Hope everyone had a great Christmas! I know I did! Now that the craziness of the holidays is over I can start to focus on getting ready to leave. The IIHF takes care of all of our travel arrangements, however I've come to learn that they don't tend to book things until the last minute. I didn't even know what day I was leaving until I was sent my plane tickets on 12/13! My flight leaves Philadelphia on Thursday, December 29 at 2:55 in the afternoon. I take a quick, one hour flight down to Washington Dulles on United Airlines. Once in Washington, I've got a two and a half hour layover until I hop on an Austrian Airlines flight that goes direct to Vienna. The flight to Vienna is about 9 hours, then when you add in the 6 hour time change I don't end up landing until Friday morning at 8:35am. Apparently Vienna is a better airport and a little closer to the cities of Zlin and Prerov than Prague so that's where we are all flying into. It looks like it is then about a two and a half hour ride from Vienna to Zlin so I'm sure by the time I get to the hotel I'm going to be absolutely exhausted! Once everyone arrives we'll have a group meeting to go over the rules, logistics, schedules and other important tournament details. Games start on Saturday so it doesn't leave much time to get adjusted! I just hope my equipment makes it, layovers always make me nervous!
Speaking of everyone else, I'm looking forward to seeing some familiar faces at this tournament! Dina Allen, from Buffalo, NY is the other American official going. We are meeting up in Washington then are on the same flight to Austria. Dina and I have worked a number of college games together over the years and I have stayed at "Hotel Allen" whenever I've had games up in Buffalo. It is always so comforting to have another American at these tournaments! That said, I'm also excited because I'm also going to see some other officials that I have worked with at previous tournaments. Malin, a referee from Sweden, was at the World University Games in China with me and Anu, a referee from Finland, was in France with me last season. Also, my roommate from last year, Jana, is from Slovakia so she may try to come and visit during the tournament. Lastly, Matt Leaf, who is the head of USA Hockey officiating, is coming as one of the supervisors. Again, it is very comforting knowing that one of the supervisor's native language is English!
The tournament itself runs from December 31 - January 7. While we will have 2 off days during the week where I'm sure we will be do some sightseeing, the focus is hockey and the majority of our time is spent at the rink. However, one of the great things about working these tournaments is you have the option to stay after the tournament to do some sightseeing. Last year Kristin, my roommate from college, came over and met me and we spent a week touring Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. Unfortunately, this year's trip falls during her year end (she's an accountant) so she was unable to get the time off of work. However, Dina's husband Kyle, who also happens to be an official, is coming over and so the 3 of us will be staying until Thursday, January 12 and touring. I think we are going to go to Prague, Budapest and Vienna but the plan is to come up with a plan once we get there! I am usually a planner so this is stressing me out a little bit but I'm sure it will turn out great.
December has been a crazy month for me. I feel like it was just Thanksgiving a week ago! I spent a weekend in Vegas, a week in Colorado for work and have been running around like a crazy woman during the holidays. I have a ton of things I need to take care of before I leave and now that I leave in 2 1/2 days I'm starting to stress a bit! Hopefully it all gets done! Off to go put a dent in my laundry!
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