The more these blogs continue, the more I am feeling like some journalist sent to Sweden and asked to cover my experience for some magazine or newspaper. I say this only because I now find myself taking notes in my ipod any chance I get so I can jot down certain points that I would otherwise forget. Sometimes I'll look back and wonder why I wrote some things down--I guess sounded interesting at the time, but really were pretty minor details. If I don't have my ipod, I'll try and keep a mental note, but it usually escapes by the time I come to write.

Erek and I had a pretty good past week--still finding plenty to do each day and night. The past week was our final run of camp until August. It was the annual baseball camp--We had seen and taught roughly 800 kids over the school season, but only had about 20 kids for the camp--and most were already on the team. I think we didi a pretty good job making the school camps fun and enjoyable, but getting kids from Gavle to come out to a baseball camp everyday from 9-1 during their first week of summer vacation is more than difficult. We were able to get about 6 kids that were not originally affiliated with our program--so that's a plus I guess in the grand scheme of things. It was also nice having the same group for an entire week so we could get a lot of game time since that is one of the better ways to learn everything, The last day we had a mess of water balloons and tried to play various games, and though it was a good time (it was cold and rainy)--the 120 water balloons I filled were gone in minutes.

The above paragraphs were from about a month ago. Erek and I have been busy full time painting a friend's sister's home in a local suburb. Since the weather has been perfectly clear and sunny, it has been quite relaxing. We never expected Sweden to get this hot! Us and two other guys knocked out the entire house, garage, shed, and fence in about a month. We still have most of the fence left, but hope to finish it soon. Erek and I had never painted a house before so we pretty much followed the lead of the other guys, but since it was wanted all in white, it was pretty simple. Getting used to staying steady on high ladders and three coats later, we got a lot of work completed! In speaking of never painting before, Kristoffer explained that he had painted much before in the past, and also graduated high school (called gymnasium here) with a degree focused on carpentry. He explained that here during high school, most people choose a profession to focus on for a job out of high school. It is not as popular to always go to college right after high school, even though it is virtually free. People can actually go to high school up until 20 years of age if they want. I guess we have the same thing back home, called the career center, but it is less popular among the majority. You can also choose to take classes to help prepare for college as well, but a higher education isn't always the first thought. Basically, we let him do all of the woodwork. A couple of days we had taken a break to either go to the local beaches and golf. The beach wasn't you typical East Coast or West Coast style--many rocks and stones in the water--tough to walk or swim! Also, the water tasted nearly fresh, as the Baltic barely had any salt. The beach literally sprouted from a camp site area tucked back in the thicket of the wilderness of Sweden. Large towering trees (no surprise here) riddled the back-drop and covered everything, but a decently sized, sand area. Anywhere I stepped near the woods outside of the beach, I was swarmed by mosquitoes--gotta love Gavle. Although most things in Sweden are quite expensive, golf is actually pretty cheap! Makes no sense.... We were able to hit around 40 balls and golf nine holes all for about $16. It was a nice course too--short, but well kept.

This portion of the blog is going to skip around a bit since I haven't posted in what feels like months, plus, now have a decent amount of Gevalia extra dark roast coffee charging through me. I just finished laundry and yesterday was the first day that we haven't had to be anywhere in awhile---was nice... did absolutely nothing! It became one of those days that before I knew it, it was 9pm and all I had done is messed around on the television, looked at hostels and had eaten steadily for hours. For now I am about to recollect the past month and then head down to the gym and get things together for Europe. The last big thing I talked about was Midosommar, but I never really went into any depth. Long story short, Midsommar is the period of time (middle of summer--this year, June 25th) when the sun is up for the longest period of time (the longest day). It was pretty much constant daylight the entire time--maybe became dim for about an hour or two--definitely throws off the sense of time! We were invited by a friend on the team who is from Rattvik (the most Swedish place in Sweden--the true Sweden--where people go to experience the real culture--along with Leksand), to attend the Midsommar celebration in Leksand (a town right next to Rattvik). Leksand has the biggest Midsommar celebration and Sweden celebrates this time the most in general. It is a unique celebration to Sweden, hence why it is a big deal for the people and the country. We left for Rattvik--about an hour or two from Gavle-- on Thursday night after practice. On the way, we met up with another teammate to pick up some extra beer he had in a cellar (It seemed as if we drove about an hour into the middle of nowhere--all the way deep into the North woods and found a house tucked away)-Tomas had recently gotten married and had some cases left over from the wedding, so we decided to empty them. He lived in probably the most secluded, peaceful place in Sweden (well, from what we have seen)--Such fresh air and quiet.

After picking up the beer we headed over to Kristoffer's parent's place in Rattvik. Upon our arrival, they were the nicest people. They gave us our own room in what was basically an extra guest house. Kris said that growing up, he always had people stay there in the summer since they have much extra room--must have been awesome. They are settled right in the middle of a mountain within a village that perfectly overlooks the Siljan Lake--created by a meteor long ago--post card view! They had a small area for when they had horses on their lot and another large building for storage and more rooms--great spot. Everything was so green and vibrant--I never really grasped what everyone meant back in May when they would say that everything blooms a bright green, but I learned quickly when everything became lush.