I go to the Men's World Championships and Reese goes to a babysitters

Let's see...where did I leave off? oh, yes, that's right - when Jen was here...

Once Jen left here, I was really busy with work and training…(the work part is always boring, so I’ll spare you those details and pain of reading about it.). Saturday was a great match against Edsbyn. We won the game 12 – 0…although the final results seem like we completely dominated the game, the first half was not our best half of bandy. At half time, it was only 3-0. Let’s just say “coach was not pleased with our performance.” No one on the team was really pleased either. You see, Edsbyn is the “indoor arena” – the ice is perfect, there is no sun in your eyes or glare off of the ice, there is no snow or rain to mess with the conditions of the ice or make carrying the ball tough to do. So, what was our problem that first half? I am not sure what the consensus was (as the discussions were all in Swedish and in side conversations), but whatever it was, we shook it loose the second half and scored our ‘typical’ 9 goals in the half. I do know that this upcoming match will require us to have 2 good halves; we have no room for error as we take on the second ranked team in the league and they are hungry to become first – where we currently stand. I feel that I actually had a pretty good match against Edsbyn. I skated my hardest. I played with 120% and a different attitude and approach than I have tried in recent games past. You see, I’m trying so hard to learn so much and take in as much as possible each game, I think I have been forgetting to focus on what matters the most – demonstrating the understanding of what I’ve learned! My new attitude is to go out there and give 120% - do the best I can, and that is all I can expect of myself. I came off of the ice feeling like I gave it 120% the entire 90 minutes of the match, and that felt great. I realized during that match that at 30 minutes, I used to feel tired. 45 minutes is usually when our US team starts to feel sluggish, and as I’ve heard that we are doing this year on the US team, we have a habit of getting loose those last few minutes when we only play 60 minutes back in the States. My perspective of skating for 90 minutes has now changed. At the 90 minute mark of the games, I’m sad to see the 90th minute ticking off. I want more ice time and I feel like I can skate more, maybe even another half. That’s not from a lack of skating hard during the 90 minutes either…it’s coming from the training that we are doing where we do dryland training for 45-60 minutes before we skate for 90+ minutes! Yes….I’m loving this lifestyle. For anyone who knew me coming into this experience, you knew I was a work out fanatic; I think I’m reaching “freak” status now. I’m going to miss these 90 minute ice sessions when I get back to the US – that makes me sad to even think about it. (Note - the picture inserted above is not from the game against Edsbyn, but I liked hte pic so I've inserted it)

After we got home from the game on Saturday, I had to have an arrangement to get the goalie of our team and myself back to my apartment so we could collect Reese and all of her stuff as Linda (the goalie) had agreed to take care of Reese for the next 2 days while I went off to watch the men’s USA bandy team play in Vasteras, Sweden in the World Championships. We got home pretty late, and had to make a pretty quick scramble to get all of the stuff together before my train left at 11:30 PM. Riding the train was a neat experience. It was like any Amtrack train that you might take in the States, so nothing unusual, but it was neat to realize that I was going from one major part in Sweden to a ‘semi-major’ part and it was so easy to get the ticket, and very reasonably priced (about $14 USD) to travel 1 hour NW of the city. I arrived at 12:30 and had to figure out my way to the hotel from the train station. Normally, this would be easy if someone were working at the train station, but at 12:30 in the morning, no one is there to help me. I get off of the train and make my way to what seems to be the ‘main’ part of the city. Sure, it is the ‘main part’, but that’s not where the hotel is. I walked about 3 minutes and then saw a nice older couple (about 60 or so) walking and I said “Excuse me” in Swedish, and then asked them for the direction of the hotel. This guy pulls out his phone with GPS and gets frustrated that it wouldn’t zoom into the perfect zoom to show me street names. I clarified that all he needed to do was point me in the right direction and I’d figure it out. His wife said “sure, go this way, turn here, and you will see the hotel sign – just go under the overpass and keep towards the hotel sign and you’ll see it on your left”. Perfect --- just a 20 minute walk and I’m there, Thom waiting in the lobby for me. The men’s US team had won the B-Pool and had a game at 9:00 in the morning to take on Belarus for the match to see who would play in the A-Pool next year. The weather was super terrible that morning – a mixture of snow and rain…a bandy players worst conditions. Snow and rain mix makes the ice very rough – like sandpaper! If you fall down, you don’t slide, rather you stick. The ball does the same thing, and therefore, teams have to change their tactics to get the ball down to the other end of the ice as carrying it on your stick does not work. The match was tight; 1-1 at the end of the first half. The guys on the US team looked strong and were skating well. They were chipping the ball down the ice and Belarus was taking it down very well…too well. Belarus was batting the balls out of the air away from the US players crashing in on them. That was frustrating to watch from the stands, and many times I realized that I am not a good bandy spectator. I want to be out there, I want to help them, I want to give them some strategy pointers that I see….and I’m not even all that great at this sport!!! It was a tough match, and unfortunately the US lost 3-1 (really 2-1…the last goal was not well earned). Everyone from the tournament and friends here in Sweden have said “Why wasn’t the game played on the indoor arena?? It was an important match!!” Everyone is asking the same question, and we all wonder if it could have ended with a different result…we will never know.

