Birnies' Journeys

Through the years

2012-02-11T12:20:00.000+01:00

Friday afternoon

2012-02-11T04:32:00.011+01:00

Traditionally,Saturday morning has been my favorite time of the week. A chance to sleep in,to wake up to chirping birds and the morning air, and to experience the delight of a new day.However, Friday afternoons give Saturday mornings quite the competition forbeing the best part of the week. And for David, Friday afternoons are hisfavorite. So instead of seeing these two times as competing for the best part of the week, we embrace both and get to celebrate two “favorite times.” Guess that’sall a longwinded way of saying… I was excited for it to be Friday afternoon because I know how much David loves Friday afternoons!

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Today was Libby’sparents last day in Nepal. They have a flight out late tonight. Her mom hadbeen wanting to get a custom-made kurta. So we brought them back to the placewhere I had a couple kurtas made for me.

[About ten days agowe had accompanied Olga and friends to Neeva Fashion: Kurta Salwar, Sarees, andFancy Ladies Wear. We had gone in hopes of picking out fabric for a kurta(tunic-topic), trousers, and matching scarf. It’s quite the process and can beoverwhelming at times, as the women who work there have all the materialorganized in neat piles on shelves and as a customer remains unsure about thiscolor or that pattern, they will unfold and present more and more choices. Bythe end of the process, we had probably seen over 100 unique color, pattern,and material combinations! They come in every color imaginable, have varyingdegrees of “bedazzlement” with sequins and sparkle, and may be made of cotton,pashmina, silk, or probably some others. I couldn’t decide on only one, so Isplurged for two! They took many measurements of me with their cloth tapemeasure. As recommended by Olga’s friends who have had many kurtas made overthe years, I asked for the tailors to measure “loosely” – as I was much tallerthan the average Nepali and wanted to be sure to fit into my new clothes. Wepaid on the spot and were instructed to return in about a week’s time for thefinished products.]

As you can imagine, Iwas incredibly excited that Libby’s mom wanted to have her own kurta made, as Ihad the chance to experience this rainbow of fabrics all over again. I alsothought my own kurtas might be ready for pick-up. They were! So as Libby’s momwas choosing between materials, I was trying on my new kurtas. They arewonderfully comfortable and elegant looking. We even found an already-tailoredbeautiful tunic top that Libby liked and looked gorgeous wearing.

After our kurtaextravaganza in Kupondole, Laltipur (Patan), we took a 15-minute taxi ride intoThamel (Kathmandu) for dinner at an Israeli vegetarian restaurant suggested byour guidebooks: OR2K (http://www.or2k.org/).

The menu was filled with delicious salads, soups, Mediterranean combos, andmore. We had a special treat because the vegetables were all pre-treated infiltered water, so visitors such as ourselves could actually eat the salad! (avery rare occasion here). In addition to the delicious food, the seatingarrangements were padded mats on the floor with low tables, the room was lit byblack lights making everything that was white or bright glow fluorescently, andthe walls were covered in colorful paintings. I would gladly return here foranother meal!

After dinner, Libby’s parents prepared to headto the airport and Libby and I headed back home via a series of two taxi rides,as the first driver seemed a bit confused about his whereabouts. All in all,it was one superb Friday afternoon here and though I am missing David to share itwith, I’m happy to know he spent the exact same hours enjoying a morning golf outing!

A mighty sky

2012-02-09T15:54:00.002+01:00

A striking scene of sun and clouds, as viewed from my rooftop this afternoon. How awesome is it that we have a God that creates such beauty and enables us to see it!

The rain continues...

2012-02-08T10:06:00.000+01:00

Let us acknowledge the LORD;

let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises, he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth.

-Hosea 6:3

It has been sunny everyday that I have been here. I don’t think it rains too often during winter here. So it is a special day when it does. The thunder and lightning continued all night long. Multiple times I woke to the boom and flash of light that I’ve grown to miss so much while living in California. Having the day off from the hospital, I planned to sleep in. When I woke around 7:30am, the rain had slowed to an occasional sprinkle and puddles could be seen everywhere. I’ve always loved running in the rain and though I’ve been working to get over a head cold, I thought what better way to commune with God in the moment than go for a jog. I’m sure I elicited some strange looks directed my way, but I was excited to be hopping over puddles and finding sure places to put my feet. The air was a welcome relief from most days because even though there was still much exhaust from the vehicles, the normally constant layer of dust had been beaten down by thousands of raindrops. I ran on narrow dirt roads and wide paved roads, dodging taxis, buses, bicycles, and children waiting for school buses. Not too long after returning home, did the steady rain start again – resounding with an occasional boom of thunder.

Today I have no plans. I love days like that. They do not happen frequently enough. Correction – I had one plan - to talk with David! We skyped after returning from my jog and the strangest thing happened: our video call that was initially working just fine decided to make me mute. I could see and hear David and he could see me, but he could not hear me. Definitely was interesting to have a conversation where head movements and facial expressions became the only way I could communicate.

With the rain coming down hard, I’m happy to stay curled up inside. Better yet, Miley our “house mom” offered to cook a meal for Alice (a housemate) and myself. We pieced together what food we had on hand. I had bought lentils and rice in hopes that someday I would get to experience Miley’s cooking – today was the day! We had only to walk ten steps to the kitchen to enjoy a hot delicious meal; all three of us eating together.

I’m not sure what I will do this afternoon. Libby is gone with her parents to Nagarkot and possibly Bhaktapur, though I’m not sure how their plans have changed with the abnormal weather. I’m thankful for this day of rest and reflection.

Rain

2012-02-07T19:01:00.000+01:00

It's been sunny everyday here... until now: A thunder and lightning storm! Ah, what will it look like in the morning after a night of rain? Excited to see. Could be pretty muddy...

The Nursery

2012-02-06T17:22:00.000+01:00

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven." Matthew 18:10

After spending my first two weeks on the children’s ward at Patan Hospital, I transitioned to the nursery this week and have now spent two days with the babies. Each morning I attend a teaching session, yesterday it was about the previous day’s admissions and today it was on chronic kidney disease, after which the residents disperse to their respective teams to pre-round and round. There are two intermediate nurseries and also a NICU. I have spent the first part of the week in nursery A and will spend the last couple of days this week in nursery B. Thus far the babies have ranged in gestational age from 27 weeks to full-term and have varied in birth weight from less than 1 kg to over 3 kg. There are a couple of incubators in the intermediate nurseries, but any baby that requires intubation is transferred to the NICU.

"Nursery A"

After morning rounds at the bedside of these babies, the team scatter to various duties. One resident will go the post-partum ward to exam the healthy babies “rooming-in” with their mothers. Another will cover the OT (Operating Theater) for c-sections and the Delivery room for vaginal deliveries. I’ve been waiting for my opportunity to attend the deliveries. Today I was granted that chance!

After trading my tennis shoes for “slippers” (plastic shower sandals) upon entering the OT area and donning scrubs atop by street clothes, a blue hair cap, and green facemask, I was dressed to observe my first c-section delivery.

The resident showed me how he prepped the bed with a warming lamp, set up the facemask, bag, and O2 if necessary, and prepared the suction. After watching him receive and care for one new baby, it was my chance to “catch” the next one.

Ready for the hand-off!

“Catching babies” is a role medical students can fill for healthy babies and one that I have filled multiple times back at home. However, little did I know until today that there is a big difference here related to how the baby is later presented to its mother. In the U.S. we make sure the child is stable with an exam and necessary support, swaddle them tightly in a blanket, and bring them to the parents’ sides. Here in Nepal, the naked baby is carried to the mother’s side. When it was my turn to show the baby off for the first time, I supported the baby with one hand under its rump and the other hand under its head. Well, when I brought it to the mother’s side, I quickly learned why the baby had to be naked. It seemed the most important part of this encounter was to be able to visualize the baby’s private parts, as words alone were not enough. With that first baby, I quickly learned how to present the baby properly to its mother. Despite the emphasis on visualized the sex of the child, all the mothers today appeared equally thankful to have a boy or a girl.

He's a squirmy fellow:)

As I reflect on today, I just keep thinking how words really cannot describe the miracle that each life is. I love being there for the transition from a baby swimming in a sea of amniotic fluid to one breathing air and crying for the very first time. When their little eyes open up to the world around them, I am moved to my soul. I sense such ultimate innocence and dependence, yet such wonder and awe. Of course a healthy baby is such a blessing, as there unfortunately are many complications with the grueling birthing process. Today the babies were wonderfully pink.

"Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation– if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good" 1 Peter 2:2-3

My Birthday

2012-02-05T17:24:00.000+01:00

I was born twenty-eight years ago today. This is my third birthday that I have celebrated outside of the United States. This coming year will be the longest year of my life thus far. Why? Well there are 29 days in February this year, but as we know that happens every 4 years. However, I started celebrating about 12 hours before the rest of you in North America. So as I get ready for bed here, I still have all day to celebrate in the United States with you!

How does one spend their birthday in Nepal? Well, from what I’ve learned from conversations here, most Nepali people do not know the day they were born. Historically most Nepali babies were born at home, perhaps delivered by a family member or, if you were lucky, a midwife lived close enough to come assist in the delivery. Nonetheless, most people live in rural villages and the sense of an exact birthdate had little, if no, value. Today there are incentives for women to deliver in hospitals and, increasing over just the last several years, children are now growing up to know their birthdays. That being said, birthdays in Nepal are just not that big of a deal.

Sticking to the Nepali attitude regarding celebrating (or even knowing or recognizing) one’s birthday, I made no special plans. Of course, I ended up having a splendid and special day. I woke up to a birthday call via skype with David. Enjoyed breakfast with Libby. Had an awesome morning at the hospital – my first day in the nursery (I loved it!). Ate at our favorite lunch spot right across the road from the hospital. Took a chiya break in the afternoon sunshine before finishing our time at the hospital in outpatient clinic with some precious kids.

The streets seemed extra busy today as we walked home from work. As we turned off the main road and headed towards our house, we were greeted by a magnificent surprise. It has been quite hazy lately. When it’s hazy here, you can’t make out the mountains at all. The “haziness” can be so thick sometimes that you can barely even make out the nearby foothills. I had prayed that I would get to see the mountains today, my birthday. I know God answers prayers in so many different ways. Some are answered in ways that we would hope for and other times they are answered in not so obvious ways. They are heard and they are answered. Well today this prayer of mine was answered exactly as I had hoped for. The snow-capped Himalayan mountain range rose about the dust, noise, buildings, pollution, and the foothills. Even though the day was far from being perfectly clear, those mountain peaks jumped out of the sky, soaring where you would think only clouds could be. Thank you God for allowing us to come right to you in prayer. Thank you for caring about the big things and the small things. Thanks for showing off your gorgeous creation for us to see here in Nepal today.


Rooftop view of the mountains, from our guesthouse. Look in the distance, there are mountains - not just clouds (Better in person!)

After an extended viewing of the mountains from our rooftop, Libby and I headed into Kathmandu via taxi. We met up with her parents who had quite the day of walking and touring, and headed into Thamel for dinner. Since her parents were to be having traditional Nepal food in coming night, we decided on Korean food for dinner tonight. By map and guidebook, Libby meticulously led us through the disorganized streets to the alley of a well-reviewed Korean restaurant.

Libby with her parents, excited we found our dining destination.

I don't think I’ve ever had Korean food and was excited to try something new. Based on Libbys’ recommendation, I ordered bibimbap and was served a piping hot bowl of rice, vegetables, stir-fried beef, and a freshly cracked egg – all of which you mix up together as soon as it is served, as the dish is so hot that there is still some more cooking to be done! There were lots of little side dishes and steaming hot soup as well.

Missing Libby from the photo. Now if only David and Mike could have been here too...

After dinner we made a surprise stop at a bakery to look for a birthday cake or some other celebratory dessert. I picked out a “chocolate ball." We enjoyed our desserts on a second-level outdoor café with reggae music in the background overlooking the streets of Thamel.

My birthday dessert: a "chocolate ball" - it really was all chocolate.

After a short taxi ride home and a hot shower, I’m now warm and cozy, curled up in bed, missing my husband, but excited to extend my birthday celebration a bit longer when I wake up in a few hours to watch the Super Bowl via Skype with David. Let the celebration continue….

Places We've Stayed

2012-02-02T20:06:00.007+01:00

Here are some of the guesthouses and hotels we've stayed at while here in Nepal!

One Day

2012-02-02T19:40:00.000+01:00

Today was a typical day here, as typical as any may be. Wake up around 7am, body stiff from having slept so soundly at night that I must barely have moved. Emerge from my cozy, sleepingbag-lined bed to the chilly morning air. Use my curtain to wipe condensation off the windows; peer out towards the Himalayan mountain range (and hope it's clear enough to see the snow-covered mountains).

Wander out to the kitchen to cook up so oatmeal, this morning mixed with brown sugar, though most other mornings I’ve mixed it with jam. Read and reflect briefly while eating the steaming oatmeal. I want to work my way through the New Testament, obviously not to be finished in my time here, but a place to begin nonetheless. True confession, this morning I checked email instead of reading the Bible.

Yesterday though I was reading from Matthew. In chapter 1, verses 22-23 it says: All this (the birth of Jesus Christ) took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” – which means, “God with us.” Have you ever made a promise? God made a promise years and years before Jesus walked this earth. He made a BIG promise. In the Old Testament, in the book of Isaiah, it is written: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” He made a promise and he fulfilled it. Fulfilled it in a mighty mighty mighty way. What an awesome God we have.

Libby and I leave the house between 7:30 and 7:45am to reach the hospital by 8am. It takes 15 minutes, almost exactly, to get there. We are at the hospital until about 4pm. When we arrive we are warm from walking, we quickly get cold while rounding in the unheated wards (I don’t know of any buildings that are truly heated here in Nepal), we may warm up with a few minutes of sunshine at lunchtime (like today when we drank “chiya” (milk tea) in the sunny hospital courtyard), then likely get cold again while observing outpatient clinic appointments.

By the time we get home at the end of the day, we are ready for a snack. Today it was mouth-watering pear juice and digestive biscuits. Yum yum. Then we decided to get some exercise. Aside from the one jog David and I went on the day of the strike last week, I haven’t done any proper exercising since being here (excluding walking/hiking). Libby brought some workout DVDs from home and today we did our first one. Kickboxing! We set up our own workout studio in the common room on the second floor by moving a coffee table out of the way and rolling up a rug. For over an hour we punched, kicked, ducked, and dodged invisible boxers. If we had a mirror to see ourselves moving, I’m sure I would look ridiculous. Lots of room for improvement!

As Libby had yet to try Nepali dal bhat, we asked the residents today for suggestions of a good local place to eat. Upon their recommendation we went to a Thakali restaurant for dinner. It was wonderful spot located less than a 5 minute walk from our home here. We sat on the floor on low-set chairs and enjoyed a vegetarian Thali set meal (with milk tea for dessert, of course). After dinner I showed Libby some photos from David and my adventures in our first week here and then brainstormed some fun activities to do with her parents, who will arrive this weekend. Both Libby and I miss our husbands dearly, but are so thankful to have each other’s company to adventure here together.

I topped off my night with a video skype call to David. Seeing the one you love makes all the difference!

Life in Patan

2012-02-01T17:39:00.000+01:00

1/23/12-1/30/12

The taxi from Bhaktapur dropped us off close to Jawalekhel. He couldn’t go all the way into the center of this district of Patan because of a potential “strike” causing a traffic disruption. We climbed out of the tiny taxi, strapped on our backpacks, and though we really had no idea where we were, we started walking. After walking along a busy street with racing buses, taxis, cars, motorbikes, and bicycles, with larger storefronts than we had yet seen, we pulled our a map to try to make sense of our whereabouts. David, “Mr. Awesome Sense of Direction,” pointed us the right way and soon enough after crossing the street and changing direction, high up on a telephone pole we spotted a blue-and-white sign pointing us to “Shalom.” After a few left and right turns taking us down some smaller alleys, we arrived at the gate of our new home. We rolled back the heavy metal black gate, glanced up a series of small balconies on the corner of the 4-or 5-floor structure, and made eye-contact with an older Nepali woman who had just come to the window. Unsure of our next best step, we waited in the courtyard. This woman, whom we would soon learn was our house “didi” (older woman, helper), waved us in through the front door. She showed us to our room, offered us a bottle of water with a couple of glasses, and gave us our key. Our room had a giant bed – 2 twin beds pushed together creating an almost seamless union, two walls of windows, a desk, and our very own bathroom.

That first afternoon we ate at the nearby Bakery Café (a Kathmandu/Patan chain of restaurants offering delicious fair in a relaxed environment, served to you by an entirely deaf wait staff). We then found our way to Patan Hospital, in order to scope out our route for the next morning (Krista’s first day of work). Later we picked up our larger backpacks, which we had left at Olga’s during our trip to the outer rim of the Valley. We arrived home for the night, unpacked, and went to bed.

Throughout the course of the next week (1/23-1/30), David explored Patan during the day while Krista worked at the hospital. She is there from 8am until 4 or 4:30pm, with full days off on Wednesday and Saturday. Many of the adventures we experienced that week will be described in posts to this blog dedicated entirely to each unique event; however, in summary, we visited a couple of children’s homes, ate at a friend’s restaurant, experienced a full-on-no-vehicles-allowed “strike”, ate Dal Bhaat with our hands (or rather David did), went for our one-and-only jog, journeyed to Bodha (including Kopan Monastery), observed end-of-life practices at Pashupati Temple (cremation grounds), and learned much about Hindi and Buddhist culture at the Patan Museum in Patan’s Durbar Square. David was a busy man, meeting with a few different people that he was blessed enough to be connected with by some dear friends and family. Krista will write about her time in the hospital in more detail, but thus far - despite a very different set of available resources compared to what we get used to in the U.S. - she has observed compassionate thoughtful care of these most beautiful and precious Nepali children.

David’s last day here was Monday the 30th of January. He walked Krista to the hospital and then took a taxi straight to the airport. Krista arrived at the morning teaching session with tears in her eyes and sadness in her heart. Thankfully there is free internet in Singapore (first layover spot) and Skype, once home, to look forward to!

Nagarkot to Dhulikhel, then onto Bhaktapur

2012-01-27T17:19:00.000+01:00

1/20/12 – 1/22/12

Today we packed up at the Farmhouse and embarked on a wonderful hike from Nagarkot to Dhulikhel (about 20km). We started off with a big breakfast at the Farmhouse and told the staff there that we planned on walking to Dhulikhel. Using a lot of hand motions, the manager gave us directions: “up up up, down down down, up a little hill, down down down.” We told him we had heard it would take about 6 hours to hike between the two towns, but he assured us it could be done in 3.5 hours. When asking for directions in Nepal, nearly everybody gives you the amount of time to travel to the destination rather than the distance to be traveled.

Our first detour on the hike was to checkout the “Peaceful Cottage” – another place we had thought about staying while in Nagarkot. There were great views from there too; perhaps we will stay there in the future (though we really loved the Farmhouse!). After winding through Nagarkot, we exited the mountain town by weaving though an army base. There were funny inspirational quotes written in English, nailed to posts throughout the army area: “Grab the bull by the horns” “When the going gets tough the tough get going” “I’m on time” (that was the strangest one, we thought). Surprisingly the route to Dhulikhel was very well marked, with arrows pointing the whole way. We walked along the top of a ridge, which offered tremendous views of deep valleys stretching down both sides of our trail. We went down hundreds of stone steps, stopping at one for a lunch break of Nepali bread with jam and butter. We climbed terraced hills covered with yellow-flowering mustard seed plants. We walked through small villages. At one point David stopped to do pull-ups on a trekker’s shelter, as a young boy and his grandfather looked on with much intrigue (i.e. likely thinking he was crazy). The hike went through wooded areas, farmland, terraced hills, small villages, and people’s backyards all with the gorgeous Himalaya backdrop. It was truly a peaceful and magnificent hike.

Once we arrived to Dhulikhel, we needed to find a place to stay. The first hotel we checked had no vacancy. The second hotel would have worked, but we kept looking. As we were going down a driveway for another, we were approached by the most excited man we had yet to meet in Nepal. He adamantly encouraged us to visit his hotel. He told us he would give us a good price. So we followed him. As we walked into the door of his hotel, he had one of the boys play music on the guitar as a welcoming and another boy ran ahead to show us a room. We walked through a door with empty window panes (perhaps no money for actual windows) and proceeded up many flights of stairs in a shoddy, unfinished building. We both knew this was not the place for us to stay, but the man was becoming more and more adamant that we would say yes. We told him we were going to keep looking. Rather than bidding us farewell, he walked shoulder-to-shoulder with David to lead our search for other lodging. He kept telling us about his uncle’s hotel. Against his advice we decided to check out the Dhulikhel Lodge Resort (“that’s expensive” he exclaimed) and secretly hoped we could dodge him with this move. He continued to follow us all the way to the reception desk of the resort, even introducing us to his “uncle” – the receptionist (who later told us he was not related to this man). We ended up really liking this place and negotiated a fair price that included breakfast and dinner at their hotel restaurant. Our room again had tremendous views of the Himalayas. That afternoon we explored the streets of this small town, relaxed reading by the hotel’s giant circular fireplace, and enjoyed a delicious buffet dinner in their dining room. We checked out the many channels on our first room with a TV (there were a lot of channels - maybe 70!), but opted to watch Friday Night Lights.

The next day we packed up with plans to get a taxi into Bhaktapur. As we approached the taxis, along came a public bus with someone shouting “Bhaktapur!” (or so we thought we heard). So we jumped on there and hoped we were headed in the right direction. At first we had plenty of space in the back of the bus, but as time went on the bus became increasingly crowded – people crammed in the seats and filling the aisles. Some people were even riding on the roof! We made stops every couple of minutes it seemed, with people constantly getting on and off. However, it was a fun ride and a great way to experience more of the culture. We didn’t know exactly where or when to get off. Thankfully the bus driver seemed to be looking out for us and yelled back at us when it was our stop.

Bhaktapur, “the cultural center of Nepal,” immediately struck us as quite distinctive with its brick walkways and many stores of handicrafts. There seemed to be a unique sense of culture and pride that was missing from Thamel. Again, our first task upon entering a new city was to find a place to stay. Krista became quite fond of going into many different guesthouses to see the many different styles of rooms and buildings. Eventually we settled on Newa Guesthouse, which was right in the shadow of the tallest temple in Nepal. We relaxed for a bit in our room, then ventured out to Pottery Square, Durbar Square, a fabulous snack atop a rooftop restaurant, and walked through narrow streets lined with lots of woodwork and metalwork shops. We ate dinner at the Sunny Café, on their rooftop looking out onto Tualini Tole.

We had a great night sleep and woke early for breakfast the next day. We ate in a cute café looking out onto Durbar Square – eggs and toast, for each of us. We had plans to go to the Art Museum, Woodcarving Museum, and Metalwork Museum – one ticket granted entrance into all three. However, our plans were stalled by the art museum opening 30 minutes later than advertised. Nonetheless, two young gentlemen offered to be our “guides” for Durbar Square – we declined their offer but ended up talking with them for quite some time. One of them impressively spoke many languages, in order to offer his services to tourists from several countries. After visiting the museums, we packed up our belongings and found a taxi that would drive us to Patan. It was time to find our new home, the Shalom Guesthouse.

The First Few Days in Nepal

2012-01-25T05:21:00.003+01:00

1/15-1/17/12

We departed Sunday at 12:50pm from SFO. We arrived at 12:05pm today, Tuesday January 17th, nearly 35 hours later. We feel as if we have already been on quite an adventure, though in truth we are just beginning. The flight from SFO to Seoul was the longest leg with a flight time of over thirteen hours. We sat next to a lovely little lady returning home to Bangladesh. The meals were terrific and entertainment satisfying. We kick-started the first leg with a “Singapore sling” (the country’s signature cocktail). For a long time we have been wanting to see Moneyball and were disappointed that we would be out of town on Friday January 20th when it is shown at Flicks (www.flicks.stanford.edu), but lucky for us, we watched it together on the plane. We supplemented our entertainment with a UFC fighter movie for David and a mindless chick flick for Krista. One of the strangest parts of the flight is that it seemed to be perpetually dusk – the sun never truly set, as we were moving west at just the right speed to stay just ahead of it. We moved about the cabin as much as we could during that long flight, but when we arrived for a short layover to refuel in Seoul – David was ready to exercise! He stretched and did some core exercises, as Krista tried to take a nap. Thankfully we slept for most of the flight to Singapore. Upon arriving in Singapore at 2am, the airport was quiet, but filled with lots to do. We visited a butterfly garden, enjoyed a foot and lower leg massage at automated machines throughout the terminals, we walked-jogged-ran in intervals to the correct terminal, and we watched Chariots of Fire in one of the two free movie theaters in the airport. We slept a little more and soon it was time to make the final flight to Kathmandu.

1/18/12

After a solid sleep of close to 12 hours, we were off for an early morning walk about Thamel. We ate some leftover momos from the night before, still delicious though only cold leftovers. There seemed to be slightly fewer cars and motorcycles in the morning, making the walking a bit safer and more enjoyable. Surprising to us, many people were picking up trash and sweeping the streets. Most of the storefronts were still closed, but in their place were men and women sitting in front with blankets covered in produce, clothes, and knick-knacks for sale. Some men were pushing bicycles with huge baskets filled wit fruit. At one roadside stand of newspapers, ten men stood shoulder-to-should all reading a different paper. Some children accompanied a mother or father to the marketplace, helping to sell whatever good their caregiver was tending. We happened upon a square with many people walking about a Buddhist temple in a clockwise procession while carrying prayer beads, sometimes praying aloud, and ringing bells that echoed beyond the square. We ate breakfast outside at a hotel café just down from our guesthouse. David had a “Mexican breakfast” of fried egg, corn bread, beans, and salsa; Krista had a Nepali omelet of eggs and vegetables with a side of toast. We packed up our belongings, divvying up what we expected to need for the next four days and packing this into our small bags, in hopes that we could leave everything else in our big packs as we headed out to the countryside.

We took a taxi to Patan to meet with Olga. As many streets don’t have names and houses don’t have numbers, we were instructed by Olga to have our taxi driver call her Nepali cook to have the directions explained over the phone. It all worked out and we made it to Olga’s beautiful home and gardens – an oasis right within the city. She was absolutely wonderful to meet, with a huge heart and amazing stories (check out Nepal Youth Foundation website for more details of all her projects). We enjoyed a lunch of soup, quiche, and salad (a special treat – with fresh vegetables from her own garden). We plan to meet up with her again before David leaves and hopefully more times throughout Krista’s weeks in Patan.

We hired a taxi to take us to Nagarkot, a mountain town about 1.5 hours outside Kathmandu. The ride took us through more city, some farming land, and into the hills. The road became windy and steep. David thought if it was in better condition and there weren’t so many crazy honking vehicles, the path would have made for a beautiful bike ride. We were hopeful to stay at the Farmhouse Resort, recommended by a couple of different friends, but since it was beyond the main town of Nagarkot we weren’t sure if the taxi would take us there. The driver did not know where to go, but after stopping to ask a townsperson for help, we were all set with directions. However, less than a kilometer beyond stopping for directions, the road transitioned from paved with some potholes to one made of rocks, dirt, more rocks, and giant potholes. The poor taxi kept driving us out further, even though with each bounce we were quite sure a tire might pop or part of the car would break. We followed some signposts until we had reached the small gate of the Farmhouse, passable from here on out only by foot. We were greeted by a friendly staff and immediately offered tea and coffee. We toured the grounds and opted for a deluxe corner room with two walls of windows offering breathtaking views of the Himalyas. We read a bit, relaxed with “milk tea”, and enjoyed a traditional dinner of dal bhaat, spinach, curried cauliflower, potatoes, and hardboiled eggs. With “Everest” beer for our beverage and a delicious honey-filled crepe for dessert. we were the only guests at dinner and the whole resort was catering to our every need. We lit a fire in our in-room fireplace with brief success, but then the smoke started coming in the room and we aborted that mission. Hot showers were refreshing and we went to bed with hot water bottles to help keep us warm.

