Swedes being Swedes

There is a funny joke about Swedes that they like to keep to themselves and not interact with anyone so at bus stops people are spread out like 5 feet from the next person. I got a perfect picture of it today on my way to the campus bus stop. Funny stuff.

My trip to Ireland with Daniele is booked! April 20-26 with a pit stop in Amsterdam Apring 22-24. I can't even express how excited I am. Guinness all day all night. MMMM. I also have booked a trip to Copenhagen with Mandy and her classmate/friend Erin. Mandy needs to check out some Dutch museums for her thesis and she asked if I wanted to tag along. Of course I do. I have been wanting to go to Copenhagen really bad since it is so close (3.5 hour train ride). The free city tours that Court and I did everywhere on our Eurotrip are in Dublin and Copenhagen so I am definitely going to do those. I have definitely caught the travel bug and I love it. 

I have been helping with construction work at the golf course. I like it. The floor is being done at the moment so we have been leveling out the gravel and laying foam blocks on top. Lots of chainsaws, measuring tape, and rocks. Using a chainsaw is badass. I have also gotten myself back into working at the warehouse for Stadium (sports store). So I am going to be busy with work and planning my thesis at the same time as well as still having hockey practice for a couple more weeks.

I am a little nervous about next year's hockey season. First off, I am worried we aren't going to have enough girls to have a team. I have been hearing rumors about girls leaving and we were only 12 consistently throughout the year this season. However, I think the coaches have been trying to bring new girls in so I hope we have enough. It is sad because we have now moved up to the higher division and this is when we really need the girls' commitment. Secondly, I am worried there are problems with money and management. The guys team did not make it through the playoffs so there is a good chance that sponsors are going to pull out. Us being the girls team I think will really be hit hard from that. But this is all me speculating and being a negative nancy. I have faith that my coaches will fight hard enough for us. They are really invested in the team and I don't think they will give up.

It is SO spring here and I love it. The days are getting longer and I no longer need to where my hat and gloves. Those were definitely my best friends this winter. Time for the flip flops, sunglasses, and drinking beers outside. Mmm. My Swedish is coming along well. I have learned how sentences are structured which makes everything a lot easier. I've also learned the rules of things. Like why nouns end certain ways and stuff like that. The big thing left is learning vocab. I need to watch Swedish shows/movies to get the sounds down better. Some of the sounds are impossible to make. One of the sounds is very simular to the way Stewie on Family Guy says coolHWhip. The It is also good to watch shows in English and read the Swedish subtitles to learn vocab. I was thinking the other day about being fluent in another language. I am nothing close to being fluent in Swedish, but I was thinking about how when my Swedish friends speak English they are just freely talking and listening without thinking about it in Swedish first. I find that crazy. Mostly because I am trying so hard at Swedish but still I am so slow and bad. Oh well. It will come with practice. 

Vi ses (See you)!

Spring?

So all the snow has melted, it has been sunny and warm, and stuff is green. I am confused. I am in Scandinavia in the beginning of March and it is Spring conditions. I am not complaining, I am just confused. I am about to pull out my flip flops. But I have a feeling it is only teasing me and there will be another month cold spell where it is freezing to the point where I won't go outside unless I absolutely have to and I wear like 3 layers.

I just had a two day home exam that drained me. I spent way to much time thinking and doing school work. Like 14 hours in two days. Not fun. But now it is over and I am very relieved and excited for the weekend. I have one more week of Conservation Biology. It will consist of a debate. I have to argue against people being able to utilize/live in national parks/reserves in the tropics. Meh. I have never done a debate so I will probably suck. After this course I have a 4 week thesis planning course where I get everything figured out for my thesis. I have changed my mind on my project. Instead of wetlands I am going to study an endangered beetle that relies on old oaks. Oaks are declining so I am doing a survey on the population of the beetle. I'll walk around old oak forests and find beetles. My kind of thing. I always seem to be involved in things dealing with forests. I like them. Maybe I'll end up in some kind of forestry job/research in Sweden and never leave. Yeahhhh. I have been thinking since education is free as long as I have a work permit that I will stay and get my PhD here. Maybe. Why not?

So two teammates decided to prank me and put tiger balm on my lufa. I showered and it burned. I decided to get them back and put a laxative in their water bottles during practice. Yup, payback is a bitch. The next morning they were best friends with the toilet. Don't mess with me. However, I am scared to experience their payback to this. I think this is going to be an on-going battle until someone goes to far. I hope it's me who gets the last one in.

Daniel plays pick-up floorball (innebandy) on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have gone with him a couple times. It's a good time. I am not good at running with the ball yet but I will get better. It is like competitive floor hockey with a wiffleball and plastic sticks. Basically what we play in P.E. in elementary school in America but it is a real sport here. Most kids play it and continue into high school with it.

My next travel plans are Ireland and Copenhagen. I need to work a lot this month to save up. Daniele and I are planning to go together. What a shit show. We are thinking to go the week of April 16th and take a day trip to Amsterdam on the 20th. No reason. Ha. If anyone is traveling to Europe let me know because I will so meet you where ever you are.

