So I lot has happened since I updated last! Mom and Dad visited, we won some games, had some fun, and I turned a year older! So yes, many things to report!
Saturday the 28th (29th? I don’t remember the exact date) is when Mom and Dad were
supposed to get here, and was also a game day for us- we were playing Söder, a team based just outside of Stockholm. We won both games, and it was a lot of fun because they were both good softball, though in both we pulled ahead by at least 4 runs by the end of the 7th inning. Unfortunately, due to a cracked windshield on the plane and US Airways inability to get anything done in a time-effective manner, Mom and Dad didn’t get in until 3am Sunday (only 18 hours after they were supposed to). Sunday we were playing Norrköping at home, we won both games easily and I actually didn’t play in the second game, in order to give some of the younger girls some playing time. Jonna, one of the girls I’ve been working with pitching on, did very well, which was pretty exciting to see- and on Saturday Ingrid pitched the best she has since I arrived- she’s really starting to pick up speed and accuracy. A couple pictures form Sunday's game: .jpg)
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So Sunday night we had a barbeque here at Ingrid and Micke’s with Maria, Emil and Agnes- it was a lot of fun, good food and then we played Kubb, the traditional Swedish game we played on Midsummer as well. Mom and dad both did well, I stunk (it was sad). I drove mom and dad back to the super-cute bed and breakfast they were staying at, which is pretty close to the center of Enköping.
Monday I met mom and dad and we drove to a ceramics store where they bought me some early birthday presents, and then we drove back to Enköping and walked around downtown so they could get more familiar with the area. We grabbed sandwiches and fika treats (to have later that day with Ingrid and the kids), then walked through the botanical gardens (picture at top) and by the harbor. We went back to Ingrid’s in the early afternoon, when dad was supposed to pitch with one of the girls I’ve been working with, but she blew us off (not unlike her), so we just hung around Ingrid’s and played with the kids, which was kind of nice. That afternoon we tried to have a fika out by the lake but got chased out by a massive thunderstorm, so we had it in the kitchen instead.
Tuesday we left for Leksand (Mom, Dad and I), which is about 2 ½ hours north of here. Leksand is in a beautiful area shaped by an ancient meteor impact, and is on the shore of Lake Silijan. The surrounding country is a lot like Wisconsin (minus the cornfields) in some parts and Vermont in others, very very pretty all around! We arrived in Leksand and found our hotel, which turned out to be a lovely inn that overlooks the huge athletics complex in Leksand, including the softball field.
So Sunday night we had a barbeque here at Ingrid and Micke’s with Maria, Emil and Agnes- it was a lot of fun, good food and then we played Kubb, the traditional Swedish game we played on Midsummer as well. Mom and dad both did well, I stunk (it was sad). I drove mom and dad back to the super-cute bed and breakfast they were staying at, which is pretty close to the center of Enköping.
Monday I met mom and dad and we drove to a ceramics store where they bought me some early birthday presents, and then we drove back to Enköping and walked around downtown so they could get more familiar with the area. We grabbed sandwiches and fika treats (to have later that day with Ingrid and the kids), then walked through the botanical gardens (picture at top) and by the harbor. We went back to Ingrid’s in the early afternoon, when dad was supposed to pitch with one of the girls I’ve been working with, but she blew us off (not unlike her), so we just hung around Ingrid’s and played with the kids, which was kind of nice. That afternoon we tried to have a fika out by the lake but got chased out by a massive thunderstorm, so we had it in the kitchen instead.
Tuesday we left for Leksand (Mom, Dad and I), which is about 2 ½ hours north of here. Leksand is in a beautiful area shaped by an ancient meteor impact, and is on the shore of Lake Silijan. The surrounding country is a lot like Wisconsin (minus the cornfields) in some parts and Vermont in others, very very pretty all around! We arrived in Leksand and found our hotel, which turned out to be a lovely inn that overlooks the huge athletics complex in Leksand, including the softball field.
Funny story: When booking the rooms for this excursion to Leksand, Ingrid suggested the hotel we stayed at, and showed me pictures of a cute little cottage that’s part of the available rooms. I thought it looked great, and like a lot of fun, so I told her to book it (it was also cheaper than two regular rooms, which should have tipped me off right away). We got to the inn and mom and dad were oohing and ahhing over how pretty it was, and I announced that we were in fact staying in this place:
After a small stunned silence dad said “the one with the grass on the roof?” and then we pulled up in front of it and I realized, UNLIKE what I thought I saw in the picture online, the door is about 4 ½ feet tall. The inside of the building matches this- dad couldn’t stand up in either of the two tiny rooms inside. I just about died laughing at all this, because I had NO idea it would be so small, and mom and dad’s reactions were priceless (they thought I was joking at first, then were horrified when they realized I wasn’t, and hesitant to show their horror for fear of hurting my feelings). The lady at the front desk thought I was completely crazy because I was crying I was laughing so hard when we came in to ask to be switched to different rooms.
