Becoming A Vagabond

“The truth is that it is natural, as well as necessary, for every man to be vagabond occasionally.” - Samuel H. Hammond, U.S. Congressional Representative (Georgia - R) 1803-05.

I’ve never been outside of North America. I have sisters who have lived in The Hague (outside Amsterdam) and been in Madrid during the subway terrorist attacks there in 2004. I have a mother who travelled Europe “back-in-the-day” on a shoestring budget. Me? I’ve just always played hockey. I forfeited opportunities to travel overseas with summer school session offered by Yale (my alma mater) in order to attend Chicago Blackhawks summer development camps, which ultimately led to my first professional hockey contract and a taste of the NHL.

So after the 3 and a bit years of toiling in the North American minor leagues, I decided it was time for a change. I dreamt big and went after my dream full-throttle – something not many people can say they’ve done. Some people even have the opportunity to chase the dream but don’t, for reasons unbeknownst to me.  Taking this shot at my dream, I have undoubtedly been very fortunate. My job is a hockey player! My income-stream is the result of lacing up a pair of CCMs, taping up my stick, and throwing a few elbows here and there.  And my office has my last name over my head when I sit down! Courtesy of hockey, I’ve seen all 4 corners of the continent (Alaska, Newfoundland, Southern Florida, & Southern California) and played in over 200 professional games, including being part of an AHL championship team with the Binghamton Senators this most recent season. I’ve attended NHL camps in Chicago and Ottawa, faring well but not well enough to get that illustrious NHL game. To quote the cliché “so close yet so far away” could be considered an understatement.  But more hockey players than just I could write a novel on this one aspect of the game (perhaps another time).

I have been approached by European teams in the past to venture across the pond but the dream of The Show remained. It’s hard to resist this when you’re a Canadian prairie boy, growing up on the windy frozen Canadian tundra – playing hockey outside until you get enough frostbite on your cheeks that even when you’re a grown man, you can’t fully grow in that section of your playoff beard. Finally, the ups and downs of minor hockey in North America had taken its toll and I decided my skills (and mental health!) were better off in a new environment so I took the plunge and signed with the Dundee Stars of the Elite Ice Hockey League in the United Kingdom.

The team I play for is located in Dundee, Scotland – about an hour and a bit northeast of Glasgow and Edinburgh.  Perhaps it’s easier for a reader to place this city with regards to its two nearby famous golf courses: Carnoustie and the birthplace of golf, St. Andrews, both of which are about 10 miles away (Dundee is in between the two).  It’s a city of about 200,000 people with another 50,000 in surrounding communities. Where my roommate (forward Jarrett Konkle) & I live is right on the water in the downtown in a place called City Quay (but pronounced City Key). Our 3^rd floor “flat” overlooks the expansive River Tay and neighbours many friendly, loud, and gregarious seagulls.  (Quick note: the 1^st floor of a building is called the ground floor or “0” in an elevator, the 2^nd floor is actually called the 1^st floor, and so on and so forth so we actually live on the 2^nd floor). Here's the view from the walkway in front of our building on the River Tay.

Upon arriving in the UK, crossing the street can be very hazardous. Your whole life, you’re taught to look left, then right, then left again before crossing the street. Not so over here. Within the first 2 days, I almost got hit probably half a dozen times because I failed to look right first AND THEN left. Just like skating is muscle memory, I think I’ve now got my brain trained to protect the rest of my body (it will however be interesting what happens when I return to Canada). Building on this, driving on the left side of the road in the position of which I most identify as the passenger has also been eye-opening. Here, there are not very many street lights or stop signs but instead a plethora of roundabouts – circles of unending traffic flow.  Figuring when to go and what lane you have to be in to go to the exit you want to has gotten my roommate and I a few evil glares, a few horn honks, and more than a few two-finger salutes (the equivalent of giving the middle finger here). Needless to say, we have only gotten one ticket so far – a parking ticket. It seems that everyone here drives a small car. We drive a 2-door Honda Civic (not the most ideal vehicle for 6’3 and 6’1 guys, making me miss my SUV), and parking spaces are very tight. I think I’ve perfected my entry and exit from our car so as to not hit the neighbouring car door as long as there’s about 8 inches of room to squeeze out.

Learning how the British Pound (also known in slang as quid) works has been interesting as well. They have coins in £2, £1, 50p (p = pence or cents), 20p, 10p, 5p, 2p, and 1p. Let’s just say after a night out for a couple wobblies with the boys, your pockets can feel quite heavy. Ironically, you always seem to have enough in said pocket for some late night food (errr I mean salads). In terms of cost of living, comparably I have found it a little cheaper here in some areas and more expensive in others, exchange rate being accounted for (which is currently at about £1 = US/CAN $1.60). For example, I can buy a loaf of whole wheat bread here for under a £1. Back home, or even in the U.S., this is usually around $2. Drinks out and about seem to be cheaper as well – i.e. the first night we went out together as team (a Saturday), Jagerbombs were £2. Like c’mon! Let’s just say we soon became preferred customers. (Disclaimer: alcohol should be consumed in moderation and can affect your ability to operate motor vehicles and motor functions of your own body). On the flip side, a Starbucks coffee here is more expensive here usually (although I have no compared the entire menu to be completely sure of this). For example, a Grande Caramel Macchiato is usually around $4 something back home while being £3.75 here. For those of you still salivating about late night foods, the McChicken is on the value or “pound” menu, so that is in fact more expensive. All in all, the food here isn’t all that bad. I have in fact already experienced Haggis and I am not all that opposed. It’s kind of a combination of more dense ground beef/meatloaf.

