My Swedish Adventure!

Örebro!!!

2010-09-28T19:51:00.002+02:00

Today I spent the day hanging out with my teammate, Lisa, in her home town of Örebro. This city has always seemed so adorable, or at least from what I could tell as I quickly whizzed past on the train. Lisa and I had been talking almost all season about when I might visit Örebro and I figured since my days here in Sweden are quickly coming to a close that I should to it SOON! She needed a break from schoolwork and I needed a break from packing: match made in heaven!

When I got off the train in Örebro I as concerned that I would have trouble finding Lisa since I don't have any money left on my phone and we hadn't worked out a meeting place. As soon as I turned to head down the stairs and over to the main station I was greeted with a "Flarg Flarg!" Haha it's a joke between Lisa and I... youtube F*R*I*E*N*D*S christmas in Tulsa and you'll see it. Anywho, after we met up, we headed toward the center of town. This city is so adorable! It has the charm and architecture of a little town, but nearly everything you could find in a major city. As we walked through one of the many town squares, Lisa showed me the statue of the King who was crowned right there in Örebro. Just beyond the King, I spotted a building that looked AWESOME! "Oh, that's our castle" you know... no big deal or anything! Just a CASTLE in the middle of town! And this wasn't some little house made out of stone they were calling a castle. This was a proper CASTLE! It was so neat! So we walked around the castle and even went into one part. The castle is used for a ton of practical purposes. There are offices and even classrooms that are used by the local high school in it. Lisa described these rooms as "normal classrooms with a castley twist to them" haha! What is a castley twist? Not sure, but I loved the description. There is of course, still the touristy part.

After walking through town a bit more, we went into the local church.... yes, another church! The Church of St. Nicholas was GORGEOUS! It's a medieval cathedral that was built during the 13th and 14th centuries. It had incredibly high archways that lead you to the altar at the front of the church. In the back of the church was a spectacular organ! It had to have had more than 100 pipes! Absolutely stunning!

Next we just walked around town and went in and out of a few shops... After we had done a little bit of shopping, Lisa and I decided it was time to have a lunch break. We went to her favorite cafe only to find that it was SUPER busy. Rather than wait for a table to open up, we opted to come back a bit later. From the cafe, we walked along the canal that runs through the city. It was so pretty! Little cobble stone paths to walk on and cute little benches to sit on, but of course we didn't sit down... we had too much to see! We walked along the canal until we got to the city park. The flowers in the city park garden were so bright and vivid! The flowers blooming were bright red, orange, and yellow, and the combination of all of these colors would make any gardener jealous.

After a quick stroll through the park, we walked into Örebro's open air museum called Wadköping. This part of town is comprised of some of the oldest houses in the city. It reminded me a great deal of Yorktown or Colonial Williamsburg. Only in Wadköping's case, these structures were original. I'm not sure all of them were, but at least the ones we walked in were. While most of the buildings are now occupied by small craft or hobby shops, some are actually lived in. The building we went in displayed how daily life might have been back in those days. It was pretty cool to see. Lisa being an awesome tourguide translated what I couldn't read for me haha!

By this time we were starving so we headed back to the cafe for a bite to eat. It was such a great lunch. Normally, I'm one to eat and move on, but just sitting there enjoying the food and conversation was so nice. I have no idea how long we sat there, but we just talked. It was so relaxing. After lunch, we walked to a few other stores, took a couple more pictures, and then walked to the train station.

Saying goodbye to friends you've grown so close to in the past 5 months is SOOO difficult. Thank gosh they make sad situations funny by making an awkward noise or saying something ridiculous... hahaha! Thanks for such a great day, Lisa! I'll miss ya buddy, but can't wait to see you in the STATES! :)

today in Skövde :)

2010-09-23T20:44:00.009+02:00

Today was such a great day! Now that softball is over, I have to find things to fill my days. In order to do that, I'm having to discover this town all over again. I'm finding things I didn't know existed and appreciating Skövde as a tourist once again.

Even though ball is over, I still get a taste of it here and there. This morning, I woke up and headed to the field to help Eddie, Jimmy, Juha, and Richard (some of the guys from our baseball team) with teaching some local students how to play softball. When I got there, I realized that these students were all a bit older and in the sports program at one of the local schools. I was running a bit late so by the time I got there, the students had already been broken into two groups. One group went to hit on the baseball field and one group stayed at the softball field to work on fielding. I stayed at the field to help with fielding and was actually kind of surprised at how quickly these students picked up on fielding and where to throw. After about 20 minutes, we switched to hitting. Here, Juha did front toss, Eddie caught, and I coached the students on how to improve their swings before they went up to bat. I was, again, pleasantly surprised at how well the students did and how quickly they picked up on my tips. After this, we brought both teams back together for a brief scrimmage. I think the guy were more into it than the students, haha! It was pretty funny to see them miss ground balls as the pitcher so their team could keep running haha!!! It was just a great way to start the day: Beautiful weather and softball :)

After a brief nap, I wandered into town to have a look around before meeting up with Kristian to get some last things sorted out. Next I walked across town to a thrift store Maria had told me about. My family and friends know how in love with thrift stores I am. Heck, one of my roommates senior year and I went to nearly all of the thrift stores in Fredericksburg and decorated our house. If I do say so myself, we did an AWESOME job! Also, I love collected strange and eclectic glasses and there is no better place to find them affordably than at a thrift shop. As I was picking through the shelves and racks, I ran into Eddie again who was at the grocery store that was attached. I love that feeling of being able to run into people I know in town. It makes me feel like a true Skövde resident. While I had hoped to find a teapot for my mother, which I did not find, what I DID find was a great souvenir for myself. I found two traditional snaps glasses with a Dalahäst painted on them. Given my love of strange glasses, I had to get them! :) Now just to figure out how to get tem home haha! Something that struck me as exremely different in this thrift store came on the back wall of the shop.. While most US thrift stores have a sports section complete with baseball mitts, cleats, maybe some old footballs and basketballs, the sports section in this thrift store was nothing but hockey and ice skates and hockey sticks. THAT'S IT! It just really drives home the differences in athletic preferences here in Sweden versus those back home.

After leaving the thrift store I had hoped to go for a run, but since my right leg and ankle were still swollen from London, I opted to just walked around town. As I was on my way home, a car honked at me and to my surprise I look over to see one of my teammates waving at me. Like I said, I just love being able to recognize people and being recognized by people in a town so far away from home. Thank you guys for making me feel so at home these past 5 months! :)

Minding the gap

2010-09-23T11:34:00.013+02:00

Hectic. adj. characterized by intense agitation, excitement, confused and rapid movement, etc. Yes, that is a pretty accurate way to describe the past three days. Um WOW! So I got back last night from a 3 day two night trip to LONDON BABY!!! Maria, one of my teammates, and I left early Monday morning on a train to Västerås to catch out flight to London. Even before we left, we knew that we really only had Monday evening and Tuesday to see the city so it would be a busy day and a half of site seeing. Well, as it turned out, we only really had Tuesday. The flight itself was good. It was just under 2 hours, and Maria and I made a new friend haha! I also learned that smoking is ok on planes as long as it's a certain type of cigarette... ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!?! I was so baffled by that. Anywho... We were set to land at 4pm Monday afternoon, which would have given us sometime to do some exploring. While we landed actually 5 minutes, I don't know that we had factored in the possibility of it taking 2 hours for me to get through customs. At Stansted Airport, and in other EU nations, the customs line is split in to two different lines. There is the European Union citizen line (Maria's line) annnnnnd everybody else (my line). When we got off of the plane, there were actually more people in the EU line than the other line, so I was thinking "ok no problem, we'll get out at the same time. Great!" Not the case... Maria made it through in a matter of 5 minutes... two hours later I walk through the gates I had been staring at for what felt like days. Next we had to figure out where the Stansted Express was. After a 45 minute train ride to Liverpool St Station, we had to figure out just where exactly our hostel was and the best way to get there. After navigating the tube (yes, they call it the tube) like pros, we made it to our hostel... Of course by this time, it's dark out. hm. Instead of letting that discourage, we opted to do a bit of shopping so we could focus on seeing the major sites of the city Tuesday.

We hopped on the tube and rode it to Picadilly Circus. This is kind of London's equivalent to Times Square although muuuuuch smaller in size. It has the bright signs and a ton of tourist shops. Here, we were search of some books and cds for Maria. You may wonder why in the world my friend would want to shop for books while in London. Books in Sweden are actually incredibly expensive in comparison to what they are in the States and in London, ESPECIALLY books written in English (which is what she was looking for). Cds are also very expensive in Sweden. So while Maria searched for her books, I set up camp on the 4th floor of Waterstone's: the Language and Culture section. You can take the girl out of linguistics, but you can't take linguistics out of the girl. It was actually really nice to just sit there and read some Jennifer Coates and Judith Butler. In one book I picked up, I actually found an article by one of my grad school professors, Dr. Janet Bing. Thousands of miles away from home, it felt like I was sitting back in the ODU library preparing for class. It was a great feeling!

