Daly Dose

HEY! Welp, I do know that I’m loved because I took two weeks off on the blog and have gotten some grief for it! Makes me feel all warm inside. Kyle came these last two weeks and instead of my holiday being slow and relaxed, it came in the pretty much opposite form. Since all the kids have school off I was: Having 2 a days with basketball, running a camp for 3 hours a day, AND suppose to be entertaining Kyle. Instead of taking time to blog, I chose relaxing and enjoying my time off with Kyle while he was here. Which means…you were put on the back burner. Yes. I did a mini people’s choice awards and my blog unfortunately lost. 

Alright..onto the last two weeks. Right before the break we played an intense round of games. We started at 5:30 (yes. A.M.) with a flight out of Umea, hopped on a ferry, walked up large hills, and took a taxi. Did I throw in that this was all the day of a game??! Never in my life can I say I have done any of that in a the same day….followed up by a game.  I could write a small novel on that day. The most ridiculous things were happening around me. “Like what?” you ask. Well, to add to the most ridiculous day of my life…we walked up a small Mount Rushmore only to find out that our hotel was…”closed?” Off we walked to the next hotel that was open. (Aren’t most hotels open at 3 in the afternoon?) Anyway, we proceeded to walk around the most beautiful city I have seen yet. Visby. Advice: If you haven’t seen it. . you really really should!  Only go in the summer.. I guess that’s when everything is open.  Must be against the law to have hotels open during regular 8-5 hours in the winter. Anyway, next we ate a lil pre-game meal and hopped in a taxi to our game. As much as I would like to say that the chaos of the day stopped as soon as we entered the gym… I cannot. We proceeded to get throttled by 50 points. Not only did a team that was NOT 50 points better than us absolutely destroy us… but they had a 46 year old woman on the floor. Yes. FORTY-SIX. I couldn’t help but immediately think “old balls” as soon as I saw her step on the court. (Forgive me mom..) Not only is she 46, but she is good. She definately brings a presence to the floor that their team needs….I want a 46 year old on our team. Any takers? 

After that humiliation we crashed that night… only to hop back on the ferry to hit up our next destination. We played Marbo on Sunday. We got a day in between to travel (yes..my favorite thing to do). So Marbo is a pretty good team. Let me give you a jist of the matchup that I encountered that evening. Leah Metcalf. Heard of her? If not. Google her. RIght now. This second. **Giving you time to google** Okay. Back? If you didn’t find anything on her let me help you out…she was the point guard for UNC. Yeah. No bigs right? I remember watching her on tv thinking, “Dang that girl has game.” Here I am .. about to match up with her. Let’s just say before the game I was a tad bit star struck, but it quickly rubbed off. I was pumped to be able to get the opportunity to guard her.  My pride kicked in and I was focused and ready to take her on. Any shot she put up I had a hand in her face … followed by a “shot.” The ref took me aside after a few posessions and said with an accent, “You cannot scream shot while she is shooting. I will have to give you a technical if you continue.” I just laughed. “What did I hurt her feelings?” I thought. Absolutely ridiculous. Later it was explained to me that if you scream shot at an opponent you WILL get a technical. HA! That is actually a rule here. The way I view it is: Me +screaming shot at you = throwing off your shot. . than you are an extremely mental player. Anyway, we lost. Oh yeah, and lets just say and the quickest human in the world goes to….Leah Metcalf.   

Alright that’s all for today. I will continue to fill you in Christmas break and what’s going on each day in my Swede life. Bye ya’ll. 

Swedish Lesson: Hur ska ni komma hit? = How are you getting here? (pronounced: heur skaa nee komma heet)

Quote of the day: “It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more ‘manhood’ to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex. Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind.” -Alex Karros

Hello hello hello American Citizens. We once again came up short of a win. Jamtland was the team that we faced on their home court and we were playing very promising for 28 minutes and 30 seconds. The last 1 minute 30 seconds was what determined the game… and unfortunately did not go in our favor. We were leading the entire game except for 1 minute and 30 seconds…and that was the last 1 minute 30 seconds. Basically Jamtland executed when it counted. Not too happy about that..

