AMERICA comes to SWEDEN!

Ok soooo American didn't really come to Sweden, but if you would have been at the field this weekend, you would have thought it did! This weekend was the annual Billigslauget tournament here in Skövde. For my nonSwedish buddies, that's what the baseball tournament held on our field is called. There were two age groups. There were the under 12 age group (coach pitch) and the 13-15 age group (the cadets: kid pitch). For the cadets, there wer'e 4 teams and for the coach pitch, there were about 7 teams. I got to umpire the little guys games! They were soooo cute!!! Even though the age group was simply under 12, there were boys on the teams ranging in age from 12 all the way down to 5.

Not only did I get to hang out on a ball field all weekend long (which, if I may say, is a FANTASTIC way to spend a beautiful weekend :) ), but I got to be surrounded by ENGLISH!!! That's right! A number of the coaches and some of the kids playing were AMERICAN! It was amazing! Don't get me wrong, I love hearing Swedish and learning more Swedish every day, but to hear your own language in a foreign country where you barely ever hear it is just such a great feeling. The coaches addressed me in English- that was their first instinct haha :) I even had a chance to talk to some of the players in English which was so refreshing. Kids, understanding me! WEIRD. haha, but it was also nice to be able to use some of my Swedish to talk to some of the players who spoke little to no English. The atmosphere, for the most part, was just fun. It did take a turn for serious as the playoffs began, but even in those games, it was so nice to see kids from other teams cheering on those who were playing. Such comaraderie!

I was actually really impressed with some of the players I saw too. They were really great! Like Derek Jeter great.. ok soooo maybe not Jeter awesome just yet, but hey they were only 9 or so lol... so they stil l had time... but really, some of the plays I saw were Sportscenter quality. There was one kid who dove for a ball, caught it, flipped it out of his glove while he was still on his stomach, popped up to his knees, caught the ball, and threw the kid out at first... blew my mind! The future of baseball in Sweden is looking pretty good :)

As a way of capping off a very America in Sweden weekend, I had a delicous pizza from Prima... This weekend was great! Let's just hope the amazing weather carries into next weekend when we have to play!