"You'll be in my heart..." Phil Collins

Sweden was amazing!  It was an eventful week and it was so much fun. We started out in Stockholm.  When we first got there I was reunited with almost all of my swedish friends.  I can not tell you how happy I was to see them all!

                                  

 We stayed at my friend Helena's apartment; it was really nice and in a perfect spot.  We could walk or take the subways anywhere. Stockholm is beautiful. The buildings, the water, the boats, everything about it was unbelievable.  They took us all around Stockholm.  One day we went to the Vassa museum.  The Vassa is an old shipwreck that some divers found in Stockholm.  The ship was huge but the carvings and details it had was incredible.

Martina was our tour guide.  She brought us to the old city; it was my favorite part.  The buildings were so cool, there were a ton of shops and overall it was a neat environment.  We went to the castle.  The prince and princess were not home but we saw a ton of guards everywhere.  She brought us on a really nice walk and we climbed a tower (the view was amazing), and we also took a boat tour.  Im in love with this city. 

 

On wednesday we went on an all you can eat shrimp boat it was awesome! I eat a whole bunch of shrimp; it was a little different though because we had to peel the shrimp ourselves, heads and all.  It was so much fun.  People all over the boat were singing swedish songs. The food was great, the weather was perfect and I was with some of my best friends. I dont know how it could get any better.

One night we had dinner at Therese's house with her family. The food was great and her family is awesome, I met them before at Therese's graduation.  I also had the honor of meeting the great Puff.  Puff is her dog. I also got to meet Martina's dog Milow when we stopped to see her grandma and her mom.  I hear so much about these dogs and it was so nice to finally meet them.

 

For Midsummar we ventured up to Uppsala to Martina's house.  The neighborhood was really nice and everything was so pretty.  There was so much food.  We ate all the traditional food; meatballs, hering, patatoes, cheese and bread.  Then we sang songs, played kubb and many other games.  We celebrated midsummar in Florida and it has definitely turned into one of my favorite holidays.

 

After Midsummar we woke up and had cake for breakfast; it was great! Then we headed out to Västerås to meet Hanna's family and have a bbq with Linda. Hanna's house was really nice and they had pictures everywhere! I was so happy I finally got to meet her family.  Linda's house was amazing as well; it is right on this lake.  The food she cooked was really good; it was a really nice dinner. I have to say we ate extremely well the whole trip.  Swedes are great cooks. 

 Sadly, we left Sweden on Sunday. It was so nice to experience the country and even nicer to see all my friends.  I want to thank them for everything.  They are all the best! I miss them all already. 

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

 This week I have been working at the GBK soccer camp. It was really interesting because none of the kids could speak english... I was coaching the 6-8 year old kids with a few of my teammates.  This was a great experience because I new I had to get really creative teaching these kids.  How do you coach when you can not speak to each other? The great thing about soccer is that it is a universal language; you do not need to speak to understand.  I did a lot of technical work with the kids and I used sound effects and clapping when I taught.  It was almost like constantly playing simon says.  The kids imitated everything I did with the ball and really got the hang of some of the footwork.  It was really neat watching them; they completely understood me.  I also had one of the girls (Laura) translate for me if I needed it; she was great.  I definitely learned a new way to coach.  The kids seemed to really enjoy it and to me that is the most important part. Fun...If its not fun, its not soccer.

On wednesday we had a game verse ONS.  ONS is a good team; they were technical and had some speed up top.  They had an early goal but we responded in the last five minutes of the first half.  I thought we had most of the possession of the game and created more dangerous opportunities than they did.  The whole team fought hard and we dealt with the speedy forwards.  The game ended 1-1.  I am glad we came away with a point.  It was a long ride to the game but a fun bus ride.  I love hanging out with the girls and we are really bonding as a team.

 Now we have a cup game tomorrow in Helsinki.  We are fit for the fight and ready to go. After the game Jamie and I are going to SWEDEN!!!! We have the week off and are going to visit my best friends; they are some of the greatest people I know.  I am so excited to see them, see where they all grew up and experience swedish culture.  The adventures continue! 

                        

                         

                         

"If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen for you.”

Saturday was one of our best games yet. The weather was beautiful and it was on our home field.  Everything seemed to click in the game.  We were stringing passes together and creating things all over the field.  We won 4-0; I got an assist and four different people on my team scored! Everyone on the field had a great performance.  We are finding each other and connecting better and better every game.



Our home field

I can not understand my coach all the time but the things that have been translated for me before games have been really neat.  He wants us to "dare with the ball" basically saying to "dare" to try new things and not to be afraid of taking risks.  The coach tells us what he expects but we have the freedom to express ourselves on the field.  I really like this philosophy. I have had coaches in the past with a very similar style.  They like us to have fun with the ball and they want us to solve problems on the field on our own.  Playing is my way of expressing myself. I enjoy all the different challenges and curve balls a game can throw at you as well as the feeling of overcoming them and scoring that goal, making that perfect pass, fighting for you teammates, making a difference...Everyone on the team has a role and purpose.  I feel like sometimes "you can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation."
 Now we have a few days of practice to get ready for our next game on Wednesday verse ONS. We are tied with ONS for second place; this is going to be a big game. These are the games that I look forward to the most.

A Game of Self Expression

Wednesday was a great day.  I had a good workout in the morning and then hit the beach with the girls.  The weather was amazing; it was about 80 degrees out.  I have my tan back :) The beach was really nice but the water was really cold.  I felt like I was swimming in an ice bath but it felt really good on my legs.  There were a ton of people at the beach; people were playing soccer, volleyball and just laying out.  One of the American guys brought a football.  The girls on my team have never thrown one before so it was pretty funny watching them try.  I'm not very good at throwing but I was pretty impressed with them. 

