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.