Softball and Swedish

Since Mom left, I haven't done nearly as much traveling. While I do want to see as much of Sweden as I can while I'm here, the fact that I've primarily stayed in Skövde for the past week has been A-OK with me! :) It has given me a chance to settle into the dungeon, explore town, and focus on the reason I'm here: Softball. While that may sound kind of boring, I assure that there is never a dull moment when you're a residential tourist in a gorgeous Swedish town.

The Sunday after Mom went home, we had games in Göteborg. I have never played somewhere this beautiful. Until now, the prettiest place I had played softball was when I was 12 years old and we played in the mountains atop a mountain overlooking the valley from the rightfield fence. The field at Göteborg blew that out of the water. While the field itself was not the greatest as we played on the baseball field, the surroundings were amazing. Behind homeplate, I could see a village nestled on a mountain side and the valley between where we were playing and this town. The red terracotta roofs in conjunction with the brightly colored houses made for quite a view from the mound. As you can see in the picture, there was a mountain right behind left and centerfields. If you look closely, there's a Swedish flag in the picture as well. This picture was actually taken with Marie's cell phone. These colors are not enhanced in any way. This is what it looked like. It was so gorgeous! I don't know that we even have places that look like this in the States. But anywho, back to the softball :). We won both of the games that day one of which was a no hitter! Way to go Saints! :)

This past week I was able to help three of the girls get their feet wet in pitching! I did basically the same thing I did at Pitch a Fit during first lessons. We went through the mechanics and did some drills. Thank goodness they have cones available to me ;). Just like in Chesapeake, my lines are TERRIBLE haha!!! I mean seriously, look at the line on the left... WORST POWER LINE EVER! haha! As we were working through the mechanics, it made me so happy seeing everyone having a good time! I know how much I love pitching and what a great time I have when I pitch, it was just so exciting to see other people having a great time as well! :) I am so excited to see how much they progress while I'm here! I'm looking forward to practice this week when we get to work together again!

One awesome perk of living in another country is being exposed to the culture and the language. For those of you who knew me while in undergrad and grad school, you know I studied linguistics (a basic definition of which is 'the scientific study of language'). Since I've been here, I've been mildly obsessed with learning as much Swedish as I can. Thus far, I can count to 20, say basic introductory phrases, ask for something, and use choices phrases (among the first things my friends taught me, haha!). Even though I'm trying really hard to learn, Swedish is probably one of the tougher languages to learn. Even though it's like a cousin to English (it's a North Germanic language while English is a Germanic language) and many words sound very similar to English words, Swedish is a tonal language. This means that a single word can be pronounce the same way, but with two different tone patters and thus have two different meanings. Because of this, I have a hard time conveying my actual point. Everyone says they can kiiiiiind of understand what I'm trying to say, but I'm just not getting quite there. Lina says that when I speak Swedish, I sound like the guy from the movie Pink Panther when he tries to say, 'I would like to buy a hamburger.' Sadly, I think this is a pretty accurate representation of my Swedish. I'm still working on it though. We'll see how I progress haha!

Yet another perk to living in a foreign country is exploring the town in which I live. I've gone walking around town a couple of times. It's strange to say, but some areas remind me of Ghent! ... only much older and way cooler! It has that small town feel that Ghent offered along with gorgeous architecture! Thus far in my adventures, I've found quiet park benches to read on, beautiful gardens to take pictures of, and great little eateries to have fika in. I am loving my life here in Skövde! Can't wait for my American teammate to get here on Friday! So excited for this week's events! There are birthdays, Lina's graduation, Elise's arrival, and so much more! Guess this means I'm going to have to go shopping again. Ps, I've totally fallen in love with the European fashion here in Sweden. It's so comfortable and me! Ok well bye for now! Love you all!

So many cities, so little time...

