2010 1222 Christmas Vacation

French Alps



Shane and I Skating

Today I am in France! My dad and I travelled here yesterday and will spend a week here including Christmas. My Uncle Mike, Aunt Anna, and 7-month-old cousin Leyla live here in Chamonix near Mont Blanc. My grandfather will come tomorrow before coming back to Sweden with my dad and me for a week or two. I will play three hockey tournaments, one which is the biggest of the year and go to even more practices Right now the weather is very warm in Chamonix as it is 10C or about 50F. The snow on the ground is melting fast but the snow in the huge mountains is still there. The weather here is a relief for now apart from Stockholm where it is -20C and up to about 26 inches now. From all over town there is a great view to see all the wonderful mountains. The last two weeks I have been finishing up school for the holidays, playing more hockey, and preparing for the break. I had another school hockey game the last week too. This time we lost 5-2 to a very good school from south of Stockholm. It was tough for our school as we only had nine skaters including three defense to fill out our squad. Because of this game we missed another day of school. There will be no more school games as we got knocked out of the tournament with this loss. Also this last weekend Shane came over to my temporary home for a day which was fun for Erik, Calle, and I. During the hockey practices we have been skating outside more on a small flooded area. It is fun to play outside in the fresh air. Last, our team has won the last three league games including one huge game against SDE to get into third place, one game from first place. League play will resume again in the new year. 

2010 1208 School Hockey!

 



My House






Me in my Room



Last week we had a school game. The game is part of a tournament that some schools in the Stockholm area participate in. However, you are only permitted to play if you are on a hockey team. Most of our team plays at a very high level for Taby and some from SDE and elsewhere so we were pretty good. We only had 13 players so that made up for the short thirty minute game. We played another hockey school but they were mostly one year younger and we won 8-1. I played pretty well and scored. Next game will be a lot tougher in the quarterfinals. That game is sometime next week. Meanwhile this weekend we as in Taby play SDE who is our rival. Even though they are undefeated in league play and we have two losses we still have a pretty good chance to win. We hope to follow up on a good 6-3 win from last weekend. It keeps snowing here averaging about half an inch per day. It keeps accumulating and also is getting darker. Above are a couple of pictures of the snow, the house, and I. I have gotten used to and like the house, especially my room. My dad also stopped in for a one day visit to see how I am doing and help me out. He will be back some time next week and stay until after New Year's. Also something different that the Swedes do is celebrate Christmas on December 24.



2010 1128 A Long Way

Me about 8 years ago

I have come a very long way from that picture. I also feel like I a have improved in many ways since I have come here three and a half months ago. This is probably due to the huge increase in the number of practices. We have only had two games the last two weeks. We tied a pretty good team which was a little dissapointing. We also beat a team that was not very good 7-1. However, the team is turning around and is out of a mini-slump that it has been in for about two weeks. We also have had many practices the last two weeks too. In the off-ice training we have been doing a workout called "Ultimate Performance." I think this is helping everybody become stronger and more flexible. I have skated just about every day the last month due to training almost every day and addition of "Allmis" or stick&puck. This is really fun because there are not too many people on the ice, it is free, and we only wear half of our pads. Today was a very busy and fun day. First, I had off-ice training for one hour before one hour of normal training with the '97's. Then I stayed after with the '96's for one hour and an half partly because they were short on players due to another game. We also have had a significant amount of snow the last week in November! We got five inches of snow a few days ago along with a ton of wind. Today we got two more throughout the day. We maybe have had 14 inches in the season already. Today the sunset also took place before 3:00p.m. Then it got dark around 3:15 or 3:30! However, everybody loves the snow here because the light shines off and makes it brighter for a longer time. Also school never gets cancelled no matter how much snow unlike the United States. My dad and I went into the Vasa Museum the other day too. This is a museum showing a huge, old, sunk boat from 400 years ago. The Swedish made it and it sank in the harbour right when it was put into the water. They brought it back up about 50 years ago and are preserving it. The boat was gigantic and had so many canons. There is too much information to cover in one day as there are seven different levels to tour around. This was fun and I got to miss school. Now I will go to bed as I have more practices this week and school.

