Rollercoasters and shopping... just your normal Tuesday in Sweden

So yesterday we went to Liseberg! For my American buddies, Liseberg is a theme park similar to a Busch Gardens or 6 Flags depending on your location. We all (Anzo, little Oliver, Lina, Elise, and I) hopped a morning train to Göteborg. When we got there we realized that we had a little over an hour before the park opened. So what were we supposed to do with time and the largest shopping mall in the Nordic countries right in front of us? That's right, we went shopping. Although it wasn't without a purpose. We were on a mission: Anzo needed a dress for an upcoming wedding she's attending. So we headed out into the streets of Göteborg with an eye on the prize. Anzo and I went into a couple of her favorite stores in Göteborg while Lina and Elise checked out a couple of others. I have to say, Anzo has Pretty darn good taste. I fell in love with a number of outfits that I saw in the stores she took me in to. However, being as it was not me we were shopping for (oh and the fact that I wouldn't be able to eat for the rest of my stay here in Sweden had I bought them <-- that's how many there were haha!) I decided I'd better not purchase them. And then there was Mango. In this store I found the cutest jacket! Being as I've been searching high and low for a jacket since before I left the beach for Sweden and the fact that the jacket I'm currently rocking was bought for me when I was in the 7th grade (that's right, when I was 12!!!!), I went ahead and bought it. No worries, it was half off ;). I really love the fashion styles over here! They're so comfortable, yet so me!!! Anywho, Elise also found herself a dress here as well. Oh and Anzo did too! Well, after we figured out how to wear it. Fashion here is so comfortable, but confusing at times haha! By this point, we had long used up that hour we had to kill, and we headed toward where Jan (Anzo's fiance) works to grab lunch with him before we ventured into the park. Lunch was amazing. I seriously have not had a bad meal yet in Sweden. Being the typical American, I opted for the buffet instead of a sandwich. On the buffet, there was a salad bar with the most amazing pesto pasta ever. I dare say it rivaled the pesto pasta of Prima (my favorite thing in the salad bar there). They also had the best mushrooms I've ever tasted. I have no idea how these were cooked (tasted part grilled but part sauteed at the same time... strange but great combination), but they were INCREDIBLE! I could have had a meal of just mushrooms, that's how great they were. Oh but right, the main course. Sorry, couldn't get over the pesto pasta and the mushrooms haha. But yeh, the main course was roast beef. Now I'm not a huge roast beef fan at all, but this was incredible. Arby's ain't got nothin' on this place! A little combination of that, the mushrooms, some more pesto pasta, this delicious corn dish thing, and some veggies and what a lunch I had. It was all concluded with tiramisu. No, really it was. I won't lie though, I was a little nervous to have eaten such a large meal before heading into the theme park where my stomach was sure to be jostled by the rides. But no worries, Mr. Tummy did just fine :) The theme parks here operate a bit differently than it does in the States. Back home, you pay a flat rate for admittance and then have access to all of the rides within the park. Here, you pay an admittance fee and if you'd like to ride the rides, you have two options. You can a certain number of tickets (the tickets require a given number of tickets) or you can buy a day pass. Well since I'm a roller coaster and ride enthusiast it just made more sense to buy the day pass. It all ended up equaling about what it would cost to get into a theme park in the States. Once we were armed with our wrist bands, we wasted no time. We made our way to the first coaster the 'Lisebergbanan.' Being an idiot tourist I, of course, took my camera with me. Whatever, it didn't have any serious drops or upside down parts. Plus my camera was kind of tied to me. Anywho i think I made Lina really nervous with my camera as I was still taking pictures as we approached the drop haha!. These are two of the pictures I took while on the coaster :). I won't lie, this was probably one of the longer coasters I've been on. It wasn't nearly as intense as a coaster you might find back home, but it still went pretty fast and was a ton of fun! Next, we made our way to two of the rides that were reminiscent of Drop Zone at KD for my Mary Washers. The first of the two shot you up and then you fell and bounced up and then fell again... TONS of fun :) The second was a tower that drug you to the top then let you plummet. Again, SO MUCH FUN! Sorry, no pictures from the actual rides... figured it probably wasn't the best idea so I left it with baby Oliver. Then there was the log flume. Camera stayed with Oliver here too. We had it all strategically planned so that we wouldn't get too terribly wet... and then it backfired. Poor Lina got soaked. Elise and I just had small spots, but Lina was drenched. As funny as it was, I did feel a bit bad for her, haha! But it's all good we made our way to another ride. I sat this one out. As much fun as it looked, it spun annnnd my tummy is not a fan of the spinny rides. Anywho, the next coaster we made it to was the 'Kanonen' It was a pretty neat coaster. It shot you out with a starting speed of like 70mph (I'm guessing. I didn't do the Km/hr conversion for this haha) but right before it did so, it pushed you forward and then rocked you back to the sound of a heartbeat... it was AWESOME! The next coaster was my favorite of the day and honestly maybe one of my all-time faves. It was called 'Balder' and it was an old wooden coaster that had a 70% drop at it's first hill... SO MUCH FUN! It was fast and had blind drops! oh wow... to me, it was the epitome of what a roller coaster is supposed to be! You know, the twists and turns, the drops that seemingly come from no where, the moments where you think you're going to be decapitated by a low lying beam; ya know just your normal coaster :P... The next ride we rode was the 'Kållerado.' In case you can't tell from the name, it was actually modeled after the Colorado River!!! Little piece of home here in Sweden, I guess haha! It was A LOT like Roman Rapids back in Va. The whole point of this ride was to get soaked. Thankfully, Lina got the brunt of the water again. Sorry buddy. It was all good though. We hopped back on Bilder and dried off. One thing that I noticed was a bit different in the Swedish theme park as compared to parks back home was the fact that while we play games to win gigantuan panda bears, they play games to win an incredibly large chocolate bar or bag of chips. You put your coins down (2-3 SEK or 10-15 SEK) on a set of numbers or a single number. A huge wheel is spun and if the wheel lands on your number you win. Simple enough, right? Ummm except that the wheel hated me. Well it hated Anzo more, but still haha! She and little Oliver played while we rode rides, and it wasn't until the very last time of playing that she won. Poor gal didn't even win one of the ridiculously large ones either haha... That's ok. Next time Anzo.