After we had finished looking in the bookstore and Cd store, we made our way back to the tube and headed toward Big Ben. It was so bizarre climbing the stairs out of the tube and suddenly seeing one of the world's most iconic clock towers. Ok, I'll admit I actually didn't see it at first. I was the tired idiot who was taking pictures of one of the buildings behind it... but that was only because i was literally right in front of it... wait, that doesn't make it sound any better haha! Then Maria directed my gaze from straight in front of me to up and there it was! BIG BEN! :) It was such a spectacular sight to see all lit up at night. The gorgeous gothic architecture was lit up by a light that made it look gold. The touch of green at the top of the tower was also spectacular. Sigh... Next we walked across the bridge, oh you know on of the bridges that crosses the Thames! and got a great look at the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament all lit up :) We had to hustle since the tube stops running at midnight and it was already 11:15. Before we wentback into the tube, we stopped to see Westminster Abbey all lit up. It was gorgeous, although in stark contrast with the buildings immediately surrounding since it looked silver while the other buildings looked gold. I just LOVE the architecture!

Our first full day in the city started very early! We were up at 645 to get ready for breakfast at 730. We didn't even bother to sit and eat it at the hostel. We took our toast and jam sandwiches with us and hopped on the tube. We went right back where we had left off the night before. I now had the opportunity to see the same landmarks just after sunrise. My uncle, who has offered some awesom critiques of my photos, told me that I should try to shoot more at sunrise and sunset since it's a softer light. I think he's on to something. These buildings looked so amazing in the morning light! After what can only be called an insane number of photos of the London Eye, Maria and I made our way to Westminster Abbey. Even though she had been to London twice before, she had never been inside the Abbey. This church was amazing. Walking into it brought a tear to my eye. Since we were there so early, there weren't too many people which was great. We were able to experience the church on a more intimate level without as many people to dodge and walk through. After we had walked into one of the chapels, Maria and I decided to head back to the front desk to pick up one of the complementary audio guides... yes, we were those people! Even though we looked like little old ladies with our maps of the churches and our guided tour phone looking things, it was GREAT! I learned so much about not only the church and it's history, but also about those who are buried there and who have visited there.

As we walked around the church, we saw the graves and tombs of some of the most noted kings, queens, priests, scientists, and writers in English history. We saw the tombs of Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I, Henry the VI, James I, Richard I, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Rudyard Kipling... and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head! One thing that I thought was really neat about Poet's Corner (the place where most of the writers and composers are buried) was the fact that in some cases the autor's own words appear on their headstones. Also, the tombs the monarchs are buried in were so beautiful. It was so interesting to hear the care and effort put into creating these final resting places. We also were able to see the residence of the monks who currently live there as it is still an active church.

After we left the Abbey, we made our way to Buckingham Palace... Sadly, Mommom, I didn't see Harry so I couldn't tell him 1.) that you say hello and 2.) that ou want him to marry me. Oh well, maybe next time. Haha! For everyone else reading, that is honestly what my mommom told me to tell him! Is it any wonder why I love her so much?! I was rather disappointed by Buckingham. Here I was thinking I'd be able to keep up my series of awkward photographs with guards of royal palaces only to discover that the guards are kept fenced in! LAME! Oh well... I got a decent picture of a guard, looks like I'll just have to photoshop myself in, haha. After only a visit long enough to snap a couple of photos, we were off to our next destination: HARRODS!!!

Ok, being as neither Maria nor myself have money to burn, we avoided buying anything here. In fact, as we walked through the antiques section of the store, Maria whispered to me: "Don't touch annnyything." HAHA! Good looking out teammate! When we got to the glass section of the store she whispered a bit louder, "Don't even look at anything. It might break." BAHAHAHA! Awesome! Thanks Maria :) In all honestly, this store may be the most confusing place on earth. No really it's worse than a house of mirrors. Maria and I could never find what we were looking for and when we finally did we realized that we had been just a doorway away from what we were looking for 10 minutes prior haha! Anyways, after our grand Harrod's adventure, we made our way to St. Paul's Cathedral, but in traditional Maria and Casey fashion: we got lost in the courtyard and walked arrrrooounnd the church to find the entrance haha!

Another amazing church, this was the church the late Diana of Whales and Prince Charles were married. Looking around this church, I cannot imagine being married in this cathedral. It was so grand with all of its mozaics and domes. Again, Maria and I opted to be little old ladies and listen to the guided audio tour. This time we had headphones attached to an IPOD! it was crazy! We sat in the wonderful church and listened to all of the incredible historic moments that occurred here and even got to see some videos taken from inside the church during these moments. I appreciated that because it gave you an idea of how the church appears during formal events. For instance, I could imagine myself in attendance of Diana and Charles's wedding or Sir Winston Churchill's state funeral. We decided to skip ahead and forgo the crypt for the time being and head up to the whispering gallery and then eventually the roof... The whispering gallery overlooked the main dome of the church just above the high altar. It was an amazing view. When we got to the whispering gallery the attendant told us that if we wanted to go up to the next levels that we should do so soon since the church was closing to tourists in half an hour. Maria and I figured we had climbed 200 stairs already, what was another 358? So up we went! The stairs wound and wound and wound up progressively getting more and more narrow. We did get to see a crucial construction within the church. The main dome above the high altar is situated under a second arch. In order to support this second dome, a cone was constructed on top of the first dome. On the way to the top, we got to see this cone. Ok it's nerdy cool, but still cool haha! When we got to the top, it was the most amazing view of London. From this spot we could see EVERYTHING! The London Eye, Big Ben, the Globe, the London Bridge, the Tower Bridge, the Tower of London... everything a tourist could dream of seeing! After snapping away furiously that high up, it was time to head back down. The trip down the stairs was TERRIFYING! I didn't remember the stairs being that narrow. Even my baby feet had trouble hitting the stairs just right. Once we reached the ground, we made a beeline for the Millenium Bridge and then the Globe.

Since neither one of us were really interested in going into the theater, we snapped a few photos here and moved on. It was right about this time that my feet started screaming. Boy was I an idiot for not wearing tennis shoes. At this point in the day, I had been on my feet for 9 hours and felt every minute and every step. We made our way along the Thames (still so cool to say!) passing the London Bridge heading toward the Tower Bridge. By now, the sun was starting to set so the light on the Tower Bridge was IDEAL! Seriously, Uncle Harry is totally on to something haha! The pictures here turned out SO beautifully!!! After the Tower Bridge we stopped by the Tower of London and had a quick look around. We headed back to the hostel for a brief second so I could change my shoes, thank gosh! After that we headed back to picadilly circus to find something to eat. We ate at a Mexican restaurant, I guess my American eating habits are starting to come back full force! haha!

The next day started earlier than the one before. We headed to the tube, navigated our way to the airport where we did some light shopping. Maria found the book that she had had trouble finding for the past two days, and I found a gift for a family member and a book for me to read :)

When we got back to Sweden, we had a couple of hours to kill in Västerås before our train arrived. What did we do? We ate and shopped, haha!!! Gosh I'm going to miss small trips like this. You know, just going to another European country for a couple of days haha! What a great get-a-way!!! :)

My last practices

2010-09-15T22:06:00.003+02:00

So when I was in college, the last practices were always either the most fun or the most intense. I say that because if coach was trying to take it easy on us, we had a much more laid back attitude and just had fun doing what we knew how to do. BUT if coach was especially pumped up for Conferences or displeased with a performance we had, our practices were always CRAZY intense. At any rate, I always looked forward to the last practices of the season because everyone was on the same page aiming for the same goal and just enjoying the last chances we had to come together as a team.

Here in Sweden it's the same, but at the same time totally different. We are all coming together realizing that we only have a limited number of times that we will take the field together be it at practice or during a game. While I love that feeling of comraderie, it's a little bittersweet. I know that personally I only have one more practice with this amazing team and 2 possibly three games left to play. The most awing fact of it all is that of those 3 games, I will only pitch 1 due to the regulations placed on international players. While I obviously play my hardest where ever I'm asked to play, the circle is my home. Knowing that I only get to take the field as a pitcher one more time is so emotional. Is it the end of my career as a pitcher? HECK NO! I've still got all my wonderful students back home I get to pass pitching on to. Is it the end of my career as an active pitcher? I'm afraid so. Knowing that, I'm even more pumped to take the mound! Here are the two circumstances under which I'll take the field: should we lose the first game, I get the opportunity to pitch the game that will hopefully keep us in the championship and force a 5th game. If we win the first game, I will be lucky enough to take the mound and hopefully lead the Saints to a Swedish Championship. In either case, I am incredibly stoked to step on the field as a pitcher one more time!

