Gotland, Latvia, and soon to be more

I have been travelling the world. We were supposed to have a game on December 11th but it got cancelled. I was supposed to go to Gotland on the following Monday with Cilla (teammate who lives on Gotland) but we decided to go the Saturday before instead. Gotland is an island in the Baltic sea. We took a ferry that was about 3 hours. It is such a quaint island. The biggest city, Visby, is the equivalent of a small town in America. The biggest road on the island is two lanes. It is not a big island at all. And it is very flat. It is known for sheeps. I did see a lot. Cilla, her friends, and I went out in Visby Saturday night. I brought my solo cups with me. They travel with me everywhere I go. I introduced American drinking games to more Swedes. They love it. My goal in life is to integrate American drinking games into everyday Swedish party life. It will change Sweden for the better. I would need to somehow change the alcohol sale laws though. Alcohol is sold in one place called System Bolaget. It doesn't have very good hours and isn't open on the weekends. Lame. Drinking games need access to large quantities of beer at all times for when the drinks run out during the night. But anyway Cilla took me to the south of the Island to see it. It is beautiful. 

There is a famous rock called Hoburgsgubben which looks like an old man and has a tale behind it.

Cilla made me homemade Swedish pancakes which were delicious. We had dinner at her moms. There is a wood board that is used as a plate for a special meal consisting of steak, mashed potatoes, roasted tomato, and asparagus wrapped in bacon. The mashed potatoes are spread out around the edges of the wood board. I didn't take a picture but this is sort of what it looked like. This dish didn't originate in Sweden but it has become a traditional meal through time. 

Cilla and I made our first gingerbread house from scratch by ourselves. It was huge. I am not artistic. It became very relevant after comparing my parts of the house to Cillas. I guess I didn't get my dad's architectural skills. Oh well. It was also hard not to snack on it since Cill and I are both not eating sweets at the moment. The temptation was killer.

Gotland was a great visit. I then headed to Latvia to visit Elina (teammate). I flew with ryanair into the capital Riga which was so cheap. Elina and I went to an awesome club that had 5 dance floors and 3 famous djs from Latvia, Estonia, and the UK. They were amazing. Riga is a really cool city. I feel like Stockholm is different from the rest of European cities. It is so clean and new looking. Riga was dirty and old but so awesome. Very busy. It reminded me of a less crazy NYC with shorter buildings and a bigger area. So I guess it is not that similar to NYC but I kind of felt like I was in NYC. Not sure why. There is this place that serves dumplings of all kinds. So awesome. Latvia is all about sour cream. They put it on everything. Elina's dad owns a restaurant that serves traditional Latvian food. SO good. Meat, potatoes, and different salads. 

She lives in Jurmala which is not too far from Riga right near the Baltic. We walked from her house to the beach and it was only 5 minutes away. We made gingerbread cookies and cheese cookies. We also decorated the Christmas tree which was nice because I won't be home to do that. Even though my Mom boycotts Christmas trees most years anyway. All in all it was a great 9 day vacation away from Linkoping. Being in Latvia made me realize how expensive Sweden is. Food and alcohol was like half the price. 5 days until my Eurotrip with Court. I am too excited. I will blog a couple times to keep you updated on my travels. I am almost done with the semester. I need to finish a review paper and revise a few reports. I have all week to get it done before I leave on Monday for Amsterdam. It has finally been steadily snowing here. Not much accumulation on the ground but it is enough for things to look white. I wanted a white Christmas and I think I'll get one. Deb and I will both be here for Christmas. The university puts on a Christmas potluck for international students that aren't going home for the holidays. We are supposed to bring a traditional dish. I'm going to bring Latkes. I have never made them on my own so it will be interesting. We all know I am a disaster in the kitchen. Thank god for Afton to save me in that department. I hope that you all have a great Christmas/Hanukkah/whatever you celebrate. Sending love from Sweden

SNOW SNOW SNOW!

It has finally snowed here. December 6th. I thought it was going to happen a lot sooner. It was just a little dusting but I'm still happy about it. I really want a white Christmas.

I have been really busy working and going to hockey so I apologize for taking so long to write. We've won our last two games. Still undefeated. We won 17-0 and 15-1. We play the toughest team this weekend. Our team is starting to play really well together. After this weekend we don't have a game until Jan 15th.

It is only 20 days until my Eurotrip begins with Court. I am pumped. We have everything planned and it should be so fun. Almost three weeks of traveling. Next week I am going to visit Cilla in Gotland where she lives for a couple days. It is an Island off of Sweden in the Baltic sea. I am then going to Latvia to visit Elina for a couple days. Ryanair has such cheap flights. I am excited to see the different places.

My American theme party was awesome. My team loved it. I cooked Kraft mac n cheese and American pancakes for them. I had red vines and mike n ikes also. I gave them a spoonful of Skippy creamy peanut butter because the Skippy creamy peanut butter is neither creamy nor as tasty. Everyone did a great job dressing up. Basketball players, a ganster, a prom queen, Minny Mouse, The Blues Brothers, the Statue of Liberty, a cowgirl, Miss Alabama, Marilyn Monroe, and Snookie. I was a lax bro. No one knew what I was so I had to explain it and I show "the ultimate lax bro" video on youtube. They loved the drinking games. It was a successful party. Cilla asked me to bring the red cups to Gotland with me so we can play. These red cups will be the most reused red cups in the history of the world. They have already been used twice. I have to make the most of them because it cost my mom a fortune to send them to me.

I went to Gamla Linkoping on Sunday to do some Christmas shopping. It is right near where I live. It is such a cute place. Stone walkways and old Swedish buildings. Take an old settlement back from the Oregon trail days and replace the dirt roads with stone and the wood buildings with red and white wood and there you have it. It was very crowded. Lots of tables up with people selling homemade things. On Friday Mandy and I are going to go shopping for some more gifts in Norrkoping and I can finish up my package to send home. We are also going to the movies to see Breaking Dawn. Woo woo! We are watching the 3 previous movies to get in the mood.

On Friday I worked a double. First and probably last time I will ever do that. I worked at the golf course from 8-4 then went back to Linkoping and worked from 7-1am at the concert hall downtown. It was the first time they had asked me to work so I said yes because it shows that I am available and willing to work and hopefully gets me in on more work in the future. If I had said no I would fall to the bottom of the call list and I didn't want that. So I cleaned for 6 hours. Lots of sweeping/mopping, changing trash cans, cleaning bathrooms, etc. There were a good amount of events going on so the place was pretty dirty. I got the luxury of cleaning puke out of a sink. Like why puke in the sink when a toilet is just as close? I don't get it. It wasn't too bad of a shift though. However I now respect janitors/cleaners. It only sucked because I had been up from 730 and been going non-stop to 1am. 14 hours of work. It is worth the money though. I just don't plan to do it ever again. My feet were hurting. I guess that's the real world. I have worked a ton since I haven't had scheduled class. But now I need to actually work on my review paper so I won't be working much anymore. I don't know my school schedule for next quarter in January yet so I don't know how much I will be working. Since I'm taking a week vacation to visit my friends I need to spend the rest of the days making a presentation due on Dec 20th and writing a review paper before I go off on my Eurotrip. So I will be miserable basically except for the week of fun in Gotland and Latvia.

Peace, Love, and if you are going to puke...puke in the toilet please.

Happy Thanksgiving!

