Photos and a lazy day

Here are the links for photos:

Ostrava
Vienna
Stockholm

Today was perhaps my laziest day of them all. I went through all the photos from the trip and tried to get organized after being away for so long. At 4:30, Diane and I walked to the fields because Anzo's company was playing a slowpitch softball game against another company. We were the score keepers and got to sit on the sidelines to keep track of the score., (17-13 after three innings). Pretty painless, and we got to join in the BBQ once the game was over. Tess's friend from UCSD is visiting so we talked to her during the game while Tess pitched. Back to the Dungeon after the game for a movie night with Diane. We didn't even realize it was a Friday night until about 20 minutes ago, haha. We are just dead tired.

As for the photo below--it's just a dressing that was at the BBQ. A lot of things in Sweden are advertised as being "American."  Too funny!

Stockholm: "Culture...yay."

Diane and I were loudly awoken by our middle ages female cabin-mates this morning, disrupting our precious recovery sleep. Nevertheless, we were waiting at the hop-on, hop-off station at 9:40 ready to take on the day. We stopped at Skansen to go into the world's first/only (?) outdoor museum. All over the park are the original houses from different eras and different parts of Sweden. The buildings were acquired by the museum and people were dressed in costume in different buildings to tell visitors about the place. We saw old farmhouses, schools, churches, manors, and a town center. There are also Scandinavian animal exhibits throughout the park. This took us around 2 hours and we got a bite to eat around 12:30. We walked along the Djugarden island after that and saw the amusement park and the outside of the Vasa Museum. The museum holds the whole Vasa ship which sank on its maiden voyage. We continued walking and saw the Nordic Museum which was one of the most beautiful buildings on the island. 

We hopped on again and rode it to where the Concert Hall is. There was a cute fruit market so we hopped off the check it out, briefly. Hopped back on and then hopped off at the City Hall. Unfortunately it was closed for an event so we walked around the building and sat on a bench for a while to soak in the sun. It was around 2:00 and we were at a loss for what to do. It was our last day of traveling and we were exhausted. The city hall is right on the water so it was nice to chill for a little.  The next stop was supposed to be the Culture House, but we couldn't muster much enthusiasm for that, hence the title. (read it unenthusiastically). We tried to stop in but we were lured into the mall next door. Inside, we stumbled across the greatest thing we found in Stockholm--the American Cookies food cart. No, we did not get a cookie but rather we got something else that was advertised: a cupcake cut down the middle with fro yo served on top. Oh my goodness--best invention ever! I got a chocolate cupcake and Diane got carrot cake and they were both amazing! Definitely the best fika I've ever had. 

We rode the bus back to Gamla Stan and popped in a few stores before walking back to the hostel/boat to pick up our belongings. We killed some time there and decided to walk to the bus station early. Part of me feels guilty about relaxing when we have more time to do things, but as my dad said, I have been going 100 mph since the softball tournament and I just can't tour anymore.  About to hop on the 2 hour train to Skövde where one of our teammates thankfully will drive us to the apartment, sparing us the 25 minute walk with our stuff.  I'll go through my ~1600 pictures tomorrow and hopefully get some of them posted. It was a whirlwind of a trip, and I think the Saints, Diane and I totally dominated every aspect of it!!

Stockholm: Planes, trains and...hop on/off buses

Diane and I were sad to leave Vienna this morning, but I left feeling that I saw a lot of what the city had to offer. I can definitely see myself going back there in the future--I loved the city. We made our way to the airport and had an 11:00 flight to Stockholm. The flight was uneventful, which I guess is good, and then we took the airport coach to the city center. At the tourist center, we bought a hop on-hop off pass for the rest of the day and tomorrow since Diane and I are extremely tired of walking. We took the open air bus around the city and hopped off near our hostel.  Now for the hostel...it is called Gustaf af Klint and it is a real boat. Our cabin is pretty tiny and we are sharing with two other women, but it's pretty neat. Although...right when I stepped on, I could feel the swaying of the boat do sleeping tonight should be interesting. I may have to wake up and spend a few minutes on solid land. 

 After dropping off our stuff, we hopped on the bus and rode the bottom loop. It took us to along a higher road in the city so we had a good view of the harbor. Stockholm is comprised of a TON of islands so there is water everywhere. Diane and I wandered around Gamla Stan for a while and saw the Royal Residence, the Opera house, and many other beautiful buildings. Then the souvenir shopping commenced. We hit up almost every souvenir shop along the main road and we did serious damage. We got a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant and then finished our shopping.  It was about 7:30 at that point and so we walked around some other parts of the medieval city center and saw the beautiful part where many of the photos are taken. We walked back to our boat and took a little break since we had been on the move all day. 

Around 9:00, a plan was set in motion. When Diane's mom and sister were visiting, they went to the ice bar and Diane was jealous. We decided after much deliberation to go for it. We reserved our spot, donned out warmest apparel, and walked to the Nordic Sea Hotel. They suited us up in our very trendy parkas with gloves attached and we headed into the -5 degree (C) bar. We took tons of pictures of the all ice bar. The bar was ice, the glasses were ice, everything! We each got the "snow flake" drink which was pretty tasty. Very touristy but very fun and certainly memorable.  I am now back on the boat and the plan is to sight see tomorrow!

Vienna: Super Tourists

Because we were unable to see a concert at the Opera House last night, the first stop for the day was a tour of the Opera House. At 10:00, Diane and I went on an awesome guided tour though the whole building. We sat in the seats to learn about the building's history, walked on stage, (it is huge!), toured the intermission rooms, saw the really expensive VIP intermission room (€500 for one 20 min intermission), and learned about the work that goes into the operas. 250 people are hired for the whole season just to take down and construct the sets! The last Thursday before Ash Wednesday, there is a special dance show and he whole stage and seating area is turned into a dance floor. It costs €250 euros to enter the building and people can buy whole boxes for €18,000!! The show starts at 10pm and ends at 5am, and the crew has a few hours to deconstruct the setting to get it ready for a regular opera. Crazy!

After the tour, Diane and I wanted to do a brewery tour of the Ottakringer Brewery. We made it to the shop but there were no tours. Bummer! That didn't stop us from trying a sampler and we both had very good lemon radler beers. Best part--no open container laws! After a quick lunch, we had spotted another Zanoni & Zanoni place (best ice cream ever), so I tried a few more flavors including hazelnut and 'cookies.' Just as good as I remembered.

