I'm back on the ice for the 2012/2013 season. It feels so good. I have switched hockey teams and now play for LHC (Linkoping). I'm going to miss Vita Hästen, but I'm looking forward to the better hockey. Thankfully, there were no hard feelings for me switching. We just started on-ice practices. The team is very international. Players from Norway, Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, and America. Lots of national team players. We start games in September. I can't wait. We have a big squad. 25. 15 of which are forwards. So there is going to be a lot of competing for spots. I like it that way though. Makes it more interesting. I think it will be a fun, challenging season.
I am taking down my traps for my thesis now. Back to running from cows. Today I tried to face my fear and approached a huge herd. I was feeling pretty confident until a cow started to walk towards me. I took a step back. It started to run. I sprinted to the fence and slid under the barbed wire before it could catch me. I don't believe the people who tell me cows are harmless. If they were harmless, they would slowly walk up to me. Not charge full speed. So I got the car stuck in a ditch at one site while I was putting the trap up. I was backing down a farm road and got to close to the edge and the car slid into the ditch. I found a farmer to pull me out with a tractor. So I was back at that site today taking the trap down and guess what? I got the car stuck in the ditch again. I couldn't believe it. Well, actually I could. I am horrible and backing up. So I found the same farmer and told him I got stuck again. He straight up laughed at me. Swedes are very reserved, don't show much emotion, and don't like to make a big deal of things. So for him to laugh like he did meant that he thought it was hilarious. I was so embarrassed to have to ask him to help me again. Such a nice guy. Taking the traps down is going a lot faster than putting the traps up which is nice. Except for when I get stuck in ditches. I think I'll finish on Friday. After the traps are down, I will look through all of them to see whether the species occurred or not at each site. From there I will relate oak density data to occurrence data and search for an oak density which explains the species occurrence. Ecology stuff.
Gentile and Elsa are coming to visit me next month! I am so excited. I am going to treat them like Egyptian princesses making their first trip to Scandinavia. I hope I am a good host for them.
That's really all that's going on. Hockey, thesis, a little bit of work at the warehouse. Chillin. I went camping with Daniel and Lyndal which was a lot of fun. In Sweden the land is open for anyone to use. So basically you can camp anywhere that isn't in plain site of a house. We went just 10 minutes from Linkoping to a place by a lake. I had bought a tent at a 2nd hand store for like $7 and it worked great. I hope to camp some more before winter comes. I have enjoyed the Swedish summer. When it isn't raining it is really nice. 70, sunny, little breeze. It does rain a lot though. Business hours change in the summer because everyone gets like 5 weeks of vacation. You really have to plan in advance because most likely the store that you want will only be open from 10-3 and even less on the weekends. Deb is moving out so we have found a new roommate. A French girl named Mel. She will be moving in in September. I will miss Deb, but she will still be in Linkoping. I think Mel will be fun and I am looking forward to her cooking ha.
