Catching up...another 10 days has gone right past me!

The game against Tranås was great!  We won the match 10-0 and one of the forwards on our team, Mikis, won the scoring title for the season! yeaye! What was really not good about the game....was that it was the last "regular" season game of the year. I had a hard time not shedding a few tears because the end of the season has come. Ok, so I cried like a big baby because it was the last game of the regular season. I just don't want the bandy season to be done. I'm having so much fun training and learning, experiencing life here in Stockholm, and just living life to the fullest. But I can't stop time, so the show must go on.

Tranås is about 3.5 hours away from Stockholm, and 3 of our team members are from there originally. On the way there, we were a little early (we left a little early because we were supposed to get a lot of snow), so we stopped at one of the team mates parent's house for our "snack" (theory session) and to enjoy a fika (coffee break). Then it was off to the rink! When the game was done, I was exhausted and hungry, so it was a very pleasant surprise when Josse said that her parents were offering to have the team over for tacos!! Mmmm! We haven't had mexican food since we've been here, and Thom and I were just talking about how Chipotle sounded SO good! I stuffed myself to the point of feeling like I had gone too far....doh! oh well, I enjoyed it. Back onto the bus for the ride home and we watched Bolt - the movie - very cute. We didn't get to finish it because some people on the team wanted to listen to the "Melody Festival" - the show that is how the Swedes pick who to send on to the European competition where all of Europe competes to have "their" singer/band win the title. Quite the event here - everyone seems glued to it --- so much so that they put it on the radio so you can listen if you have to be on the road and can't watch it from the comforts of home! We don't know how the movie ended --- we will soon though, we'll borrow it from someone ;)

Sunday, I was exhausted, but we were up to go to Miska's house to plan our European adventure trip. Once the bandy season is done with finals (boo hoo!), Thom and I will venture to Helsinki Finland, Tallinn Estonia, and Riga Latvia, then back here to Stockholm. I was surprised to find out how cheap this trip will be --- about $600 for the both of us for a week's vacation, including transportation and hotels!?? WOW! Pretty good deal all in all! We will get to see my USA teammate Sarma in Riga! She's there training with the Latvian national Hockey team for their World Championships in Italy. That will be fun to see a familiar face and learn where she "comes from". We enjoyed a great lunch with Miska and her 2 twins, some relaxing time, then back home for the evening. The rest of the week was pretty normal with work and training --- except for Thursday --- I didn't make it to training because my head felt like it was going to explode and I had the whole body aches - worse than I've ever had them before!!! So, I did still manage to make it to 3 days of training this week, but I would have rather been at the fourth day of training as opposed to curled up in a ball in pain. Oh well - I slept for 30 hours out of 38 and felt 85% better the next day (Friday). It is now Saturday and I'm feeling 90%, and hope to be able to go to the gym tomorrow with the rest of the team for training yet again. I HATE being sick! Sounds like some others have the same "cold bug" that we know, so I apparently got it from somewhere around here...it wasn't lurking in my suitcase anywhere! I'll make sure to leave it here though too.

We also found out that we could possibly ship some things home via "Cargo" through SAS. I hope that we will be able to do that --- you see, I have purchased a few items here, as well as gotten my team warm ups (they are spiffy! I will have to post a picture of me in those eventually), AND --- guess who won the Bjorn Borg competition!???? YEP! I DID! So, they are going to send me a "collection" of Bjorn Borg Underwear! I don't know what is included in the "collection" - but we will soon find out!

For those of you who are wondering - we have also booked our flights back home - April 13th is the date. That gives me one whole day to prepare our US taxes and file them! Glad we don't have any major things to complicate the process ;)

Next weekend, we have a Semi Final match - this process is the best of 3....so, we anticipate that we will play 2 matches, have a week off, then play in the Final Match which will take place in Uppsalla. I'm excited to see what the excitement is like around the finals. Still amazes me that there are enough teams full of women bandy players in order to have quarter finals, semil finals, and the finals! I LOVE this place!

So, until after our next game...as I'm sure you don't really want to read about the stuff I do for work while I am here...Take care and stay away from the nasty cold bug I am over coming --- it's not a nice one!

Hej Do,
KP

So much to do and see...

Wow – it’s been another week and I have yet to make another post! Time sure does fly by me here! Ok, backing up to where I left off….Saturday we won the game against Sandviken – 2 -0. We had this weekend “off” as far as games go, then we head to Tranas to play our last season game this coming Saturday. I can’t believe the season is coming to an end already.

