereotype dumb Americans. They were constantly bickering about some trivial matters and pointing out that we're playing soccer here and everyone should know the rules. Apparently they didn't, deciding from the amount of handballing and whatnot small fouls that went unnoticed due to the incomptence of the refs. Well, we showed them that soccer is not an American sport. Their fans were shouting some racist bullshit as well as "USA!" to which I replied "U Suck Ass." which they probably did not find very entertaining. We fought the good fight and won, and the better team won no doubt. Viva Los Illegales! Oh, special mentions go to Chau, Thamir and Sangie. Sangie really showed girls can play too, her being the best player on the field in my opinion. The whole team did well nevertheless, including myself if I may say so.
I'm getting pretty good at looking like a retard, don't you think?


Otherwise, it's been a nice, if a bit quiet week. On wednesday we went to Tijuana with a relatively big crowd, to this very nice restaurant called the Seguinano or something along those lines. Me and Mike decided to show some courage and ordered cow tongue for starters. Well, it turned out to be very delicious. I tasted oysters as well, for the first time in my life...that was not such a pleasant experience, but a new experience nonetheless. I ordered some beef medallions and cactus, which was excellent. The meat was extremely tender, and cactus is actually really good. Had some local beers as well; they beat Finnish beers hands down. The taste is mellow, and not bitter as with Lapin Kulta or Karjala. The whole dinner cost me like $20 which is nothing for those delicacies. After dinner we went for a couple of liters of cuba libres and whatnot and I ended up a bit tipsy but not really drunk.


When we got back to the US, we were met with some pretty ragged, beaten up looking guy who claimed he had been just released from a Mexican jail and his brother was still there and he desperately needed some money to get to Oxnard. Well, we actually bought his story since he did not look like a bum or a junkie; he was in really good shape, an absolutely enormous guy. Well, he had probably ended up in that Jail for a reason, especially since Americans tend to behave somewhat badly in TJ I hear. Unfortunately(?) we weren't carrying almost any cash, just a mere 50 cent so we couldn't really help him out. It was a weird scene nevertheless.

Other than that, not much has happened here. I've been exercising again, six days this week. Met some new neighbors as well, it's nice when everyone is so interested in Finland. But we do have pretty decent folk living in our apartment complex. Got a shot of scotch with a couple of guys last night and headed to Chau's place with Perttu, to drink some more scotch. Not much though, just a few shots; I couldn't afford to get drunk with the soccer game ahead. Anyway, that's about it for the last week...I'll be posting some more as days go by. Until then.

Jugi

Grand Adventures

Viewer discretion advised: the following entry is a long one; you might want to read it in parts.


The last few weeks have been the most amazingly satisfying two weeks in a while, if not ever. The simple pleasures in life are usually the most satisfying ones. Minttu is by no means a simple girl in any sense but just being with her is nothing short of euphoria. I could go on and on about that but I get the feeling it wouldn't make such an interesting read for anyone else but myself so I'll cut the syrupy stuff.



Minttu's visit here started a bit more than 2 weeks ago, but it did not start without problems. Quite unexpectedly I had to give my roommates a ride to the Mexican border on the same day as I was supposed pick Minttu up from Los Angeles International. Things didn't go quite as planned and I actually got ticketed by a very very American motorcycle cop. Even though I pretended not to understand he ticketed me...we'll see if I'll have to show up at traffic court :D The cop was the epitome of a genuine American pig. Now I understand why people here hate the police so much...they're just that bad. Perttu had his share of cop love...he accidentally made a mistake in traffic at like midnight with no one around but a patrolling police happened to see it. The cops first comment was: "What the fuck was that stupid move about?" and the last comment was: "I'll let you go with a warning this time, now get the fuck outta here!". Shows just how moronic those guys are, and definitely suffer from inferiority complex. By our experiences so far, being mentally retarded AND disturbed must be a requirement for police academy.

Oh, I also missed school on that day because of the f*cking Finnair strike. I'm telling, I'll never fly with Finnair again unless I absolutely have to. The flight attendants had the guts to go in illegal strike with the salary and all the benefits they're enjoying at the moment! Sorry, but jobs can't stay overpaid forever.

