Team Chicago Academy-Internacional forward Sarah Laws has accepted a scholarship offer from Belmont University to continue her soccer career as part of Head Coach Heather Henson’s 2015 recruiting class. Sarah plays her prep soccer for Julie Bergstrom at Waubonsie Valley H.S.

The Belmont Bruins are part of the NCAA Division I Ohio Valley Conference. In conference play Sarah will battle against three former Team Chicago Academy players at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Jorie Clawson, Rachael Brots, and Kelsey Pruett.

The Sixth Installment of Internacional’s Danish experience:

Monday, August 4th:

Our day started out with, once again, the same breakfast we have had for the past 6 days. We had a slightly earlier start to the day because of a planned practice at 8:30 that morning. However, it was pouring down and to our relief, Phil announced cancellation of practice because he didn’t want us all to have to bring home wet clothes (which would have made the smell even more unbearable).

Soo… instead we all got ready for the day of shopping, walking around, and sightseeing in Sweden. Unfortunately, the weather was still not cooperating as it continued to rain all morning. So instead of heading straight to Sweden, we took a detour in Fields mall. After the train ride across the water, we all went shopping in Malmo, Sweden. There were a lot of stores that we recognized from the US and not as many souvenir shops as we thought there would be. The weather thankfully cleared up in the afternoon and after the shopping and walking around was done, we began our trek back to Denmark. Everyone was quiet and some were falling asleep on the train ride.

Once back at the hotel, we went to the Klubhus (Club House). Quincy and Keely found themselves playing multiple games of air hockey with three little Danish girls to pass the time while we were waiting for our dinners. After a long day of walking and traveling to another country, we all headed back to our rooms to pack up all our belongings for the next days travels back home.

Tuesday, August 5th:

For the final time, we had the same breakfast at the hotel. We piled all of our suitcases into Phil’s room before walking to his favorite bakery. Once we reached the bakery, we all tried some different Danish pastries and they were all incredibly scrumptious. Phil gave us his final speech of the trip to all of us as we ate our treats. The Brøndby team bus came to pick us up from the hotel and take us to the airport. We grabbed all our baggage and our trophy and said our goodbyes to Anna and Phil. Unfortunately,our flight was delayed due to mechanical issues for almost 2 hours. But going on great trips always includes some delays and problems and we were lucky enough to not encounter many. None the less, we all made it back safe and sound with exhausted bodies and memories that we know we won’t forget.

Overall, the last week or so has amounted to an incredible trip that we were all so lucky to experience. Although we were missing a few teammates back home (Emily, Sarah, Grace, Erin), the week was filled with team bonding and learning opportunities. A special thanks goes to everyone who helped make this happen, including our parents, Team Chicago as a whole, and the wonderful Phil Nielsen who survived a week living with 17 teenage girls… Or make that 17 wonderful women:)

By: Nikki and Shelby

The fifth installment of Internacional’s Danish experience:

Saturday, August 2 (part 2)

Our Saturday afternoon started out a little rough. Half of the team showed up a few minutes late to the station so we watched our train leave without us. But, thanks to our Public Transportation Expert (Phil), we caught the next one 15 minutes later. Soon we were in Phil’s hometown, Skovshoved. The first stop was his old club’s building followed by a visit to his childhood house. The tour of the neighborhood included stories of young Phil playing street soccer and getting Bon bons from his neighbor. It was cool to see where our coach first started to play soccer.

Next we piled on to a bus that took us down the coast toward Copenhagen. Along the way we saw the American Embassy, Sweden in the distance, and our 100th Joe and the Juice which seems to be the most popular sandwich shop in Denmark.

When we got off the bus we went straight to Tivoli, the second oldest amusement park in the world located in the middle of Copenhagen. From there we split in to groups and explored the park. The adrenaline junkies went straight to the coasters while others found good places to eat and relax. At 10:30 we all headed back to the rooms for much needed sleep.

Sunday, August 3

The next morning we got to eat a late breakfast and got to our Copenhagen canal tour by noon. On top of seeing some of the cool buildings, streets, and bridges in Copenhagen, we also saw a naked lady on our tour who had no problem with an entire boat of tourists seeing her. Halfway through the tour, we got to see the famous Little Mermaid statue that is on most of the T-shirts and postcards in the souvenir shops. After the canal tour, we had time to shop around Copenhagen. Popular purchases among the team were bucket hats, rain jackets, and street jewelry. Tati, Mal, and Jori even got new piercings. Copenhagen definitely didn’t disappoint!