1/19/12

From the bed in our room at the Farmhouse in Nagarkot, we woke to a beautiful sunrise. We put on our warm clothes and ventured outside for an even closer look, as the sun began to light up the mountains. There was frost on the ground and the prayer flags were blowing in the wind. The scene was majestic, the mountains mighty.

For breakfast we enjoyed apple pieces, muesli with hot milk, scrambled eggs, and Nepali bread with butter and peach jam (homemade from Farmhouse peach trees). As always, we enjoyed our “milk tea” as well. We then made plans with the Farmhouse staff to arrange for a guided walk to a nearby temple. When we asked how long it would take us to get there, there was bit of a miscommunication that led us to think it would take anywhere between 2.5 and 8 hours. We decided to go for it!

We met our guide a few moments later, a 24-year-old local dressed in jeans, button-down shirt, black jacket, and tennis shoes. He was very friendly. We started our journey right about 9 o’clock, walking through small farming villages with incredible views of the Himalayas. We passed a couple of schools, with children in uniform aligned in the playgrounds. We crossed paths with chickens, roosters, goats, cows, and baby versions of almost all these animals. Whenever we passed someone, we greeted him or her with a hearty “Namaste.” The children seemed to be most eager to exchange a greeting, but everyone was friendly and pleasant. The path was impressively flat at times, as it cut through a very mountainy part of the countryside. At one point, we came across a full-size soccer field, albeit made of dirt with no grass, which nonetheless was undoubtedly hard to create on the side of a hill. We journeyed down a big ziz-zagging road, several hundred meters, commonly being passed by motorcycles and overcrowded buses beeping their horns incessantly. After hiking for close to two hours, we reached a larger village at the base of the hill. We crossed a rickety bridge made of wooden planks and a chain-link railing and proceeded on a narrow trail. We climbed up through people’s terraced farmland, balancing between potato fields and tall grasses. Our guide protected us from barking dogs and only once stopped to ask directions to the temple. We got lost a few times, trekking “up and down, up and down” – as our guide stated. He knew where we wanted to get, we could see our destination with prayer flags blowing in the distance, however there was a big valley in the middle. Finally we reached a road that brought us right to the Vajrajogini Temple. There were dozens of visitors at this Buddhist/Hindu temple, though we appeared to be the only white ones. Perhaps the most captivating visitors were the half-dozen monkeys climbing about the temple and around the grounds. They sure were funny to watch, playful and mischievous. One little one strategically ripped a bag of rice out of the hands of one lady. Today the temple doors were open revealing a statue of a sacred goddess. We joined in with the visitors by removing our shoes and climbing the stairs to peer into the magnificently decorated innards of the temple.

From the temple, we journeyed downwards through more countryside to the town of Sankhu. We proceeded right through two lines of instrument playing locals, banging of drums and blowing trumpets. We have no idea why there were playing. A couple of kilometers away on the other side of town, was a big festival; we think it was religious of some sort. People were selling trinkets, clothes, food, religious offerings; there was a ferris-wheel for the children. A couple of young girls approached us holding what looked like a holy book they were trying to sell to us. We said no, but later saw others placing money and flower offerings atop the books and bending over to kiss it too. There was a large pool of water in which some people were bathing, while others seemed to be ceremonially tossing water over their shoulders in some religious ritual. Many people were dressed in red. Many had burnt offerings of flowers. Many were praying. It was a loud and chaotic scene. Then we started the uphill trek back up to Nagarkot, passing through more farmland and tiny villages. It was now at least 2pm, we had not eaten lunch, though thankfully had packed a bit of water, but the sun was shining bright and we were beginning to get a bit tired. When we finally spotted the Farmhouse we picked up our pace, excited to be close to a cold drink and hot shower. We paid 1000 Nepali Rupees (about $12) to have a guide with us the entire day. We were very thankful to have him. It was quite a fantastic and unique way to explore the countryside.

Tonight for dinner, the Farmhouse was filled with many more visitors than previously. Last night it had been just the two of us for dinner, but tonight there were about 15 people there. We enjoyed similar traditional Nepalese food, though served buffest-style this time. We sat with a very friendly Dutch couple that had just arrived to Nagarkot after having spent four or five days exploring Kathmandu. They previously were art dealers with a high-end gallery in Amsterdam and exhibits throughout Europe and the U.S. Now they live in Italy for eight months of the year and Holland for the remainder. We discussed everything from travel to politics to healthcare. They highly encouraged us to someday embark on a bike tour of Europe. Interestingly, they had emailed the Farmhouse ahead of time to book a room, specifically room #15 – as the guidebooks said it was the best. Turns out we ended up in that room. They were understanding, despite the funny happenstance that we ended up in that very room.

Tonight we asked the Farmhouse staff to help us light the fire because last night we had brief success before our room was filled with smoke. Tonight the fire burned well initially, but when we added wood, smoke again came billowing into the room. Seems that perhaps we need just a bit more practice tending to indoor fireplaces here in Nepal.

Tomorrow we plan to pack up and head to Dhulikhel. We expect the hike to take about 6 hours. Now we will read a bit and then fall asleep. In fact, David may already be sleeping.

2009-10-30T08:16:00.005+01:00

Beautiful San Francisco Saturday... drew, david and me. Biked across the Golden Gate and all around the city. The Blue Angels put on a show in the afternoon. In' n ' Out was a superb lunch. Watched Stanford football at a little pub. Home for leftovers in the evening. What a day!

Exploring Huskvarna

2008-03-14T16:46:00.002+01:00

Since the season has been over, I've decided it's about time to get out and see some more of this special little town and its surroundings! Thanks to Frida's mother, I now have a bike to get around on. I've been skipping the bus when its not too rainy, and using two wheels to get into Jonkoping and around town here in Huskvarna. There are many paths through nature. I specifically love the one that rides along the border of Lake Vatten. Sometimes a bit windy with waves actually crashing against the shore; on calmer days, the ride proves to be quite peaceful with a welcome sense of majesty.

On Thursday I visited the Match Stick Museum... Sweden is the proud inventor of the first safety match. Back in the 1800s and early 1900s, Jonkoping was home to the most bustling match-making factories in the world! They supplied matches for millions of people and continue to make matches today (though with the advent of electricity, the demand for matches greatly decreased). Within this museum, a bonus exhibit was displayed: "China Girl." China Girl is an exhibit completed by a Swedish artist that serves to reveal and heighten awareness about today's problem of disappearing girls in China. Due to a number of contributing factors, millions of girls are lost by abortions, abandonment, or murder. Across the planet, the normal ratio of boys to girls is 105-to-100; however, in certain provinces of China, the ratio is 130-to-100. Wow! A Chinese saying goes like this, "Having a girl is like watering your neighbor's garden." What?! This is crazy sexism, and it is not stuff of the past. This is happening now. TODAY. Much much much life is lost. How can this be? If you link through the title of this post, you can reach some photos, one of which captures the text of the "China Girl" exhibit. Worth a read. Please.

I also had the chance to explore the Husqvarna Fabriksmuseum (http://www.hkv-hbf.f.se/husqvarna/inf_sv.html). Beginning in 1689 and continuing successfully to this day, Husqvarna produces or has produced a diverse range of items including firearms, ovens, motorcycles, chainsaws, bicycles, mopeds, boat motors, sewing machines, and more. The 160m tall waterfall outside the factory and museum was one of the original reasons why Huskvarna was chosen to be location of the factory. Using the great force from this water, the water power enabled great productivity. Today the company has over 16,000 employees, though the majority of the manufacturing is actually now completed in the U.S. On my way out of the museum I met a man that has worked with Husqvarna for over 50 years. He is now retired, but provides factory tours to interested groups. When he was young he worked in the manufacturing division of the company and then eventually moved over to help direct buying and selling; his father worked at the factory too. A really nice guy full of lots of Husqvarna stories. He has a trip planned to Nashville, TN - he loves country music!

Well, that's a little recap of my most recent adventures around town. In a few more days I will be headed to Ireland! I cannot wait to reunite with some of my fellow counselors I worked with this past summer, but I too am enjoying my last few days in Huskvarna, Sweden. Gimme a shout and have a super weekend!!

New Photos

2008-03-08T21:23:00.002+01:00

Look at the fun that's to be had...

basketball, bodies, and hmmm hockey!

Gränna

2008-02-24T20:43:00.005+01:00

Happy Sunday to you! Yesterday we had a tough loss at Norrköping... tough because though we were the underdogs and not expected to win, we played a great team game and put up a solid fight, but fell short by six points nonetheless. We are still in the hunt to make the cut for playoffs. About five different teams are in the battle for the last two playoff spots. We practiced this evening - some weights, some basketball, and a team jump rope workout (like in the playground growing up... with one long rope... and everyone working together to jump in unison in the middle... except I never did practice these playground games so much while growing up... so tonight at practice, I was definitely the weakest link! lol. my teammates found it quite entertaining ;) ).

In addition to these court adventures, Tatsiana (my teammate from Belarus) and I visited an historical town called Gränna. The title of this blog links to the town's website - its especially known for its polkagris, "peppermint rocks" (sort of like candy canes of all different flavors, but much more tastier and carefully hand-made). It was a windy day, but we enjoyed walking along the old stone streets, in-and-out of candy shops, and down by the water. The best part of the morning for me was that we went to church. Neither of us speaking or really understanding Swedish, much of the content of the service was beyond us... however, there was song, reverence, meditation, community, and time just to reflect, pray, and praise God for all the wonderful gifts He has blessed us with - struggles and joys - that grow us in our desire to serve and know Him better every day.

This morning as I was reading, these particular verses very strongly stood out to me:

Hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For Christ, while we were still helpless,
died at the appointed time for the ungodly.
Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person,
though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.
But God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

AMAZING, PERFECT, SELFLESS LOVE! That is the love of our Lord!

Have a wonderful end to your weekend and a restful night sleep in preparation for a new week ahead with wonderful opportunity to live fully :)

Here

2008-02-15T08:09:00.002+01:00

So the town where I live... it's spelled with a K. H-u-s-K-v-a-r-n-a. But, more well known and world-famous than it's spelling with the "k" would be the spelling as you see in the picture... with the "q"! Here I am, outside of one of the famous Husqvarna factories (you're not let much closer than this, due to a guarded gate - but perhaps they have factory tours that I should inquire about). In this photo you can also see the primary means by which mail is delivered... via bicycle-riding post people :)

Copenhagen Adventures

2008-02-04T04:43:00.000+01:00

Fun-filled weekend in Copenhagen. Made it back to my apartment by 2am, just in time to watch the second half of the Super Bowl. It was televised here; I was pleasantly shocked. GO GIANTS!! Clink on the link above to view some photos from the weekend. The photos do not cover all of the weekend's activities, but the album is a start for now. It's almost 5am. I best be getting to bed :) And, once again, GO GIANTS!!

Return to Stockholm

2008-01-30T21:47:00.000+01:00

So we didn't exactly win the game against 08... but it was great fun to reunite with former teammates and friends. I was able to hang out with teammates on Saturday night, go to church at Immanuel International the next morning, eat some really delicious Indian food for lunch on Sunday with Jasmina as my date, and then meet up with Joanna and Manne for fika at the Kulturhuset before heading onto the bus and back to Jonkoping. Reconnecting is such a precious opportunity. I am very thankful for the time I had last year in Stockholm; I know I will have friends for life there!

Radio Jönköping

2008-01-21T22:49:00.000+01:00

Today I stopped by the Brahe basketball office to see Christina... she is sewing me some curtains for my apartment - isn't that the sweetest! Well, why I was there, the phone rang and it was for me. Suprise! It was some man from Radio Jönköping. He requested that Frida (my teammate) and I be on his show this evening. I just happened to be in the office while he called, so it all worked out well. Thanks God :) And then, Frida "randomly" showed up at the office too... anyway, we made it to the radio station this evening and had a brief moment to shine on the airways for Brahe. If you click on "Radio Jönköping" (the title above) you will get a link to the radio station. You can listen to our little interview and see a photo - Frida looks cute; I look like I have a black, shut eye and am sickly... lol, none of these symptoms are true of me - I feel great, really!... just wasn't a good day with the camera!! Enjoy listening :)

Brahe Downs Visby

2008-01-19T18:53:00.000+01:00

Tonight was a great team win for Brahe. Everyone who played had an important role and it was the first time this club beat Visby by so many points (at least, that what the coaches told us!). Very exciting for our team. When they were recruiting me to come and play, I think Brahe may have been 10th or 11th in the league. After today, we are 7th. There are some very tough games coming up - including next weekend up in Stockholm against my former team - but it is an exciting time for many of these girls... some of whom have never won 3 games in a row with Brahe. Now, it is not to get ahead of ourselves, but rather be thankful for the opportunity to play, work hard, make the club proud, praise God through our efforts on the court, and just have some good ol' teamworkin' fun! Here is where you can go to see the standings of our team in regards to the rest of the league: http://www.basket.se/Table.asp?TournamentId=48922. Thanks for cheering us on :) I like being the underdog!

P.S. The American who plays on Visby played basketball in college in Arizona with Jessica Starkey... just an interesting fact for those of you reading this and knowing of the "Storm days"!

Adventures with Little Ballers

2008-01-15T14:19:00.000+01:00

Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. -Luke 18:16

Today I was blessed with the opportunity to share smiles and laughs with a bunch of little ones who, along with their families, have taken refuge in Sweden and distanced themselves from the strife in their home countries of Somalia and Iraq. From countries wrought with disorder and war, these families flee to Sweden for safety and with the hope of a better life. However, this culture and life here is all new. They come speaking no Swedish or English. They come with little more than a heart of hope and a willingness to serve. Today the children were as precious as precious can be. Huge smiles, bouncing heads, jumping legs, flying bodies. They were light. Those that have been here a few months speak some Swedish, others having more recently arrived speak little or no Swedish at all. In an environment unlike any they know, the wonder and joy of life abounds. Myself almost brought to tears in being allowed to shoot, dribble, and play with them, I praise God for His wondrous gifts. For children, above all, know and show the freedom and light that God offers us all!

Home for Now

2008-01-14T13:19:00.000+01:00

Here's a glimpse into my immediate surroundings here in Huskvarna. On the 10-15 minute walk to the Sport Hall, where the team practices most days, I cross two small bridges that cross over streams teaming with ducks. I live on Idrottsgatan - which translates to "sports street" in Swedish. Many futbol fields and an ice rink are located on this street. The view through the tress of the ice rink is what I see when I walk up the stairs in my apartment building. My apartment is on the 3rd floor and I have a small balcony. It's a quiet, peaceful, lovely place to live.

Back in Sweden

2008-01-09T14:44:00.001+01:00

I made it! Think I'm over jet lag... mostly that is. Exploring my new home. Huskvarna. It's a very nice place.

Amsterdam

2008-01-03T09:00:00.000+01:00

With four minutes left on my internet-voucher... here I go: So, on my way to Huskvarna, Sweden to play for Brahe Basket in the Damligan League again. I've made it to Ansterdam, having left from Hartford, CT - but my flight from the Netherlands to Sweden was cancelled... no aircraft available to take us... so, onto a new light - during the wait - played a little guitar (tried to!), ate some tomato soup, and sent a couple emails to whoever is supposed to be picking me up at the airport in Sweden. Alrighty, times gonna run out on this computer. Talk soon. Email me! Yay for new adventures. Happy new year too!!

Write to Me!

2007-05-27T21:38:00.000+02:00

I made it to Ireland and its is RAINY and COLD!! lol. i know the weather will turn better. boy, is it beautiful though. green green green. and, of course, the other counselors are terrific. the first group of kids don't arrive until the 5th of june. just training until then. if you feel so inclined... write me a letter! you can address it like this:

Krista Rappahahn
c/o Barretstown Camp
Barretstown Castle
Ballymore Eustace
Co Kildare,
Ireland

would love to hear from you! (emails would be great too). have a happy memorial day!

Thoughts

2007-05-22T02:50:00.000+02:00

May 21, 2007 3:00pm

Perhaps I should start by saying that for over a month now, I’ve been in at least one different time zone every week and then I’ll tell you about the very diverse, yet uniquely beautiful places I’ve visited… however, the exact places to which I’ve visited haven’t been the most exciting parts, but rather my mind has been both busy and seeking rest about answering some pretty big questions: what really makes me happy? and, for whom am I living?

Without a doubt, the last month has been amazing for a number of reasons. Don’t get the idea that I haven’t been happy or excited to be to Turkey, road tripping to Wyoming, babysitting in Mexico, or reconnecting with friends and family in California. Certainly I have found different joys in each of these adventures, but all have also made be really consider who I am and what makes me tick.

As many of you know, my experience in Turkey is surely the catalyst for my moving heart and active questioning: the day I arrived to Istanbul three men were tortured and murdered in eastern Turkey solely because they were Christian. As expected, following this event the entire Christian community of Turkey (and beyond) was visibly shaken. Obviously. But, the strength with which the body of believers stood strong and grew closer together here in Turkey, among a nation that is over 99% Muslim, was like nothing I have ever seen or experienced before. Our team attended church the Sunday following the Wednesday murders; being witness to the absolute love and passion with which the members were worshipping and praising God was crazy. Crazy. Crazy, but oh so real and oh so very awesome. I learned much on this trip and could go on and on with stories, but in summary… through the people we met (believers and non-believers; Turks and non) and the different circumstances with which we were witness to, the Holy Spirit was working hard on my heart and those of my teammates… challenging us to really think on a few things: are my fears greater than my faith or my faith greater than my fears? Would I be willing to die for what I believe? Am I ready to give my life for God? And, will my life change on a very practical level given that I’ve been witness to such intense love, devotion, and sacrifice for God?

My return from Turkey to the United States, also happened to be the first time I was back to the States since playing basketball in Sweden (aside from a short trip to Connecticut at Christmas). Returning to Palo Alto was a huge blessing, but also challenged me in different ways. While away playing basketball, I knew I missed my friends and family, though the extent to which I longed for this community welled up so strongly when I returned home. Being able to just hang out, to talk to people face-to-face, and be back with those I love was really more amazing than I ever expected. Being back made me miss it all the more and desire to be here for good.

I was back in Palo Alto for less than 48-hours before I set off again on another mini-adventure. This time, I embarked on a road trip with Harriet to Laramie, Wyoming. This trip provided great opportunity for conversation, the chance to drive on the loneliest road in America and fun times in rain, snow, and sleet. Ben and Barry did great. The drive was a long one, but a trip worth doing at least once in a lifetime : )

Flew back to San Francisco via Denver and was blessed with a longer chunk of time in Palo Alto this time – what was it? five days I think! Again, being back made we want to be back for good. I fit in a trip to Cancun to babysit for some sweetheart kids and then I had one last wonderful weekend in Palo Alto before being where I am now… on the plane to Connecticut to visit my family before heading off to Ireland on Friday. Wow. Yes, all over the place. Perhaps I will share some more thoughts now.

For one, basketball: do I want to keep playing? I don’t really know. I think I could find another team somewhere, perhaps go back to Sweden, explore another country, return to Turkey? There are lots of different options here, but I don’t know if playing basketball is what I really want to do next year. At the moment, I’ve been pretty okay with not having picked up a basketball since Turkey. This is a definite change in heart, but not necessarily an unwanted one or unwelcome one, but definitely a change nonetheless. We’ll see how this continues to change or not.

So, if I don’t play basketball what will I do? God knows?! : ) I could certainly see myself being back in the Bay Area starting in the fall. Whether I am in Palo Alto or actually living in San Francisco, I see desirable features in each. However, the question really is what would I do? Again, I ask myself, what makes me most happy?

I want to serve God. Be a student of Him. Really get to now Him better and better. How does this play out in life? How can I be bold in my faith, gentle in spirit, and humble in action?

Right now I know I am going to Ireland at the end of this week and will be there through the beginning of September. I am so excited to learn what camp is all about and really to get the chance to spend time with these precious kids (check it out at www.barretstown.org). I also pretty stoked to be applying to medical school right now too (to enter in the fall of 2008). I feel like I’ve been awaiting the application process for sometime now, and it’s great that I can actually start telling schools that I want to be their student!

Once I return from Ireland in September, I don’t know what I will be doing. I love being with kids; I feel especially drawn to sick kids, but I love pretty much all kids! Perhaps I could get a job on campus with a ministry group, the alumni association, student affairs, athletics… who knows there?! But, I think I most aggressively (though we all know it won’t be all that aggressive) want to explore different ways in which I could be with children. I’m pretty open here. So, if you have any ideas… Ronald McDonald House, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Bing Nursery School, Art Therapy Institute… these are ideas that have been mentioned to me in different setting and all have a certain appeal. So, really, if you have any ideas at all – if you know me and think you can figure out what I’d like to do ;) then surely shoot me some thoughts. I’d love to hear from you.

Lastly, I’d be most thankful if you would just pray for me: pray that I trust in God, pursue disciplined quiet time and prayer, and rest in His awesome grace and peace.

Hopefully I’ll blog again before heading off to Ireland, but if not, I will hopefully have internet access (klrappahahn@gmail.com) there and I will get a mailing address to you as soon as I have one. Thank you for all your support, love, and encouragement. The last several months, but especially the last one, has been life-changing, life-giving, and challenging in new and different ways. I’m so excited for what lies ahead!

Fırst tıme ın Asıa

2007-04-24T07:25:00.005+02:00

Im ın Turkey Im ın Turkey Im ın Turkey.

You can fınd out team.s blog at AIA.com somewhere :)

It ıs AWESOME! I am learnıng SO much and wıll have great storıes to share.

Fırst tıme ın Asıa

2007-04-24T07:25:00.004+02:00

Im ın Turkey Im ın Turkey Im ın Turkey.

You can fınd out team.s blog at AIA.com somewhere :)

It ıs AWESOME! I am learnıng SO much and wıll have great storıes to share.

Good-bye Sweden, Hello Turkey

2007-04-18T07:43:00.000+02:00

Off to Turkey today to meet up with the Athletes-in-Action team there! Could use your prayers for safe travels and good times there :)

Don't know how much access to computers we'll have while playing games and doing bball clinics, but hope to maybe get some updates in?!... at least when I get back to the states I will tell you how the trip goes!

I think I might meet up with Seb tonight too!

Have a great end of April!

SM-Guld

2007-04-16T01:59:00.000+02:00

08 Stockholm Human Rights won the Swedish National Championship on Saturday evening!! Hoorah. Hoorah. Hoorah!!

SM-Guld, SM-Guld, SM-Guld.

More to come... but, we are the champs. I love my team and am so proud of everyone involved. It's been an awesome ride. So very thankful and feel very blessed.

Tonight was celebration number 2; now it is time for bed.

Långfredagen

2007-04-06T23:44:00.000+02:00

"With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last."

Mark 15:37

Saint Theresa

2007-03-25T23:45:00.000+02:00

March 25, 2007 11:23pm

This morning my great-grandmother died. I was lying in bed just now unable to fall asleep and I couldn’t stop thinking about her and about Gramp lying alone in bed. It could be the first time in over 70 years that he hasn’t had her sleeping by his side. I cannot even imagine what he must be feeling. My heart goes out to everyone who ever knew her, but especially to him. Great-Grandma was an amazing woman. She was a magnificent mother and wife: selfless, loving, and strong. I picture her playing cards in Auntie Linda’s pool-house, sitting at the bar in our house on Beaumont Highway during many different family gatherings and just laughing and laughing and being smart as a cookie, riding in that convertible and wishing that her hair wouldn’t get messed up by the wind, making the countless trips to NFA to watch my many high school basketball games, hitting the tennis ball like no other!, and just making everyone feel so loved. As my mom so perfectly described to me earlier today, my great-grandmother was a living example of unconditional love. I’ll never forget her great big, beautiful brown eyes and her soft, soft skin. I too will never forget the taste of her delicious butterscotch cookies. My favorite. I feel so blessed to have been able to know my great-grandmother. She is an inspiration to us all about how to live a selfless, loving life. My thoughts and prayers go out to all our family, and especially to Gramp. Yes, Gramp, you two are the King and Queen of Romance – and that will never change! Great-Grandma, I will miss you dearly.

Tourny Time

2007-03-13T06:53:00.000+01:00

March 13, 2007 6:44am

Well, I didn’t sleep very well last night… I couldn’t stop thinking about the NCAA tournament! I needed to know where we were seeded in those brackets!! And, given that all the games before the final four can be played in Palo Alto and Fresno, I’d say we’re in a pretty good spot. Now, I just can’t wait to watch everything unfold :)

By brother is here visiting this week, and another friend arrives here this morning. They come just in time for our own playoffs here. Last night we had our first game of our quarter-final series, and we beat the opposing team by 30 points or so. They did have two Americans on their team and another talented import post-player, but one of the Americans was sent home because she’s been here for more than six months and violated Sweden’s 6-month-tax-rule… an unfortunate break for them, but also not so careful planning either. The game yesterday was at Fryshuset, tomorrow is a 4-hour bus ride away, and then we play home on Saturday at Åkeshov. I really hope we can wrap the series up by Saturday afternoon (then, I can enjoy the weekend by watching NCAA tourney games!).

Nothing much more to report on at the moment. March certainly is “basketball, basketball, basketball!” And, I love it!

Get this bus home! :)

2007-03-08T11:00:00.000+01:00

March 8, 2007 2:42am

Ok, so its now almost three in the morning and we still have a couple hours left to our trip home (i think). Pretty much everyone seems to be sleeping now on the bus. The driver even provided us with these narrow little sleeping pads that allow some of us to lie in the aisles and create a makeshift bed. These are especially helpful for those of my teammates who have to get up and go to work tomorrow. For me though, I’ll probably just go into lab after I sleep late (hopefully I will be able to sleep late), so I’m still awake right now.

We are on our way home from a win against Jamtland. This is a team who has a very strong record at home – maybe with only a couple losses all season there, but a not-so-almost-perfect record on the road. Anyway, the game didn’t matter much for us. In fact, because going into the game we knew who we would play in the playoffs whether we won or loss the game, we sorta could determine our quarterfinal match-up. Of course no coach wants to scratch a game, well maybe some do, but we weren’t going to travel 8 or 9 hours on a bus to lose a game purposefully. Everybody got to play, everyone did some good things, and we won by 2 points. Now, just to finish the ride home.

On Friday I’m hoping to go to an influenza conference hosted by some scientists at Karolinska Institute and then on Saturday Noah gets here! I’m really interested in what some of the guest speakers and researchers will be sharing about the influenza epidemic. They are coming from all over the world – including a few from California universities, though I don’t believe from Stanford – to present and share their work and thoughts here in Stockholm. And then of course, I’m super excited for Noah to arrive.

Perhaps I will try to fall asleep now. God natt. Oh, my teammates say that I’m beginning to sound more Swedish. Yay!

Laget?

2007-03-04T21:13:00.001+01:00

March 4, 2007 8:41PM

Is it really March already?! I won’t necessarily say that the time after Christmas until now has flown by, but it certainly has passed much quicker than ever expected… and now I feel as if I have made it to the “homestretch” of my time here in Sweden!

This very past week was about the most “usual” week that I’ve had in a while. Given that I was out sick with the flu for an entire week and then my parents were here visiting the next week, last week provided the chance to get back into lab, do some coaching, and of course play a couple games.

