Forza Viola a Chicago!

Buona sera a tutti. It's been quite a week with some awesome memories, so let's get right to it. My work week was a bit weird because of my Tuesday off leaving me with working Mon, Wed, Fri. Tuesday, Mia met up at the park with buddy Vida and the girls played for about an hour or so. Weather a bit warm, but they had a great time swinging, playing tic-tac-toe and running around Malone Park. Later, My Dad arrived at my house for our big and exciting trip to Bridgeview for the AFC Fiorentina vs Chivas Guadalajara match. I thought we'd be able to beat any traffic heading into and around the city but man, we certainly got stuck in it. Ugh. Luckily because we left with plenty of time, we arrived with an hour to spare. Phew. We knew immediately upon arriving Fiorentina fans would be outnumbered 10-1 against the Chivas fans. Luckily, the environment was positive and a hell of a lot of fun. 

 I bought tickets specifically in the Fiorentina supporters designated section so I could give my Dad a great experience, but I didn't expect to find so many Chivas fans sitting with us. Then again, the ticket price was super cheap and we were literally on the ground level pitch behind the net. We walked around a bit, checked out some of the overpriced merchandise and made our way to our seats. We got to watch the team warm up right in front of us smashing balls at the keeper. I knew that this was probably the closest I'll get him to a professional football match between to international teams. Anyways, they walked out, we all cheered stuffed on the bleachers with a variety of supporters right in the front row and the match started.

Chivas got a goal off a deflection and the crowd went insane. Drums, horns and cheers filled the crowd as 10,000 of us watched on. Quickly, Simeone from Fiorentina equalized and the Viola fans went crazy. Amazing!! Halftime, and it was 1-1. Some of the fans that were stuffed onto our bench split and surprisingly, some didn't come back. Great. 2nd half started and we had an obnoxious steward standing directly in front of us. Are you kidding me? Luckily after 10 or so minutes, he was gone and moved down. Awesome. The Chivas drums started up again and the match continued. Viola started to pick up possession and it wasn't long before Riccardo Sottil picked up an incredible goal and the Fiorentina fans went crazy. I was even texted by my older brother that he saw me on TV get up and cheer. My Mom mentioned as well that she saw my DSLR camera flash go off a few times. The game ended 2-1 to Fiorentina and we were quite happy. My Dad had a fantastic time. I'm really glad I could take him to what probably will be the only time he'll see Fiorentina again. Not to sound so grim or anything, but Viola doesn't come to the states that often, or even this close to Wisconsin. On the long long drive back, he kept thanking me for taking him and wants to make a drive to Madison to see their USLOne team in action. I was dead exhausted, but made it back home and crashed into my pillow about 1:30am. I went to sleep with this feeling of accomplishment that I was able to take my Dad to something special he's always wanted to do and it was an incredible time.

Wednesday, Mia went to her friend Noelle's house to swim with her and her sister. Mia had a great time and looks forward to coming over again.  Thursday, I had art lessons with Micah and Gigi. We did some fruit water coloring and the kids had a great time. Gianna's really great at getting her shadows in when it comes to painting or drawing and Micah really nailed her apple sketch. I talked her into taking a bite of it to give the piece really fun texture and dimension. Awesome. I always look forward to working with these talented girls. Later, we had sushi and bobba tea from Fusion Cafe. Totally fun trying new places for sushi and we were excited to find a bobba tea place near us. 

Over the weekend, we had some gnarly storms roll in along with a rough heatwave which sadly cancelled the Torrent vs Risers match that Mia was looking forward to going to. We hung out, got her school supplies and made waffles for dinner. Mia played bass and we hit the bed soon after. 

Today, we just hung out and relaxed before I went to work. This week, nothing major planned till my birthday weekend. Maybe art lessons? Who knows, guess we'll find out :) That's all for now, thanks for reading! 