I went to church last night and it was their Christmas party. It was an all around good time. Games, people singing and excited about the holiday season…and of course…good Christmas food. 

PS: This a combo of Sunday, Monday, AND Tuesday. I didn’t have enough to write about for both days. . so I took a personal day off. I hope that’s okay with all of you. 

So yesterday I did a clinic for 10 year old girls. This age was a little more challenging compared to the younger girls. I thought I was going to be catching a break b/c they were more fluent in English… which they were. They were not as focused on learning though… they actually goofed around ALOT more than the younger girls and I struggled to keep their attention. Their coach met with me before and told me that he wanted me to try to teach them intensity and that it’s okay to be physical. You don’t have to say ‘I’m sorry’ everytime you bump one of your friends on the court.  Well I thought this would be quite a task to teach in a one hour session, but was willing to accept the position. I had all these thoughts running through my head, “What to do, what to say…”, and then when I realized that they don’t understand HALF of what I’m saying. . I knew this was going to be WAY harder to relay than I had thought. “It’s so important to have fun, but taking the little things serious are what’s going to make you rise above the rest of your age.” That is exactly I wanted to SAY, but I had to put those words into drills and games with as little talking as possible. I would love to be able to help the basketball over here, but it definately puts me in a box when I can’t talk as much as I would like. I have to talk very slow and simple so the coach can translate what I’m saying to the girls.

Moving on. .  Christmas is coming!  Our Swedish roomie, Anna is going home for Christmas. Amy and I decided to devote the day after she leaves “American Day.”  This day will be entirely devoted to American traditions. We were trying to think of different things that we could do . .  eat at Mcdonalds, go caroling, and watch movies without Swedish subtitles. That’s all we’ve got. Help us out. Please.

Just so you know…I’m going to be changing my site soon. DONT FREAK.. I will let you know before I do. PS: NO LESSON TODAY! PPS: This is the worst blog I’ve written so far. BORING. Okay love you all. Promise a better one for tomorrow.  

People. I did not even have a clue what I was in store for when I said I would be “Sankta Lucia.” My words will not give you a clear description of everything that took store lastnight. . but I will do my best. When we arrived to the gym that we were performing in I realized that there were WAY more people there than I had expected.  That made me a little nervous. You see. . I had planned on making a complete fool of myself, and I was told that it was going to be some sort of party for the board members. I was thinking possibly 20-30 people.  NOT. It was more along the lines of 250-300 people. Yeah. . not exactly what I had pictured. Basically it was a school Christmas concert, and I was deemed the “Sankta Lucia.”  We sang 5 Christmas songs . .some in Swedish. . some in English. Amy and I TRIED to sing a song in Swedish (key word there..’tried’). PS:You know you’re bad at Swedish when little kids are laughing at how you speak.  Overall it was probably top 5 most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here. 

Alright, onto my favorite: random news. I read today that sugar may be as addictive as cocaine. Science is verifying what many overeaters have suspected for a long time: sugar can be addictive.In fact, the sweetener seems to prompt the same chemical changes in the brain seen in people who abuse drugs such as cocaine and heroin. This is horrible news to me. I would’ve never guessed that everytime I was eating a zinger or cramming Skittles in my mouth by the ’4s’ that it was equivalent to snorting a line of coke or shooting up heroin. I think, according to this article, I could classify myself as a “druggie?”  The article also says that sugar is a gateway drug for other abuses such as alcoholism. Not only am I a druggie, but I could also be on a path of an alcoholic. I can see it now. Instead of teaching kids to “Just Say NO” to drugs its going to shift to the saying no to the cupcakes that just came out of the oven. During DARE graduation, adolescents are going to be doing skits about struggling with peer pressure to eat M&Ms and go into candy stores underage. Soon will there be an age limit on when we can eat sugar? I could go on forever.. I’m done. Goodbye sugar. 