Then we began our walking tour. We started with the backside of the Hofburg Palace--majorly impressive. The palace is the former seat of the monarchy and houses a lot of museums now including the Sisi Museum, the museum of ethnology, the Spanish riding school and be Vienna boys' choir. After this, we saw the Art History and Natural History Museums. We didn't go in, but just admired the impressive architecture. They mirror one another and face each other across an area with greenery and fountains. We continue the walk and saw the Parliament building, the AMAZING front of the Hapsburg Palace, the unexpectedly beautiful Volksgarden, the Rathaus building, (city hall), and finished up at the University of Vienna. All of these buildings, including the Opera House and several others, are along the 'ring' around the city. They were built when the emperor demolished the city wall in the 1800s and replaced it with tons of gorgeous buildings.

After the walking tour, we ventured a little ways out of the center of the city to a town called Grinzing. The atmosphere is described as a typical small Austrian town, and it is known for its wine taverns. Diane and I were so tired walking around that we didn't see much of the town but what we did see was very cute. We then opted to go back to the hostel around 3:30 for a little rest. I fell asleep 3 pages into my kindle and woke again at 5, ready to travel again. We started by going back to Stephenplatz to do some souvenir shopping. We happened to go into a beautiful church on our way to the Museum Quarter. We saw all of the museums while there and saw that that is the very hip and trendy part of the city. From there we wandered to the Rathaus again because it is the film festival. There were tons of international food carts set up, (but the food carts were very classy!), so we got dinner. We both got Chinese food and it was really good. There were tons of people there and lots or young people were getting drinks or eating food. The food was all served on white plates and there were servers cleaning up--I was very impressed. We sat in some bleachers and watched the beginning of an opera show on the big screen before deciding that it wasn't fun to not understand what was going on because it was in German. To finish the night, I had been dying to try kaiserschmarnn and so I finally got to taste it. It is a rich pancake with raisins and I got the apple version with applesauce. Yum.

All in all, I'd say Diane and I got pretty much the full experience in about 2 1/2 days. We packed our days with activities, museums, culture, food, walking and sight seeing. I am dead tired now, but I still have another exciting few days since we go to Stockholm tomorrow! Our flight is at 11 and we will get to Stockholm around 1. We stay overnight tomorrow and finally return to Skövde on Thursday night. Whew. This had been amazing so far! Got another couple hundred pictures from today to prove it. :) Good night!

Vienna: A ~500 photo day

I woke early to meet Dana for breakfast at a nearby cafe. It was so cool to be meeting her here in Vienna! She showed up with her boyfriend, Rob, and we had a great breakfast catching up. It was sooooo wonderful to see her--I always have the easiest time talking to her and seeing a friend from "home" relieved some homesickness. 

After breakfast I met Diane at the subway and we went to Schönbrunn Palace, the Hapsburg summer residence just outside of the center of Vienna. All I can say is wow. The stone courtyard in the front was overwhelming and that was just the facade! We took the guided tour and saw all the ornately and beautifully decorated rooms. The most amazing room had huge mirrors and was a ballroom. The rooms were all decorated in a baroque and rococo style. I learned a lot of history and some of it was familiar from 10th grade AP European History. After the tour we went out to the Private gardens. There were well manicured hedges and flowers and it was a great place for photos. Next up was the 'backyard.' There was a long expanse with sectioned gardens and it led up a hill to the Gloriette. it's hard to describe so fear not, I probably took 200 pictures of this area alone. We made a side trip to the labyrinth/maze and got frustrated with it. Our final stop at the palace was walking up to the Gloriette. It was a large columned building with a magnificent view of the palace and of Vienna beyond that. 

For lunch, we had Viennese food once again--I had a hot dog in a roll. We then took public transportation to the Hundertwasserhaus. He is an artist/architect who designed these awesome funky apartments. People still live there and the building was really cool to see. Diane and I were tired at this point so we hopped on a Ring Tram that circles the city and just rode it around for a while, previewing some of the impressive buildings we plan on seeing tomorrow. 

We hopped off and walked for a while to the Belvedere Palace. The entrance was a cute and impressive building, but we didn't realize that the real attraction was even grander! This rivaled Schönbrunn, with manicured gardens and a really impressive palace at the end of the garden space. We didn't go in, but we did take lots of photos. 

We had read about Vienna's greatest ice cream so we decided to check in out. We kind of ended up wandering around Stephenplatz where the big church is, and then a nice guy gave us directions. The place was called Zanoni and Zanoni and there were so many ice cream options. I got three scoops: nutella, biscotti and vanilla and Diane got lemon, coconut and caramel. It may have been the best ice cream I've ever had. We already decided we are going back tomorrow. (gotta add this to your collection of bests, Dad). 

To get a great view of the city, we climbed up Stephensdom's tower, all 347 steps, and it did not disappoint. This city definitely feels like a maze while walking in it, but it looks so amazing from a bird's eye view. We descended the steps and sat for a while to rest our tired legs. 

We had been wanting to see an opera at the Opera House, but expensive prices led us to find an alternative. Some costumed salesmen talked us into buying half price tickets for a show at 8:00 after a lot of haggling and convincing, so we were seeing a show. With our hour to kill, we got dinner at a nearby place and ate wiener schnitzel--yum. We both had low expectations for the show and were expecting to have been tricked, but the music was great. There were 7 or so musicians and the lead violinist was amazing. Most of the songs were by Mozart, and for a few of them there was an opera singer or a ballet duo. Very neat costumes and good music. I felt so cultured, haha. I'm glad we saw the show, but I'm definitely touring the Opera House tomorrow! 

Diane and I walked back to our hostel after the show, enjoyed a beer in the bar, and now we are catching up win life on wifi. Busy, busy day, and we have LOTS of plans for tomorrow. I love this city--may be my new favorite! 

Vienna: Albertina and Prater

My alarm clock didn't wake me up this morning; my paranoia at oversleeping did. I was up at 4:20 and Diane and I were down in the lobby ready for our taxi at 4:45. We left the hotel at 5, arrived at the bus stop at 5:15 and got on our first bus to Brno at 5:50. We arrived there at 8:45, switched buses and arrived in Vienna at 11:20. The second bus had free movies, so I watched Flipped--very cute!! We successfully navigated the subway system and made it to the hostel around 11:40. We freshened up and decided to start our touring right away. 

We walked toward the museum quarter with no destination really in mind, but with the weather looking ominous, we knew we wanted to do an indoor activity. We walked by the Opera House which is GORGEOUS, and then decided to go to the Albertina Museum. There was a really neat photo exhibit by an American photographer, Sternfeld, and there were a lot f pairings by famous painters. My favorite painting was by Sinac, but I also liked the other impressionist paintings by Degas, Renoir and Cezanne. 