After the match, we were allowed to go watch the Championship match between Sweden and Russia. THAT was some good bandy! Some of us had decided that at ½ time, we would go to the hotel and watch the match from the second half on the TV. Since we knew we had to leave for the banquet at 6:30 and we most likely wouldn’t get back from the match until 6:00…we were happy to go back, watch the TV, drink some beers, and have some fun. The bandy arena was so packed with people, being short, I had a hard time seeing most of the first half anyway, so it was a lot of fun to hang out with some of the guys from the team, pre-party, and watch on the TV. We got to the banquet and it was a lot like the Women’s banquets --- some entertainment had been hired (these guys were funny!), the food served, and the awards given. There were no lengthy speeches or anything like that which was nice too. The entertainment --- they started their act wearing “large hats” --- one was a balloon on his head, the other a sombrero. The ‘balloon’ was big enough that the guy who was wearing it started to go inside of it! Really! Eventually, his whole body is inside and he starts bouncing around in it – very strange looking. He slowly emerges through the other end of it with a bandy ball!!!! He tossed the bandy ball to the Swedish goalie, then he emerges from the balloon. It was a funny sight! The US team walked away with 3 of the 4 awards in the B Pool – that was very nice to see!! Then it was off to a bar for the after-party. We all had to get up early the next morning to catch the bus back home to the airport, where Thom and I would take the buses and trains back to the apartment and continue on with the week as normal; training and working.

At training on Monday, Linda brought Reese so we could collect her and her things…Linda did not want to give her back! Apparently, when Linda had an appointment on Monday morning, she put Reese into her crate (like we would have also done), Reese started to “scream” and cry. Not unusual for her. What did Linda do? Linda started to cry!!! She loves this dog so much, she started to cry as well. When we got her back at training, Linda started to cry again as she knew that we were taking her back home! What a compassionate person…I have a feeling that Reese had a VERY good time staying with Linda while we were gone. Reese is a pretty big hit among the friends on the team – many ask “Is Reese here today?” J She’s a great dog…we hope she is enjoying Sweden as much as we are!

We did take a journey to the “Zoo” store – commonly known as a “Pet” store – where we could find a jacket for Reese. Her other jacket she has with her here is a tad small, so she would often get chilled. I found one at a different store that I wanted to get for her, but it was the wrong size, so I found this place online and we just HAD to go there. Walking out with a jacket, new harness, and a few rawhide bones later, Reese was a happy dog! On the way there, the directions that the bus web site had given me were not all that great, so we ended up having to take a few extra buses to get to where we wanted to go. Luckily, I’m not afraid of the adventure, and Thom is an easy going fella. Reese just goes where we go… We did see some pretty cool houses, lots of kids getting on the bus from school and we realized that we haven’t seen any “yellow” school buses here. We are making the assumption that children must all ride public transportation as we saw a TON of school aged kids getting on and off of the buses as we made our journey.

Onto training for the next big match….I will post more once we are done with that match. Thanks for reading ----

Another article has been written by our upcoming opponents featuring me - read it here:
http://74.125.77.100/translate_c?hl=en&sl=sv&u=http://www.ifknassjo.se/Nyheter.asp%3Fid%3D310&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dswedish%2Bbandy%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7ADBF&usg=ALkJrhirPMbDYGQ9qRrTy5XOFW-dtlpQFA

What a busy week!

Much delay in posting yet another blog....time is getting away from me these days.

