Påskecup pictures! and other assorted photographs..

I really wish my alliteration within 'Påskecup Pictures' sounded cooler than it does...
Anyways, I just sat down to my computer ( facebook>anything else you're supposed to be doing, it's the equation of the modern day teenager) and realized that I hadn't plugged my camera into my computer lately, so I figured I'd give y'all a another look into my last 2 months in Denmark.


Fanny Packs are making a comeback in Europe!



I added this picture for two reasons: 1) because I thought it was so cool that the tournament in Aabybro managed to set it up for city busses to get all the players in the tournament where they needed to go and 2) The face of the blonde on the left. Anne-Sofie Fisker, a girl on our U-16 team.

However, the busses DID tend to get a biiiiiit crowded in the evenings. Note one teammate on my lap, not pictured are the two girls doing the same thing next to us.

our U16 team was set up in a physiology classroom, where we all threw down an air mattress and moved in. It was much more fun than getting hotel rooms, and more economical! All teams from BFH and a few other clubs were in the same school

Luckily for us, our room lead to a playground, so after we were home for the day we could run our uniforms, towels, etc under a faucet and hang them out to dry

The downside of sleeping in a physiology/science room. That fox and rabbit stared DIRECTLY at me while I slept, and I'm preeeetttyyy sure they were plotting my assasination.

Shotblocking in a t-shirt. Look closely, you'll see it. Bruised quite nicely the next day..


That's all I've got for now, but I'll try to keep up better!

Bruised, beaten, but amplified

It's been a while since my last update, but I'll try to keep everything short and sweet.
We had our Spring concert, which was a blast to be a part of. The students preforming ranged from a 3rd classmen doing his guitar rendention of Justin Timberlakes 'LoveStoned', to an EXTREMELY talented pianist preforming some sonata that I couldn't begin to spell if I tried. Yet before my class could perform our cover of "Starlight" by Muse, it was discovered that my triangle could not be heard well enough. This, in my mind, was the best news I had ever heard - all my fears of being the stupid American who screwed up while playing the triangle disappeared. To my disappointment, however, they had a solution. I got a microphone. My own damned microphone. For a triangle. Which was to be hit 3 times in the entire song. All my fears rushed back threefold. Luckily, I managed to stumble my way through the song and get offstage without completely ruining the concert. How I managed to do that is still a mystery to me.

I guess the only other real news I've got goin' right now is the recent Easter Tournament BFH recently participated in. That and the giant ice cream cone I ate yesterday, but we'll do handball first.

The Thursday before Easter weekend, every team from BFH packed up into 3 huge busses and drove to Aabybro, in Northen Denmark, to participate in Aabybro's 25th anniversary Easter tournament. Bus #1 and Bus #3 made it to Aabybro on time as expected, but Bus #3 (hosting my team, the U18 boys, and the U14 boys) made it about 20 km before the bus began to fill up with smoke. The INSIDE of the bus began to fill up with smoke, because the engine had begun to catch fire. Luckily, no one was hurt and everyone got off the bus with their bags and belongings and switched over to another bus within the hour. The only casualty seemed to be the clothes of one of the U18 boys who continually griped about how bad his stuff smelled for the rest of the weekend. After our little bus adventure, we got to Pandrup School, where each team got their own room to set up air mattresses in and use for the rare moments where we WEREN'T playing handball. It was a great little set up, we shared the school with maybe 2 smaller clubs, it was a gave our team the chance to bond and meet others from the club. I taught some people from BFH how to play the cardgame "BS" (think "How to lose a guy in 10 days") and I'm not sure I've ever laughed so hard in my life, or lost so badly in a card game. It was a great tournament for BFH, with each age level playing in the final. The U16 team I played with did great, cruising through Friday with 3 wins, and battling for 3 wins on Saturday. However, something was off and after the great day we had Saturday, we just weren't able to pull it off in the Championship. 2nd place was just as sweet, though, for my first 'real' handball tournament! BFH also took home the biggest trophy of the tournament for being the winningest club of the weekend, and I got a new Hummel training set for helping U16 earn 2nd place. I have to say, that even though we didn't take home the gold, it was hard to frown - we put every ounce of everything we had into the games we played on Saturday, and after being behind in each one (once by 5) we pulled out victories each time. That is why I love being an athlete- those times when you can barely stand because you're so tired, but you know it was worth it when you see the smiles on the faces of your team mates. I really want to thank all the girls from my team (and the coaches!) for a FANTASTIC weekend. It's not always easy playing an obscure sport 5,500 miles away from home, but they are the ones who keep me happy, smiling, laughing, and most of all - motivated.

On a quick little side note, my host family took Stine (my host sister) and I out to ice cream on Monday to celebrate the excellent result. We went to Grønvangs Grill in Randers for Grønvangs special ice - a concotion of waffle cone, 3 heaping scoops of ice cream, a large amount of soft-serve ice cream, and marshmallow fluff (a Danish ice cream tradition called Guf) adding up to what I'd guess is roughly 3 lbs. I barely managed to stomach 3/4 of mine, while my little host siste, Irene, who is roughly half my size, polished hers off... I'm sorry, America.

