BIG update (and Midsummer!)

Hej!
Sorry I’ve taken so long to update, the last couple of weeks have been pretty busy- lots of softball, events, and then Midsummer this weekend, which is a major holiday here in Sweden.

So let’s recap! A couple weeks ago I went to a High School graduation ceremony in Västerås, which was very interesting to watch- the graduates start with a champagne breakfast, then meet their families out in a courtyard in the middle of town. The families all make signs for their children, with varying levels of detail, some were very elaborate!

As you can see, it’s traditional for the graduates to wear hats that look a little like sailor uniforms. So after this meeting the grads then get on huge carts pulled by tractors, and ride around the town playing loud music and getting fantastically drunk. It was pretty funny to witness, though as they kept going around (for over two hours), they got drunk enough that some of the graduates thought it was funny to spray beer out at the crowd, etc., which was gross.
After that we went back to Jonna’s house (her brother was the one graduating) and had a party for him with a bunch of their friends. It was a good time, lots of good food and fun people, including a family that’s half American and loves baseball- so I was grilled about my coaching styles and softball for awhile, which was fine by me!
That weekend we played Skvöde, the best team in the league and winner of the class B European Cup last year (they’ve since moved up to Class A). They had an American who played in Seattle at an NAIA school a couple years ago as their pitcher in the first game. We ended up winning 2-1, which was very satisfying, considering how good a team they are. I pitched much better than I had thus far in Sweden, so I felt good about that.
Sunday after the games I went with Ingrid, Vidar and Freja to the King’s palace that he actually lives in (the one in Stockholm is just for work, obviously…). I liked this castle much better, it was very pretty and had beautiful gardens. After the castle we went to Ingrid’s mom’s house, which is on an island next to the island the king’s palace is on- Stockholm harbor is surrounded by a network of islands connected by bridges. It was a very relaxing afternoon, we walked down to the lake and had a fika and just lazed around.

The week was mostly softball and coaching stuff, I went to see a chiropractor to help with pretty intense lower back pain I’ve been having trouble with- now, almost two weeks after my first visit, I feel pretty much back to normal, which is wonderful. I was highly skeptical when Ingrid suggested it, but the woman I saw was great.
Last weekend was crazy busy. We drove two hours up to Leksand to play on Saturday- they were a pretty bad team, so we took care of them pretty easily. It was a nice opportunity to play some of the pitchers I’ve been working with and let them see some live batters. Jonna did well, Ida had some trouble and walked several people- but we’ve made a lot of progress this week so hopefully she’ll do better next weekend when we play Norrköping (who’s even worse than Leksand).
After the games we drove directly back here to run to a 50th birthday party for the stepdad of two of our players. 50th birthdays are a big deal here, so they had a pretty big shindig, with a band and open bar in the restaurant owned by Lewis, the New Zealander whose birthday it was. He’s married to a Swedish woman whose daughters play with me. It was a very fun party, I made good use of the open bar and talked a lot with several Australians, Irishman, and a Welshman who were there.
Sunday was the christening for Agnes, Maria and Emil’s baby girl. I’ve never been to a christening before, so it was fun, and the church in town where it was performed was really beautiful.

So it was a busy weekend. This past week has been primarily preparation for Midsummer and softball. We don’t have games this weekend because of the holiday, which is close to Christmas-level in its importance and how much it’s celebrated- everything shuts down for a couple days- Friday, which is when all the eating and drinking etc. is done, and Saturday, which is a recovery day when most of the country is hungover (and that’s not much of an exaggeration).
So Ingrid decided we should host Midsummer rather than going out anywhere, so we had Maria and Emil and Agnes over, as well as the family of the New Zealander who owns the restaurant. His wife has four kids from her first husband, including two girls on the team and Erik, who, along with his girlfriend Cissi, took me to Stockholm to show me around a couple weeks ago and invite me out pretty regularly to hang out or go to parties. So it was a good crowd, about 15 people or so. Before all them came over, however, we met in the town lawn and went to the Midsummer festival and danced around the Maypole (that’s not what they call it but that’s essentially what it is). It was fun, I danced mostly with Vidar and just tried to copy what everyone else was doing, with moderate success.

So the festival was very fun, they had petting zoos and amazing roasted almonds and horse rides, which Freja and I did together. Around 3 we went home and ate a TON of food.
I ate the traditional sill (raw herring) with sour cream and chives, which you then wash down with snaps (which made my eyes water profusely, it was strong). The sill was a little gross, but I’m considering it a cultural experience.

We had potatoes and homemade meatballs (which I helped make), hardbread and sausages, and more. Then we sat around in food comas until everyone else arrived, and we had a fika with birthday cakes for Maria and Emil (whose birthday’s were yesterday and Monday), and biskvier (beesk-vee), an almond cookie with chocolate crème on top, coated in chocolate (I also made those, I practically have the recipe memorized by now since we also made them for the christening). Birthday cakes here don’t have frosting, instead traditional Swedish cakes are white cake in three thin layers with whipped crème and strawberries in between, with strawberries on top as well.
We played Kubb in the evening, a traditional Swedish game in which you throw sticks at the other team’s pegs and try to knock them over (that’s the very basic version, but you get the idea).
Agnes!
So, right after Kubb was when I posted last, and as I said it was pretty light out, as you can see from the pictures. We barbequed and ate more (I was still full from lunch), then people started drifting out around 11 or so. Traditionally you’re supposed to stay up until 4am on Midsummer, or all night. Erik and Cissi invited me to come with them to a party at a friend’s house, which turned out to be really fun- there were some people there who were just annoyingly drunk, but there were also a bunch of great people as well, and I ended up staying until 5am or so before getting a taxi home. I met Micke when I came in the house, who was on his way to work (poor soul), Ingrid was up as well, so I was made fun of a bit for coming back so late, but then was told it was a perfectly respectable time to be arriving back after my first Midsummer’s Eve.
Today we’re all just lazing around, watching movies and eating leftovers. If it’s nice we might go to the lake and have a fika later. So, all in all, a wonderful Midsummer! This week we get ready for two doubleheaders back to back against Söder on Saturday and Norrköping on Sunday. And, most exciting of all, mom and dad get here on Saturday morning! They’ll be here for a week, and I’m sure many adventures will ensue!

Alright, time to get back to my relaxing, hope you all having a wonderful summer thus far, and I’ll try to update sooner this time!