After having missed two weeks in lab, I was feeling a bit anxious about my return. I knew Aaron and Eva (and everyone else too!) would kindly welcome me back, but I just don’t like being away from such a place for what felt like so long. Even though all I do there is on a volunteer-basis and I really have no stated commitment, I felt like I was slacking. These concerns were put to rest rather quickly upon a rapid reintegration to the scene. My original project was mostly finished (and the small bit I didn’t accomplish was left for Aaron to do since my bball schedule proved too challenging to afford enough time in the lab to produce a quality Western Blot of my data from start to finish). Thankfully, the data from the work I’ve done thus far seems to fit right in with our predictions and of course there are some results we are still waiting to see about. I’ve now started on a new project that I’m very excited about!

Basketball is going well too. We only have one more regular season game and then playoffs start. I cannot wait for playoffs! Basketball is a pretty long season and it just seems as soon as March rolls around, everyone gets a renewed energy and sense that its time for the final crunch! Right now our team is in third place, but depending on some games this week we could finish either at 2nd or 3rd. The final position doesn’t matter so much, though we definitely would like to finish in the top four so that we would have homecourt advantage in the first round. The first playoff game is next Monday, so obviously I’ll know more at the end of this week about the details of the tournament.

Talking about tournaments… I miss being at the PAC-10 tournament so so so so much! I think of the team everyday, think of what they are doing, where they’re at, how they are preparing, how much video they are watching… I pray that everyone stays healthy and we win it all!!

On another note, I just finished reading a good Swedish historical-fiction novel: “The Emigrants” by Vilhelm Moberg. It’s the first novel in a three part series and the series has been made into a movie as well. As I read the book I couldn’t help but imagine my own distant family members moving to America on an old, wooden Swedish ship. Oh, if I could only track down some of my very very distant relatives living here now!

Ok, well that’s all for now. Not a huge update, but I figured I’ve been so out-of-date in keeping up with this blog that I should at least write something! I will try to be more disciplined in checking in during my last few weeks here, but given that I have visitors and play-offs coming…. we will see : )

Hope you are well. I would love to hear from you!

special visit!

2007-02-21T23:02:00.000+01:00

Sorry for not writing for such a long time, but... my parents are here! It's been so awesome to have them here. They landed this past Saturday and will be flying back home on Sunday. We are having an amazing time doing all sorts of things all over the city! Wait till I tell you!! I will check here after they've left, but for now - I am going to soak up the last few days I have with them. This is the most time I've spent with them in I don't know how long. I'm SO thankful. Praise God for this time :) My parents are such an amazing blessing to me.

Win at Brahe

2007-02-11T21:02:00.000+01:00

February 11, 2007 7:39pm

On the bus home from our game in Huskvarna against Brahe. Have you ever heard of Huskvarna sewing machines? Evidently they are pretty famous sewing machines, but I’m not really up on that sort of thing. Anyway, these machines hail from the town we just played our game at. There ya go, fun fact for the day : )

We started the game well and Brahe never really stayed close. The first half we shot over 60% and had many players do well. The second half wasn’t so great, but lots of people had the chance to play and we still ended up winning by at least twenty points. Nothing about the game was spectacular (though Malin did score like 5 times in a row or something like that in the first half, so that was fun!). We now have a week of practice before our next game.

Speaking of the next game… it’s against Luleå. They are tied for first place in the league with Solna. The game is next Sunday afternoon. And, most importantly…God-willingly, my parents will be here!! Yippee!!!! I am so excited for their visit. I’ve had the tour books out, been to the city information centers, and am just trying to be prepared as possible to be a sorta-ok tour guide ;) Really though, what I am absolutely most excited about is the opportunity to spend the time with them.

Anyway, just a little update for you. This week looks pretty “usual.” Some time in lab, some time at practice… oh, I might finally be getting internet. Also, last night I hung out with Joanna and her fiancée Manne – we made homemade pizzas (with sauce and dough from scratch) and watched the Melodifestival (a HUGE deal here!). You can look it up online, or perhaps I’ll make an entry about it later! It was a fun weekend and now it is time to get my apartment all ready for my parents’ arrival.

Have a great week!

Feb Week 1

2007-02-08T01:10:00.000+01:00

February 07, 2007 10:19pm

Well, a lot went on in this first week of February… so in reverse chronological order, I’m going to offer some snapshots of what I’ve been up to.

Tonight: Home game v. Solna

We just lost to our rivals, but we fought hard. It was the most physical game that I’ve been part of in a loooong time and I’m proud of how our team didn’t back down. I am very frustrated with the loss for other reasons, though. We ended up losing by 17 I think, but the game hovered around 10 points from early in the first quarter (they got up quick) and stayed here until maybe 2 minutes to go in the game. We just had too many turnovers and weren’t quite tough enough physically. Erin attacked the basket well and I was relatively satisfied with how I did too. Though I didn’t hit as many threes as I would have liked too (didn’t shoot a great percentage), I did have some step-backs and really had to make them guard me. They stuck to me pretty well (or tried to) which opened lanes up for my teammates – I love when that happens! It’s unfortunate we lost and I am frustrated with many little things that happened in the game, but at least I feel satisfied that I (and I think the team too) really did try our best. Solna plays very well together. Perhaps we will see them in the playoffs. Those are the games that really matter.

Monday February 5th

My 23rd birthday started off with some popcorn, french-fries, and Super Bowl madness at O’Leary’s Sportsbar in Slussen. Malin, Jas, Erin, and Maria (an American who plays at Solna) all met up with me to watch the super bowl (and I guess to wish me a happy birthday too!). The bar was absolutely packed, mostly with males, and it was a great atmosphere to watch the game. I only made it a bit past halftime, and leaving early still didn’t get me into my bed till after 3am.

I woke up four hours later to meet-up with Leila and go to an international middle school to help teach English class. Leila and I taught four 6th grade classes. We were at the school from 8 to 3pm with a break for lunch. We teach them about “08 Values”: Teamwork, Responsibility, Commitment, Quality, and Respect (these are the 5 values our basketball club emphasizes in all we do). The kids were typical: some with attitudes, some helpful, some quiet, some with a little bit of troublemaking in them – but all-in-all, they were terrific! Two of the classes even sung me happy birthday. Some of the kids came to my game tonight, and I am looking forward to seeing more of the classes tomorrow when I return to the school in the morning to again help teach some more classes.

My birthday evening was pretty chill. We had practice, I ate at the gym’s café, and then returned home. Thinking that this was my first birthday without a cake and without speaking to my parents made me sad. However, that all changed: Andrea told me she’d bake me a birthday cake when she comes to visit AND I did eventually get to talk to my parents! Yay. I love them soooooo much! Plus, I wouldn’t be here without them, of course!! :) Their love and support for me is amazing. Leaves me speechless sometimes. I can only pray that someday if I’m blessed to be a mother, that when my kid wants to go to school across the country and then go live halfway across the world, I will say “yes, what ever makes you happy” and send them off with the same love and support that my parents have offered me.

Cards and Presents: Monday and Tuesday my mail slot was filled with cards and package-slips. Thank you so much to all of you who sent me birthday cards and packages. Thank you for thinking of me. Everything about all you sent me was perfect!

Fri Evening to Sunday Morning: All-Star Weekend

Erin and I were selected for the leagues’ all-star game, so we headed 4 hours southwest of Stockholm to Huskvarna for the all-star game. Huskvarna is a pretty small town, but there is a good basketball high school there and one of the league’s team, Brahe Basket, is situated here, as well. We arrived Friday night and had practice Saturday mid-morning. Being in a new place, I of course couldn’t just sit in the hotel room. So, I borrowed one of the hotel’s bikes, put on my hat (but forgot gloves!), and biked into town. The hotel was actually in Jonköping – a bigger town located right on a lake. I biked part way about the lake… though it was so windy I felt like I was going backwards and the lake was so huge that I couldn’t see the other side and its waves were crashing on the surrounding beaches. It was nice to get out and explore. I love new places!! You just never know what treasures you might find. It was my first time biking on ice and snow, but I managed ok. I ventured through downtown, the shopping district, science center (looked like a bunch of research facilities and/or school), theater house, and even stopped at a second-hand store (I just can’t pass those up!). I bought a green blanket, a breakfast bowl, and a pair of knitting needles :) My fingers were so cold from biking without gloves that I couldn’t even lock my bike when I parked it to go in the store or when I returned to the hotel. Oh, well. Thank goodness no one stole it!

The game itself was pretty fun. Haha. Our game plan was to be even with the other team after 3 quarters by not playing any defense and only trying a bit on offense. We had over 60 points in the first half and ended up scoring 120 for the game. In the 4th quarter we were really allowed to play. I shot 6 for 8 from 3-pt land. Erin was awarded MVP for our team (the North) and I won the 3-pt competition. Pretty successful day for 08 Stockholm. Plus, it was really fun to meet some of the other girls who play here. It was great too to be on a team again where everyone understands the game. You can just feel a difference on the court when people have “basketball sense” – you’re no longer just running around, but moving with a purpose. Anyway, it was fun! Madde and her brother made it to the end of the game to support Erin and I, but the rest of our team was having a bday party for Emma back in Stockholm. Wish I could have been in two places at once, but all around I’m definitely glad I was able to be a part of the all-star game. My bike ride was beautiful, I had an amazing walk and time spent with God on Sunday morning, and a little boy won a gigantic lollipop in a raffle during the game (so big that he couldn’t even carry it by itself!). Good weekend.

Bouncing Around

2007-01-31T11:35:00.000+01:00

January 30, 2007 10:01pm

Just watched Grey’s Anatomy on TV here… it’s almost the end of the second season. Izzy just cut the LVAT wires and Burke was shot. Hehe. It’s fun to watch it over again, and this time I get the bonus of Swedish subtitles!

This morning I had shooting practice and then ate lunch at the club. Lunch today is worth noting… I ordered the “Shoemaker.” It’s a “famous Swedish dish” of meat and potatoes (meat and potatoes, of course!). The potatoes were mashed and the gravy had bits of bacon and onions in it. One guy I was eating with had four helpings of it! I don’t normally like bacon, but it was pretty tasty. Plus, eating it made me feel a little Swedish or something : )

Yesterday we didn’t have practice, rather we were all required to do some sort of workout at Klubb Active. This was good because it gave me the flexibility to go into lab AND visit a school to help with an English class. Our club goes out to local 4th, 5th, and 6th grade classrooms to teach kids about our “08 Values”: Teamwork, Respect, Commitment, Quality, and Responsibility. I met up with Leila out in Vällingby and she drove us to the school. Leila’s in charge of the “08 Values” program. She played on our team when the season started, but right before Erin and I came she decided to devote all her efforts to these programs in the schools.

Last time I was in a school was to teach PE classes, so I never actually saw a classroom. Well, the classes/rooms were obviously different than my elementary school in two main ways. First of all, all the kids were all running around (or studying!) without any shoes on! They leave their shoes and jackets at the door. So following their lead, Leila and I removed our boots upon entering the classroom too. I was wearing these great blue slipper socks that keep my feet nice and warm (most of the kids had white socks though ;) ). The other obvious difference was that all of the desks were much taller than desks I ever used in elementary school (or have ever used for that matter!). The chairs were sort of like bar chairs with backs and likewise the desks were similar in height to a standard bar. Makes it much easier for teachers to get close to their students’ work (instead of having to bend so far over to those mini-desks in the States!). Anyway, aside from the obvious differences of the shoelessness of the students and the tall desks, the class seemed quite similar to what I remember of elementary school. There were paintings on the walls, roll-up maps hanging from the ceiling, and the boys and girls stayed a part from each other! I had a good time with the kids and I’m looking forward to visiting some more schools next week with Leila.

My highlight today was listening to some lectures by Dallas Willard that I had on my iPod. Willard just has this way of reminding us what matters most in life. One of the points that stuck with me most was that “Jesus lived for us!” We often hear and think of Jesus dying for us. Yes, He did that. But, very importantly, He lived for us! He lived so that we could see how we should live. He taught us how to live for God. He was an actual living example and obviously an inspiration. It’s quite daunting and challenging to think we could be Christ-like in all we do, but boy isn’t it awesome that God wants us to and calls us to try! We are all God’s children too: Jesus, you, me… so let’s use the example that Jesus set and try to live at least a little bit like Him everyday. Willard gave one example of how to change our lives to be more Christ-like: turn every curse into a blessing. If every time we are tempted to say something negative to someone else or about them, then say a prayer for them or bless them in some way. Cool, huh?! No more cursing, just blessings (in actions and in thoughts!)!! I’m going to give it a try, will you?

Win at Södertalje

2007-01-28T23:12:00.001+01:00

January 28, 2007 10:36pm

Today was a really FUN game! We played together so well, we played hard, and I really do think we played for each other. No one had a perfect game and no one played horrible either. We all just did the little things at the right time. Everybody had a part and did it well. And, it was so much fun! The game was played just 30 minutes south of Stockholm against Telgé Energi, a team that is either tied with us or one game back (I’m not sure which). In addition to their young, talented twin guards and an also young and talented post player, the team just brought in Stacy Stephens (she was a major player at Texas a couple years back; today was her first game with the team). This was a big game for us… more than anything to prove to ourselves how good we are, but also for the standings and all that. The game was really physical and a total battle on both ends, but in the second half we started to pull away. After being tied (or close to it) at halftime, I think we ended up winning by over twenty points. They started bickering among themselves, while we pulled closer and closer together. The best part of the game, through my eyes, was to see that everyone who went in the game contributed in a positive manner. Anders and Putte were pretty happy too. Now, we have 10 days to prepare for Solna. This game will be even more important than today to come out ready to play and focused from the start. I can’t wait!

Up and Down

2007-01-28T19:49:00.000+01:00

January 28, 2007 1:10pm

I don’t really know where to start when it comes to explaining the week I’ve just had, but perhaps it’d be best to mention how we were being dominated by Visby at about this time last week. Nobody on our team played very well at all, they played amazing (especially their 41-year-old guard; she couldn’t miss, plus we kept leaving her wide open!), and it was just one of those games that happens like once in five years. We only ended up losing by 16-or-so points and I think we may have won the second half, but we were down by close to 25 points in the first half and it felt even worse. It sorta was a double bummer because the game was aired on tv. I think the TV-factor may have been the root cause of our GM being SO upset about the loss. I don’t really want to get into details, but let’s just say that all is pretty good when we win, but when we lose (and it’s on tv!) some people at the club can make you feel like the world is coming to an end! That wasn’t so pleasant to deal with, but it proved to be a good challenge in making sure that I keep perspective about what’s really important. See the big picture and all. It’s just a game. Yes, it’s a bit different with bball being my job and the reason Erin and I were brought here was to win games, but still… there will be more games, there is still the playoffs, there is still time to prove our team’s will and ability (and, that chance comes later today!). Anyway, practice turned out to be more challenging, more focused, and just better attended to as business (rather than some sort of social event) by everyone there. I really hope we are ready to play today (and that it is our turn to dominate) because I don’t want to deal with another loss.

Another interesting event this week was related to Sunday’s game and practice Tuesday. On Sunday I drove into the lane and slipped on this big sponsor-decal that is stuck around the foul-line area. My feet totally went out from under me and I fell flat on my back (“like in a cartoon,” explained one of my teammates). I felt kinda dizzy after that and was slow running back down the court, but I didn’t actually hit my head and didn’t think much of it. Monday we didn’t have practice and I was in lab all day, I had a little bit of a headache, but nothing too strange. During Tuesday’s practice I was going in for a rebound when one of my teammates knocked me super hard in the mouth with her elbow. I thought I was going to lose my two front teeth (seriously, plus one is already sorta lose from last year’s season); turned out that once I removed my mouthguard, I could only wiggle them both a little. However, my head was really hurting now. I went through the rest of that practice and did all the running, but on the ride home my head kept on hurting. I had trouble reading and the next day I felt like my head was all cloudy. After talking to Aaron about this (he has a PhD and is halfway through med school), he suggested that I take that day off from practice. I took it easy on Wednesday and by Thursday night I felt much better. So, I didn’t have a concussion – don’t worry! (though that wouldn’t have been the end of the world or anything), but I just got banged up a little. Feeling better now though :) I had never experienced any real strange feelings with my head, so it was something new.

Let’s see. What else? “Losing” and “my head” were the two big events of the week for me. Lab was pretty routine and we are really starting to nail down some of our findings. Thursday I spent some time walking around downtown Stockholm… just meandered around mostly and I checked out some of the 24-hour site-seeing cruises that are offered out of here. It’s been VERY cold (at least comparable to what it has been before this week). When I walk outside now, my cheeks really burn. Someone told me you can tell the temperature by how the snow sounds under your boots. It’s totally true! Today it was between -10 and -15°C. Alrighty, well I better get my things together for the game. Hope to check in before this week is out. Bye!

Random Rules

2007-01-28T19:48:00.001+01:00

January 27, 2007 10:46pm

The other day while sitting in our lunchroom at lab, a few other people there and I were having a conversation about skiing. We discussed downhill skiing, cross-country skiing (two of them had acquired cross-country ski-gear over the Christmas holiday), skiing in Stockholm, skiing in Germany (that’s where the two of them were from)… we talked about basketball a little bit, but skiing seemed to me to be the focus of our conversation. Then the fourth person in the conversation, a sweet Swedish girl in her mid-twenties, chimed in with a question directed at me, “Are you allowed to have sex before games?” What?! I thought I had misunderstood her. Maybe she was saying something about the number six? After all, to say “six” in Swedish, one says “sex.” Raising my eyebrows and looking a bit confused (well, more like totally confused), I asked her if she could explain what she was asking. Sure enough, she was asking if we (my basketball team) had any rule forbidding us to have sex before a game. Interesting. I had never heard of any sort of thing like this. And, quite honestly since a situation like this will not occur (and certainly has not occurred) any time soon, I had never given it any thought at all. She went on to explain how she had dated a hockey player for a while and that his team had a rule against having sex the night before the game (“to insure a good night’s sleep,” she added). It was a funny little conversation we had… the four of us “researchers” sitting in our lunchroom discussing sports and sex. Well, it was only awkward for a millisecond, and then the conversation became quite funny. I told her I would ask my teammates and get back to her. This little conversation didn’t last long, as we all had work to get back to, but the story is a glimpse into one way I’ve experienced some of Swedish culture. People don’t always say much, but sex – as both a topic of conversation and I presume to think the act, so-to-say, itself – is quite well accepted and talked about with relative ease. Anyway, just a funny story. Oh, and to answer her question: no, our team has no such rule. In fact after doing some brief research by talking to my teammates, they seem to have concluded that the rule may be common among professional men’s teams, but not written up in contracts of women athletes. Interesting.

Prayer

2007-01-20T18:14:00.000+01:00

January 20, 2007 5:20pm

Yesterday morning I started keeping a journal. A journal filled with prayers. Lately, I’ve really been wanting to pray a lot… pray for people and just talk with God. Sometimes I feel like I’m over here in Sweden, part way across the world and away from most everyone I’m close to and love, and I feel that I can’t really be a part of everyone’s lives like how I want to be. I can’t spend the actual time with you. I can’t give somebody a hug, crack up in uncontrollable laughter with you, or just sit together without saying a word. I miss that. So… I’m going to do what I can do: pray.

So, I ask you this… if there is anything at all going on in your life – joyful or joyless, exciting or routine, peace-filled or angry – tell me about it and let me pray for you. Everybody needs prayer, no matter how together life seems or not. Prayer is powerful and it’s something I can do from here, for you.

I haven’t written in an actual journal for a while, really not at all since I’ve started keeping the blog (everything has been done on my laptop). Yesterday when I retrieved one of the journals that I brought with me, I glanced at some of the old entries – entries from late summer and early autumn. As I read over some of what I was writing and what I had been praying for then, two really big things that I prayed for have happened. The prayers have been answered! And of course, God answered them in ways that I could never predict, but in ways that are much more awesome than I could even have imagined either.

So, if you would – let me know how I can be praying for you, or at least how life’s been going lately.

Enjoy your weekend and I really hope to hear from you :)

Update

2007-01-20T18:13:00.000+01:00

January 20, 2007 5:40pm

Just finished watching the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy, and soon I’ll probably go meet up with Jasmina, Malin, and Erin to hang out a bit and watch a movie. This past week has been a good one. We won our game on Wednesday. That was very good… that we won, at least. Our team didn’t play too terrific, but we went into a zone in the second half when they started to make a run; it worked. Their team has a new American and a big post player from Czech. My first game in Sweden (way back on Oct. 25th) was against this team and we blew them out; they are much better now with a couple of additions. I personally had a pretty good game. Maybe I’ll shoot well at home for once!

I was in lab much of the week. I really enjoy spending time there even more now, than before Christmas, because Aaron has more time to teach me and talk to me now, which really enhances the experience! He is a super teach, plus he likes to teach. It’s a good match because I like to listen. Monday I have the day off from basketball, so Aaron and I are planning on running some gels that take all-day to run… I’ll be there from the morning time to past dinner. I hope the gels run right and that I don’t break any of them! I’ve never really run this sorta thing before.

What else? No babysitting this week. Last night was the men’s all-star game, hosted at Fryshuset. Our whole team was there to watch. Maddy’s 2-month old cousin was in the stands, and she brought him over for us to meet. I just love babies. Haha. This little one was named Milton; he’s probably almost the same age as Annalise. They grow so fast and time flies so fast! I feel like I was just shopping with Maddy for a newborn outfit for him. Kevin, our club GM, has a little baby – Kayla – she was born in the beginning of December, and already seems to have grown so much too. She’s around the gym a fair bit, too.

Our game that was supposed to be today was moved until tomorrow. We are now playing right before the men’s game. Their game will be on TV live, and then our game will be aired (tape-delay) on TV after they show the men’s game. That’s sorta fun. Maybe some of the people I work with in lab will get to see it… they’re always asking me about how my team’s doing.

Alrighty, gonna go meet up with some teammates now. Have a good evening. Hej då.

Hej!

2007-01-15T21:13:00.000+01:00

January 15, 2006 8:37pm

Just finished up practice (I was on fire – which always makes it extra fun… well, at least for my team because we kept winning :) my teammates were setting excellent screens for me!) I spent the morning is lab and this afternoon at the offices at Fryshuset (trying to figure out my cell phone situation… every cell phone they’ve let me use seems to be broken in some way… every time I try to talk on it, the screen either freezes or the phone completely dies). It’s getting a bit frustrating because I can’t have any sort of conversation on the phone (oh well, brings me back to the days before cell phones!). Patrice (the electronics guy on staff) gave me two more phones to try; things already don’t look that promising, as each of them upon being plugged in to charge will not stay on. Anyway, not a big deal, definitely not worth so much blog space! Geez, what was I thinking?!

Last night it was snowy out! I went to hang out with some friends I met at church and we had a pizza and movie night :) Earlier in the day I attended a “Newcomer’s Welcome” at Jodi and Doug Fondell’s House (they are the pastors of Immanuel International). I’m so excited to be a part of this church. The people are amazing and so diverse and committed to unity. There are over 40 countries represented (and the church isn’t even that big; feels very intimate to me!). It’s awesome. I feel so blessed. SO blessed.

The game on Saturday was a blowout and I didn’t play much. Got stuck with some tough calls from refs (resulting in turnovers) and a basket that was clearly a 3-pointer but only was counted for 2-points. Because we won by 30-or-so (I think), the game was a great opportunity to get substantial playing time for the whole team. That was very nice.

Erin and I grabbed pizza after the game at our favorite pizza place. Then, I watched Billy Elliot and called it an early night!

Just started reading “The Glass Castle.” Really enjoying it (I’m less than 50 pages in though, so I’ll give you my final opinion in a few days, but I think it will just keep getting better and better). Hope everyone is doing well back in the U.S.A. I miss you!! Lots.

happy weekend!

2007-01-13T12:12:00.000+01:00

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!

natty-natt

2007-01-08T22:16:00.000+01:00

January 8, 2007 9:34pm

Guess I’m becoming a bit (too) relaxed about my aim of updating my blog in a timely fashion. Guess it sorta feels like life here is becoming more, oh, well routine. In a good way. Like I’m really living here and not just visiting. : ) So…

We had a game yesterday and lost. Boo. The game was about 1.5 hour bus-ride, south(ish) from here. Our team lost when we played them at home (before Erin and I arrived), and now we’ve gone and lost again. We didn’t play any defense; at least, Erin and I didn’t think we played any defense. Transition D was generally really bad and they also shot very well (9 of 13 threes!). Their post players made a good chunk of the threes, which proved to be tough match-ups for our postgame. Erin kept us in the game offensively in the first half; I don’t know why she seemed so open. She made some tough shots too. In the second half we made a run, took the lead (I think), and then they dropped back into a zone. Great call by their coach; we could do nothing against it. We had a serious scoring drought. We ended up down by ten with a few minutes to go. Somehow we gained a two-point lead with a minute left, but then totally didn’t finish the game well. Players aren’t allowed to call timeouts in the league here; and, well, let’s just say we probably could have made good use of some timeouts in the last crucial possessions of the game. Bummer. We totally could have won. They did play well, perhaps even the best they had all season. Nobody likes to lose (especially to the same team twice!). I hope we see them in the playoffs… maybe in the championship series?!!

Today was good. It was a day off from basketball and I was in lab all day. It was my first day back there since before Christmas. I’m still so happy to be there, with the opportunity to really be doing research. Aaron, my American supervisor, is a great teacher and has more time for me now that the other student he was supervising returned to Italy. I learned how to do a western blot today. Yeah. : ) It’s so much fun to learn new things! I know, I’m a nerd :) :)

I had a good weekend too (well, before the game). On Saturday afternoon I met up with a family that I may potentially begin to occasionally babysit for. The dad is Australian, the mom is Swedish, and the little boy is a charming (at least on first meeting!), strawberry-blond, 16 month-old named Liam. They don’t need a regular babysitter, but rather are just looking for help on an occasional basis. Perfect! I didn’t think I would say this while playing overseas, but I really don’t think I have the time to have a “regular” babysitting schedule. So, even if I was able to help them out even once a week, I think that would be great for the both of us! He was cute. We (Craig, Tove, and I) were all sitting up at a bar having fika and Liam kept coming over to me and asking to sit in my lap. Guess I didn’t scare him off too much ; ) Don’t know when I’ll first get to help there, but hope it’s soon!

On Saturday I also met up with a youth leader, Chris, from Immanuel International Church. Chris grew up in Minnesota and has been working at this church in Stockholm for the past four or five years. I’m really excited because the church has some good programs for its youth. And, I think I may get to start helping out. The next fellowship event for kids is Saturday right during my game, but hopefully some other times will work out. I guess there are a handful of young girls who are pretty sporty and really like basketball. Chris thinks it would be fun to have a little basketball tournament or at least some sort of clinic or open gym. That would be great! I’m just excited to be getting involved in a church community.

Tomorrow my schedule looks like this: weights in the morning, lab all day (learning another new procedure!), and then practice in the evening. Oh, I think tonight I’ll finish this terrific book I am reading… The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Oliver Sacks…and then, I’ll move onto reading another one of the many books I brought back from home. Don’t know which one. Hmmm.

Alrighty, “natty natt.” (like "nighty-night," but the swedish version… I don’t think Madde was pulling my leg! Hopefully not :) )

Settling In Again

2007-01-05T12:51:00.000+01:00

January 4, 2007 10:59pm

Getting back into the routine… well, perhaps with a few temporary changes. The kids here still have this week off from school, so Erin and I have spent the last couple mornings helping at Åkeshov with the practices for the best 9th-grade girls. I haven’t yet been into lab since I’ve been back; however, I’m planning on going in on Monday… thought I would catch up on sleep and focus strictly on basketball for my first week back. We’ve had practice every night – all of them have been surprisingly good… tomorrow we are going to watch video… first time! There is a guy’s game tomorrow night, so I’ll probably stay after practice and watch that. Not too much else new going on here, but it is really good to be back. Oh, one random thought… the ATM machine ate my Swedish bank card. Nice. Turns out I forgot my code, but I didn’t realize this… so, once you enter the wrong code into the machine for three consecutive times, the card is eaten. I went into the bank to investigate the actual fate of the card, but in fact the bank really does destroy the old card and issues you a whole new card with a brand new number on it. Pretty impressive security (seems pretty good to me, at least – I don’t use my ATM card enough in the U.S. to know if a similar security system exists, does it?). Anyway, should have my new Swedish ATM card next week sometime. Still working on getting internet for my apartment… I went out to my usual internet-hotspot atop the bridge/elevator, but disappointedly had a very low connection. Guess it’s time, maybe, to start being more demanding with the whole internet thing. We’ll see. Anyway, I’m off to read before going to bed! God natt.

photos

2007-01-03T13:43:00.000+01:00

remember to keep checking at 08stockholm.shutterfly.com for more pics of my adventures. i just posted some from my trip to spain!!