We were pretty tired after this and it was starting to rain, so we got some food from a cart nearby. I tried käsekrainer which is a sausage filled with cheese. It was very good! We went back to our hostel and took a power nap. 

I skyped my mom to wish her a happy birthday and then Diane and I made plans for the night. We went to Prater where there was an amusement park. It had free entrance so we walked around and had a light dinner while waiting for it to get dark. Once it was dark, we went on a really awesome ferris wheel with enclosed box cars and had a cool night view over the city. 

We hopped on the subway and got off at Schwedenplatz to check out the night life area and then wandered to Stephenplatz to see the cool gothic church. It was open because of a Sunday night service so we even got to go inside! The subway was closed on the line we needed to get back so the trip home took longer than expected and I am exhausted now! Going to sleep because I'm waking up early to get breakfast with a college friend and teammate, Dana Roberts, tomorrow morning, (she just so happens to be vacationing here for a few days!), and then Diane and I are doing a lot of sight seeing. Can't wait to share photos! 

CHAMPIONS!!!

I won't wait to give you the play by play of the game today--WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! We avenged our only loss of the tournament to the France team not once (yesterday), but twice when we beat them today in the championship. we scored two in the first inning, and although they put runners on in most innings, we shut them down. I have a theory that Tess and I cannot get hits in the same inning, and so when she got out in the fifth, I knocked in another run. Final inning: 3 Ks to end the game! WOO HOO! I got Best pitcher for the tournament and Tess, my amazing catcher, got MVP. Well deserved. We took a million pictures with our first place medal and our team trophy and we are celebrating tonight. (Not too hard though since Diane and I have to be up at 4:30 for our bus to Vienna!) 

Soooooo happy!! Priya was so happy she was crying! This means the winner of the Swedish league, (hopefully us!), will move to the A Cup next year. Anzo told Diane and me we have to come back now.

(Added update from Aug. 30)
After some wifi time, we got ready to go out for the night. Around 8 of us went to get dinner farther away from our hotel, and because the walk was kind of far, we danced along the way. Priya had portable speakers, so we danced all along the streets, mostly to the song, "Dansa, Pausa." We got a lot of looks, but it was so fun. We ate at a great little Greek restaurant and I got to have some more of my favorite grapefruit beer. We all wore our medals because we were soaking in the glory. Such a fun way to celebrate. Some of the girls went out dancing, but Diane and I called it a night around midnight when we got back from dinner because we had to be awake so early the next morning. 

Ostrava Day 6

I'm getting used to this early wake up call. After a team breakfast, we went to the fields and warmed up for our game vs. Ostrava. An infield hit/FC by me and a base clearing double by Maria Jönsson put us up 4-0. Ostrava scored two runs in the second and third inning on a throwing error and botched first and third play, but we scored a few more runs later in the game. It was definitely a better game for us but we need to figure out first and third plays.

We had lunch at the fields and mentally prepared for our next game against France. 

The France team had really gotten under my skin yesterday so I was determined to pitch well today. We scored 1 in the first inning and I came out strong. We continued to put on runs in different innings and my K count was climbing. I hardly threw any rise balls and I worked the corners and off speed. Tess did SUCH a great job behind the plate, blocking change ups and calling good pitches. My defense was also awesome. The final score was 5-0--revenge on the French. With that win, we secured our spot in the championship. France will play the winner of Switzerland vs. Great Britain and we will get that winner in the final game. At this point the team is feeling pretty good. I got ice cream at the field while waiting to be driven home and we are doing a team dinner tonight. Go Saints!!

Ostrava Day 5

We got to the fields at 1:30 this afternoon just in time for a HUGE rainstorm. It was pouring and the fields were turning into a giant puddle. The rain lasted about 20 minutes and I was sure there was no way we were getting our games in. I was wrong. The home team brought out the sponges and were sponging water off the field, reminding me of my junior year Ivy Championship game. The fields were ready to go and we were only delayed an hour. 

We are now in what seems to be a second pool play round. We were one of the top 6 teams to advance so we play the other top 3 teams from the other pool. The pool of teams will be narrowed to 4 after this round of games and then there will be a bracket type playoff.

Our first game was against the team from Switzerland, the Lucerne Eagles. Tess gave us a great lead with a grand slam in the first inning. We scored another run in the second, but the Eagles gave us a scare and closed the gap to two runs in the third. All of our plans of sharpening up on defense did not go so well and the runs were all unearned. We were giving them extra outs and runners, and we were failing to make the routine plays. Luckily we gave ourselves a better cushion and the final score was 7-3, but I felt like I could breathe a sigh of relief when we made the final out. A win is a win, though, and that puts us in a better position when we head to the playoff round. 

In the second game, we faced the other pool's number 1 seed, the Comanches from France. This game did not start out at all well. They jumped on the board right away and put up 2 runs. They were beating us with the bunts and there were a few lucky flares. I was also feeling pretty tired since this is my fourth day pitching in a row. Rise balls don't work so well when tired, so I was trying to mix it up, (hello screwball!). They scored another three in the next inning and sloppy defense plagued us once again. Tess went in to pitch with the score 5-1 in the fifth to give me a little break. They jumped on her after a few batters and increased the score to 10-1. That was the final score when we failed to score in the fifth inning and we were officially mercied. I was incredibly frustrated with our showing today, mostly because I know we are a better team than what we are showing. We focused on having a positive attitude and giving full effort in the post game conference and finished on a positive note that tomorrow is a new day. 

We play the host team, Ostrava, tomorrow morning at 10 and then the schedule depends on the results. Will post updates. 

Quote of the day comes from Diane's boyfriend regarding the France game: "They lost lots of world wars--you have to let them win something." 

Jan, the "taxi driver"

After the game, Diane and I walked to a grocery store to find lunch stuff and I am sure glad we did. We went to the store, Globus, and saw there was an adjacent restaurant, kind of like Ikea. We looked at the menu and weren't sure what anything was, but we grabbed a tray and hopped in line. I was looking at everyone's tray hoping to point to one when I got to the front of the line since none of the workers seemed to speak English. I got a potato based dish, Diane got a meat, gravy and bread dish, and it was about $4 a person! We wandered around Globus after that and it was AMAZING! Diane said "you never have to go anywhere else," and it was so true. It seemed to have everything you could ever need: groceries, clothes, shoes, office supplies, home furniture, etc. I took a lot of pictures inside. We did our grocery shopping and then walked back to the hotel.

