I will shed a few tears...of joy and of sadness...

I can’t believe it – it’s the last official week of the bandy season here in Sweden! ?! ?!??!? Fy Fan! I’m sad! I wish that this season could continue, and at the same time I wish spring would finally get here. If I could have the best of both worlds, I’d have the seasons outside but have an indoor bandy field! Some day, when I win the lottery, I will build an indoor bandy field and play year round. Now THAT is a dream I will have to work at to achieve.

This past weekend, we faced VAIK for the 2nd match of the Semi-Finals. We had ice time reserved on Sunday in case we needed game 3 (as it was a best of 3 series), but we also were prepared that we would win on Saturday and therefore have practice on Sunday instead of another match. Yes, we had practice on Sunday. With a great match played by the AIK dambandy spelar (women’s bandy players), we won the match 5-2. I won’t elaborate on the play, I will just say that “dang that was great bandy!” Unfortunately, I was unable to play in the match as it’s fair to give everyone a chance. I sure do hope I will skate on Saturday March 21st as we are IN for the FINAL match against Nassjo. These two teams have faced eachother last year for the series final as well, so this is one that will be a hard fought match. We did a great exercise with the team this week – the task was to positively say something about each of our teammates, then we were given a sheet of paper that had all of those positive thoughts from the team members on it. My level of determination and passion for the sport has been seen by others on the team, and I have been called “The Fighting Tiger”. That’s very flattering, and I hope I get to show that spirit in one more match this season.

This week we have spent every day on the ice, so I don’t have much of an update other than that. Thom and I didn’t do any exploring, just work, to the bandy field, back home (and I don’t mind!). This coming week will be more of the same, and for that I am quite excited honestly. We were told in our Sunday morning practice that this week before the Final will be dedicated to bandy, and I couldn’t agree more! Training all of the usual days this week, however, we will be going to Uppsala for the game on Saturday. Uppsala is about an hour north of Stockholm, so we will actually make the journey there on Friday so we can get to the field, take in a skate, then relax for the evening with visions of bandy goals dancing in our heads. The excitement on the team is buzzing with high energy and the girls are all so pumped. I’m anxious, excited, and yet at the same time, sad. I am sad because the “Final” means that my time here to play bandy is coming to an end. I’m so very grateful for the fun and educational season I’ve had, but I wonder “couldn’t it be a bit longer??” I have so much yet to learn, so much to improve upon, and so much more to experience and do on the ice. Please? Just a few more months?!? Ok…yes, I realize that the seasons change, and the iced bandy fields will turn to green fields for futbol and the bandy klubban will be exchanged for cleats by many. I will turn in the skates for my running shoes and begin more training for my marathon coming up on May 31st --- ironically, Minneapolis and Stockholm are holding their marathons on the same day. I think I should take part in the Stockholm marathon instead of Minneapolis . Since I did not play on Saturday, Thom and I decided to try this bar “Peppar” that we have seen every day as we make our way to and from the subway station. Boy, am I glad we did!!! I had a fajita (granted, not served sizzling hot like in the US), and it tasted wonderful! We had a beer there, then decided to hit a few places on the way back home and try the atmosphere (beer) at each of them. I had a blast! We both enjoyed the night very much and had a great time. On Saturday morning, I decided I would turn to my marathon training for some exercise and take in some more of the glorious views of the Swedish terrain. I ran around Haga park and then decided to continue my run to the bandy field. I was surprised that it only took me 30 minutes to run there – it takes most of our bus and/or train rides 45 minutes! Once I made it to the bandy field, I continued through Bergsharma and the surrounding areas – the areas that we have been running as a team during the dark, so I hadn’t seen most of the sights. I will have to take Thom and Reese back there with my camera to capture some of the cool things I saw. It was simply beautiful and definitely reminded me of why I was running that day.

So there won’t be much of an update this week from me as I’ll be doing what I said I would – focusing my energy towards the bandy training this week. I will, however, post the results of the final match, and I do anticipate posting a picture of me with a golden helmet very soon. If you wish to watch the match, it will be televised on “SVT” – I’m not sure which channel (1, 4, or 24), but you should be able to find it if you want to watch it through the “svenskbandy.se” web site. Email me if you are interested and I can do some searching. We will play at 11:45 on Saturday (5:45 am CST for those of you back home  ). In my upcoming blogs, I will try to reflect back upon some of the highlights of being here. I simply cannot put into words the emotions I have started to feel this week, knowing that the bandy season is coming to an end for the year, knowing we will be returning to the States, and all of the great adventures we have had here. There simply are no words to really explain the experience, but I will try. This week, I anticipate the tears of joy and sorrow will flow; I will be so excited to be a part of the SM Guld chant and participate in the game, but I will be very sad to have the last 90 minutes of the season ticking off of the clock...a happy and sad day all at once.

Thanks to everyone who has been voting daily for the Adidas and Nike contests. The Adidas one only runs for one more week so keep your votes rolling in! The Nike one will continue for about 40 more days, but keep those votes going!!!