EROC day TWO

Titty, me, Kosmic and Bananna on our way to the venue

Another day of getting up early - even if it's technically my day off - yaya... When will I get to sleep in? Well, at least not when EROC is going on... and it's exciting enough for me to not mind getting up by the crack of dawn...

Breakfast with everyone before the first "class" that contained two hours of Bloody Mary going over the new rule-set with some Q & A. I enjoyed going thruogh it all, and I took notes in Swedish, thought it might make it more accessable for some of my skaters that are native Swedish. It's interesting when you think about it, how much easier lots of things are in your native languauge and that is also one of the things we touched upon during the weekend, the language barrier... In general Swedes are quite good in English, so we get around quite well, but it probably has to do with that nothing really gets translated ever, who really cares enought to translate something to such a small language as Swedish... There is about a maximum of ten million people speaking Swedish as a first language...
Ah, well.... that was off topic, but Bloody Mary did a great presentation on the new rule-set and gave us some pointers about things that are quite important not to miss out on.
Well, whatever is cleaver, after teh two hours of new rules I headed into a disskussiongroup with WFTDA reps and reps for National Organizations...

EROC ended as always with a HUGE discussion with ALL the attendees... and once again we ended up talking about WFTDA and our National Organizations. I had to stand up and do an impromptu presentation about the Swedish Skating Federation infront of over 100 ppl. Made me nervous...

After that we went and scrimmaged, and it was GREAT fun, black v.s white, and we were about 40 ppl on each team, so we ended up splitting our team to only play one half. I played the first half and got to play with Rotation and Mainey and also Sabo and Bunny from Copenhagen. So it was good times and fun, felt like it was well-deserved after 2 days off siting down... argh... it does seem like everyone are catching some sort of  sickness, Shevil was hiding at home all weekend, and that was sad, because she is one of my favorites... she did come out for dinner ... I am CROSSING my fingers I didn't catch the derbyonic pleauge...

Dinner was with some of my favorite Berliners and Americans and it was classy and vegetarian, I love eating out in Berlin, soooo many options! MMmmm... rollerderby and food.... life is not about to get much better! 

Last BIG discussion!

EROC for the third time

So many things have happened the past two years... I had just lived in Europe for about a month when I was asked to come to the first EROC - and it has evolved so much... European derby that is... my German has just gotten a tad better and I've visited Berlin probably about 10 times the past two years... VIVA Berlin... I had a short time I really thougth I wanted to move there, I still might be harboring a secret dream about Berlin... but I love Stockholm and I am getting quite serious about Stockholm being my hometown.

Anna and Titty - my weekend hosts

I am staying with Titty Twista and her GF Anna and I'm psyked to get to spend some quality time with them, just chilling and talking... Maybe some drinks and good food! I've made so many good friends through derby, and I am truly thankful to this sport that has made such a great impact on my life! Last year I stayed with Rotation and Shevil and the year before with MasterBlaster, and I am truly excited to see them all! It will be quite amazing!

When I came to Europe we only had one WFTDA leauge - now we have several - we have so many that we can sit down and discuss at EROC. I am truly happy and excited that rollerderby is pushing forward and to be a part of this! An to all the people that are in derby that have challanged me to be a better player, coach, captain and person in general!

STRD finally got our WFTDA-patches

Time to go to practice... in the icebox

Team ''Haaaaappy Donuts''

Today me and Loony are leading practice in the ice-box that I just named our hall... We just got back from EROC late yesterday... and it was AWESOME to get to scrimmage in a heated hall... even if the floor was sliiiipery, but I got to skate a few jams with Heavy Rotation, who is one of my favorite Berlin skaters, so that was good. Actually her and Shevil are my favorite two Berlin people, and me and Loony always end up staying with them, I also got to share the white team with Team Scotland skater Crazylegs, and tyhat was also fun... I bought a pair of new ugly leggings in Berlin... I always do! And I think I will wear them tonight as my third layer in the ''icebox''.
I will later write a blog about EROC - but right now I have to run home! 

Berlin Bootcamp

Swedish Maffia on the same team... it was a sweet and fun scrimmage...

So last weekend I spent in Berlin, coaching an Advanced Bootcamp together with Suzy Hotrod, it was good to see her again and get som news from NYC. I miss Gotham at times like this, a lot...
The camp was good times, and lots of the girls were really talented, and it is good to see that continetal Europe has girls that will become amazing. There were girls from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Luxemburg, France and Germany... and well... I am so happy to see the rate European derby is developing at, and I am glad to always have my dear Mad Maloony by my side.

I got to drink Club Mate and hang out with people I really like, we stayed with Shetation as usual, and that was as nice as ever, and Titty Twista was staying there too, and I heart her too.  On Friday night, we went to Master Blasters skate store opening, and it is really cute.  On Saturday we went out for YUMMY Italian food and then for a beer with the Stockholm girls... and on Sunday we went for food and beers after the Black and White scrimmage that ended the camp... and I almost forgot my skatebag there... yikes!

From Berlin with love...

We also call her MONKEY at times

Rotation also made us smell the flowers - there were signs with the Latin AND German names

Rotation took us for many walks - and everywhere I found something to play with

We had to hide in a play-house because it rained so hard, and then we walked to the car in our underwear

We went to Hanna Hellfires Baby Shower and I petted a dog

I did the Bunny with Bunny aka Beatrix Slaughter, my old team mate from Gotham

So I am currently suffering from writers block... so I guess I'll just go with the old saying, a picture say more than a thousand words, and just imagine how much those seven pictures with captions are saying... they just told you all EVERYTHING about my Berlin trip.... well, we also as I said earlier scrimmaged with the Berlin Bombshells (thanks for having us), I got SUPERSICK for 24hours and almost thought I was gonna die, we watched the worst movie ever... I promised not to tell ANYONE we watched it... we walked by Master Blasters skateshop that is under construction, and it looked hella nice, we spent lots of time with Rotation and as much time as we could with Shevil, since she had to work... and then we took the darn bus home...

And it rains again...

two of my favorite things in Sweden

We went to Berlin and it rained and the bout was cancelled (not because of the rain but because of Air France being bitches and going on strike). We scrimmaged with Berlin Bombshells and that was all good. It was fun to see Shevil and Rotation again, we made them shirts saying ''Swoony hearts Shetation'' and we stayed on their coach as usual... After Berlin we headed back to Malmö, just to move onto Stockholm, in Stockholm we went of an amazing outdoorskate and hung out with all the Stockholm girls.
And today it's time to head back to Malmö - more driving ahead and it's raining... I am honestly REALLY sick of driving and rain!

Burnt out and now a new candle...

Me and Rotation at the Fairytale fountain

So the past weeks been just terrible -nothing special - but the effect of taking on to much work finally caught up and I hit a wall... not very pleasant... but I went to Berlin with Malou and hung out with Heavy Rotation and Resident Shevil... We just went to watch a bout (Berlin A vs. Copenhagen and Berlin B vs Hamburg) without being signed up to do anything.... we went on a real vaccation, with very minimal responsibilities. It was really REALLY nice, and I feel like I have new powers and I can stop being bitter about doing tooo much work that I by the way probably took on myself.

wroooom I am an airplane

My knee was hurting and I didn't get to do as much skating as I wanted in Berlin, but I guess that was for the best. We did get some time on the old Templehof Airport - it is quite cool to be able to skate around on an old airport... wrooom... i am a flight.... WROOOOM.. I totally recommend anyone going to Berlin that's bringing their skates to go to Templehof and take a lap or two... bring a picnic and soem friends... have a weinschorle and get a tan... oh, and we also go interviewed by NPR!