Everything is good. Every once in a while I'll be riding my bike in beautiful weather and just think about how awesome it is to be in Sweden. It's like so chill. I am looking forward to the next phase here. No hockey, no school (maybe a little thesis work), a lot of work, and a lot of traveling. My brother wants to come out this summer and backpack/camp here. I think that will be really fun. Sweden is full of nature. I love it.

Undefeated Season!

That's right! 14-0 this season. A team in Division 1 South declined their position so we got moved up to Div. 1 without needing to qualify since we won our division (Div. 2 South). I am sad the season is over. I love my girls! We are practicing through March and may have some scrimmages. Then off-season training starts. I am excited to play in a higher level with more competitive teams. I have no idea who is coming back so next season will be interesting. We had an end of the year party and played laser tag. So intense.

My parent's visit was great. I missed them. It kind of sucked that I had school and hockey because I couldn't do much with them but we still had a nice time. Lots of home-cooked meals that I had been missing and nice days walking around downtown. They went to Stockholm and Gothenburg while I was busy. I am sad they are gone. I asked them what they thought of Sweden and they responded with "expensive and cold" ha. Pretty accurate. I think there is so much more to Sweden though. I love the flow here. No one is in a rush, no one cares about your business, everything is clean and efficient, and the Swedish race is beautiful. It's my kind of speed here. Enough preaching. I'll have to get my mom to come visit this summer. I don't think I will be going home until Christmas. I would rather travel Europe in the summer than in the winter and snowboarding is the best at home so I think I'll wait until Christmas break to go back to the States for a visit.

I'm pretty busy with school right now. I have an intense 3 weeks coming up in Conservation Biology but then it calms down for the rest of the school year. It is now time to start thinking about my thesis UGH. I have decided to pick a project pertaining to wetlands and phosphorous retention. I will be collecting data starting in the spring and throughout the summer and into the next school year. WOOF.

I worked at the golf course on Thursday. A barn is being remodeled into a club house so there is a lot to be done. I was scraping dirt off of stone walls with a metal brush to prepare them to be painted. It sounds unappealing, but it actually isn't that bad. But that might be because I was working with Mandy and we have a fun time together. And it's Sweden so they gave us 2 weeks to finish something that took 3 days to do. It is hard to not work as efficiently as possible, but Mandy and I are learning to stretch work out so we continue to have it ha. Lots of fika breaks.

There was a 3 week cold spell where it was not higher than like 10 degrees. Bhurrrr. It has warmed up a little bit. Still not that much snow. There is a good half a foot layer but I'm surprised by how little it has snowed here. It is so pretty. The snow stays white. I don't know how, but it doesn't get dirty. That's all I got for you. Sweden rules, America drools.

Back to the grind

Sorry that I haven’t blogged in a while. I will get back into the weekly postings now that I am back from my Eurotrip and settled. The rest of my Eurotrip was nice. In Munich we went to Dachau which was pretty intense. When learning about it you think yeah ok it happened and it’s really crazy. But when you visit a site of the Holocaust it makes it so much more real and unbelievable that something like that could happen. A legit walled and fenced-in area with rows and rows of barracks. There was a really good exhibit that took about 2 and a half hours to walk through and I probably only read half of the information. Rainer (hockey guy we met up with in Munich) took us to a traditional Bavarian restaurant for dinner. It was awesome. I ordered this huge piece of pork and it was so tasty. Fell right off the bone. It came with really good gravy and this potato ball thing. Yum. I think we got drunk at the hostel bar that night. We basically drank everyday so I have my nights mixed up. We flew to London next and stayed with our college teammate Hiss. She lives in such a cute area on the edge of London. She is up on a hill so you can see all of London. We were tired since it was week three of our trip so we mostly just hungout. We met up with an Israeli soldier Court met on her Birthright trip for a fun night of drinking. It felt really good to be home but I could have kept on going for a while backpacking around Europe. This trip we had where we were going to be for how many days planned out. Next time I’m just going to plan where I start and then the rest is up to what happens. Most likely I will start in Amsterdam again. It is very plausible that I will stay there the entire time ha. I loved it. Afton came to visit the day after I got back. I got some grades back from my first semester and I have passed everything yay. This term I’m taking a mathematical modeling course. It blowsss. The biological part is fine but the coding of models is not my thing. Good thing it is only 5 weeks long. Along side that course I’m taking a course called Advancements in Ecology. Its only once a week and we hold a discussion about literature we read. So my school load this quarter is pretty light. All the classes start at 1:15pm which is really nice. I may be able to fit in one day of work a week but it might be too much. Next quarter we have a period where we don’t have class to work on a project so I will work a lot then. I need to make some money so I can plan my next adventure. I’m aiming for Dublin in the spring. Hopefully Daniele will accompany me. Hockey is going really well. We beat the other competitive team in our league 7-0. We are 10-0. Complete 180 from Union ha. As long as we keep going strong we will win the league and then we just have to place well in the playoffs at the end of the season against the 4 last place teams in Division 1 to move up to Division 1. Rikserien is the highest league in Sweden. One above Division 1. Our team goal is to get there by 2015. As long as I can find a job after I graduate I plan to stay around in hopes of playing in Rikserien.  I have completely fallen in love with Sweden. The other day workers laid ice on the outdoor rink behind my apartment. I skated on it last night for a minute to check it out. So smooth. I am going to be out there everyday. My parents come tomorrow! They haven’t seen me play hockey since Union so I am excited they will see me play. Since I will be busy with school and hockey they plan to do trips during the week and then come back and watch my games on the weekends. My roommate Doctor Karin is moving out L she is going to go be a real person and work because she graduated med school a couple weeks ago. We had a nice going away party last night. Brought out the solo cups and played some flip cup. Deb is a spectacular baker and made a red velvet cake. It was damn good. She has a gift. Pretty boring right now sorry. Hopefully I’ll get some good stuff for next weeks blog. Stay classy America