2010 1121 A Picture Entry



One of the Boat's Many Canons



Some of my Friends



Me Outside the Vasa Museum



One of my Recent Games



The Hallway in my School





One of the Gathhering Rooms

  

 

A Picture of Me at the Vasa Museum

The Ship's Bell

2010 1112 Fall Break

Me in Last Game

The last two weeks I have been doing more cool things. I went to the Taby hockey camp right here in Taby due to Fall Break. They have Fall Break here on week 44 and there is no school. The camp was fun but challenging. Some of the activities that we did in the camp were play football (soccer), complete physical training off of the ice, have technique practice on the ice, and we also played games or scrimmages three times during the week. The camp was with the '96 team and the '97's. We also ate luch and snacks that were provided by the rink. Another thing that was a cool to see were some of the kids my age were refereeing the youinger games before us. On Thursday night, we went to Erik's grandparents' house and ate moose! This tasted very good and much like turkey while looking a similar color as beef. My dad also came last friday and will stay until Monday morning. Besides the camp, we had practices on some of the nights as well. On Saturday, we went to an Ultimate Performance training which helps kids our age train with weights better and become more flexible. After this practice, we went to eat dinner out with Erik's cousins from his dad's side this time. I got to meet more people and it was pretty fun to be at their house. The next few days we had some more training before Tuesday. Tuesday we recieved about three inches of snow in the afternoon. This was a shock to my dad and I as it is only the beginning of November. We went out in the snow and had dinner at a pizza restaurant after an open skating time with only about five people there. Here they call that Almis where in the United States it is called stick&puck. Late Tuesday night I recieved news that I would be playing on Wednesday with the 2nd team. I was excited to hear this and played okay in a 5-3 victory. However, there was no time to celebrate anything as the next day we would play a big league game against one of the other best teams in the league. A teammate from the Washington All-Stars plays on this team. He is the captain and Shane and I wanted to beat him. However, they were a very defensive team and our team did not play well offensively so we lost a dissapointing 2-0 game. Now we are in scond place of ten teams in our division and need to win our next few games to stay in the race for first place. We have a game tomorrow night. Today, at school it was a holiday like Halloween where everyone dressed up in scary costumes. Because of this, I took the day off school to go to downtown Stockholm for the day with my dad. We slept in before taking the train and the bus to two different museums. The first was more about the history of Scandinavia and was not as exciting as the second museum which was all about a ship that sank over 300 years ago. People brought the ship up above water about 30 years ago. They are still preserving it and brought the whole boat up to make up the museum. There are seven levels to view this huge boat. This was a fun day to spend with my dad and maybe we can go to the Vasa Museum again. Now I am off to hockey training.

2010 1031 A Swedish Halloween

Public Skating

This week was the arrival of Shane and more new things. Shane came one week ago and has played with the team this week. On Monday since there was no practice and we finished school early, we decided to go to the public skating at Hagernas with a stick and puck. I went along with my dad, Erik, Mans, and Gustav. This was the first time my dad had skated in two months. He enjoyed it even though he was wearing different skates. This was very fun but tiring. We skated with only some of our pads on because that is how they do it here and it is easier. The next two days featured some more training before our second league game and Shane's first game. Our team played well and we beat an average team 9-0. Shane scored one goal and an assist in his first game. On Friday, our team did some running during training. We ran about three kilometers with breaks in between. I had just ate before training so once I had a lead in the group, I lost it on each of the three runs. Erik won two of them. After that we did some more work before a difficult on-ice training. On Saturday, Shane, Niklas, Erik, Calle, and I were planning to go to another public skating in the day. However, the ice was double-booked so we ended up just playing NHL11 on XBox for a couple hours. Later on I went to an optional practice with only several players there. Erik did not go because he was resting for a couple of '96 games that he played today. However it was still fun. The '96 team won the tournament easily that they played in today while I was at a three and a half hour practice. The practice was fun and we also practiced some technique during it. When I came back today I realized that it is Halloween. Then I remember that they do not celebrate it here in Sweden. We also changed our clocks and it gets dark at 4:30 already in October! Now I will go to bed and rest before a camp next week with practices during the nights.

