20 and counting, or, 1st post

20 days until Bern.

Man, that's hard to say.
As mentioned in the recent podcast, I have been in Denmark over the past week or so where I was checking out the Danish National Competition, training for the Worlds with a certain well -respected coffee consultant and barista trainer...and as a bonus (to me) visiting with friends and neighbors from here in Chicago that relocated to Denmark.

The Danish Championship was great to see. I, unfortunately, didn't see most of the WBC in Seattle due to working in our booth. I only saw some of the finals. It's interesting to be an observer for the first time at a competition outside my scope of reference. I learned a lot, especially that it is definitely not done the same as the US around the world, which really set the stage for my training. Another wonderful part of going to the Danish Championships was meeting and reuniting with people. I saw my friend and fellow competitor Sammy Piccolo, I got to see Klaus Thompsen (obviously) again, I also met the Dutch National Champion, Rose van Asten, who was great to talk to. Other people of note - The owners of Estate Coffee, Cafe Europa, John Sanders, the owner of Baresso Coffee, Troels Poulsen (always great to see), Sonja Grant and Njall Bjorgvinsson of Iceland, and many others that I'm sure to forget to mention.


Anyway, training was also eye opening. I have a lot of work to do, which is both intimidating and exciting. I'm really looking forward to May 19.

Yeah, 20 days.

I need to get to work.