This past week has been so crazy! Since Mom was still going to be in town, we took a number of day trips to various cities around Sweden. Our first trip was with Anzo, little Oliver, and Lisa. Anzo drove us all to Läckö Slott which is a medieval castle situated on a bay of lake Vänern, one of Sweden's largest lakes. When we got there, we had some time to kill so we had fika while we waited for our tour to start. Good food= a great way to kill time :) Once we began our tour, which was in all English thank goodness :), we weren't allowed to take photos. So, sorry folks, no pictures from inside the castle :(. It's a shame too, because the castle was decorated with ornate carvings and sculptures in many of its great halls. It also had some gorgeous furnishings (which Lisa and I later found out were not original to the castle --> we were a bit saddened by that). At any rate, we walked through a number of beautiful celebration halls and bedrooms of the castle. The thing that kind of irked me a little was the fact that we were taking a tour of the castle, but didn't even get to see the King's bedroom! Something about fire/evacuation hazard, whatever... haha! Even without the King's bedroom, the castle was beautiful. The thing that probably stood out most to me was the fact that some of the original art work on the walls still existed. It just amazes me that things this old are preserved! Call me a naive American, but it truly is amazing and awe-striking when you see it. In fact, when we were leaving the castle, we saw this odd drawing on this rock. This simple drawing on the rock dated back to THE BRONZE AGE! A-MA-ZING!

The next day trip I took was with Mom to Göteborg, Sweden's second largest city. So far, this is one of my favorite places that I've visited. This city is stunning! It's situated on the southwest coast of Sweden almost directly on the water. For this trip, Mom and I decided to be the ultimate tourists while in Göteborg! We signed up for the Göteborg pass which allows admittance to the train tour, the canal tour, and nearly all of the museums in the city. After we had walked through part of town, we decided to head for the canal tour. It was so relaxing, informative, and downright gorgeous! We go tot see the city from the inside by going along the canals that penetrate the city as well as the outside by going to the bay. Next we hopped on a tram to see an aquarium in the city. Well, the aquarium and the connecting museum were under construction soooo yeh haha. When we went to go back to the town square for some shopping, we hopped on the same train we had come in on... only we were going in the wrong direction. I got to see way more of Göteborg than I ever thought I would! Mom and I saw not only the city of Göteborg, but also the suburbs! :) The suburbs are just as beautiful as the city! The houses are painted in vivid colors and many of them have gardens sprouting colorful tulips and daffodils (my two favorite flowers!). There were also a number of neighborhoods that had small harbors with a number of brightly colored boats. It was simply gorgeous. I know I've been using that word a lot, but there really isn't any other way to put it. It's BEAUTIFUL here! :)