Our next game is on Saturday. We will be playing Jamtland, which is a team that we have the potential to beat.  We will be traveling to their home court on Saturday morning. Today I have nothing all day, besides finish up on some of my assignments and e-mail them to my professors. I have all the time in the world, and I still manage to procrastinate my homework until the end of finals week. Can’t teach an old dog new tricks I guess. I am going to be productive, and remember. . just say no…to sugar?  

Swedish Lesson: Ar min svenska sa dalig? = Is my Swedish that bad? (pronounced: air min svenska saw dalig) 

Quote of the day: “If God doesn’t give us what we want and ask for, our faith is strong enough to say, “Not my will, but Yours.” -Joyce Meyer

Random news. I love reading it. It truly brightens my day reading the ridiculous stories that happen each day in our country. I think that classifies me as a loser, but I’m willing to accept that position.

This morning the story choice of my day was about the healthiest states in the US. I thought for sure South Dakota would round out the bottom ten, but suprisingly.. we didn’t. BOOYYYAAAA! Unofortunately we didn’t make the top ten either, so I guess that makes us perfect. We aren’t fat, but we aren’t skinny. I know I’ve got some junk in the trunk.. which I’m proud to say, “I like food.” No. I LOVE FOOD. According to the statistic, they like their double cheeseburgers in Louisiana. “Welcome to Louisiana, home of the fatties in America!” Vermont won the healthiest state award. I will never go there. They probably just eat salads and exercise all the time. I heard a rumor that they burned down all their McDonalds. That’s just crazy.  Unfortunately the article only showed the top ten healthy and unhealthy . . nothing in the middle. Eat up this holiday season South Dakota. . we are pretty much the perfect state. “Welcome to South Dakota, we like double cheeseburger. . but we eat our veggies too!”  

Yesterday was our first practice with our new player. (I figure I should stop calling her “the Russian.” Her name is Nastia.) Practice was difficult. It was hard not to focus on her mistakes, because we are so used to being able to run our own stuff and work towards a common goal of getting better together each day. Instead we threw in trying to get the new person to run the plays and the level of frustration grew quickly. Mentally we struggled to try to overcome a “new person being there,” and just try improve our game. All-around bad practice. 

Enough with that. Before practice TB asked me to help out with a little girls basketball clinic. “Helping out” turned into actually running the entire clinic. I would normally not become intimidated back in the ol’ USA, but in Sweden little kids known pretty much no Engelska (English). It turned out to be the most fun I’ve had teaching kids here so far. All the girls were so excited to meet “An American,” and they were so excited to get a high five from me or to here me say, “Bra” after a good effort. (Bra = Good) It is warming my heart just TALKING about it. After doing the clinic, it confirmed that I had chosen the right profession. I’m so excited to have my own classroom and prepare kids for their future.  Probably the most challenging aspect of teaching basketball here is that I can’t explain in depth. If you walked into the gym you would think it was an all-around awkward atmosphere, because I’m barely talking. All I do is say, “Samma,” (Samma = Same)  and then show them what to do. I would show them what NOT to do and say, “Nej.” (Nej = No) and then I would show them again the correct way to do it and say, “Bra.” I felt like a complete idiot by the end of hour session. I’m sure the girls are making fun of me …right this moment. “Wow. Americans are dumb.”  

Alright fellow fatties.. I’m gonna go start my day. Goodnight to all of you in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! Miss you much. 

Swedish Lesson: Lite langsammare, tack. = More slowly please. (pronounced: leetah longsammare tuck.)