Enough with the emotional mumbo jumbo, back to the topic at hand: practice! Today's practice was awesome, and not just because it was a great practice. We got to practice under a rainbow!!! :) Ok, call me a nerd, but when was the last time you practiced your favorite sport under a rainbow? It really as a great practice! Henke and Jimmy, two of our baseball players, and Mattias, the Swedish National Team coach, came by and helped us out today. Mattias took the outfielders and worked with them while Henke and Jimmy drilled the infielders. I just have to say that I am happy I don't have to play against those guys! Good grief do they hit the ball hard! But hey, they made sure we could field... now just to remember how to do that when we're playing... that's the trick!!!

SM finals round 1

2010-09-12T23:57:00.004+02:00

Today, we played in the first round of the SM Guld series (the national championship series) against Söder at Söder. Since we won the regular season play and advanced from the semifinals, we earned the home seed for the SM-Guld series. This morning was a rollercoaster of emotions for me. I hardly slept last night because I was getting so nervous. When I woke up this morning I was not well rested and anxious. I was a bit more on edge than usual. Thankfully my teammates were once again supportive and assured me that it would be great!

When we got to Söder, the emotions started really to hit me. This could be the last game I ever pitch. That's just such a weird feeling: to know that this could be the last time you take the field as a pitcher. At least this time I would be the one deciding it was the end and not some silly injury! haha :)

I pitched the first game of the day. In the SM finals, the American pitcher can only pitch the 1st and 4th games of the series. In the first game, I pitched alright. As the game went on, my pitches started working a bit better, and I was more affective at keeping the batters off balance. Söder started their second string pitcher so that their first string (a native Swede) would be fresh for the second game. We ended up winning the first game 11-4, I believe. It was a close game for the first few innings but then we started hitting the ball like we know how and the runs just kept coming.

The second game was a very different story. We were a little sloppy and unfortunately we paid the price. While it was an incredibly close game changing the lead nearly every inning, we lost the second game. It was a 1 run game the final score being 7-6... but I'm exactly sure of the score.

Losing the second game made everything a bit more real. We would have to pull it together and work hard to win this thing. I have no doubt that we are more than capable of doing so, we just need to show up and play like we know how. This week at practice is going to be crucial. But no worries, I know we can win this championship... we just have to play like a team.

Jag älskar hockey! Hocky! Hockey ! Hockey!

2010-09-08T23:06:00.003+02:00

For my non-Swedish speaking buddies, "Jag älskar hockey" translates into "I love hockey" in English. It also happens to be a Swedish song that I listened to more times than I care to count on the way to Holland haha! It's so catchy that hearing it once will have it in your head for daaayyyyys. I probably should have put that notice before I gave you the link, haha oh well. Happy Listening!!!

Ok so why am I writing about catchy Swedish tunes and hockey? It's because I got to see my first Swedish hockey game last night! My friends back in Ghent know just how obsessed I became with the Norfolk Admirals Hockey last season and how in love with hockey I became. But for everyone else, I'll tell you that I absolutely love hockey. It's just so different from any sport that I've ever played that I find it so fascinating. As I watched last night, I felt myself becoming enthralled in Swedish hockey. I sat there and watched it thinking, "Wow, it's the same, but so different at the same time." For starters, the rink is actually bigger than the ones we have in the States. Also, I know it's been a while since I've seen a hockey game, but it seemed faster and more aggressive here.

It was such a cool experience to sit there with one of my Swedish teammates and her dad and watch the game. I think one of my favorite things is that all of the calls they made were in English (such as icing, hooking, etc) So even though I couldn't understand the commentary, I could understand some of the calls :). Sadly, I did not take my camera with me... I think I'll be going to at least one more game... I will definitely have to pack it then :)

Relaxing day at the driving range- LPGA bound!

2010-09-07T23:15:00.003+02:00

Yes, you read that correctly. Yes, I meant to say driving range and not batting cage. Today, Anzo, Elise, Oliver, and I all went to the local country club to drive some golf balls. The weather was gorgeous, and I was looking to get out of the dungeon. But if I can be honest, I was not excited about golf. I am SO BAD!!!! Like really, I think there needs to be a requirement on driving ranges and golf courses that "you must be this good to play here." Not because they're pretentious and try to keep out the bad players, but for the sake of those players' dignity. Seriously, the last time I tried playing golf, the guys I was playing with let me drive the ball once... only once. Why only once? Because I line drived the ball straight behind me and onto a busy thoroughfare, that's why. I'm really that bad. As a means of trying to help me, they put me in a stall at the driving range and bought me a bucket of balls and coached my every swing. After shanking, slicing, and nearly breaking a couple of clubs because I decided to hit the ground instead of the ball, they decided I was a lost cause and I was then deemed the golf cart driver. Now putt-putt... ohh, I'll tear some putt-putt up. But legit golfing? ummm not so much.

Anywho, so we pull up to the driving range and I can just imagine how embarrassing this is going to be. Much to my surprise, I didn't suck too badly today! Call it beginner's luck, call it whatever you like, but I shocked the socks off of myself haha! Vast improvement over my last golf outing. I was hitting them, AND WELL (well some of them...). There were definitely some swings I wish people wouldn't have seen since I completely missed the ball (yes, I missed a ball that was just lying there), but thankfully we were the only people there... Phew, public embarrassment avoided! There were also so balls that I hit pretty poorly (ie they barely left the mat), but still, I had some 100 meter ones... THAT WERE STRAIGHT! I actually think I may have found a relaxing past time... Of course that's what everyone initially says about golf and then they find it to be the most irritating sport on the face of the earth. But really, I had so much fun!

After we golfed for a couple of hours, we went to Anzo's house that was nearby and had fika. For fika, we enjoyed delicious snicker's cake and elderberry drink. I feel so European just writing that haha! It was delicious. We also snagged a couple of our favorite recipes from her. Meanwhile little Oliver had his afternoon nap. When he woke up, he and I ran around the outside deck together. Yes, he's only 8 months old, but with a good grasp of your fingers, he is all about walking-- scratch that, running! We ran around outside for a couple of minutes before heading inside and running around inside too. When it got to the point where I thought my back was going to break, he got to sit in his walker. He then proceeded to chase me around Anzo's living room. He is such a happy baby! I tried snapping some photos of him in his walker, but he is far too fast and would run up to me before I was able to get the the picture. He thought my camera was the coolest thing, but as much as he wanted to play with it and as cute as he is, I had to keep my camera to myself haha! Today was just such a great way to unwind from a little bit of the craziness I've started to encounter with my preparations to head back home. Thanks Anzo!!! :)

AMERICA comes to SWEDEN!

2010-09-05T20:11:00.003+02:00

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!

Skövde to the finals!!!!!

2010-08-29T22:06:00.002+02:00

We're in it! We're going to the SM Finals! Today, we took on Sundsvall at home. Even though we've beaten Sundsvall 4 times this season, they are definitely not a team to be taken lightly. They have a number of players with a ton of talent and are definitely a team to watch in the upcoming years. Playing them is always a good time :)

Being as this was the semifinals, it was a best of three series. This means that the first team to have two wins would advance to the SM Finals.

In the first game, the Saints took the field with a force! We played great defense! It wasn't just in the field where we were on out A game. At the plate our bats were a force to be reckoned with. It was awesome! We actually ended the first game in 4 innings due to slaughter rule being invoked. We won the first game 12-2.

The second game was just as great as the first. Priya pitched so well and our bats stayed alive! Again, we ended the game only after 4 innings. The final score of the second game was 14-4.

a Day of shopping in Gothenburg!

2010-07-29T08:47:00.004+02:00

Today I returned to my favorite city in Sweden, Göteborg... again! I know I've said this before, buuuut I LOVE THAT CITY! Well today was less of a sightseeing, adventure day and more of a 'Casey's on a mission' day. With my trip to Prague approaching quickly, I am in desperate need of some shorts. It's super hot here in Sweden, I can only imagine how hot it is in Prague. So while we have stores here in Skövde, I haven't been able to find anything. PERFECT excuse to head to Göteborg for some shopping :)

With Northern Europe's largest shopping mall, Nordstan, (see how I just throw out little tourism fun facts,? haha!) there are a TON of places to shop in Göteborg... a number of which are not even in Skövde (justification haha) so clearly I had to go there to take a look around. Anywho, my teammate and friend, Marie, hopped on a train with me that morning as we headed to my favorite city and her favorite shopping place. When we arrived, it was ok weather, but a bit chilly and a bit overcast. As we all know, I hate being cold, so this was perfect shopping weather for me... We walked in and out of stores for hours with little to no luck... Since we were both kind of frustrated with our lack of findings, we decided to eat some lunch to refuel. We ate in Nordstan at a little Mexican restaurant. It was actually exactly what I had been craving for some weeks now. Soooo Yummy! :)

After lunch, we headed out into the streets of Göteborg to look in some of the stores around town... Marie hit it big finding everything on her list... me, on the other hand: not so much. I had absolutely no luck in finding a pair of shorts or any of the shirts I had hoped to find, but that's ok! I did find a souvenir for one of my amazing cousins. The weather cleared up and warmed up throughout the day so before we left, we did take some time to eat some of the amazing ice cream sold on the streets of Göteborg. We took it to a local park along one of the canals and enjoyed So outfit for Prague, or not, I had an absolutely wonderful time with a great friend in my favorite city! :)

It is, afterall, SOFTBALL season!