Feliz Año

2007-01-03T13:11:00.000+01:00

January 2, 2007 10:24pm

¡Feliz año! Yup, that’s right… Happy New Year!! (in Spanish!) Have spent the last few days in Spain and have experienced an absolutely tremendous time of friendship and fun. Now I’m back sitting in my apartment in Slussen, looking through pictures taken over the ten days I was away, and feeling very thankful and blessed for having such amazing people in my life.

After flying on four separate flights, I finally made it to Malaga. Actually the trip didn’t feel as long as I expected (must have been Garfield 2 that I watched on the plane!). Susan picked me up from the airport in Malaga. She looked just the same as always – full of life, excited, smiley, and just plain happy. It was SO good to see her. We immediately headed off to pick up Katie in Granada. How crazy is it that we actually made it there and were all meeting up?! Well, it’s not too crazy… but to me, the effort made for us all to get their and spend this time together is very special. Everything about this evening and lots of times throughout the trip, it almost didn’t even feel like we were in Spain because we were just spending time together like we would have back at Stanford – except, now we were in a very different place and we had tons more time just to be together (without practice, school, etc…). Anyway, after catching up during the car rides and back at Susan’s house, we decided that we wanted to try to go to Curtis’s game on Saturday. Only problem… well, it was an away game. Away in Madrid.

Madrid is supposed to be one of the very worst places to drive a car. Not only do the tour books give this warning, but locals say the same thing. Curtis did not want Sus driving to Madrid. So, we made a new plan : ) We did some research late into the night and found lots and lots of different options about how to reach Madrid from Granada. Not knowing exactly what would work best or what we should do, we just decided to get up early in the morning and start driving towards Toledo (a town about an hour-drive south of Madrid). Saturday morning Susan woke up Katie and I (my sleeping was already all messed up because of my trips back and forth, but poor Katie was really still on California time)… anyway, Susan drove the three of us to Toledo by following road signs (no more directions than that). When we arrived in the city we literally happened upon the train station within five minutes of driving around the outskirts. Walking into a beautiful station – ceramic mosaics, Spanish architecture, intricate colorful designs – we bought tickets for the AVE High Speed Train to Madrid. We had only to wait 15 minutes before the train left… we couldn’t have planned the morning any better!

Madrid was terrific! We visited the Prado Museum, walked around the Old Town/Historical districts of the city (Plaza Mayor, etc), saw the Royal Palace, ate some lunch at a tiny Italian place (only so-so food, but we were so hungry that it was quite satisfying), manevared the subway system and reached Madrid Arena in plenty of time for Curtis’s game. Watched the game (Katie and I barely could keep our eyes open in the first half, but both were hit with a second wind in the second half)… Curtis did great; it’s so good to see him playing relatively healthy (sort of) and with great strength. He looks good out there. And, the game was fun to watch. Plus, CB Granada won (always good!). That night we ate at another Italian restaurant (Gino’s = very good!) and spent the night Europa hotel in downtown Madrid (we called probably close to ten hotels, and finally were able to get two rooms in this one, as the rest were all booked!). The next morning we woke up, had some breakfast at Starbucks, and explored the Botanical Gardens and gardens behind the Royal Palace. Overall, the trip to Madrid was very spontaneous and very much worth the drive. In fact, the driving time brought its own barrel of laughs… and laughs and laughs.

Oh, I have so much more I want to write about… but, I feel like I’m hitting that wall telling me Sleep! Sleep! Sleep! So here’s a quick summary of the rest of my time in Spain (though this will never do the trip justice and will only serve as a – hopefully temporary – way to share some of the great times we had).

- Katie and I were spoiled by Susan’s cooking. She makes really yummy food! I need to take lessons from her!!
- “Got our sweat on”: Sus is an amazing trainer… and she graciously invited Katie and I to take part in some of her routines (and let’s just say that going up and down stairs the next day required focus : ) ).
- Katie and I visited the Alhambra in Granada… including the Albyzin, Generalife Gardens, and palace of some King Carlos. Impressive. Very much worth the many stars that all guidebooks award to this tourist hotspot.
- Snuggled with Sammy.
- Ate at Curtis and Sus’s favorite restaurant: Yesterday’s
- Hiked up a mountain, saw vast stretches of seemingly untouched land and the occasional pueblo scattered throughout the countryside, slipped along some ice, crunched over snow, and were hurried away from the top by a “perro dangeroso” (dangerous dog… hmmm – forget how to say or spell that, but you get the point!). The countryside is beautiful. Pictures will not do it justice (though we tried).
- Starred at the Sierra Nevada’s again and again, continually pinching ourselves to see if these huge, snow-capped mountains were real.
- Were given a personal tour of downtown Granada by Susan.
- Tried to go out on New Year’s Eve, had our own party, and celebrated the Spanish tradition of 12 grapes with 12 apples instead : )
- Ran along a beautiful river path in Granada.
- Watched En Sus Zapatos and Spanglish.
- Slept about 30 minutes the night before driving to Malaga and then flying to Stockholm.

Obviously this is a rather random, unorganized list of some of the activities that kept us busy while visiting Susan and Curtis in Granada. However, the visit was so much more than the places we saw and fun activities that filled our days. I can’t remember the last time that I’ve laughed so hard, laughed so much, and laughed for so long. We built some great memories the last few days and also enjoyed reflecting on past times spent together. Friendship is precious and spending time with each other is irreplaceable. My time of Spain reminded me of how very blessed I am and how much I have to be thankful for. So, thanks God! Life would be nothing without You. And specifically, thanks for putting Katie, Sus, and Curtis in my life – cause we sure had a sweet time!!

Logan

2006-12-28T01:38:00.002+01:00

December 28, 2006 7:17pm EST

Sitting in Logan International Airport. Been home for a few days, now off again! The time at home flew by and this year more than ever, I really wish I could stay just for a few more days. Don’t get me wrong – I’m SO excited to go to Spain, but I just wish I could spend a little more time with family and talk to a few more people on the phone. Just now while waiting at the airport, I did get to talk to Pete and Quinn! What an absolute cutie. I love him so much!

Christmas was really nice this year, though a bit different than usual. Normally we have a big family Christmas party on Christmas Eve, but this year my dad was sick. Sad. So, we had the fam over on Christmas day for dinner and had a relaxing Christmas Eve (that is, except for my poor dad who wasn’t feeling so hot). We went to Midnight Mass. It’s my favorite time to attend Christmas mass.

I love just being with family. I feel so blessed to have such a warm, welcoming, and loving family. My aunt and uncle from Vermont spent Christmas down here this year; the first time in twenty years! The saddest part of Christmas was not having my great-grandparents here for dinner on Christmas day; let’s just say – they could use your prayers… as could my grandmother (their daughter), she is an absolute angel and has welcomed them into her home and is now their caregiver – all the time!. God please bless her!! Grammie, I love you SO much and think you are wonderful. I pray that God will give you the strength and courage to take care of Gram and Gramp, and also provide you with time for Him and peace in your heart, mind, and soul.

I’m also very thankful for Noah. I’m so proud of who he is becoming. We were able to spend a good bit of time together, even if it some of it was while working out! I really enjoy his company and the conversations we have. I’m so happy that Cortland seems to be such a good fit. He looks great, really seems to have matured (not that he was immature, but he’s just different – sort of), and is just a great guy. Real. Genuine. Tells it like it is. I love that. I wish we could spend more time together and I really wish he could come over to Sweden, but maybe I’ll have to settle for a cross-country trip with him in the spring… more on that later, but that could be really great!

Caught up with Em, Shannon, Coach, Jackie, and Delaney…. becoming a wonderful Christmas Eve tradition! (5 years in a row?) And guess what?! Em received a ticket to Stockholm for a Christmas present. Yippee!!! It’s like a Christmas present for me too : ) I am so excited she will be coming over in the spring. Yay yay yay.

Today Mom, Dad, and I spent some time in Boston before heading to the airport for my flight. We walked a bit around Quincy market and my parents bought me a gorgeous matreshka (I don’t think that’s how you spell it, but I’m talking about the Russian wooden nesting dolls – I collect them; each one is such a beautiful piece of unique artwork!). It’s fun to spend time with my parents. They seem so happy. It makes me very happy.

Well, off to Granada now… via Iceland, Stockholm, Barcelona, and Malaga... hopefully I will arrive eventually. It’s been a wonderful Christmas that went by much too fast. God, I praise you with thanksgiving for my family and friends and lift them up in prayer. I feel so blessed to feel so loved, and especially blessed to be loved by You. With all my heart, thank you.

Now, to Spain and beyond….!!!!

Arlanda

2006-12-28T01:38:00.001+01:00

December 22, 2006 4:44pm

Well, I’ve seen the sun rise and set from Arlanda Airport in Stockholm (well, almost – the sun actually began peaking through the clouds on my train ride to the airport this morning). And, yes, I am still here at the airport. According to my original flight plan, I should almost be landing in Iceland. However, due to inclimate weather at my layover destination, currently no planes are leaving from or departing to Keflavik. My flight was supposed to leave at 1:20pm, but then was delayed until 6pm. Just recently, the flight was further delayed until 6:55pm. How do they figure 6:55pm instead of 7pm?! After the initial disappointment of not arriving home at the expected time, then I thought maybe I would get to spend the night in Iceland! Well, I went to the info desk and they told me that everyone on the Iceland Air delayed flight to Keflavik should make their connecting flights because all of the flights (in and out of Iceland) have been similarly delayed. So, I guess I’ll still be getting to Boston today, just not as early as I once hoped for. Maybe though it’s better this way, for perhaps my parents will get to spend a fun evening in Boston together before coming to pick me up!

I feel most unproductive today, but I guess we all have those days once in a while. To keep me busy, I have packed only an Andalucía travel book and my Bible. I know that I will be returning to Europe with so many books (I ordered a whole bunch for myself for Christmas), I thought I should get to the U.S. as light as possible. Instead of reading, I’ve been playing around on the net (which always makes me feel like I’m wasting time… except when you get to talk to friends!). So, had some good little chats going, followed up on some needed-to-get-to emails, and watched a movie. I only have access to the internet in the main lobby area, as now I am without internet as I sit close to my departure gate (in hopes we might leave just a tad bit early?!). I watched the movie “Baptists at the Barbeque” (or something like that). It was a comedy I downloaded off some movie site. It was about this Mormon guy from Utah who was an almost-30-year-old, unmarried, park ranger who transferred to Arizona for a change from Utah. The population of the small town to which he moved was perfectly split between Baptists and Mormons. He tipped the scale towards Mormons. Anyway, the movie showed a funny story about the small-town conflicts that arose between the two different religious groups. People were so biased to thinking that they knew everything and the other group was clueless. As you can guess, the moral of the story had something to do with loving your neighbor despite specific differences in beliefs that may be held. It was entertaining enough (parts being quite funny) and it helped me get 2 hours closer to departure.

If the flight is not delayed again, then I have close to two more hours to wait. At least the flight wasn’t canceled. I talked to a couple people today who’s flights (U.S. domestic) were cancelled! Hopefully the next time I post here I will be at home, sitting by the fire, curled up on the coach by the Christmas tree, and listening to Christmas music. Ah, yes. Soon enough.

Peanut Butter Cheeks

2006-12-21T18:07:00.001+01:00

Do your cheeks get warm when you eat peanut butter? Just wondering.

Tack sä mycket.

2006-12-21T18:06:00.001+01:00

December 21, 2006 4:13pm

Tack tack tack tack!! Judy, Paige, and Marissa… thank you SO much! You don’t even know (or, perhaps you planned it all) how perfect the package was!! First of all, green is my favorite color – so, I would have been more than excited just to receive a bright green, bubbly envelope in the mail! Then… the cards… I love them both. The Snoopy doctor card brought quite the smile to my face… though I’m not there yet (the doctor thing :) ), it is my dream, so I very much appreciate the thoughtfulness and support there!! Then, the Christmas card is most terrific. Where did you get a card printed in Sweden from?! The little girl giving nose-kisses to Santa is most adorable. Then, I did not yet even mention how as soon as I opened the envelope, I was overcome by this wonderful fragrance – something yummy and something chocolaty. “Dark Decadence” from Ghirardelli – now I get to celebrate Christmas with something from San Francisco and delight in my absolute favorite kind of chocolate (dark!). Did you have all these details figured out when you sent the package? Thank you so much for the gift, but greater thanks to you just for the thought, staying in touch, and for the fun conversations we have over Skype! Merry Christmas. Go Stanford!!

Hej mamma och pappa. Tack sä mycket. It sometimes could be easy to take family for granted, especially a family that unconditionally loves, supports, and encourages me to do whatever it is I am dreaming of. I want you to know that nothing I could ever say or do is great enough to show my thanks for all that you do for me and for all you have given me. Nothing comes close. So, even though today one does unfortunately come to “expect” presents from family at Christmas time, I want you to know that I truly appreciate the cards you send me here and this package too. I know how crazy busy life can be, so I am totally grateful for you making the time to get some mail sent off to Stockholm. So, thank you for the nativity scene (yes, I can make my own stable – after all, I have practice at being the inn keeper!) and for the beautiful ornament (and snow globe! Perfekt!!). I can’t express how excited I am to come home and share Christmas with you! I don’t know if I will even be able to sleep tonight (sort of like Christmas Eve, when you’re a little – and sometimes big – kid). See you in Boston!! Love you lots and lots and lots.

Happy Birthday Noah!!

2006-12-21T18:05:00.000+01:00

December 21, 2006 2:09pm

Happy Birthday Noah!! Been thinking about you a lot today and wondering what you are up to. How are you celebrating? Wish I could be there with you. Will see you soon! : )

So, I’ll be flying home in 24 hours! Yay. Thought about trying to fly standby today, but then figured that would complicate the pickup situation – plus, the odds of getting onto a flight at this time of year probably aren’t high. That’s ok that didn’t workout though because it’s been a good day of just walking around and taking in my last bits of Swedish Christmas before leaving for home. And, it’s crazy it out there (at least, in any area with any bit of shopping!!). Went looking for a couple more gifts and, boy, it may be crazier here than at home! In Sweden, people exchange gifts on Julafton (Christmas Eve), so perhaps – technically speaking – there is one less day here to do shopping than at home (though, who really wants to be out buying gifts on Christmas Eve even at home!). Despite the hordes of last-minute shoppers, it’s fun to try to just meander throughout the commotion.

I did have a very quiet experience before walking downtown. This morning I visited Almgrens Sidenväveri och Museet. It’s the last functioning Swedish silk factory, and there is a complete museum telling the “story of silk” in Sweden. I met one of the weavers and she taught me about the technique behind weaving these beautiful silk textiles. I learned about the different steps along the way – it’s quite a long process requiring lots of moths and cocoons – to get the tiniest bit of silk. She said that if all goes smoothly in her weaving, then she weaves about a centimeter of fabric every minute (each centimeter has 80 lines of thread!). She was working on a piece of silk with many little white moose against a rich, blue background. She’s been weaving her whole life, and her mother was a weaver too. After talking with her a bit, I explored the rest of the museum. I was the only visitor there. It was so peaceful just to go about the museum and learn all there is to know about the history of silk in Sweden! I didn’t have any particular expectations for the visit there; I simply picked to visit this museum (for my weekly museum visit) because it’s the first one in an alphabetical listing of museums. Turned out to be a terrific choice!

Now I am going to go pick up a couple packages that arrived today (thank you – whoever sent them – I don’t know yet, but soon will!). Then I have practice at Klubb Activ tonight. Last night was our last bball practice of the year. No more basketball practice with the team until January 2nd. Imagine if we had that kind of break in college?! No way. But, it’s different here. Everyone will stay in shape doing other sorts of workouts and shooting on their own. I think it’s really good to have this break here. Will give everyone time to refresh and be fired up to start again in January. I know we all enjoy playing with each other, but sometimes everyone needs a mental break. I wish we had even more bball practices that we do. So, it’ll be fun to start anew in January and have games too! (too long without games right now : ) ). Alrighty, need to run before the shops close that are holding my packages. Perhaps the next time I write I’ll be home!! Praise God for an incredible two months here – they’ve really flown bye. I’m excited to share my experiences with some of you (in person!) over the holidays, and look forward to returning here for the even colder winter months to embark on some new adventures!! Off now… oh, by the way, today is the shortest day of the year. Here, the sun was up at 8:46am and will be down at 2:48pm. Sounds pretty crazy (at least compared to what we’re used to in the States), but it doesn’t seem that strange when you experience. Maybe I’m just used to it now. I thought the darkness was going to be a much bigger deal. I sorta like it. : ) (though, I do miss the sun too!). Ok, really good bye now. Hej då och god jul!!

Counting Down

2006-12-20T08:46:00.000+01:00

December 19, 2006 7:08pm

It’s snowing again! It’s snowing again!! After over six weeks of rainy, unseasonably warm weather, the cold has come! And, so has the snow. Well, at least there is enough of the fluffy white stuff to almost cover the ground. No big snowstorm in sight. That’s okay… there will be plenty of time for that in the rest of the winter months. I just love to see the flakes as they fall from the sky and are illuminated by streetlights. Simply magical!!

Life is going well here… everyone is getting all excited to celebrate Christmas with their family and friends. I, for one, cannot wait to get home and give my family some big hugs : )

I’ve had a pretty fun and diverse last couple of days. Yesterday morning I showed up at the Rheumatology Dept at Karolinska Hospital and shadowed a doctor. Sweet. We saw (haha), rather, he saw a handful of patients and I tagged along. One guy had a trigger finger that wouldn’t stop curling; he was given a cortisone shot. Another guy had some arthritis and fluid buildup in both knees; saw the fluid drained and another shot given. One woman had gout; she had a bunch of white bumps (made of excess uric acid) collected just beneath her old, almost translucent skin. She was in the clinic for help with pain management because some of the little bumps (which can grow to be quite large if not treated in a timely fashion) had developed in joints. Imagine bumpy, hard clusters rubbing between bones and ligaments. Ouch. She was a sweet old lady with bright blue eyes. One rather young girl (perhaps in her late 20s) was there for a routine transfusion treatment to help manage the pain of her arthritis. A man in a clinical trial for a certain pain medication had an appointment for a regular visit as part of the research protocol. He had two black eyes because he had just previously fallen (unrelated to the study or arthritis he suffered from). He was a very pleasant older gentleman with a black leather vest and what-looked-to-be cowboy boots.

The doctor I shadowed did an excellent job of telling me the story of each patient and teaching me the specifics about each different condition. Even though I was not able to understand all the details of the doctor-patient interaction because, of course, all that talk was done in Swedish, he did fill me in both during the visit and after. It was really quite interesting to see how the Swedish medical system works… or, at least, how a microcosm of the system operates. For instance, all prescriptions are written and filed electronically. The prescribing doctor completes an online form that is electronically signed and submitted to all pharmacies throughout Sweden. The patient is not responsible for carrying a tiny sheet with an illegible prescription to his or her pharmacy, rather one can just show up at any Swedish pharmacy and the prescription is already present and ready to be filled. Nice. There was a similar system for patients who needed to have orthotics made for them; however, due to the necessity of having multiple appointments involved with the creation of personal orthotics, this system was effective, though not quite as seamless as the prescription system. What else… I didn’t really talk much at all to patients myself – to hear about their experience from the patient perspective, but most people seemed content with the movement and order of events in the office. Someone once told me that Swedes are good at standing in lines… not said as an insult at all, rather as a fact of being in the system here. Everyone gets used to waiting his or her turn. There’s not much else that can be done except for being patient.

Brief interruption… still snowing! Perhaps even a bit harder now. And, with smaller flakes!!

I hope I am invited back to shadow some doctors in the hospital and clinics. I was connected to this doctor by our team doctor at Stanford, Dr. Lambert. Thanks!! The doctor I shadowed knew that my interest was more in pediatrics than rheumatology (though of course I was excited to follow any doctor around!), so he is going to try to contact some pediatricians. Perhaps I will get to see some of the kids’ hospital scene too.

Went into lab yesterday afternoon and today also. I made a mutant and I think it’s the right one! Yay. Still more testing to be done, but that won’t be completed until the New Year. Happy with the progress of the project at the moment. Plus, I’m learning so much! Aaron is a great teacher and everyone in the lab is so very helpful and friendly. Sort of strange to have so many people willing to be of assistance… that’s more of the Swedish attitude… always looking out for each other.

Had bball practice last night and a workout with Jose tonight at Klubb Activ. Putte ran practice last night because Anders was at the club Christmas party. Ok. Well, it was a very good practice. After practice, our team and the men’s team put on a Lucia-inspired concert for all the kids at Alvik. We sung Swedish Christmas carols. Or, tried to. They are quite beautiful. The whole production was supposed to be funny, so it was ok that I didn’t exactly know what I was doing at all! We each held a candle and had some sort of holiday costume on. I just wore some garland.

Getting very excited to be home and celebrate Jesus’ coming with my own family. Fun to be here and share in the spirit with others, but no one else is family but family. And, though I won’t get the chance to see so many of my friends, I can’t wait to talk on the actual telephone with you! Hope everyone isn’t getting too caught up in the craziness, but rather taking the time to really remember what the season is all about. This morning I was reading some of John, Chapters 14 and 15. Go read it! It’s awesome. Trust, peace, love, truth, obedience, patience… how can we not always be in complete awe and thanksgiving to Him and for sending us Jesus? God is incredible beyond out understanding. Let us really praise His name for all to see!!

One more week!

2006-12-17T19:47:00.000+01:00

December 17, 2006 7:26pm

Third weekend of Advent and, yes, quite Christmassy!! Not really in a writing mood though, so just a bit of a weekend summary… Saturday morning worked-out at Klubb Activ (always a tough workout – today’s remnants of yesterday’s workout are sore abs and arms!). Visited a couple markets in the afternoon with Lauren. Returned to the Street Market at Hornstull Strand (and managed to completely avoid Pierre). Then went to Skansen… whoever comes to visit me from here on out, we must go to Skansen!! It’s sort of like a Swedish version of Sturbridge Village, but especially charming right now because of all the Christmas markets and decorations within. We didn’t even make it all the way out to see the animals, for it was getting quite chilly and perhaps the place will be even more scenic with snow. Yesterday evening Erin and I went for pizza at out favorite place in Stockholm (eating the leftovers now), then hung out with some more girls from Fryshuset later that evening. Today I went to Immanuel International’s morning service, attended a Christmas party featuring soup (the mushroom was my favorite, but the potato and asparagus was tasty as well), then finished off today’s adventures with Catholic mass. Sorry I don’t feel like going into the details… especially of Skansen and today’s party… but I guess we will just do that in person sometime if you wish. Think I’m just a little bit tired from being all over the place the last few days. Going to settle down this evening and watch Notting Hill – it’s on TV and I’ve been wanting for a few weeks now to see this movie. Yay. I love it!! Can’t wait to come home. Bye.

Friday

2006-12-16T09:22:00.000+01:00

December 15, 2006 11:27pm

Fun Friday! We didn’t have practice today and I didn’t go into lab, so… lot’s of free time!! I slept in this morning, wrote some Christmas notes, then headed off to Gamla Stan to buy some Tomtens that I’ve had my eye on for a while. Similar to how we have Santa Clause in the U.S., here in Sweden they have Tomten (I’m not sure if I’m spelling this correctly). Anyway, the traditional tomten has a long, tall hat, a very hairy beard, and sometimes all you can see is a nose (because of the robust beard, there’s no eyes or mouth visible!). It sounds sorta strange, but they actually are pretty cute. They grow on you. Often times, the beards are made of actual clippings from the wool of sheep. I found some at the gift shop in the Museum of Swedish Horses when I visited there a while back, and returned today to pick my favorites out to bring home.

After making my tomten selection, I headed off to meet up with this guy I met at the “Street” fair last weekend. Remember, the “Street” fair was one of the Christmas markets I went to last Sunday… with a focus on organic and earth-friendly products, I think. Now, I realize that sounds a bit sketchy – going out with some seemingly random guy -but really it isn’t at all. His stand at the fair was an espresso bar and showcase of fine chocolates. For some reason we started talking about different things… food and basketball primarily… and some how we decided it would be fun to meet up and talk more. Specifically, he’s a total “foodie” – and though I’m not close to calling myself one yet – I’m quite definitely learning to love them! Or, at least love what I can learn : ) Plus, I feel as if I can’t escape having foodies in my life… not that I would at all want to, of course (much rather, the other way around). So this guy, his name is Pierre, is Swedish and French. He’s spent the last few years studying and working in culinary arts and wine (is wine part of culinary art?) in France, but grew up in Stockholm. He’s worked at one of the two best restaurants in Stockholm, is an official, trained, wine-guy that nice restaurants have (I don’t know how to spell the title), and now he just bought a retail space in St: Eriksplan in which he is building a juice-bar and vegan/raw-food specialty store and café. He does a lot more of other food-related adventures, but that’s just a quick summary. When I first met him I could not help but think of three people in particular – Andrea, Veronica, and Jonathan – I want you to come meet this guy or at least talk to him! He’s worked at a bunch of places and has a good chunk of experience in the food industry with lots of connections. He’s really passionate about it. Makes for good conversation, or at least good stories for me to listen to and learn from. Oh, I wish you were here with me today! We went out to lunch at a nice little French restaurant and then visited Lux (it’s supposedly one of the very best bakeries in Sweden) to buy some dark bread (a specialty here). At the restaurant, he knew everyone who worked there and the chef came out and talked with us for quite a while. I ordered a fish and tomato dish and enjoyed a mini apple-cake for dessert. It was fun to hear about the best restaurants in the city and his personal involvement and connection with am impressively large bit of the food scene here. Don’t know if we’ll go out again – I definitely want to try some places he suggested – but, just to be clear for all of you that I’m sure are wondering… for me, there is absolutely nothing romantic here at all. So, don’t get all excited or anything ;) Just a good meal and good conversation. Plus, he’s too old for me! Haha. And, if I really liked someone – I don’t exactly know if I’d lay it all out like this in such a public blog – but, since that (the being swept off my feet ;) ) hasn’t happened yet, well, we’ll just have to wait and see!

After lunch and the bakery stop, I returned home to finish up writing the notes I had started writing this morning. I didn’t have many of the addresses, so I set off to Katarinahissan (the elevator, cat-walk, internet hotspot) to brave the cold, get online, and retrieve those mailing addresses. Best part of this outing (and best party of the day too!!)… I talked to Pete (and Quinn, sort of) over skype. We tried to talk live, though the very gusty winds limited the effectiveness of that mode of conversation. Therefore, we just resorted to chatting. I love the Klenows!! Christine and Pete, of course… but Q-man especially… and now, even though I haven’t actually met her yet, Annalise too. I can’t help but smile and also get a bit sad when I think of them – smiling for all our great times (in the past and to come), but sad for only being in month two of six of not seeing them. I’m forever grateful for their incredibly loving, welcoming, and encouraging support and friendship they’ve always extended to me. I feel so blessed to have them in my life. Just saying thanks will never be enough for all they have done for me. Ok, enough of being sentimental… onto the next adventure…

…took the ferry to Skeppsholmen and the Arkitect Museet (the Architecture Museum). Currently there is a gingerbread house exhibition. Entries in four categories: architects, bakers, kids 12 and under, and the general population. I even filled out a form to vote for my favorite. The houses were pretty amazing. If I get around to it, I’m going to post some pics of the houses I saw (check it out at 08stockholm.shutterfly.com). Made me want to build a ginger-bread house, and eat some of it too : ) Also, weekly museum attendance completed… check. Where should I go next?