Quote of the day: “True prayer reflects a relationship with God and shows that we depend on Him.” -Joyce Meyer

Hejda. We had a game on Friday. . played the undefeated team in our league. They are still undefeated. . which if you put it together = we lost. We managed to put up a fight instead of rolling over and dying how we normally do. We were actually up 12 points on this team and I do believe they were feeling the pressure. Our lead of 12 dwindled to being down 6 at halftime. We fought the rest of the game, but once again fell short of the victory.  That’s all I have to say about that…

Christmas is coming! This wednesday there will some sort of a  Christmas program that the team will be taking part in. I am going to be Anta Lucia (an angel) and I am going to be singing at it. I have been struggling with choosing a song. My favorite Christmas song is O Holy Night, but Anna has been pushing for Stilla Natt (Silent Night). Small problem: I would sing that one in Swedish.  Another small problem: I suck at Swedish. Ha. We’ll see. I will try to put up a video. BY THE WAY: I really want to start putting up pictures on my blog. You see. . this is an ‘education’ blog, and I don’t think it allows me to put pictures up. If you know of any other good blog sites that I could switch mine to, or if you know how to post pictures on this edublog LET ME KNOW. Otherwise I might be doing some moving here soon,  don’t worry. . I will inform all my blog users i.e. MY MOM when/if I change my site. 

The Russian. She didn’t play on saturday because she does not have her license to play here yet, but if they decide to keep her, she will be around more often. She will practice with us the rest of her time here, so I will let ya know how she fits in. It is VERY hard to communicate. Yesterday it took me 10 minutes to explain what ironing clothes meant. Have you ever tried to explain “wrinkled?” Seriously, my charades game is getting ALOT of practice. I guarantee that when I come home I will rock any game of charades. Sidenote: Russian is an insane language. I took a look at her computer the other day…WOW. Not even close! 

This isn’t a very fun blog, but I get yelled at if i don’t do it everyday. My plans for the rest of today are alot of nothing. Later on I am teaching very little kids basketball (by myself), practice, and nothing! Feel free to get online to talk to me b/c I’m going to be a bum all day! PS: My cousin Kami got married this weekend, and I couldn’t attend. She is a loyal blog reader so I thought I would give her a shout out and say CONGRATS CUZ! Hope you are living it up in Hawaii, get a tan for me and the rest of Sweden =) I promise tomorrow will be better…until then…

Swedish Lesson: Var kan jag kopa en biljelt? = Where can I buy a ticket?

Quote of the day: “Missing someone gets easier everyday because even though you are one day further from the last time you saw them, you are one day closer to the next time you will see them.” -Me

Hejsan. So far today has been quite interesting. I once again hit up the chiropractor. This time I left my apartment 15 minutes earlier than I did two days ago. This gave me time to stall, get lost, or go through at least 3 terrette fits on my way to the doc and still be there on time.  I got to his office with time to sit and ponder which Swedish gossip magazine I wanted to pretend to read. It’s quite frustrating actually. You have no idea what I would do for a People magazine that I wouldn’t have to guess what the story was about.  I’m glad people can’t hear our thoughts, because I’m sure mine are a hoot when I’m looking at magazines/newspapers/anything that you have to read. He checked for my back this time and was not quite as surprised this time, which was a good thing. He still had to do some body twisting and pouncing to crack my back, but not quite as painful this time. I was overall pleased with my session, until he moved to my buttox. I knew he was going to whip out the needles again, but I knew how many to expect and I knew where he was going to put them which made it less painful. Or not. I should’ve known what was to come because before he shoved the needles in when he said with his accent, “Are you okay Shannon?” I’m thinking, “Yeah I’m fine…do what ya gotta do man.” Poke. One needle in. “Are you okay Shannon?” Poke. Two needles in. “Are you okay Shannon?” I sighed with relief after that one, “Done with the poking,” I thought.  Poke. Wait? Why are you still poking? “Are you okay Shannon?”  Four needles later, he stopped with the poking and the “Are you okay Shannon?” This time I sat much longer with the needles. PS. Part of me wants someone to take a picture so I can see the needles poking out of my butt, but our relationship hasn’t gotten that close yet.  Anyway, while I’m laying there with needles poking out he leaves, and comes back with pie. He proceeded to tell me how his mother made it for him, and how great it is.  I love food. You probably all know that. So I’m not only sitting there with needles in my butt, while he’s sitting there holding a conversation while eating his mother’s pie. Not your regular everyday appointment, but once again, I feel like a new person. He also suggested that I start yoga, but I realized that I would not be able to take yoga due to the lack of knowing any Swedish. I did what most Americans would do in that situation and looked up yoga on youtube. I tried to today and I realize that most 80 year old women have more flexible hips than I do. 