2010-07-25T22:12:00.003+02:00

So as much as I love to blog about everything but softball, I am, afterall, here as a softball player and it is, afterall, softball season. For that reason, I dedicate this blog (and this blog only) entirely to softball! Haha! :)

This weekend was weekend #2 that had two 2-game series in store for us. First up was an away trip to Söder. Söder is a town just outside of Stockholm and approximately 3.5-4 hours away. Since we had a haul in front of us, we all met up around 615 in the morning at the field. Despite the early wake up call, I was kind of excited because these games meant that we would get to play against two of our buddies, Tess and Jonna. I've gotten to know these two gals off the ball field and actually wasn't here for the first game of the season when Skövde took on Söder at home. Given this, I was excited to play against two of my friends. That and I knew the competition would be good :)

As we warmed up, we jammed out to some AWESOME tunes... Thank you SPOTIFY! In the first game, Tess and I started on the mound for our teams. The very first batter of the first inning, I walked. She ended up scoring and giving Söder the advantage early on. We battled and battled but had trouble stringing together hits. Finally, in the 6th inning, we scored to tie it up. Neither team scored in the 7th which meant only one thing: ITB baby!!! ITB stands for International Tie Breaker. For my friends and family less familiar with the sport, I'll go ahead and explain it. In the case of a tie afte the regular number of innings (7) have been completed, the 8th inning (and any subsequent innings) will begine with the last out from the 7th inning on second base. There is no special count on the batter, but just a runner on second. We were unable to score in the top of the 8th. This took us to Söder's at bat. Tess was first to bat with Jonna standing on second. Haha, really? I couldn't have written it any better. Tess bunted to move Jonna and was thrown out at first. Ok good, 1 down. Next came possibly the dumbest thing I've done on a ball field since I was 12 when I did the exact same thing. Next batter bunted, I picked up the ball, checked Jonna at third, and thought she looked way off the bag. I went to throw annnnnnd of course overthrew the bag. Söder scores. Skövde loses. I haven't been that upset with myself in a very long time. I sat there and beat myself up between games, during the second game, on the way home, and for the next week or so at practice. I walked the first girl who scored, then over threw 3rd base in an idiotic play that never should have happened. I just couldn't believe i had done something so dumb! My team was awesome as usual though. They ralied behind me after letting cool off and helped me realize that it was only one game in a string of many. They also reminded me that it's a team thing. We win together and we lose together.

With the ugliness of the first game behind us, we were able to come back and win the second game by a substantial margin. We hit, ran, and overall, just played harder. There was no way we were going to drop two! haha. It was great that we ended the day with a W (it made the ride home much more bearable). After the game, Lina, Elise, and I stood around chatting with Jonna and Tess talking about their upcoming visit to Skövde :) When we all piled back in the car, we headed home and started gearing up for the following day when we'd take on Enköping at home.

Welllllll while we were more than ready to play, mother nature was not ready to stop her crying. It rained all night Saturday soaking the field beyond recognition. We got to the field and almost immediately tried to restore it to playing condition, but the moderate to heavy rain that was falling was making that near impossible. We put tarps over the pitchers mound and home plate, and trashbags over the bases (yes, that's right trashbags) to try and keep some of the rain off of the field. We needed to play these games badly. We could not afford to lose these games because we had lost the day before and that would have forced a 3 way tie for first place in the league... So there we were all soaked to the bone in the locker room watching Annelie's puppy Doris run around after a tennis ball. Finally, the decision came. We would cancel the games for the day. We only had one option as to when we would be able to play them: the day after we return from Prague. A double header after a 26 hour bus ride? ooooh boy this was going to be great! hahahaha :)

Ok soooo there actually wasn't much ball that was played this weekend, well at least not nearly as much as there was scheduled to be. But I figured this may have been my only opportunity to write exclusively about softball... even though I didn't exactly do that ;)...

Mariestad!

2010-07-23T00:22:00.004+02:00

So this week, I've decided to travel to the different cities around Skövde :). First, it was Hjo on Tuesday, and now Mariestad today! One of my lovely teammates, Marie, lives in Mariestad. When she invited me to come visit, how could I say no? I hopped on a bus that morning, that's right, I had to figure out the bus system haha! I like to think I'm becoming pretty ok at figuring out my way around Sweden :). So yeh, once I hopped on the bus, it was a 40 minute ride to the station in Mariestad which is situated on the largest lake in Sweden, Lake Vättern.

Once I got there, Marie picked me up from the station and after we had parked her bike, we walked around the town. We ducked in and out of shops just browsing the stores before having a fika at a local cafe. After our fika, we went to the Mariestad Cathedral. Ok well I have a thing for old churches and this one did not disappoint at all! It's well over 400 years old and has gorgeous Gothic architecture! I could have sat in that church all day... Thank goodness Marie is so sweet and didn't mind me staying there for nearly an hour snapping photos haha! After I finally managed to drag myself out of the church, haha, we walked down to the harbour and over to Crowned Princess Victoria's summer residence. It was beautiful... at least from the outside :). After that, we stopped by her house to say hello to her mom and to pick up the bikes.

One thing I've learned about Sweden is that it is not built for short people, haha. The jeans are made in regular and long - no shorts. Also, bikes can be very difficult to ride if they're made for someone taller than yourself. I looked hilarious trying to ride Marie's Mom's bike! But it's all good, because even though I looked funny, we didn't have to walk all the way to the lake. It was such a beautiful day to lay on the beach and go swimming. This time, the water was much warmer! Not quite the bath water temperature I'm used to back home, but still so much warmer than Lake Vättern. After we swam for a bit, we dried off in the sun before heading back to Marie's house to drop of the bikes.

Next we went to another old church, the Church of Leksberg. According to the pamphlet we picked up, the church was built in the 14th century possibly earlier. Since it was built, the church has undergone several rennovations. So many, in fact, that not much of its original structure still exists. Regardless, it was a gorgeous church to look at. We weren't able to go into this like we were the other one. We did, walk around the grounds for a bit, though. On the grounds, is a statue from the Bronze Age!!!!! I think that's pretty indicative of this church's deep roots. The headstones in the cemetary dated back several hundred years including several that were so old we couldn't even read.

After we left the church, we went back to the harbour to have gelato and ice cream with two of Marie's friends. We couldn't stay long since I had to catch my bus. It was such a great day in Mariestad, but I had to head back to Skövde because some of the girls were getting together to go bowling!

When I got back to town, I had to ride my bike as quick as I could back to the dungeon, shower, and be ready for Lina to pick us up. It was such a great time! Lina, Elise, Amanda, Priya, and I all headed to O'Leary's for some good ol' fashioned fun! It actually ended up being cosmic bowling night at the bowling alley! While we were bowling, Juha and some of his buddies showed up. After we finished our games (my score was not as terrible as I would have thought; think I would have made my Poppop proud :)) we just hung around the restaurant/bowling alley and talked and watched baseball... Honestly, I couldn't have asked for a more relaxing and fun day!!!!

I Love Hjo!!!

2010-07-20T17:58:00.003+02:00

Today, Lina, Elise, and I decided to take a day trip to a town not too far away to visit the pool there. I know it sounds kind of silly, but they wanted to go to a pool other than the one in Skövde, and I wanted to see a new place, so it worked out just fine :). Hjo (pronounced 'you' hence the I LOVE HJO title... ok I'm not that creative haha it's the town's slogan) is only about 25 minutes away by car. It's a small harbour town that sits on Sweden's second largest lake, Lake Vättern. It was absolutely beautiful here. The scenery is unreal! As you look out over the lake, you can see some small mountains off in the distance. It's like something out of a story book! Not to mention that the pol is right there in the harbour next to the lake. So as you swim in a pool, you can enjoy the amazing scenery around you.. look at me sounding like a tourist book now... sheesh.