Tonight I finished up one of the scarves I’ve been knitting, while watching Cold Mountain (sad, but very good) and Elf (hilarious!!). Pretty chill Friday evening, but just what I wanted. Tomorrow will be another busy day… want to squeeze in as much Christmas spirit as I can!! Hope you’re full of it (that is, Christmas spirit, of course)!!

Lucia

2006-12-14T23:46:00.000+01:00

December 14, 2006 10:38pm

The days sure are flying by! In a week from now, I hope by now I’ll be all packed to fly home!! But until then… I’m going to enjoy the Swedish Christmas spirit : )

Yesterday was Lucia Day, and though I still do not completely understand the traditions, the different events I went to were uniquely beautiful. No one seems to explain to me exactly what Lucia day is all about (I could just look it up!), but generally… this is what I’ve heard: Lucia was an Italian girl. For some reason or another, she was killed (and burned to death?!). Anyway, the holiday has something to do with the “bringing of light into the darkness.” Therefore, whatever girl is chosen to remember Saint Lucia must wear a crown of burning candles – light in the darkness!

I attended a Lucia Concert in one of the churches in downtown Stockholm… Swedish carols and Lucia songs were song by children from a prestigious city music school. The boys and girls both wear long white gowns. The boys wear white, pointy caps – some with stars on them. The girls wear red ribbons about their waists and green wreaths on their heads. Of course, Lucia wears the crown of candles – real burning candles a top her head! It’s pretty amazing. I have a few pictures… not too many, and they are a bit blurry (I didn’t want to use my flash in the early morning concert at the church), but still they can give you a sense of what I saw. I attended the concert with a group of girls who work at Fryshuset… they were all excited to go to the concert and celebrate the day in a traditional manner… of course they all had their own favorite songs that they remembered from childhood when they too were dressed up for the holiday. After the beautiful concert in the church at 7:30am, we grabbed some breakfast, then headed to Fryshuset to see the Lucia performance put on by the high school kids. This was more of a modern dance, hip-hop, rap show about the holiday. What would be expected of high schoolers!! Everyone has their own way of celebrating : )

That afternoon Erin and I were asked to coach a team of 11-year-old girls. That was really fun! Except, haha, they were so quiet! Before we started they were laughing and loud and just goofing around. As soon as we started coaching, you could hear a pin drop. Eventually we were able to get some of the girls talking and even joking around a bit. I really enjoyed our time with them. I couldn’t help thinking of when I was 11 and playing basketball… Mr. Bailey, Team Connecticut, Saona, Jess Allen, Brittany, pork and bean dinners on hotel roofs, Cheese Champs!!… lots of special memories : )

Let’s see… what else… been in lab a bit. No real updates there. Still good though. And, still thankful for everyday that I show up there, for the opportunity to be doing real research, and probably mostly for the chance to be working with and learning from such a diverse group of knowledgeable people.

Working on doing some Christmas shopping. Hope I can bring everything back through customs! Am getting excited to come home, though I wish I could snap my fingers and be all over other parts of the U.S. too!! Anybody have any suggestions on what I should do when I go to Grenada? I need to get some tour books for there and start doing some research! Yay yay yay.

Links to Pics:
08stockholm.shutteryfly.com

Variety

2006-12-13T19:34:00.001+01:00

December 12, 2006 9:57pm

The last couple days have been pleasantly filled with basketball, coaching, working in lab, some Christmas shopping, and hanging out with friends. Yesterday, I went into lab early and successfully set-up some reactions. I was in lab by 8am… and, it was sooooo empty! The few times I’ve been there early before, there are at least some people in their already. I was pretty much the only one. I thought perhaps there was some holiday or vacation day that I just didn’t know about. Lol. Eventually people started to come in, so it all turned out ok ;) Ran off from lab to morning shooting practice… but, on the way to lab, Anders texted me and asked if I could coach the younger girls instead because he wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be able to make it to practice. Ok. What else was I supposed to say?! No?! Even though I personally wanted to take the time and work on my shooting for myself, that would have been selfish; plus, I had lots of fun coaching the girls. Ever since I coached last Friday, it seems as though Anders wants to use me for coaching more and more. Last night at practice he asked me if I would coach again today if he couldn’t make it again… well, I had to say “no I have plans” – which of course was true, we had our lab’s Christmas party today (more on that later).

Anyway, basketball is going pretty well right now, though it is a bit frustrating too. Of course it’s fun to be playing and I’m grateful to be on a team here, but nothing will ever be the same as playing at Stanford. I shouldn’t compare – everything is so different – but, it’s hard not to think about the two. There are so many differences that it’s not really valuable to go into that, but I guess what is most frustrating generally is that you just want everyone to give the same value, effort, and priority to basketball now, as was done in college. Well, that just can’t happen. Some of my teammates have other jobs, others are playing purely for fun (with no future goal having to do with basketball), the coaches are responsible for multiple practices everyday, and it’s just a different level. Therefore, practices are not always that intense. Plus, now that we don’t have a game for close to a month, the focus is sort of lacking. Yesterday’s practice was an hour of basketball and an hour of strength training. Today, however, was perhaps one of the most competitive practices we’ve had since Erin and I have been here. That was great! I still wish we would play more 5-on5, more full court, do more running drills, and have more consequences to doing drills poorly (as motivation for everyone to be competitive and try really hard), but all-in-all it’s going well. I think we are a very good team, but I’m not so sure we know our roles. Oh, well. That really should be working itself out soon, as the regular season is about halfway through! Perhaps everyone, including the coaches, just needs a break (physical and mental) from basketball right now. We actually only have two more team basketball practices before going home for Christmas (with lots of workouts at Klubb Activ and shooting practice, in between); I think spacing out on-court practices will make us place a greater value on our time there. Wow, sorry for that little soapbox, guess though that I’ve just been feeling not completely at peace with how bball has been lately and wanted to share those thoughts… perhaps it is also related to not personally having a great last game before the Christmas break… whatever it is, I am looking forward to our workouts with José, the couple basketball practices we have before Christmas, and just generally spending more time with my teammates off-the-court too. With all the Christmas festivities and distractions, I guess it’s sort of a hard time for anyone to really focus this time of year. Let’s just have fun! That’s what the game is all about!!

Guess what I did today?! (well, I already mentioned it above… but it’s a totally traditional Swedish activity!). I attended a julbord smorgasbord!! Today was the Christmas party for the Department of Bacteriology at the Swedish Institute of Infectious Disease Control. Guess I joined just in time! ;) Felt kinda funny just joining the lab and now being invited to a rather extravagant little party, but they were all sure to make me feel welcome : ) The restaurant and spread of food was amazing! These julbord meals are very traditional, and the food selection is comprised of – wow – most everything! First of all, it’s buffet style and you use medium sized plates and go up to get food again and again and again (…). The first course is normally fish – salmon, herring, fish salads, fish pâté, sauces, and some bread, cheese, and veggies too. I wanted to try a bit of everything, but there were so many varieties that I couldn’t even fit a small bite of everything onto my plate! The next course (and which can be two or three trips up to the bord) consists of the meats – cold and warm. There is the traditional julskinka (Christmas ham), reindeer meat, veal, pork, meatballs, little holiday hot dogs, pâté, and more. All of this is accompanied by salads – mushrooms, pickles, beet salad… - and of course, the meat is served with lingonberries (the best part! I think). There were potatoes too, beans, some omelet-like entree, and more sauces to be eaten with bits of dark bread. Even though it seems as if the emphasis is on the fish and meat, I enjoyed some delicious asparagus, cauliflower (in some creamy sauce), and perfectly green snap peas. And, if you weren’t filled with all this delicious food after returning to the food tables again and again, well… then, there was the dessert spread. There were brownies, cookies, fried dough-like cookies, fudge, mousse (in lingonberry, vanilla, and chocolate), cream & strawberry pies, and more. I learned about “ice-chocolate” – a Swedish dessert that is sort of like fudge and absolutely melts in your mouth. Also, had my first real experience with glögg – it’s like red wine mixed with spices and sweetness… the way I can best describe it is to pretend you are “drinking in the holidays.” If you think of all the holiday smells and cheer, then imagine that in drink form… well, that’s pretty much glögg! You can have it without the alcohol too, but I think it’s pretty much expected to be taken with alcohol here in Sweden. I thought the stuff was ok and only had a few sips. On Friday afternoons in lab we have a “glögg party.” I’ve never been able to go because of having practice, but this Friday we don’t have an afternoon practice. Think I will try some more glögg with my labmates! Yay!!

Also did a bit of Christmas shopping today (primarily in Åhlens and Ikea – two completely Swedish staples)… though I am struggling to find Christmas decorations that I like enough that both are “Swedish” and are nice enough to bring all the way home. I still have a few places left to look, and am hopeful to find some stars, candle-sets, or tomtens (the Swedish equivalent to Santa). Maybe will go search some more Christmas markets : )

Tomorrow is Lucia Day!! I’m meeting some friends at 7am to go watch a procession or hear some carols. I’m excited to see what the holiday is all about and then to share it here too! Time now to go jump in the shower and then head to bed. Nighty night.

Peppermint Bark & Nobel Day

2006-12-11T09:12:00.000+01:00

December 10, 2006 5:31pm, 10:24pm

Won the game yesterday, so now our record is 9-2. I think we’re third in the rankings, but that could change depending if a team on the top loses a game before the Christmas break. We don’t have any games now until January, though some of the teams are not finished up yet. Malin and Maddy both had really good games; which was great! I’m so excited Malin did well… she’s a great player and just needed to make some shots to get her confidence back. Maddy is always solid and she helped us a lot by attacking the basket. I didn’t shoot so hot… never have at Fryshuset… don’t know why; I really like the gym. It’s my favorite actually! I just haven’t had a good game there yet; well, maybe for the playoffs! So anyhow, right now, a bit of a game hiatus – a whole month of no games!! We will continue to have basketball practice, morning shooting, and workouts at Klubb Activ, as well. I can only begin to imagine how ready we will be to play a game when that first one in January rolls around!! : )

Wow, right now as I type this I am watching the acceptance speeches of all the Nobel Prize winners. It’s Nobel Day here in Sweden! A really really really big deal (and deservedly, so!!). Is the event aired on television in the states? I hope so. It is awesome. So very inspiring. It’s amazing to think about the impact that these award winners have had on our world via all different subject areas… and to think of the combined effects from all the winners throughout history… wow wow wow. I wish I was at the ceremony in person, but watching it live on-tv (and being in the same time-zone) is pretty special too. I am filled with so much pride as the winners coming from Stanford give their speeches. And, I’m filled with inspiration to go out and make a difference!! May we all be blessed to accomplish only a bit of what these terrifically gifted individuals have contributed to science and humanity, as recognized by being winner of a Nobel Prize.

Anyhoo… make to real life – or at least, my not so impressive life (lol)!! Oh, but wait… I did get a package in the mail. That’s pretty big time ; ) Really though… THANKS ANNE!! The peppermint bark is delicious. I can’t decide if I should bring it to share with my team or labmates or perhaps I should just host a little party at my little apartment. I wish I could be at Stanford right now to see you and thank you in person!

Maybe it’s the nostalgia associated with the holidays or maybe it’s just that I’ve been away from my California home for over six weeks now, but whatever it is, I miss my friends and I miss my family. Don’t worry – I’m not depressed or anything like that at all – but, I definitely am missing people. I just have been so blessed with having absolutely AMAZING people in my life… and I don’t like being apart from everyone! I am very much enjoying meeting new people…. but it’s like that song I used to sing in Brownies: ‘Make new friends, but keep the old. One if silver and the other’s gold!’

Last night I had a chill night with a couple of my teammates. Just what I wanted! I’ve had fun going out a few times now, though sometimes – like last night – it’s nice just to watch a movie and chill. We rented a movie about a very well executed bank robbery and starring Denzel Washington as the detective on the case. Have you seen it? I forget the name (or really, the name on the cover of the dvd was probably written in Swedish, so I don’t know if I ever actually knew the name). Anyway, Denzel’s great to look at – as always! (even though he is getting obviously older) and the strategy of the robbery was quite intriguing.

Let’s see… today I went to church: twice! I went this morning to Immanuel International Church. Still very much enjoying the service there and the people I’m meeting. I invited Lily to meet me there… she is the girl I met at New Life Church and had lunch with a couple weeks back. I’m glad she came to church with me and I think she enjoyed the service too. Listen to this small world… I met a women there who’s sister-in-law went graduated from NFA. Crazy, huh?! (maybe I already blogged about this connection, but I am repeatedly impressed by this). Then, during fika after the service, Lily and I met a couple of people from the UK – both of whom came to Stockholm on short term work projects, but now both have been here for over five years each. One of the guys does consulting (I gave him my contact info because somehow we got talking about kids and babysitting – and he said he had some colleagues that have been looking for a babysitter… oh, maybe I will get to babysit a bit yet! I will not give up hope on getting to hang out with little kids!). The girl works in environmental policy-making… it was a bit unclear to me exactly was she does, even upon me asking more about her job, but regardless of how little I understood of what she was saying, sounds like she has a pretty interesting job – anything involved with environmental policy, I think, would be (ok, that was probably more detail than anyone cares to know). The other service I went to was Catholic Mass! Soooooo good – no, great! – to go to mass. I haven’t been to mass since back at Stanford in MemChu; it was absolutely wonderful to go to mass today. I don’t know why I didn’t research Catholic churches immediately when I arrived here. Oh, well – better late than never. I attended an English mass, though of course there are services in Swedish too. The presiding priest was newly ordained (as in, within the month) and many of the traditional prayers that we sung in mass were played to the same melodies I’ve sung many times before. The congregation here was also very diverse… I don’t think I could identify if there was even a “majority” ethnicity present. The diversity in every international service I’ve attended is one of the elements of worship here that impresses me the most. It’s quite awesome to be praising the same Lord, together with people from all over the world – and not just saying or singing that people from all over give praise to God, but to actually be doing it. Anyway, I think it’s very special and a true testament to the captivating power of Jesus Christ! Maybe I will continue going to church twice on Sundays… the morning service and evening mass are both very different and I love each for unique reasons. Well, I’ll be home for Christmas mass at St. Francis soon enough too!

What else what else… shopped a bit at some more Christmas markets today. I don’t really ever buy anything, though I love just walking around and seeing what it is that other people like to buy. Ventured on the red-line to the “Street” Market at Hornstulls Strand. The stands there were filled not only with jul-time gifts and yummy foods, but the artwork for sale – photography, paintings, beadwork, glasswork, pottery, and more – was beautiful to look at, as well. Additionally, the market was right on the water’s edge and the sun was setting (before 3pm!) while I was there. I tried to capture the magic of it with my camera, though I don’t think the pictures did it justice. I did meet a couple really nice guys at a chocolate stand though. The two guys were selling these fine, handmade chocolates – a family business – and one of them is studying to be a… what do you call it?... wine-guy. Pierre is really into the food and wine scene, while his brother or maybe just friend is studying to be a doctor. They want to come to a basketball game… well, they’re going to have to wait a while! Pierre let me have a chocolate though – I couldn’t decide which kind to choose, so I asked him for his opinion – I personally love dark chocolate, but he suggested I try their Christmastime, white-chocolate, saffron specialty. I’ve never had anything like it, but it really was some of the best chocolate I’ve had.

Well, I could probably go on about other little stories and the such, but my eyelids are getting heavy… going to curl up in my little covers so that I can get up early and go into lab! Want to set some PCR reactions about before shooting practice tomorrow morning. Wow, we’re almost halfway through Advent! Still waiting for the Best to be here!!

Friday

2006-12-10T09:04:00.001+01:00

December 8, 2006 11:00pm

I had a really good day today. Not exactly sure if any one thing made it really good, but it just was. Perhaps it started because I woke up pretty early (7am) to get into lab and do some work there before going to coach. I love being up in the morning. I’ve been out of the habit of getting up very early here… but, as I walked along the streets in the dark morning light with the chilly air I just start smiling. I also can’t help but think of when I used to wake up much earlier in the morning and do a whole bunch of stuff before even heading off to LMS. Of course, part of me just wants to curl up in bed and go back to sleep, but I guess maybe I’ll do that when I’m home for Christmas. It was really fun to be in lab early and just be in that environment with others who really care about what they’re doing too. I seem to love being in lab early in the morning, late at night, or on the weekends (though I’m not granted access to the building at most of those times – it is secure government property – so I guess it’ll have to do for now to be there in the sorta early morning, not the very early!).

Perhaps the day was so good because I had the chance to coach… and really do whatever I wanted with the girls. Anders had to attend some meeting, so he asked Erin and I to coach the “basketball class” for a group of young high-schoolers. I guess I was supposed to be the head coach today and Erin the assistant ; ) – we’ll probably switch next week! The girls were super cute… they worked really hard, did whatever we asked of them, and looked very enthusiastic and excited to be working with us. It was so easy to coach them and do drills with them because they wanted to be there and truly looked like they were enjoying themselves. Hopefully they had as good a time as I did!

Erin and I ate lunch with Patrice and Erik (two guys that work in the club office upstairs). Patrice is Dutch. He says my name sounds German (Rappahahn, that is). Or maybe Finnish. Finnish? I think German before Finnish, but what do I know; where are the historians in the Rappahahn family?! : ) Erin had some meat and potatoes; I had a fish burger. The food at the café is really tasty. The restaurant is actually known (or at least written about/reviewed) as being a “hot spot” to go and eat. Lucky for us that it’s so convenient to eat there.

Headed back into lab this afternoon. Ran a gel to test the PCR reactions I had set-up. Not super successful… need to do more reactions… but, thankfully Aaron is so helpful! He really is a great teacher and always makes sure I understand everything, especially the big picture of what we’re up too. It sometimes is easy to get caught up in tiny details or just the procedures of how certain experiments are set-up; he makes sure I understand the reason behind everything and their importance. I am very thankful for this.

Another highlight of being in lab is being able to “chat” with Grammie. She had me smiling from ear to ear today!! (and pretty much everyday that I exchange emails with her too!). It just works out that she’s online at home in CT, when I’m online in lab. Though we aren’t technically “chatting,” we exchange emails impressively quickly. It’s cool to think that even though we’re across the Atlantic Ocean, we can be thinking of each other and communicating at exactly the same time! Thanks Grammie for all your love and support. God is Great!!

Practice was pretty chill tonight… nothing spectacular, just a good practice. The best player on the team we are playing tomorrow is injured (some sort of foot problem), so we won’t be seeing her in the game (so says some reporter that Anders talked to). That’s a disappointment. I really wanted to see her play and to play against her! Lily, one of the girls I met at the first church I went to here, is coming to the game tomorrow. Yay, someone to put on the guest list!

Tonight Erin and I ate dinner together in the café at the club again; then we watched “21 Grams” using my dvd player and tv. My dvd player only plays European (type 2) dvds, so all the dvds I brought from home, well I can only watch those on my computer (which works fine, but sometimes it’s nice to watch movies on a slightly bigger screen). Anyway, have you seen the movie? Sorta intense, but very interesting. Sad. I would recommend it. I think the actors do a super job. Glad Erin came to watch it with me; I think I would have been lost, confused, and perhaps left feeling a bit uneasy if I didn’t have the company. Right now I have the European Women’s Handball Championships on my tv, but will go to bed soon.

Oh, last thing. When I returned home tonight, after having been gone since 7:30 this morning, I had a small pile of mail. The Stanford Fund found me all the way in Sweden! But then I had some really fun mail too…. a Christmas card from Laura and her mom (cute pic Laura!), a note from Grammie (so funny you should send those pics; I was just telling Erin tonight about how much fun I had at the last wedding I went to!), letter from Wes (thanks; sorry the first one was lost, maybe it will turn up eventually?!), and a slip to pick up a package (will check into that tomorrow, yay!). Anyway, great way to be greeted after being gone all day… the mail really means a lot to me. Thank you for everyone who has taken the time to right me a note or send me a kind word. My apartment is decorated with the letters, cards, newspaper clippings, and pictures you send. Thank you. Thank you!!

Last basketball game of 2006 tomorrow. We need to win to put ourselves in the best place possible heading into the Christmas break. We will be tied for first with a win tomorrow. Anders wants to celebrate Christmas with us being in first place; me too. Good night.

Eskilstuna

2006-12-08T09:35:00.000+01:00

December 7, 2006 10:28pm

Wow, in two weeks I’m going to be all packed up to come home for Christmas! Time is moving so quickly. We already are down to only one more game in 2006! Of course, we don’t play a game for a whole month (game break from Dec 10th to Jan 7th)… but to think that we’re approaching the midway point of our regular season is pretty hard for me to believe. Guess it just means I’m enjoying my time here : )

Last night we played at Eskilstuna. The city is about an hour-and-a-half bus ride away. We traveled on a pretty nifty coach bus that had two stories and a neat little (or rather large) lounge area both upstairs and downstairs. We (the players) all hung upstairs, while the coaches were downstairs. I knitted for most of the ride there and also listened to my teammates talk in Swedish. Lol. I try to understand what they’re saying… sometimes I think I understand pretty well, but other times I’m very much clueless. It’s fun to try to figure it out, though. I’m glad they speak in Swedish to each other, cause they will of course speak in English if need be, but it’s more fun for me when they speak their language!

When we arrived… about two hours before game time… Anders sent us on a walk. Going for a walk, outside in the cold, before the game?! That’s what Erin and I thought the first time we heard of this, but it’s quite common here. If teams have a flight or substantial bus ride before a game, once they arrive everyone goes for a pretty good walk (like up to 30 mins) out and around the arena. It sounds kinda strange compared to pregame routines in America, but I really liked it last night. The cool air is refreshing, plus we get a chance to see a bit more of the cities we travel to (than we would otherwise see if we just went from the bus to the gym). Last night, we walked through this old little village – a bunch of small, red, barn-like houses and shops organized into an old-fashioned looking mini-town. I don’t really know the purpose of this collection of small houses, but it was kinda fun to stroll through there and look into the windows. The main street area was very pretty as well because it was all lit up with Christmas lights! All in all, the walk was a very nice pregame warm-up.

Eskilstuna, the team we played, is in the bottom half of the standings, though they do have a very capable American – Cisty Greenwalt (I may have spelled that wrong… but she played with Erin at Texas Tech and then some in the WNBA too). Well, we won 90-60. We didn’t start out great, but grabbed the lead soon enough. Anders played everyone a good chunk of time – everyone scored and everyone played between 12 and 22 minutes. Erin and I started the second half, but never went back in once we were subbed out early in the third quarter … began to remind me a bit of high school… how there were so many games then that some of us only played about a half of the time! Overall, it was a really good game to get everyone’s confidence up and provide “game experience” (as Tara would say) for everyone!

Today I was into lab by 8:30, then had an appointment to have my new orthotics fit into my basketball shoes, went back into lab for the afternoon, and finally had practice tonight at 7pm. Aaron, the American researcher at Smittskyddinstitutet that has generously accommodated me into the lab and taught me so much already, returned today after being gone to Israel with his wife and young son for the past week. Along with some very sweet desserts he brought back to share with the lab from old-town Jerusalem, he shared some very interesting stories about the trip. His mother-in-law is pretty high up in an organization called Seeds of Peace, and she was able to set-up some awesome tours for Aaron’s visit there. I know so little about the history and even current events of the area, but the little I do know just makes me want to learn more about it. As Aaron was sharing some stories, I just kept thinking how blessed we are and wondering how even to imagine the hate, love, and conflict that the different groups of people experience in the Middle East. Hard stuff. Anyway, I was quite interested in hearing the experience of an American just returned from visiting there… made me want to go and see the place for myself. Who knows… maybe I’ll play basketball there next year?!

Time for me to go to bed now because I want to set-up some reactions in lab early tomorrow before Erin and I report to Fryshuset to coach some younger girls in the mid-morning. Those of you who are Grey’s watchers, how was it? Don’t tell me what happened, though. I’ll download it soon! God natt.

Everyday

2006-12-05T15:49:00.000+01:00

December 5, 2006 15:37

Sitting in lab again! Incubating a strain of bacteria in hopes that they will take up a bit of DNA I’m inducing them to incorporate into their genome. I’m trying to make a mutant strain so that I can test what happens when a certain gene is deleted. After the incubation period I am going to spread the bacteria on a blood agar plate and hope that some transformants grow. I hope it works; I’ve never done this before!

This morning we had shooting practice and tonight practice again. We won’t get to see the guys’ game because we practice at the same time as they play. They’ve had 3 games in 5 days, and we haven’t had any games for close to 10 days! Crazy. Needless to say, I am very excited for the game tomorrow!

I mailed in my application to be a Summer Cara at Barretstown Camp in Ireland. The website for the camp is www.barretstown.org. From exploring the website and talking to a doctor who has volunteered at the camp for a number of years, the camp seems to be a place that I would just love to be. I hope they will offer me a spot on their team, if not though… that’s ok. God knows what’s best.

What else… I borrowed a dvd from the Stadsbiblioteket yesterday and watched it last night. Called “The Company,” the dvd was all about ballet with very little dialogue, though the dialogue that did occur was in English and subtitles were in Swedish. I love to watch ballet, so it was interesting to see. Plus, watching a movie provides time to knit as well : ) Tonight Grey’s Anatomy is on television here… episodes from the second season. I most likely will watch that after I get home from practice. I don’t actually watch that much TV at all, rather I’m still enjoying to read. Right now I am reading “Charming Billy” by Alice McDermott. Anybody ever read it?

Not really any more updates from over here. I’m beginning to fall into more of a routine with practice, labwork, and other exciting in-between events. Of course still very thankful to be here and still too looking forward to some visitors sometime : ) Hej då!

Eventful 24 hrs

2006-12-04T14:24:00.000+01:00

December 3, 2006 3:15am

A rainy Saturday, but a cheerful Satur-night! Worked out this morning at Klubb Activ, then walked around Slussen for a bit with Jas and Malin. It’s all holiday bustle here, as I am sure it is at home as well. I ventured into an Advent Bazaar at one of the Swedish churches, didn’t find much of anything particular, but it was sorta fun to go to a rummage-like sale in another country! Had a pretty chill afternoon… watched Grey’s Anatomy and took a nap too.

Tonight Jasmina, Erin, Jenny, Maddy, Martina, Giovanna, and I met up with Malin at Ropsten and headed to her house to hang out. We grabbed pizza for dinner and then played some games. We all were invited to a Christmas party at a certain club in Stockholm, the only condition being that you have to wear red. I wore my new black dress with a red belt. Maddy and Martina wore black shirts/dresses with red belts too. Jas had a red dress with a black belt. I guess you could say that belts are pretty “in” here! After hanging out at this club for a while, a few of us headed out looking for another place to go dancing. We were about to head to the T for home when we were wondering around Őstermalm and literally ran into Putte (our assistant coach). Then, along came Landry, some other coaches from Alvik, and Anders too. Kinda strange to be out and run into your coaches. We were all headed to “East” – one of the most popular night-life spots of Stockholm. We were able to get in right away (despite very long line!) because one of the security people at Fryshuset also worked at this club. Lauren and some other girls from Söder Basket were there. I hadn’t seen Lauren in a while (come to find out, she had gone back to the States for Thanksgiving to visit her family), but it was rally great to see her. Perhaps she will come to the men’s game tomorrow with some of us. Anyway, it was a really fun night hanging out with so many of my teammates and I had fun “feeling cute” too. I know that clothes and looks don’t matter, but every once in a while I enjoy an occasion to get dressed up and go out looking pretty : )

Will be time for church soon, so time to get some sleep (I slept for 11 hours last night… isn’t that terrific! I think that’s why I’m still up ;) ).