The Russian has arrived! We picked her up today at the airport. I feel like a small child when she is around because she is SO TALL. TB found a room for her at the hotel that we eat at, so she will not be staying with us during her try-out. She is 19, seems very social, but knows very little English and no Swedish. We ate lunch with her, and once again I talked WAY too fast, so it was challenging having conversations.  I guess as long as she can understand me on the court, I’m okay with the awkwardness off the court. I am excited to learn about Russian culture. . b/c I know NOTHING. Small town girl coming out in me again. 

We play Telge tomorrow. They are undefeated and bring lots of talent to our court. We need to play well to beat them. We have not played well at home yet, so this will be a great game to prove ourselves. . especially since no one expects us to show them up.  Alright, that’s about it. I’m off to practice. Hej for now. 

Swedish Lesson of the Day: polisen = police (pronounced: pooleesen)v

No quote today. I’m sorry… I’m slacking. 

Hejsan. I’m sitting at our NEW kitchen table. Not new, but new to our apartment. Normally we have a large open space, but fortunately one of my teammates left it in our apartment after Thanksgiving. Hopefully she doesn’t realize she is missing a table anytime soon, because I love it. 

I had quite an eventful day yesterday. I DROVE to my chiropractor/massage therapist appointment yesterday.  My appointment was at 9:30 am, and beings I get up at 7:00 am everyday, that would mean I have more than enough time to prepare for my appointment. I ended up being 5 minutes late. How? Possibly because the combo of snow and stick shift literally made me have terrettes while I was driving. I am awaiting the day that I don’t turn into a psych ward patient everytime I get behind a stick shift. I seriously still get sweaty palms. After showing up to my appointment 5 minutes late, I entered the doctors office not knowing that I would get a totally new body by the time I left.  I have been having really bad hamstring problems since I arrived, and my manager (TB) said this guy knows his stuff.  Last year I was having similar problems, and I told my massage therapist that I am not comfortable being “cracked.” To me, your body should crack naturally…right? If it wants to crack, than it will. I certainly do not need someone twisting my body and jumping on me to make my body crack in ways that I cannot even explain. Since that doctor I have started to lose hope and have become more open minded to other remedies. I have become SO frustrated with my hamstring that I told this doctor to do whatever he thinks would help me recover. “Crack me if you must.”  Oh, he did. You know your back is messed up when 2 seconds after merely touching it the doc goes, “Ohhh my.” Panic struck. “What? What is wrong?” “Your back. It is shaped like an S.” Reflecting on all the letters in the alphabet that my spine could be shaped like, an S is not the worst. Granted it not the greatest either, but I mean a W … that would be horrible. An X? How about a Q? Thank goodness it was an S and not something worse. He proceeded to twist me, and pounce on me to make my bones make noises that were in no way normal.  First he attacked my back. He then moved to my hips. After violating my hips, he moved to my right foot. He said, “Your foot is much too stiff.”  Just as he was about to have at my ankle, I began having a flashback of this one time I slipped on a patch of ice and managed to somehow break my ankle. I sat up urgently and said, “I broke that foot!” He stopped and asked a few questions and than still continued to yank at my ankle once. Nothing. He pulled back much harder and put what you would call “elbow grease” into the next yank and POP. My ankle was “better.”  He told me that all of my pain begins with my foot being so tight. “My foot,” I thought. “Ha. My butt hurts, that’s a LONG way from my foot.” He explained to me that because my foot was stiff, it was causing me to walk abnormally.  (He immitated my walk so I would know how ridiculous I look, and I would say my walk is similar to a penguin). Beings I walk that way, its effects are causing strain on my back, which is leading to my hamstring pain. He told me to focus on walking differently. After that he moved to the area that was actually hurting: my butt/upper hamstring. First he started to vigorously massage it to help loosen up the tight area (which is hard b/c my butt is SO TIGHT anyway..haha jokes jokes.) “Finally,” I thought, “Something I recognize.” I was used to this type of treatment, because that is what my doctor did back home. That feeling lasted around 2 minutes. Out of nowhere he starts to poke me with needles. Not kidding. I straight up got acupuncture in my buttox. “What is this suppose to do?,” I questioned with doubt. Sidenote: He was probably wanting to muffle me by the end of our appointment, because I was like a curious little kid questioning every move he made. He explained that the needles were to help relieve pressure. (He had a way more technical answer, but that’s what I got out of it.) Today is a new day, and I rolled out of bed feeling anything but a million bucks. I think it’s safe to say that I am getting old. My body hurts now, I cannot wait until I get I hit 50. I should get a jump start picking out a sweet scooter while I still have good taste. Oh, I almost forgot. I have another appointment on Friday, so I get to experience the “snap, crackle, pop” all over again. SWEET!

