go the distance

Today was Saturday and I have been thinking about a lot of things.  My whole life has changed drastically in the last few weeks and it is just now starting to sink in.  It is still so surreal to me that I haven't had much time to think about how far away I am from everything and everyone that I know and love.  Its starting to become more and more real to me as I experience new and different ideas and ways of thinking.
At first it felt like I was on a sweet vacation and seeing some new country, but now my mind and body are starting to get comfortable with my surroundings and the realization of this strange place being my home for the next 8 or so months is starting to become more vivid.
I must say that I am not a fan of phone conversations.  I enjoy listening to everyone and how things are going back home, but its just not the same as being there.  I always have so much to say and think about telling the person before and after the actual conversation.  I lose my train of thought very easily and can never get across what I need to throughly through a mobile device.  However; with that being said, I would rather talk on the phone than not talk at all.  It is amazing to me that this whole Skype invention thing works so well.  Think about this.  Someone can be thousands of miles away and no matter the distance, the picture and sound are generally pretty good (for the most part-crossed fingers).  Technology is something that will always amaze me in our day and age and how there is something new and better every year.  When will it stop?  When will people stop running out of ideas?  Good question.


So these past few days I have been struggling with this idea of distance.  It is incredible how big our universe is and how diverse the cultures and people are!  Things that are normal to a certain population are foreign ideas to another.
After our two games today (successful both times), we had a team dinner and ficka.  For those of you who don't know what a ficka is-it is essentially a meeting place with desserts, different dishes, coffee, tea, etc.  (I think.  Correct me my Swedish friends if I am wrong. ha).  A very traditional European/Scandinavian thing to do.  Great success Julia and Julia's mom!!


Being busy has helped with the whole distance issue.  It hasn't really hit me until recently and I have avoided bringing it up.  It is frustrating wanting to be in two places at once and even though this is not humanly possible (not yet at least), I wish it was able.  I would be the first one on board with that invention!  So if any of you are planning on making this work, let me know.


I have also been thinking about life in general.  How does it work?  How is it supposed to work?  Am I living it the right/wrong way? I wonder what life will be when I get back.  Will it be different in any way?  Will it be weird being in a different country and coming back to 'reality' in a sense?  Is my relationship with friends, family, boyfriend going to change at all?  Or will it be the same as when I left?  Sometimes this is hard for me to think about because I don't know the answer to any of those.  And I don't think I am supposed to know the answer.  I know that God has a plan for me individually and that I am not supposed to worry.  Worry and stress just weaken the soul and there are many things we should know and other things that should be left unknown.  So I am trying this new mentality of not worrying, and making the best of any situation.  I am starting to think in ways where what is meant to happen, will.  There is always something good that will come out of any situation and I truly believe that.  Life is what you make out of it.  Good or bad will depend on you as a person.


So even though we are so far away, I will continue on with my life and you will continue on with yours and we won't worry about the what if's, but focus on the present life and look forward to the future with no end!




"To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, ⁶and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen." 

Revelation 1:5-6

God is Good!

TGIF

So sorry I have been really bad with blogging lately.  This weekend we have home scrimmage games. 4 in 3 days to be exact and travel to Lulea (about 3 hours north of Umea) on Monday!

Do work!  Go Comets!!

Write soon.
Hejda

the power of prayer

Dear God:

Please help my slow internet connection to become faster soon.

 Forgive me for any choice words that I have used tonight against my slow internet connection.

Please help me not to go absolutely insane because of my extremely frustrating and turtle like speed of my internet.

Give me the strength to remain calm during this crisis.

Amen

the weekend off!

Here are a few photos from this weekend.  The team had a nice brunch at Rex's, did some shopping, saw a soccer game, and a fun night out.

Thanks everyone for a fun time!  Lets do it again soon. in 2 weeks perhaps :)

beautiful church

shopping in the city center

our main mode of transportation

Henna, Julia, and I at the Umea soccer game

cutest fluffy pooch ever!

And of course.  Henna's amazing photography skills... bra jobbat daman!

Two of the roommates: very photogenic girls!

Hejda!

