February 22, 2011

I just got back from a night trip to Mariehamn, Finland. I boarded the Viking Cinderella cruise ship last night at 6 o'clock. I decided to go on the cruise because many of the people that I have met here have told me that it is a must before I go home. The prime time to go on these cruises is during the summer or during the weekends throughout the year. So surely this Monday night in February was going to be an unbelievable experience. 

Mariehamn is a town in a Finnish archipelago about halfway between Helsinki and Stockholm. I originally planned on going to Helsinki, but that is a 2 night journey, so I settled with the shortest trip. My ticket was 540 SEK. As I was boarding the large cruise, I noticed that I was an anomaly amongst the large group of passengers. Nearly every person onboard was elderly. There was also a large handful of small families running around. After I was greeted by two clowns upon boarding the ship, I put my head down and found my cabin. 

Despite the odds, I ended up having a fun night. It was my first time on a cruise (thanks Dad) so it was cool to explore everything it had to offer. In the stern, there was a large open auditorium  and dance floor. The ship was filled with slot machines and little casino areas. The coolest feature was the big shopping market. Unlike Sweden, everything on the cruise is tax-free so the Swedes take the opportunity to stock up on booze and beauty products. The views this morning were great and it was amazing to see this enormous cruise tear through the icy water. The boat weaved through the large Swedish archipelago for most of the journey. I never got to see open water.  It was a cool experience and I'm glad I did it, but I don't think I will go on another cruise in the near future. 

Sean's parents left on Sunday after being here for a week. It was nice for Sean to have them on his birthday (Feb. 13). We ate well when they were here, as they took us out to dinner a couple times and they made great meals for us in the apartment. On Saturday, my team had a game against Nykoping to decide 2nd place in our league. Because we were a little undermanned, Sean and one of his teammates played in the game. It was the first time Sean and I played in the same game. I think it was really fun for Kathy and Paul to watch us together on the ice. We ended up winning the game 5-1. It was a great win for our team, which has struggled internally for the past few weeks. We have one more game left in the season. Sean's season came to an end on Sunday after a tight loss to Visby. 

Sean's cousin arrived today and will leave with Sean on Friday. My mom comes on Saturday morning, and we will leave on Sunday. 

February 7, 2011

After a nap at 10 p.m., Sean and I made our way to O'Leary's (Boston sports themed bar) in Ostermalm.  The entire city was quiet on this Sunday night, except for O'Leary's which was buzzing with excitement. We, from what it seemed, were the only Americans in the place. Yet, the place was still packed with Swedes who joined us in watching the Super Bowl. The game was extremely exciting and nerve-racking. It made it that much more fun to watch the game in a bar rather than in our apartment. The place appeared to be split with half Packers fans and half Steelers fans, but I don't think the Swedes really knew what they were cheering for. The Packers won the game in dramatic fashion. It was one of the best Super Bowls in recent memory. After, Sean tried to put the game in perspective for me by saying that the Patriots are better than both of these teams.

My team lost 7-6 in a shootout on Saturday to Nynashamns. The game was back and forth, with both teams taking advantage of the bad goaltending. I put our team ahead 6-5 with a power play goal with about 5 minutes left. Our advantage was quickly wasted when the other team scored a shorthanded goal with 30 seconds left. Neither team scored in overtime. We did not score on any of our shootout attempts, and Nynashamns won the game on their last attempt. Our head coach is still out because of his sickness. We desperately need him back to bring back the organization and discipline to our team.

On Friday night, I went to the Citizen Cope concert down the street at the Scandic Hotel. I went alone because Sean had an away game. The lead singer was alone on stage playing the acoustic guitar. It was a strange scene because the stage was tiny and was off to the left side of the bar/lounge. Half of the crowd was listening and the other half was just hanging out and paying no attention to the live music. I have not been to a Citizen Cope concert in America, but from what I've heard, he's much more popular than he appeared at the Scandic Hotel in Stockholm. After the concert, the lead singer was hanging out at the bar and was surrounded by his little entourage. I went up and introduced myself and we talked for a few minutes. He invited me and his other friends down to his dressing room to hang out. I felt like I was in a dream. The scene in his dressing room was not quite what I imagined for a rock and roll band, but it was still pretty cool. There were a few Swedish girls, a group of Spanish friends who came to Stockholm for the concert, Citizen Cope's crew, and me. We hung out for about an hour, and then the singer had to leave for Copenhagen for his next show. I got a signed copy of his CD as he was leaving. When I got home, I called everyone I knew to brag about my night.

