Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Happy Holidays!

Just wanted to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I hope everyone has a great time with friends and family. I'm really excited to be home and spending this time with everyone here. Already looking forward to 2012, I'm excited to get back to playing soon. Can't wait to get started in the New Year and have my best year yet. Will keep you all updated with whats happening, but for now enjoy the holidays!

All the best,
Robbie

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Home

So it’s now less than 2 weeks until Christmas and I’ve been home for almost a month and a half. I had planned to write a review on my season on here as soon as I got home, and now here I am a month and a half later, finally writing it.

So before I get to my season in Norway, I’ll write a bit about what I’ve been up to at home. I got home on Halloween and had a few days to re-adjust to the time zone, see friends, etc. and then I was off to Hawaii with my parents. Although I have been doing a ton of traveling lately, this was my first non-soccer related, relaxing holiday I’ve had in years. It was great to get to spend some time with my parents, who I hadn’t seen much of over the summer and just totally unwind, after a long season. We went to Kaui’i, which is a great place to go on holiday. The highlight of the trip for me was going surfing for the first time! It was a great trip, but by the end of it, I was ready to return home and spend some more time seeing friends. When I got home I started back up with my coaching job at Peace Arch Soccer Club/South Fraser Soccer Club, which I really enjoy doing. My job as a staff coach is basically to go around and help all of the coaches/teams that need assistance and quite often I end up joining in and playing in the practices. It’s a great job and I love getting involved with the soccer at my old club, in my hometown.

So now onto Norway. I had a great experience there this year. It’s always difficult to join a team mid-season (which I seem to have a habit of doing lately!), but I think I did well to break into the team and establish myself a bit. I was always in the First team squad for games, and I was always getting a full game every week with the Reserves, if I didn’t play for the First team. Before I went over there, I made it a goal of mine to join a team, where I would be playing week in, week out. So I’m glad I was able to accomplish that. Another goal of mine, was to join a team in the 2nd Division, which I also accomplished. The level of training was also fantastic. I was challenged everyday and I looked forward to getting to training everyday, which is so important. There were so many quality players on my team, that I’m glad I got to play with and become good friends with. It was fun for me to get to fly all over Norway for games and see some of the country. I really enjoyed living in the capital city of Oslo, which is a fantastic city to live in. I really love Norway, the football is great, people are fantastic and overall, I just feel at home there. My only real complaint about living there is the cost of living. It’s such an expensive place and I don’t know if I will ever be able to adjust to that completely. I’m definitely able to say that when I left at the end of the season, I was a much better player overall and the experience was completely worth it.

As of right now, I’m just enjoying being home around my friends and family. I’m continuing to train hard and looking to keep all of my options open for next season and the New Year. I believe I have some good opportunities lined up and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next in my career, but for now I’m mostly excited to have a great Christmas, with everyone I care about around me. I will try to write an update again soon.

Robbie.