2010 1024 Unexpected Arrival

These are some pictures of my dog, Fenway back in the United States. He is a little over three years old.

On Friday, I had my first snow in Sweden. I woke up to about two centimeters of snow (about one inch) the other day. This was a big surprise to me because it was only October and it was not in the forecast. We ended up with about four centimeters or just under two inches. It was fun to play in and to throw snowballs. However, after a day in a half it had already melted and it was time to play the first league game of the year against Djurgarden. We were ready and consistently played better to earn the 7-1 victory. Today, I planned on sleeping in before going to meet Shane at the first practice. However, I was shocked when my dad opened my door and woke me up. He was not supposed to come for three more weeks. I thought I was in a dream the first ten minutes he was here. Soon I realized he was real and is going to stay until Tuesday morning and leave with Shane's dad. I was happy to see my dad in the surprise. He brought some sticks for Erik and Calle so they are very happy. We are just leaving to go meet Shane for his first practice. Above are some pictures of my dog who is staying with some friends back home. He is a fun yellow lab. We have three practices this week before another league game next weekend. 

2010 1021 Two More Weeks

Another Picture From Karlstad

The last two weeks I have been busy with hockey as usual and have had extra studing to do for Swedish. School is going well and I am learning a lot of Swedish at school and home. I am improving as a hockey player due to the higher number of practices and the physical training is also helping. We have had four training matches and one tournament the last two weeks as well. There was one training match with the 2nd team that we won easily, 6-0. It was my turn to be captain for this game. I played pretty well and had one or two assists. The same weekend we played a tough team called Nacka that we lost previously to in the Djurgarden tournament and tied in August. This time we were better prepared and won 3-0. Our goalie played well and I did too. However, Erik and I were a little tired for this game because we went to a play/musical the night before. The play was a good experience even though it went pretty late. After another week of hard practices we had a tournament with the 2nd team. Our first game was Friday night against the same Nacka team that we had just beat. However, we did not have the same team as the time we beat them and we lost 5-0. This was frustrating but we came back the next day and tied another team 3-3. We could have won the game but they fought back late in the game to earn the tie. This put us in a bad situation. Going into the lat game we had to make up a twelve goal differential against the team we had just tied to qualify for the semifianls. We came out weak but played the rest of the game very well to win 6-1. I played well and had a few assists. This meant that the powerful Nacka team would have to win by seven goals for us to move on to the semifinals. If Nacka did win in the blowout, we were the next game so we had to be dressed and ready. When we went into the locker room to get dressed just in case, the score was 5-0 Nacka. They needed to score two goals in ten minutes. The other team held them off for what seemed like forever before Nacka scored the 6th goal. However, there was only one minute left and they needed to score again. Our team was in the locker room getting ready for the next game. The coaches did not want us to think about the game going on, just the possible game that we might play. It was hard not to listen what was going on outside the room. All of a sudden we hear the puck hit the post a second before the buzzer sounds. That meant that we had to get undressed and play the 5th/6th place game in three hours. We won the game 4-3 and I had many oppurtunities to score, including a breakaway with most of the net open. Nacka eventually won the tournament, giving up one goal in the whole tournament. The next day we played Huddinge who was supposed to be the best team in Sweden. We played very well defensively and escaped with a 2-1 victory. We might be the best team in Sweden now that we beat Huddinge. Yesterday we had pictures which were cool before travelling to play the Arlanda Wings. We beat them 4-0 in Karlstad but it was different this time. They had some older players and won 5-1. We played flat and had a bad first period in this game. We have our first league game Saturday against Djurgarden before Shane comes from the USA on Sunday. Shane was on my team last year and this summer. He is staying with Niklas Odell who is a goalie on Taby HC.