Sean's parents come this Saturday for a short visit.

I have three games left in my season.

January 30, 2011

My team won our game last night 8-3 against Vallentuna. The makeup of my team has changed in the past week. Our head coach has been in the hospital for the past week, which has forced our oft absent assistant coach to fill his spot. However, he let our manager know on Thursday that he was going on a vacation this weekend for his anniversary. To make it even worse, we lost our starting goalie to Djurgarden IF, a SuperElite team in Stockholm. Finally, some of our players are sick and missed the game. So all these losses left our team shorthanded and coach-less. Thankfully, two coaches who coach younger Nacka teams volunteered to fill in. Our team had a fresh look and it showed on the ice. We scored 3 goals in the first 6 minutes. We dominated the entire game and played with a new intensity. Unfortunately, our team lost another player in the beginning of the third period. Victor Gortz was hit hard into the boards while skating the puck up the left side. The hit was not huge, but Victor appeared to be in excruciating pain as he was screaming and rolling around on the ice. To make a long story short, an ambulance came an hour after the hit and the game finally resumed play after the 90 minute delay. Victor was hospitalized with back pains. Our team hopes that Victor will be back on the ice soon, as he is one of our leading scorers.

Victor's injury was another example of how Swedes treat injuries and sickness. I do not mean to sound insensitive because I luckily haven't experienced either since being in Sweden, but I am used to a different mentality at home. When I played for Delbarton, the only thing that kept one off of the ice was any form of serious injury or sickness. We didn't let the minor injuries or the occasional cold keep us off the ice. If we did miss some time, we were itching to get back on the ice and doing everything we could to get healthy. Here, however, players and parents are much more sensitive to sickness or injury. For example, a player will rehab 'not feeling well' for a week. Other times, players will be out for a couple weeks for injuries that I never saw happen or heard about. This may have to do with the fact that health care is entirely government funded and that everyone has access to it. Yet, I see this careful attitude also parallel the soft-spoken, reserved, non-confrontational behavior that most Swedes possess. They are extremely organized and punctual and they do not like when things go off course. Americans tend to be less proficient in that area.

We have 5 games left and still hope to finish in second place. Sean's dad arrives on February 12th, just in time for Sean's birthday, which is on the 13th.

I have a game at home on Wednesday against Trangsund.

January 16, 2011

I arrived in Stockholm on January 7th for the second half of my season. The weather is a bit warmer, but there is more snow and ice on the ground. They barely salt the sidewalks and roads, so most of the city is covered in ice. Sean had arrived January 5th. His team is in a new division so they play games more frequently and their games are farther away. My team is in 3rd place, but is too far behind the 1st place team to have a chance to win the league. Our goal is to finish in 2nd place. We have played in 3 games since I have been back. We won the first, lost the second in the shoot out, and won the third game. I have 3 points over that stretch (1 goal, 2 assists).

Its been nice to finally be settled in one place. Over Christmas break, I was in New Jersey for just over a week and in the Bahamas for 5 days. In 17 days, I spent around 40 hours traveling on big planes, small planes, and boats. The blizzard at home made my trip south stressful, as my original flight was canceled, but somehow I got on a 6 am flight to Fort Lauderdale. The vacation was really nice, a harsh contrast from the weather I was used to in Sweden. Now that I am back, adjusting from 70 degree beach days to consistent 15 degree dark snow days has been tough. Yet, I'm glad to be back here in Stockholm.

Last night I got home from my game at around 9:30. I took a shower, ate dinner, cleaned up the apartment, but I still had 4 hours until the Packers game began. As a loyal and dedicated fan, I had to stay up and watch them play. They ended up beating up on the Falcons and I was in my bed at 6 am. I was probably the only person in Sweden that watched the entire game. Sean is sitting on a bus coming from a game in Furudal (4 hours north) right now as his beloved Patriots start their game against the Jets. I am instructed to give him text updates until he comes home.

Sean and I are planning a trip to Gothenburg next week for a concert. Its a 3 hour train ride, which Sean isn't that keen about, but its going to be the only chance we'll be able to see the rest of Sweden. Then in February, we are going to take an overnight cruise to Helsinki.