The third trip of the week was to Sweden's capital Stockholm! I'm still not quite sure what to make of this city... It had that big city feel like a New York or Washington, D.C., but was assured by the chef who made our dinner that night that it was not nearly as big. The people of Stockholm were a different than they are here in Skövde. They seemed to hustle and bustle much quicker (thus giving it that New York feel). The setting was also much different than Skövde or Göteborg. The significance of the government and commerce to the city gave it that D.C. feel. It was still an incredibly beautiful city, but with just a very different feel than I had encountered thus far in Sweden. We had another lovely day in which to explore a new city, so Mom and I hopped right to it! We started our day by getting lost... several times in the city. So again, we saw more than we had planned :) We were just wandering in the wrong directions. No biggie, we would just turn around and wander back :)... eventually we found our way to Old Towne Stockholm called Gamla Stan. This is the older part of Stockholm that is home to several significant buildings. Some of these buildings are the Alfred Nobel Museum, the Stockholm Cathedral, oh and, ya know, THE ROYAL PALACE! Neither Mom nor I had ever seen a palace before so this was a MUST SEE on our trip! It did not disappoint! First we started out by taking a tour of the Royal Apartments. Since the palace still serves several purposes for the Royal family (for instance offices and a place for Royal guests to stay<-- and with the Princess's approaching wedding, this place is hopping!) a little more than half of it is off limits. The part that you can see is crazy awesome though. But like I was saying, we started in the Royal apartments. These rooms date back to the medieval period and was resided in at some points by the same guy who restored and refurbished Läckö Slott (I think... by no means am I a Swedish historian, haha!). Anywho, the reminders of the Princess's wedding were everywhere! A couple of the rooms were closed to the public as they had diplomatic dignitaries coming to stay in them for the wedding. Next, we made our way to the treasury. Let's just say I have a few things already added to this year's Christmas list. Seeing the multiple crowns, scepters, orbs, was incredible. I have never seen so many jewels in one place ie, on a CROWN! It was mind blowing! That and the fact that these crowns dated back nearly 400 years and looked as though they were created yesterday was absolutely fascinating! Again, no pictures allowed, sorry! Then we moved to Magnus III's antiquities museum. Some of the statues in this museum dated back to the time of the Roman Empire and were even of some of the prominent people of the Empire. They were stunning. So clean and perfect! Ok some had been through some events as they were missing fingers or noses, but still! For the most part, all of the statues were in fantastic shape! After this, Mom and I made our way to the shopping are of the city! It was crazy how many shops and stores there were lining this one pedestrian walk! I thought it was kind of funny how some of the store names were of places back home. For instance there was a store named Manhattan. I looked inside to get a feel of the designs portrayed as some you would see in Manhattan, and, yes, I can see some of them being worn in NYC. Others, I cannot even see being worn on a runway... they were a bit too extravagant, haha.

Overall, my trips with Ma this week were downright awesome! I got to see some gorgeous places (some by accident) and meet some pretty cool people. Sadly, this is where my mom's journey with me ended. She hopped on a plane and flew home on Friday :(. While I know I'll mis her (and already kind of do), I know that my teammates and friends here in Skövde will take good care of me! :) It's good to be back in good ol' Skövde!!!

This weekend ROCKED!

This weekend was so much fun! Even though I didn't feel well most of the weekend, it was still awesome. Saturday afternoon, Mom and I ventured out into Skövde without a local guide. This was an adventure to say the least. We didn't really do much besides walk around, but it was still so nice to see the streets full of people and see some of the local sights. We walked through one of the parks, through the town square, and even into one of the cemeteries. It was very interesting to me to see how different cultures bury their dead. I guess I can thank Dr. Sanford and the Anthropological Archaeology class I took at MW. In all sincerity, it was beautiful to see burial sites that are taken care of with such pride as the ones I saw were. In the States, it's rare to be able to actually plant flowers on a grave anymore. Here in Sweden, most of the burial sites had beautiful flowers and plants planted on them. Also, many of the sites had very small pebbles covering the grave. Most of these pebble coverings were combed some even in a design or pattern. I think I just really appreciated the fact that there was that much respect still had for someone who had passed that so much time and effort would be put into maintaining their final resting place. It really was beautiful. Anywho, back to Mom and me being tourists... The picture above is actually a picture of the towne square of Skövde! :) This town is so pretty. The colors here just aren't seen in the States! I really like this picture of a local church. Look at how blue the sky is! It's insane!!!!


So after Mom and I were done being tourists for the day, Lina picked us up to head to Annelie's apartment for a traditional Swedish dinner. Traditional it was! We had delicious Swedish MEATBALLS! My friends back in the States told me this was the one thing I absolutely HAD to eat while in Sweden. They were AMAZING! They even let me help make them! I think they thought I was nerdy for being so excited to help make them, but whatever :). Here's what they looked like! :) Oh, Annelie told me to put in here that they're supposed to be round... but they aren't haha! I reassured my teammates that I don't generally take pictures of all of my meals, but I had to let folks back home know that I ACTUALLY ate legitimate Swedish meatballs :)
So here is the final product! Swedish meatballs and sauce (which I sadly don't know the name of), potatoes, and Lydon berry jam... so good! I think I may have a new favorite dish! the best part is, it wasn't all that difficult to make! I mean, granted, I couldn't read any of the ingredients in the cookbook since it was all in Swedish, and I couldn't measure anything since I don't yet know my metric conversions, but still! So easy! HAHA! This was a great way to prep for my first games the following day here in Sweden!

