Counting Down

In approximately seven hours, I will be airborne (or possibly stranded on the runway at Logan Airport). My destination: Chicago's O'Hare Airport. After about two-and-a-half hours in the Windy City, I will hopefully have chowed down on some serious deep dish pizza before boarding my second flight bound for the Capitol city of the world's oldest Constitutional Monarchy.

Eight more hours in the air from that point. The good news: some brutal iTunes downloads (new Shadows Fall & Trivium, which I've put off getting for far too long, and a few lesser knowns that I've been eager to check out for a while; Iron Age, Mutiny Within & Early Man), an electronic handheld Yahtzee manchine, several books, a few crosswords Mother Dear just stuffed in my carryon and the crown jewel: Dinner and continental breakfast on the flight. The bad news: probably having to get up every hour to avoid my back, legs and entire body from losing all feeling, the inevitability that the inflight movie(s) will involve actors such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Christopher Noth and words such as "Sex," "And," "The" & "City" in the title and worst of all, the chance I could have a seat next to the Garden State's finest portly filmmaker, Kevin Smith. If this were happen, Sully Sullenberger himself couldn't save that flight from going down. In all seriousness, I actually enjoy flying and am looking forward to my first international trip.

Fast forward to tomorrow morning. About twenty past eight, EST, I will land in Copenhagen, Denmark and meet with Chairman Peter Friis of the Århus Tigers AFC, the club that will be my adoptive family for the next seven months. After that, I will tentatively pick up my equipment and drive three hours with Peter to Århus, receiving a tour of the country in the process. As a reference, the drive is about 300 km (185 mi) and spans about half the country:

http://www.kosancrisplant.dk/images/roaddir/danmarklarge.jpg

Upon arriving in Århus (also known as Aarhus and pronounced OAWH-hoos), I will check into the hotel where I will be staying for about a week and then probably meet the other coaches for dinner. After dinner, I will have been awake for probably way too long and will commence a brief period of hibernation (that one's for you Warren, Jack & Jason) back at the hotel. All of this is subject to change, of course but it is at least the plan for now.

This is my first blog and I'm still getting used to the finer points putting up public content on the internets. The appearance of this thing will probably change greatly over the next few days but I wanted to get something in place before I left. Stay tuned for more to come (pictures, video, tightrope walking, etc). In the next few entries, I'll also be providing more information about what it is I'm actually going to be doing in Danmark (that's how the Danes spell it; makes a bit more sense, no?). For now though, I guess following words will have to suffice:

American. Football. Danish style. Yeah buddy.