Katie

Wednesday

Today is rainy and cold.

I need more rain clothes!

week 2

www.umeacomets.se  See the results of our scrimmage games last weekend!

After a long (5 hr) and smelly (16 yr old boys don't know how to apply deodorant) bus ride back to Umea from the weekend, we went to a sports bar called All Star on Sunday night.  We watched the second half of the U.S. vs Turkey final game on the big screen with some appetizers and drinks.  It felt good to watch players that I am familiar with and see the U.S. dominating (no surprise there ha).

Emma and I

We have had training sessions, shooting sessions, and weights so far and I think the girls and I are looking forward to a weekend off!  There is a men's floorball game this weekend.  For all of you who don't know what floorball is; basically it consists of a whiffle type of ball and is similar to roller hockey.  The team here in Umea is pretty good and are in the top of their league.  I am looking forward to a weekend of fun and bonding time (FLC hooligans: we all know what this means :). aka: similar to Disney movie night) with the team.

Emma, Johanna, Ida, Henna, and Janett

I finally got my bike up and running with a trip to the bike shop and a lift of the saddle and handlebars, it is still like a migit bike on me.  Either I look like a giant riding it, or I am riding a little kids bike; depends on how you look at it.

Tonight for dinner we had to rush from practice so Henna could catch Swedish Idol.  It is amazing to me that the "good" singers/performers can sing American songs and not sound anything like they speak another language.  On the other hand, the bad singers are not so fortunate.  And for all of you who wonder, yes they watch Jersey Shore here!  ha Season two is a big hit so far and the dirty drama takes up a lot of our locker room talk.  I guess I need to get caught up...ha

Tomorrow we don't have training until 5 so I think I am going to try and see some of the city on my overly large sized bike I have.  I may or may not do some shopping, which could get interesting.  For those of you who know (Dave and Ashley) I tend to buy a lot when I shop.  It is something I need to work on containing myself when I buy things. ha  and Dave has already informed me that I have done/will do all or most of his shopping.  So that is the plan for tomorrow. well see how it goes and if I still have any crowns left after tomorrows extravaganza.


Gram.  Hejda means bye in Swedish.  I love you I believe is: Jag älskar dig!! 


I need to enroll in a Swedish class ASAP! ha still working on that one...


Well that is all for now. I will write soon.


Hejda


Katie~

Ostersund!!

So today was day two of our adventure to Ostersund.  We have scrimmaged twice and did well, considering we have not played together very much at all.  Many of these teams we have played have been playing together all summer.  That being said, we didn't win either game, but were very close against both teams.  It is a big tournament with many different aged teams, girls and boys here.

The meals are at a cafeteria type place at the gymnasium.  Today for lunch was sausages (aka hot dogs) with rice in a creamy, orange type sauce.  DISCUSTING!! not my style of lunch I would say.  Dinner was tacos which was a little more of what I am used to because I was so hungry I ate 3 tacos! yummy.

The gym is very old school with the shot clock set to 24 seconds and a 8 second back court.  It speeds up the game that much more with that time difference.  After 4 team fouls, you go to the line and shoot 2 free throws regardless.  There are no bonus one in one's after 7 like in the U.S.  The old school scoreboard that is at this gym displays each player's number and the fouls that they commit.  There is no points displayed like some boards do.

So after our game, we showered, got some delicious Swedish candy (OMG!) and went to the city center cinema to watch the semi-final World Cup Basketball Champions game: U.S. vs Lithuania. U.S. won of course (if you didn't know).  That was quite cool because the place was packed and it was like watching a film.  We had our candy and were watching basketball together! Cheers.

Oh breakfast.  Oh my gosh breakfast is quite delicious here.  There is bread, bread, and more BREAD!  Our lunch (sandwiches with turkey, cheese, salami, and other meats) is their breakfast sandwiches here.  There was so much to choose from and I instantly became overwhelmed.

It is starting to get cold here: like the changing of fall to winter.  A Swedish saying was told to me today from a fellow teammate: "Its not bad weather here.  Just wearing bad clothing."  So apparently if I think its cold, its because I need to wear better clothes. ha

The hotel that we stayed at.