Since we had the rest of the day off, I wanted to go into town to see Ostrava. I was kind of under the impression that there wasn't much to see, but I was pleasantly surprised when all was said and done. I went down to the lobby and apparently a young guy (~24 years old) had volunteered to drive some of the team into town since he was headed that way anyway. I first thought he was our taxi driver, and so I was really confused when we got in his Chevy and he started talking about school. Turns out he was just a nice guy. His name was Jan and he was working on his second master's degree in a town nearby. He was from a small town outside Ostrava. He dropped us off at a mall and the 7 of us had a good time browsing the stores. I got a draw string backpack to replace my plastic bag I've been using as a softball bag, (it's good to be a pitcher). Diane, Priya, Maria and I were waiting on the stairs in the mall for the other girls when Jan magically appeared again and offered to show us around. He was done with his errands in town and took a chance on finding us in the mall and we were thankful he found us! 

He drove us to the town hall where there is a tower with a view of the city. We didn't have much time but we made it to the top and the view was great. He pointed out a mountain made of trash which is the highest point in Ostrava and is on fire in the inside so it's warm even in the winter, and he told us how the land is sinking in various spots in the town. There was a stadium we could see that is no longer in use because of the sinking ground. 

After seeing the city, Jan led us to the main street in town that has the bars and restaurants. It's called Stodolni Street, and while it wasn't very lively on this Wednesday night, it was a cool place to see. He drove us back to the hotel after that and now Diane and I are siting by a restaurant trying to mooch some free wifi. 

Games tomorrow at 2:30 and 6! You can click here for the link to the tournament site. 

Not quite sure who we play yet, but we play the second place finisher of the other group and then the first place finisher. Looks like it will be some combo of Denmark, France or Switzerland. I don't think this is a standard bracket tournament...

I'll be sure to post updates though! 

Ostrava Day 4

The team enjoyed another marathon dinner last night. We actually timed the service; it took 51 minutes to get food, and we were hungry! This is what I learned in Swedish: jag är hungrig. (I am hungry). The food was good and Diane and I treated ourselves to ice cream sundaes at the end. It is amazing how cheap everything is here! Dinner at a restaurant runs you around $5-8, so I spent about $9 on a pasta dish and dessert. Not too bad. I passed out again pretty early while reading my kindle with the lights on. Guess those two games took it out of me! Plus the thought of waking up at 7:15 made me tired. 

We got another win in our 10:00 game this morning but it was not one we were happy with. We scored in the first inning, (I was batting clean up!), but the team from Croatia, Princ, scored on an in-the-park HR that was a legitimate single to right field that got by our fielder. We scored a few more but they got on the board again with a few misplayed balls. We need to sharpen our defense. Priya relieved me in the fifth inning and did really well. Princ scored twice, closing the gap by 1 run, but we scored again in the 6th. After an exciting last inning, we held them and won 6-4. That makes us 4-0 in pool play so we clinched first. We play tomorrow at 2:30 and then again at 6. I have a good feeling I'll be pitching those games, so the plan is to rest up today.

The team will need to sharpen up for playoffs. We need to run hard to the bases, charge grounders, figure out bunt defense (someone on first took third again on a bunt--not okay!), and make adjustments earlier in the game at the plate. The next games should be tougher so we will need to play better. 

Ostrava Day 3

We are 3-0! Woo hoo! We won our second game against the London Angels, 4-2 in our 10:00 game. The Angels got on the board in the first inning on an in-the-park home run/bunt + overthrow. The ball just kept rolling. I lined out to SS with bases loaded in the bottom half of the first. The Angels managed to score once more when a girl reached on a misplayed bunt, got to second on a bunt, stole third and scored on the overthrown attempt to get her at third. The other team adopted the "everyone bunt" strategy and I wouldn't blame them after our less than stellar bunt defense. Luckily a few key Ks stopped their scrappy rally. 

I got up with runners on first and second with a chance to redeem myself and a gap shot double scored the two runs. Tie game! We left bases loaded again. The Angels would not score again and twice Tess came through with clutch RBIs. Not our best game but a win is a win. Saints > Angels. 

We had a good lunch at the fields and then went back to the hotel to rest up. We walked back to the fields at 3:00 and started warm ups. Our next game was against Szostka Brzeg, the team from Poland. Their first pitcher struggled to find the strike zone and it was walks galore. Finally the team switched pitchers, but we scored 6 in the first inning. Our half of the inning was quick. We scored 1 in the next, 1 in the third inning and 2 in the fourth inning. In the final inning I made a bet with Tess we could finish the game in under an hour since we were at the mercy rule score, 10-0. We were still up and the time was 0:57. We got on the field and started play at 0:58. Pop up to center. Ground out to second. It was 0:59. A strike out ended the game just before the clock turned to 1:01. Technically it was over an hour by about 50 seconds, but I'm saying I won the bet since we finished at 1:00. Two more wins for the Saints! Now we are going home to shower and then out to dinner again. It's sooooo muggy here so I'm hoping for some rain to break the heat. 

Ostrava Day 2

I thought this posted yesterday but I guess not...

Quick update while I have Internet--
We won our first game against Slovakia, 7-0 in 5 innings, mercy rule. I had the first two RBIs and gave up two hits, (one was a bunt).

We did a really brief Opening Ceremonies with the other 7 or 8 other teams. Pretty cool though to be surrounded by softball players from around the world. Softball has given me many opportunities and it is really neat to meet international softball players.

Back to the hotel now. Probably going to dinner and then getting to sleep early since we have to be up at 7:15.

Travel Troubles and Ostrava Day 1

We left the dungeon around 4:15 yesterday with Tess and Jimmy. We stopped for dinner and shortly after we heard that our 10:00pm flight was delayed to 11:30. Great. We killed time in the airport bar, bought chocolates, played cards and received Swedish lessons. Ful means ugly and full means drunk. Careful not to mix those two up! 

The flight ended up leaving around midnight and landed in Poland at 1:30 am. Three cars were there to pick us up and drive us the approximate hour and a half to Ostrava. We arrived at our dorm/hotel at 3:30 in the morning. Diane and I are roommates, (surprise), and I crashed on the bed almost immediately despite the paper thin walls and our chatty suite mates. 

This morning we had the option to go to breakfast at 9:30, but my alarm seemed the ring too early so I hit snooze...until 11am. Priya, Maria, Diane and I went to the grocery store to get lunch foods--another foreign supermarket experience reminiscent of my first time in Maxi, the Swedish super market. I did find my favorite beer from when I was in Prague--I got one lemon and one grapefruit can. Each was only 75 cents, about half the price of coca colas! 

