From start to...

It's been exactly 5 months and here I go... At the moment I am in Finland, it's bout 45 degrees outside (bout 9 degrees Celsius) and I am loving it. I know when I get home it'll be about 9 million degrees, so I'm doing my best to enjoy the cool as long as it lasts.
I've had a very interesting week and a half. My journey started in Memphis where I boarded a plane for Atlanta on May 26th. I got to Atlanta safely and was quickly on my way to my connection to Dusseldorf, Germany. I arrived in Dusseldorf early in the morning on the 27th, again another smooth flight. I went through a passport check and made my way to my connection to Helsinki, Finland. I landed in Helsinki right on time and made it swiftly through customs, surprisingly. I then began my 5 hour wait for Eric to pick me up at the airport. Some time close to me passing out and 6pm he emerged from behind me and poked me on the shoulder nearly releasing the flood gates on my bladder... We caught a bus to the city center and made our way through the rain to our hotel. it was a tiny hotel, typical of European standards. Had a comfortable nights sleep, which didn't take much after around 35 hours of traveling... Got up early the next morning, went and picked one of the players up at the airport and made our way to a Press Conference for the league Coach (Eric) is coaching in. It was at this point the fun of our day began... It all started when we pulled up beside a police car at a red light... I was casually commenting on how they looked like a couple of "Nancies" and calmly followed it with a "yeah we can take em". We preceded our way as they took a left. We immediately realized we took the wrong path for our journey and hooked a U'y and got back on track. After taking the right at the afore mentioned intersection we realized the same two cops had managed to get back behind us and flipped on thier lights... After much "to do" with the officials (an hours worth) we were allowed to go and they actually escorted us to the arena where the press conf was located. At the press conference I met Robert Johnson (former WR for TX Tech) and met some guys I played against in college from Blackburn. Also there was a RB there that lives bout 2 hrs from me. It was pretty cool meeting some ppl from the US here in Finland and catching a small glimpse of just how interconnected and "small" the world really is. I also took the opportunity to talk with one of the Finnish coaches from another team. Had a great convo with him.
Moving on, after the conference we headed out North of Helsinki to Tampere. Partway between Helsinki and Tampere (actually only 20 mins outside of Helsinki and an hour and 40 from Tampere) we had a blowout. Coach masterfully guided the car to the shoulder. Full of confidence, based on my previous life as a tire man, hopped out of the car ready to fix the problem. Situation* blow out driver rear on interstate or Finnish equivalent, plenty of afternoon traffic, no jack, no spare removal tool, no AAA, no translator, or Friends/Family/acquaintances to come lend a helping hand. After much thought, debate, and pointless phone calls an elderly Lutheran priest pulled over and helped. He had a couple of jumbled tool boxes, a rickety jack that was better suited for changing a tire on a bike, and no tips or tricks for the road weary. I took what I had and went to work. It only took a few mins of big trucks whizzing by within arm’s reach and improper tools to realize it wasn't gonna work and we still needed much help. Much to our avail the priest knew a guy up the road who could help. Unbeknownst to us, this friend was in possession of a usable jack and a block of wood.... neither of which were needed... well the jack was. So he took Eric down the road to get help, about 40 mins later, I was patiently waiting for a service trucks arrival, they came back with a fluffy guy, bout mid-late 50s, and the said possessions. Again this guy wasn't about to risk his life to change the tire, so I grabbed the tools and went back at it. The jack was too thick to get under the car so I had to use the old jack to get the car up enough to get the newer jack(neither of which are remotely close to being younger than me) under the car. Finally I finished the job and got things together, the fluffy guy asked for 10€ and we were on our way...
We made it! Seinajoki was our destination and the home of the Crocodiles, which is the Finnish team Eric is coaching. It didn't take long for me to be immersed in Finnish culture; walking everywhere, eating pizza (crazy i know), drinking bland Kahvi (coffee), dodging bicycles, riding trains, and deciphering angry Russian sounding English. I will continue this story at a later time...