Anyway, I managed to find Minttu though 2 hours late, and we got back to San Diego...after some HEAVY traffic. I hate LA already. The traffic is from hell, plain and simple. On the next day, me, my brother and Minttu went to San Diego Wild Animal Park which was kinda like a safari with most of the animals roaming in big, fenced areas. It was a cool place; for once they've built a "zoo" that actually seems really comfortable for the animals. We saw a baby elephant, some lion cubs and all sorts of exotic creatures. The next day, which was Saturday, my brother went back to Finland while me and Minttu spent the next few days all by ourselves as Tuija and Perttu were in Mexico. So I just showed her around a bit, took her to Coronado island, San Ysidro naturally, downtown, some beaches and so on. The bridge connecting Coronado to San Diego is humongous, it is absolutely huge! And what an awesome view over San Diego it offers!

A special mention goes to Saturday evening though, which we spent at Anssi's parents' house with Anssi, her girlfriend Susanne and Anssi's parents plus some of their friends. Anssi has the craziest dad ever, hands down! In a good way naturally. The whole evening was off the hook, with good food and good laughs. At the end of the evening we went to see the Departed which was actually a fine movie, no complaints but nothing exceedingly spectacular either. Anyway, I'm sure it was a great start for Minttu's vacation even though she had to stand my miserable attempts at humor for better than two weeks.


We had a lot of fun on all of the days...and once again I found myself wondering the size of food portions here in America. The best example is probably when I went to downtown San Diego with Minttu, and took her to this pretty authentic Irish restaurant called the Field. If you ever go to San Diego and want to get you stomach full of good Irish food, I highly recommend it. It's in the Gaslamp Quarter, FYI. Anyway, since we were kinda hungry after a long day, walking around downtown etc. we thought an appetizer might be a good idea, especially since I didn't have an ID with so I couldn't get a Guinness! So, we went for the combo platter and split it two ways. Well, it would have been enough for one of us as it was. There was some Irish stuff plus chicken, and it was gooood. For the main course I had some Irish specialty, the name of which escapes me here. Minttu had some stuffed chicken breast, and the portion proved to be enormous! I couldn't have destroyed the whole portion even in my prime! Well, neither did Minttu but we had a good laugh nevertheless!

Perttu and Tuija came back on Wednesday but we still wanted some solitude so we started off for Grand Canyon on Thursday morning. Before heading for Arizona we stopped at IHOP for breakfast. IHOP stands for Internationl House of Pancakes, so we had a traditional American pancake breakfast. Needless to say it was off the hook, I had pancakes with BACON. San Diego is so classy. The trip was a long one but we got to see a lot of different landscapes on our way to Grand Canyon. The distance proved to be a bit longer than we expected, and we received information that the gates to the park close at sunset, so we had to stay the night in a small town called Williams, just an hour south of Grand Canyon. What and idyllic little town it was, very different from California. We stayed at the local Howard Johnson and got a nice spacy room with a king size bed for a mere $25 per person, which was nice. We had some breakfast at a local cafeteria, and boy was it delicious. Oh, on a sidenote there was a very visible freemason lodge at Williams!




After breakfast we headed for Grand Canyon and got our tent set up immediately after we got there. After that we went to see the actual canyon itself...and good googly moogly, it was a sight to behold indeed! Yosemite offered the most impressive vistas I had seen by that time, but Grand Canyon was something else! Some people say it's just a hole in the ground (which it essentially is) but those people can't have seen it. It is an awe-inspiring sight by any account. We hiked down the slope for some miles but had to turn back before we reached our destination which was this natural "garden" on a riverbank, because it started to get dark. Nevertheless, it was an experience I'll never forget! Again, on a sidenote, ever since G. W. Bush claimed the throne the folks at Grand Canyon have also distributed an alternative version of its creation...how it was created by the Great Flood in the Old Testament. You know, the one with Noah, a couple of rhinos and bears here and there. Nah nah G. W. Bush would never lie. Poor idiots who actually believe that joke.