You'd be surprised by how many people have asked me how my Thanksgiving in Sweden went (Daniele Beauman). I thought it was a pretty AMERICAN holiday considering it was based from the story of Pilgrims and Indians. I guess it's not that obvious. Even though it is not a holiday here, it doesn't mean that it can't be celebrated. Give Sweden Americans and you'll get Thanksgiving in Sweden for sure. Mainly because we NEED it and will do whatever it takes to have it (order a turkey from the grocery store a week in advance). My roommate Deb and her friend are hosting a Thanksgiving feast tomorrow at my place. A total of 14 people will be attending. I am in charge of making the mashed potatoes. It can't be that hard right? I have my doubts considering my kitchen retardation. I am sad I am not enjoying Thanksgiving at home. Yeah, the food is all similar where ever you are but the tastes of your Mom's cooking can't be replicated. I'm used to not being home since I only was home for Thanksgiving once (last year) since I left Idaho for New York when I was 14. Last year teased me. Anyway, tomorrow night should be fun to share the joys of Thanksgiving with some Swedes. And as if one Thanksgiving isn't enough, Mandy and I are going to have Thanksgiving with 3 teammates on Sunday. LEFTOVERS GALOR! I can't wait. We went shopping tonight for it. The 4.3 kg turkey was $45, it took us a half hour in the spice section to figure out what Swedish spices were what in English, and there is no such thing as chicken stock. Overall, it was a successful trip. I am going to make the amazing french silk pie. I am also skeptical about its turnout. Wish me luck. A lot.

So I've been working at my sports manager's golf course. It's a good time. A couple of my teammates also work there so it is fun. Summer houses are being constructed so we spend Monday taking the waste from the site and burning it in a huge bonfire. It was awesome. I love Sweden and their "fika" breaks. No more than two hours can go by without taking a break to drink some tea/coffee and sit around and chat for twenty minutes. The golf course used to be a castle with farmland. An old barn is being turned into the club house so a lot needs to be done to it. Mandy, Cilla and I spent today sweeping the upstairs of the barn to prepare it to be sprayed for termites tomorrow. The wood boards are very old and some have gotten really weak due to age and termites. Earlier in the day a guy said to be careful because his leg went through the floor. The whole morning was fine. We swept and bagged the dirt and made a fire to burn all the bags. We went back after lunch to finish up the last part of the barn.  I was carrying the last bag to be put in the truck and...yup, my foot went through the floor. A plank of wood snapped right under me and my whole leg fell through the hole. Not gonna lie, I thought I was going to die. Aside from a bruised knee I am fine. It was scary as shit though. The bottom concrete floor was at least 30 feet below. You know you'e fat when...

We had our first home game on Sunday. We won 6-0. It was another frustrating game because they were so bad that all they did was trip, hit, hook you. It felt like the second I got the puck I was being rocked from some direction. So different from American hockey. The refs let so much go here. It was just hard to stay level-headed when you're getting smoked and penalties aren't getting called. Makes the game unenjoyable and everyone gets frustrated and the game goes to shit.

The red solo cups my mom sent me have been broken in. Last friday me, my roommates, and Cilla and her roommate had a fun night playing beer pong, LSD, and flip cup.  It was the first time for the Swedes to play drinking games like these. They loved them. And were like this really is what it's like in the movies. I tried to explain to them that parties aren't parties in America unless drinking games are involved. They understood why because of how much fun they are. I can't wait for the American theme party next weekend. I am cooking Kraft Mac n' Cheese for them that came in my care package. They are in for a treat.

Happy Thanksgiving all. I am thankful for having such amazing parents. They've provided me with everything I've ever needed which has allowed me to fullfil so many experiences. I am fueled by their support and couldn't be more grateful for the love and encouragement they give me.

My 1st Swedish Birthday

I had a nice birthday. I had class, baked a cake (Swedish tradition is you bake a cake and bring it to the function and in this case the function was hockey practice), practice, and then I got home and my roommate deb and her boyfriend Bjorn were in the kitchen waiting with balloons, candles, cake, champagne, and decorations and we had a nice hangout. All around good birthday. 

These are the coolest glasses in the world.

There have been so many beautiful sunsets here. Yellow, orange, pink, red, turquoise, purple, dark blue.

Classes are going well. I like population ecology. It's not too hard and pretty interesting to test predictions about extinction and stuff using computer models. I may do something with population ecology for my masters thesis. Don't know though yet. We had 4 weeks of class and starting this week coming up we stop having class and have 4 weeks to work on a review paper on a subject. I chose the effects of habitat fragmentation on ecosystems. We find papers and write a paper about the current research going on in that field. Doesn't seem to bad. I am pumped to have a month off a school. Since I've been here I've basically had class everyday with exception to a few Fridays here and there.  Obviously I'm not going to start the paper until the week before its due. I am hoping to work a ton while I am free from school. I don't work when I have class everyday which has been the case lately. So I looking forward to bringing in the cash. Or should I say Kronor. Court and I are all ready for our Eurotrip. Everything is booked. I am so excited. 19 days. 5 places. Lots of beer drinking on this trip. It's pretty cold here now and it gets dark at like 3:45pm (15:45). It hasn't snowed yet which is rare for Sweden at this time of year. It might be a short, weak winter. But who knows. I'm having Thanksgiving at my house with a group of like 12 of us. Roommates and friends. I'm excited. Then two days later, Mandy and I are hosting Thanksgiving for a few teammates. So I'm getting two Thanksgivings. That's more than I get in America and it's not even a holiday in Sweden. I'm throwing the American theme party in a couple weekends. It should be great. Lots of drinking will be taking place. I got red solo cups sent from my mom to complete the party. Everyone is supposed to dress up as an American stereotype. Pictures will be taken. Random things: there is no turning right on red lights here. When biking/walking towards someone they think it is the end of the world and don't know what side to chose so it becomes a really awkward shift left and right a bunch of times and close calls for bike collisions. I almost crashed big time because some idiot wasn't looking ahead and I was coming down a slope so I was going fast (on the right side like a normal person) and the dude went to his left trying to go around me that way and we had to both slam our brakes and I skidded and almost ended up in a ditch. Not good times. Cilla one day asked Mandy and I what it meant when someone says "bust a move" because she sees it on tv/in movies. We basically said well, if someone says bust a move, you bust a move. So now we randomly tell her to bust a move and she will do a crazy dance. It's great. An annoying thing: Swedes don't tie their hair back in their hockey helmets. UGH. If you're a hockey player you will understand what I mean. Proof that I am retarded: my mom sent me a recipe of a yummy chocolate cake. So I went to the store and bought all the ingredients. The recipe called for a box of chocolate cake, a box of instant chocolate pudding, eggs, water, etc. So I come home and prepare the pudding. Cook the mix with milk and put it in the fridge to solidify. So it's my birthday and decided to skype with my mom while I'm baking so she can skype me on my birthday. I tell her I'm in the process of baking the cake. She asks what step I'm at and I say I'm waiting for the pudding to set its in the fridge. She goes why? I said because I made the pudding to put in the cake...the recipe calls for 1 box of instant chocolate pudding. She starts hysterically laughing. I wasn't supposed to make the pudding I was supposed to add the powder to the chocolate cake powder. FML. Never have been a baker. Never will be. Anyway, we won our last game 7-1. I'd say they were out hardest competition yet...and still sucked. Got 2 goals and an apple. Leading the stats baby! We travel close to Gothenburg for our away games. It's about 3 hours away. We have our first home game this Sunday which is exciting. I want to check out Galma Linkoping (Old Linkoping) tomorrow. It is supposed to be cute and have lots of shops selling local handmade things. Hoping to find some Christmas presents there. Its a bike ride away which is nice. My mom asked me what I wanted in my next care package: funfetti cake, rainbow chip frosting, and cooler ranch doritos. Booyaa. 

No mercy rule in Sweden...