2010 1007 Pictures and Game

On Monday, my dad and I were invited to join a teammate from the hockey team and eat dinner at their house in Vaxholm. It was about a thirty minute drive on the mainland before the ferry. They use a ferry to transport the cars and people to the island where they live. This surprised me because I have never seen this before, especially not in the United States. The ferry took about five minutes and the drive on the island took about ten minutes. The island was beautiful and there were only about 250 people living on it. They had a nice house on the island. Yesterday, we played our first game since the tournament in Karlstad against Transgund which is a team from southern Stockholm. With the traffic it took about forty-five minutes to get to the rink. We warmed up in the dark as it is starting to get dark around six in Stockholm already. Once dressed we had to wait for another fifteen minutes due to bad ice conditions behind the nets. We played flat for most of the game which was dissapointing. However, we won 5-3 and had forty shots to their nineteen. Tomorrow we are going to a play and might have a game or a practice on Saturday.

2010 1005 Karlstad

Karlstad Arena

This last week on Thursday after school, the Svensson's family, a teammate, my dad, and I drove from Taby to Karlstad for our biggest hockey tournament yet. The drive took four hours which is not that hard for me because in the United States we drive four hours to get to half of the teams in our league. However, in Sweden they are not used to driving more than one hour to go to hockey since mostly all the teams are in or around Stockholm. There were twelve of the best teams from Sweden in this tournament. We would play three games on Friday instead of going to school. We played very well and won 6-1, 4-3, and 10-0 against three decent teams. On Saturday, we would follow that up with 4-0 and 2-1 wins. The last game of the day I played very well and actually won player of the game. This gave us the #1 seed and a great chance to win the Oktobercupen. Since our games were over early on Saturday, some of us went out to lunch/dinner before going to the professional hockey game in Karlstad. You can see the arena in the picture above. There were two rinks that the organizers used for the tournament. One was small, but the other one was the same rink that the professional team uses. This was where we played most of our games. About eight thousand people could fit in it during the professional team plays. The team was called Farjestad and were playing a team from Modo, Sweeden. The teams were not nearly as good as teams in the National Hockey League but the game was still fun to see because everything was so different. Farjestad ended up winning 2-0 on two weak goals. We then came back to the hotel and went to sleep so we were prepared for the semifinal match the next day. We played pretty good and won 3-2. However, we took eight penalties and were a little tired for the championship game against the host team, Farjestad. This team was not so talented, but they played very well defensively as a team and scratched out a 1-0 game to win the championship. They made our team get very frustrated and take more penalties. The game was very devensive as the shots were only 14-8 in favor of them. Farjestad also won the Elite Cup and will be the favorite to win more tournaments in the future. However, they can  be defeated by us in the next tournament in January. We wanted to win gold but will take silver because we had a great tournament up to the last game. It was fun to play in the big arena with all the advertisements on the ice and the boards. I also enjoyed my dad visiting me the last week and watching the games as he left this morning. He will be back in late November to visit again. This week we have more practices, but will not have a tournament on the weekend for the first time in over a month.



2010 0929 A Visit and a Trip

Some more Off-Ice Training

This week my dad is here to visit the first time since I arrived here in Sweden. Coach Freddy and my dad drove up to Erik and I when we were walking home from school on Monday. This was a surprise to Erik and I. We went to go eat at Taby Centrum before coming home and going to hockey training. We ran over four kilometers in training before skating for 80 minutes with the older team. My dad is staying in a hotel and has been coming to the Svenssons' house in the afternoons before watching hockey training. We had a meeting today with two of my teachers. We discussed how I was doing and how I could learn more things in English during the lessons. Tomorrow, everybody leaves to Karlstad for another hockey tournament. It will be a little bit harder than the Elite Cup and we will get to miss school on Friday again. We play three games on Friday and two games on Saturday so far. Some of the teams are the same as the last tournament so we know where we are at a little bit. My dad will stay until Tuesday before leaving and will come back some time in November.