Forget the cowbell...

This past week, and the current one, are a break for the handball players here in Bjerringbro, Denmark. After the conclusion of our season, we take a 2-week break, after which we'll hit the ground running and start getitng ready for the Påskecup, an easter tournament that will be my last ever competiton in the U16 age bracket. After the Påskecup, we'll begin training as U18 players.
That's most of my handball update, but of course I've got more to add.
I've been following an actual class within Bjerringbro Gymnasium for 2 weeks now, and it's been a different, but excellent experience. Within the Gymnasium there are 3 years, and within each year there are multiple classes. The class I follow is called 1.e, and lucky enough for me it has a few handball players. The schedule is comparable to college courses, except I'm taking 9 classes.
-Physics
-Math
-Danish
-English
-World Cultures
-History
-Music
-German
-Biology
It's difficult followin a class completely in Danish, but I manage to follow along well enough. Whoever invented Google Translate, I owe you lunch.
Anyways, I'll go into further detail about the Danish schooling system later. Right now, we'll talk about music... When I enrolled in the music class, I imagined it to be like music classes in the US - completely unorganized, loud, terrible, and awesome. No dice, I got a well-organized, small, talented school band right in the middle of their preparations for their spring concert. The music teacher spoke excellent english, so I cracked a joke about playing the triangle for the concert. Long story short, Danes still don't quite catch on to sarcasm, and I will be playing the Triangle in the spring concert this Thursday. I get to hit it twice!

Deja Vu

It's not handball in Denmark if I don't hit my head hard enough during a game to lose conciousness the game ends! Mom, I'm okay. Dad, you should have seen the other girl. Everyone else, come on, you had to have expected it....

I'm baaaaa-aaack

Back to Bjerringbro




After a stay in the US that lasted, to the day, 2 months longer than originally expected, I am finally back in Denmark.

I have to admit, this has been one of the most entertaining solo trips I’ve ever made. After my 10 ½ hour flight from LAX to London, an overnight trek, I arrived on March 14. This realization, of course, came about the same time I was trying to grab something to eat and the terminal and realized that ordering ‘pie’ would get me meat and potatoes in a crust, not the creamy deliciousness I sought. However, it was March 14. 3/14. 3.14. The world wanted me to have pie in London, and it was freaking delicious. Before my pie pilgrimage, however, I had been approached in LAX by someone who lacked an accent to the point that I probably would have doubted him if he said he was from California (He was, I did). After about 30 seconds of awkward eye contact and checking my fly (I was wearing sweatpants, making things THAT much more awkward) the man looked at the USA Team Handball jacket I was wearing and points at the logo and asked “is that handball?” I kind of stuttered a yes, because yeah – I was THAT surprised that someone had known what handball was, and recognized it from a logo. He then gave me a weird “why-can’t-you-pronounce-the-word-yes” look and left, but still, good story.

I’m extremely excited to get back into the swing of things around Bjerringbro and Tindbaek, and I just can’t wait to start playing handball again 6 days a week. I swear, I suffered from such bad handball withdrawals in my first few weeks home that I would wake up early just to watch the European Championship games live. Side note on European Championships - the brother of a girl we play with at BFH substituted a Danish National team player on the roster after an early tournament injury, and finished out the tournament quite well.

After my expedition from Los Angeles, I got to Neder Kjaershold, where I will be staying for a week with my host sister, Stine, while the rest of the family is on a ski vacation in Austria. Too bad for them, its 20 degrees Celsius in Austria (Americans, that’s warm.) The estate we’re living on is gorgeous, first built around 1558, surrounded by around 500 wine-grape plants. It includes a Christmas shop run by the Risgaard family, a winery, a hall available to rent for parties, weddings, etc, and a garage housing the only Aston Martin in Denmark. Hey, wipe the drool off your face before you continue reading.

I am thrilled that other players have returned to Denmark, because I truly think that it is one of the best places to learn to play handball. With two American guys out at the Idrætshøjskolen in Aarhus, and Sophie Fasold waiting for me in Bjerringbro , in addition to those of us who were in Bjerringbro before Christmas and Julia Taylor at the Idrætshøjskolen, I can’t wait to see what America has in store for the handball world.

More to come, but first, for those of you who don’t think I’m really all that funny, are on the go constantly, or just don’t have the time to check back for new posts all the time, I will also be using twitter this time around. You can follow me as @mollywatkins and my 120 word daily updates will be sent straight to your phone. I mean, c’mon, how annoying can I get in 120 words?

