Me infront of my family’s favorite department store Kaufhaus Des Westens aka KaDeWe!
By Ingrid Wells
First time out of the country: 4 months old on a trip to West Berlin with both my parents.
Reasoning behind “Ingrid”: My mom said to my dad, “Since the kids will have an English last name, then let’s decide on German first names.”
First family pets: Yellow Lab named Bix Sieben (Bix for short), after a race my parents ran in, the Bix 7, named after the famous jazz German-American musician Bix Beiderbecke. Second dog- chocolate lab named Ritter, after the one and only Ritter Sport chocolate bars that I have grown up consuming.
Second language: IF I were to claim a second language, it’d have to be German. I am by no means fluent; though hope to be some day. I have studied it a bit in school and went to German school on Saturday mornings for a few years when I was younger. I have been making an effort to use German over the last two weeks.
Rainbow view I woke up to from my apartment!
Mom’s side of the family: Both grandparents (Oma and Opa) on my mother’s side came from Berlin. My mom did her post-doc studies and worked in a lab in Heidelberg for a few years, and her brother also studied post-college in Germany.
Au pair: Both my parents have always worked full time. As a result, when my brother, 4 years younger, and I were in our early years, we had 2 German au pairs (each for one year separately). We are still close with one of them, Silke, and I plan on seeing her sooner rather than later as she lives in Munich!
The Potsdam Brandenburg Tor (there is a larger one in Berlin as well).
One of my nicknames: “Frau” literally woman in German, but it is used in the same manner as Mrs. My college coach coined this name for me, one of his many, because of my typical German personality traits. (There is the right/ my/ German way and then there is the wrong way! Haha)
With all that being said, you can see why playing soccer and living in Germany has long been a dream of mine. Since I left Sweden, I had the plan of playing in the U.S. for a season with the hopes of then going abroad to Germany. Trust me when I say the way my season in the NWSL went in order to ensure I would be able to make the switch wasn’t an easy, straightforward process. However, at the end of the day I am now sitting in my apartment in Potsdam overlooking the nearby, historic Sanssouci Park.
The infamous Fernsehturm (tv tower) in Berlin.
Before jumping into my Potsdam adventure over the last couple of weeks, I want to briefly wrap up my NWSL season experience. It was a great opportunity for me to play and train on the WNY Flash. Being a regular season Champion and NWSL finalist was a nice way to finish the summer off. I am thankful for having that chance and I do think I grew as a person from March- August, both on and off the field.
The morning after the finals I was on a 7AM flight from Buffalo to Newark, New Jersey so that I had a little over 48 hours at home before I was making my international voyage. What was the rush you say? Well, my new team 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam had been in preseason since the second week of July and seeing as my season in the U.S. finished August 31, the club and I were eager for me to get there as soon as possible. Nevertheless, that didn’t leave me much time to prepare for all that moving abroad entails, but thankfully I had been able to make trips home two out of the three weekends before my departure date. Aka my bags were packed with my passport on top.
Okay so my flight and arriving at Tegel Airport. First off, I think its important for me to recognize that I had a different emotional viewpoint going into this move than I did when I was headed to Goteborg. I am not a rookie anymore, I have played professionally both abroad and in the US and I am not a kid moving to Europe alone straight out of college. I tried to sleep as much as I could on the red-eye and it’s a good thing I did because as soon as I walked off the plane I was on the go for at least a week and a half with little downtime.
Me being me, no explanation necessary.
So far I am really enjoying my time in Potsdam. I like the town, team and culture. I have already gone into Berlin twice by train, which takes maximum 30 minutes depending on what part of the city you are headed to. (As a quick side-note, Berlin has always been one of my top if not top European city. I believe this has to do with the fact that it reminds me so much of NYC with a European twist, and I find that comforting because of where I grew up.) In terms of soccer, I do feel behind in terms of being a member of the team because I missed the two month long 3-a-day preseason. On the other hand, the management was aware of my situation in the NWSL, WNY was stocked with quality players, including several internationals, so training was at a high level. Also, since I am on a two-year contract so these few weeks away won’t matter in the long run.
My first Flammkuchen in Berlin with a new friend! (Flammkuchen is similar to a pizza but with a lighter cracker-like base, a quark spread and mine had tofu on it!)
As per usual, it is going to take time for me to adjust into the team and style. This is no secret to me. I also know that I will need to be patient because of when I arrived. You may say, so you got there late, what’s the big deal? Well my coach, who speaks little if any English, is very old school and I believe he thinks I need time with the team and that I am just coming off a season. Valid points I know, but as I have mentioned before patience has never been my strong point but it’s been something I’m continuing to work on.
We have a pretty full training schedule so I have been plenty busy. I have also been trying to check out the world of Potsdam, what it has to offer, and making myself feel at home both in my apartment and lifestyle. (Berlin as well but this will take longer as it is a huge metropolis). It’s no secret I love to travel, and I plan on taking advantage of my European and German location when the opportunities present themselves as there are so many cities in Germany I want to visit in it’s self! Tschüsla für jetzt!
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