First Couple Days

So after dealing with Visa issues with United Airlines, I was finally able to board for Chicago and made my way easily to Stockholm. I ended up sitting in the middle of a youth Swedish hockey team during the Scandinavian Airline Flight. They traveled to Chicago to play in a Sweden-USA tournament. Each of them were very friendly and spoke English fairly well (they begin learning English in first grade in most Sweden schools and continue throughout high school--makes the U.S. seem a little behind!). When I asked them about different hockey players--the only few I know (Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Rick Nash, Zach Parise, Olvech., Crosby etc..) they were acting as if I were speaking of great Gods. A bit different than kids in the U.S. Other than that, I mainly watched movies for the cramped, 8 hour flight (Crazy Heart and The Hurt Locker=AWESOME!). As we approached Stockholm, I peered from the plane window to see nothing, but green pasture and endless fjords. I've never seen that much green while flying. The Stockholm airport quickly introduced me to the modern, stylistic Swedish culture. Everything was "crisp" or "smooth" looking, but not overly flashy. The passport check-point held me up just for a moment because I had to explain I was meeting my manager immediately upon leaving the baggage claim (they re-new my passport after 90 days--thats the limit without a visa). I was a bit nervous walking out to the pick-up area wondering if there would be Mattias (manager) waiting. I acted like I wasn't lost or looking and fortunately spotted him quickly, wearing his red Gefle baseboll t-shirt. I loaded up the car and headed for Gavle (he drove the same Saab I have). On the way, an Audi passed us at least doing 150 mph! I guess that's just the norm around Europe. Before I entered town, we stopped at a supermarket (HUGE) just on the outside of the city. Most buildings have a metal architecture--Almost similar to large pole-barn style places. I picked up several groceries and also learned that Sweden is known for eating a ton of candy--One full bag was chocolate and other candies--haha--I never eat that stuff in the U.S.-- I also thought it funny that he loaded my bag with frozen chicken nuggets and french fries (as if since I am American I need these things!)--It was all free so I didn't complain, but I may mention next time to change things a little if I am able. There was this one weird package that turned out to be a strawberry mix that you add water to and it forms almost a strawberry pudding, but it is rather a glaze/liquid that you eat with a spoon (turns out it is really good!). A few things were hard to understand as far as the nutrition facts, but I could make sense of some words because quite a few look like english words with added accents and letters. After touring the town (cool, old city), I went to eat at a local lunch buffet. I ate a bit more than needed! They had potato pancakes with some kind of cream fish stew, another kind of baked fish, and a salad bar with several other forms of pasta. Their coffee was also perfect (nice and bold)--a couple of the guys said when they traveled to the states they had to add 2 expresso shots to their coffee from Starbucks to get the same effect! Then there was this separate table with just loaves of different breads that you could slice and a large bowl of the best butter I've ever tasted. It looked something like a medieval dinner. The lingonberries weren't bad either. I would mention the names of these places, but most I do not remember due to the language. We traveled to the field and it was well groomed with a small locker room (you could tell the fields used to be mainly for soccer from the locker room size and set-up). All of the players take it quite seriously and have pride in keeping the locker room and facilities clean and making them nicer. A handyman on the team they call Bostrom, seems to do well with adding pull-up bars and taking care of any broken items. We then traveled to the gym where house music (techno) was blaring. It is a very nice gym with again, a modern, fresh appeal. It is decked out with wooded flooring and there are separate rooms for aerobics, yoga etc. . . They sell the latest socks, water bottles, Nike's, European lables etc. . . They also told me that my neck would get the best workout from continuously seeing beautiful women (haha they weren't lying). Everyone in the city seems to take good care of themselves and love showing some sort of style. A couple players would say that Sweden is very into the latest trends and setting them, therefore when they go to the states, several think they are for lack of a better term, gay. In reality, I think that they take a better pride in looking good, and showing personality. My apartment is straight from IKEA. Though it is older, the inside is re-finished, and they were very polite in furnishing our rooms. I blew a fuse the second day trying to plug a six outlet branch into a converter and into the wall (haha I didn't look at the power before). I had to call up my neighbor and teammate, Morgan, to help me with that (they use old school fuses in this apartment--like a porcelain bulb that you must screw back into the circuit breaker). The beds are comfy and I've got all I need, so it is a great place! I love the bike they gave me to ride into town (I never get a chance to travel by bike at home, so it's actually really nice--esp. because everything is very close). The scenery reminds me a little of Maine--tall pine trees, and many wooded, green, mossy areas outside of the city. I could go on forever about how things appear, but I'll let some pictures tell that story. I ate at the Max burger the other night with a couple of teammates. It was very good (like a Wendy's or Mcdonalds), but still slightly different tasting than your usual American Burger. They love using the thousand island dressing to establish that it is "American Style." (hahahaha) We talked a bit about careers and how our systems differ. They also respectfully mentioned how some Americans they've met didn't even know Sweden was a country, and that they spoke a separate language. I'm not the best with geography, but that seemed a bit ridiculous to me! They also mentioned that they have a Sweden rule that states that the people are free to roam any kind of land they please. That is, one can own property, but one cannot prosecute another for trespassing. Another is allowed to walk onto someone's property and take their berries if he or she would like or fruit etc. . ., but no one typically does because there is a respect or trust among the people. Quite different from the U.S where people are shot for shit like that! They seem like a very laid back culture, and do not stress about things that go wrong, but they also work hard. The careers differ greatly among the players. One is in sales, another a computer engineer, a future pre-school teacher, another in maintenance and auto repair and so on. None are married, and rarely ever get married. Some have kids with girlfriends and other are single dads. They say marriages usually end in divorce like in the U.S. Marriage isn't as big of a deal in Sweden as it is in the U.S. I had read about that before in college, and now I see that it is true! The kids are great too (think they are cool because they know English curse words), and seem quite interested in learning baseball though hockey is the first sport for most of them. There are large hockey rinks all over and nice soccer fields. Practices for the youth and adult teams have been going well, but there is still much to improve upon. I ran them through a small conditioning workout pretty typical for American baseball, and not too many enjoyed it, but they all finished. They understood the point, but most probably haven't trained like that for baseball. Everyone on the team has been very welcoming and great people--no one yet has seemed down or angry at practice from other possible issues in their work lives, and all have positive attitudes. They work hard with what little equipment they are sometimes given. I know it is early in the season, but that already tells me that this group of guys will be great to be around. I am awaiting my roommate Erek (from California--mainly a middle infielder) to arrive this Friday. I have spoken to him through messages and he seems like a good add to the team and the apartment. I could continue to go on forever and ever with things like there are no door "knobs" in Sweden, but rather handles on everything! It was a little weird at first. Things are mostly the same as in the U.S. like the mall and certain stores, but there are little things here and there I find and have a quick laugh. So far it has been a great city and it feels like I have been here a week (mostly due to the weird jet lag phenomena, which I thought wouldn't affect me as much as it did!). I had much to say already, and will keep ya'll posted as much as I can---at least you will have enough to read for a little while!