Powerade/Gatorade can be a tricky thing here. If you’ve ever had that irrefutable desire to quench your thirst and refuel with a low-calorie, quality electrolyte beverage (specifically looking at some Yale Hockey buds here), you have to be careful here what you pick up from the beverage aisle. Case in point, after a workout, I grabbed a Powerade to “hydrate” and, much to my surprise, it was carbonated. Not all that refreshing. And I had to buy another one to ensure proper hydration. It turns out that all sports drinks come in 2 versions, carbonated and regular. You have to pay close attention.

In terms of technology, because the cable provider here, Sky, seems to be run by kindergarteners, we still have yet to get any Internet, despite being here a month.  We do have TV and when the technicians came to set up our cable, we asked them if they were going to do our Internet too, to which they replied “that’s not our job.” In the twitter world that’s called #badbusiness #epicfail #poorservice and the list could go on. Seriously? How do you run a successful, efficient business when you have to have separate cable and internet technicians? You call Time Warner (America) or Shaw (Canada) and you’re up and running with phone, cable, and internet in a day or two. Upon speaking with customer service, we keep being told we’ll get a call in an hour….or 48 hours….or we’ll try and get a technician out there as soon as possible – nothing that appeases our internet worries. What I currently use to connect is a “dongle” which is just a USB internet stick. You can get 7GB of data upload/download for about £25 which isn’t too bad. We have a lot of similar channels here as home like MTV and Comedy Central and we paid extra to get ESPN America so we can get all the highlights and some of the programs (Monday Night Football, College Gameday, MLB playoffs, etc.).  The biggest difference I’ve found in terms of the cable is the lack of censorship of shows. Like MTV showing nudity and letting f-bombs fly no questions asked! A bit of an eye opener without question. I use my Verizon Wireless blackberry over here – simply “turned off” my U.S. account because I’m out of the country and replaced my Verizon SIM card with a T-Mobile UK SIM card. The cost for 6 months of unlimited data and free calls (if someone calls me)? Only £20. Literally pay less for 6 months of unlimited data here than in 1 month of unlimited data with Verizon – something tells me they could be doing a lot better. Granted you buy like £20 worth of “allowances” so you can text normally (10p/text) or call someone (25p/minute! Yikes!). Staying in contact with people both here and back in North America is mostly in terms of Facebook, Blackberry Messenger, and an app called Whatsapp which allows you to text for free to someone who doesn’t have Blackberry Messenger.

Now to the hockey. This league is a bit of an “older” league with more than a few 30 year olds on each team. Nonetheless, these guys are still very competitive and often are some of the best players on the other teams. My role here is as it was before: continue playing strong physical defense while trying to chip in some offense. I had 4 points in the 2 exhibition games but none in the 5 games since then (frustrating!). I play a significant amount of minutes and am counted on to shut down the other team’s top lines in addition to playing powerplay and penalty kill. We’ve come out on the losing end more than the winning end thus far but are working towards significant progress. Each game we seem to be getting better at our systems and offensive flair seems to show itself more and more. The biggest thing we need right now is consistency – chipping pucks in, getting pucks to the net, stopping on pucks turned-over, limiting turnovers, and playing more physical are all things that we are getting better at but haven’t gotten to where we need to be. Nonetheless, we have the personnel to compete with the top teams and still have a lot of season left so I am very optimistic.

All this being said, my first month in Scotland has been incredible.  We’ve visited the aforementioned Carnoustie and St. Andrews golf courses, both of which are incredible to see and actually step foot on. You can literally walk around on the courses as much as you want just so long as you don’t get in the way of any golfers.  The town of St. Andrews is a great place to viist as it boasts a top university in the world (same college that “Wils & Kate” went to) so there’s a few good restaurants, including the only restaurant in about 50 miles around that serves sushi. Since there’s about 30 legitimate golf courses within a 20 mile radius of Dundee, I fit my golf clubs (except my drivers) in my hockey bag & just bought a cheap bag over here. Hit the links for the first time this past week at Downfield Golf Club, the site of the qualifying tournament for the 1999 and 2007 British Open. All things said and done, a challenging course!  Travelling to away games, you get to see a lot of the country side which I would compare to Montana or Wyoming (for Americans) or the foothills of Alberta (for Canadians) but the hills are a little bigger. And there are a ton of sheep. And it rains a fair amount. Literally can be a beautiful sunny day when you enter a grocery store and when you step out 30 minutes later, it’s pouring. Here's a couple pictures of St. Andrews & Carnoustie (the latter being the bottom 2 pictures. The player here is Padraig Harrington heading up to the 18th green at Carnoustie during the recent Alfred Dunhill Links Championship).

I’m sure I’ve missed some things but this is the first blog of many. I hope to post every couple weeks or so and put up pictures to accompany the posts but it'll be slow going at first. If there’s any questions you have, feel free to ask me in the comments.