The team then walked to the field for practice. It was a pretty rough practice--we didn't look that sharp. The field was pretty rock solid and the outfield was really bumpy, and I'm guessing we are all a little tired. The hitting did look good though, so hopefully we carry that into tomorrow. I'm not quite sure what to expect from these games. Lina said that teams in the past have gone win-less in the Cup and told us not to expect to win, but I am not that intimidated by the other teams. The other girls seem nervous, but I'm only excited. Only tomorrow will tell I guess. 

Our dorm doesn't have wifi access so we decided to go to dinner at a restaurant that had wifi. I'm at the restaurant now and I'll be anxious to see what I order since the menu is in Czech...

Well dinner took about 2 1/2 hours. That's definitely one thing I miss about the States--good customer service! People don't tip here so there is little incentive for waiters to be good. Also, I miss ice water. Can't wait for my first huge glass of free ice water at an American restaurant. Back to the hotel now and team breakfast tomorrow at 8:30.

Trip Itinerary

I'm getting so excited because tomorrow the Skovde Saints are headed to Ostrava, Czech Republic for the European Cup. We are in this tournament because the Saints won the Swedish championship last year. Diane and I decided to tack on a few extra days after the tournament in Vienna and Stockholm since we're already traveling. Here is the itinerary for the next 13 days. Click HERE for the link to the website for the tournament. It might have live streaming, although I make no promises.

Saturday, August 18
--Leave for the airport at 4:00
--Fly from Stockholm to Poland, land around midnight
--Drive from Poland to Ostrava

Sunday, August 19
--Practice at 3:00

Monday, August 20
--Game at 3:00 vs. Trnava
--Opening Ceremony at 5:30

Tuesday, August 21
--Game at 10:00 vs. London Angels
--Game at 5:00 vs. Szostka Brzeg (try pronouncing that one...)

Wednesday, August 22
--Game at 10:00 vs. Princ

Thursday, August 23
--Games dependent on pool play

Friday, August 24
--Games dependent on pool play

Saturday, August 25
--Finals Day and Closing Ceremonies

Sunday, August 26
--Leave EARLY in the morning to go to Vienna on a bus
--tour Vienna

Monday, August 27
--Day in Vienna

Tuesday, August 28
--Day in Vienna

Wednesday, August 29
--Fly to Stockholm in the morning, spend the afternoon in Stockholm
--Stay in a hostel for the night, ON A BOAT!

Thursday, August 30
--Spend the day in Stockholm
--Take train home at 8:20pm

Phew, looks like a long trip! I'm tired just thinking about everything! Looks like it's time to start packing, charging electronics, downloading music, etc. I'll try to post updates as often as possible!

One More Block

I was riding my bike to the gym like I normally do in the mornings, but instead of turning right to go to the gym, I continued straight. I realized the other day that I hardly stray from my usual path in Skovde, and my boundaries have about a 1 mile radius. On the map below, I live at the middle point, the top point is the softball field and the bottom point is downtown. Today was the day to do a little bit of exploring and break out of the bubble, even if just by one more block.

I didn't go very far on my bike, but I saw some beautiful buildings that I had only seen before in passing when I take the train to Alingsas. I compiled a collage of my favorites. It's amazing what one block will reveal. I'm glad I did some adventuring today.

In other exciting news, my press release was put on the Stony Brook website today!

Something Swedish #6

Today Diane and I went to Kristian's office to print out travel documents for our upcoming trips. (Itinerary coming later this week). We hit up Prima for lunch, spent some time outside reading since it was actually sunny and semi-warm, and then we went to practice. It was a pretty normal day. Lina leaves tomorrow, so it was sad to say good bye to her.

For Something Swedish today, I'm focusing on some fun facts:

1. Swedes always take their shoes off when entering someone's home. Always. Even when you are wearing strappy sandals that require serious effort to put on and take off.
2. Swedes keep track of dates in the year by counting weeks. (Ex. Summer vacation starts at week 21, rather than June 1)
3. Swedes refer to birth years to talk about age rather than years lived. (Ex. "How old are you?" "I was born in '90." rather than "I'm 22.")
4. Almost all cars in Sweden are manual cars. I miss driving, but I can't drive here since I can only drive automatic cars. Even rentals are manual!

Borås Zoo

Lina and Alde, (her 3 year old niece), came to pick up Diane and me around 9:45 this morning to go to the zoo! It was about an hour and a half drive, so we were excited once we arrived.

The first real animals we saw after the dinosaur statues were bongos--pretty cool, and a fun name to say. Just like at the water park, it was fun to have a little kid along for the day. I got to carry her around a little, and she was so sweet.

After that, we went to the coolest space in the park. There was a group of giraffes assembled waiting for food, and they looked so regal. They are such neat animals.

It was really fun to watch the elephants. I was amazed with how the elephants ate--one of them scooped some grass into a little ball with its trunk and then scooped the ball into its mouth. So agile! We followed suit and ate our own lunch right after. Lina had packed us pasta salad and we contributed chips and chocolate balls. Yum!

The next animals we saw were monkeys and then lions. I love watching the monkeys! They are so active. The lions were just sleeping, but we got to see them up pretty close.

One of the final stops was seeing penguins. After that, Alde got to go riding on a pony. She was soooo happy!

After several hours in the zoo, we ended up with one tuckered out child--one sign that the day was a success. I wanted to take a nap when we got back too, but Diane and I had to go to practice. We are practicing every day to prepare for the European Cup next week. There weren't many girls there today, but we got in some good defensive practice.

Överraskning!

Lina is leaving to go back to college on Thursday, so Diane and I decided to have a going away party for her at the Dungeon. I love throwing parties! We invited the whole team via Facebook and made it an optional pot luck. Girls were quick to volunteer to bring things, so it looked like we would have a good spread of food options. Yesterday I messaged them all again with the secret sneaky plan! :)

A few days ago, Diane and I asked Lina to hang out with us tonight since she would be leaving soon and we wanted to spend time with her. At practice, I handed off a key to the apartment to Lisa so she could go to the Dungeon while Diane, Lina and I stopped at Prima to get dinner. I ended up riding my bike to practice so I went to the Dungeon to wait with the other girls for Diane and Lina to get home from Prima. The anticipation was fun! The girls tried to teach me how to say "Surprise" in Swedish, (Overraskning), but I couldn't say it right. We dimmed the lights, closed the blinds and hid. The surprise got a little messed up since Diane forgot her keys and Lisa opened the door and then she had to quickly think up a reason for why she would be at our apartment, but Lina was surprised nonetheless.