So while Lina and Elise sunbathed by the pool, I took my camera and went for a walk around town. The town square was much smaller than that of Skövde. There was a small place for folks to sit in front of the church (which was beautiful, by the way) and some shops and restaurants around the square. I took some time to walk up and down some of the streets adjacent to the square as well. The houses were so colorful! It really did remind me of some of the bungalows I might see back in Virginia Beach. While the colors may be reminiscent of the beach, the styles were something entirely different. Some of them were so quaint and quiet while others were enormous! I guess that's to be expected in a scenic town haha! After I had done some adventuring, I wandered back to the pool. I wanted to see what the lake was all about though. So I took my camera with me and walked down to the beach that was right next to the pool. THAT REI MINDED ME OF HOME! The small waves lapping up on the beach was just so relaxing... I ended up just laying on my towl and taking a nap :) Not before taking some pictures, of course. I made sure to take pictures of my feet in the lake and pictures of me standing in the water... Sounds pretty easy, right? WRONG! That water was frigid!!! This lake is a bit deeper than Vänern and so the water temperature never gets warm. The water was around 15 degrees Celcius, which is COLD! Maybe in the mid 50s Fahrenheit? So yeh getting in the water waaaaas rough! But I did it! Anything for a good photo, right? haha! I took a number of them... on self timer of course... the poor man on his towel next to me must've thought I was crazy running in the water smiling, running out of the water, looking at my camera only to do it all again... SEVERAL TIMES! At any rate, it was an incredibly relaxing day on the sand next to Lake Vättern! :)

2 Days, 2 Cities, 4 Games

2010-07-18T23:43:00.007+02:00

I never thought I'd be so excited to see the dungeon. It's 11:45 pm and we've just gotten home from our away series weekend. I'm in no shape to blog at the moment, but will def be back in the morning to tell you all of the super awesome things that happened this weekend! Goodnight from Skövde!!!! :)

Ok now that I'm well rested, let's give this a go! Like I said, I don't think I've ever been so excited to see the dungeon. Since our games for Saturday were so far away, we decided to leave Friday evening. The drive to Sundsvall was very long. It was about 8.5 hours to get there so leaving Saturday morning was DEFINITELY not an option haha! We took a van and a separate car. Believe it or not, the ride up wasn't that long and it was a TON of fun! :) On the way to Sundsvall, I had a two hour Swedish lesson from two of the youngest members of the team Malin and Sofia. I was going through the vocabulary in my Swedish book and asking for pronunciation help. Turns out, some of the definitions the book offers are a little different than how a native Swede would use the word. So as we drove, they were helping me with pronunciation, corrected some of the definitions or at least clarified them for me, and even helped me put together some sentences. Emelie and Priya got in on the action, too! When I would say something or ask something in English, they would say it in Swedish then make me say/ask it in Swedish haha! After my intense Swedish lesson, we had a pretty awesome dance party in the van. Video was taken lol! It was so much fun. It was the epitome of what a road trip should be! Awesome company, awesome dance moves, and awesome conversations! LOVE THIS TEAM! :)

Once we got into Sundsvall, it was incredibly late so we all got our hotel room keys and headed to our rooms. the rooms were actually really nice!!! They were so much bigger than the rooms I had stayed in in Stockholm! Even though it was roomy and gorgeous, it was an interesting set up. For starters, the bathroom door was frosted glass that you could totally see through when the light was on... kind of unnerving haha! Also there were two beds, but they were RIGHT next to one another as if to form one bed. It was different, but comfy. Since we were exhausted at that point, we didn't think too much of it and went straight to bed.

The next morning we had an amazing hotel breakfast and then headed toward the field... but of course not without a few quick snapshots in town :P. In the first game, our bats just couldn't be stopped. We hit the ball so well!!! In the second game, I made my debut as a center fielder... it went ok, haha! I was so nervous! I haven't played outfield since I was like 15, and even then it was Rightfield, never center! I caught a fly ball and nearly threw someone out at home :). The second game was a little closer than I think the team may have liked, haha. Both games were well fought by both teams. Nevertheless, we were fortunate enough to take home two Ws from Sundsvall. At the game, the umpire in the field was actually an American baseball player from the Sundsvall team. Turns out he's from a town just 40 mins from where my family lives in Jersey. Pretty neat! After a good American chat with him, Elise and I made our way to our rides. It was off to Duckie's cabin for the night before our games in Leksand.

We arrived at Ducki's cabin called Perhansbodarna around midnight. To my surprise, it wasn't a single cabin, but rather several small cabins. We walked into the cabin in which most of us were staying and it was unlike anything I had seen before! It looked like a museum!!! There were two things that were a bit different than most living quarters: no bathroom and no running water. We brushed our teeth in the kitchen of another building on the property and went to the bathroom in an outhouse. That's right, an outhouse! :) Ok, it wasn't nearly as bad. It wasn't like a hole in the ground or anything. I mean it was an outhouse, but it was a classy outhouse ;). Anywho, after we got over the shock of having to use an outhouse in the middle of the night with no lights, we settled into our bunks. Yep BUNKS! But again, these bunks were very different than the bunks I've seen before. It was actually kind of unfortunate for my taller teammates. The house we were staying in was nearly 200 years old and not built for modern height. Of course I fit fine, but like I said, my taller teammates had issues. We setlled in for a good night's sleep after plugging in our cell phone and Ipod charges... I felt kind of hippocritical, but I just kind of laughed at the irony of it all and went to bed.

The next morning, we woke up to a gorgeous day on a lake. In fact, several of the girls went for a morning swim. We ate the groceries we had bought in Sundsvall the day before for breakfast. Once we had all gotten ourselves together, packed up the van, and after I took a quick photo shoot of the grounds and buildings, we headed toward Leksand for double header number two of the weekend. The drive there was so gorgoues! I learned a lot about the area from Duckie, who sat right next to me. The red and houses with the white frame is a traditional Swedish style house in this area. Between the adorable housing and the amazing views, I have a hard time figuring out why anyone would ever leave this area!

When we got to Leksand, we warmed up like we normally do, but I could feel the game from the day before... I was so sore!!! It took some extra warm up time to stretch everything out, guess I'm not 16 anymore haha!!!! My performance both on the mound and in left field were not my best. Thank gosh for such an amazing team who rallies behind one another. There were actually several things that went wrong in this game. In the first game, Sofia was hit by a ball in the outfield on the wrist and was out for the rest of the day. In the second game, Lisa fouled off a pitch into her nose. Thankfully it wasn't broken!!!! It was still so scary! When that happened, Sofia had to go back into the outfield. Unable to throw the ball, she still had to bat! We looked so pitiful, but thankfully, we had teammates that picked us up and played incredibly well!!! Thanks guys!!! We took home two more Ws from Leksand :) Four games and four wins... WAY TO GO SAINTS!!!!

A day in the life!

2010-07-16T10:46:00.004+02:00

So I figured since none of you guys get to actually live a day with me here in Sweden, I would dedicate an entire blog entry to what I might do in a day just to give y'all an idea of what I'm really up to :). Well take for instance Wednesday this week.

Bright and early at 9:15, my alarm went off. Rough, I know haha! I moseyed into the kitchen and ate my delicious Crunchy cereal. I'm seriously addicted to this cereal. It's delicious, and not terrible for you, and of course NOT AVAILABLE in the States! I may go through withdrawal. It's a granola cereal with yogurt clusters and either apple bits or strawberry bits depending on which type I buy. It's seriously so good! I've joked with my teammates about how they're going to need to send me Crunchy when I go home. They think it's cute and funny. I think it's cute and funny that they think I'm joking haha! Anywho, after I devoured my super delicious breakfast, I slapped on some sunscreen and waited for Lina to show up.

Once she arrived, we headed to the little ICA (our grocery store) right by our apartment to pick up cookout supplies (i.e. hot dogs, buns, and nectarines). Rumor had it that we were going to grill out at beach volleyball that afternoon. Armed with our delicious meal, we headed to the lake. Here we met up with our volleyball buddies Juha (a member of the Skövde baseball team) and his friends Marcus, Martin, Ace, Patrick, Frederich, and a couple others whose names are escaping me at the moment. For the most part, Lina, Elise, Juha, Marcus, Martin, and I are the ones playing daily, but it's been so much fun meeting and playing with new people! :) As everyone arrived, Lina, Elise, and I noticed that no one had a grill. Embarrassed that we had confused what someone had said to us, we actually hid our hotdogs under a bag LOL!... No worries, after a couple hours of playing, Juha left and bought disposable grills. THAT'S RIGHT! DISPOSABLE GRILLS! I don't know that I've ever heard of such a thing haha! At any rate, we uncovered our poor hot dogs and grilled out right there on the sand volleyball court beside the lake. It reminded me so much of being at home with my buddies. While it did make me a little homesick for my friends back in Ghent and the Beach, it also made me appreciate the amazing friendships I've developed since arriving here. After we ate, we played some more volleyball of course! haha!

As the time got closer to our practice time, Elise and Lina decided to head back to the dungeon to escape the sun that was particularly brutal that day. I opted to stay behind and play a bit more before going for a run. After my run, I headed to the field where I practiced with the team :). After practice, we headed to the restaurant where we get our meals, Prima. At Prima I generally get a salad, pizza, or calzone. The salads are AWESOME. Again, something I may suffer withdrawal from when I leave. I normally ask for the salad bar and get a salad consisting of lettuce, cucumber, mushrooms, corn, pesto pasta, a mix of kidney beans and chick peas, and a little bit of cheese. It's sooo good! The pizza is a bit different here than back home. Here, the crust is a bit thinner, but it's not a thin crust. It has the same texture as pizzas in the States, but is just a much thinner crust. It's good! :) Also, the calzones are not just filled with cheese like how they are back home. Instead, they automatically come with cheese and ham.