December 3, 2006 3:09pm, 8:43 pm

Wonderful, wonderful December morning. Attended the 11:15 service at Immanuel Church and had a wonderful worship time. It being the first Sunday of Advent, the day is special anyway, but I always love the lighting of that first candle and then the teaching that almost always has to do with waiting and hope. The music was fun and energetic, and though the pastor can seem a bit quiet sometimes, the message he gave was presented very well. Today was the first time since I’ve been here that I’ve been at a service with Communion, so that was extremely special as well. After the service, I met some other members of the congregation during fika. Maria and Susan were both Swedish women married to men from other parts of the world (India and somewhere in Africa, I think), so they had begun coming to the international services instead of the usual Swedish service. It was very interesting to hear the differences between the two and why, now, they prefer the international community… mostly it seems it is for the diversity, energy, and enthusiasm with which makes up the community. Another woman I sat with grew up in Kenya, but has been in Stockholm for the past 16 years. She did graduate work and received her doctorate here in bilingual studies. She now teaches, as do the other two women. And no, I didn’t only sit with females. The other guys at the table were from different parts of Africa, but from what I could tell, had been in Sweden for a little bit now. One of them taught me a special tradition involving pepparkakor. I’ll show you when I come home. I also met this guy Chris, he’s from Minnesota and has been in Stockholm for four years after finishing seminary in the States. He let me know about the Young Adult fellowship group that meets… so, if practice doesn’t conflict, I would like to try to meet some more folks, as well. All in all, week two at Immanuel Church proved to be even better than the first. Praise God : )

This afternoon I headed into Gamla Stan to find the Christmas markets. Oh, it was beautiful. If there had been snow on the ground it would have been absolutely picture perfect, but it was still so picturesque and enjoyable even without that blanket of white. All the little stands were wooden and painted a barn-color red. There were stands with food, stands with toys, stands with chocolate, stands with homemade goods, and stands with… if you could only ever shop at these Christmas markets, I bet you could find something for everyone on your list!

Today I also visited the Swedish Horse Museum… it’s really just a tiny museum connected to a store located adjacent to the market, but nevertheless, I’d been wanting to go to this museum (and it happens to fill my quota for this week of museum attendance). Turns out the collection of wooden horses was pretty interesting, though as much as I enjoyed looking at the horses themselves, I loved reading about their history. The Dala Horse is that traditional looking, wooden cut, red horse that has come to be a pretty traditional souvenir gift from Sweden. One of the museum placards explained why Swedes may have had a particular affinity for horses… “Swedes were stubborn, hardworking and grumpy as their horses, independent and not always of the same opinion of the King… the horse was a symbol of free spirit.” Doesn’t that paint a beautiful picture, bringing into focus the relationship between a Swede and his horse? Anyway, the first wooden horses were made back in the 1700s, but only a few remain from those early times because it was not uncommon then to actually burn (or just get rid of) the handcrafted horses after some time. It wasn’t really until the World Fair in NYC in 1939, at which time some of the horses were brought to the United States that these little pieces of wood were seen more as a form of art and then they grew in popularity and value. Today there are artists who continue to handcraft the wooden horses and paint them in similar styles as crafters did a couple hundred years ago. I’m not exactly sure why I find these little wooden horses so intriguing, but perhaps it is because I feel like there must be a story attached to each one.

This evening Erin and I went to watch the men play at Akropol. Eeek. We won, but a sort of mob happened in the last minute of the game. Akropol is in the “ghetto” of Stockholm. One of their fans, a middle-aged man, jumped over the railing (that separates fans on the second-level from the game on the court below) and rushed the court. He was upset at a gesture that one of the 08 men’s players made. He had to be restrained, but all the home fans became very fired up. There was threatening comments made and coins, cans, and plastic chew containers were thrown on the court. A set of the 08 fans, including Erin and I, as well as the entire men’s team and coaching staff had to wait around in the building for quite some time after the game until the crowds’ drum-playing and rallying wore down. There were tons of kids that were super into it. That was kind of scary for me because why should these kids be all angry and feel the need to get-back-at the other team after a loss? Anyway, it was quite a strange event that happened… strange especially because we’re in Sweden and everything, at least for the vast majority of the time, is very safe and docile. Eventually, we were escorted by police to the parking lot. We all made it out safe thankfully, though I’m not sure anything would really have happened. Anyway, let’s just be glad it all turned out alright. Hopefully that was the first and last time we’ll be a part of something like that.

Don’t worry anyone, it was still a terrific day and I’m still smiling!

Dec 1

2006-12-02T10:14:00.000+01:00

December 1, 2006 9:32pm

Wow, I feel like I’ve been everywhere! And, everywhere I go I can be sure to see at least one of two things… either a Swedish Christmas star hanging in the windows or a traditional Swedish Christmas candle set. I’m sure there is a name for the later of the decorations, but close to every window has one in it. There are either five or seven candles (or light bulbs if the candles aren’t real!) that forms a pyramid of light. Supposedly they are a very typical Swedish decoration, so much so that you are pretty much expected to have one in you window. Guess I’m not holding up my end of the bargain right now!

So back to today… this morning I went into lab and everything there ran smoothly. Aaron is gone with his family to Israel on a weeklong vacation, so I am now relying on everyone else in the lab for help. That’s really good though because it forces me to ask other people for help and to get to know more and more people in lab. It never ceases to amaze me how nice and helpful people here are. They again invited me to their weekend holiday-Glogg celebration on Friday afternoons during the winter season, but I couldn’t make it because of practice. Maybe we’ll have a Friday off on one of these December days so that I can join in this tradition as well.

Aeroboxed with Jasmina at noon. Really, you have to try this! You leave with exhausted muscles but refreshed mind. I always feel such a pleasant mix of sore and energized when I finish one of these workouts. Tomorrow our whole team is going to the fitness club, but I think we’re doing more of a core workout. We’ll soon see.

This afternoon I met up with Maddy and Martina to go shopping downtown. The two of them confronted me the other day… just kidding, not so much confronted as they just approached me all excited and wondered if I would go shopping with them. For the longest time (well, I guess since I got here), Maddy’s been wanting to take me around to learn about all the best places to buy clothes. She’s so cute. I love her! So anyway, we met up at T-centralan and headed off. We started at H&M. Oh, and I should add, the motive of the trip was to get an outfit for the Christmas party most of our team is going to tomorrow evening. We were invited to this party at a club/bar place and the only requirement for entry (I think) is to wear something red. I figured I would just wear jeans and then find a red shirt today while looking around. Oh, no! Thanks to Maddy and Martina’s styling expertise, tomorrow I will be wearing a black dress with a cute red belt along with some black heels (I had already bought the shoes). If I must say, the outfit is pretty cute; they did a great job picking it out. Hey, maybe I’ll even bring it home and sport it for some Christmas party there too. Also, they talked me into buying a real nice black peacoat-like jacket – with unique buttons and good lines. That was a practical purchase too though… I’ve just been wearing vests around and people are always asking me, “aren’t you cold?!” After making our purchases we glanced at my watch… shoot! Time to get to practice. We grabbed a sandwich at Sandy’s – it’s this American-style sub shop that’s quite tasty (it was my first time there, but Erin is a rather frequent visitor I think), and then headed to practice.

Practice was as early as it ever is – started at four, and that was because there was a big men’s game tonight. We had a really good practice… worked on our motion offense and zone press. We haven’t played a game since last Saturday and now we don’t play until Wednesday – pretty big break. The team workout at the fitness club tomorrow will be good to mix up the routine.

So… tonight… my teammates and I were models! Sort of : ) We were in a fashion show!! One of our sponsors is a designer clothing outlet (maybe I already blogged about this, if so… sorry; I can’t remember) and the store wanted us to model clothes at halftime of the game. It was really really fun. Some of my teammates were so nervous, but it was really pretty chill. I was like laughing the whole time! I wore my hair in pigtails and loved wearing the red rubber boots with monkeys on them. Maddy did my make-up too. I hope we might get more people to come to the store; that was the point of us modeling I think.

Of course aside from our little halftime modeling gig, we watched the men play. They had a very disappointing loss against our biggest rivals, Solna. Solna (the team Charmin played for when she was here) is just on the other side of Stockholm. We lost to the girl’s team (our only loss since Erin and I have been here) and the guy’s team lost to them last week. Tonight was our chance (or, more accurately, the guy’s chance) to get back at those Vikings and beat them on our home court. Well, it didn’t exactly happen. Very close right until the end though; I think we lost by three points. We better beat them when we play them on our home court!

So, it was a good day. All over the place, like I said earlier, and now I’m ready for a good night sleep. Tomorrow night we have that Christmas party… and it’ll be fun to get all dressed up and go out. Really though, I just like being with my teammates. I love them more and more whenever I get to spend time with them.

How was your first day of Advent?

Full Month Gone

2006-12-01T10:00:00.000+01:00

November 30, 2006 8:32pm

Wow, last day of November! How can that be so?! Today while I was sitting at my desk in lab and waiting for one of my reactions to be finished, I thought I would update my blog since I hadn’t written in a while. Well, I wrote this long, thoughtful blog about what it’s like to actually be living in a foreign country versus just visiting, but – alas! – when I pushed “post,” the computer messed up and I lost my writing. Arrgh. So now it’s later in the day and I’m not so thoughtful… so, you’ll just have to get what you get ; )

Tonight Erin, Malin, and I went to a photo studio to get our basketball pictures taken; the three of us weren’t here when the rest of the team was photographed before the season started. The photos will probably me up on the website soon (08stockholm.com), or at least the headshots, so take a look if you want.

This week I’ve been able to spend a lot of time in the lab and, thankfully, my project is moving along rather nicely at this point. It’s a pretty neat experience to be able to do research in different countries because the similarity of methods and techniques translates across all languages. Science is science, right? Well, it really is. For instance, today I had to purify some PCR products and I used the same exact set of reagents and protocol as I did when in the Schrijver Lab at Stanford. Now this isn’t a huge surprise, but it sort of goes to show how given the same language (here, the language of “science”) people from all over the world really can work together in a tangible sense on the same exact projects. About half the lab is Swedish, a large chunk is German, there’s an Australian, and now I’m the second American. Everyone does speak English, but everyone also has the desire to pursue research that translates across all languages – we all want to hopefully make some headway in effective vaccine development, bacteria epidemiology, and other tiny steps towards someway, somehow improving the general well-being of humans. It makes me so happy to look around the floor I work on, the building, or even the campus, and to think that all these people are working to better the lives of people around the globe. It’s powerful stuff and genuinely a fun experience to be a part of!

My trip between the gym and lab or between my apartment and lab involves taking the T-bana for about ten minutes and then a bus for the other half of the trip. On the way home today on the bus, our driver didn’t stop at a station where a man was waiting for the bus. There was lots of traffic, another bus right there, and well – I don’t exactly know why he didn’t stop. The guy that was waiting for the bus got very upset. He rushed up to the moving bus, banged on the window, and demanded entrance. The bus-driver just kept saying nej, nej, nej, nej! We had a green light, but the man outside the bus walked to the front of the bus and just stood there holding his bus ticket in his hand. The light was green and he was standing in front of the bus! By now the bus driver and man were beyond upset, but the bus driver didn’t give in. Eventually the man stormed away and the bus continued on. This was the first time in my over a month of being here that I’ve seen any sort of outward display of anger. People here are generally very pleasant, perhaps a bit quiet and reserved compared to most Americans, but overall are very considerate. It honestly shocked me to see this display today and I think, as I looked around the inside of the bus, many passengers were a bit shocked or confused as well. At least it was a busy time of day, so another bus should have been very close behind for the man that missed our bus.

What else… oh, I know. I brought my biochemistry book over to here because, though I never could fit biochemistry into my schedule at Stanford due to practice and other necessary classes, I thought I might study the book myself throughout my time here. Today I was sitting in lab reading the book, when I felt compelled to explain to Aaron why I was just sitting there reading a biochem book. After all, it’s not particularly easy reading (at least not for me) and not something that most people would just start reading. Well, this conversation led into a great discussion between Aaron and I about developing the “personal side of medicine.” Biochem may be interesting and necessary to understanding how certain systems in our bodies work, but it is really how doctors treat the whole person that matters to the patient. So, Aaron suggested some stories written by physicians that I might like to read. For these suggestions, I am so thankful. I LOVE reading books by doctors. I love reading about their patients. I love reading about human interaction and how often it is the doctor that seems to receive even more therapy from the patient than the other way around. I love reading stories about death, dying, suffering, surviving, living, and thriving! This is the spectrum right… and we all, at some time will experience it all. That’s the human condition. And, I think it’s amazing how we all work together to pull people through it. One of the most influential classes I took at Stanford, taught by Larry Zaroff, taught about this personal, human side of medicine. So, I guess I may lay off the biochem a little bit and start reading more of these stories that I really want to be reading. I’m working on building an amazon.com wish list of books I want to read and I’m excited to get started.

Think some Adam Sandler movie is coming on TV now and that means it’ll be a good time to knit too… so good night for now. Happy end to November! Happy start to December!!

From the Lab

2006-11-30T16:16:00.000+01:00

Hi there... sitting in lab right now and waiting for my digest reaction to finish incubating. I have been in lab everyday this week and my project is moving along nicely. Haven't worked so much with Ingrid this week, she's the one who is teaching me how to plate bacteria, grow it, count it, be safe with it! I've been busy doing some more of the molecular biology techniques that I'm more familiar doing from my previous research experience and can do on my own. I think I'm going to set up something soon that requires I leave it incubating overnight... which means I'll have to come in early tomorrow morning before shooting practice to take care of it.

Today we had the day off (from bball), but I had an appointment to get a pair of orthotics made earlier this morning and tonight Erin, Malin, and I have to go to the photo studio to get our pics taken in our uniforms so that we can look the same as everyone else on the webpage.

The last couple days have been pretty "usual" - so to speak... nothing out of the ordinary or particularly exciting. I've been thinking a lot recently about the concept of actually living in another country, not just visiting, but actually living. Now when I walk around or ride the T, I've tried to view Stockholm as a visitor, but it's actually really hard. I know I've only been here for slightly more than a month and there is tons I have yet to see of the city, but being here even this long makes me really feel a part of it. Especially now that I am working in a lab and playing basketball, it's almost like being back at Stanford (though of course, not really close at all). It really is awesome though to have a sense of belonging in a place that isn't even your home country. I think that everyone, if at all possible, should live abroad for an extended period of time. The perspective gained is exciting and refreshing!

Ok, enough of that tangent... hmmm... what else: tomorrow our team is going to model in a fashion show at halftime of probably the biggest men's home basketball game of the year!! Will have to give you an update on that after the event. Pray that I don't trip and fall ; ) Last night we went to the designer outlet and the employees there helped us pick out our outfits... I am wearing some blue jeans, a black shirt-dress thing, red rubber boots with little monkeys on them, a scarf, and a blue bag with matching monkeys! I love my outfit. I wish I got to keep it, but modeling it for 4 minutes (or whatever the length of our routine) is good enough! Should be fun : )

Magic

2006-11-27T21:09:00.001+01:00

November 27, 2006 8:33pm

Magic

Just finished up with practice, a yummy pork and potato dinner (no, I didn’t make it! rather, I ate at the café at our club), and some good conversation with Erin. Returned to my apartment for the first time since 8:30 this morning, after being gone to lab and practice all during the day. Opened my door and… tons of mail! Well, mostly it was a bunch of Christmas shopping flyers (but that’s great, cause as some of you know, I love to look at all the ads in the papers – haha – childhood pastime I think while my dad always read the morning paper!). In addition, there was one very special letter. Harriet, thank you for the card and for the newspaper clipping. The note meant so much to me and the article, well it gave me goosebumps. Titled “The camp that changed my life” and written by Colin Glaes (aged 15), the article was about how much Camp Kesem means to Colin. I had Colin as a camper my first year that I volunteered at camp. Camp Kesem is just such an amazing experience for everyone involved. It’s simply impossible to put into words the true magic that happens there (Kesem means “magic” in Hebrew; it really is the perfect name for this camp). Thank you Harriet for sending this to me. I am going to hang it up on my wall as a daily reminder of how small we are, how great God is, and how every little bright spot in life is a dear blessing.

oops

2006-11-27T21:09:00.000+01:00

didn't mean to post the repeat... sorry! still learning :)

All about

2006-11-27T21:07:00.000+01:00

November 26, 2006 4:01pm

All about

It’s been a really good weekend for me. How has your’s been?

Yesterday we beat Sundsvall… which was an important win, as they had the same record as us going into the game, we were playing on our home court, and I personally didn’t want to lose to any Michigan State girls again. We won! At times we played really well, but our shooting percentage for the entire game was pretty horrible. So it ended up being a close game, more or less, because we couldn’t shoot yesterday. In the first half they played us man to man, and I drove to the basket more times than I have since high school. I don’t know what is was yesterday, but I just kept getting wide open lanes. Granted I missed a fair share of inside shots, it was still really fun to get into the paint again. The second half they played us in a zone and that’s when we struggled a bit from the outside. It’s sorta hard to be aggressive against a zone, but that’s what we needed to do. Thanks to Erin’s clutch three-point shooting and some good team defense, we were able to pull out the win. For those of you (Grammie, Mom, Dad, and Noah(!) ) who followed on Gametracker, thanks of course for your support! : )

Meagen and Deac made it to the game, but not by my directions… I got them totally lost, but luckily the three different times they had to ask some Swedes for help, the locals were friendly. It was so much fun to have family at the game! And of course, when we win, it’s always better. I hope they enjoyed it!

After the game, Erin and I went with Meagen and Deac to find a place to eat. We ended up walking around a long time in the rain because I was supposed to be taking the lead to find a good place to eat, but instead - keeping completely to my nature, though not being the proper tour guide as I should have been – just wandered all over the place before we found somewhere to eat. We were soaking wet by the time we sat down to eat; however, we had seen a good amount of Kungsgaten and Drottninggatan (two of the main streets of Stockholm) by that time too. And, the food turned out to be terrific! The name of the restaurant we ended up at was Drottninggatan 6 (www.drottninggatan6.se if you really need to be distracted). Erin, Deac, and I all ordered steak with potatoes and veggies – though as part of different dishes. Meagen has Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes and lingonberries. The meat and berries together are very tasty. Perhaps we’ll have to try this together around Christmas time (or whenever the next time that I get to enjoy a meal with you may be).

After dinner, we ventured to the Ice Bar of Stockholm. It’s a bar completely made of ice! As part of your admission fee, you get a jacket and gloves to wear inside the bar. Unfortunately, you have to make reservations a good bit in advance (which we didn’t do) or wait until drop-in hours which were much later in the evening… oh well, Meagen and Deac will just have to come back!

It was so special to have them come here and visit. I know they travel a lot, so making the trip to Stockholm probably wasn’t a huge deal for them, but for me – it meant a lot to have them here and to get to spend some time with them. It’s a special treat to be able to show family and friends a glimpse of my life… especially when it’s at a place part way around the globe! I can only hope they had as a good time here, as I did having them!

Today: wow, where should I start… I feel like I’ve been all over the place!

Mindi sent me an email earlier this week that included a list of some churches that one of her friends had suggested that I may like to check out. I googled one, but their website was all in Swedish, so I didn’t know if they had any English services. The next church I googled, Immanuelskyrkan Stockholm, had a whole set of webpages dedicated to their international ministry. This looked promising. And, it was! So, this morning I attended the 9:30 service at Immanuel Church in Stockholm. Compared to New Life, this service was more… traditional (I guess you could say… for instance, no fika in the middle of the service). I really enjoyed the music and also the diversity of people attending. One of the pastors, Jodi Fondell, came up after the service to introduce herself and welcome me to their church. After asking where I was from and telling her Lebanon, CT (never do I ever expect anyone to know where this is!), she knew Lebanon and has been here! She knows the pastor of the Lebanon Baptist Church and was their in the summer(?)!! Crazy, huh?! So that was a neat little connection. She is from southern California, and she and her husband came to Stockholm about 7 years ago – only planning on staying a year or two, but now have no plans of leaving. After talking with her for a bit, I enjoyed a tea and Swedish cinnamon roll (I always forget the name) with a bunch of other girls in the reception hall. Everyone was very welcoming and I am planning to go back next week as well. And, for the message, the main point I took away was this… when God calls us to listen to Him… listen means not only to listen, but to act! The Aramaic word used for listening also means to obey (the direct correlation is lost in English). Therefore, we must not only hear what is being said, but take this to heart, and act on that! God empowers us to work for Him and serve others – I think that is awesome!!

After church, I took the T-bana back to Slussen and ventured down to the water in hopes of catching a ferry over to Djurgården. Well, jumped on the ferry easy enough (really, it was super easy to find!), but then… ah, yes, again my impulsive nature of – let’s just go, let’s not make sure this is where I’m supposed to be going… well, I got off the ferry as soon as it stopped on an island. Even though I read that we were stopping at Skeppsholmen, it didn’t quite register. Instead of going right to Djurgården, I made a slight detour – but it turned out great because I went to the Moderna Museet. It’s Stockholm’s Museum of Modern Art. Another superb collection of art. Very much enjoyable. Glad I got off the ferry. Then, after seeing this museum I got back on the ferry – now for sure to Djurgården.

Once reaching my original destination, the first attraction I came upon was Gröna Lund. I think I was supposed to pay to get in, but there was no one there when I walked in, so I just went in. Anyway, Gröna Lund is a mix of amusement park rides (there year round), carnival games, food, and Christmas market stands. There were a million kids there riding the rides and playing the games. There was a skating rink and the entire park was decorated for Christmas. I heard my first Christmas carols, as well. I tried to win a gigantic Swedish chocolate candy bar to bring back to share with everyone for Christmas, but my game card didn’t win. Sorry. I tried. For those people who had lucky tickets though, it was funny to watch them carry this huge – probably a meter long – candy bars around the park. I would have looked really funny too!

After walking around the park for some time, I explored a little more around the island. I didn’t go crazy far, but I was able to locate many of the museums I must come back and enjoy. Since I had already been to the MoMA and Gröna Lund today, I decided I would save the other museums to have their own full day of exploration. Instead of taking the ferry back, I had already walked a good bit already, so I just continued walking towards the Kungsgaten area. Bridges connect all the islands close to shore here, so you can actually walk most places if you really wanted to. At Kungsgaten I enjoyed walking through another Christmas market. I tried some more reindeer or moose or perhaps some other types of meat of which I don’t really know what I’m eating since the guys at the stand speak to me in Swedish unless I say otherwise. I did pick up a little Advent calendar with chocolates inside to give to Erin. I was telling her about these and she never had one before. It’ll be a good way for her to count down until our trips home… she can’t wait to be back in the States for a little bit (me too really, with all the Christmas spirit here… it just makes me want to be with family and share time together!).

It’s been a really nice weekend. It was so terrific to have Meagen and Deac visit. The game went well enough. Church was good this morning. And, I’ve had a fun time exploring for the rest of today. Might meet up with Erin later to watch a football game at O’Leary’s or I might just chill and watch a movie or read. Think I might go try to find a pizza place that might still be open, since I don’t really want to cook ; )

Have a great last week in November! Can you believe it’s almost December?! I can’t believe I’ve been living in Stockholm for more than a month.

All about

2006-11-26T17:37:00.000+01:00

Thankful

2006-11-25T11:21:00.000+01:00

November 23, 2006 11:32pm

Thankful for Family

Happy Thanksgiving! Did you have a good one? Are you full yet from eating left-over turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and pies?! I had pasta and meatballs for dinner on Thanksgiving; perhaps you can save me a Thanksgiving meal in the freezer ;) Even though I didn’t have any turkey, I did celebrate the day with family! How special : )
I am so thankful Deac and Meagen decided to spend the holiday weekend over here in Stockholm. It’s been absolutely wonderful to get to share today with them, and I’m very much looking forward to more adventures in the next couple days that they are here.

I met up with them at their hotel this afternoon, and we headed out to find a place to eat. We ate at a little café – it wasn’t the best, but good enough… I wish I had taken more time to research the best places, but I tent to wonder around quite aimlessly through the city, instead of having a detailed agenda of places “not to miss” (doesn’t make for a very good tour guide!). After eating, we just decided that we’d walk around a bit… a walk is always nice after a big meal (Grammie, did you get to walk the Green last night after dinner?). It was a bit rainy out, but still very beautiful. We walked through Kungsgaten, viewed Gamla Stan and the Royal Palace from across the water, and spent some time strolling about the National Museum (there’s my museum for this week, I’m still on track with my goal of one per week!). The building that houses the National Museum is just about as impressive as the many works of art within it. The building is gigantic, elaborately decorated, and dominated on the inside by very high ceilings, huge mural paintings on the walls, and commanding while marble steps that go up at least three floors. There is art and furniture from all over Europe and one of the exhibits details the history of Swedish (or perhaps Scandinavian) design since the 1600s. Once outside the museum, we crossed a little foot bridge and walked onto another island – Skeppsholmen. We hiked some stairs to this circular building that turned out to be a church, but other than that we didn’t too stay too long here because it was quite dark by now, a little rainy still, and I guess we were all getting a little tired (I was so impressed Meagen and Deac were up for exploring given that they had basically been awake all night with their flight here). Tomorrow they are going to do some exploring on their own, as I have practice in the morning, will run into lab in the afternoon, and then practice again in the evening. I think we’re going to meet up tomorrow evening though. It’s SO great to have visitors : )

Lab Update

I couldn’t stop smiling today as I held a pipetter in my hand and diluted a stock solution of primers in order to run a PCR reaction. Oh, being back in the lab. It really does make me happy. Yesterday when I was there, I had to go through a more official tour, work through a checklist of safety items, get my picture taken for my ID badge, and fill out some more paperwork. I did get to plate some bacteria onto some blood plates. That was new for me! I was supposed to look at the colonies I grew today, but plans changed a bit once I got to lab today. Ingrid, the like all-knowing mother of the lab, is teaching basic microbiology techniques. She is teaching me what I need to know about proper lab technique so that I can work with bacteria without infecting myself or anyone else. She’s super sweet. Today she had a dentist appointment though, so I was more on my own for a while – just meaning that I read some papers. I have my own desk and computer though, so that’s very generous. I was prepared to be seated in the lunchroom or even in the corner of a conference room or something. So, anyway, with Ingrid being gone at the dentist, I had time to set-up a PCR reaction. The experiment I’m starting in on is kind of complicated to explain in a simple way, but basically the very short of it is that I’m working with the bacteria that causes pneumonia and contributing to research about how the pili (long, finger-like, feeler appendages attached to the bacteria cell wall) are assembled. If the way in which pili assemblage is better understood, there is potential to incorporate some of this knowledge into developing vaccines. Anyway, I actually did a bit of benchwork all on my own today and it surprised me how much I missed it. I really was having fun just being in the lab! Tomorrow I will run my PCR product on a gel to see if I successfully amplified my product. I hope it works. Good night!

November 24, 2006 11:55pm

Wonderfully busy Friday! Shooting practice this morning, into lab all afternoon, team practice again this evening, and then out to a very nice dinner with Deac and Meagen tonight. Big game tomorrow against Sunsdvall Saints (two former Michigan State players on their team). In practice today, we actually went over a bit of a scouting report. Impressive. Time for a good night sleep now. God natt. Sov gott.

Checking In

2006-11-22T15:39:00.000+01:00

November 22, 2006 12:16am

I’ve been not so diligent lately about blogging in a timely fashion. Oops. Sorry. At least I posted some pictures : ) Did you like the ones of my stitches? Perhaps I already shared this… but if I did already, oh well cause I think it’s pretty fun, but I took my own stitches out. That was cool!