2010 0926 Elite Cup

Viking Logo

This weekend we had some more very tough days of hockey. On Thursday night we had our first game of the Djurgarden Elite Cup. We played the host team which was not the best team, but we knew that they would not be easy. After a terrible start we scored seven goals in a row to win 7-2. We got to miss school on Friday because of the tournament. We would play a team from Helsinki, Finland and another team from Sweden. The Helsinki team was small and short on players but they were still very good. After trading goals for most of the game, we ended up tying 5-5. We had to come up with a win to stay in the running for first place in the next game and did that. We scored four goals right away and eventually won 4-2. We then faced a team from Norway that was not very good and won 9-3. Going into our last game of the round robin, we were tied for first and were playing a different Helsinki team. They were a little better and despite outshooting them 40-15 we finished with a 1-1 tie. With some help, we finished in first place which meant we had to go right back onto the ice and play aginst yet another team from Helsinki. We were a little bit tired, but scored late in the game to win 2-1. This put us in the semifinals going into Sunday making us play a fourth team from Helsinki, Finland. When our team got to the rink, we found out that half of the other team had ate bad food and were sick. Our coach had the choice of making them forfeit and going to the finals which did not look as fun as playing the game with the team from Helsinki adding some of the players from the other Helsinki team. He chose to play the game which looked like the right decision when we got out to a great start with a 2-0 lead at halftime. However, in the second half the referees called 53 penalty minutes on us, most of which we did not deserve. The first five minutes of the second half took over thirty minutes to play. Because of that, we completely lost our momentum and a lot of our players to the penaty box. Helsinki went on to score powerplay goals and win 3-2. This was extremely frustrating because the referees took the game out of our hands. We never had a chance to really come back. Our assistant coach was ejected from the game because our coaches asked for an explanation for the penalties and they would not give them one. This put us in the consolation game which was televised. We played the other #1 seed that was also upset. This team is from Stockholm too, and is very talented. We traded goals throughout the game, but still found ourselves down by a goal late in the third period. We scored two goals, but they were both called off! This was very frustrating after what happened this morning. We went on to lose and finish in fourth place out of twelve teams. The talent was very high in this tournament and will be even higher next weekend when we have a tournament in western Sweden. After the semifinal I wish we would have made the decision to play straight to the finals, but in the long run, it was better that we played. Today, I learned that the referees are not always good and somehow we have to find a way to win.



2010 0921 Another Victory

Taby Logo

This weekend was another tournament at Farsta with many short games. We went 3-0 in the first round robin with two shutouts to move on to the winner's bracket. Here we had a great start in the first game, but faltered late in the game to tie 3-3. This put us in a tough situation. We had to win by two goals and score three in the process to become champions because of the weird format where there is no championship game. We played very well and came up with the 4-2 victory that made us champions two weeks in a row. There are so many tournaments in September and October because the regular season goes from November to January. During this time, there are many games and the training gets easier and lighter. Coming up from Thursday to Sunday is a small tournament in Stockholm with some of the best teams from Scandinavia and many more practices. We have a game Thursday night and will get to miss school on Friday because of the tournament.

2010 0917 A Full Month



Some More Off Ice Training

It has been a month exactly that I have been here in Sweden. The time has gone by very fast as it only feels like two weeks. I have been doing so many things that I have not had time to think about everybody in the United States. This last week we have had more grueling training. One day was tougher than the others though. On Monday, we had to climb up this hill/mountain many times. It was especially hard because it had rained for two days steadily before thirty of us ran up and down it several times. As you can see it got vey muddy around the bottom. However, after we played a little bit of soccer which was pretty fun to warm down. I am still learning Swedish pretty fast due to all of my classes and everybody around me speaking the language. In the school that I am going to there is very little homework and no grades. There are also only four or five subjects per day with about twenty minutes in between each. It suprised me that there is not that much schoolwork in Sweden. Coming up the next two days is a tournament. If we win, it will be the third week in a row that Taby has won at Farsta. We have three games tomorrow and two on Sunday.