Last week I had to go to Brussels (Belgium) for a couple of days...I was not looking forward to it because that would mean that I would have to miss training on Tuesday. (See previous post for the things I did there --- hotel, office, hotel, office). When I arrived back on Thursday morning, I did some work to finish what I had started during the week, then off to training. It was then that I was told I wouldn't be playing on Saturday's game against "VAIK". I was saddened, disappointed, angry that I had to go to Brussels for work and miss training, but positive that my coach (whom I have great faith in) was making the decision for a reason. I keep hoping that it's not because I haven't improved enough! Since I didn't have to worry about being totally rested for the game on Saturday, Friday became a day for Thom and I to do some shopping, exploring, and enjoy eachother's company. I had to go get a birthday gift for one of my teammates who was having a birthday bash on Saturday night anyway, so why not make the most of the day?! Thom wanted to see Ostermalm and Sodermalm, so we took the opportunity to head to "Stadion" where the 1912 summer Olympics were held. It was "neat" --- not nearly the emotional feel I thought I would have once inside --- maybe that was because we "snuck" inside - all gates were closed to get in, except one which looked like it was only open for a delivery of sorts...oops! Truly though, the inside of the Stadion was smaller than I thought it would be. They still use the facilities for different kinds of events and the building is nearly 100 years old. Pretty neat none the less. We did a lot of walking and shopping, we stopped for a coffee and semla break (Semla is a "bun"/pastry that has a cream filling - very interesting, full of calories, and not something I'd go out of my way for. Good, but not something I'd go totally out of my way for.). We also managed to find the "Midieval bar" that Melle (from my team) had tried to take me to before. The bar was REALLY cool with the complete feeling of the times. After a glass of "mead" (for Thom) and a beer for me, we headed back out to walk some more. We started onto our way home and decided that for dinner, we'd stop at "The Texas Burger Company" - it was time to see if it tastes like home. The bar was packed and all they serve are burgers, beer, and fries. mmmmm! It did taste a lot like home and was better burger than those we've had here. Once we'd experienced the special of a pitcher and 2 burgers for 300 SEK (hey, I didn't have to play the next day, might as well enjoy the special), we were on our way back home for the night.

Saturday's game looked like a walk in the park for the team. Watching from the sidelines is hard for me to do, even after watching so many games last year from the sidelines due to a dislocated shoulder... The team won the match 16-0, putting us 29 goals ahead of the next team in the standings. Wow! that's quite a lot. This does not mean that we can "loaf" the rest of the season, rather, we will ramp up our training and be more intense in the training we do in order to prepare for the end of the season and the play offs we will face. We have some good teams still ahead of us, so although we have secured our spot in the top 4 to play in the Semi-Finals/Finals, we still need to work hard, continue to improve our play, and enjoy what is left of the season. This coming weekend, we are off to Edsbyn where I started my time with the team in the indoor ice rink. The ice is almost always perfect there I think because they don't have to battle the elements of snow or rain there. The rink is often referred to as "The Bandy Church" --- I like the thought of church this weekend ;) After the game we played on Saturday, we headed to Elin's house for her birthday party, lots of drinks, and REALLY good times. I've enjoyed hanging out with the team and enjoyed an evening of good memories once again.

Sunday the Men's USA team arrived in Stockholm, and they had a 'preliminary' match against the Hammarby U-19 boys at a rink close by home. Thom and I took off to go watch them and hang out with them for the night. It was really great to see some familiar faces!!! The men's team won that match after facing a bit of jet lag, and they were looking forward to the next match on Monday against G-T-76; another local team that one of the guys from the US team plays for here (Jasper Felder). I had training on Monday night, so I made it to that game for the last few minutes, then we headed out with the team for some MAX (like McDonalds) and time with the guys. Tuesday morning, the guys were headed out to Västerås for the World Championships while I was heading to the airport to pick up one of the wives of the players. It was good to walk around with her and keep her awake for a bit so she could get onto the right schedule for the time zone; we did lots of shopping in Gamla Stan and the touristy type things. We had a shortened day due to the fact that our bandy team was playing a "match" (2, 15 minute halves) against the "AIK Legends" before the Sweden/Norway World Championship match on our home ice!!! How exciting! We got to play against some of the bandy, hockey, and 'footbol' legends of AIK. We did not win the match, but it was all in good fun. After watching the first half of the men's game afterwards, Jen and I decided to head home to get some rest.

Wednesday morning and into the afternoon, Jen was sleeping in while I was working. I think she was exhausted from the travel, walking, and shopping. When she was up to it, we headed to Sergels Torg, the City Hall, and Sture Plan (where all of the good shopping is). Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to do all that I wanted her to see because she took the train to see the guys in Västerås. After dropping her at the train station, I was off to training once again.