So Saturday I had a game against Rögle, which is about 4 hours south from me. Very close to Copenhagen. We won 23-0. It was a slaughter. Everyone on our team scored at least one goal haha. We only had 9 skaters. I got 4 goals and had 6 assists. First and probably last 10 point game. And they didn't even seem that bad. Like, yeah we controlled the puck the entire game and skated around them, but the reason we scored so much was because the goalie was brutal. The way ties are broken in the league is by goal differential so there is no mercy rule here. The other team had good attitudes though. I guess they get smoked like this all the time. It was way better playing them than the last team we played because not only did they suck but they were little betches. Afton, betch has made it into my blog. Appreciate. Anyway, we had to leave at 5:30am to get to the game on time and the battery of one of our vans decided to die on us while waiting in the parking lot to leave. Of course, Swedes don't keep jumper cables in their cars. No gas station was open that early on a Saturday so we ended up flagging someone down after waiting about 45 minutes who did have cables. Funny yet not funny. We still haven't had a home game yet. Not until Novemeber 20th. Speaking of November, it is my birthday in 8 days. Holla. My parent's bought me an awesome present. A Eurail pass for my Eurotrip with Court in January. Court and I have started planning the trip and booking flights/trains/hostels. It is so exciting. We are going to Amsterdam first to take care of some business and then heading to Berlin. A family that stayed with us in Boise a couple summers ago lives in Berlin and they have offered their guest room to us which is awesome. We are going to stay in Berlin for New Years. I can't wait. We then are going to Prague to drink beer and drink beer. Ending in Munich to drink more beer and eat weinerschnitzel. I will take lots of pictures and blog about the trip. Those of you who know my "suzi" dance, I have brought it to Sweden and they are obsessed. As you can see in my profile picture, they asked me to do it after a goal. I also did it in the club Saturday night. Emily Smith if you are reading this, I did the finger point dance as well. Epic. The club was really fun. I went with two teammates that I have become really good friends with. Cilla and Elina. We pregamed at Cilla's place before the club and played Catch Phrase. So funny to play with Swedes. We could only play the "food" category because all the others were too difficult and made it not fun because they either didn't know the word or didn't know how to explain it. But just playing on the "food" category was hysterical. Some funny things have happened the past week. My teammate Bohm gave me an extra stick to try out. I played with it and it was the game I didn't score. So I told her "Your stick is on the back burner." Yeah, she had no idea what I was talking about. The other day Mandy said that something didn't pan out and no one knew what she meant. Someone said to my Swedish teammate Larre, "take down her number" because someone had hit her and she was like "What? You want my number?" So funny. I said "didn't get the memo" and had to explain it. So many expressions Swedes don't know. I didn't realize how much I use expressions until I got here and no one had a clue what I meant. There had been construction on the way to practice for a while and the day it cleared we drove through what had been sectioned off and Larre started humming the wedding song...like what? I am waiting for these next two weeks of classes to end so I can start working more because we get a month off of classes to work on a paper. I am sad I won't be home for Thanksgiving. So to compensate, Mandy and I are going to celebrate Thanksgiving together. I'm excited. My mom has sent a box containing red solo cups for my American theme party I am throwing in a couple weeks. The team is so excited for it. I hope I can give them a good representation of American partying. Chugging, games, and more chugging. Should be great. 


Peace, love, and send me birthday presents

Happy November

Hello everybody. How is America treating you? Sweden has been treating me very nicely. I love it. School is going well. Lots of computer models. It isn’t too difficult though because the instructions tell you everything you need to do. The workload is not bad at all. I haven’t been able to work because I’ve had class everyday. But after these three weeks classes stop for a month while we work on a paper so I’ll hopefully work a bunch. Hockey is so much fun. We won our 2^nd league game on Sunday against Trollhattens, which is about 4 hours away. 7-0. They were a lot worse than us so it was a frustrating game because they were more in the way than anything else. They had no skill so they reverted to being physical instead. It was really annoying. We should have beaten them by a lot more and our coaches weren’t very happy. My scoring streak halted. I got an assist, but I am not happy with how I played. Oh well. As my dad says, “You’re only as good as you next game.” Also, we only have 13 on our team so even if everyone shows up we still don’t have that many players. It is tiring at practices and hard to do drills when we don’t have a lot of skaters. We are trying to recruit more from around the area. Potentially steal some players from LHC (Linkoping team) that are on the junior team. LHC has like 20 players on their A team and then like 20 players on their B team which they sometimes pull players from to play with the A team. It would be nice to persuade some of them to come to us because they will get to play games as well as have fun because we are so much cooler. We have gotten into a consistent practice schedule for the most part. Practice Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and an off-ice practice on Tuesday. I went to the Vita Hasten guy’s game with a couple teammates which was fun. The hockey isn’t as good as the Union guys team but it is still good hockey. It was nice to get out and do something with people. I realize that I don’t hangout a lot with people because it feels amazing when I’m out of the house with people talking and laughing. I’m in class, working, playing hockey, or home. So I need to get some solid friends to hangout with. My roommates and I all have different schedules so we rarely find time to hangout outside the house. My main source of talking and laughing is in the car ride from Linkoping to Norrkoping with the Linkoping crew on the team. The conversations are hilarious. We have all gotten really close so it is a fun trip rather than a burden to have to travel to hockey. And my other source is with the hockey team. Good times. Halloween is Sweden is like any other day. It is weird not seeing pumpkins and Halloween decorations everywhere. And no one said Happy Halloween to me. However, Saturday night I went to a Halloween party my roommate threw and it was really fun. Deb’s boyfriend went into the forest and cut down a tree to put in his living room. I then covered it with spider web my mom provided me in a package. It looked awesome. My mom also sent candy corn, which Swedes don’t know about. People had great costumes. I was “Super Girl.” My favorite costume was someone dressed up as the boss from Office Space and he looked just like him and walked around all night saying, “Yeahhhh, so I’m going to have to ask you to come in on Saturday.” It was hilarious. Two Swedes dressed up as the World Trade Centers buildings.  I wasn’t sure whether to laugh at the creativity or feel weird about it. I mostly laughed…A custom in Sweden is that they hug you when you arrive if they know you. It definitely won’t happen if you’re new, but if you have hung out with them before they hug you when you come to their house. It’s weird. I don’t like when people touch me. Also, no matter how many people are in the room, if someone new shows up they go around to every person and shake their hand and introduce themselves. I feel like we just walk into a room and say hey, I’m so and so and then learn names as the night goes on. So I taught my team the U-G-L-Y song. They love it. U-G-L-Y you ain’t got no alibi, you ugly yeah yeah you ugly. M-A-M-A that’s the way you got that way, your mama yeah yeah your mama.  They tried to teach me a Swedish drinking song but it is a lot harder to learn a song when you don’t know the language. I’m throwing an American theme party for my team to show them how to actually party. Beer pong, flip cup, power hour, kings, asshole, LSD (the game not the drug), catch phrase, you got served, etc. Everyone has to dress up as an American using any type of stereotype they choose. I can’t wait to see what people come up with. There are no red solo cups here but I’ll manage to find something. I MISS BRODY. Oh and guys here roll their jeans at the bottom.

PAY DAY

The way it works in Sweden is you get paid once a month on the 25th for the previous month's work. So I got paid today for the work I did in September. It must be difficult to only be paid once a month. You have to make sure you can make it to the next pay day. Maybe Swedes are better at managing their money better because of it. Either way it feels good to be paid.

On Sunday we were supposed to play a league game at home but the team asked to reschedule. They didn't want to travel so far for one game. They want to sync it so that they play us and Motala on the same weekend. So instead we played a "friendly match" as they call it against a guys team. It is made of of guys from the ages of late twenties to early forties who still like to play hockey. Johan, our assistant coach, played goalie for them and Jens, our sports manager, played defense for us because we were down a lot of players. It was a really fun game. We won 4-3. I scored on my coach which is always fun. Bohm and I really connect on the ice. I assisted her goal and she assisted mine. We know where each other are and play very similar so we can read situations well together. I can see us being very dangerous together and producing a lot of points for the team. We have an away game this Sunday against Trollhattans which is 4 hours away. Our team has gotten very comfortable with each other now. A very nice atmosphere we got going. Lots of laughs along with working hard and encouraging each other. I broke my stick in the game on Sunday. I never break sticks so that was fun. Bohm had an extra stick that is too short for her so she gave it to me so I don't have to buy a new one.

My new course has started. It is all about population models. Lots of equations and computer exercises. Not quite sure how confident I am about it. The first four weeks are class based and the last four weeks we work on a paper and have no class. I am hoping to work a lot then.

