Getting comfortable

Hello everyone!!!! Well, where to start?  This week has been great and so much fun!! Well, mostly the weekend =)   Monday was a normal day and we didn't do much during the day and had practice at our indoor facility at night.  Tuesday,  during the day we went on a morning run and did a little body weight workout because we didn't have practice that night.  Tuesday night the two coaches took Katie and I to a Swedish Hockey game.  It is the quarterfinals in the playoffs and it was so cool.  The team we were cheering for won 3-1 and it was such a good game.  The teams that played are in the highest division in Sweden and some of the players have also played in the NHL.  The fans there are so crazy and one section of the stadium stands up the entire game and sings songs, chants, and cheers literally the entire game and never stops.  We had great seats and the stadium only seats about 8,000 so you feel more like you are part of the game and can see everything so much better.  It was so crazy to see that and got us excited to go to a "futbol" game here in Europe.  Wednesday, was a very lazy day and Katie and I pretty much read our books and day and finished them.  Thursday morning we went to train with a "soccer school".  One of the girls on our team, MiMi goes to this school.  It is the same idea of our schools in the U.S. and they would be considered in high school, but for one of their classes in school they have soccer for 2 hours of day.  It is so cool and so crazy to think that soccer is considered a class here.  I can't imagine ever having anything like that in the U.S.  Thursday night we had practice and Friday we were off so we didn't do much.

Saturday we had a scrimmage game and we played the game about an hour and a half away.  We played in an indoor arena, but it was almost as big as a normal soccer field just not quite as long.  We didn't have our best game, but in the end we still got the result and won the game 1-0.  Saturday night we had a team party or "fest" at a girl on our team Sandra's house.  Katie and I decided to make an "American style" drink for all the Swedes to try so we made jungle juice.  It was a big hit and everyone loved it.  We had a large bucket of it and it was gone after about two hours.  The party was a great way for us to get more comfortable with our teammates and talk to them a lot more.  Everyone opened up so much so we were able to talk a lot more.  Our team is very good at speaking English so that helps out so much because obviously Katie and I can speak about 5 Swedish words.  Our team is so fun and so much fun and does a great job at making us feel comfortable and part of the team.  Most of the music they listen to her is American music so we just listened to music all night, played some trivia games, and danced!  It was a great time.

Sunday a couple of our teammates:  Sandra, Emma, and Nanni stopped by and surprised us with a visit.  They were walking around the town and wanted us to join them so we did.  We walked down to the Lake in Sunne which is the place to be in the summer.  There is a camping site, water park, dance club, and many other fun things all over looking a beautiful lake.  We walked around and took many pictures.  After that we all went to a pizza place here in Sunne and talked and had a great time.

I can't believe that we have already been here for two weeks.  It seems like just yesterday it was January and I found out I would be coming to Sweden. We have two more practice games before our first regular season league game on April 14.  I am so excited for the season and so happy to be a part of this team.  Katie and I are going to work really hard to learn more Swedish, but it is very difficult.  It is great we have such good teammates who speak English pretty well for the most part and make us feel so welcome.  Tomorrow we have a meeting about the jobs we will be getting and I am very excited because now we will have something to keep us busy during the days!