Waking up at 5 am is never my favorite thing to do... especially when I'm already having trouble sleeping. That being said, I was actually very excited when I woke up and realized it was my the day of my first game with a new team! We traveled nearly 3.5 hours to Enköping to play at 12. This meant leaving our field incredibly early! I pitched the first game while Priya tossed the second game. Both games had their intense moments, but thankfully we were able to pull out two Ws! It felt so awesome to be on a team again, better yet, a supportive team! My mom was a little too adorable after the game wanting a team photo. Being as this was probably her only chance to get a team photo, I don't think anyone minded. Everyone has been super great about letting her come with and enjoy Swedish life as well. Thanks guys! Anywho, here's a picture of your 2010 Skövde Saints although we're missing a couple of players here.

A Day of Firsts!

Today was such an adventure! As the title of the blog indicates, it was full of firsts. It was my first true day in Skövde, and Mom and I took advantage of it :) Anzo has been so great. Today she showed Mom and me how to get to downtown Skövde and even showed us around the city. It's so adorable! Of course, I've never seen anything like it so I was very excited by everything. I hope my new teammates see this as endearing and not annoying haha! We met another one of my teammates, Lisa, downtown for some coffee (Kaffe) and had 'fika.' This is what they call a gathering of people for coffee or a small lunch (from what I understand; I'm sure I'm a little confused haha!). The actual activity of eating and gathering is 'fikar' whereas the food itself is 'fika'... I'm learning so much! I LOVE IT! It was so nice just sitting in the town square and chatting. We went to a local coffee and tea shop. There were like 30 tables with chairs outside of the this very small shop. I can't wait until it gets a little warmer and there are a ton of people there. Today, most people sat inside. It wasn't too cold so we sat outside which was so great. It's so awesome seeing the new sights and hearing the new sounds! When it got a little chillier, the people who worked there actually came out and offered everyone nice fleece blankets... Go to New York and see if you get that sitting in a Cafe! I doubt it! I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!! After fica, we went into one of the local malls where I found an H&M which apparently is a Swedish store... who knew? haha! I told Lisa she'll have to come shopping with me so I don't look like a dumb American the whole time I'm here LOL!

Today was also my first day at practice. I went to the field early with Lina and Marie and we hit a little before the rest of the team got there. The batting cage is unlike anything I've ever seen before, and a little scary. It has a metal frame and a net hanging from it so if you hit one off of one of the metal beams, watch out! It gets the job done though, and I don't think we can really ask for more than that :). When practice started, we broke down the throwing motion before moving into some fielding techniques. Then we broke off into infield/outfield. At this time, Anzo and I split off and threw some. I started out strong, but I could feel the jet lag setting in as we kept on. At the beginning of my pitching, I had the opportunity to meet the Swedish National Team coach, Matthius. He was very nice and I look forward to seeing him in the future :)

Toward the end of practice, we came back together to practice our fielding as a team. I started off at the mound then switched to short stop. It was, well... interesting... I hadn't fielded a ball in a good long while aside from Steph tossing me grounders inside Pitch a Fit. I actually started feeling sick at the end of practice, but like Anzo said, I can only get away with the jet lag for another day, so that's what I blame it on haha! Overall, practice was good and it was nice to see everyone again once I was awake-ish! Practice today made me super excited for the game on Sunday, even if we do have to be at the field at 6:15 am :).

So far, everything's going very well here and I love that people back home are being so supportive. Thanks guys!!! Ps side note: it's 10 pm and JUST NOW dark outside :) a little different, but kind of cool at the same time :)

I made it!