Anyway, I got control over myself and the hotel turned out to be very nice, with lots of outdoor seating and a tea cart left out at night. We got dinner at an excellent restaurant in town and headed back to the hotel. We ran into a reporter from Leksand who I’d met in Söder on Saturday- he’s affiliated with the Leksand softball team and knows the coach, and he helped arrange for dad and me to go to their practice Wednesday evening and run a clinic.
Wednesday we traveled around Lake Silijan by car, stopping in several really cool towns along the way, including Tällberg (a tiny town with great pottery shops, a bizarre gallery, and eight super-swanky hotels all sprawled among the rocks and trees in the middle of nowhere), Rättvik, Nusnäs, Mora, and Sollerön.
This is a strawberry stand outside a grocery store in Leksand- I just thought it was fun :)
We got lunch in Rättvik, home to the longest pier in Sweden, as well as a neat market and several great craft shops. 
After Rättvik we went to Nusnäs, home to two Dalahast factories, or collections of buildings wherein the famous Swedish Dalahast is carved and painted.
We stopped briefly in Mora, the largest town around Lake Silijan, and then headed back to Leksand, stopping once for about half an hour to detour to a random historical sight marked on the side of the road, which turned out to be an old mill complex.
Dad and I helped out at the practice (mostly working on hitting, and dad working with a couple of the pitchers), then made arrangements to meet with two of their younger pitchers the next morning before we headed out. We ate at an excellent pizza place in town. Thursday morning we worked with the pitchers for 1 ½ hours, then went into town and wandered around an open-air market for a bit before heading off home.
Of note: on the way to Leksand we stopped at a huge Swedish supply and tool store called Clas Olsen, which has everything from lawn chairs to lightbulbs to digital camera to chainsaws. Mom and Dad flipped over a pair of branch cutters that aren’t available inside the US without special mail-order and were apparently really cheap- Ingrid and Micke both gave them really strange looks when they triumphantly placed them on the duffel bag being packed for them to take back to the US.
Thursday night we had practice and then afterwards we took Maria, Emil, and Ingrid’s family out to dinner at a Thai buffet place in the middle of town- it was very fun and relaxed. Friday morning mom and dad and I walked around town a little more, and saw the church as well as a couple ancient runestones that are placed around the city and date back to 1000 AD or so.
Friday mom dad and I went to Stockholm to explore Skasen, a preserved village with old buildings from all over Sweden, and a village with shops such as a potters, glassblowers, goldsmith, woodcarver, etc. There’s also a huge zoo in this park, and a bunch of other attractions. It was cool, but a little daunting, we got tired after a few hours and took the ferry back into Stockholm to look around the Old City a little before we caught our train back to Enköping. We ate a relaxed meal at Ingrid’s again, then I drove mom and dad to a hotel just outside the airport so they could take a shuttle in to catch their 6am flight (ew).
Bears in the zoo- this mom had three cubs running around, crawling al over her- I told Ingrid it reminded me a bit of her.
Skansen street
We got lunch in Rättvik, home to the longest pier in Sweden, as well as a neat market and several great craft shops. 
After Rättvik we went to Nusnäs, home to two Dalahast factories, or collections of buildings wherein the famous Swedish Dalahast is carved and painted.
We stopped briefly in Mora, the largest town around Lake Silijan, and then headed back to Leksand, stopping once for about half an hour to detour to a random historical sight marked on the side of the road, which turned out to be an old mill complex.
Dad and I helped out at the practice (mostly working on hitting, and dad working with a couple of the pitchers), then made arrangements to meet with two of their younger pitchers the next morning before we headed out. We ate at an excellent pizza place in town. Thursday morning we worked with the pitchers for 1 ½ hours, then went into town and wandered around an open-air market for a bit before heading off home.Of note: on the way to Leksand we stopped at a huge Swedish supply and tool store called Clas Olsen, which has everything from lawn chairs to lightbulbs to digital camera to chainsaws. Mom and Dad flipped over a pair of branch cutters that aren’t available inside the US without special mail-order and were apparently really cheap- Ingrid and Micke both gave them really strange looks when they triumphantly placed them on the duffel bag being packed for them to take back to the US.
