happy weekend!

January 13, 2007 10:36am

Slept in late on this Saturday-gameday morning, after having a really fun week! In addition to having practice in the evenings (except for Monday night, that was our off day), I was in lab all day on Monday and Tuesday, spent Wednesday and Thursday coaching, and did the perfect mix of labwork, babysitting, and practice yesterday!

Labwork is coming along. I’m feeling more and more comfortable with the new techniques and am getting to know people increasingly well who work there. Sometimes I really wish I could spend more time there or at least more time with some of the people. The young ones in lab (still older than I) are always inviting me to come hang out with them, but they often go grab a bite to eat or drink right after the work day; I almost always have practice. I like having practice to go to, but I do wish I could spend some time with them outside of lab… perhaps give me another perspective of Swedish culture. Anyway, maybe one of these days I will have a day off from practice and be able to spend some more time with them. Continue to be very grateful for the opportunity to be there, to be learning so much, and meeting new people.

This week, Erin and I also were asked to coach again. Yay! Leila called me on Tuesday to tell me that Erin and I would be helping out at some P.E. classes at a local school. At first I was slightly disappointed because I had been expecting to have that time to be in lab and get some work done there. However, that original disappointment – I think it maybe was due to the late notice of the plans for us, than really being disappointed – changed quite quickly to excitement once I met the kids. The school we were helping at was for kids from 6 to 16 years old, but we specifically helped with classes for the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Walking into the gym, the teacher asked us, “So, do you have a lesson plan prepared?” “Ohhh, were we supposed to?!” we wondered. Well, yes, in fact we had been brought there not to just help the teachers out with the classes (and to make an “08 Stockholm appearance”), but we were there to lead a lesson in basketball. So, that we did. We did lots of ball-handling drills – stationary, dribbling, one-ball, two-ball, races, tag….etc.etc. It was so much fun! Many of the kids looked like they had never played basketball before. They were having so much fun and laughing and running around, chasing the balls like crazy! Some tried to speak to us in English, others didn’t at all. It was really neat to be able to try to understand some Swedish and also to be able to help them with their English if they so desired. On Wednesday we gave three 50-minute lessons to groups of about 20 students, and on Thursday we gave two lessons and had an hour lunch break (we ate lunch with some of the gym teachers and some students in the school cafeteria). While in the teacher’s lounge for a short bit, I began chatting with a woman sitting next to me. She was a 4th-grade teacher and began telling me of a fun trip she took a few years back with some other teachers at the school to attend a teacher’s conference in NYC. She was so excited to come to the U.S. and learn from and meet other teachers at this conference. She was real sweet. I asked her if I might be able to come and help in her classroom. She said yes! She said she would love it. We exchanged email addresses; oh, I hope that may work out. I think it would be with some of these kids again. They just have so much excitement and joy, and of course mischief, lack of focus and all those great other aspects of elementary school education! But, they do really want to learn, and I guess I could help them learn English (the official teaching of the English language begins in the 3rd grade). We’ll see if I get back to the school or not. It’s about a 30-minunte train ride, but even if I could get there once every week or two, I just think it would be fantastic : )

I woke up early on Friday (after staying up till almost 2am reading this fantastic book – Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers… have you heard of it? read it? I wholeheartedly recommend it! I received it in the mail from Mel on Wednesday, I started reading the close to 500-page book on Thursday morning and by Friday night I had finished it! I couldn’t put it down. Go get it and read it)… so I woke up early on Friday so that I could be in lab for a short while before meeting up with Liam and Tove at their apartment along the water in Kungsholmen (this is the family I met up with last Saturday and offered to babysit for). Yesterday I was with Liam for about 4½ hours. Yay yay yay yay. He’s a cutie and it was really fun to be hanging out with a little one again. They just light up with joy over the smallest accomplishment. He was really good for me, not that he wouldn’t have been, but it’s always nice to have a good first experience – I don’t want him to be scared of me or anything!! Don’t have any current plans to babysit again in immediate future, but most likely something will come up. Hopefully : )

Yup, so that was how I spent much of my week. Of course we had practice in the evenings. Still going well. Actually, thought we had some good ones this week. Quite competitive. Always good. Better come out strong today in the game this afternoon! No more losing!!

Alrighty, think I will head off the mall to get the best internet connection I’ve yet to find so that I can upload this entry to the blog and download the newest Grey’s Anatomy. Then, back home to grab some food and head off to my game.

Have a fan-tiddily-astic weekend!