Friday is a big day of events here in Umea. Anna’s parents are coming friday to visit and we are fixing them a feast to return to their care to us when we stayed with them in Stockholm. We figured the best American meal we could make them would be: TACOS!  (I know, its Mexican) Also, we are getting in a Russian player. She is about my height. (6’4″).  Alright, so approximately a foot taller than me. Safe to say she is a large player. Good thing I have been practicing my Russian?  I can barely speak Swedish. She is trying out for a couple weeks and during that time she will be staying with….US! Another person to the family. We don’t really have a room for her, so I am not sure how we are going to work that out, but we can always make due. Alright. I need to go be productive with my day. Good day to you all. PS: LOVE THE COMMENTS! I READ THEM EVERYDAY! 

Swedish Lesson: Krya På dig = Get better. (pronounced: kira po dey)  

Quote of the day:  ”First we’ll make snow angels for two hours, then we’ll go ice skating, then we’ll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookie-dough as fast as we can, and then we’ll snuggle.” -Elf

Welp. Bad news. We lost.

JUST KIDDING! Finally, I can come back to my blog and write about A WIN! Amy’s sister, Courtney came from U.S. with a huge suitcase full of American goods. Peanut butter M&Ms was our apartment’s fav. . and we knew that we couldn’t just eat them, but needed to save them for a special occassion. We agreed that the special event was: A win.  Well, after the last two games we were starting to wonder if we were ever going to be able to crack open the bag of peanut buttery goodness. All three of us were rejoicing after the game…yes, because we had finally gotten rid of that disgusting looking zero at the beginning of our record, but also because we could crack open our bag of peanut butter M&Ms. (That definately makes me and my roommates sound like we are obese..we just like peanut butter M&Ms.)  We ended up beating Eskalstuna (I have no idea if I spelled that right) by 14 points!  I cannot even explain to you how good it felt to be on the winning side again. Our team SERIOUSLY needed to win this game, because our next two games are against some pretty wicked opponents. One of the teams has a girl that previous played for the LA Sparks, and the other team is undefeated.  Lets just say we have our hands full on our next two HOME games. Its absolutely fantastic that we can roll off of a win going into our next few games, because we finally got to taste victory and know what it takes to finish a game. Both hope and confidence are characteristics that have entered into the minds of our team, and that means ANYthing can happen ANY night. We are a team that is 1-5, but our record truly does not show our potential. (I’m not just trying to be optimistic because I am on this team… ) I strongly believe we could be AT LEAST a 4-1 team, but those games are in the past so I should probably just let that go.  Anyway, yesterday was probably the longest day of my entire life. We flew out of Umea at 11:00 am, got to Stockholm around 12:00 pm, drove to Eskalstuna, and arrived there at 2:00 pm. We ate, got ready for the game, played, WON, drove back to Stockholm, flew back to Umea, drove home, and crashed like a little baby. For a small town girl from South Dakota…that’s one long day. PS: I’m still not used to flying. Everyone else is holding conversations during takeoff and I’m still “that girl” that is clenching onto her seat, chewing gum, trying to get her ears to stop popping. 