Once the day was coming to a close, Cece met us at the park and we left soon thereafter to go snag some dinner before catching our train. We had dinner (again amazing!) at this little French cafe. The prices were great and the portions were large (just what an American dreams of, right? haha) I had a chicken and bacon sandwich on a French baguette with goat cheese. Now honestly, if I were reading that I'd probably gag a little. I don't know that those 4 things sound great together, but they sure did taste great together!!! :) All in all, it was a fantastic day!

oh yeh... about my blog

Soooooo I won't lie. I have totally forgotten about my poor little blog in the past 3 weeks... WAIT! 3 WEEKS?!?!?!?! oh gosh... hm... I stink at this haha! I guess I've just been so focused on living in the moment here in Skövde that I've totally forgotten to fill you all in on it! Sorry... Well basically all you need to know is that life here in Sweden is amazing!!!! But since I know you're nosey Americans :P I'll go ahead and fill you in on some of the major events :).

So waaaaay back on June 15, my roommate Elise and I decided to be ultimate tourists and take a day trip to the second largest city in Sweden. That's right, I went back to Göteborg!!! I flipping love that city!!! Anywho, we hopped on an early train that morning so we could go ahead and get our day trip started. We could not have asked for better weather. When we got off the train, we made our way into the town square where there was a ceremony in which the Göteborg was commissioning a new plaque to commemorate the good relations between Sweden and Britain during WWI. It was actually really neat to see army representatives from both countries present in their traditional garb. After we watched the ceremony for a couple of minutes, we made our way to Paddan for a paddle boat tour of the city. I think I can say that I might be the biggest tourist to ever have visited Göteborg being as this was my second time on this tour. It was actually kind of funny. I was able to fill Elise in on things that our tour guide left out that I had learned from another tour guide on my previous tour, haha! I was actually glad we did the tour. After my last trip to Göteborg, I was actually upset with how some of my Paddon tour photographs had turned out. This time, I knew exactly what I wanted to get pictures of and in which settings. Nerdy and incredibly touristy, but so me :).