Ørum, 15. BFH, 14

 Today we played what is, without a doubt, the best game BFH's second team has played this season. Despite having barely enough players to field a team and our regular coach being in Egypt, we managed a devestating 15-14 loss to Ørum, the number one team in our division.
 After what could only be described as an interesting first encounter acting as captain for my team with a referee who did not speak English, our game began.
 We knew the game would be interesting to start with, as due to injuries and some Americans already having taken off back to the states, we were left with a total of 7 players - just enough to field a team. Knowing this, none of us expected much to come out of this game, but somehow the idea of this being the last game with an American-Danish combo team lit a fire under us.
 We started out behind by 3, and the game seemed as if it would play out exactly as we imagined - long. However, a few quick shots put us behind by one, and then up by 2. Half time put us up by 9-10.
 After half time, things started gettng a little more difficult. I moved from right back to left back, and then into circle runner. In the circle, I was unable to draw a 7-meter penalty or 2-minute suspension-despite the obvious want my defender had for a piggy back ride. At one point, we were forced to play with only 4 players because of a 2-minute suspension and an injury. The game ended with me finally sinking a penalty shot, but unable to bring us up one more for the tie.
 This game felt more like a win than any others, though. Our defense was the tightest it has been through the entire season, and we moved the ball extremely well. We would not have been nearly as successful, though, if it had not been for our goalie- Camilla Holm Pedersen. She's only 13, brought up from the younger team, and she had close to 10 one-on-nobody blocks, a 7-meter save, and countless other blocks. Did I mention she's only 13? Seriously-remember that name.
 Speaking of remembering names, Jennie Bergsma and I were lucky enough to wrangle up some tickets to go watch the EHF Women's European Handball Championship in Aalborg with Randers Elite Sportscollege, a school that two girls from BFH attend. We had amazing seats, directly behind the goal. I know I've said it before, but the energy in the Aalborg Gigantum was AMAZING. Despite not playing in top form, Denmark defeated Spain in what was, without a doubt, the best sporting event I have EVER been to..

It's beginning to look A LOT like Christmas..

If you're like me, then you probably scoff when the local Macy's subtlely starts putting up Christmas (excuse me, Holiday) decorations the week before Thanksgiving while silently counting down the days until December 25th. In Denmark, however, I've found that you scoff when a stores decorations aren't in full swing by November 20th. Downtown Bjerringbro has a Christmas tree wrapped around every light post, and giant balls of lights strung up between wreaths hanging over the street. (Don't worry, pictures to come) All of this is without even mentioning the amount of snow that covers EVERYTHING, or the Danish & American christmas carols playing where ever you go.

At our school, Bjerringbro Gymnasium, we (along with the entire school) took off the hour before lunch to participate in Christmas arts & crafts, eat æbleskivvers, pebernødders, and sing Christmas carols. A girl from our club, who saved us from our awkward American walk around the cafeteria/auditorium/main area, was extremely suprised when we told her that this would never happen in a US school. She explained to us that every class in Denmark does this, and until 9th grade, you take off the full day to have classroom 'hygge.' When we brought up that the school can't even allow Christmas carols to be played because of seperation of church and state, she made the point that in Denmark, Christmas isn't just a holiday, but a part of the culture. After that, we shut up and enjoyed the chance to meet some new people, eat, and pretty much fail at making paper stars.



These took us about the entire hour..

Christmas hasn't just invaded stores and schools, either. At home, I'm responsible for not one, not two, but THREE different 'julekalender's or Advent Calendars. These aren't your average Advent Calendars, either. One is the typical US Advent Calendar with small square chocolates mesauring roughly 1/2 inch square, one that typical US Advent Calendar, but on steroids. It's about 16 inches high, and 2 inches wide, and made by 'Tomsen' chocolate-meaning that I get an epic mini european chocolate bar every day. Example: Today, I got a full sized chocolate frog filled with caramel. My final julekalender is less like an Advent Calendar, and more like a scratch and win lottery ticket. A giant scratch and win lottery ticket. Pretty much, for every day until December 24th (Did I mention Danes celebrate Christmas the 24th?) there is a little scratch off box, where you hope to uncover a little Christmas tree. Uncover 9 of them-10,000 Dkr. Uncover 4-1,000 Dkr. etc, etc, etc. Pretty much, they are like Advent Calendars for Grown-ups.

It's so weird to think that in less than 2 weeks, I'll be headed back to the states. (Pending some visa issues, I may be coming back in January :) ) What seemed so weird when we first arrived here now seems normal(Tucking our sweatpants into our socks, walking or riding bikes everywhere, the Danish language, just to name a few.) Bjerringbro has been so good to us, and I cannot explain how at home we all feel here. Not only has the club opened it's arms to us, as well as the families from our team and people from the school, but the community in general has welcomed us. We've been blessed to have families open up not only their homes, but their lives and their schedules. Both Amber Turner & I have had times when we needed to go to a doctor (Her with swimmers ear, which I am still dumbfounded as to how she managed that, and myself with my knee injury) and our host mothers have set up appointments for us to be seen. They've fed us, housed us, done our (my) laundry, driven us around, and treated us like family. We've had so many adventures here, so many good times, so many experiences, and I know I'm not alone when I say thank you so much to the Bjerringbro community, to BFH, and Bjerringbro Gymnasium, for this trip has truly been life changing. I know that personally, going 'home' is starting to feel a lot more like leaving it.