The rest of this week should be very productive for me in work and preparing for the bandy game on Saturday. I will be playing in the match on Saturday as far as I know, and Sunday I may try to head to Västerås for the banquet for the men's World Championships. Hope you all enjoy the week, and I'll check back in soon!

Cheers,

KP

Change in pace

Whew! 2 games over the weekend - first time for that since we played in the World Cup tournament in the very beginning of the season...this weekend we had one against Kareby (Saturday) and one against Jonkoping (Sunday). We have faced the two teams before, so there weren't any major surprises, rather there was a strategy for us to work on those things that we need to defeat other teams in the future. Working on the basics, working on the fundamentals, working on those things that we know we can always fall back on when we are in a tight situation in a heated battle towards the end of the season. It wasn't about killing the other teams as much as it was getting to know eachother more and working together as a team. It was a great weekend to build upon those skills, and we did defeat the other teams (9-0 and 16-0 respectively). How did I play? I'm never satisfied with my performance unless it's perfect, and in a sport like bandy, being "perfect" is impossible...so, I will say "I did a few things right, and the mistakes I made didn't lead to anything bad happening, but they did teach me more about the sport and my abilities." So, all was not lost, I'm happy with the outcomes, but I'm still frustrated with my own play! ugh! I want to be so much better than what I am!! Oh well...one day at a time. With those two games, it didn't lend much time at all to doing anything else in the city. Poor Thom and Reese....they've been thrown into the whirlwind of my bandy schedule and we haven't had much time to see Stockholm yet. This is the busiest time of the bandy schedule for us....so maybe more of Stockholm will come later....bandy first :)

Monday was supposed to be a training day on the ice, but when we got to the rink, the glossy wet surface was giving a clue to us that it was going to be too soft for training with blades on our feet and the chillers turned off from under the surface. So...lace up the running shoes and take to the hills....hill intervals, then core work! Yowie! My core was sore after the 30 minute core session and the 45 minute running session. I loved the workout though...I'm just a glutton for the punishment.

After training I head back to the apartment to try to catch some zzz's as I have to leave for Brussels on Tuesday morning - flight time: 6:20! Ugh! Cab came to pick me up at 4:00 AM. that was early. Off to Brussels for work, I'm in the office until about 5:30 and functioning on about 3 hours of sleep, a bowl of cereal, and a turkey sandwich for 14 hours....that was a tough day. What was tougher was the fact that I had to miss a day of training on the ice. Thom got to go to the practice and play goalie for them....I wish I could have been there too. Instead, I hit the gym for an hour and a half and did my own training...

Next day was "same same but different" - I went to the office, came back and did some more training. Somewhat sore from training last night - I am realizing that I need to do some of these other strength things more often - need to figure out when to fit that in though ;). Off to dinner, and now catching up on more work. This weekend will be a match against VAIK....It will be another good, tough match that will be fought to the end. I'm looking forward to it and ready to get back onto the ice again tomorrow! My flight is EARLY again, but I'll be happy to make it back to training. I heard that the wind chills in Minneapolis were about -38 to -50 F today --- whew! Glad I wasn't there!!!

Have to share a funny story - so the other night, we had just gone to bed when all of a sudden, Thom is standing near the window, pointing at the wall and says "SHIT! I can't get them out. Get them out of there!" I rub the sleep from my eyes as I had just fallen into a nice slumber...and ask "what is where?" He replies back "Them...in there" and points to the wall again. I ask "what are they?" and "where is there?" His response is very flustered and he is visibly angry and upset...he says "Shit!" again and lays down.... The next day....he looks into the bedroom (when he is wide awake) and says "The dumbwaiter - I wanted to get the trays out of the dumbwaiter! There..." it was hilarious. We don't have a dumb waiter back home...I've never seen one, but I've only heard of one that my friend Julie used when in Amsterdam....where in the world did a vision of a dumbwaiter come from? That is the mystery for now.

Enjoy the rest of the week!
KP

Rounding up the first week in January 2009 in Sweden

Friday afternoon, we were out and about to do some shopping at the outlets and when we arrived back home, there was a note through our mail slot --- our neighbor had written that our dog had been "screaming" a lot. DOH! Reese!!!! We went next door to talk to her about it and see what we might want to do, so after taking a look at the arrangement of her apartment, we decided we'd take the door off of the bedroom and move it to the hinges that are on the entry way to the Kitchen and see if we could put Reese's cage in the kitchen when we were gone. We did a series of different "doors" from blankets to towels to...you name it, we tried it. The move of the door was by far the best, and so far, we haven't had any more notes.....poor Reese, getting accustomed to her new surroundings!