After our dinner, Elise and I walked back to the dungeon and changed into our swim suits. When Lina picked us up, we headed to another local lake for a night swim (mind you that the sun was still up since it doesn't set until about 11:15 pm). It was getting a bit chilly, but the water was still so warm! I was amazed at how clear the water was. It's unreal to me that I can walk into water up to my waist and still see my feet, haha! That is NOT something you get at VB! :) We swam for a bit and then decided that we should head home as it was getting late. Once we got home, we watched some American programming and then headed to bed.

It's a rough life here in Sweden, but someone's got to do it :).

All in a day or two in Stockholm...

2010-07-12T13:58:00.011+02:00

The fact that when people ask me, "So what did you do this weekend?" and I can respond nonchalantly, "Oh I just went to Stockholm," still makes me giggle A LOT! That's exactly what I did this past weekend!!!

Since the team had the weekend off from games, Elise and I decided to go play the part of tourists in Stockholm. We hopped on an early train Saturday morning and made our way to the largest city in Sweden :). Once we arrived in Stockholm Central, we made our way to the hotel our wonderful teammate Annelie helped us reserve at an AWESOME rate (thanks buddy!!!) only to find out we wouldn't be able to check in for another hour or so. While it stunk having to tote our bags, we decided that this would be a perfect time to find the Absolute Ice Bar where we had reservations for that night. Turns out, it was literally right behind the hotel we were staying in and in another hotel. While we were there, we asked the concierge desk about archipelago tours we had read about online. After we had gotten everything straight there, we still had about half an hour to kill before we could check into our room and drop our stuff off. Not wanting any time to go to waste, we walked about a block away from our hotel and took some time to sit in a park my mom and I had found while we were lost in the city during our visit. Being as it was incredibly hot, we didn't sit there for long haha! We made it back to the hotel right and thankfully they let us check in an hour early :)!

After we had dropped off our stuff, we decided that we should locate the dock where our boat tour the following morning would depart. We started off by taking a walk along the canal toward Gamla Stan (Old Town Stockholm). Before we crossed the bridge into Old Town, we took the opportunity to walk around within Stockholm's City Hall. The last time I visited, it was not open to the public. I am so thankful that it was this time! It was absolutely gorgeous inside. The old architecture mixed with the open air courtyard in the center of the building combined with the breathtaking view of Stockholm made this place AMAZING! Of course, we couldn't resist the photo ops! Once we had finished playing tourist here, we continued our walk toward Old Town. on the way, we stopped at a kiosk for the tour we wanted to take. We were told to venture to another dock since that's where our particular boat was going to take off from. It was right next to the Royal Palace so that worked out great since the next stop on our tour was the Royal Palace!

After we had taken in the sights of the Royal Palace and walked through some of the smaller streets surrounding, we wandered over to kiosk #2. The people here told us that we ACTUALLY wanted another dock and directed us there. It was actually very nice. Every person we were talking to about this tour was more helpful and informative than the last. We were getting a ton of information and a number of options! On our adventure, we got to see a part of Stockholm I hadn't seen before. The 3rd and final kiosk (the place where our boat was actually leaving from) was on a harbor behind all of the gorgeous hotels that overlook the palace. Even though we were probably still in a very touristy part of town, I felt as though it was a bit more residential since there seemed to be more apartment buildings and less hotels. It was incredibly beautiful! Finally, we had booked our boat tour and were free to do some more exploring.

On our way back to the hotel, we saw some sort of festival going on. Not wanting to miss anything, we ventured over to it. It turns out, it was the Stockholm Street Festival! Wow, we have been so lucky with our trips! First we see a commemorative ceremony in Göteborg and now we wander into the Stockholm Street Festival? AWESOME! When we walked up, there was a street act in progress. I think we missed something, because when we showed up all we saw were two British guys in British flag Speedos, top hats, socks, and sock straps. They were doing acrobatic maneuvers, so clearly clothing just wasn't an option HAHA! We took some time to walk around and take a look at what the vendors were offering. To be honest, there wasn't hardly any Swedish vendors and there really weren't that many. I would have imagined this event would be much larger than it really was. Nonetheless, it was very cool to experience:). On our way out of the festival, we did notice something VERY American. Ok we've seen McDonald's, Burger King, even a Pizza Hut, but this one rules all: TGIFRIDAY'S!!!! haha I couldn't believe it... It was hilarious!

That afternoon, one of our friends Jonna, from the Söder softball team, met up with us in town and had fika with us! It was so nice to see her again and so nice of her to come into town just to see us! I had a delicious chocolate cake that I can totally pronounce thanks to Jonna, but unfortunately cannot spell so that may be something I need to learn haha! We just sat and talked and took it easy and chatted until we needed to head back to the hotel to get ready for the night.

After nearly 4 hours of walking around almost nonstop, we were feeling it, but this was no time to quit. We had to hustle back to the hotel so we could shower and get ready for the evening. As I mentioned before, we had reservations at the Absolute Ice Bar: Stockholm. This was the very first ice bar in the WORLD... yeeeeh I said it! haha. Also, for those who may not know, Absolute Vodka (the bar's namesake) is actually a Swedish export-- perhaps the reason this was the very First ice bar (actually I'm willing to bet on that one :P) It was a really neat experience!!! When you go in, they first suit you up in a cloak type thing that has a hood and gloves attached. Next, they admit you to this room that leads to the Ice Bar. Since it has to stay -5C, the door to the actual bar will not open until the door to the cloak room closes. It was a little unnerving to be in a room with neither doors opening, I'll admit haha! Once we got in, it was BEAUTIFUL! It was an aquatic themed ice bar so all of the ice had back lights in different hues of blue :). There were even sea creatures cut and etched into the ice from the back so they appeared to simply be floating in the ice! Also very cool, the bar itself was made of ice as were the cups they gave you your drinks in! The Ice Bar experience actually came with a drink included so after taking some initial photos, we took a look at the drink menu and ordered our drinks. I ordered something I had never heard of before figuring that I'd only experience this once and why not give it a shot? Yeh, no. If you ever see gooseberries in a drink, it's not great lol! What in the world are gooseberries anyways? I thought it would be a flavor. No, it looked like something they just picked from the forest or something HAHA! I'm pretty sure it might have been the strongest drink in the bar. It was basically just vodka and these berry things. Oh well, got my money's worth lol!!!! It was very cool because they allowed us to go in early and we stayed in the Ice bar during the period where they normally shift people in and out. For like 3 minutes, we were the only ones in the bar. We opted to take advantage of this and take some ridiculous photos of course HAHA! :) After 40 minutes, we were chilled and decided to leave. Walking outside was amazing. To everyone else, it was humid and incredibly hot. To us, it was PERFECT! We headed back up to the room to change into our flip flops and out of some of our warmer clothes (that's right, we went prepared-ish!).

For dinner that night, we went to this really good Chinese restaurant. I don't know that I've ever had chicken and cashews quite like this. The sauce that was on the dish was spectacular! Oh and the veggies that accompanied were so delicious! While it was no Kin's Wok, it was very good :). After dinner, one of Elise's friends who is doing an internship in Stockholm over the summer met up with us at the restaurant. From there, the three of us started walking toward a low key wine bar. Twenty minutes into our walk, we figure out that we've actually been walking in the exact opposite direction this whole time haha!!! Apparently Blackberry maps are about as good as Mapquest... aka not great at all lol! Anywho, we hopped in a cab and wound up at the right place. It was this outdoor bar that was apparently an affiliate of a larger bar just some doors away. We sat here for a good while just sipping on a delicious white wine and just chatting. It was so relaxing and exactly what we needed. After we were done there, we walked back to our hotel, dropped off some of our things, and then walked around Stockholm for about an hour just taking in scenes of the nightlife. It was a great day!

when we woke up bright and early the next morning, we had several things to do. We had to get ready for the day, eat breakfast (the spread at the continental breakfast was UNBELIEVABLE! everything you can imagine... no really!), check out, go to the train station and put our bags in a locker so we wouldn't have to carry them around all day, and get to our boat. We did all of that with plenty of time to spare. We made it to our dock about 50 minutes before departure time.

The tour was simply breathtaking. We saw so many islands and hear so many stories about several of them, not to mention the houses on the shore! They were HUGE! The tour itself took about 3 hours and featured Vaxholm, a fortress from the 1500s designed to protect Sweden from any intruders (unfortunately, by the time it was completed, it was already out of date). If you wanted to, you could get off at the fortress and walk around. Since we'd have to change boats to return, we just opted to stay on the boat and enjoy the tour... most everyone else did too. Since we were kind of worrying about our luggage the whole day (since neither of us had ever used a public locker before) we decided to go ahead and pick it up after we got off the tour. We only had about 4 hours before our train left and it wasn't like we were going to be doing too much walking anyways so we went ahead and got or luggage from the locker.