2010 0912 Another Week and a Tournament

Off Ice Training

The last week has been more busy than ever and that is why I have not been able to post anything. Last Sunday, we played a game. After a really bad start, we played better, but still went on to lose 4-3 to another team from Stockholm. Because it was only exibition, some of our best players did not come to the game to give the other players more time to play. After that, we drove straight back to our home rink in Taby to practice with the '96 team since they were short on players. Then we had the '97 practice right after. Both practices and the game amounted to over four hours on the ice. We had practices for at least two hours through the week every day except Friday after a tiring day of school. However, the busiest part of the week was the last two days. There were two '96 tournaments this weekend. The top fifteen players that were one year older than us played in the better tournament. Freddy coached this team who eventually went 3-6. They had a very rough schedule and played eight games the last two days. That only left eight '96's left to play in the lower tournament. Because of that, Taby picked Erik, some other '97's, and I to play up one year to the '96's for the lower tournament. Rafael, the assistant coach went to our games. We played three games the first day and won 2-1, 6-5, and 2-1. In two of the games, we scored in the last minute to break the tie. That gave us a head start in the winner's bracket which has four teams. The tournament format is very strange and is really hard to describe. There is no championship, but a second round robin. We won the first game today 2-1 with another late goal by Erik. That put us one point ahead of SDE who is from Stockholm. Our '97 team beat the same team 8-2 last weekend. I was surprised to see them do well in this tournament with older teams in the competition. We played pretty well and got the 1-1 tie which was all we needed to win the tournament. In the end of the game they missed a penalty shot and some other chances to be champions. Part of the reason that most of the games were so low scoring was because there were only thirty minutes to play. Coming up next week is more school and practices and maybe a tournament on the weekend.

2010 0904 Hockey Weekend

Warming up for the Game

I have been very busy the last few days as usual and have not gotten to the blog. Wednesday-Friday featured normal days at school with practices during the night. I am learning Swedish nicely and hopefully I can have an idea of what people are saying in two months. Last night I saw a new rink as we practiced in another Stockholm rink. In Sweden, there is just one rink in every arena where in the United States there are two to four. Of course in Sweden there is an arena every 5 square miles, and only one arena every 50 square miles in the United States. I am beginning to get more used to the number of practices for hockey and my settings around me. Because of this, I can look forward to enjoying practice more without worrying about other things. Today we played our first game in almost two weeks against a much disliked team by Taby. We started out alright, and then scored two goals in ten seconds to take a 3-1 lead early in the second half. We kept scoring and actually scored six goals in seven minutes and eventually won 8-2. This was a surprise to everybody because the same team beat Taby 8-0 earlier in the season. I played very well on defense and picked up two assists. Up tomorrow is a game on the other side of Stockholm and a practice back in Taby so it will be a tiring day.

2010 0831 More School and Hockey

The Rink

The last two days I have continued to go to school an play more hockey. Among my many classes, today I had my first Chemistry class. We went over the rules of how to handle the chemicals in the upcoming year. My teacher who is alsomy Biology teacher explained the rules clearly in English. I also had my first Physics class and we talked about mass, in Swedish of course. These were the last two classes that I had for the first time. However, I only have these classes once every week each. I also had extra Swedish which is one-on-one with my homeroom teacher. This class helps me learn Swedish much better than regular Swedish class does because I can ask the teacher a lot of questions without slowing the class down. Fortunately, I have this class three times per week. In Sweden, we have a lot of free time between classes and not as many classes. A normal schedule might include five classes in the day averaging about fifty minutes per class and fifteen minutes in between classes. During our free time, we either go to the store to buy good food because the school lunches are not very good or play games in one of the three computer rooms. The average start time is around 8:15 and we usually end around 2:15. We also have had five combined hours of hockey the last two days. We have done a lot of stickhandling and shooting both on and off the ice and that is mostly why practice has been pretty fun the last two days. Coming up for hockey are two more practices before two games/scrimmages on the weekend. I start school tomorrow very early and have hockey at night so I must go to sleep now.

2010 0829 Weekend

Taby Snack Bar

This weekend started off with me sleeping in and going to a hockey store to buy a crate to put my hockey gear in. In Sweden, most kids have crates instead of bags because it stores easier in smaller rooms. In the United States, we do not store bags, but take them back and forth from the rink to home by car. Then after resting and eating I went to practice while Erik stayed behind. It was a long practice that took over two hours and we did a lot of shooting. Then I came home and went to bed to wake up the next day early and go to another practice. This time, Erik came with me and skated lightly. Then we went to the mall to buy various items and have lunch before coming home and playing many video games. Tomorrow is another busy day with school and practice in the night.