Soccer Week

Greetings! Man, what a busy week. Mostly for Mia. This week started Mia's very first soccer camp with the Milwaukee Torrent Community Foundation. The owner/coach of the Torrent, Andy Davi hosts an incredible week-long soccer camp that brings in youth coaches from Germany (more specifically, the Bayer Leverkusen club) to teach and instruct kids about the Beautiful Game. Mia had been looking forward to this moment for MONTHS. She was so insanely excited for her first day, she was in her gear hours before we left. Talk about excitement.

Upon arriving, there were certainly a lot of kids from different soccer clubs. Sadly, that sort of made Mia feel like an outsider. Most of the kids signed up for the camp with friends so Mia would have to attempt to make a friend, which didn't work out. She told me throughout the week that "this camp isn't about making friends, it's about me getting really good at football" (yes, she calls soccer football instead) She took this serious. Despite being pretty shy, she really liked the coaches and worked hard to complete the different challenges and Bundasliga tests that Coach Davi had set up. She really liked Coach Anne, the one woman on staff. She was super friendly with the kids, so Mia took an immediate shine to her. I really enjoyed watching for the short while that I could before work because it gave me some really good ideas for drills when Fall soccer starts. Mia enjoyed having me watch as well. 

Wednesday, Mia had soccer camp AND she went to her BFF Cecilia's birthday party. Talk about a busy day following soccer and bass lessons on Tuesday. Thursday I was off, so I attempted to fly my drone to get some sick aerial shots of the camp. It wouldn't fly due to a firmware update. Ugh. Friday was Mia's last day. World Cup day. She was so excited to play a full day of matches. She said she almost got a goal in one of the games. The kids also got to play with Torrent players from the Men's and Women's team. Cool! She even has two new favorite players. Sadly, one is leaving for a Spain team, and the other guy, I don't know who he is yet. She liked his skills and said he was pretty friendly. I finally got my drone up in the air that morning before we went to camp. Even let Mia fly it and she did really well. At the camp, the camera was a bit blown out and on top of that, was having satellite interference issues. Ugh. Such a disappointment. 

My parents picked her up and watched the little end-of-camp ceremony. Mia got her German diploma for completing the tests, a Leverkusen pennant, pin and sticker as well as another Torrent season ticket and a camp ball. We'll be using this to bring in friends and family this season to the Men's matches. Mia had the best time at the camp and I recommend it to any kid wanting to grow their skills. The coaching staff totally enjoy their time with the kids and I know Mia will remember this one for a long time. She kept bringing up this week that she is totally excited she has a t-shirt and soccer ball with logos on it that I created. "THAT MEANS YOU'RE A FASHION DESIGNER DADDY!!" Friday night after I got home from work, Mia was dribbling around the ball showing me some of the useful skills she learned. She even told me that during scrimmages, she'd use her weight and arms to get in front of the opposing players to get the advantage and when she'd dribble, turn her body so they couldn't get it from her. Awesome!! Thanks again everyone involved for making this camp happen and giving Mia the confidence to grow on the field. 

Saturday, Jill worked on some macarons most of the day while I worked on some logo revisions. Later, we had Noodles and went to the NB West production of Mary Poppins. Our friend's son was one of the characters and one of my student's worked backstage. It's always awesome seeing performances like this. The cast and crew work very hard to make these things happen. Jill and I liked it. Mia said it was alright. 3 hours is a long time for a kid to sit through a play. She liked parts of it, and kept getting sleepy through parts of it. When she got home, she polished her soccer ball till looked brand new and once again, dribbling all over the house. When I say my kid loves soccer, she really does. The Torrent Men's team had their first pre-season friendly and won 14-1. Holy crap. Hoping for more of the same this season. 

Today,  Jill worked on more macarons and later we made a quick little trip to the zoo specially to see the river otters. So cute. This week, nothing major planned. Oh, accept my Dad and I are DRIVING TO CHICAGO TO SEE FIORENTINA!! Viola take on Chivas at Seatgeek Field and we've got the closest seats possible and will be sitting with the Fiorentina supporters. Can't. WAIT. This may be my Dad's only opportunity to see two international teams. Maybe art lessons this week? We'll see. Chelsea's on a pre-season tour and after two friendlies in Ireland, they're off to Japan. 

That's all for now thanks for reading!