We spent a majority of today decorating our apartment. It is decked out in cheesy overdone Christmas decorations. . there’s no place like home. Christmas is in the air, and I LOVE IT! I constantly listen to Christmas music. (O Holy Night is my personal fav..) 

Amy and I have created a new form of amusement. Since everyone knows both English and Swedish, it makes it hard for Amy and I to have secret conversations. On the flip side. . everyone around me can be talking about anything they want right in front of my face and I just go about my business because the jibberish around me makes no sense what-so-ever. We decided (privately) that we would throw out large English words that no one knows the meaning of here, and make them sound important. “Semi-colon” was a hit…. if they only knew I was talking about punctuation. HA! If you have any good “big words” .. help me out. I start to run dry after awhile…I could use your help. Alright. I’m outtie. Night night USA. 

Swedish Lesson: Ursakta, hur mycket ar kockan? = Excuse me. Can you tell me the time? (pronounced eurshekta, heur mewket air klockan?)

Quote of the day: “Too often people tend to focus on their problems instead of meditating on God’s promises. As they do, their problems seem to get bigger, and God’s promises diminish.” -Joyce Meyer

Hi friends. Here to write about my Thanksgiving Day. Since I was unable to “physically” be with my family, my mom got a genius idea. She brought her computer to the family thanksgiving, logged onto skype,  and handed my face around to the family.  I got to experience the Daly Thanksgiving in Aberdeen, SD, from the comfort of my bedroom in Sweden. I even saw my Uncle Bob taking his nap that he takes EVERY year after we eat. Brought tears to my eyes. One thing that you can always count on your family for is: honesty. ”Are you sick? Hung over? Tired? ” By the end of the conversation I found myself defending myself, “It’s WAY later here,” or “I’m just about to go to bed,” and even “I just took a shower.” 

One thing that did warm my heart that day was knowing that my aunt refrained from making her famous cheesy mashed potatoes since I was not in attendance.  If you are not apart of our family get-togethers, you would not understand the deep meaning in this gesture. I have a dying love for my aunt’s cheesy hashbrowns. It puts me in a good mood even talking about them, and I just drooled on my keyboard, so I’m going to move on, but before I do I must give thanks where it is due, “Thankyou Aunt Marsha and Aunt JoAnn for holding back on the cheesy hashbrowns this year, better have em’ ready when I’m back for Easter!” 

A dish they serve here is one  that is quite disturbing, but suprisingly good. What is it? Reindeer.  It’s especially hard to talk about during this time of year because of what I’m biting into. It could Prancer, Dancer, Vixen, shoot…..even Rudolph. Forgive me Santa. 

We celebrated our Thanksgiving a day early. (Not that anyone here even noticed!)  The feast was an absolute success. We hosted 22 people for our thanksgiving day extravaganza. I knew I was out of the country when I had to stand in front of the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, and stuffing and tell people how to arrange it on their plates.  Hilarious. I must say, preparing the meal was much more fulfilling than just sitting around, waiting for the food to be made, stuffing my face, taking a nap, socializing a little and returning home. I went out of my comfort zone this holiday, and found new meaning in thanksgiving. I can cook! That is stretching it a little, but there is hope for me in the kitchen! 