Phew! After a 5 hours of waiting in the airport for my 9 hour flight and a 4 hour car ride to Skövde, I'm finally here!!! It's been an incredibly long day and a half, but it's totally been worth it! I've had the opportunity to meet nearly all of my teammates and a number of the guys from the baseball team. In fact, two of them drove all the way to Stockholm (that 4 hour drive I was talking about) just to pick up Ma and me. Everyone's been so accommodating and understanding! Anzo took Mom and me to a local restaurant where I'll be getting my meals and then to the grocery store so we could get some food for the mornings. She also offered to show my mother and me downtown Skövde! Lina has offered to come by the apartment and pick me up for practice tomorrow. Everyone is so generous! I'm so excited to stay here for the next 4 months!

How did I get here?

WOW! That's about all I can say about the past two weeks... SCRATCH THAT: past 2 months! Everything has just been so intense and happened so quickly! This whole opportunity came about in such a dumb stroke of luck way. After talking with a college teammate about her summer plans to play softball in Switzerland, I had decided that A.) I was incredibly JEALOUS! and B.)I was going to do it too. What better way to find information than google? After quickly googling 'play softball internationally,' I came across a website where athletes could post on a discussion board in hopes of finding a team to play on in the summer. I was told by the site moderator that most people contact him in August/September and given that I was emailing in March things weren't looking so great. I figured I'd give it a shot anyways. So I waited... a whole 36 hours before emailing him and asking if he had any leads. (My motto is that while good things may happen to those who wait, better things happen to those who go get them) He told me he did not, but offered to give me the contact information of the coaches he had contacted on my behalf. Being as I was really wanting this to happen, I didn't hesitate. I emailed each of the people personally that day introducing myself and giving them some background information on me. It wasn't long after that that I heard back from the teams.
It was incredibly quick how everything seemed to fall into place. Twelve days after my initial introductory email, I was a member of the Skövde Saints! While I was excited about this opportunity that had been offered to me, I could not focus on it but so much. Only two weeks after I accepted the offer, I was standing in front of a panel of my professors orally defending my degree. An hour and a half oral comprehensive exam on the classes I had taken in grad school was not my ideal prep for my upcoming adventure. Nonetheless, I had to do what I had to do. Once that 'academic right of passage' (as my professors so lovingly referred to it as) had passed, I had approximately 10 days to focus on my final papers before heading into final exams. My last exam was on Wed the 5th, move out was the 7th, and graduation was the 8th. PHEW! It all happened so quickly that the fact that I've graduated still hasn't exactly hit me yet.
I do have a really funny story from graduation for you, though. Ok, so there's this giant statue of a lion (Go Monarchs!) in the middle of a fountain on campus. It's kind of like the fountain at Mary Wash for those Mdubbers following. It's the focal point of campus, basically. Well, after the ceremony, a number of people made their way to this statue to take pictures. I was in the midst of what seemed like a photo shoot with my uncle (his pictures are AMAZING!) when a gust of wind blew through and flipped the Swedish flag up off of this guys cap. I asked him if he was from Sweden and he said that he was. I then told him that I was getting ready to move there and told him where. Turns out, his roommate is actually from Skövde! I was able to meet him as well. They were with their family and posing with the Swedish flag. I asked if I could take a picture with the flag and they actually gave me one and told me to have a fantastic trip! How crazy is that? 4 days before I move to Sweden, I meet a Swedish ODU grad... FROM THE SAME TOWN! So strange...
So it's the night before I'm set to fly out, and I am so excited/nervous! I got to see some of my family tonight and that was probably the best way I can think to spend my last night in the States for a while. Even though I'm missing some pretty big events here in the states (my cousin's 21st bday, my dad's 55th, my summer trips to NJ, all of my students' softball seasons, etc.), I am so excited to begin this experience! Ok well Mom-Mom's pulling out of the driveway at 945 am SHARP to take us to the train station so I had better get to sleep! :) Good night from Jersey!