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