We had two pizzas, sodas, chips, Swedish chocolates, grapes, watermelon, ice cream and Diane and I made chocolate balls. Our team had a really good showing with about 12 people here. It was really fun, and I think Lina had a good time. Love my team! 

Örebro and Day 2 of the Tournament

After the games yesterday, one of our Skovde teammates who lives in Orebro offered for Diane and me to stay with her in her apartment, and we gladly accepted. We stuck around the fields for a fun BBQ held for the teams who had to travel (Soder and Sundsvall), and we enjoyed steak and potato salad. Our teammate, Asa, explained that she had played for the Orebro softball team from 1995-2009 but then half the team quit, so that is why she has played with Skovde the past two years.

We went back to her place to freshen up and then she drove us into town. It was bigger than Skovde, but it still had that quaint feel. We went straight to the heart of town and saw the Orebro Castle. Crazy how towns just have castles in the middle of them! The sun was just setting so the lighting was beautiful. I definitely wished I had my nicer camera to take some photos, but my iphone did okay.

We continued to walk around town and then came to the main square. Asa said she'd take our picture and then told us to take our shoes off and go in the water! Diane and I quickly agreed and then quickly found out how cold the water was=.! It was a really cool place and good for photo ops.

We then went back to Asa's apartment and helped her make pasta salad for the next day and watched some Olympics before calling it a night.

This morning, Diane and I ate breakfast and walked to the fields to meet our team. We warmed up for the first game against Orebro. Nathalie pitched and she did a great job getting out of some tough innings. We ended up getting the W--woo hoo! Our fatigue of playing a bunch of games definitely showed in the next game, and 1 bad inning proved to be the difference as Soder handed us our fourth loss of the weekend.  Like I said in the last post, we saw a lot of good things this weekend from the team but we definitely have some things to work on this week in practice. I was really proud of the girls since many of them have not had much playing time, and they put so much effort into the games. We did a great job getting on base and scored a lot of runs, but the other teams just scored more. The ride home after the final game was fun and a few girls on the team taught us Swedish curse words, (we were bound to learn at some point, right?). Not to worry though, I can't even pronounce half of them!

When we got back to Skovde, the girls on the team were really excited to watch the handball game since Sweden was playing France in the finals. Lisa had made a reservation for us at O'Leary's, a Boston inspired sports bar. I was tempted to get the "Harvard Club Sandwich" but ended up going for a quesadilla since I've been desperate for Mexican food. Unfortunately Sweden ended up losing by 1 goal. Boo. It was still fun to get dinner with the team after a good weekend spent with my teammates.

Oh, and turns out that there is a website that keeps the league's stats! Neither Diane nor I have enough at-bats entered into the stats to crack the season leader board, but we'll be up there soon enough I predict! Diane is crushing the batting categories and I'm happy to be in the top 10 for a few offensive categories and top1-3 for pitching categories. What doesn't quite make sense is that Skovde is leading many of the offensive categories like batting average, but we don't have that many wins, making Diane and me think that we are way better than our record would indicate...hmmmm....

Like a proud mother

Today Diane and I were picked up from our place at 7:20 to go to Orebro for a two day tournament. We had 10 players, and it was a struggle to get that many. We were missing many of our starters but this was a good opportunity for some of the new girls to get more playing time. The games were scheduled an hour apart from each other and were no-new-inning after 50 minutes. Another interesting rule to keep games moving was that only 9 batters could hit in an inning.

The first game was against Leksand. We scored several runs in the first inning and Lisa was the starting pitcher. She was nervous so I was happy to be next to her at first base to talk to her. I will always remember the look on her face when we made the third out with no runs scored--she was so happy and I felt like a proud mother since she has worked so hard these post few weeks on her pitching! She did so well!! All her hard work paid off. Leksand scored a few runs in the next two innings and the final score was 3-7 or so. Not too bad! Except for the last inning, Lisa did wonderfully and hardly walked anyone. Wahoo!

We played Enkoping in the second game and Nathalie was the starting pitcher. She, too, made it through the first inning scoreless, and again I was so proud! I think I was most happy with her composure in the game. The final score of this game was 4-6, so we were getting closer! 


We had a long break after the second game so we went to an athletic store outlet. I found an awesome onesie with Swedish crowns on it but I didn't end up getting it, despite my teammates trying to talk me into it. Then the team went for ice cream and headed back to the fields for warm ups. 

We were playing Sundsvall in our final game and we had a pick up player for the day to pitch. Things didn't go so well for her so we had to make a quick pitching change. With bases loaded we brought Lisa in and she did a great job considering the circumstances. We got out of the inning and Lisa did really well in the next two. She gave up a home run and I welcomed her to the club. AND she got a strike out! Sundsvall pitched its American pitcher and we didn't score many runs, so another loss for the day. 

Overall there were a lot of good things that I saw from the Saints today but there are also a lot of things for us to work on this week in practice before the European Cup in Ostrava. Hopefully we can pull out a win or two tomorrow!  

A few quick things

I forgot to blog from my laptop so I'm on my phone meaning this will be short.
Today's practice was short because many of the girls wanted to watch the Olympic handball game--the men's team won and is advancing to the finals!
The team leaves early tomorrow morning for Orebro to participate in a league wide tournament. The games are short and it will be a great opportunity for the newer players to get more playing time. 3 games tomorrow and possibly 3 on Sunday. Haven't played three games in a day since travel ball! Updates to come on Sunday or Monday!

A little bit of 'home'

Diane and I are getting tired of Prima food. Last month, our daily trips to Prima were broken up by a trip to Prague and Munich, but we've had Prima just about every day since then. (Can't argue with free food!) So...the past few days I've decided to make my own food to re-stimulate my taste buds and break the falafel monotony. Yesterday I made Swedish meatballs and pasta in a gravy sauce. Okay, fine, I cheated a little since the meatballs were frozen and the sauce came from a packet, but it was still good! Today I made breakfast for dinner: french toast, scrambled eggs and bacon. Despite having an all inclusive meal plan for the past 4 years in college, it looks like I can feed myself if needed. There's hope for me yet, Mom!