I went to the Linkoping girls game on Saturday to see what Division 1 was like. It sure isn't D1 level. I'd say it is high D3. It is weird to think that that is the highest division in Sweden. I think a lot has to do with coaching.

Our guys team has a game tomorrow so I am going to that with a couple teammates. Should be fun. I am looking forward to the Halloween party that Deb (roommate) is throwing. It's going to be at Bjorn's (Deb's bf) place because it is bigger. I think I am going to dress up as a super hero. Yes, because I have a cape. Made specifically for me. By my amazing G-ma. SHOUT OUT TO MY HOME GIRL LOVE YOU GMA.  I can wear all black and the cape and paint a sweet eye mask on my face. Vwallah (sp?). My team might throw a Halloween party on Friday which will be a good time. We haven't partied together yet so I am interested to see what they're with a little booze in them. They all say they want to see me dance after a couple drinks. Apparently they can already tell I am retarded. BLAH

1 quarter down, 7 to go!

Today my first quarter of graduate school ended. I was up until 4:00 this morning finishing my report and powerpoint. I rocked my presentation. My supervisor said it came together well and the introduction was really nice and another professor told me it was really good. Swedes don't go out of their way to compliment so I think they really liked it. Maybe Union actually taught me some things...maybe. It feels so good to be done with the project. Since I went to the States for the first week of the time set for projects I had to bust my ass to finish it. I survived.

Daniel and Lyndal (materials dude for the team and my goalie) live in Linkoping and they were going to a big grocery store about twenty minutes away today so I tagged along to do my shopping. The store had a foreign section. It was weird seeing products I was familiar with in the section let alone at all. They had chocolate chips, fluff, popcorn seasoning, beef jerky, Reese's, Hansen's soda which I was particularly pumped about, microwave popcorn, marshmallows, peanut butter (no good brands though), and mac and cheese (also not the real stuff).

I decided to cook a ton of meals this evening. I am actually not that bad of a cook. I made ratatouille to go with quinoa and a bean, sausage, veggie, pasta stew thing. They both taste really good. I made a ton of it so some I'm freezing and I won't have to cook for a while or go to the grocery store for at least a couple weeks. It is also a really cheap way. Go Jew in me!

I watched Family Guy with Daniel and it was really funny because I was understanding all of the American jokes and laughing while we was like..."I don't get it." It was a joke about M.C. Escher and M.C. Hammer and I giggled and he had no idea what was going on. Thank you Family Guy for making me feel like home...and making America seem like a ridiculous country.

I substituted at the International English School on Thursday. I was stepping in for two Social Studies lessons. 7th graders and 8th graders. They had homework to do, but I let the 7th graders play Hangman and taught them how to play Heads Up 7 Up. I had my lap top with me so I played music trivia with the 8th graders. They had a ball. When the 7th graders were leaving one of the girls was like "Can you be our substitute everyday?" Yeah, that's right. Look who's awesome. It's really fun. And the 8th graders didn't want to leave when their class was over because they wanted to keep playing music trivia. I think I am an awesome substitute. I don't make them do work and I let them play. That is what a substitute is for. I remember when I had substitutes and it really sucked when they followed the lesson plan. It's a day to enjoy. So I let them enjoy it. And they are very polite kids which makes it more enjoyable. The 7th graders were getting a little too rowdy so I said it had to be completely silent during the Heads Up 7 Up game and if someone talked they had to do 5 push-ups. So I made the class clown do like 20 push-ups because he wouldn't shut up. It's awesome having power.

In case you don't have facebook and would like to see my photos from Sweden I have created an online photo album. Here is the link: http://s1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb369/ostrows/ Let me know if it doesn't work.

It's cold now. And I don't like it. I have to wear layers and a hat and gloves. It's too early for this.

Peace, love, and Heads Up 7 Up

Jag spelar ishockey

So I was in the locker room on Sunday listening to the coaches explain some stuff before the game and I kept hearing "spelar." And it has been a word I've been hearing a lot while at hockey. I asked my teammate Cilla who I was sitting next to if that work meant "play" and I was right! It was such a cool feeling to have figured out what a word meant just by hearing it so much. I never looked it up or asked someone how to say "play." After hearing it so much I figured it out from context. I never believed people when they said you'll pick up the language just from being there long enough. But it has been proven true. 2 months in and I am now starting to get a hang of what the coaches are saying. I'm hearing things over and over again and words are starting to stick out. Like I kept hearing "bra tjejer" and figured out on my own that is meant "good girls." It is nice that I am playing hockey because I am getting directly spoken to in Swedish vs just being in Sweden and hearing people talk Swedish around me but not to me. I have signed up to take Swedish class in January offered through my university. I could have taken it this semester but I wanted to get a base before jumping into it. Come January I think the class will be easier because I have been picking up words and sounds.

I worked 7-4 Monday and today at the warehouse. My body is so tired/sore from standing/walking/bending/reaching. I enjoy it though. I like seeing all the cool stuff Stadium sells. I want most of it. And I get to hear songs I forgot I had on my Ipod because I'm listening to it on shuffle for 9 hours straight. It's going to be nice having the extra cash for traveling/fun things. The International English School called me asking if I could teach some classes today but I was at Stadium so I had to decline. The secretary said a lot of people were sick so maybe they will need me some other time this week. My coaches work construction during the winter when they can't work at the golf course so I am hoping to maybe get in on that a little bit and learn some handy skills.

I find enjoyment in how my coaches translate hockey terms into English. Referees=judges, bench=booth, net=goal, shot=score, backcheck=home (they scream "hem, hem, hem" when they want us to backcheck). It's amusing. Mandy and I chuckle to each other. It is nice having another American to get my jokes and slang.

I got to train the dogs with Karin again. It is so much fun. She rode the wagon while I rode a scooter/bike thing. Two wheels, handlebars, and I stand. Two dogs pulled me while 3 dogs pulled her. We went 14 km and were out while it got dark so we wore bright headlamps and it was awesome being pulled in the dark in the middle of the countryside. The dogs are amazing. They can pull me up hills. I kick a little to help them on very long/steep ones but for the most part they can do it all themselves. And they are so trained and behaved. They listen to Karin so well and know directions and speeds. I've tried to go more than the two times I've gone but our schedules haven't synced right. I can't wait to train them on the snow. Dog mushing...check.

I forgot to tell you about my team building weekend. We went to the golf course our coaches work at on Saturday and stayed the night in a summer house that wasn't being used. The golf course was so pretty. Up against a huge lake in the middle of the forest/countryside. We got golf lessons on the driving and putting range. I did ok. Not as good as I had hoped since I was starting to get the hang of it this summer but I did alright. We had dinner and they provided wine, cider, and beer. It was awesome. We got to hangout outside of hockey which was really good. Everyone bonded and it got our team closer.

I stayed at a hostel in Stockholm the night before my flight to Vt. It was my first hostel experience. I stayed in the large dorm because it was the cheapest. I don't know how I feel about them. It was stuffy and people we coming in all through the night. I didn't sleep well at all. But it could have just been that particular hostel. There was a kitchen that offered free pasta and a lounge with a tv and computers. A ton of young adults were staying there from all over. I was being anti-social that night though so I didn't branch out to meet anyone. Maybe if I was staying there for longer I would have tried harder but I was just using it as a place to sleep for the night. Hopefully my hostel experiences will improve on my trip with Court in January.

Time to watch the new episode of Dexter. Peace, love, and I know like 4 words in Swedish!

Swedish hat trick!