Elise and I had a fika of our own at a small eatery not far from where we had fika the day before with Jonna. I wanted to try and do a bit of shopping while I could since I'm having such a hard time finding gifts for people (HINT HINT! I need ideas folks! :P). Since Elise's feet were hurting her so badly, she offered to stay with the bags and sit in the square while I went looking. I walked up and down some of the roads lined with tourist shops ducking in and out of every single one of them looking for gifts for my family. NOTHING! I couldn't find anything that I wanted to give them. An hour and some change later, I met back up with Elise and we headed to the train station to catch our ride home. It might have beent he most miserable train ride ever. It was one of the hottest days to date this summer in Sweden and we were on an intercity (the slow one) train for 4 hours with no AC. I think the fact that we were already exhausted just exacerbated the situation. It was miserable. However, the fact that we had such a great time in Stockholm totally overpowered however terrible that train ride was. It was so nice to get away even if it was just for a few days :)

Games and the 4th!

2010-07-06T22:56:00.007+02:00

On July 3rd, we travelled to our first games in what feels like FOREVER! It has been SO LONG since we've played! Ok, so it's only been like 3 weeks, but seriously it's felt like forever. This past weekend, we got back in the swing of things with away games at Norköpping. The drive wasn't too bad. It was long, but scenic :). Took us a little over 4 hours to get there (probably would have taken a bit less had we not gotten lost haha!). Anywho, we played a double header, and aside from some first inning jitters in the first game, we played pretty well! It was so exciting to see everyone apply what we had been practicing so hard back home. In the second game, our bats couldn't be stopped! It was crazy how many hits we had and how we were able to string them together! I just hope that wasn't a fluke and we can do it from here on out, haha! Also, our base running looked 20x better than it had just weeks before. We won the first game something like 15-2 and the second 25-2. I don't recall the scores, really. At any rate, we played well and were able to bring home two more Ws. Thanks to my wonderful teammates for some of the pictures they took during the game! These are a couple of them :) It was a great way to kick off July 4th celebrations! :)

Since July 4th is not celebrated at all over here (obviously, being as it's America's Bday haha!), we decided to celebrate on the 3rd :). Some of our friends were in from out of town so we all met at one of our buddy's houses and just hung out, listened to music, and watched the World Cup! :) It was good times with great company! Can't ask for too much more on the 4th (or the 3rd in this case). I did make sure to listen to Lee Greenwood's 'God Bless the USA'. I can't listen to that song without getting a little teary eyed. Even though there were no fireworks accompanying it, it still made me feel like I was at home :).

The day of the actual 4th was very strange. Normally, I'd have gone to the beach with my friends, grilled out, had a beer, and watched fireworks over the water. This year, I walked through a tiny town in Sweden. No one was decked out in red, white, or blue. And everyone just went about their normal Sunday routine. There was nothing special about this day to them. I mean I understand why it was just a normal day haha, but it just struck me as odd. This was the first time I wasn't in the States for the 4th. To be honest, it made me a little home sick. On the plus side, it made me realize a number of things I miss and will appreciate that much more when I get home. It also made me think of the things that are going to be SO WEIRD when I get back. I thought I'd share some of those things with you now :)

Things that I miss:

First and foremost, my family. The fact that I am separated from them is nothing new really. I've lived away from home for six years and and fully on my own for the past two, but still remained incredibly close with my family. However, there is a major difference now. I don't have the means by which to keep in touch with them in the same way I would if I were back home. I don't have the option of simply picking up my cell phone and bugging my mom or calling my grandmom. Instead, I have to hope that my ma will get home early enough from work to chat with me via Skype of hope my dad will have his up while he's available. Everyone's schedules are so crazy right now that with the six hour difference it's been tough to chat. Thank gosh for email and Facebook! haha!!! Seriously, Facebook has been awesome. Other than my blog, it's the easiest way for people to see and read what I've been up to!

I miss my jobs... I know that's sick and twisted to say, but you really take for granted knowing what you're doing and where you're going on a given day. While the freedom to do what I want has been incredibly liberating, it's a little unnerving having to find stuff to do haha. I've been doing my best. (I actually have a number of trips planned!) Also, I should say that I really miss my students! They always made my day so much better when I got to hang out with them!

I miss the familiarity of home (be it Norfolk, Moseley, or Hamilton) I miss knowing what's around haha! Don't get me wrong, the thrill of new is so exhilarating, but there is a part that just wants to walk to Cogan's and get a pizza, or go for a drive in the country, or go play ball at Homedell.

I miss the currency. While I appreciate the fact that I'm getting reaaaalllly good at division by 7, I miss just understanding the value of the currency and how much things are 'supposed' to cost. I know what a dollar is, I know what that means haha! I have no idea what a kronor is and how much that is, really! :) As you can imagine, shopping's been an adventure... haha!!!

I miss the independence. I am SO appreciative to my teammates for hauling me everywhere, but I miss just being able to hop in my car and go. I think this also goes back to the familiarity aspect. Things here are within walking distance, for the most part, but not knowing where anything is is the problem. But like I said, I'm so thankful to have teammates who are so accommodating :). Thanks guys!!!

There are so many other things I miss about the States, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Who knows, I'll probably edit this post like 45 times between now and the time I actually get home because I'll find more things I miss, rather more things I can think of that I miss. Stupid writer's block

Things that will be weird:

Now on to the things that'll be SUPER weird when I get back...

Driving. Ok, so when I went to college, there were like 3 months stints where I didn't drive my freshman year (you know that silly rule about freshman not being allowed to have cars? Hated it as a freshman, but LOVED it as a sophomore, junior, senior! haha!). But that was only 3 months. This will be over 5 months that I haven't driven. That's a realllly long time. Not to mention that now I'm getting used to seeing things in Kph (kilometers/hour) and adjusting to the lack of stoplights (everything is a round-about) and even the fact that if you come to a stoplight, you CAN'T turn right on red. Even as a passenger, I've become accustomed to these laws. So yeh, I'm a little more than interested in seeing how I do driving when I get back, haha.. Don't worry, I'll let you know where I am so you can avoid it :P

Flushing toilets.. Sounds really bizarre, but the toilets flush so differently over here. No longer is it that shiny handle on the back of the toilet tank. Instead, you either press a button on top of the toilet, or life a knob on the top of the toilet, or press a button on the wall behind the toilet. And seriously, I doubt they have nearly as many clogged toilets as we do. The water flow into the toilet is so much more intense than back home... Wow, have I really become THAT person? The person who analyzes the way a toilet flushes? Good grief...

Opening doors.. Back in the States, most of our doorknobs are just that, knobs. Here, they're more like handles. Instead of twisting, you push down on the handle to open the door. I really can't think of a place I've been and seen a door knob. I don't think that will be that difficult to readjust to, but still! It'll definitely be something I'll notice!

Music.. The music here is very different from back home. There are new and different songs I hear everyday. Even if it is a song that originated in the States, it will have a different back beat or an entirely different singer all together. I heard a very different version of Billy Joel's 'Uptown Girl.' I didn't know whether to be home sick or upset that someone had the audacity to remake that song! (haha that's for you Amanda and Becky! :P)

Again, there are a ton other things that my roommate and I say in passing everyday, but for the life of me, I can't recall any of them at this given moment! I'll probably edit this section as well haha!

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

2010-06-30T22:59:00.011+02:00

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

2010-06-29T20:56:00.014+02:00

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

2010-06-07T22:59:00.001+02:00

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

2010-06-02T22:59:00.000+02:00

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.

Softball and Swedish

2010-05-30T22:06:00.000+02:00

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!

So many cities, so little time...

2010-05-23T00:22:00.000+02:00

This past week has been so crazy! Since Mom was still going to be in town, we took a number of day trips to various cities around Sweden. Our first trip was with Anzo, little Oliver, and Lisa. Anzo drove us all to Läckö Slott which is a medieval castle situated on a bay of lake Vänern, one of Sweden's largest lakes. When we got there, we had some time to kill so we had fika while we waited for our tour to start. Good food= a great way to kill time :) Once we began our tour, which was in all English thank goodness :), we weren't allowed to take photos. So, sorry folks, no pictures from inside the castle :(. It's a shame too, because the castle was decorated with ornate carvings and sculptures in many of its great halls. It also had some gorgeous furnishings (which Lisa and I later found out were not original to the castle --> we were a bit saddened by that). At any rate, we walked through a number of beautiful celebration halls and bedrooms of the castle. The thing that kind of irked me a little was the fact that we were taking a tour of the castle, but didn't even get to see the King's bedroom! Something about fire/evacuation hazard, whatever... haha! Even without the King's bedroom, the castle was beautiful. The thing that probably stood out most to me was the fact that some of the original art work on the walls still existed. It just amazes me that things this old are preserved! Call me a naive American, but it truly is amazing and awe-striking when you see it. In fact, when we were leaving the castle, we saw this odd drawing on this rock. This simple drawing on the rock dated back to THE BRONZE AGE! A-MA-ZING!