2010 0827 More Classes

The last two days, I have had many new classes including Swedish, Biology, Art, and Social Studies. These are very challenging because all of these classes are in Swedish and I am having a very hard time picking up the words. However, the teachers are working hard to translate it so I can understand it. Hockey the last two days has been very tiring and there is still so much to be played. Erik has hurt his hip and has missed the last few days of practice. I am starting to get in the routine of things so I will get more and more used to my new life here. I am very tired and must get to bed as tomorrow is the only day of the week that I can sleep in.

2010 0825 First Classes

Today, I had my first classes at my new Swedish school. I started with a Math test that everyone takes which was very hard. The Math was actually really easy, but the teacher had to translate all of the word problems to English for me to understand. Once she did that, I could understand everything very easily. Then it was English class. We had to draw a picture with our partner of what we did this Summer. My partner was Mons who is a player on the hockey team and we have a lot in common. We drew a picture of an airplane above a hockey player on the beach. Then we described it in English. Then we had music which was not the best and an okay lunch. After that, we played games like dodgeball in Gym before coming home and going to the hockey game. We played pretty well and had a better start. However, we were playing a good team and they were winning by a goal when we tied the game with forty seconds left. The game ended in a tie and I was pretty happy with my play. After the game, we had off-ice training as scheduled before coming home and going to bed. Tomorrow, we have a very short day at school, but a very long hockey practice late at night. Because of that, I might skip a day on the blog and post another entry on Friday.

2010 0824 Bowling

Me and the Bowling Pin

Today, our class went bowling in Stockholm. We took two different public buses and got there around 11:00 a.m. I started pretty slow but had many spares in the end to win. I had a score in the low 200's after about one and a half games to get the best score in the class. I received an old bowling pin as the prize. There were less than ten bowling allies which would be unusual in the United States where there are 25-30 allies per building. This surprised me because the Swedish kids said that they played more than I do. The bowling alley was also downstairs in a basement out of the way as well. That's all I have for today, but tomorrow is a busy day with my first classes in Sweden as well as a hockey game in the afternoon against a very good team from around Stockholm. My classes include Math, English, Music, and Physical Education.

2010 0823 Back to School

Teammates and me playing Inne Bandy

Today was my first day back in school for almost three months. While we did not have classes today, I still learned a lot about the school and my new classmates. Once in class, the teacher helped introduce myself to the rest of the class. Then they talked a lot in Swedish about the upcoming year, almost all of which I did not understand. Then we were separated into small groups to learn a little bit about some of our classmates. There are about seventeen boys and thirteen girls in my class. There are five classes in the seventh grade so there are about 150 kids in total in my grade. Once the three hours of school were over Erik, Mons, Gustav, and I walked home from school which takes about fifteen minutes. Mons is Erik’s cousin and Gustav is one of Erik’s friends. They both play for Taby HC. Then we came home to Erik and my house to play Inne Bandy which is Floor Ball in Swedish and is much like street hockey. After that we rode public transportation to go swim in another lake. When we came back, we played video games and had another wonderful dinner before watching TV and going to bed. Tomorrow, our class goes bowling in the morning and in the afternoon we will have hockey practice. The last few days, I have not received internet so that is why I am adding all of my recent posts now.