The day after Thanksgiving, Amy, her sister Courtney, and I went out to shop to show our repsects to  ”the biggest shopping day of the year.” They certainly do not celebrate that “holiday” either. Granted, we didn’t get up at 4am to wait outside Wal-Mart, but Sweden didn’t help us out AT ALL. The sales just weren’t as fulfilling, and the adrenaline rush that you get when you are racing someone to the special sale rack was missing.  We tried America, we tried. PS: I’ve swear I’ve never done that…seriously . 

I really wanted to end my message with everything that I’m thankful for, but that would turn this blog into a small novel and no one wants that. So I will leave you with one thing that this Thanksgiving has taught me: “Never take what you have for granted.” 

PS: We fly out tomorrow morning for a game. 0-5 vs 0-8  A game of the “defeated.” Who will get the 1 at the beginning of their record??  I will let ya know when we get back tomorrow night…..

Swedish Lesson: Mitt namn ar = My name is…..(insert name here) (prounounced: mit namn air) 

Quote of the Day: Families are like fudge – mostly sweet with a few nuts.  ~Author Unknown

Hi hi hi! Okay I know…alot to catch up on in this blog. First off … basketball. We had a game on friday and we were SO SO close to winning, but came out with another loss. BOOO. I know. We are seriously anorexic when it comes to winning…just STARVING for a win. This is definately having a toll on me emotionally..especially coming from the season I rolled off of.  I’ve had more losses in 5 games then we had the entire season last year. Its teaching me mental toughness and how to focus on being positive when the positive is not so easy to find.

One thing that I can barely stand in the game of basketball here is the lack of referees that actually know the game of basketball.  I have never been so enthralled by stupidity. (I hope they are all reading this too) I actually MISS the refs in the U.S. I’ve never seen more people call a foul because A. Normally a person would foul in that situation   B. “anticipation calls” or C. Floppers. They love the floppers here. You flop… you get the foul. I find it so absolutely ridiculous and actually go into fits of rage when I think about it.  Instead of going into the gym to work on my jump shot, or lift weights. . I’m going to practice “flopping.”  I want to lecture the ref and tell them that they are rewarding a play that is not deserving. WHATEVER. 

Last night we attended the 50 year anniversary of Gammliahalen (our gym). I was pretty excited because it was a pretty formal event with a live band, entertainment, dance floor…you get the jist. I realized that I was not going to be enjoying the evening as much when I realized that the host was speaking Swedish. Unfortunately there were no English subtitles..so I spent the evening laughing when everyone else is laughing to fit in, clapping when I don’t have a CLUE what I’m clapping for, and pretending I knew the lyrics to Swedish songs. Sweet. 

Next game = Friday. Again, this is an even team.. so we have a chance. Nobody has lost faith on our team. Let me rephrase that, I have not lost faith in our team. God-willing we can turn this season around, because as of now its not too late! (That’s my inspirational speech for the blog..) 

Thanksgiving is this coming week. Thinking about that makes me a little teary-eyed, but it is not out of the ordinary to be away from home on Thanksgiving. We bought groceries yesterday for our OWN thanksgiving feast. Its gonna be the bomb. I haven’t gone outside of making macaroni and cheese before, so it could be an experience. We will be celebrating it on wednesday with the team, and some friends outside the team. 

One thing that I have been tested in is my conversions. EVERYTHING is different here…and I must say my conversions are a lil rusty. Dollars-Kronans. Miles-Kilometers. Pounds-Kilos. Gallons-Liters….the list goes on forever. Seriously, I just want to hear a number and know that it means the same thing to me as it does to the person expressing it without having the “how much is that” conversation. 

Alright, enough for today. Time for you all to learn. SWEDISH LESSON TIME!!!!!

Det har varit en mycket trevlig vistelse = Its been a very enjoyable stay. (prounounced: det haar vaarit en mewcket trehvlig vistelseh.)

Quote of the day: “I don’t want to gain the whole world, and lose my soul.” -Toby Mac

PS: Great song right now = Give me eyes by Brandon Heath. AMAZING.