Once our tour ended, we decided to have a quick bite to eat then head over to the botanical gardens. We ate in this super adorable open air cafe that was on this less busy road right next to some shopping venues. It was so Sex and the City meets Sweden. As we sat there eating our delicious sandwiches and sipping on our sparking water, it hit me: I need to find a job where I can do this EVERYDAY! haha!!! After we had eaten, we headed toward our appropriate tram stop only to wait 20 or so minutes and never once see a 7 tram. Since it was clear that we either had the wrong tram number (which we were assured by several bystanders we did not) or that this particular tram was not the most reliable, we opted to simply do some exploring on our own. As we were walking we noticed some stadium lights off in the distance. Convinced that these were lights to a baseball field, we walked toward them. A mile later, we realized that it was a stadium, but it was not a baseball stadium. We had walked to Ullevi, the soccer stadium in Göteborg. Disappointed, we walked back into town and took some time to look at the local art museum. It was far too gorgeous out to waste such beautiful weather so we did not actually go into the museum, but rather admired it from outside :). Next, we walked to the harbor. It was so relaxing. We just sat there and watched the boats bob in the water. After walking all over creation, we were HUNGRY! We found this great little restaurant with steak on the menu. We were both craving red meat since neither of us had had it in a long while. I'll be honest, it might have been one of the best steaks I've ever eaten! It was cooked to perfection. I'm serious. No exaggeration! It was cooked precisely how I asked for it. It was served with an avocado cream and some boiled potatoes. It sounds so incredibly simple, but together it was AMAZING! We concluded our adventure in Göteborg by snagging some of the ice cream we had seen so many people throughout the day enjoying. Now we know why we saw so many people snacking on it! It was fantastic! We ate our ice cream on a hill by the canal. It really was such a great ending so such an adventurous day! :)

Four days later, Elise and I went with Malin, Maria, and Lina to national team camp in Enköping. This was a day for two of the national teams (ages 22 & under, and 16& under) to get together, bond a bit, and work on some of the mechanics of the game as a team. It was also a chance for Elise and I to meet the Enköping American players :). During the AM session, Elise and I along with Shannon and Kristen (our Enköping American buddies :) ) helped the national team members with the mechanics of their hitting, bunting, and base running before breaking for lunch. For lunch, we went to this nice little eatery not far from the field. The food was good, but the thing I loved most about this place was the music they were playing. It was AMERICAN COUNTRY MUSIC!!!! Sigh, I had a very hard time not singing along or dancing to some of my favorite songs. Figured I didn't want to see toooooo American haha! During the PM session, we actually played a game. Both Shannon and I, along with some of the Swedish players, got to pitch. This was actually really nice since everyone got to see live pitching :). Overall, it was a really great day of softball, chit-chat, and team bonding... both within the national teams and across teams :).

So y'all may be wondering what exactly I do with my time when I'm not traveling to gorgeous cities or having a blast playing/coaching ball. Well, I'll be honest. It's kind of a rough life. I set my alarm for 10 AM, put on suntan lotion, and head to the lake to play some beach volleyball. This is such a tough existence! :P HAHA! In the past two weeks, I have played more beach volleyball in the past two weeks than I did my entire time living at the beach! Nearly every morning, we head to the lake to play with Juha and some of his work friends. They've all been so nice and so inviting, it's just been such a great time! We jam out to some very Swedish tunes (and an occasional American song!) and just have a blast. It is SO much fun! I honestly can't believe this is what I'm doing with my life. Three months ago, I was sleeping maybe 2-3 hours a night, working 3 jobs, working an internship, and going to school full time. WOW! The times have certainly changed, but it is such a welcomed change of pace!!! This is exactly what I needed after the past two years! :)

So there is one more HUGE event that I should probably tell you about. It's a little thing folks here in Sweden like to call Midsommar. Ok so it's actually a really BIG DEAL. In fact, it's like the second (some would say the first, but Wikipedia says second) most celebrated holiday in the nation. It's full of incredibly rich tradition, great food, oh and AMAZING company!!! It's a holiday to celebrate the summer solstice (aka day with the longest amount of sunlight). It starts with a lunch where it's tradition to eat herring, potatoes au gratin with sour creme, boiled potatoes, and strawberry cake. It is also tradition to sing Swedish songs and take shots of Swedish Snaps (schnapps for us Americans). This might have been the most foul tasting thing I have ever drank, but as I was told, "You don't have to like it, you just have to do it." After we had eaten our lunch, most of the gals and I went on a walk in search of our Midsommar flowers. Our Midsommar flowers were to be seven different kinds of flowers that we would pick and place under our pillows that night. As a result, we were to dream of our husbands. Sounds silly, but it was so much fun going on a hunt for these flowers! We also picked flowers to decorate the Midsommar pole and our Midsommar wreaths both of which represented fertility. Making our wreaths was a process and a half, haha! Cece made mine while Emelie made Elise's. I think mine ended up looking a bit more 'traditional' haha! Anywho, we decorated our wreaths with some of the flowers we had picked, but made sure to keep our Midsommar flowers separate :). We also decorated the Midsommar pole with the flowers we had picked. As the afternoon progressed, we played some Swedish summer games, with a twist. Later in the evening, we grilled out and sang some more traditional songs. As it got cooler out, we moved the party inside and had a sing along while one of the guests played his guitar. There were also a number of people playing Sing Star upstairs. The clashing sounds was actually pretty comical. We'd be singing songs with a guitar accompaniment downstairs while people jammed out to the Spice Girls upstairs. AWESOME! haha. We finally made it back home around 445 in the morning. Needless to say, Midsommar was quite an event and one I'm sure to visit for in the future!