I passed the two month marker about a week ago and now have a little under 2 months left here. The time has gone by quickly and I know the remaining time will pass quickly as well, especially now that I have something awaiting me upon my return to the Sates. (Good news--I'm an official member of the Stony Brook softball coaching staff since I passed my Criminal Background check, phew!) After these two months living in Sweden, I ride my bike to the gym on  now-familiar pathways and experience a little feeling of 'home.' This experience is different from what most people get to do--I'm not just sight seeing or touring Sweden. Instead, I am living here, and that makes a big difference. I'm finding that my Swedish friends are very similar to my American friends, (example: several girls on the team are having a work-out competition--something I've definitely done with college roommates), and I know that I'm seeing life through the Swedes' eyes rather than a brief snapshot of the world in which the Swedes live. These have been an awesome two months, and I can only hope the next two months are equally as great.

Side-note: This all being said, I am definitely looking forward to returning Stateside to see my family and find some decent Mexican food. :)

Craft projects

The weather today was not much better than yesterday's and there was a very steady rain most of the day. Luckily, there was a 2 hour break right around practice time, so we managed to squeeze in some good drills, work on pitching, and do some front toss hitting.

With this forced indoor down time, I've spent quite a bit of time on Pinterest (best website ever!), and I have found some fun craft projects that have kept me busy. Here are a few pictures of the things I've made:

Monster bookmarks: (It's too bad I use a kindle)

Creepy/cool hand drawing: Just wanted to try this one out

Shopping and Fika

We were told at yesterday's practice that it would rain all day today, so Diane and I planned a roomie day. We started with a trip to the gym. I did some weights instead of my typical elliptical work out, and I'm already feeling it. It is very weird to not HAVE to do any workouts since I don't have a Harvard summer workout manual, but I still feel the need to get my heart pumping.

After the gym trip, we ventured somewhere we surprisingly haven't spent that much time in the past two months: the mall! Diane was on the lookout for neon shorts, and I was just browsing. We both were very successful at our first store, H&M. I found a great navy, polka dot dress that reminded me of my current favorite show, Mad Men. We browsed through several more stores, but eventually decided that we really just missed Target, Charlotte Russe and Forever 21. After a few hours of shopping, we decided to stop for fika. I had a delicious raspberry tart with vanilla pudding on top--YUM!

The rest of the day was spent cooped up inside to avoid the rain, (aside from a dinner trip to Prima). We finished our roomie day by watching a movie. Nice and relaxing!

Something(s) Swedish #5

Today was a somewhat slow day--gym, lunch, a few "real life" checklist items, a few Mad Men episodes, and then I left to go to practice at 3:30. Unfortunately, it was raining when I arrived at practice, and the rain never really let up. (It's still raining, and it's 8:30). There were 6 of us hanging out in the dugout from 4-5 and then a few more girls showed up for practice, but the field was gathering puddles and we weren't enthusiastic about practicing in the rain. We hung out a little longer just chatting and everyone left around 5:45 when it was clear the rain wasn't going to end. Diane and I hit up Prima for dinner and now we're hanging out in the Dungeon waiting for a few teammates to come over to watch the Sweden Olympic handball game.

So, in place of an exciting story, here are several Swedish things:

1. One former player recently had twin baby girls and she named them Wilma and Filippa. I don't know a single Wilma back in the States so I was interested in the popular Swedish baby names. Here is a list I found--very different from what you hear back home!

2. While I'm on the subject of names, there is another cool tradition in Sweden. In addition to birthdays, there are minor holidays called name days. I found a Swedish name day calendar on Wikipedia. According to this, my name day, (using Rakel instead of Rachel), is June 26. My understanding of name days is that they are similar to birthdays in that they are typically celebrated with cake. Too bad I missed mine! 

Two wins for the Saints!

Today the Saints played our best softball yet, and we got two big Ws against the league's leader, Sundsvall. Now there is only one scenario in which we don't go to the playoffs: Enkoping would need to lose the next four games and Soder would need to win the next four. I don't think that is very likely, but knock on wood! I am confident that we can beat any team in the playoffs; we just have to get there!

In the first game, I lived up to my Dad's nickname for me, "One hit wonder," and I gave up one bunt-for-hit and one walk. I had quite a few Ks, (16 or so I think), but I was most amazed to see the pitching chart since I threw 17 balls total in 7 innings. Guess I was pretty efficient! We won the game 5-0--a solid victory.

During the brief break, the team enjoyed the pasta salad that Diane and I prepared yesterday. We made three boxes of pasta, sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, and brought sliced chicken, grated cheese and salad dressing. Our pasta salad got the thumbs up from the team. Success!

One win was good for the day, but we knew that two wins would put us in an even better position to make playoffs. Priya was the starting pitcher, and she did so well! I played second base and got to make some fun plays. Our great defense stifled some rally attempts, and we got on the board in the third inning with 2 runs. Diane had a great day at the plate, knocking in 4 runs in the second game, and the final score was 6-0. Things got a little exciting at the end when Sundsvall had bases loaded with 2 outs and it looked like Tess (our relief pitcher) was going to walk in a run. However, the runner on second thought the umpire called a ball and started to jog to third, so Tess wheeled around and threw her out at second, ending the game and securing the win.

In the words of my former teammate's father, Mr. Black, "Yahoo!!!"

(Side note: Diane and I withheld food until we gook our team picture.)

A Trip to the Water Park

Because the boys' baseball game was canceled (the other team didn't have enough players) and we had planned to watch it, Diane and I had to find other plans for the day. Lina was watching her niece for the day and so when Lisa passed out water park coupons at practice yesterday, a plan was formed.

Diane and I met Lina and Alde (her 3 year old niece) at the Actic complex at 11:30, and we went into the water park. It is a pretty big indoor water park with several good slides, fun pools and a great little kid area. It was awesome to have a little kid along because she was a constant source of entertainment, and it was cool to see a water park through the eyes of a youngster. She was both terrified and excited by the water, but we managed to get her to go on a few slides. One slide was so fun--a few of us could go on it at the same time and we could flip around while we were riding on it, laying on our stomachs, going forwards, backwards, on our knees, etc, all while racing each other. It was a blast. Nathalie and Lisa, (two more teammates), joined us around 12:30 and we rode that slide several times. Lisa knew all the tricks and so we could never catch up with her. Here's a picture from the website of the water park indoors.

Shortly after the rides, Nathalie and Lisa took Diane and me to the "Relax" area while Lina and Alde ate lunch. It was a pretty classy spa area complete with restaurant and bar. The first stop was the rainforest shower that misted us and then drenched us. We then went into a sauna, and the heat and mint aromas were overwhelming. Lisa said you are supposed to breathe in your nose to clear out colds, but it tingled so much I couldn't do it. The next stop was my favorite--it was a giant circular stone platform with an 8 foot radius and it was just warm. The 4 of us just laid there for a while and it reminded me of the good ol' days of laying on the side of the pool after swimming when the ground was hot. Absolutely heavenly. We just chatted and laughed for a while, and it felt like I was at home with some girl friends. We stopped in a few more saunas after that and then rejoined Lina and Alde.

