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!
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