Ok, so I apologize for going so long without blogging. It is the first time I’ve gone this long from writing and it won’t happen again and I have some good excuses for why it has taken me so long to write. 1) I flew back to the States (Burlington, VT) for a quick (4 days) mission trip to get Afton back. It was more like a 6 day trip if you include travel time. Mission accomplished. I’m not going to go into detail, but most of you who are reading this have already been explained to in more detail about the situation. Basically, I had to fix what I had messed up which meant taking a romantic gesture to get my girl back. It worked and I am now happily back with Afton. The trip back to America was amazing. It was so nice being able to ease drop on peoples’ conversations instead of just constantly hearing Swedish. You don’t realize how different home is until you go back and see it with having a different perspective in mind. After being in Sweden for about two months, you can see how different it is from home but it isn’t until you return to home that you really can see how the two differ. The biggest thing I noticed was how “friendly” strangers were. Everywhere I went I found myself having more than a “Hi, I would like blah blah blah thank you bye” conversation. Random things would be talked about with complete strangers. It is not like that in Sweden. There is no customer service. You get what you ask for and you go on your way. At Dunkin’ Donuts they asked me a billion questions when I ordered an iced latte. They made sure I was getting exactly what I wanted. In Sweden if I asked for an iced latte I’d get a plain iced latte with no sugar or milk unless I stated it in the beginning. That is just an example. I really enjoyed eating bagels while I was visiting. Sweden doesn’t do bagels. It’s a shame. And being the Jew that I am, its tough without bagels. Watching football on Sunday was a big thing I didn’t realize I’d miss but I did. It felt good to drive since I don’t have a car in Sweden and I love driving. I enjoyed being able to read everything and understand everyone. Overall it was a great trip back to America. I brought back to Sweden with me tampons (Sweden doesn’t understand the concept of applicators)(Sorry dudes that are reading this J), Halloween stuff for our Halloween party because it doesn’t exist in Sweden, clear hockey tape because Swedes use packaging tape for sock tape which I am not fond of because I need to use my skate to rip it, and peanut butter because it tastes like shit here. Care package ideas hint hint J.

Reason #2 why I have been blog non-existent: The end of my first quarter for school is this coming Friday so I have been really busy working on a final project and finishing rewrites that are due by the end of the quarter. I am doing a project on the effect of traffic on lichens. I had to go around Linkoping and sample 80 trees. I have to write a maximum 8 page (SINGLE SPACED L) report and have a 15 minute presentation on Friday so I need to bust out a ton of work this week. I am happy for this quarter to be over. I am ready for a new course. This last course was “Methods in Ecology” and focused on labs, reports, and scientific articles. Next course is “population ecology” which seems interesting. I think a lot is going to be on computer modeling which I am nervous about because I am not too into programming and modeling but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. Bring it on.

Reason #3: Im lazy. I probably could have written before now but I decided to watch American tv shows on my lap top instead J deal with it.

Let’s see…Hockey. We had our first season game today agasint Karlskrona which is about 5 hours south from Norrkoping. We won 7-0 and I got a hat trick as well as an assist. Pretty baller. I got the game puck which is sweet. I am so happy I am playing here because I have gotten my passion back for hockey. I am having so much fun with my team and everything associated with the hockey. I enjoy the practices and the team is getting closer which is awesome. The intensity is high enough to where I cant mess around but it is not too high to where the fun is taken out of it and it is more of a job than an activity. We have our second season game next Sunday at home which I am excited about. My roommates said they might come to support which would be awesome. And my friend Ethan also wants to catch a game so hopefully I’ll have some fans.

When I got back from America the weather was significantly colder. I was not prepared for it. Its only going to get colder and darker. On a positive note I’ll get to where my kick ass winter hats that I love so much. I work tomorrow at the warehouse which I’m looking forward to because I haven’t worked in a couple weeks because of school. The last week and a half we haven’t had class because we are doing projects. It was a perfect time to take a trip because I wasn’t missing anything. This week is also projects so I am hoping to work because it is hard for me to work when I have class. I wouldn’t spend 8 hours working on my project anyway so I would be doing nothing so I’d rather work.

I promise I won’t make you wait this long for an entry ever again. I am currently sitting on the team bus watching Boondocks Saints with Swedish subtitles on our way home from our game. Bad ass. Peace, Love, and Swedish hat tricks J

Busy, busy, busy

My day trip to Stockholm rocked. Hanne and I took a bus and it took about 2 hours from Norrkoping. We walked to the Armemuseum first which had Swedish war stuff from the time of the Vikings to present day. It was awesome learning about Vikings and seeing old war objects. We then walked around the busy city part of Stockholm that had shopping and businesses. Stockholm is so clean and elegant. You can really tell how new America is when you come to a European city. The buildings are all beautiful with such detail. Our cities have such modern architecture. I was expecting it to be more crowded and crazy but it was not overwhelming at all. The sidewalks were filled with people but not overcrowded and the streets weren't crazy with cars. We went to the Vasamuseet which has a 17th century war ship that was lifted from the bottom of the sea 300 years after it sank.  It was the coolest thing I've ever seen. Like to the point that when I entered the room I got chills. Just this HUGE wooden battle ship with windows for cannons and intricate carvings all over. My mind started going into crazy imaginations of sea battles. It was weird. I never really put history into context before and after seeing something like that it made me realize that that stuff actually happened and wasn't just a fairytale. After that revelating experience we walked around Galma Stan "Old City." It had narrow cobble stoned streets with shops and the streets would all converge into a big square with cafes. We also checked out the Nordiska Museet which was about Swedish culture. The whole day was great. The weather was sunny and in the 60's and everything went smoothly.

Mandy's friend from Iran, Ehsan, had a birthday party and she brought me with her so she wouldn't feel awkward. I don't know how I feel about parties here. They are very, how should I put it, boring. And awkward. It was actually an interesting party. We counted the number of countries represented and it was 12. That's a lot of countries. I guess I am just used to college parties which don't involve dinner, dessert, coffee time. Sitting around talking about random things does not interest me. So I need to either A) find a crowd that fits my interests or B) somehow manage to enjoy this new type of social gathering. I am hoping for A. I have only been here a month and a half so it is still early. I will find them where ever they are.

I am now writing three blogs. I went from never writing to writing all the time. I have this blog and the blog for the school and now I have taken on writing a blog for a website about women's hockey called http://www.womenshockeylife.com/. I contacted the woman who invented the site because she helps find girls teams overseas and when I wasn't sure if my team was going to make it I started talking to her. Although she didn't have anything to do with my playing hockey internationally she asked if I'd write for her blog. So I said yes. I am able to take pieces from my other blogs so it is not that much extra work. I kind of like it. Potential hobby? I think yes.

I substituted again at the International English School. P.E. for the 5th grade class. We were outside and played soccer, ultimate frisbee, and badminton. The kids just do their own thing. It is fun to talk to them. I am starting to warm up to the idea of possibly liking kids. Baby steps though. The day care called me the other day asking me if I could work but I had class so I couldn't. I didn't want to turn it down because it was their first time contacting me but it was a class I couldn't miss. They said they will contact me in the future so hopefully that happens. It is better to say yes because then they find you reliable and are more likely to call you back in. I have also been working at the warehouse a little. So random work here and there. Not enough to overload my schedule which is good. I am hoping to hear from the concert hall soon. I'm sure they will need more cleaners once holiday events start happening.

School is going well. This week was on grasslands. Malin (classmate) and I teamed up for collecting samples from grazed and non-grazed grasslands and rode our bikes through a nature reserve to find them which was really cool. Sweden has such beautiful scenery. There is so much non touched land here. One more week of modules then we start our two week project and then the course is over. Our weekly reports and the final project are what we are getting graded on so there is no final exam. The work load is not too bad which is great. I've heard nightmare stories about grad school so I am happy Sweden knows what's up.