2010 0822 First Game

Game in Rimbo

Today, we played our first game/scrimmage. I woke up to go shopping with the Svensson’s family and my dad. We bought many things that I will be using for the next seven months. We then came back and got ready for the game by eating some more pasta. The game was in Rimbo, Sweden, just outside of Stockholm in a rural area. We warmed up by playing street hockey and stretching. Then we got dressed and the team chose me as the captain because it was my first game. The team got off to a bad start and we were quickly losing by two goals. Then we started to play better and outscored the much improved opposing team from last year by five goals throughout most of the game. We went on to win and it was a pretty good start for me coming to Sweden. The rink was pretty old and it was pretty cold as well. After the game, the team was very happy and some of us, including me jumped in a lake right next to the arena. The water was freezing for me, but the other boys thought it was quite warm for this time of year. Then we were driving back when I fell asleep because I was so tired in the car. We then walked over to some of the Svensson’s relatives’ house and had dinner before playing video games and watching TV. They have three boys, all of them play hockey, and one is on my team. Then we came back to get ready for school tomorrow and are getting ready to go to bed. The next two days, school is only for three hours so people can get used to being back at school. We do not have hockey tomorrow and will have almost the whole day to do whatever we want.

2010 0821 On the Ice

Breakfast with the Svensson's

Today was the first day I got on the ice in Taby, Sweden. I started off the day by sleeping in until 10:30 a.m. before waking up and eating breakfast with Coach Freddy. Then we walked through the neighborhood to just look around. After that, I was very tired still because of the jetlag and took a nap. When I woke up, the sticks were here and we had some pasta before going to the rink. It was fun for me to meet my new teammates and hear them talk Swedish. During the first practice, I noticed how wide the rink was, but then I realized that is normal over here in Sweden. After the first practice which was very tiring we ran a lot around a track before doing a challenging workout that would be unusual in the United States. We then were on the ice for another hour and a half before coming home around ten and going to bed. Tomorrow we have our first game against another team in Stockholm before starting school on Monday.

2010 0820 Arrival

This is me meeting the Svensson's.

Yesterday night, we flew from Baltimore to London. We arrived in London at about 10:00a.m. and then took another flight from London to Stockholm. Then Mrs. Svensson and Calle, the older boy were there to pick us up from the airport. The only problem was that the hockey sticks did not make it along with us. They are supposed to be on the next flight that will be here any minute. We drove back to the Svensson’s house in Taby and they showed me where I will be staying for the next seven months. After that we walked ten minutes to see the ice rink and the rest of Taby. We finally drove back with Mr. Svensson who was coaching Calle’s soccer practice. The soccer fields are right next to the ice rink. I met two other kids playing on the team before going inside as most of the team lives in the same neighborhood. We then had a wonderful dinner and wrapped up the night by playing NHL10 on Xbox with Erik, the younger boy that is my age before going to bed. Tomorrow I plan on sleeping in because I am very tired from the jetlag. I also might be going to hockey practice with the team in the afternoon.

2010 0816 Swedish Pictures

Svensson's House

Svensson's Family

This is the Swedish billet family that I will be staying with!

2010 0814 Flashback

This opportunity came up when I played for Washington All Stars: a summer hockey team. The coach of this team, Fredrik Nygren will also be the coach of Taby HC for the upcoming season. He asked if I would like to play hockey and live with a billet family in Sweden when I was in Buffalo, NY at a hockey tournament. After talking about this opportunity for the last several weeks, my dad and I decided it would we the best thing for my hockey and the rest of my life. We are planning to leave on Thursday night on British Airways and stop in London, England before flying to Stockholm, Sweden. This week, I am trying to pack and get ready as soon as possible as well as saying goodbye to my closest friends and family nearby. I am excited to travel back to Europe and face the new challenges that are waiting ahead of me. The last time I was in Europe I was in France and Switzerland for my uncle's wedding and I had so much fun during that time period. I am also very excited to meet my billet family I will be staying with. School starts in nine days so I also am trying to prepare for that by learning Swedish by Rosetta Stone on my new laptop that I will be taking over to Sweden as well.  I am tired and must get to bed as the last two days we have been very busy travelling places and getting ready for this wonderful trip.

2010 0813 Off to the Embassy

Swedish Embassy Washington D.C.

I bet you don't know why I'm here! Today, we traveled to Washington D.C. so I could apply for my visa to go to Sweden and play hockey for the year. Everything went great and I should get it in 2-3 months. However, the good news is we can travel to Sweden whenever we want and stay up to 90 days. Then we plan to travel to Oslo, Norway to the Swedish Embassy to pick up the visa there around November.