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 :)