The next day trip I took was with Mom to Göteborg, Sweden's second largest city. So far, this is one of my favorite places that I've visited. This city is stunning! It's situated on the southwest coast of Sweden almost directly on the water. For this trip, Mom and I decided to be the ultimate tourists while in Göteborg! We signed up for the Göteborg pass which allows admittance to the train tour, the canal tour, and nearly all of the museums in the city. After we had walked through part of town, we decided to head for the canal tour. It was so relaxing, informative, and downright gorgeous! We go tot see the city from the inside by going along the canals that penetrate the city as well as the outside by going to the bay. Next we hopped on a tram to see an aquarium in the city. Well, the aquarium and the connecting museum were under construction soooo yeh haha. When we went to go back to the town square for some shopping, we hopped on the same train we had come in on... only we were going in the wrong direction. I got to see way more of Göteborg than I ever thought I would! Mom and I saw not only the city of Göteborg, but also the suburbs! :) The suburbs are just as beautiful as the city! The houses are painted in vivid colors and many of them have gardens sprouting colorful tulips and daffodils (my two favorite flowers!). There were also a number of neighborhoods that had small harbors with a number of brightly colored boats. It was simply gorgeous. I know I've been using that word a lot, but there really isn't any other way to put it. It's BEAUTIFUL here! :)

The third trip of the week was to Sweden's capital Stockholm! I'm still not quite sure what to make of this city... It had that big city feel like a New York or Washington, D.C., but was assured by the chef who made our dinner that night that it was not nearly as big. The people of Stockholm were a different than they are here in Skövde. They seemed to hustle and bustle much quicker (thus giving it that New York feel). The setting was also much different than Skövde or Göteborg. The significance of the government and commerce to the city gave it that D.C. feel. It was still an incredibly beautiful city, but with just a very different feel than I had encountered thus far in Sweden. We had another lovely day in which to explore a new city, so Mom and I hopped right to it! We started our day by getting lost... several times in the city. So again, we saw more than we had planned :) We were just wandering in the wrong directions. No biggie, we would just turn around and wander back :)... eventually we found our way to Old Towne Stockholm called Gamla Stan. This is the older part of Stockholm that is home to several significant buildings. Some of these buildings are the Alfred Nobel Museum, the Stockholm Cathedral, oh and, ya know, THE ROYAL PALACE! Neither Mom nor I had ever seen a palace before so this was a MUST SEE on our trip! It did not disappoint! First we started out by taking a tour of the Royal Apartments. Since the palace still serves several purposes for the Royal family (for instance offices and a place for Royal guests to stay<-- and with the Princess's approaching wedding, this place is hopping!) a little more than half of it is off limits. The part that you can see is crazy awesome though. But like I was saying, we started in the Royal apartments. These rooms date back to the medieval period and was resided in at some points by the same guy who restored and refurbished Läckö Slott (I think... by no means am I a Swedish historian, haha!). Anywho, the reminders of the Princess's wedding were everywhere! A couple of the rooms were closed to the public as they had diplomatic dignitaries coming to stay in them for the wedding. Next, we made our way to the treasury. Let's just say I have a few things already added to this year's Christmas list. Seeing the multiple crowns, scepters, orbs, was incredible. I have never seen so many jewels in one place ie, on a CROWN! It was mind blowing! That and the fact that these crowns dated back nearly 400 years and looked as though they were created yesterday was absolutely fascinating! Again, no pictures allowed, sorry! Then we moved to Magnus III's antiquities museum. Some of the statues in this museum dated back to the time of the Roman Empire and were even of some of the prominent people of the Empire. They were stunning. So clean and perfect! Ok some had been through some events as they were missing fingers or noses, but still! For the most part, all of the statues were in fantastic shape! After this, Mom and I made our way to the shopping are of the city! It was crazy how many shops and stores there were lining this one pedestrian walk! I thought it was kind of funny how some of the store names were of places back home. For instance there was a store named Manhattan. I looked inside to get a feel of the designs portrayed as some you would see in Manhattan, and, yes, I can see some of them being worn in NYC. Others, I cannot even see being worn on a runway... they were a bit too extravagant, haha.

Overall, my trips with Ma this week were downright awesome! I got to see some gorgeous places (some by accident) and meet some pretty cool people. Sadly, this is where my mom's journey with me ended. She hopped on a plane and flew home on Friday :(. While I know I'll mis her (and already kind of do), I know that my teammates and friends here in Skövde will take good care of me! :) It's good to be back in good ol' Skövde!!!

This weekend ROCKED!

2010-05-16T21:29:00.000+02:00

This weekend was so much fun! Even though I didn't feel well most of the weekend, it was still awesome. Saturday afternoon, Mom and I ventured out into Skövde without a local guide. This was an adventure to say the least. We didn't really do much besides walk around, but it was still so nice to see the streets full of people and see some of the local sights. We walked through one of the parks, through the town square, and even into one of the cemeteries. It was very interesting to me to see how different cultures bury their dead. I guess I can thank Dr. Sanford and the Anthropological Archaeology class I took at MW. In all sincerity, it was beautiful to see burial sites that are taken care of with such pride as the ones I saw were. In the States, it's rare to be able to actually plant flowers on a grave anymore. Here in Sweden, most of the burial sites had beautiful flowers and plants planted on them. Also, many of the sites had very small pebbles covering the grave. Most of these pebble coverings were combed some even in a design or pattern. I think I just really appreciated the fact that there was that much respect still had for someone who had passed that so much time and effort would be put into maintaining their final resting place. It really was beautiful. Anywho, back to Mom and me being tourists... The picture above is actually a picture of the towne square of Skövde! :) This town is so pretty. The colors here just aren't seen in the States! I really like this picture of a local church. Look at how blue the sky is! It's insane!!!!

So after Mom and I were done being tourists for the day, Lina picked us up to head to Annelie's apartment for a traditional Swedish dinner. Traditional it was! We had delicious Swedish MEATBALLS! My friends back in the States told me this was the one thing I absolutely HAD to eat while in Sweden. They were AMAZING! They even let me help make them! I think they thought I was nerdy for being so excited to help make them, but whatever :). Here's what they looked like! :) Oh, Annelie told me to put in here that they're supposed to be round... but they aren't haha! I reassured my teammates that I don't generally take pictures of all of my meals, but I had to let folks back home know that I ACTUALLY ate legitimate Swedish meatballs :)
So here is the final product! Swedish meatballs and sauce (which I sadly don't know the name of), potatoes, and Lydon berry jam... so good! I think I may have a new favorite dish! the best part is, it wasn't all that difficult to make! I mean, granted, I couldn't read any of the ingredients in the cookbook since it was all in Swedish, and I couldn't measure anything since I don't yet know my metric conversions, but still! So easy! HAHA! This was a great way to prep for my first games the following day here in Sweden!

Waking up at 5 am is never my favorite thing to do... especially when I'm already having trouble sleeping. That being said, I was actually very excited when I woke up and realized it was my the day of my first game with a new team! We traveled nearly 3.5 hours to Enköping to play at 12. This meant leaving our field incredibly early! I pitched the first game while Priya tossed the second game. Both games had their intense moments, but thankfully we were able to pull out two Ws! It felt so awesome to be on a team again, better yet, a supportive team! My mom was a little too adorable after the game wanting a team photo. Being as this was probably her only chance to get a team photo, I don't think anyone minded. Everyone has been super great about letting her come with and enjoy Swedish life as well. Thanks guys! Anywho, here's a picture of your 2010 Skövde Saints although we're missing a couple of players here.

A Day of Firsts!

2010-05-14T21:49:00.000+02:00

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 :)

I made it!

2010-05-13T21:02:00.000+02:00

Phew! After a 5 hours of waiting in the airport for my 9 hour flight and a 4 hour car ride to Skövde, I'm finally here!!! It's been an incredibly long day and a half, but it's totally been worth it! I've had the opportunity to meet nearly all of my teammates and a number of the guys from the baseball team. In fact, two of them drove all the way to Stockholm (that 4 hour drive I was talking about) just to pick up Ma and me. Everyone's been so accommodating and understanding! Anzo took Mom and me to a local restaurant where I'll be getting my meals and then to the grocery store so we could get some food for the mornings. She also offered to show my mother and me downtown Skövde! Lina has offered to come by the apartment and pick me up for practice tomorrow. Everyone is so generous! I'm so excited to stay here for the next 4 months!

How did I get here?

2010-05-12T05:10:00.000+02:00

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!