So I think I haven’t been writing so much lately because I’m so addicted to reading. All through college I barely had anytime to read for leisure… so now that I don’t have any classes and therefore no lengthy reading assignments, I have more time just to read! I feel like I’m on vacation (the reading bit, at least). Last week I finished “The Short Day Dying” by Peter Hobbs. Then over the weekend I read “Abide with Me” by Elizabeth Strout. Currently, I’m reading “Memoir of a Geisha.” I can’t put it down! Do you have any good reads you can recommend for me? I’d love to know what your favorites are… chances are high that I haven’t read them. I really would like your suggestions, and then – when I’m reading the book, I could think of you too! Perfect.

Of course, outside of my reading world, I’ve had a pretty exciting week too. On Monday afternoon I met up with Aaron at the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control. It’s a government facility, on the campus of Karolinska and also directly attached to the university; therefore, I had to bring my passport and get a badge in order to enter the building. Aaron gave me a tour of the lab and then I had the chance to sit down and meet with the heads of the lab – Brigitta and Steffan Normark. They travel all over the world to conferences and meetings, so the odds of actually getting to sit down and talk with them was very exciting to me. Both were very enthusiastic about my desire to be involved in their lab. Brigitta was very helpful in wanting to get me started right away, if I so pleased. That being said – I start learning a bunch of new techniques in the lab… tomorrow morning!! (well, more accurately, in about 8 hours or so – but I’m so excited to do that and with the book I’m reading, I’m just not falling asleep yet). In total, the lab has about 25 people in it. Monday afternoon is the weekly lab-wide meeting, so I was invited to attend, asked to introduce myself to everyone there, and also meet everybody as well. I hope I remember at least some of their names tomorrow!

Monday night, instead of practice, we had a workout at Klubb Activs (the fitness club). Yes, we boxed! And yes, it was fun again!

Today I had morning shooting practice, ate lunch at the club cafeteria, talked a bit on skype (if I didn’t talk to you and you want to talk to me, get an account and contact me!), read some more, installed curtain rods (finally!), hung up my green bug light (it’s not for keeping bugs away, rather its shaped like a bug – I love it!!), and had practice tonight. Pretty good day… oh, and I’ve been talking to more and more people who might come and visit me here. That makes me very happy. First two visitors on Turkey Day. Yippee!!

Now, back to Geisha or to bed?? Hmmmm.

Pics: Scarface

2006-11-21T13:12:00.000+01:00

These are pictures from the day I got my stitches. Don't I look tough :)

08stockholm.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8AaMnDZi2ZtmM6

Pics: Trip North

2006-11-19T23:31:00.000+01:00

A few pictures from our trip up north:
08stockholm.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8AaMnDZi2ZtmMY

Lulea Upset!

2006-11-19T23:17:00.000+01:00

November 19, 2006 10:33pm

We won – upset the only undefeated team in the league on their home court!!

Home now after being gone just for about 12 hours, but I feel like I’ve been gone sooo much longer!

The journey… met up this morning at 10:30 with Erin, Emma, and Giovanna to drive about 45 mins to Arlanda. Our flight to Lulea left from the airport at noon and was only supposed to be an hour-or-so flight (out game was at 4pm). However, as we were up in the air and on our way there, the pilot came over the speaker system and told us that we were unable to land in Lulea because of too much fog. Lulea is about far north as you can fly and still be in Sweden. I guess at this time of year, when the lakes haven’t completely frozen over yet, there is dense ground fog. We landed in Skellefteå – a 2-hour bus ride from Lulea – instead. We ate our pregame meal in the airport in Skellefteå, then drove to the game on buses provided by the airline (so there were a bunch of other passengers from the flight on the bus with us too).

The other team was pleasant enough to delay the game until 4:30. We had 20 minutes of warm-up time and then tip-off! We played well enough to win – nothing spectacular on our end. Erin did a really good job of getting to the free throw line in the last quarter and the whole team played pretty good defense (against a team who normally scores many more points than the 60 or so points we gave up). I didn’t shoot great, so that wasn’t too hot. They were a really physical team, so it’s real helpful (and challenging too!) to try to play against that kind of team. They would even push your hands on your jump shot and call no fouls… I guess if you can make a shot while someone is fouling you, even better for you! It was a really terrific win though. Did I say that Lulea was undefeated… not anymore! We were even on Swedish tv (the highlight reel : ), so we heard. Oh, our trip home was thankfully uneventful aside from a very minor delay out if the Lulea airport.

Famous guy sighting: on the plane ride up north, there was a really famous Swedish guy on the flight. We got a picture with him (see my entry above for the link). Lasse Berghagen is a really really famous, influential, and super-well-known musician in Sweden. Even though Erin and I didn’t know who he was, it still seemed pretty cool – especially since many of my teammates were “freaking out” to see him and get our picture taken with him : ) One of them said it would be like us, in the U.S., seeing Dolly Parton, or something like that.

Tomorrow we don’t have shooting practice, but will be working out at night in the fitness club (aeroboxing and strength training most likely will be the agenda for the evening). In the afternoon, I’m hoping to head to Karolinska to meet up with more members of the lab.

Have a great week! Short one?! Right? With Thanksgiving coming up? Let me know what your plans are for Thanksgiving. I can live it vicariously through all of your turkey-eating : )

Gametracker

2006-11-18T20:08:00.000+01:00

My games, live!

Did you ever use Gametracker to follow my Stanford games online? Well, there is something similar with which you can use to follow my games here too! Cool, huh? I think so : ) It’s free and I’m pretty sure it might be in English… well, not so sure about the English, but at least numbers are numbers, and names are names, so that part won’t be so confusing. Here’s how you do it:
(1) Go to www.basket.se
(2) Look for a picture of a scoreboard in the column of pictures on the right-hand side of the page
(3) Click on the scoreboard
(4) Look for the “damligan” scores (that’s the women’s league) – last time I checked, these score were on the right-hand side
(5) Click on the scoreboard that says something like “08 Stockholm HR”

I hope it works for you. If not, let me know and I will try to help you. Also, I’m pretty sure you can watch the game live or go here even if the game is over to get a game summary. We’re six hours ahead of you on the east coast, and – obviously then – nine hours ahead of you west-coasters. Let me know if it works out okay for you. Enjoy!

saturday

2006-11-18T20:07:00.000+01:00

November 18, 2006 7:12pm

Well, I didn’t get yarn and needles today; but, we did make it to the store. Only problem… today is Saturday and the store is only open Monday thru Friday. There’s always next week.

I had lunch today with Lily… she’s a Canadian I met at church last weekend who is here in Stockholm for 6 months on a project with Ericsson. When we met last week, we thought it would be fun to meet up again and take some time to get to know each other a little better. She’s pretty busy with work during the week, so meeting up this afternoon seemed perfect. We walked around Slussen a bit, and then ended up eating at this terrific little café that I might never have wondered into had we not just been strolling about. It’s really great just to stroll, you know?! People are always walking so fast with such a mission all the time. We all know this, and yet we don’t slow down. Well, try it some day. Just slow down : )

Lily reads all the travel guides – well, especially the LonelyPlanet Guide to Stockholm. It’s great… cause she knows about all these terrific little places to find good sushi, yummy seafood soup, and other fun little stops. She normally works in Montreal, but took on this assignment here for half a year. She’s already been away to Paris for a weekend and she has a bunch more trips planned during her time here. She loves to travel! And, I love to hear about her stories! It’s cool to find someone else who also loves to do new things and experience new places. I’m happy we met. We’ll probably hang out again sometime, explore some other place. That would be fun.

This afternoon I made it to the Stockholm Tourist Info Center… this time to buy this “culture card.” Most tourists buy the Stockholm Card which provides transportation to and entry into many museums throughout the Stockholm area; however, the card is only valid for 1 – 3 days (depending on what you buy). The card I bought today allows for discounted entry into many museums throughout Sweden and is valid until May. Perfect.

I then ventured into the Gallerian to hit up the frozen yogurt place. I love froyo, if you know me then you know that, and I haven’t had any since being here. Well, worked out great because I bought a cup of froyo (chocolate and pistachio), sat down on a bench, and pulled out my laptop just for kicks to see if there was a wireless connection. Yup, I was connected!

I tried to talk to my dad on skype, but he wasn’t there. However, the Klenows were. Yay! And, I started chatting with Christine and Pete just in time… in a few hours from when I was chatting with them (probably right about now!) Christine was going in to the hospital to have her little baby girl!! Yay!!!! I’m so excited for them!! I can’t wait to see pictures of Zuzu… that’s what everyone calls her right now, but not for too much longer – soon everyone will know her real name : ) Anyway, congrats to Pete, Christine, and Quinn. Welcome Zuzu!!

This evening will be pretty chill. I just watched the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy (another good one, actually really good one, of course!). Now I’ll probably read some, maybe fill out my application for Barretstown, and maybe find something else to occupy some time with before I get a good night sleep (hopefully). I haven’t been sleeping great, but I think that’s cause I’ve been getting so much of it (sleep!). I don’t think I’ve ever had so much time to sleep in my life, but who knows – maybe that will change soon… I’m currently planning on attending the lab meeting on Monday and maybe soon I will get to spend more and more time doing research too!

Enjoy your weekend!

reading

2006-11-18T16:41:00.000+01:00

November 17, 2006 10:19pm

Trying to get on the internet; sitting outside right now avoiding raindrops. My usual spot is not working so well. I really hope I get a connection in my internet soon.

Today we had shooting practice. We (Jenny, Erin, and I) basically ran it by ourselves (instead of Anders because he couldn’t make it on time) and it was lots of fun that way. After practice, I hung out in the café, drank some chai tea, and read a paper that Aaron sent to me entitled “Pili in gram positive pathogens.” It was a review article published this summer about the subject on which the lab I might be helping in does their research. I actually understood much more of the article than I expected too. I had such a fun time reading it. It’s great to be reading academic pieces (with a specific purpose) again! I also just finished reading the fiction book I borrowed from the Stockholm City Library.

Tonight we had practice and then went to watch the Solna men’s game (Jenny’s boyfriend plays on the team). Tomorrow I’m meeting up for lunch with a girl I met at church. After that, hopefully, I am going to look for some yarn and needles with Jasmina so I can start knitting again. Bye for now.

research?

2006-11-17T14:12:00.000+01:00

November 16, 2006 11:19pm

Had a pretty relaxing day-off today… well relaxing, yet very exciting too! First to sum up yesterday: didn’t have shooting practice in the morning, so Jas and I decided to do an aeroboxing class at the fitness club. I don’t know how many of you have boxed before – but it’s fun and it’s hard! The club provides the gloves and pads, though every time I wear them I’m reminded of the stench of my kneepads (when I used to wear them). Everybody in the club has access to the gloves (some people bring their own), but most people just borrow them every class. Um yum… lots of sweat all mixing together creates for a wonderful perfume. Really though, the boxing is great. I think everyone should try it!

After boxing, Jas came back to my apt with me and… surprise!... I opened my door to mail!! Yay! My first mail here in Sweden! I had a letter and a note saying that I needed to go pick up a package. Thanks, Grammie, for the Happy Thanksgiving card. It’s displayed nicely in my kitchen… and, no, just as you suggested, they do not celebrate thanksgiving here. Then… to get my package, I had to go to the address on the slip of paper that was stuck in my mail slot. It was super helpful that Jas was with me because she showed me to where the package would be. There aren’t that many post offices, so for instance, my box was being held at a convenience/tobacco store. Laura sent me cookies!! She and her mom baked them and they are totally delicious!! I’ve almost finished all of them (with a little help from my teammates). Perfect with a tall glass of milk. Grammie and Laura… thank you SO much!! You don’t even know how excited I was to get mail. I am absolutely appreciative of your efforts to send me mail! Plus, it’s pretty cool when you think of the path the mail takes to get here – I mean, those cookies came all the way from a kitchen in Menlo Park, California to my little apartment in the city of Stockholm. That’s amazing!

Did some laundry yesterday afternoon (I’m still doing my laundry with the machines at the club because I don’t know how to work the ones in my apartment), had a good practice, and went to bed at a reasonable hour because…

I met for morning coffee with a postdoc from Karolinska who offered to talk to me about the research in his lab and about the potential for me to do research there!! I was so excited to meet him, and now even more excited that there is a great probability that I really will be able to spend time in the lab. Aaron Nelson is an MD/PHD… he did some med school at Tufts, then PHD work at UPenn (where his wife completed her MD), and now is doing some post doctorate work for a year at Karolinska (he, his wife, and son – Raffi – don’t know if I’m spelling that right) are here in Stockholm for a year (which is up at the end of april). Currently, the lab he is working in is quite large and he has one student (about my level of study) that he is directly mentoring right now. That student is done at the end of December, and then it sounds like he has all the time I would need of him to help me if I wanted. When we met this morning, Aaron told me all about the lab, the research, what I could be doing, questioned me about what I wanted to be doing, discussed med school/being a doctor, life in Stockholm, living outside the U.S., and lots of other fun things. I think the best part was that he took the time to really explain to me about the research he does. He is a great teacher!! Plus, he really enjoys teaching. As we were sitting in the little coffee shop, he was drawing pictures and showing me slides from a powerpoint presentation on his mac. It was so much fun! Hopefully next week I will get to meet the heads of the entire lab (though they’re always traveling all over the world to conferences and I hope they’ll be back soon), perhaps too I will even go to the group lab meeting so that I can hear about all the projects everyone in the lab is doing. It was so good to be talking about science. So good. I mean of course I love basketball, but I love biology too! Yup, I’m a nerd (but, we already know that!). Anyway, I’m hopeful that pretty soon I might be able to spend a few afternoons every week doing research. : )

The café that Aaron and I met up in was off T-Odenplan… and yesterday when I was reading the paper, I saw an ad for a show store that was off this T-stop also. They supposedly were having a boot sale and I really have been wanting to get some cute boots! I figure I can treat myself to some cute shoes once in a while ;). I had the address of the store, but didn’t actually know how to get there. I asked a guy handing out newspapers by the T; he couldn’t tell me how to get there, but he brought me to another guy that could. Because of those two helpful guys, I was able to find the store pretty easily. I picked out a pair of boots and a pair of “going out” shoes… I mean, they’re just black heels to wear with jeans or a skirt, but I didn’t bring any with me and I’ve been wanting to get a pair anyhow, so it was perfect… that is, until I went to check-out… I didn’t know until I went to check out that they only except cash (is that sketchy? Oh, well. I liked the shoes a lot!). I couldn’t remember the pin number for my Swedish ATM card, so I has to go all the way home (like 5 stops or so on the T) to get the number. I bet the guys in the store didn’t think that I was coming back. I did though! The guys in the store were very helpful too when I was trying on the shoes, and kinda funny too… when I was trying on the boots, one guy was trying to make conversation and just be a friendly sales guy I guess… once people realize I’m from America, they always wonder where from. Then, the next question is most often “why are you in Stockholm?” Instead, this guy was slightly more specific… he wanted to know if I was here for “love or business.” Hehe. I thought that was pretty funny. Love? I asked. Definitely not. Guess it must be business… I’m playing basketball. Does that count?! Anyway, it was a fun little conversation. Come to find out, he has an 11-year-old daughter who likes basketball, so maybe they will come to one of our games. That would be fun! I just love meeting new people. Everyone is so different and interesting. Good times good times.

Tonight I watched the last two weeks’ epidsodes of Grey’s to prepare for the new one that comes out tonight. Now, I just have to wait until it comes up on the Apple Music store so that I can purchase it. It’s only $1.99 per episode… which is totally worth it to me. I’m addicted; we all know that… oh, well… it’s the only TV show I really watch. Don’t tell me what happens!

God natt.

Oh, last thought: I went to the library again today. I wanted to borrow some books and CDs that would help me learn Swedish. The beginner level of the “learn Swedish” set they had was taken out. Instead, I went to the children’s section of the library and asked where I would find books that Swedish kids who were just learning to read would start with. Now, I have a few “learn-to-read” Swedish books. My vocab is currently super tiny, but hopefully with these books, my dictionary, and some study time everyday… I just might be able to learn a few more words!

Good night for real now. Or good morning. Or, just: have a great day!!

A few more pics

2006-11-16T19:42:00.000+01:00

Our locker room, Erin and I in our uniforms, some fun times with our teammates...

08stockholm.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8AaMnDZi2ZtmMJ

Win v. Brahe

2006-11-15T00:04:00.000+01:00

November 14, 2006 11:33pm

Win v. Brahe

We won our game tonight by about 20 points. It was against Brahe Basket – they had a couple Americans, but I didn’t know of either of them – their team was ok, but definitely among the weaker of the teams we’ve played. Our first half was terrific… we had lots of transition baskets, offensive rebounds, and pretty intense defense. We didn’t come out so strong in the second half, but we still managed to do well enough to win by an ok margin. Agga – our 36-year-old post player – had 18 pts and 19 boards! I was excited for her to have such a good game. Emma did well running. Catie, one of the younger girls, got a chance to play more minutes than normal, so that was good too. I don’t know how many fans were in attendance, but there were definitely a lot of excited little girls. They all came up for autographs after… we mostly sign paper and shirts, but afew of the girls have us sign their arms – hehe. Hopefully they won’t get ink poisoning (i think they will be ok ;) ). We have practice tomorrow; I imagine it could be and should be pretty challenging.

After the game tonight, Erin and I went out with Lauren for pizza. I think I already mentioned this, but the pizza here is way better than at home (well, at least I think so). I had tuna, olives, and onions tonight on a super thin crust. The pizza place was by Lauren’s apartment, so it was good to see a different part of the city.

Nothing much more happened today, except for shoot around this morning and a good nap this afternoon. Oh, just a random detail that doesn’t matter much… I thought I had booked my ticket to come home, but today I received some email (in Swedish) from the company I booked the flight through. Good thing I asked someone to read me the email – the company couldn’t confirm my credit card info, so I really never booked it. That would have been a total bummer if I ignored the email, thought I had booked the ticket, and then tried to fly home with no success! So today I made another booking and then called on my cell to pay the bill. I hope it worked this time!!

Kungl. Myntkabinettet

2006-11-15T00:03:00.000+01:00

November 13, 2006 11:00pm

Kungl. Myntkabinettet

Yay! Game tomorrow! Better get to bed soon : ) Eat right, drink right, sleep right. Mom, right?! I love you!! (and you are totally and completely right about good game prep and pretty much everything else you’ve ever taught me) Anyway, practice was really good tonight. During our team meeting on Saturday, we all decided we wanted practice to be harder, to more game like, and for the coaches to be more demanding of us. Anders and Putte did a great job today of really pushing us, getting more upset than usual (which is good!), and encouraging us to play at a higher level of team ball. Hopefully we’ll be more ready to go tomorrow for the game than we were last week when we played Solna. I feel confident that we’ll be ready. Plus, some of us are going to have a pregame shoot-around tomorrow morning… good thing; I really want to get some shots up!

Before practice tonight, Anders asked Erin and I to come a bit earlier so that we could help coach some middle school girls for an hour or so. We did some ball handling drills (I always think of you, Al Clark!) and some full court drills too. I guess it’s probably pretty fun for them to have a couple of Americans coach them every once in a while.

After shooting practice this morning, I had the entire afternoon off before coaching and practice (pretty much the usual schedule now). Well, it’s my goal to make it to at least one museum each week that I am here. Most museums are closed on Mondays, but I found one that was open… Kungl. Myntkabinettet – Sveriges Ekonomiska Museum (the Royal Coin Cabinet). I didn’t exactly know how exciting a bunch of coins could be, but it actually was very interesting to see how forms of currency have changed. From cocoa beans, shells, and furs to paper money today, there have been lots of different materials that people have placed a value on and then used for exchange of goods. The world’s first bank note, issued by Stockholms Banco in 1661, is on display, as is the world’s largest coin, weighing in at 19.7 kg of copper (I somehow managed to miss that one, don’t know how, but I did). All the exhibits were described in Swedish, so again that proved to be a bit challenging (though it’s kind of fun, however not very accurate, to go around to the exhibits and make up your own stories!). One part of the exhibit had currencies from all over the world. There were also lots of medals on display… such as the Alfred Nobel Medal (for the Nobel Prize, of course!). At the gift shop they had lots of replica coins of the Swedish Krona… well, replicas made of chocolate!

In addition to visiting the coin museum, I saw a changing of the guards, walked a bit around old town, shopped a little (I finally got a pair of the straight-leg jeans that everyone wears here and tucks inside their boots – now I need boots!), and visited the Stockholm Tourist Info Center. I’ve been wanting to get to the info center for a while now, and I’m grateful I finally made it today. Now I’m outfitted with lots of maps and even more ideas of what to do. I really want to take a boat tour throughout the archipelago; however, most boat trips only run in the spring, summer, and early fall months. I think there may still be some that run occasionally now – on the weekend perhaps – but, I will need to do some research. The Christmas Markets (outdoor festivals filled with food and holiday goods) will start to open soon. I’m really excited to visit those! Oh, also, today while I was walking around Gamla Stan and towards Kungsgaten (the King’s Garden), I heard some music being played. I didn’t know if there was a concert going on in the middle of this cold afternoon, so I followed the sound of the music. In the middle of Kungsgaten is an ice-skating rink and the music was being played on speakers there. It was so picturesque, well except for the fact that there’s currently no snow on the ground. Soon there probably will be snow; then we’ll have to go skating!

Tomorrow I think I’ll do less exploring, after all, it is a game day! I am having so much fun getting out and seeing the city (and I have barely even seen all that there is to offer). It’s just a really great place… I don’t think anyone could ever get bored here. I feel so blessed to be playing on such a super team in such a tremendous location. I hope it starts snowing again soon!

Food, Drink, Fun!

2006-11-12T18:53:00.000+01:00

November 12, 2006 5:25pm

Well, it’s been a fun last 24 hours! Yesterday evening Erin and I met up to go hang out in Solna with Jas and Malin. We stopped first to grab a kebob pizza. It’s pretty popular here (the kebob pizza) and Erin really likes it. After hanging out for a bit at one house, we then went to Jenny’s house. Maddy, Martina, and Leila were there too… and it was really fun to just hang out off-the-court with everyone for a while. It’s funny… Erin and I were pretty much told all that we’d need to pack is sweats, so neither of us really brought any “going out” clothes. Compared to everyone else – all in their super, stylish euro-looking clothes – Erin and I looked like total Americans, or maybe just a little out of place : ) . haha. It’s really ok though, since it really doesn’t matter that much. Maddy did offer that I could borrow some of her clothes (or she’d even take me out shopping if I want… so maybe I’ll do that sometime). It’ll be fun to get all dressed up in certain styles I have never worn before… everybody hear wears skinny jeans inside boots (but I guess that may be picking-up popularity in certain parts of the U.S. too). Eventually we made it out to a bar… the one where Jas’s friend was supposed to be playing. Well we were too late to hear him, but it was still fun – good music and great people – how can you beat that?!

This morning I went to church at the same place as I went last week – New Life Church. I’m glad I went, though it wasn’t quite the same as last week. The church was having a conference all weekend, so the church service was probably a little less involved (or at least differently focused) because of the time, energy, and planning that went into the conference. The conference – called “Synergy” – was mostly for people “in the arts,” though everyone was welcome. From what I can tell, the idea was to provide support, encouragement, and respect for everyone who is in someway an artist, and for them to feel supported by God to pursue the natural talents He has given them. The service itself today had less traditional worship music because there were some musicians visiting from the U.S. who played. They were kinda rockin’ out – which is awesome for them cause I’m sure that’s how they like to praise God, but for me – well, I guess I just prefer some of the traditional music sometimes. The sermon, shorter than last time, focused on everyone’s desire for community and a place of belonging, and there was lots of “ministry” time… calling people forward if they felt a “pulling” on their heart. I totally respect all that and know it’s really important (obviously), but in a selfish way, I didn’t exactly feel like I was able to worship God as completely as I would have wanted to. Maybe I just didn’t come to church prepared to worship God, maybe I was distracted by other thoughts, or maybe I don’t know – I just wasn’t totally focused. There was a lot of time provided just to pray… so I took to writing down some prayers/journaling (so that was really good). I also met a woman, Lilly, who is here in Stockholm working for 6 months. She’s from Montreal and is working here for Ericsson (I think the phone company, right?). Anyway, we may meet up sometime this week for fika or something. She was really nice. I would like to meet more people in the church and when I can I will go back. It’s a great start in finding a church community, but I think I will also continue to look around just to see what else Stockholm has to offer in way of English-speaking Christian churches.

After church, I headed off to Det Goda Köket, the International Food and Beverage Show at Stockholmässen (Stockholm Fairgrounds). I picked up a train from T-centralan (hoped it was the right one; it was!) and headed to this massive convention building with huge halls, cafes, and lots of space to have fairs and shows.

This was the last day of the fair, but it seemed to be going as strong as ever. I wish my foody friends – you know who you are! – were all there to join me (and to experience the different tastes with me, and to explain different things to me too!). Even though I did go by myself, I had a really great time walking around, tasting all sorts of different foods, and trying to learn about the Swedish culinary scene. Of course, there were booths will pans, pots, kitchen tools, storage containers, and other goods like that. There were many, many wine stations… and for 60 kronor you could get a wine glass and some tickets for tasting. I decided not to do that – mostly because I didn’t have anyone to taste it with or to talk to about it, but it would have been fun to do that if I had someone to enjoy it with. However, I had lots of fun tasting a bunch of different cheeses (I still don’t really like cheese much at all, but at least I was trying it), meat, chocolate, cider drinks, and more. They had all sorts of different kinds of meat… the usual suspects (pork, beef) and then they also had deer, reindeer, elk, moose, and ostrich! Fish, too and some veggie-soy fake meat also. There were chocolates from Sweden, and from Belgium, Italy, and I’m sure other places too. It was an international fair, so generally there were wines, cheese, chocolate, and other products from all over the world. There were lots of cookbooks – they looked awesome – but everything was in Swedish, so I didn’t understand much and didn’t buy any either for the same reason. Everyone initially spoke to me in Swedish, except for one time… this guy, clear as day, asked me “hello miss, would you like to try some parmesan cheese?” I guess I looked clearly English-speaking to him, but everyone else only spoke English after I looked at them cluelessly as they tried to explain their product to me in Swedish. Interestingly, it seems as though many of the food products are not easily translated to English… certain berries, flowers, breads, drinks, and spreads are specific to Sweden. Many people had a harder time than I expected in trying to explain to me what their product was made of.

I met and talked with one woman who works for a company that delivers organic fruits, vegetables, and fish to your doorstep. She was telling me how “organic produce” is gaining popularity in Sweden, though this company – Arstiderna – has been serving Denmark for 7 years and now for the last year has been serving Sweden too. (you can go to www.arstierna.com for more info) An interesting connection, the woman (who’s name I do not know) has an 11-yr-old son who plays basketball at Fryshuset sometimes. Fun. What else? I ate a lot. lol. I like trying the different meats, the flavored honeys, and then new tastes – like, for instance, cloudberry? It was the flavor of a cider. See, alcoholic ciders (they’re served either in glass bottles or in a wine glass) are very popular here. They are sweet drinks that really hold the flavor of whatever fruit they were made from. Flowers are also used quite a bit for flavoring, drinks, sauces, and more. There were flavored honeys, many varieties of jams and mustards, and bulk spices that were available too. A giant pumpkin – I mean, really giant! It might have rivaled those at the Half Moon Bay Giant Pumpkin Festival – was cut open and I had some raw pumpkin. I like pumpkin pie better : ) , but it was cool, crisp, and refreshing! Anyway, it was a really fun afternoon and I left absolutely full of all sorts of food – mostly Swedish, but some from around Europe as well. I wish you could have been there to enjoy it with me; you would have loved it too!

weekend number 3

2006-11-11T18:38:00.000+01:00

November 11, 2006 4:34 pm

It’s Saturday afternoon, pitch black outside, and rainy. That’s ok though, because I’ve had a great weekend so far and am looking forward to the rest of it too! Yesterday, I officially booked my flight home and to Spain (I actually get in a day earlier than I first thought – so, I’ll be home the night of the 22nd). We had shooting practice yesterday morning and watched some film. Some of the game was bad to watch, but some of it was encouraging too… we really have a lot of talent, now we just need to play a lot together. Last night Erin and I were on our way to practice together when I got a call that the gym we were supposed to practice in was filled with some other activity. We ended up going to the fitness club and doing a physio-ball workout and playing floor hockey. Supposedly, floor hockey is quite popular in Sweden among all those “athletes” that couldn’t make it with the traditionally popular sports (like soccer, bball, and ice hockey). We had a 3-on-3 floor hockey tournament… I was on the winning team!! It was Martina, Catie, and I. Yay : ) After “practice,” I hung out with Erin at her apt. I’m so happy she’s the other American here. I love her! We have a great time together.

