Summer Travels!

Summer went by super fast, here’s a look at what I did.

Like I said in my last blog post, I traveled to Argentina in June. We placed fourth at the FIRS inline hockey world championships, which was a great success for us. Of course we were not happy going back home empty-handed but we can be proud of tying against all three teams above us (Czech Republic, USA and Spain). One more goal here and there and we could have won the championship.

Buenos Aires and Rosario were fun to visit and a great experience, such a different culture. Things didn’t always (well, ever) go as planned but at least we were able to laugh at everything at the end of the day. We stayed in hostel Kalifornia in Rosario, which was the absolute best. The girl took care of us and cheered us on like no other! If I ever end up in Argentina again I will make sure to visit her. Just hoping next time would be their summer!

Next up was flight to Columbus OH, to visit friends at Ohio State. Me, a teammate and our coach who both flew back home had picked flights through Miami with an 11-hour layover with hopes of making it to Miami Beach. And we did! Our plane arrived to Miami shortly after 7am, and we got to the beach at around 9am by bus. It was a very surreal feeling because you only see those places in pictures and movies but we were really there soaking’ up the sun and sipping’ on our Starbucks’ drinks. Of course, as people from Finland would, we were only able to lay in the sun for a little over an hour. The rest of the time we had lunch and walked around in the shade.

Columbus was fun as always. It was great being back at the place I called home for four years of my life. I was able to play some men’s summer league hockey, workout, visit family friends, catch up and hangout with old teammates and friends that I haven’t seen in a year, and reminisce. Unfortunately, there’s only so much you can do in just six days!

The last trip of the summer was to Georgia (the country) with the Finnish Youth Olympic team for European Youth Olympic Festivals. We had athletes in six sports: track & field, tennis, cycling, gymnastics, swimming and judo. I had been selected to go there as an athlete ambassador, an older athlete with experience of such events that can help the young athletes with anything along the way. It was another great experience and our athletes can be proud of their performance! I also ended up trying out judo… What a great, fun sport with so much respect for the sport itself, the history and everyone involved in it! I’m definitely going to try and fit that into my training program every now and then.

Before the start of the season I was busy and stressed trying to decide where I wanted to play. I even had a few options outside of Finland. Blog about how I made the decision of staying in Espoo for another year that will be coming soon!

Next up will also be some training that I do! You can already go ahead and visit my instagram (@minttutee15) for some pictures and videos.