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!