We play another game tomorrow at 10:00 and breakfast (yum) comes early tomorrow morning!

Talk soon.

Hejda

the first week in a new country...

So as most of you know I am living in Umea, Sweden for 8 months or so...

Yes I finally decided to become a blogger and keep you all updated with my journey in another country.  I arrived in Umea (pronounced Umeo), Sweden on Tuesday around noon.  The airplane ride was a long one and consisted of a 2 hour flight from Denver to Chicago.  Then, an 8 hour flight from Chicago to Stockholm; and another one hour connection to Umea.  From Colorado (mountain time) to Umea, it is an 8 hour difference (Sweden being ahead 8 hours).

After 11 hours of flying and basically losing a night of sleeping, I finally arrived looking very similar to a zombie getting off the plane.  The second I got into the airport, there were cameras and the coaches were there to great me with open arms.  It was very surprising to see them and not what I was expecting, but a nice gesture to my arrival.

In Sweden, Americans are very welcome and the majority of them speak English.  However, that being said; when they are speaking Swedish, I just find myself sitting there smiling and wondering what in the world they are saying.  It is more curious than anything and frustrating at times.  This being said, I am still working on joining a Swedish class for that exact reason.  Their language is very interesting to listen to and in the few days I have been here, I've picked up on a few words here and there.

I haven't had much time to explore the city of Umea because a few hours after I got here, the first training session for me started.  I didn't have much time to recover from the lack of sleep, but the girls told me to stay awake and drink LOTS of coffee; which will help with jet lag in the long run.  I think now my body is used to the change in hours from America time to Sweden time.

My new room! 

Everything that normally is easy to do in America is a challenge here: figuring out road signs, or any signs for that matter, the money exchange rate, Swedish crown compared to the US dollar-1 USD=around 7 SEK (trying to figure out how much money I spend!!), buying groceries, figuring out the washer and dryer (there is a story with that), to finding out where everything is.  It will get easier the more I become familiar with things.

For all you guys, mostly; who wonder if the blonde stereotype in Sweden exists; it does.  The majority of my team is blonde or close enough.  People are very tall and slender here.  I have yet to see an overweight person on the streets.  That being said, when you go to the supermarket for food, the portions  of everything are much smaller than in the U.S.  Milk comes in liters as does most other things.  A medium coffee like we know it is considered an overly large coffee here.

Everyone rides bicycles around the city.  Not many people have cars, but bike or walk everywhere.  The distance from my apartment to the restaurant and hotel where I eat lunch and dinner to the gym is only about a 10 min walk at most and about a 5 min bike ride.  I received my very own bike yesterday but still need to pump up the tire.

Lets see.  What else would you like to know?  Oh yes.  The washing machine story...
Well I needed to wash my practice jerseys and they are white with red and black writing.  So I figured its a washer.  How hard can it be to figure out?  So I throw my white clothes in the washer including my jersey.  I stared at the buttons, wondering what in the hell they meant.  Instead of asking someone (like my roommates), I thought I could figure it out on my own.  That turned into complete disaster, and I ended up pressing the hottest setting on the water temperature; apparantly.  I told the girls after and they informed me that the setting (95) didn't mean time but temperature.  So basically, I scorched my clothes with the water temp being near boiling!  You live and learn I s'pose.  After the clothes came out, I was confused as to what all this red ribbon was and figured it out shortly after.  Opps..

So after a week of everything being new to me, I survived and continue to figure things out little by little.  Amy Mohr (my old assistant coach at the Fort; now my teammate!) arrives here in a few weeks and it will be nice to have a fellow American here.  We are currently on our way to Ostersund, Sweden for 3 scrimmage games this weekend.  This bus is a little nicer and bigger than the Skyhawk bus I traveled in for 4 years at Fort Lewis.  In the future, we will fly to all of our games; which will be quite nice and a change from what I am used to.

Hope you all find this blog quite informational to start.  As I learn more, I will update it more and more.

Pictures will come soon. I promise :)  I am a little slow with the camera as I kind of got thrown into a new life right away!

Talk soon.
Hejda

Katie