Our next stop was Christiania and Pusher Street, the green light district in Denmark. We felt like we walked right into the 70s and it was interesting to see how different their culture was from the rest of Denmark. It’s definitely something to ask one of us inter girls about when we get home.

When we finally got back to the hotel we devoured 9 pizzas in about 5 minutes and 2 cakes even faster. The rest of the night we had to relax and play games together.

Brought to you by room 517
Cailin, Alena, Miranda

The fourth installment of Internacional’s Danish experience:

Friday, August 1st

Friday morning as usual we had the same breakfast for the 5th day in a row. After having our meal we had to get ready for a 9:30 – sharp – practice on the turf fields. There we worked on moving the ball out of the back and pressuring as a unit, which we found was incredibly fun and interesting. These were the main things we learned we needed to work on after reviewing our games the previous week. After being sweaty from practice we all went back and showered to get ready before we went to our new teammate Anna’s hometown – Lyngby. After shopping and getting a snack at Anna’s favorite places we took the bus to her traditional Danish house and meet her beautiful family. We were very blessed to receive this opportunity to hangout and be a part of a Danish Barbecue! Anna’s family prepared an amazing Danish dish for the team and of course even better dessert. After getting our stomachs stuffed we played soccer in the backyard (cause we haven’t had enough soccer yet), there we learned that as a team we were incredible at juggling. After an eventful night we made our way back to bed for some sleep, which was much overdue.

Saturday, August 2nd

Saturday we woke up early again and started our morning just like the others, which we found very shocking. This time we were very excited because we went to visit Hamlets Castle in Helsingor. Even though Hamlet isn’t real we really went to (Holger Danske’s Castle). We spent an hour inside the castle taking many many pictures and learning amazing things! Then we got to explore Helsingor by shopping and grabbing Danish food. So all in all, it was another great experience in Denmark!

By: Kiley and Keely

The third installment of Internacional’s Danish experience:

Wednesday, July 30 (p2):

Our 4th match in 28 hours proved the body’s limitations. Having only a 5 minute warmup and full stomachs, we began slow in the game against Viborg and gave up two goals right away, and a third later that half. Second half we were able to create more chances and got a goal for a final score of 1-3. This had been the best team we had played so far and they were considered the best U17 team in Denmark. The *highlight of this game: Maddie getting thrown into the trees by an angry Danish girl on the other team.

After the scrimmage, we headed back to the hotel to clean up before our next adventure. We met back in the lobby and Shelby was dubbed tour guide. She led the group through the winding streets of Brøndby as Phil shuttled groups in his station wagon. Being a passenger in Phil’s car taught us that speed limits are merely suggestions and that breaking during turns is unnecessary. I can’t imagine what it must’ve looked like to a passerby when Phil whipped his car up the curb and a group of teenage girls piled in.

The grocery store was as expected; we walked around aimlessly until we found something with chocolate in it or fruit. Tori embraced her childhood and made a special purchase of a Cars water bottle. We loaded Phil’s car with all our groceries and started walking to the pizza place. It wasn’t exactly the Chicago style pizza we were used to but we devoured all 9 pizzas nonetheless.

Back at the hotel, we overtook the balcony by our rooms and sat around talking and laughing until the sun went down.

Thursday, July 31:

Exhausted from the previous day’s matches, Phil granted us 30 minutes extra sleep before we began our day. Breakfast was served and then we had a two hour rest period before we left for the beach.

Phil’s ‘one mile’ walk to the beach took us 50 minutes and felt more like a half marathon. Phil held a strong lead; his morning power walks are paying off as he left us in the dust. At the beach, Phil promptly found a spot and went right to sleep as the rest of us put our towels down and began exploring. The ‘ocean breeze’ smelled more like a rotten egg than a Yankee candle, but we still enjoyed the hot sand. We quickly realized we’re not in America anymore when the clothing on the beach became optional. The real spirit of tourism kicked in when Kiley and Maddie had their own beach photo shoot. Even though the sun came and went with the clouds, we had a successful day at the beach. Phil power walked back the hotel to get his car (probably because we were too slow for him) to shuttle us back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel, we devoured 9 more pizzas and headed out for our scrimmage of the day. It was a close match against Brondby’s U17s and all three 25 minute periods were back and forth with no goals in either end. Quincy is convinced her shot went in, but the ref’s discretion said otherwise. This landed the final score of 0-0.

We ate dinner and went back to our rooms exhausted from another full day.

Brought to you by Room 513 (Mallory, Hannah, Quincy)