Happy 4th of July Everyone.

It is just past 2:30 here in the morning as I spend my last night in Konigsbrunn. I first wanted to say happy 4th to everyone and only wish I could be home and experience the 4th in Chicago...it doesn't get any better than sitting by the lake and watching the fireworks at Navy Pier go off with your best friends and a few drinks. Anyways, this has been a pretty interesting week for me. The one on one that I had on tuesday did not go as planned in my opinion. Basically, everything that I did not want to happen did. What I mean by this is my jet-lag, asthma, and lack of real training in the warm humid air for the last week or so really hit me hard. Bernd Meier was actually a really nice guy and you could tell that he was a former Bundesliga player. I felt terrible, because I felt like I was seen to be making every excuse in the book, and that was one thing I really wanted to avoid...was seeming like just another American kid coming over trying to achieve something that many might find unreachable. He could pick out his spots and place the ball very well along with good pace. Unfortunately, the sessions showed my struggles and a lot of things went very uncharacteristically for me in terms of technique that day. However, I know it's not the end of the world and I can't dwell on it. Nevertheless, I have the opportunity to train with him again upon my possible return to Konigsbrunn, which is nice. Now the reason that is possible, is I am going to Deggendorf, which is considered the "Texas" of Bavaria or lower Germany. Here I will be training with FC Bad Kösting a team in the 4th division here in Germany. This will be very useful as a measuring stick for me and I can see what I really stack up against here in Germany. So in terms of the next few weeks, it's going to be very important and will really allow me to see if I should stay in Germany or try to apply my trade somewhere else. Also, I think that this trip has allowed me to see some other things that I want to do in my life. I know I have only been in Europe for a week or so, however, the people here and the ability to experience so much has allowed me to thrown some ideas around; such as staying here for some time and really live my life outside of my comfort zone and create a lifelong story that would actually be interesting. But that is not here nor there at the moment. Anyways, I hope that you all are doing well and I miss all of you very much. Please enjoy the festivities of the 4th and light off a firework in for my lack of being there ;)

Brian