School and Softball

When I was younger whenever I had to say school and softball in the same sentence, it would have been said with a bit of a sad intonation. For example, "I would love to come to your sleepover, but I have softball," or "No, I can't go to the movies, I have school." Here in Sweden, however, it's more like, "I would LOVE to come to your high school graduation!" or "Going to a local school to teach softball? AWESOME!" It seems that things are so much more exciting in Sweden :)

The past couple of days have been an absolute BLAST! It all started in a whirlwind on Friday. Elise landed in Stockholm where I picked her up from the train station. We had to haul it to our next train so that we could make it back in time for Lina's graduation that same day... So there we were: me all dressed up for the graduation and Elise having just landed not even an hour before hand sprinting through Stockholm Central with bags in tow. I'm sure we looked something like Phoebe from F*R*I*E*N*D*S when she runs. Whatever, we made it to our next train and were able to get back to Skövde with nearly an hour to spare before graduation.

The Swedish custom for graduation is SO DIFFERENT than how we celebrate in the States. In the States it's a somber ceremony with a great deal of customary events with a bunch of objects we've never seen before and really have no interest in ( I mean seriously, who knew their college had a scepter and a Presidential collar before graduation? I sure as heck didn't!) Here in Sweden, there are definite customs, but they're so much more practical! Practical in that isn't graduation supposed to be a celebration? Well here in Sweden it's just one big party! On the graduation day, the graduates are given a champagne brunch. No, underage drinking is not encouraged. The drinking age in Sweden is 18. The champagne brunch starts super early at like 545-6 am. I saw several of the graduates walking the streets of town with their shopping bags where a mysterious clanging noise was emerging (still confused as to what that was ;) ) on my way to the train station that morning. I'm not sure at what time this occurs, but there is an event in the local church. From what I could gather, it's similar to our Baccalaureate, but distinct at the same time. After this, the students report to their school where they will run out as a class. Now, note that classes here in Sweden are a little more complex than ours might be. When we think graduating class, we think ODU 2010, for instance. Here, there are programs within the class. Lina, for instance, was a member of the leadership program. There are also programs for students who want to become welders, beauticians, computer programmers, carpenters, and SO MANY others. Each class is announced as a unit and they then run out of the school as a means of recognition. After all of the classes have been announced, each class proceeds to the float they have built. For my Southern followers, think Homecoming meets dance party. These floats are decked out in traditional Swedish style. There is a certain tree that is on each float signifying something... not really sure what, but I KNOW it's tradition :). Also, each float is complete with a SOUND SYSTEM... I'm not talking your 80's style boom box either. These speakers were gigantuan!.. oh and loud too. In fact, it was like a concert on wheels. Most of the younger spectators wore ear muffs, if that gives you any indication as to how loud it was.

It was so much fun! Each float was pulled by either a small semi or a tractor (everyone thought it was hilarious how excited I was by this... but seriously, I used to get stuck behind them on my way to school... it was like a little piece of home here :) ) So as they paraded through town, they danced and drank on their floats. Oh, did I mention they did everything I've mentioned above with approximately 20 lbs worth of things hanging from their necks? Everything from bouquets of flowers, champagne bottles, stuff animals, blow up champagne bottles, signs, and in Lina's case a softball :). I'm surprised most of the people didn't face plant from all of the things that were around their necks. It was such a great day that was capped off by going to Lina's house for a small get together with her family and the softball girls. We ate a smörgåstårta which is a sort of traditional dish people have when there are a number of people expected. I think it's kind of like our meat/cheese trays... only in this dish, everything's together. It's kind of like a layer cake with meat and veggies between the layers of bread. There is also a sauce that comes on it. It tastes a little like Mayo, to be completely honest. Everything was so good! I'm so glad I got to see Lina graduate... Proud of ya little buddy! :)