Thursday night we had practice and then afterwards we took Maria, Emil, and Ingrid’s family out to dinner at a Thai buffet place in the middle of town- it was very fun and relaxed. Friday morning mom and dad and I walked around town a little more, and saw the church as well as a couple ancient runestones that are placed around the city and date back to 1000 AD or so.
Friday mom dad and I went to Stockholm to explore Skasen, a preserved village with old buildings from all over Sweden, and a village with shops such as a potters, glassblowers, goldsmith, woodcarver, etc. There’s also a huge zoo in this park, and a bunch of other attractions. It was cool, but a little daunting, we got tired after a few hours and took the ferry back into Stockholm to look around the Old City a little before we caught our train back to Enköping. We ate a relaxed meal at Ingrid’s again, then I drove mom and dad to a hotel just outside the airport so they could take a shuttle in to catch their 6am flight (ew).
Bears in the zoo- this mom had three cubs running around, crawling al over her- I told Ingrid it reminded me a bit of her. Skansen streetSo, you’d think after all that the excitement would be over but NO! On Thursday night Emil and Maria invited me to go with them Saturday on a surprise adventure, they wouldn’t tell me what. It turned out to be a boat trip to Åland, which was wicked fun- the boat was pretty big, and had a large duty-free shop in it. Turns out this shop is a large part of the reason people take this trip- the boat tickets are pretty cheap, so then you enjoy the two hours out to Åland, the half hour on shore, the two hours back, and stocking up on perfume, makeup, candy and, most significantly, copious amounts of alcohol. Maria and Emil wanted to take me just for fun and to see a little of Åland- it was a great day trip and excellent birthday present.
Finnish scouts!! Like our girl and boy scouts, apparantly. They're standing under the Åland flag.Sunday I recovered from the week’s adventures, and then Monday was my birthday. I got sung to by the whole family in the morning (they were supposed to come sing to me in bed and wake me up, but I spoiled that by getting up too early, to they surprised me in the kitchen). I got a beautiful pair of silver earrings and a ring from the family, which was incredibly nice of them. We had cake around 11am because Ingrid had to go to the airport to fly to Amsterdam for a business seminar until Wednesday evening. So the rest of the day was very quiet, and I wasn’t expecting any more celebrations (especially since we had to cancel practice due to rain).
But I stopped over at the house of one of the girls, whose mom is American, to drop off some books I’d borrowed, and found a surprise party awaiting! All the team was there, and they sang and had cake and decorations and flowers- it was one of the sweetest and best things that’s happened to me in a long time. It continues to get harder and harder to imagine leaving, the people here are so wonderful. It feels like I’ve been here two years rather than two months.
Me being surprised:
So since then things have been tame (I’ve been trying to catch up on sleep)- Tuesday evening I went to Söder to work with five pitchers on their team- I worked with three less experienced girls for an hour then with two older girls for 1 ½ hours. I stayed overnight in Söder, with the family of one of the younger pitchers, whose older sister is a catcher and is on the National team. They were also very nice and really welcoming, as was the Söder coach, who I chatted with for a couple hours before I started practice with the girls. Wednesday morning I worked with one of the more experienced girls a second time- Minna, who’s 21 and has huge potential. She already throws well enough now to be a DIII level pitcher easily- and that’s without any kind of formal coaching, EVER. I’m still trying to get over that, because she’s got a great motion and incredible snap. She was throwing beautiful curveballs five minutes after I showed her how, without ever having thrown them before. It was a lot of fun working with her- we’re probably meeting next week as well.
And that leads me to today, which has been pretty average- pitching with Ingrid in the morning, playing with the kids a lot, practice and a couple pitching lessons in the afternoon. The weather was beautiful today, tomorrow I might go to the beach with Maria in the morning before going to Eskilstuna in the afternoon to work with Amanda (our catcher) and Jonna- they both live about 45 minutes away and can’t make it to all the practices, so I’ve been going there and working with them individually.
We make the long haul up to Sundsvall this weekend- it’s about 5 hours north. We play Saturday, and then I’m planning to stay up there a few days and poke around on my own some- not sure exactly where I’ll go yet but probably not too far out of Sundsvall, as the Northern bus lines just went on strike today- looks like I’ll be taking the train back to Enköping!
Okay, that’s the end- HUGE update I know, sorry for those of you who got bored, congrats if you made it through the whole thing!
Jen
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