We spent the night in tent brought by Minttu, and man it got freezing in Arizona! It got all the way down to -7C in the night but we were pretty well off with our sleeping bags put together. It was an unforgettable night with a clear star lit sky, practically in the middle of nowhere. And what a fresh wake up it was, waking up in the crisp mountain air...the air there is kinda like in Finland, which means it's totally unlike San Diego! Since we wouldn't have had time to reach Colorado river at the bottom of the Canyon, we decided to head back to San Diego later that day, stopping at Williams for some strawberry pie we had spotted on the way. It was definitely the best piece of a strawberry cheesecake pie I've had in my life. What a successful trip!


Being exhausted after the trip to Grand Canyon, we just chilled for a couple of days, visited San Ysidro again and had shot with all sorts of different food joints, restaurants as well as fast food. We tried almost every kind of food available out here, and I must say that I am very proud of two things: I actually ordered fish at a seafood restaurant at PB, and Minttu ate TWO regular hamburgers (with a minced-meat patty, and one of them at In-n-Out) during her vacation here!

On Tuesday it was Disneyland again, and I was equally impressed as the first time around. That place is just awesome, plain and simple! We went to a lot of rides that I missed last time, including some sorta Tom Sawyer island, and everything was great. Went to Space Mountain twice, it's just that great, Minttu loved it as well!
The text IS back there!


Wednesday and Thursday were all about chilling again, beaches, Japanese food and all that. Needless to say, I skipped quite a bit of classes during the weeks. On Friday we decided to Hollywood for the day, but got there at like 3.30pm because the traffic in LA, as I've said before, is from hell. Now I really understand why everyone seems to hate that city, including a lot of people who live there. We had some trouble finding the right place and I was more than a little agitated by the time we actually found a decent spot on Hollywood Boulevard. We got to see the Hollywood sign, the walk of fame and the most famous attractions there, so the trip was a success. As a bonus we went to this suspicious presentation that turned out to be a presentation about Scientology! It was really interesting actually but it wasn't by the church of scientology anyway. They left out all of the controversial stuff anyway though, including some of the more retarded comments by the founder of the religion. L. Ron Hubbard. He had some really good ideas though, I'll admit that much but according to Wikipedia some pretty retarded ones as well. A lot of the things they said were somewhat self-explanatory to me, and a lot of the stuff applied to America but not to Europe so much. If you wanna find out more about Scientology go wiki it, I'm not going to give you a history here.

Saturday was the last full day of Minttu's vacation...and it was a fine day to end any vacation. We went to Trever's 30-year old birthday party to his parents' house at La Costa, near Carlsbad...which is around 30 miles north from my apartment. And some party it was! Their house is a palace, easily the most luxurious I've ever seen or partied in. A lot of cool people there, at least I had a lot of fun there. I would guess Minttu enjoyed as well. Big shout outs to Trev for the invitation.


The last day, Sunday...spent a little time at the pool, then packed her stuff and I drove her to LAX again. I'm glad that for once good times felt that they lasted longer than they actually did. Felt like it had been a long time I had visited LAX. Felt kinda blue when she finally had to go...felt really depressed actually. Just drove home and wandered around my room in my new bath robe, and fell into a deep slumber, I was sorta developing a fever that never came at the same time.

The week has had an excellent start, except for my latest computer exam, which was horrible. I doubt I passed it. But, monday evening featured the first game of our team Los Illegales, against a sorority. Well, the sorority showed up too late so we got an automatic victory...well, we played one half against them just for fun and they were actually really good. I still think we would have won with normal line ups but now it was really even and ended 0-0. I'm a centre back (I'd like to be a full back though), and my number is 17, like Pierre van Hooijdonk. We got really cool jerseys, I'll post pics once I'll get some. My brand new cleats worked like a dream, and I'm sure we'll win our next game which is next sunday...I feel like a superstar already!

Last, I just can't get enough of the weather here in San Diego. Even though I had skipped almost all classes during the last few weeks, I had to skip them again today since it's like 30C at the moment. I just had to go to the beach...reading Man in the Iron Mask (by Dumas) at the moment, it's great book and perfect company for a couple of hours at the beach. I highly recommend life like this for 4 months, to anyone.

Jugi