Fast forward to Monday... Elise, Lina, and I went to a local school to teach the kids about softball. Kids, I make it sound like they're 5-8... no, they were 15/16. To keep things simple, we played slowpitch and gave them basic rules like get to the base before the ball and you're safe, 3 outs, and catch the ball in the air and it's an out. We tried to avoid the confusing rules such as pitch count/walks/strike outs and things like that... Most of the students seemed to really enjoy it, even though even the basic concept of the game was foreign to them. I think that's something that put both Elise and me in awe. In the States, if you hand a kid a bat, a mitt, and a ball, it seems almost instinctual that they'll know what to do with it even if they aren't necessarily the best at it. Here, even the simple rules seemed difficult to understand. It made me realize some of the cultural and athletic preferences that perhaps I had been taking for granted back home. It was so much fun seeing people enjoy a sport that I've been enjoying for 75% of my life for the first time! The competitive spirit between the teams was hilarious to watch. I now can understand some Swedish smack talk! haha! it was great! The second day we were there, Elise, Lina and I challenged one class to play all of them vs us. It was so funny! Some of the kids found out that we were fastpitch players and after Lina had explained the difference to them, they wanted to see what a fastpitch pitcher does. As Elise managed the 7 other fielding positions on her own, Lina caught me as I pitched to some of the kids. It was like softball a la carte for them. "A hard pitch!" "A medium pitch!" "Make it an easy one." were allll phrases that I heard from the kids. They were having a blast! Made me miss my kids back home. Even though I could tell they were having a ton of fun, I saw something that perhaps summed up their attitudes toward the game. I saw some of the kids juggling the softball as though it were a soccer ball. It was an unmistakably clear statement: Soccer First.

The Sandlot: Castle edition

Yesterday was SO MUCH FUN! It started off simply enough with cleaning the dungeon then heading to the train station so I could buy my ticket to Stockholm on Friday where I'll be picking up Elise (SUPER EXCITED FOR THAT!!!). After running a few other errands, Lina took me to Maxi (our local grocery... kind of like a Super Walmart) where we picked up supplies for a birthday surprise for Anzo. Since Maria, Malin, Lina, and I had already made plans to go to Maria and Malin's dad's company picnic to teach them about softball and help them play a game of slowpitch, we decided to get together before hand and make the cake then deliver it on our way out of town.

When we got back to the dungeon, we went ahead and started making the cake. It's much different than the birthday cakes we have in the states. It's a layer cake where the cake itself has a consistency of a mix between angelfood cake and shortcake. In between the layers of cake is a layer of jam, a layer of custard, and whipped cream. By the way, the whipped cream is nothing like Cool Whip or that stuff from the can. No, this is actual creme that is whipped by hand. Believe me, I DID IT! For 18 minutes (yes, we timed it) I whisked creme until it was in whipped creme form. My forearms have never been more tired! No worries, though. I came up with a whipped creme dance... Apparently if you make a fool out of yourself, time flies a little quicker ;). After we had made the custard and whipped the creme, Maria and Malin showed up and were able to help us with the rest. This is what out finished product looked like! This cake was SO GOOD! It was kind of like a mix between strawberry shortcake and what we generally think of as a regular cake. It was DELICIOUS... Seriously, one of the best cakes I've had. I think it was the whipped cream that made it so good, haha! We were able to surprise Anzo with her cake and presents (bubbles and some candy) before we made our way to the picnic.

Once we got to the place where the picnic was to be help, I was kind of stunned. It was in the middle of this gorgeous Swedish country side next to a CASTLE! Ok so the castle wasn't necessarily what we would think of when we hear castle as it did not have the Gothic or Medieval architecture we generally think of and it was a bit small, but it was beautiful nonetheless. After dinner the girls and I set up the "field." We had throw bases and cones to show them where the bases were. Lina then explained the rules and took everyone around to each base/position and showed them what they were to do there. The two teams had enough people for maybe three teams so we just had a standard infield and everyone else played in the outfield. Yours truly got to play first base! Maria pitched and Malin caught as Lina kept score. We forgot paper for the score, so we had to keep score on a roll of athletic tape :). Also, we didn't have enough gloves for everyone playing. As people switched from fielding to hitting, they would toss their glove to another player who was going to be int he field. It was so awesome seeing everyone having such a great time! Everyone was laughing and carrying on. It was just so much fun. It didn't hurt that we had this beautiful setting in which to play.