So, after the game on Saturday, Sunday we went to the Globen Arena to watch Team Sweden play hockey against Team Finland in front of a sold out crowd. The Globen Arena is pretty cool looking, but has some design flaws on the inside --- like if you are sitting up in the nose bleed section like we were, if you go up the wrong side, you can’t just walk around to get to your seats, no…you have to go back down the 5 flights of stairs to go back up on the right side. Oh well…as we were correcting our wrong of going up on the wrong side, we ran across someone I knew --- yep – I’m far away from home, but run into someone I know in a city where I know maybe 30 people of 3 million! It was one of my co-workers and his son. That took me by surprise! The game was really good – very close until the end and Sweden won 4-0. The week days were more of the same with work and then training, including a training run on my own on Wednesday where I ran my “typical” 4 miles through Haga Park. What wasn’t typical about the run this week was that my legs were dead from the training we did on Tuesday, including hill sprints running, drills on the ice, then sprints on the ice! Oy vey! That was awesome and tiring. Thursday and Friday I did take ½ days from work so we could go and see a few things. Thursday we didn’t do anything exciting as we had training that night, but Friday we decided to walk around Sodermalm and hang out a bit there. That was kinda neat to see some different parts and walk randomly without a place to go or something holding us to a time table. Saturday was Valentine’s day, and we didn’t really have anything particular up our sleeves, other than enjoying time with eachother more. So, we headed to Drottningham Palace to see if I could meet Prince Carl Phillip and see if Thom could meet Crown Princess Victoria – we figure that if we are going to stay in this country, we have to try to hook up with those who can make it happen. While we didn’t get a good chance to meet them, we did wander the palace grounds and that was interesting. Reminded me of the White House combined with Versailles in France. Quite the combination, but pretty cool overall. As you can see in the picture - I could hold it in the palm of my hand ;)



We headed to a Thai place for ‘dinner’ – Thom enjoyed it, I didn’t as much. Oh well, it was a great experience. Saturday night our neighbor was having a party and had slipped a note through our mail slot earlier in the week (we came home and thought that it was going to be a note about how our dog was causing noise again! Whew!) We headed to her apartment for what we thought would be “one drink”. Everyone there was SO incredibly nice, it was easy to just hang out and talk with everyone. It was funny to see some of them ready to go out to the club and some were not so ready. We were flexible and enjoyed the fact that we “closed it down” next door with some very nice people. Sunday I needed to get a training run in for my marathon training, so I ran 9.5 miles through Solna and Stockholm combined. Very enjoyable I have to say! Monday was Presidents day, so Thom and I decided to do something “American” and find a good place for a good American brunch. We found this place called “Sirip Café”, and it was marvelous! They had “American” pancakes! Ok, doesn’t seem like a big deal when you have Perkins or Denny’s at every corner, but the pancakes normally are very thin here --- unless you find some American Pancakes! I highly recommend this place. Although, like anywhere else, this restaurant is quite pricey. I don’t think I’ve ever spent $45 on brunch before now. Oh well – it was definitely worth it!

Tuesday, back to work for the week and ready for the big week of training – not a night will go by this week without intense training. We are ramping up for the finals that we will be getting ready to play. Amazing….still can’t believe that “the end is near”. Like “All good things must come to an end” --- so must this edition of my blog! Cheers!



Oh - and Reese celebrated turning 2 on the 7th!! Our little girl - she's all grown up!!! She even sports hats for fashion here. She must realize that she needs to keep her ears warm!!





In case my email didn't reach you, I also entered a contest this past week - Bjorn Borg (the famous tennis player) has an underwear line that I really like...so, why not try to win a whole wardrobe of it?? If you haven't done so, check it out (and for those of you who have - thanks for the comments - I should find out from them next month if I am a winner ;) ) Enjoy!
http://www.bjornborg.com/en/SwedishExports/Kristy-Powell-USA/