We found out we will be playing in Division 2 south this season for hockey. It is disappointing that we aren't playing in Division 1 south but the way it works is you have to win the division below in order to play the next division. Last year Vita Hasten played in Division 2 east but it is no longer a division. They didn't win by enough goals to join Division 1 east. So we will most likely be playing teams that are a lot worse than us which is not the most enjoyable. But it just means we gotta kick ass and make sure we make it to Division 1 for next season. After christmas the playoffs begin and we start to play the last 4 teams in Division 1 south. Those games will determine whether we move up next year. So I've set a goal for myself that we will make it to Division 1 south for next season. Wish me luck. We are having a team bonding weekend this weekend. Our sports manager works at a golf course so we are spending saturday there and playing golf and spending the night there. I am looking forward to it because over the summer I was really starting to get the hang of golf and left right when I was feeling I had my swing down and haven't played since I've been here. I am also looking forward to bonding more with my team. It has just been we show up, practice, and leave so we haven't had much hangout time to get to know eachother well and get comfortable. The language and culture barrier decreases the speed of having a team come together so this weekend is a good idea.

Everything is going great. I have a good routine going. School everyday, hockey 3 times a week, and work interspersed. The only thing that is lacking is my social life. I am friends with my classmates, roommates/their friends, and teammates but have yet to form a common group that hangs out and does stuff together. It has been ok because I am so busy that when I do have free time I either do homework, blog, skype, nap, or watch American tv shows on my computer and the down time is nice since some days I am busy from 8am to 10pm. I'll start to be more proactive once I get more comfortable with juggling everything and having enough time for the important things. Shout out to my teammate Maggie who's keeping real in America enjoying spaghetti o's while I am deprived.

Hej då!

STOCKHOLM

I'm going on a day trip to Stockholm tomorrow with my new British friend Hanne. We met during school orientation because we were 2 of 3 international students in the biology masters program. Everyone else is Swedish. She is in the ethology program and lives in Norrkoping. I ran into her on the campus from from Linkoping to Norrkoping the other day and I mentioned I want to start exploring but I want to do it with someone and she was like well I am down for that. So we are going to be travel buddies. She seems fun and outgoing. I'm not sure what we are going to do in Stockholm but I have my books from Alisha to read up on what cool things to check out.

Work. I work now. Sometimes. I started work at the Stadium (sporting goods store) warehouse on Monday. Since I have class everyday I can only work half days. It is a mindless job. There is a conveyer belt with boxes which have an invoice in them. I find the merchandise on the list and put them in the box and send it on its way. A lot of walking and carrying stuff. I listen to music and get into my own zone and the time flys. There is no work schedule. I find out the night before or the day of if they want me to come in. I worked Monday and Wednesday afternoon this week. Adding work into my schedule has definitely changed the speed of things. On days I have school, work, and hockey I never had a break. But it's not that bad. I still have time to do my homework and sleep.

Four weeks of school are down. This week's module was on shallow lakes and alternative stable states.  We went to a lake about 45 minutes away and took samples of the invertebrates.  It was a beautiful place. We have two more weeks of modules and then the last two weeks of the course we have a mini project.

Court and I are very close to planning our trip over winter break. I am very excited. Amsterdam, Germany, and Prague. We are going to be either in Prague or Amsterdam on New Years which will be awesome. If any of you have suggestions for the trip let me know.

Karin, my Swedish roommate, was in the kitchen cutting slices from this dark block that looked like fudge. Intrigued, I asked what it was. She said blood pudding. I laughed and said no really what is it? She said no really its blood pudding. Apparently that is something Swedes eat. She fried it in a pan and ate it with jam. I tried it soley to say I've eaten blood pudding. It did taste irony and crunchy kind of like burnt toast. So yeah, I've eaten blood pudding.

Deb (Boston roommate) planned a Halloween party in late October with costume contests. I need to think of a good costume. I normally suck at that. Suggestions are welcome.

Per, who I met when looking for places to stay and who helped me pick up some furniture, invited me over one Friday night to hangout. I had a game the next day so I wasn't drinking but I went anyway to be social. Swedes are SO awkward. It's like we sit and look around and its silent and no one says anything. I didn't know what to do. Like yeah we don't know each other well but I've never been in a situation in the states were there is silence at a party. And when I think of a party I think of cases of beer and drinking games. That's not how they roll in Sweden. He had popcorn on the table and we sat in the living room and everyone sipped on their drinks. Weirdos.

No hockey this weekend which is why I am taking advantage of the free weekend and checking out Stockholm. This is the first free weekend I've had besides the first weekend after I arrived. Now that I am all settled I am ready to explore.

During school orientation a woman came up to the table I was sitting at during lunch and asked if any of us were interested in blogging for the university. Since I was already writing a personal blog I said sure. I got an email recently to start it and they said there will be a 6 week trial period to see if they like the blog and we can potentially become a paid blogger for the university. Pretty sweet.

Have a good weekend!

7-0 win against Nora in Orebro!

On Saturday we traveled to Orebro about two hours North to play a preseason game against Nora. We won 7-0. We should have won by more but we couldn't finish. It was still a good game we just played down to their level which sometimes happens when you are playing a team that isn't as good. I played well but couldn't put the puck in the net until the third period. I also had a sexy assist to my line-mate Bohm. I think we connect well on the ice. I enjoy playing with her. I played center the first game and right wing this game. They are moving lines around to see who plays best where and with who. I hope they keep Bohm and I together. I can see us doing some nice things. The rink was in a different building than the locker rooms which I found interesting. Thank god Mandy told me to buy a pair of skate guards before I came because I use them everyday. However, they have already broken. I must walk a little bow-legged because my skates cut through the plastic of the sides skate guards. I have manages to find random ones laying around the rink so I have a working combination at the moment. Our first season game is on October 15th against Sodertalje SK (the team we played last weekend). We can totally beat them so I am pumped we get a rematch. They are going down.

I'm done with 3 weeks of school already. I passed my first module (week) report which is nice. The course is 8 weeks long. We have 3 more weeks of modules and then the last two weeks are for our projects so we won't have any class. I am looking forward to that. I don't know anything about the projects but I am assuming we conduct an experiment of our choice and then at the end of the two weeks we present it. I haven't thought about what I am going to choose as my experiment yet. Maybe something to do with wetlands so I can wear waders again.

I am working at Stadium on Monday after class. It is the warehouse job set up by my hockey team. Apparently the protocol is that the first 4 hours you work for them are unpaid? It doesn't make any sense to me but that's how they work. So Monday I won't get paid but from there on out I will. My roommate Deb is also working at Stadium so hopefully we will work the same shift sometimes and can commute together from Linkoping (Stadium is in Norrkoping). I haven't heard back from the school for work. I think that they only expect that I can be a P.E. teacher because I play sports. When I go in to drop off my pay sheet I'm going to tell them I can also teach science because that was my major in college. Lyndal, my goalie that is a cleaner there, told me they get tunnel vision and only think you can work one area and to tell them I can do other subjects too. They are in need of substitutes a lot because of sickness so hopefully once I tell them I am comfortable teaching other subjects they will call me up. Who would of thought that I'd be a teacher. Weird. Following in my mother's footsteps :) As much as I don't find kids the more enjoyable things in the world, I surprisingly enjoyed being the P.E. teacher and telling them what to do. They all just listened to me and did what they were told. Maybe they were just exceptionally well-behaved kids. Who knows.

It is starting to get a little colder. I can tell in the mornings that I am not wearing enough and I used to not be cold. It is also getting darker earlier. Like around 7:30pm instead of 9pm. It is only going to get darker and darker and colder and colder. Bring it on Sweden. It gets so windy sometimes. Like to where I feel I am getting blown over. It really sucks riding my bike in the wind. I am hate it when bugs fly into my eyes when I'm biking. It has happened like three times. And then it stings and I can't get it out. Sucks to suck.

I have gotten comfortable with the bus system/route. I had to go downtown to pick up a package from my mom because they don't deliver them and so I took the bus because I didn't want to deal with riding back with it. I haven't purchased a back rack for my bike yet. Or baskets. But I haven't really needed it. Except for instances when I want to pick up a package. When I go grocery shopping I bring my travel backpack and everything fits in it. Anyway, I used the bus to go to the post office and I didn't get lost.