This morning we had a workout at the fitness club again, but this one was planned and quite intense. It was a bocing and resistance-training workout. Really hard. Afterwards (and during), your muscles start feeling like jello. Erin and I want to start working out with Jose on a regular basis… everybody watch out, if we do, I think we could come back in the spring stronger than ever! Really though, the workouts feel so good. They’re upbeat, fast-paced, work your muscles to the point of exhaustion, and make your body feel that good-tired. Our team ate together at the “Taco Bar” (my first Mexican since I’ve been here), then we had a team meeting. We did some team building activities… discussing our goals for the season and how we’re going to get there. What a great environment! I love that our coaches and team care enough to check-in with everyone, get each other on the same page, and really dream together and believe in each other. It’s such a blessing to be here and a part of this team. Everyday I am thankful to be where I am.

I just downloaded Grey’s latest episode (I’m now buying it off iTunes because the free abc.com episodes aren’t aired outside the States) and watched it (terrific episode, but I think they’re pretty much all great… hehe). Now I might take a nap, but later should be exciting. Jasmine invited Erin and I to go with her to listen to her friend’s R&B/Hip-hop band play in a bar.

Have a great weekend!

Catchin Up II

2006-11-10T09:04:00.000+01:00

November 9, 2006 10:36pm

Hmmm, perhaps I should first start by apologizing that it’s been a couple days since I’ve written. Sorry. I’ve been busy : ) Unfortunately, in the fun of the last couple of days, we lost a game. Bummer. I’ll start there and then go on to the good stuff.

So we played our biggest rival – Solna – on Wednesday night. They are another club right here in Stockholm and have won the championship the last few years. Our team played alright and Erin played awesome (she had 28 pts!), but overall they just played better than us. We had lots of unforced turnovers, our help defense was awful, and on offense we were just running around without a purpose much of the time. I know we can be very good, but right now we have lots of work to do. The potential is great; however, we are still learning how to play with each other. It will get better (I mean it’s early and it’s not that bad). The bummer thing about the game is that we could have won… we had the ball with 10 seconds to go and were down by 3 pts. A girl on Solna missed a free throw that would have put them up by 4, so we outleted the ball and pushed it up. However, there was a bit of miscommunication… and as I was beginning to cut one way to come off a double screen for a shot, the ball was passed to me in the opposite direction. Frustrating, yes. At least though, these games do not matter a whole lot. I mean, I hate losing (!), but if we can address things now, make practice more difficult and emphasize being aggressive, then we should only get better before the playoffs (in March/April) when things really count. Tomorrow after shooting practice, Erin and I will watch game film with Anders. Hopefully we’ll have a good time doing that.

Aside from the very disappointing game (obviously disappointing because we were the better team, but still managed to lose to our rivals!), I’ve had a great last couple of days. On Wednesday morning I went to Stockholm stadsmuseum – the Stockholm City Museum. It’s all about the history of the city. Pretty neat to learn about all the ups-and-downs, growth and decline, and overall ways in which the city has changed. Lots of refugees from different wars/battles because it was traditionally pretty safe up here and accepting of all sorts of people. There were a couple floors with the permanent exhibit of the history of Stockholm (outfitted with both Swedish and English captions), then there was also a floor with a rotating exhibit. The current exhibit (this only with Swedish captions), “Döden Dö, A Gravely Serious Exhibition,” was a bit strange. There were collections of guns, knives, coffins, a guillotine, and what seemed like stories of actual people who had died (?). I think if I were to revisit that exhibition, I would like to do it with someone who can read Swedish! However, if you come and visit me, I definitely think this is stop not to be missed. After all, having a good history of something really helps in understanding why things are the way they are now.

Later that day I tried to attend the opening fashion show of the “Gallerian Fashion Awards.” lol. I showed up at 1pm ready for the show, but no one was there! Finally I realized it was only the 8th of November and the shows began on the 9th. Nice. Oh, well. Maybe I will get to one tomorrow. There are a few more left. It seems like it’d be a fun thing to get to see. Gallerian (the big mall in downtown) and the Beckman College of Design are collaborating to present fashion shows and exhibitions by their students with a focus on “young fashion” (whatever that means). If I make to a show on time or on the correct day, I’ll let you know : )

Today was a day off, but I still went to the gym anyway. I wanted to shoot, but the courts were all full; so, I just lifted instead. That was interesting because all the weights are labeled in kilograms, and of course I’m used to weights being labeled in pounds. It’s sorta funny when you at first expect to pick up 10 lbs, but it’s really 10 kg (so closer to 20-25 lbs). The guys team was lifting at the same time; they probably got some good laughs if they were watching me.

Grabbed lunch at the café in Fryshuset, then went upstairs to use the internet in the office. I’m working on booking my flight home for Christmas. Just in case anyone is interested, I’m flying into Boston on the evening of the 23rd (who wants to come get me?) and flying back to Stockholm (out of Boston) on the 27th. Then, I’m going down to Malaga (Spain) on the 28th and will be back in Stockholm again on January 2nd. I hope I get to see some of you in the time I’m back in the States!

Tonight I had a most fabulous time with Staffan, Anna, and Anton. Larry Mohr connected me with this family and I’m so thankful to have been introduced. Staffan is in venture capital (or however you put it; I don’t really understand all the business lingo) and Anna is an industrial designer for “ergonomi design” (she helps research and design a wide range of really cool products; they’re website is www.ergonomidesign.com if you’re interested). The both of them are just awesome… super welcoming, fun, interesting, helpful, and just really great to get to know. Plus, they have Anton!! Anton is just about 8 weeks old and is so precious. He’s long and thin, has blond hair and blue eyes. He’s a real cutie and was hungry the whole night. lol. I really love babies. I don’t know what it is, but I think I really really want to be a baby doctor. Anyway, it was great fun to hang out with them. Their apartment is right in the downtown part of the city and it’s in an old, old building. It’s even decorated with Anna’s own paintings… she took a year of art school in order to have the design job she now has. Staffan and Anna were very helpful in helping brainstorm things to do while I am here in Stockholm. I hope one of them in babysitting for Anton : ) It was a very fun evening. Thanks, Larry. I owe it to you!

Walking Around

2006-11-07T17:25:00.000+01:00

November 7, 2006 2:20pm

Walking around

This morning we didn’t have shooting practice because the gym was being used by someone else, so I had all morning to walk around and explore somewhere before heading off to practice. I hadn’t yet walked around Gamla Stan by myself, so thought I would do that. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning… it was warm enough to walk around without a hat and gloves and the sun was brightly shining. I walked along the water and by all the boats lined up on shore to take people out for tours about the archipelago. Stopped by the “Swedish Bookstore” to buy a more complete English-Swedish dictionary… that was sort of interesting, picking out a dictionary, that is: there was an American-Swedish dictionary and an English-Swedish dictionary. Hmmm. I picked the American one. There were also lots of brochures there about the museums and events going on in Stockholm. I will read those now probably.

I walked to the Royal Palace, the Treasury, some official courtyard and garden, and past Storkyrkan (the church in Gamla Stan) . I happened into the little store connected with the church. There was an older woman working inside who was very sweet and nice to talk to. She thought I was Swedish. When I told her I was American and was over here for about 6 months, she asked if I would get home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. That was thoughtful of her.

Meandered through some of the old streets of Gamla Stan, past many of the traditional and touristy shops, and across a bridge to Riddarholmskyrkan. It’s this little island with a bunch of very old buildings that used to be a monastery (I think). It was super windy on the island and there were bunches of leaves blowing in mini-tornadoes! All the streets were cobblestone. The church was closed… it’s only open from May to September. Maybe I’ll have to come back illegally in the summer months. Jk. Even though I really want to return then.

Walked back to the T and headed to Odensplan to find the library. I went to the Stockolm City Library – Stockholms Stadsbiblioteket. The building is shaped like a circle, and when you’re inside you sort of feel like you’re inside a many-layered-cake. I have a library card now! And, I took out three books – all in English. I went into the children’s section too, thinking that perhaps I might take out some beginning-reading books in Swedish… but couldn’t find them. When I was walking around the different sections, I saw this guy examining a bunch of DNA sequence. Oh, made me think of how many times I used to look over and over different sequences in my research lab. Made me wish I could do some research here too.

Before I took the T home, I stopped at a grocery store to grab a snack. Had my first “Pucko.” It’s my new favorite drink. It’s a Swedish chocolaty milk drink… quite tasty. Grabbing some lunch now, maybe a nap or reading, then off the practice. Hey då.

O'Leary's

2006-11-06T22:04:00.000+01:00

November 6, 2006 8:55pm

Last night I was home in New England, or at least if I were to wake up where I was I would have probably felt that way. Lauren and Landry invited Erin and I to watch an NFL football game at O’Leary’s Irish Pub. The menus were all in English (with items like the Larry Bird burger, for example) and the rooms were decorated with Boston Bruin, Boston Red Sox, Boston College, and other “Boston” sporting teams’ paraphernalia. It was strange to be a foreign country, yet feel so close to home. I didn’t want to feel close to home. Haha. (don’t get me wrong, I love home… but if I’m here, well, I want to be here! :) ). We watched the Dallas/Redskins game. Anybody catch it? It was a great game. Fired me up so much, as did some heated discussions of basketball sets and strategy, that I couldn’t get to sleep before 1am even though I went to bed pretty late the night before! We’ll probably watch some more games there… hopefully some good basketball games (and not just football) soon enough.

Today I had shooting practice this morning, coached some high-school aged girls for a bit, hung out at Erin’s apt, shopped a little, and then had practice again. Practice was really good tonight. Lots of hard playing in those short spurts that really get your heart rate up. After practice, we listened to a presentation from “United Sisters.” (well, the presentation was all in Swedish, so my teammates filled in Erin and I after it was over). “United Sisters” is an organization sponsored by Fryshuset (the home of our club) that pairs up young women with young girls aged 12-20 years old. It is kind of like a Big Sister sorta deal. I’m really excited for it. I’m hopeful that we’ll each be asked to mentor a girl. I don’t really know all the details yet, but it seems like a terrific program and would be a super opportunity to try to reach out and support a specific community of younger girls in our club. As I learn more and hopefully become more involved, I’ll keep you updated with how it goes.

God is great!!

2006-11-05T17:26:00.000+01:00

November 5, 2006 4:15pm

God is great!!

So I’ve been sleeping really well here… which also means I’ve been sleeping pretty late – well, really late for me (till like 10am sometimes, crazy?!). Anyway, this morning I woke up around 8am and couldn’t really fall back to sleep. I just laid in bed and read some of the Bible. After reading for a while, I thought I’d go check my email (this still means bundling up and going to sit outside up at Katarina Hissen). So now listen to this… I was going through my emails and I received one from someone that I didn’t know at all. It was from a couple with two girls; the mom wrote me the email. She somehow (God) came across my previous blog entry about my desire to be connected with a church here in Stockholm. Come to find out, they are involved with ministry and are trying to raise support to come back over to Sweden (and she – the mom – had been here 11 years earlier). Crazy, huh? Then, it keeps getting better… she suggested a church for me to go to AND (since it is Sunday) the church’s service was at 11am this morning!! Oh my gosh, I was so excited. I had happened to wake up early, happened to go out to find an internet connection, and then happened to get this amazing email from the sweetest family trying to help me find a church. Coincidence?! No way!! God is SO amazing!! I took the subway to church (the mom gave me perfect directions to the church and I found it very easily) and even made it there on time. The church… New Life Church (ww.newlife.nu) was awesome. It’s bilingual (Swedish and English, obviously, I think). There was worship music with guitars and drums, prayer, fika (a break in the middle, over coffee/tea and a Swedish pastry, to meet and talk to the people around you), the sermon, and then more prayer and worship. I felt like I was in heaven  (or at least a glimpse of what it may be like!). The sermon was talking about love… how God says “You shall love eachother.” You shall you shall you shall… not that you could or should, but that you shall. Think about that. It’s powerful (or it was to me). The pastor also kept emphasizing that love is not all about feelings, rather love is a choice and a commitment. Love means making a sacrifice so that others have it better. We must have faith, tolerance, and build trust in our relationships, so that we really can love with all our hearts… so that we can take on other people’s burdens and help each other out. Love them. I felt the sermon was very applicable to my life right now because, being in a new place, I’m meeting lots of new people and trying to make new friends. In making new friends, there’s lots of trust that goes into it from the start. Lots of putting yourself out there (or not)… you know, like negotiating boundaries or rather (hopefully) just sharing all of yourself with others (hoping that God comes through at least some of the time). Sometimes I think I need to be more patient in relationships, as I always want to get to deep stuff right away. That’s one of the reasons why the sermon was good for me today… building trust can take time, not everyone is just ready to jump into deep stuff. But in loving others and building that trust, a great platform is built to be a really good listener, encourager, and challenger in a relationship. And, God’s love has come into our hearts and is “enough” (from Romans). Of course, God’s love is enough! So we’re all equipped to love eachother, now we just have to do it!

After the service was over, the family that sat next to me invited me to go to lunch with them. Sweet! They are young couple, Kristine and Carlo, with a cute, little baby boy, Elias (he’s eight months old). She’s a doctor (general practice), but is thinking more and more about going into pediatrics. Double sweet!! They had their car there, so they showed me all around old town, the eastern part of the city, and then took me out to “rice.” The restaurant was a really nice Asian place with delicious sushi (Carlo is like addicted to sushi… might I say addicted to wasabi?! he loves the stuff!). They had another one of their friends meet up with us for lunch too. Happens that she works about 100m from Fryshuset (the gym I play at almost everyday). Their friend, Maria, is twenty-four (close in age, good) and very nice too… hopefully we’ll get to hang out sometime soon too.

All in all, today has been more than I could ever have asked for. I feel like I don’t deserve the wonderful people whom God has been putting in my life. Thank you so much for all your prayers. Please tell me how I can be praying for you too. Praise God!!

Squeeze

2006-11-04T11:57:00.000+01:00

Just got off the phone with Paul. He’s this guy who has been doing sports ministry in Sweden for the last 15 years.

Coming here, I wasn’t sure what finding a church or fellowship would look like. All my teammates I’ve talked to about going to church are quite accepting in just talking about it. Church seems kind of like this “other.” Something that some people go to sometimes, something that’s respected, but just not something most people choose to know more about (Jasmina… if you’re reading this… is that a fair take? :)). That’s all fine with me, it’s all on God’s schedule anyhoo. It’s just as of yet, I feel like I haven’t had a really satisfying conversation about God with anyone here. I feel like most conversations with “church” or “God” seem to fizzle out.

Well, things changed today when Paul emailed me and now just called. He is located about 3.5 hours north of here. He played hockey at the University of Michigan and then professionally in the states and abroad for a while. Now he is doing ministry here in Sweden. He was so good to talk to… just to be able to talk to someone who holds the same priority in life. I am doing ok in reading books, my Bible, and spending time in silence with God (it’s refreshing and challenging to spend such chunks of time alone with Him), but God really does call us to be in fellowship with others too. Not until Paul started talking about his experiences and how God is working throughout his life here did I just feel this pulling in my heart. Kind of hard to explain… but, I think it was a combination of desires working… wanting to be able to listen to and talk with others who share this love of Christ, and also feeling like I could have conversations with people who don’t really know God, but might want to. I could feel more than ever this desire to live as His student and servant. It was awesome and amazing and the grip of it was surprising to me. Anyway, Paul knows of some churches and pastors in Stockholm, so hopefully I’ll meet up with them soon. I think I may take a trip up north to visit him and the groups he fellowships with sometime soon too. I am ever so thankful for the time of solitude I’ve had and will continue to have. I am also excited to meet other people who desire to live their lives for our Lord! I pray that I will submit to God and be there to serve Him – in everything!… that He will do with me as He desires and that He’ll use me someway, somehow. And, yes, I appreciate all your prayers too! Thanks :)

Connected from the Start

2006-11-04T11:55:00.000+01:00

I had just been to the hospital to stop the bleeding and get all stitched up when Putte’s cell phone rang. He gave me the phone and said it was for me. What?! Who would be calling for me. Like I had any friends in Sweden?! ;) (remember, this was back on day 2 that I was even here.) Well, it was this super sweet, caring, and concerned voice… no joke, seriously… Jasmina was calling to check on me. Since then, I knew we would be good friends . (How am I doing Jas?  jk. Really that meant SO much to me – more than a blog could ever do justice - knowing that she cared enough to call). So Jas called to check on me that first night, and since then has been most amazing at including me, showing me around, and letting me tag along . You know those friends that sometimes you start to take for granted (but never ever should!) just cause they never stop being nice, and funny, and helpful (even if you don’t know how to do your own laundry), and make fun of you once-in-a-while, and care for you too… well, Jasmina is one of those. She just gives of herself (and I know that she’s gonna think this is cheesy and stuff), but just as a little shout out to her – thanks Jasmina. You of all people make me feel really welcome, comfortable being myself, and really smiley to be here. Thanks. Oh, and I think I may be coming over to watch Grey’s. Yeah? What do you think? Love you!!

Ikea Buss

2006-11-03T10:57:00.000+01:00

November 2, 2006 9:57pm

Most of you know that Ikea started in Sweden. Did you know that only “poor” people used to go to Ikea in Sweden? Then it started taking off around the world, and it became much more popular for everyone to go to back home in Sweden too. Anyway, today I took the “Ikea Buss” to the largest Ikea store in the world. There is this free bus that you can pick-up throughout downtown Stockholm and its sole purpose is to bring you further south to the actual store. I had never even been through an Ikea before (only quickly in and out of the exit of one in CA), so this was quite the experience! I bought some needed dishtowels, lightbulbs, and washcloths. I also had fun buying a few things to liven up my apt… not too much, but just enough to add some greens and blues to the place. Now you’ll really have to come see what it looks like.

The bus to Ikea was packed and everyone seemed to be speaking Swedish (as I would expect), but then this lady (with bright green boots and bag! Wowy) started talking to me. She thought she knew me. She thought I was an English teacher in one of the English schools here. She was quite convinced. In fact she even asked me where I was from to see if I could be this other girl’s twin (she – my twin - is from Philly). I wonder if I will ever run into her. Strange.

Last Ikea bus story… after I finished shopping, I was ready for an ice cream cone. I don’t know why, but I just was. So I bought the cone and went outside to wait for the bus. Sooo many people were waiting for the bus. They probably thought I was pretty crazy to be outside in the icy weather with an ice cream cone. Anyway, I was happy .

Snu

2006-11-03T10:56:00.000+01:00

Nov 1, 2006 10:25 pm

During lunch yesterday, I asked one of the other coaches how to say “snow” in Swedish. “Snu” she said. Then she added, “And, it’s supposed to snow tonight or tomorrow!” Really?! I miss the snow so much. Last night I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve, who keeps looking out the window all through the night in hopes of a white Christmas. During the night I kept waking up and looking for snow falling outside my window. Well, it finally did. Snowed this morning, stopped for a bit around midday, then started up again this afternoon and evening. Yay! I had to wear my boots . It was so slippery and icy outside that Anders canceled our scouting trip because the car we were planning on taking wouldn’t have been safe enough on the snowy roads. Tunnels and roads were shut down. The head coach for the men’s team didn’t even get to the game to coach his team until half-time because there was such great delay on the roads due to the weather! I don’t know why I get so excited by snow. I mean, it snows lots of places, and most likely will snow much more here. Most people tire of it. It can be dangerous and uncomfortable. I don’t know though, I guess I just think it’s beautiful. All these crystals… drifting down or maybe flying horizontal if the wind is fierce enough. How can I be so romantic about snow? Haha. Perhaps by the end of the winter, or maybe just by the end of November, I will have had enough of the cold, white flakes. Perhaps not though. I think one of the reasons I like snow so much is because each crystal is unique. Isn’t that awesome? And beautiful?! Each crystal is a new piece of art. Thinking of snow makes me think of God.

It's snowing

2006-11-01T12:36:00.000+01:00

It's snowing snowing snowing snowing!! Jippee!!!!

Happy Halloween

2006-11-01T12:35:00.000+01:00

October 31, 2006

Coached all day at Alvik again. The kids are so cute. Especially the little ones. We had this tiny 6 year-old-boy there today, Gustav. Gustav could barely reach the basket when he shot, but oh he did try. The coaches also put the kids through some pretty elaborate obstacle courses… dribbling on top of benches and jumping over them! The little kids! They were great at it, well, mostly. Gustav took a couple tumbles, but he was ok. Two of the players from the 08 men’s team were there to help too. One of them, #8 (I don’t remember his name), was pretty tall… he would lift Gustav up so that he could dunk it. Once Gustav grabbed the rim, he wouldn’t let go! Everyone at camp couldn’t stop laughing. After camp, which lasted most of the day, I just hung around in the gym because it’s one of the places I’ve found with internet access. I just found out yesterday that I won’t have internet in my apartment for 2 – 4 weeks. I don’t know the exact reason, but at least I now have a TV that works and a new DVD player. However, I think the DVD player only plays discs from Europe. Does anyone know how to switch the “region” on these international DVD players?

Anyway, while I was waiting around at the gym, another little boy was waiting for his father to come pick him up. This one is my favorite (though I don’t know his name!), he has a mop of white-blond hair and the cutest smile. His ball got stuck above the backboard, so I tried to help him. Haha. I got another ball stuck and my shoe. Oh well, eventually we got all three items down and had a good laugh about it.

I passed my physical with the team trainer, Gregor, and he said that I should wait a few more days to take my stitches out. The doctor who stitched me up said I should take them out on Sunday (last Sunday), but Gregor says I should wait. I’m ready to take them out, but I don’t want Gregor to get upset with me. Either way, I will get them out soon… then I will be able to really see how much of my eyebrow I lost (or did not lose). Oh guess what? We might get some snow tonight! Maybe not in the heart of Stockholm because the water serves as a buffer, but perhaps in the suburbs of the city. I hope so!

Pictures

2006-10-31T16:57:00.000+01:00

If you go to this page, you can see some pictures from when I toured around Stockholm by myself and with some teammates. The pictures of all the lights (you'll know what I'm talking about if you go to the page) are a memorial for those who have died from breast cancer. Most of the rest of the pictures are either from my neighborhood or historic "old town" Stockholm.

http://08stockholm.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8AaMnDZi2ZtmLm¬ag=1

Week One Recap

2006-10-31T16:30:00.000+01:00

So I’ve been here for exactly a week now. It’s funny to think it was just a week ago that I was meeting my coaches and teammates for the first time, unpacking my suitcases, and trying to figure out how to get where I needed to be via the subway (well, I guess I’m still working on that one). I feel like I’ve learned a lot and already have become really close to many of my teammates. I really am so thankful for how welcoming, friendly, and helpful everyone has been. I didn’t really know what to expect. And believe me, the experience so far has exceeded my expectations. Yes, I do realize I’m probably still caught up in the excitement of moving to a new place (well, a new country!) and playing basketball for my job (what?! That’s crazy.). Yes, I do have to get my stitches out tomorrow, but hey – at least I’ll have some fun memories associated with my new scar!  I really am looking forward to what the next six months will bring. Please be praying for the team, the coaches, others with whom I may cross paths, and for the rest of my time here. Pray that I am able to give back and be as much or more of a help to others, as everyone has been to me. Thanks so much for all your support and encouragement. I absolutely love hearing from you (and though I don’t always respond in a timely fashion, please forgive me – I am still trying to search out places where I have access to the internet, and often times I am huddled outside typing with my gloves on). And, please, I know I don’t need to say it again, but my door is wide open… I would love for you to come and see what life is like here! God Bless and Happy Halloween!!

Castles, Guards, Planes, and Islands

2006-10-31T16:24:00.000+01:00

On Saturday afternoon I met up with Jasmina and Malen at T-centralan. We went into some stores and tried on some hats. There are so many cute hats here. All sorts of different styles. It’d so much fun to get all bundles up and look cute too!  Did you know H&M started in Sweden? Supposedly we went into the largest one in the world. None of us were really in the shopping mood (or at least not in the buying mood), so we thought we’d go see a movie. Most of the movies in the theaters here are in English with Swedish subtitles. Perfect for us Americans! We checked out the theater, but again none of us found any movie that we really wanted to see. Jasmina and Malen offered to show me around Gamla Stan (Old Town Stockholm), at which point I jumped at their offer. Emma met us too as we were walking around. It was a chilly evening, but so beautiful walking through this really old part of the city. Many of the streets were made before cars were invented and, therefore, are super narrow – like hardly wide enough to walk two-by-two through. We also walked around the castle where the king and queen of Sweden conduct their business. We took a picture with a guard! I actually have a few pictures from the evening. I’m going to try to figure out how to post them for everyone. Any ideas? Anyway, after walking around for a while, we stopped at a café (actually called “Wayne’s Coffee” – lol). The four of sat inside for a long time just drinking our hot drinks and talking. Emma and Jasmina both played college basketball in the U.S., Washington State and Georgia Tech, respectively, so there English is superb. Malen is pretty good too, plus I just love her anyway because she’s happy, funny, and really pleasant to be around – makes me smile . Didn’t get to bed too late at all because we had a game the next day.

Sunday: Giovanni drove Emma, Erin, and I to Arlanda to meet up with the rest of the team to fly to Visby for an evening game. The flight to Gotland was only forty-five minutes. The plane was pretty small, with propellers and the ability to see right out the front where the pilots look out. It was pretty awesome to be able to look down at all the islands off the coast of Sweden. There are sooo many. It really is an archipelago. Plus, everything is still really green – it was very scenic from way up there. We arrived by noon and pregame meal wasn’t for close to another hour or two. We walked around historic Visby (more pictures!). Not many stores were open because it was Sunday, so after walking around for a bit we just hung out in a café to keep warm. In America, we here all the time about Scandinavian design. It really is the best (I think!). Lines are so simple and elegant. And, everywhere you go here, I feel like I’m constantly having lessons in interior design since everything is so well decorated. Anyway, eventually we had our pregame meal (spaghetti and meat sauce… want to know what I learned here? Swedes eat ketchup with their pasta!! Shout out to Kel and T – u two would fit in perfect here ;) ). Then, finally it was game time. Supposedly Visby is a hard place to play and they won the championship two years ago. We didn’t play great at all (and I played a fair bit of position 4, which was sorta foreign since I haven’t played 4 since high school… but it was fun too), but we ended up winning. Something seemingly special about this team is how evenly balanced the scoring is. For those of you who were around for my high school days, it reminds me a lot of my freshman year at NFA when everyone on the team carried a good bit of the scoring responsibility. People will stand-out in certain games, but overall everything is very well balanced. I hope it stays this way and I expect it will. I think we won by 12 points, but we were up by as much as 20 (I think… I never actually pay attention to exact scores too much). They’re team had a player that was over 40 years old! Crazy, huh?! I thought so. Shoot, if I can move as well as her when I’m forty, I think I’ll be doing great  Anders was happy with the win and we headed home with smiles on our faces.