Bandy, Culture, Fun

We won one of the toughest matches we had to play this season, 5-0. YEAYE! That secured our position as the “All Svenska” champions (all Swedish Champions). That’s an awesome feeling. So, that means that we stay at #1 in the league, then we have to prepare for playoffs where we will face that same team, Nassjo, again. They are a good team and a friend of ours helps coach them, Pelle. Pelle, Hanna Brusberg, and Matilda J came to the US last year to see what USA Bandy is all about. I had the pleasure of getting to know them a little bit and Pelle was supportive of me coming to Sweden to play bandy. Hanna Bruseberg (aka – “Brus” on the ice) joined the AIK team this year too, and it has been fun getting to know her a little more. Pelle and I will write back and forth to eachother and poke at eachother that “the best team will win” --- I have now the satisfaction of 2 of 2 matches going to the “BEST” team --- AIK. We will see them again and we will prepare for that match, as we will wear the golden helmets at the finals. As for the game this coming weekend, I’m very saddened to say that I will not get to play. At this point, I can only hope that I will get to skate in the finals. I have busted my @$$ on the ice during our team trainings as well as off the ice when the team hasn’t had any training and I was to run and lift on my own; I only hope it has made me a better bandy player - good enough to play in the finals. This was our last season home match, and that makes me sad to realize that my “last home game” was last weekend and I didn’t even know it --- sometimes I guess you have to take your “10 seconds to soak it in” each and every time just in case there isn’t a “next time”.

So, onto the fun things that we did this week…I did some research online for the Vasa Museum this week and found that if we went on Wednesday nights, we could go for less $$...and we figured that it would be less crowded in the middle of the week as well. We were right!!! A very pleasant and informative evening was spent at the Vasa Museum, and followed by dinner at O’Leary’s! The Vasa was a ship that was being built for the military guys and was going to be used in battles against Poland…but apparently, the Polish (no offense Jill) must have designed the thing as it sank within 30 minutes of it’s maiden voyage in front of the King. This thing was massive! The theory is that all of the weight of the cannons and guns was not counterweighted enough in the bottom of the ship, therefore as it started to sway one way, then back, and back the other, water came in through the port holes for the cannons, and thus sinking the ship since the counterweights at the bottom could not keep the ship upright. Such a tragedy for all of the hard work that went into making the ship. The ship sat for 300 years at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Amazing that it was preserved so well…the theory on that is that because the waters in the Baltic are not very salty, the “wood eating creatures” that would normally thrive in salt water don’t live in the Baltic, and therefore, could not eat away at the ship or the skeletons that were found there as well. (there was a name for these creatures, but it escapes me). Anyway, the ship was quite impressive and I do recommend anyone who comes to Stockholm to take 90 minutes to see the film and tour the museum. (If you see the film, chances are you don’t need to do the guided tour). What I found quite interesting more than the ship, however, was how some one in a wheel chair was to climb flights of stairs. Oopsies.

Next stop – Food. We stopped at O’Leary’s to see about getting some grub and I wanted some buffalo chicken wings. Let me just tell you that the “buffalo wing sauce” here is nothing more than a honey red pepper thai sauce with a little something else mixed in. Kind of disappointing, so onto more shopping in Gamla Stan J I love shopping…I love shopping on a mission. When we first got here, my mom said “Do yourself a favor and see about getting some Crystal candlestick holders….they are timeless and you can always use them to dress up a table.” So…my mission was laid before me (thanks ma!) Again, using the handy dandy world wide web, I did some research to find out that the factories are too far away for us to go there and get any kind of great discount without us spending money to get there as well as a hotel for the night or two that we’d need to stay there. Onto the local store in the great city of Stockholm. I found the candle stick holders…well, ok, so they aren’t intended for that, they are really tea light holders, BUT the Kosta Boda/Orrefores people must know that we like multi functioning things, so they have these neat little things you can put into the tea light holders to make them “candle stick holders”…I picked up a set of 3 “Snowballs”. I also picked up a special something for mom…but I’m not telling what!

We also decided that since I didn’t have to get to bed early on Friday night, that we would do something fun and special. I took advantage of the “no game on Saturday” thing to do some marathon training as well…so, I ran around the city a bit – for an hour anyway – on Friday morning before work, did some work, then in the evening we headed out to do some fun things! As we ventured out, we decided we would check in to see what the Absolut Ice Bar was like…it was pretty “cool” (pun intended), but at the same time, very underwhelming. The bar wasn’t much bigger than the living room at our apartment and it seemed a bit…well, kind of plain. We think that it must just be hopping when there are a ton of people in the bar, and the atmosphere a bit more exciting that way. We did offer to take a picture of some girls who were in there doing self photographs, and they must have been pretty unsuccessful as they kept trying. The girls from China accepted my offer, then wanted a picture of me with them; quite cute. After that, we were onto “The Soap Bar” for some dinner and then back to home as we were tired from a busy day. Saturday we will go to the AIK bandy match, and Sunday we will go to the Globen Arena to watch Team Sweden take on Team Finland in some hockey. Should be a fun weekend! Until next time….Cheers.