I have been here a little over a month now and it feels like I have been here way longer. I feel very comfortable here and my routine is nice. Since partying is not a hobby of mine here I need to figure out what my hobbies are. I should have brought my guitar here so I could teach myself and actually consider myself someone who can play it. Maybe I'll have my parents bring it out when they visit.

The path from my place to campus is CRAZY during school hours. People are idiots on their bikes. I have almost died a couple of times. No one understands walking on the right side. It pisses me off. There are so many bikes on campus and when it is in between class time there is like no room to walk it is so packed.

I have figured out how to use online banking. There is this number pad that I put my card in and there is a code from the internet that I have to put into it along with my pin number and then I can access my account online. Very secure. I can transfer money to people very easily. And I think I will get paid by having it be transfered into my account because they ask for my account information. Sweden has the banking thing down.

So I drink coffee now. Not everyday. But when I'm in class about to fall asleep and we get a break I get some. It works. It actually makes me jittery. I will go from almost passing out in class to not being able to stop moving. Does the job though. And it tastes good. F American coffee. The coffee at a gas station here is equivalent to the top coffee at home. I am totally pulling that out of my ass but I bet its true.

It's gloomy today. Looks like I'll be chilling inside and watching movies. Stay classy America!

KEBAB

Kebabs are SO good. I had my second one today and it was so satisfying. America needs to create their own kebab.

Saturday we lost our first preseason game to Soldetalje near Stockholm 4-3. It was a close game. They play in Division 1 East (I think we are in Division 1 South) and qualified for the top tournament last year so they are considered a good team. We only had 2 lines and it was our first time playing together and I still think we did well so I am excited to see how much we improve throughout the season once we get more comfortable playing with each other. We had to borrow two girls from the team in Linkoping because we were missing so many of our players. I think the coaches are trying to make a deal with the Linkoping team to have some of their girls play with us that don’t play much on their team. I scored the first goal. It was a rebound 5-hole. I got rocked after I shot it so I didn’t even know I scored. Sweden hockey is very physical compared to home. I felt like I was getting hit a ton and colliding a lot more with people. It feels great to be playing competitive hockey again. I think I can be a big help to the team. One problem we have is commitment. There are a lot of girls missing practices which is kind of annoying. If we had more players we could have a punishment for missing practice but we need as many skaters as we can get so its hard to get everyone on the same page as far as coming to all the practices and games. I hope that my commitment and work ethic will rub off on my teammates so that they see it is important to show up and work hard. I am not a leader when it comes to hockey normally but I feel that here I have had a lot better coaching in terms of hockey sense so I am going to work on speaking up when I have something helpful to add and sharing some of my knowledge with my teammates. Just small things. We had practice on Sunday and none of the coaches could make it so they assigned me the substitute coach. It was a lot of fun. I picked all my favorite drills and games and we had a good time. We stopped at McDonalds after the game and it is different than home. The fries are the same but they have different sauces on the chicken sandwiches…I don’t know how I feel about it. We have our second preseason game on Saturday so I am looking forward to that. We are doing a fundraiser to raise money for Vita Hasten and we have to sell toilet paper and paper towels. I don’t know how I’m going to sell three sets but I think my roommates and I are going to go in on one. My professors seem intrigued about my hockey so I’m going to ask if they want to help support it. We will see.

School is going well. Week 3. Were learning about microbial organisms in soils. We went out to a farm and collected sediment samples yesterday. It was such nice weather. I’m enjoying the set up of the course. Each week being a different topic and we create an experiment associated with the topic and end with a report and seminar to discuss everything.

Last week I went and dropped off my resume at the International English School and they called me this morning asking if I could substitute for the P.E. teacher. So I had my first day of work in Sweden. It is so relaxed here. I could have never just walked into a place in the States, given them my resume, and waited for them to call if they needed me. I would have to interview and impress them and have a competitive resume.  But apparently they are always in need of substitutes because teachers get sick and stuff. So I’m hoping they will be calling me every once in a while to step in. I had a 6^th grade class and a 9^th grade class. For the 6^th graders we played inside the gym for the first half doing pingpong and basketball. Then we went outside and played football and soccer. For the 9^th graders we were outside and played football and soccer. It was a lot of fun. They said they wanted to play American Football so I said ok and one team kicked off and the other team got the ball and started throwing the ball around and it became like keep away. I was not expecting that. It was funny. I haven’t heard from the concert hall yet about work but they may not need people until they start having more events closer to the holidays. As far as the warehouse job set up by the team I haven’t been able to work yet because of my class schedule but I am hoping to work this week when I have time. They don’t contact you until the night before and sometimes even the morning of.

That’s all I have for now. Everything is awesome and I love it here. I’ve gotten into a routine and it feels good. Class, hockey, and now some work. I still have enough time to get good sleep and do my homework and have time to chill. It is weird how different my lifestyle is now. It is as if I’ve grown up and I don’t even think about partying, staying out late, doing stupid things. What has the world come to? It was about time I snapped out of la la land though. Not too shabby. Peace everybody!

Game time!

Saturday at 2pm we, Vita Hasten, have a pre-season game! I don't know who were playing or where we are playing. I just know I have to be at the rink at 8am and we are making a stop at Hockey Monkey on the way to the game. Apparently it is a big deal. There aren't a lot of good hockey stores around Norrkoping so when they get a chance to visit Hockey Monkey they go crazy. Since I've been here Hockey Monkey has been referenced like 10 times. I am excited to play and see how the team does. I heard the team we are playing is good. Last year, Vita Hasten played in Division 2, but this year we are playing in Division 1. 20 minute stop-time periods. I can't wait to see if the game is played differently here. Mandy said it is more physical which is fine with me. Throw some bows. I will score you all a Swedish goal.

Sneezing. No one says "bless you." You sneeze and it is as if nothing happened. Different, but I like it. I don't see the point in saying anything. I will come back to the US and seem rude because I'll be used to not saying anything. Also, I love how I don't have to make small talk with strangers or make eye contact with anyone. Everyone keeps to themselves. Buses are silent, no one talks in line, cashiers just check you out and you go on your way. I am always in my head anyway so its nice not having to talk a lot.

I was on my way to class and I heard a marching sound. I thought to myself, "Oh, it's normal, probably some people dressed in weird clothes marching in a line." I looked behind me and it was a man pushing a cart that was making the sound on the sidewalk cracks. Is it bad that I am assuming students marching a normal thing now?

School is going well. Almost done with week two. This week was on wetlands. We took sediment samples in a wetland in Linkoping and determined the phosphorous content of it. Pretty fun. We got to wear waders and strut around in the highly vegetated wetland that smelled like poo after a night of drinking...I can't say I enjoyed that part. But besides that, it was fun. I like the students in my program. We all get along well and cooperate well in lab. They are respectful of the fact that I don't know Swedish and speak to each other in English so I can join into conversations. If they want to switch to Swedish so it is easier to express themselves they will apologize first and tell me they are switching.

Jens, the sports manager for Vita Hasten, has set me up with a job. It is were most of the team is employed. It is called Bemannings Profssen and is a warehouse job filling up packages. It is in Norrkoping so I don't know how much I will be able to work with having class everyday. The way it works is they will text you asking if you can work on a certain day for so and so hours and you can reply yes or no and tell them the hours you can work. It will be very random for when they text me. I visited two places in Linkoping today and gave them my resume. One is at the International English School. Lyndal, my goalie, works there and said they were mentioning they were understaffed and are in need of substitutes as well as other work such as cleaning. She also told me about a place called Konsert & Kongress which is the concert hall in Linkoping. They need people to help set up and take down events and clean up. I visited it today and met with the main cleaning lady named Erica and she was really nice. So I have a few options for work. They will all call if they need me so it is sporadic work here and there but it is better than nothing. The more money I make the more traveling I can do.