We went on many more rides and went into the wave pool, and around 3:30 we decided to call it a day. Today made me realize that these girls have become such good friends, and I know that this summer would not be half the experience it has been if not for my teammates. I asked Lisa how she is liking her first year of softball and she said she is loving it. It's easy to tell these girls love it, and it's because of each other. We enjoy our time on the field together, and we enjoy our time off the field together. I am so lucky to be a part of this awesome group of women!

Bed time now--BIG games against the league's leader, Sundsvall, tomorrow. We'll need some Ws to secure a spot in playoffs!!

Handball--an Olympic Sport

Friday, August 3, 2012

Diane and I returned to our apartment in the morning and spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon nursing our sore horse riding muscles, (read as: sitting on the couch). We headed early to practice to run and help the pitchers. Practice was a fun one as we played 21 outs and then a modified softball game.

After practice, we headed home to get ready for a night with our teammates. We rode our bikes with a few other girls to an ex-softball player's apartment. The Swedish women's handball Olympic game was on, so we watched. I had never heard of handball before arriving in Sweden, but it is HUGE here, so I have been learning a lot about it since my arrival. A lot of the players are from Skovde, and some of the girls on my team had connections to the women on the Olympic team.

Handball is kind of a combination between basketball (you can dribble and there is a 30 second shot clock), ultimate frisbee (you pass to teammates and can take three steps with the ball) and soccer (you try to score goals in the net). Wikipedia might do a better job than I can at explaining the game. I had a lot of fun watching the sport, but I realized I could probably never play it. It is very violent and I was shocked that there were no foul calls. Women went down with injuries every few minutes and the plays just looked nasty! Take this image from last night's game for example:

Looks brutal, huh? Regardless, we had a fun time watching the game despite Sweden's loss, and it was interesting to ask the girls questions about the sport. (Although I had to wonder how a sport I had never heard of was in the Olympics while softball is not...) Overall, another fun night with the girls.

Icelandic Horses

This is the email I got from Anders on Tuesday:

"Just for  your information is a seafarer is either dead or working. Therefore, I have because of our kinship signed up you for riding on Iceland  horse at 1430 now on Thursday."

HUH?!?!

I emailed back my confusion and he told me he would explain the seafarer thing in person, and that he signed me up to ride an Iceland horse on Thursday. Diane was quick to join the trip because she has been wanting to ride a horse since we arrived in Sweden, so Thursday morning we ventured to Alingsas. Anders picked us up at the station and we went back to his house for a quick lunch consisting of hot dogs and berries with vanilla cream on them. Interesting combination, but delicious.

About the seafarer thing--apparently seafarers all signed up for watches on ships. If a man was ill and could not do his watch, other people had to cover for him although they were not paid extra. Therefore, seafarers took their own watches unless they were deathly ill. Anders used this story because he knew I was tired from my travels last week, but unless I was deathly ill, I would be riding a horse!  

After lunch, we left to go to Boras. When we arrived, we first stopped to pet the komondor dogs--so cool! Then we picked out helmets, we were given a horse and then headed to an open area to practice. It had been about 10 years since I'd ridden a horse and so I was a little nervous. We rode in circles, getting used to using the reins and the feel of riding and then we were off. 

There were 7 of us in total: the instructor, Anders, Diane, me and a family of 3. The crew started by 'walking' along a forest path. Even the slightest downhill made me nervous because I thought my horse would fall. I eventually gained confidence in my horse and was able to pay less attention to the actual riding and more attention to the scenery. It was so green and natural. There was moss growing everywhere and the trees were really thin. I've been reading "Game of Thrones", and I definitely felt like I was in the book--riding along the "Kingsroad," scared that enemies would jump out from behind the trees. 

We emerged onto a flat area and our instructor told us to pull up on the reins and the horses started to trot. One word described this experience perfectly: bouncy. My horse was a little difficult (or maybe I didn't know what I was doing which is probably the more likely explanation), and so I quickly fell to the back of the group. It was kind of nice to be at the back so I could go my own pace. Before I knew it, the group was galloping. Yup, first time riding in 10 years and I was GALLOPING! One word perfectly describes this as well: exhilarating! It was partially incredible as I felt the wind in my face and the joy of riding the horse, and it was partially terrifying since I was scared I would fall off the horse. Although, Diane and I agreed that galloping was WAY better than trotting! Anders had mentioned the words trotting and galloping before we left his house, but we didn't really know what he was talking about until we actually were doing it.
 

Riding a horse kind of felt like I was using a real life game controller--pull up on the reins to trot, lean back to stop, pull left or right to "steer" the horse, etc. But...I was IN the game, and the controller didn't always follow my commands, haha. Two hours after we began, we arrived back at the stable. I hopped off and immediately felt sore. I didn't want to think about tomorrow. The instructor mentioned a massage place, and when we were confused, he led us into the stable and into one of the pens for the horses and the floor vibrated. Apparently the horses like it, and it felt good on my legs! Overall, today was an incredible experience to ride horses in Sweden, and I am so grateful to Anders for setting this up.
 

We stopped by one of my relative's houses briefly to say hello and then we went back to Anders's house. He made us dinner and then I retired early to the cottage since I was exhausted, (but not before Anders could slip me some chocolate!). I fell asleep quickly and woke up to make scrambled eggs for the group. Another wonderful visit to see Anders!

Made my day

Today's practice was a really good one from the start. 3 girls came early to pitch--Ida, Nathalie and Lisa--and they have definitely made huge improvements in the past few weeks. I think they will get to pitch in our upcoming tournament in Orebro. I think the tournament is mostly just for fun and so it's a good opportunity to give the new pitchers a debut performance. I feel so proud of my pitching party when they are throwing well, and I feel like I'm making a positive impact on their softball experience.

Lisa is just a crack-up, and I find I'm always laughing around her. She has been working really hard on the circle change up spin, and I let her throw a few full speed today. The first one was really wild, but her second one was a great pitch! She was so happy and it really made me happy as well.

After practice, Nathalie got out a bag of kanelbulle (kind of like cinnamon rolls) that she and Lisa had made today. She just got into a school she applied for, and she knew I got my job, so they were celebratory treats! Made my day!