Hey! Well let me introduce myself. My name is Kobi Rex and I am one of the eight players that are here in Iceland for the semester. This is my first update of many more to come!

First, let’s start out with the handball stuff. The beginning of my career here in Iceland has been awesome! Our team has gone 3 and 1 for our first 4 friendlies here. From these friendlies, the Valur 3rd Division team is playing in the A league as a result of our two wins again Vikingur (20-8) and HK (19-17). It was very exciting to play over here for the first time because we had just gotten here and both Chris Hesser and I got good playing time after just one practice. In fact, the game versus HK was very exciting because down the stretch I was able to score the game sealing goal at the end which was one of the greatest feelings in the world.

Also, I practice with my team, Valur, five times a week and usually we have one game a week during league play, which starts on October 10th against Grotta, which has one of my fellow Americans, Devin Holman, on it so I’m extra pumped for that game. Also, Toni Ernst plays at our club and she is on the 3rd division girls team as well and she has her first game on the 11th versus Selfoss. Her team is playing in the second league.

The experience here in Iceland is totally new for me. Not being out of the states before the trip to Germany, it has been so much fun getting to experience a new culture here in Iceland. It is very interesting trying to get around here because most people speak Icelandic but they almost all speak English as a second language so I am surviving over here. Also, the weather here is a lot like Seattle and it usually is cold and rainy, but the last few days have been amazingly sunny and awesome. Yesterday, we got to go up to the Pearl which is the highest point on the Island and we took pictures from a restaurant on top of the water towers and the views are breathtaking up there.

Also, I had an opportunity to go to the countryside with my family and herd sheep for the weekend! A five-hour task on horseback, we herded a total of 120 sheep back from the hills of Iceland to be sorted and slaughtered. Honestly, I don’t think there is a dumber animal though than the sheep because every time we seemed to have them going in the right direction, they tried to turn back in the wrong direction. Also, we did lose one sheep in a river crossing so that was sad to see it washed up on the riverbank, but you just got to move on after that.

Also, although we haven’t been doing school here, it has been a lot of fun getting to know the people here in Iceland. Last weekend, I went to a party with some of my handball homies and I had a blast getting to know a lot of people and they actually spoke English to me which was awesome!

Well that’s all for now but just wanted to say a few things to the people back home: I miss all you guys so much and I can’t wait to see all you guys in December again!