My friend Per is having a party tonight and invited me over to hangout so I think I'll go and make some friends. No drinking because I have a game but I want to meet people so I'll go until they go out. When I was looking for placed to live he was one of my options but I ended up picking this place but he is a hockey fan and we became friends. He has a car and helped me pick up some furniture when I first got here.

TGIF peeps. Have a good weekend!

Hej hej

I have a bank account at Nordea now so I can use the ATMs and pay for things without an international and exchange fee. In Sweden, a lot of things can be paid online such as rent and bills. They give each person a number pad that hooks into your USB slot and that is how you pay over the Internet at home. I don’t know how it works yet, but both of my roommates have Nordea so they will be able to show me.

For my winter break, I’m hoping Court and I will be doing a mini Euro trip. Amsterdam-Germany-Prague for 2 weeks. End in Prague for New Years. I’m having Court do all of the planning. She knows her shit. I can’t wait. I am hoping to do a couple smaller trips before winter break, but I don’t know how much time I will have with school and hockey. I could do Copenhagen for a weekend because it is so close. Also, I need to do a weekend in Stockholm. There are also a lot of other places in Sweden I want to check out. We will see how my schedule goes.

           

The grocery stores here have the most amazing bulk candy section. So many choices of gummies and chocolate. Amazing.

I am so happy here. This could possibly be the best time of my life and best decision I’ve made. Israel coming in as a close second. And I’m not sure why or how to explain it. But if I were to take it from a happy standpoint, I am on the happiest level of my life’s happy spectrum. Sweden is so easy going and that is probably why I am enjoying it so much. Fits well with my lifestyle. Also, I think I am overall in a better Zen because of the sky. I don’t know what it is, but the sky seems so much bigger here. Like I can see for kilometers and kilometers (notice the metric units J). And the clouds are amazing. So many levels of them. High up ones, low ones, middle ones. Such a bright blue sky too. It is as if the sky is more spherical here and more flat at home. It is hard to explain. You will have to come visit me to understand. So please do.

There are bike paths everywhere throughout Linkoping. It is great. I can get anywhere on them. Downtown, to the shopping area, school. And the trails in the forest near my apartment are awesome. There is a 5km running trail and a 2.5km running trail. There are also bike paths going through the forest. And a disc golf course.

I have seen like 2 SUVs here. It is strange. I really wish I was a good cook because I'm getting tired of eating the same thing over and over again. But it's just so easy to get simple things at the grocery store. Maybe it is just because I haven't been here long enough to stockpile things. I'll give it time. So we have a washer machine which is uncommon so I'm happy, but we don't have a dryer. I didn't think I'd care. But I kind of do. I have a drying rack and it takes a long time for my clothes to dry. But that doesn't really bother me. It is how the clothes fit after being air dried vs. dried in a dryer. I don't like the feeling or the fit. But I'm dealing with it. It doesn't actually bother me that much. I can just notice it. 

It rains randomly here. Not a lot but a good amount. Lots of rainbows. And it rains while it’s sunny. Freaky. The temperature has been great though. Still in the 60’s. I wonder when it starts to get cold here. Hopefully not right away because I am enjoying it how it is. Hockey hasn't said anything about a job. So I'm assuming they aren't going to get me one. One of my goalies has a couple contacts for work for me. One is a bilingual daycare, but I don't like kids so I probably should leave that one to last choice. The other is working as a janitor at a concert hall. So basically cleaning up after events. I might go in and give them my info. And by might I mean I won't until Daddy forces me to get a job :). The way it works is they call people when they need workers. So hours will be random and the amount of work is unknown. Better than nothing though. I wouldn't mind nothing either.

I am enjoying the weekend not doing much. My first “real week” was a great one. I don’t feel stressed about being too busy with hockey or school. Perfect amount of work time and chill time. I can’t plan any trips until I know my hockey schedule. They have been posting our practice times on a weekly basis and we don’t have a game schedule yet so I have to wait before I plan some trips on free weekends. Hope everyone’s weekend is going good. I have an app on my Itouch that allows free texting internationally: 636-384-1376 is the number. Hit me uppppp!

P.S. I am not sure how Vita Hasten (my hockey team) found out my nickname was Oz, but when I showed up the first day everyone was like "Hey Oz." I love it. 

Bra jobbat! (Good job)

That's basically all the coaches say on the ice. Bra jobbat! Bra jobbat! And vatten (water). I'm slowly picking up on the common words the coaches use to explain drills. But I mostly just watch them draw it and figure it out on my own. I now say thanks, you're welcome, and goodbye in Swedish. Tack, hej då, och varsågod. I have practice tonight and tomorrow morning. Had it on Wednesday. We do a workout before with running, pushups, abs, etc. I love practice. There are no mats from the locker room to the ice so we have to wear skate guards. Brings me back. We keep our stuff at the rink in bins that go into a drying room. Pretty cool. I have been getting a ride with my teammates from Linkoping which is nice not to have to deal with buses. Its only about a 35 minute drive to the rink.


School is good. Week 1 down. 7 weeks to go with this course (Methods in Ecology) and then exam week. There are 6 of us in the Ecology and the Environment masters program. We all get along well which is good. It is funny because 4 out of the 6 of us are Swedes so me and this other kid who I have no idea where he's from are causing the course to be taught in English. Everyone speaks good English but sometimes they can't get across what they are trying to say so they switch to Swedish. We have lecture once a week, 2 seminars where we discuss papers and topics, and lab. Each week is a different topic in ecology and there are different professors for each topic so I have like 4 different professors for this course. Something different from the States. For this week's lab we went outside to the campus wetlands and collected organism to do a trophic cascade experiment. At the end of the week we have a report due on the topic of the week. The professor said 2 pages and I was thinking piece of cake and then I read the instructions and it said single-spaced. Ugh. But overall it seems pretty easy and straightforward. I am also enrolled in a course called Advancements in Academic Studies. We are supposed to read and analyse scientific papers. My program's professors think it is redundant for us to take that class because we read and analyse scientific papers in our courses. So they are petitioning for us to get out of the class. I hope they win ha. It is once a week on Thursdays and I showed up yesterday for class and the professor was like blah blah we are going to be reading and analyzing papers in this class and next week so and so will be talking about scientific writing and then we were done. Huge waste of getting up at 9:30am for a useless 20 minute talk. If I were to order books they would take over 4 weeks to arrive so I guess I'll either buy them at the campus bookstore for more expensive or use the library copies and see how far I can get with that. 


My roommates and I went to Ikea yesterday to get stuff for the house. It is so cheap there. We got tons of stuff. The common areas looks homey now instead of bare and the kitchen has everything we need. New curtains, shower curtain, rugs, candles, etc. We ate dinner there and it was amazing. Swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce and potatoes with gravy. Sweden loves sparking water. They have it on tap and it is so good. I also got their soft-serve ice cream. Omg, best soft serve ever. It was practically whipped cream. They also had really cheap chocolate bars and these cinnamon rolls things called kanelbulle. I sound so fat right now but like all this stuff is SO tasty. You would eat it too. Also, they sold "Swedish Fish" in Ikea. Obviously I bought them. They taste way better than the Swedish Fish at home. And the fish say "Swedish" on them. I find it ironic to be eating Swedish Fish in Sweden.


This afternoon I went with Karin (Swedish roommate) to train her dogs. She mushes. It was awesome. We drove to a military reserve and she has a wheeled sled for non-snow training. I go to drive the wagon as well as sit and enjoy the ride. The dogs are amazing. Her and her friend have 6 huskies. They need 8 for races so they borrow two of their friends. I will upload pictures. I told her I'd go anytime with her I love it. And she said since I'm helping during the off-season that I have earned the right to participate in the winter. I can't wait.


Earlier this week my roommates, Deb's boyfriend, and his coworkers went to a student ran pub called VilleValla Pub about a 7 minute bike ride away. They have tons of beer selection. Good stuff. I ordered a fajita there. Not a typical American fajita. It was more of a quesadilla. I liked it.


Looking forward to the weekend and not having school. Love/miss you all. PEACE