Catchin Up

Sorry, I've been sorta busy and without internet in my apt still. Here's some entries from the past couple days that I'm just finally getting to posting now. Enjoy :)

October 26, 2006 23:56

Day off today. Opened a Swedish bank account. Found some internet access on top of a catwalk connecting a very tall, historical elevator with Slussen. Talked to my dad and mom for the first time since I’ve been here (via Skype). Visited T-Centralan (downtown Stockholm) with Anders and Erin. He treated the both of us to the best ice cream in Stockholm. Yup, it was tasty. Went to the men’s game tonight. They lost on a bank, buzzer-beater, 3-pt basket. Most unfortunate. I had some traditional Swedish meal for dinner… a mix of meat and potatoes all mixed up together in some sauce. I would eat it again. I guess the tradition comes from Friday eating meat, Saturday eating potatoes (or vice versa), and then Sunday mixing the leftovers together to eat whatever I had for dinner today (just in case you were wondering  ). Today is Thursday so I was hoping to watch Grey’s Anatomy online tonight, but I can’t cause the website doesn’t allow you to if you are outside the U.S. Anyone want to record it for me? Just watched reruns from the seasons I have on DVD instead. Perhaps I’ll go shopping for a bowl tomorrow. I really want a bowl for my muesli. Bye.

October 27, 2006 11:27pm

Friday night in Slussen! Lauren and Landry (both Americans) took Erin and I out to dinner tonight at this hopping place called the Fenix. We ate dinner there, but the bar scene was really busy and there was a rockin’ club downstairs . Lauren and Landry ended up staying to dance some, but since Erin and I have morning practice tomorrow we decided to head home. I had an elk burger with lindenberries (I think that’s what the berries are called) for dinner. It was soooo good. If you come here to visit, you might just have to try it!

Before we went out this evening, we had practice at the third gym this week! It’s kinda cool how the club has gyms all over Stockholm. We’ve been able to see all different parts of the city. Anyway, today in practice, Anders –a generally laid-back, calm sort of guy – made us run lines. It certainly surprised me, but I was impressed too. We were doing a transition defense drill and weren’t communicating well enough. So, he said if we weren’t going to talk, then we were going to run lines (sounds like Stanford practice all over again!). Good practice though. I’m really excited for the game on Sunday. It’s at an island off the east coast of Sweden and it takes about 45 minutes to get their by plane. The trip should be fun, but I’m most excited for the game. I just really am enjoying my teammates. They are all different, yet fit together so well. Playing with them makes me smile!

Tomorrow after morning practice I think Erin and I might head into the T-Centralan area. There is a shopping mall, a “culture center,” and even a place where you can pick up a free bus that will trip you out to the biggest (supposedly) Ikea in the world. As long as I’m Sweden I better make a trip there sometime, plus I really need some lightbulbs and a bowl.


October 29, 2006 8:57am

I’m leaving in a few minutes to meet up with some teammates, head to Arlanda, and then fly to our away game versus Visby. Until then, thought I’d catch up with my fun Saturday.

We had morning practice yesterday, which is kinda nice because the gym is less busy than during the week. The court we practice is at more regularly, Frysuset, is a really nice court, but the club/court happens to be located at a high school. This is pretty neat because there can be a lot of coaching, relationships-built, and giving-back to be done between 08 and the school. However, sometimes the gym is filled with eager highschool students – which I think is great, but tends to slightly bother out coach when he just wants a quiet gym for us to practice in. Anyway, practice on Saturday morning is quieter than normal.

After practice, Erin and I decided to go to T-Centralan. It’s kinda the downtown shopping area. Erin wanted to grab some food from Burger King, so went in and sat down to eat. It was so busy… hard to find a seat at all! We did eventually get a booth, but of course the two of us didn’t fill up a whole booth by ourselves. While we were sitting there, a woman came up and asked to sit with us. That was fine; we certainly had room. Erin and I kept talking in English, but I really wanted to speak with her. I started asking her some questions. One of the really helpful things about being in Stockholm is that pretty much people speak English really well. This lady (no she didn’t tell me her name – though I did get a picture with her!) started sharing her story with us. She grew up in Stockholm, moved away, was married, had a kid, got divorced, lived all over Sweden, and now just recently returned to Stockholm. I carry around a little black book to record new words and fun places to visit… when I asked her to suggest some places “not to miss,” she gladly wrote down some places we must go! She really thought we should go on some ferry boats to the surrounding islands. I think we need to do that soon because it’s starting to get colder and soon will become much darker.

After we left BK, we kinda just meandered through the mall. Some of it is outdoors, while other parts of it are indoors. It’s fun to walk around and see everyone all bundled up, especially all this little kids. I’ve never seen so many strollers… and they’re high tech – like with big wheels and shocks. The little babies and toddlers are all bundled up and look pretty happy in there! Anyway, I wanted to a get a birthday card for someone and I wanted it to say happy birthday in Swedish. I figured out how to say Happy Birthday, but then I also wanted it to be a funny card, not just a regular card. So, I decided to ask some people who were also looking at cards if they could translate for me. The first few people I asked kinda just ignored me, or perhaps they just didn’t realize I was talking to them. Then I asked this one guy… he was receptive, I guess. He told me what it meant, sort of reluctantly. Then I asked him if would help me pick out a card. Hmmm, no.  The culture here about approaching random people to talk is much different than in America. People just don’t go up to other people and start talking. So, I lucked out that the lady in BK was so friendly to me. And this guy too, he actually was being much more receptive than is normal (at least as I’m told by my teammates). Guess it’s just something I’ll have to get used to. Everyone is really nice, but you don’t really know that until you get someone to talk to you!

Ok, I’m probably talking about way more details than you care to know. So, we went to another store and I bought a bowl! Yay. Erin also got a headset with a microphone so she could talk on Skype. Just as we were about back to our apts, Jasmina called. Off again?!