We tested her sound proofness out when we went to practice on Friday night....whew! Saturday morning, I was back at it again on the ice, and I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning - it's better than watching cartoons as a kid I think :) After practice, I ventured with Reese to the Vet to get her pet passport (and yes, it looks like a true passport), then decided to take her to the "goodis" shop for pets --- the pet store! (You see, tradition here is that children often visit the Goodis section of a grocery store on Saturdays...if Reese is my kid, why not take her there too???) Thom was a sweet heart and cleaned the apartment from top to bottom, including laundry!! Back home to prep some grub for the bus ride on Sunday to the Sandviken game, and then to the grocery store. The game in Sandviken (2 hrs north of Stockholm) was a good match - they are a good team and have a few girls from the Swedish National team on their team. It was a clean, hard fought match where we came out on the top, 6-3. I was not happy with my total performance. I made some stupid mistakes and I hate when I do that! I was charged with a penalty against me for using my hand (like soccer, you can't use your hands). What sucked is that it was SOOO cold (-17 celcius) my hands and toes were freezing, so if it HAD hit my hand as the referee said it did, I would have been curled up on the ice because of the pain of it hitting my hands. I tried to show him (since I didn't know the Swedish words to explain to him) with the motion of my stick that I hit the ball out of the air. No luck - into the box for 10 minutes. At least it was heated :) Out of the box and I felt like horse poo for putting my team in that situation (they got a chance at a penalty shot - and our awesome goalie stopped it!! as well as 10 minutes short handed), I did think "long and hard about what I had done" when I sat in the box. I was determined to have a better second half. After the team meeting, I came out determined to play better. I had one bad pass that I will continue to have nightmares about, but....I also have a video trapped in my head of when I batted the ball out of the air and into the net! "Brus" (my fellow midfielder) had carried the ball to the right side of their net and took a nice hard 'pass/shot' towards the net. I was cruising in to grab whatever ball I could from in front when I saw that big juicy softball waiting to be hit! I stuck my stick up in the air (sure to not go above my shoulders) and used my left handed softball batting techninque to re-direct the ball into the far left side of the net. JUST barely inside of the post, and past their keeper! That was the game winner!!! (see the celebration in the picture) sweet! I now have 3 goals on my record and one penalty (not proud about the penalty). Next up - training on Monday and game on Tuesday against Jonkoping.

The game against Jonkoping was going to be a 'good match' for us. Jonkoping is new to the league and is a combination of 2 other teams. Their record for the season is not that good, but it doesn't mean that any team can take to the ice without preparing and thinking of them putting up a fight. We prepared for the game just as if it was the second best team in the league we were about to face, and it paid off in the end. The bus ride was about 3 hours to Jonkoping (SW of Stockholm) and led us to a rink that leaves much to be desired. The "score clock" was nothing more than a piece of metal with 2 hands on it, and no score to be kept on it. The ice....wow....um...let's just say that I've seen lakes with better ice on them. It was bumpy, rough, and like the other team had 5 other defenders extra against us. You couldn't carry the ball without it being stripped from you - not by the other team, but by the ice! I actually had some things that I was working on, but the bumpy ice didn't allow for much "working" on anything except different plays that we hadn't prepared for. A Time Out within the first half changed our strategy on how to play the attack and deal with the wind we also had to face. By the end of the first half, we were up 9-0. At the end of the game, we were up 20-0. This was one of those games where as a mid-fielder, you get frustrated because you don't touch the ball much and you feel like you don't contribute. Because you can't carry the ball (due to the ice conditions), most of the game is played in the air....between the back line and front line. So...where does that leave the midfielders? Playing the middle of the ice just "in case the ball doesn't go all of the way". At least I did have a job to do and I got to play....I can't complain. I learned something in that game...even if I didn't score one of the 20 goals, I learned more than could be put on a score sheet, and that is why I'm here anyway! One of the things that I did learn from Jonkoping is to never give up - they were a team that didn't give up from the time the first ball was played until the last whistle blew. That is admirable.

Next up - one day off, a day of training on Thursday, then 2 games this weekend - one against Kareby where we tied 2-2 last time, and another against Jonkoping...this time, on our home ice. Here's hoping I can work on some things these next 2 games.

I'll post more after those games....for now....have a great rest of the week and enjoy the weekend!
/KP