EUROPE

I'm obsessed with backpack traveling. I don't want to return to reality. It is day 15 of the trip and Court and I have had a blast. I missed my flight to Amsterdam on December 26th. That didn't stop me from getting there though. I bought the next flight out and got to Amsterdam only two hours later than expected. Such a cute city. It is very easy to walk around. I somehow became map girl of the trip and surprisingly we haven't gotten lost yet. I have uncovered a hidden talent I didn't know I had. Amazing Race here I come. Highlights from Amsterdam: ate Gouda cheese IN the city of Gouda, stroopwafels are the most amazing treat in the world, walking around the Red Light District, and the quite/chill atmosphere when walking around crossing the canals. Bikers are CRAZY there. They don't stop...ever. And there are so many of them. The hostel we stayed at (Flying Pig Uptown) was great. People from everywhere chilling in the bar and the smoking room. We went to Berlin next and stayed with a family friend, Susanne and her son Korde. Such a cute family. Susanne walked us around Berlin and took us to the most famous currywurst stand. It was delicious. A hotdog with curry spice and ketchup. It originated in the Turkish area of Berlin. We were in Berlin over New Years and went to the huge celebration at the Brandenburg Gate. Over a million people were there. A 2 km stretch of street leading to the gate was blocked off and filled with food and drink stands and about every 100 meters there was a different stage playing music. 80's rock cover bands, djs, etc. The fireworks were beautiful. In every city Court and I have been doing these free city tours New Europe and they have been so awesome. They are about 3 hours and take you around the entire city and talk about the history of the city. They work off tips only which is a cool concept. We have learned so much about every place we've been to. It is basically an interactive, interesting history lesson but you're standing where the history happened. Pretty badass. Like we walked through the square where the book burning night happened before WWII where all the books written by Jewish authors or preached something against national socialism were burnt. We saw the hotel in Berlin where Michael Jackson held the baby out the window! From Berlin we headed to Prague. My favorite place so far. I don't know why exactly. But when I was there I felt the most connected to it. The city is so cute. The buildings are all the same but different pastel colors. The history about how it escaped communism is really interesting. It is weird because I am normally so uninterested in just about everything but being in these old cities and learning about their origins and the things they have gone through are intese stories. America is such a baby. Court and I had an unexpected absinthe night. Apparently it is a big deal in Prague. It was 5:30am until we went to bed. We partied with two brothers from Colombia. Good times. While in Prague we took a day trip to Plzen (hour and a half away) where Pilsner beer started. We went on a brewery tour of the Pilsner Urquell Brewery which supplies all over the world. It was an awesome tour. They took us down into the underground cellars where they stored huge barrels of beer and gave us glasses from the barrels. Way cooler than from a tap in a bar. Prague was SO cheap. We were buying beers for like 20 cents. Fried cheese is a traditional thing in Prague. It is like mozzarella sticks on steroids. So good. We went to Munich next. Which is where we are now. Beer, beer, beer, beer, beer. We took a day trip to Salzburg. A really cool city in Austria that has a huge fortress. Pictures will come in a week or so. It is like a fortress from a fairy tale. Walls like 300 feet tall and holes for shooting cannons out of. There is a women's ice hockey tournament going on in Fussen which is about 2 hours from Munich. We somehow got in contact with a guy that is involved in the European hockey world and he took us to the tournament. 6 nations: Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Germany, and Russia. It was fun to watch. Sweden beat Findland. WHAT UPPPP. We were going to go to the Hofbrahaus but we went next door to the Augustiner Brewery instead. Such a good decision. No tourist. Full of old German men drinking liters of beer. We are off to London tomorrow to stay with Hiss (college teammate) until Friday. Then I'm back to Sweden. Back to the real world of hockey and school. I wish I could jump from hostel to hostel with a backpack forever. Traveling is such an amazing experience. I can't wait to travel more this spring/summer. I left so much out about my trip. I could go on forever about everything. Basically I love Europe and never want to leave. Goodbye America <3

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.