After the beach we went to the marketplace in town.  Every wednesday people set up stations and sell all sorts of things.  They sold things like candy, ice cream, plants, clothes, bread, and many different random items.  There were also people playing music and performing different crafts. We walked around to all the different stations, got some ice cream and then just sat enjoying the weather while people watching. I loved this! It was such a great day.

  I may pick up a side job.  My team wants me to juggle at the marketplace to music and put out a hat; they think I could make some good money.  I thought they were joking at first but they are completely serious so I am working on my freestyle routine and will be performing on my next available wednesday.  I have actually performed like this before.  When I was a senior in high school I was in this Junior Miss America Competition.  My older sister Nicky did it and when I was little I wanted to be just like her, so I made a promise to myself that I would join Junior Miss as well.   I was definitely not the typical girl for this competition but I loved it and it was an amazing experience.  For the talent part of the competition I juggled my soccer ball to lose yourself by Eminem.  I was pretty nervous performing in front of so many people; my heart was racing but I did not drop the ball once and everything went great! I ended up winning the Talent. So now I am going to perform in the streets.  Street Soccer...That is definitely my style!

"A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes." -Gandhi

Yesterday we had an away game verse FC Sport. The field we played at was incredible; it was a beautiful field and the stadium was really neat!  I feel like I have seen this before and I knew I was in the right place. I was definitely living my school girl dream.

 We started off strong with two goals in the first 15 minutes.  The whole team had a great first half; everything was clicking.  FC Sport had very few chances and we were in their third the whole half.  We ended the first half 3-0.

 In the second half FC Sport moved some players around; they had a few more chances.  They had a strong forward from Nigeria and their outside forward was pretty good but we fought hard; Jamie made some great saves and we ended the game 4-1.  I got an assist on the last goal.

 Overall, it was a solid performance from GBK.  We dominated the game and created many dangerous scoring opportunities.  Now we have practice the rest of the week to prepare for the next game.  It is at our home field verse SeMi Seinäjoki.

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go." -Dr. Seuss





The family that I stayed with have a son (Max) who graduated from Highschool this past weekend. Max went to Karleby Svenska Gymnasium  (a swedish highschool) The ceremony was in swedish.  There were a bunch of speeches and a lot of singing.   When the graduates get their diplomas they also get a white hat; it looks like a sailer hat but it is really nice.  There were some old people sitting in front of me wearing thier sailer hats as well; its tradition that the 50 year alumni come to the graduation and wear their hats.  Everyone, especially the graduates looked so nice in their suits and dresses.

After the ceremony we rushed back to the house. Jamie and I have been helping out, getting everything clean

and ready for the graduation party.  The mom of the family gave everyone a job; Jamie was in charge of the dishes and I was in charge of the coffee and drinks.  I swear over 100 people came to the party.  Jamie and I were really busy; at one point the line was out the door just to get into the house.  The coffee and the drinks went fast! I felt like I was doing shuttle runs from the back room to the dinning room and Jamie had dishes up to the ceiling at one point, but the coffee never ran out and there were always clean dishes for the guest. A job well done!

The party was really nice; it was a cake buffet.  So many people brought over all types of homemade cakes and many different kinds of dips.  Everything was so good!  Everyone that came to the party brought Max a gift and roses.  There were roses all over the house; I loved it.  Every graduate gets tons and tons of flowers on their day.  Once the party started to fade away Max opened his gifts. The common gift is money but he also got things for an appartment for when he goes off to school again.  He is going to med school next.  Did you know in Finland you do not have to pay to go to college?  They pay you! Students get a monthly salary for going to college. His highschool also gave him money for going to college and getting good grades. The Fins eduactional philosophy is smart; its a great incentive to continue your education and it gives everyone the oppertunity to go. 

Once the graduation party was over Jamie, Kerstin and I went to the beach to continue the celebrations with the students. We had to ride our bikes there and we were wearing dresses... so we wore our soccer shorts over our dresses and then tied our shorts to our bike once we got to our destination.  It was a genius idea but the Fins thought we were crazy Americans.  Everyone was at the beach; graduates, friends and random people. The temperature started to drop so the next stop for all the graduates was downtown kokkola. The music was great and DJ was really good. I was impressed and everyone danced (with their sailer hats and all) till their feet hurt.  The graduates were celebrating all night but the celebrations ended for the Americans at about 3am.  We put on our soccer shorts, got on the bike and went home. I am glad I got to experience a full Finnish graduation; it was a great day!

A Busy Week

It has been a very eventful week! Jamie and I got to experience life as a elementary student in Finland, we went to an amuzement park called power park with the kids, we watched them play soccer all day in a

school tournament and we won our game!

 On wednesday the school had an all day soccer tournament.  Schools from the area get together and play all day.  I found it interesting that some of the rules were different in the finals.  They do penalty kicks first and then they play the game.  If the game is tied at the end whoever won the penalty kicks in the beginning of the game wins.  They do it this way with the younger kids because they think it takes some of the pressure off.  The school I went to made it to the final was crowned champion; they won the tournament.  It was an exciting day.  I am jealous that the kids get to play soccer all day instead of being in the classroom; I would have loved that when I was in school! The kids are always playing.  Everyone seems to really love the game here.

Yesterday we had a home game verses Karhu.  Everyone was excited to play at home and it was perfect soccer weather.  I was happy it was not raining.  We dominated the game and had possession of the ball 90 percent of the time.  It was 0-0 at the end of the first half.  We had a ton of chances and then half way through the second half Tessa found the back of the net.  Karhu had a decent forward but the defense had a solid performance; everyone fought hard and did not let up.  Overall the team played really well.  The team is looking strong.  Our next game is an away game vs. FC Sport on Tuesday. I heard that FC Sport is a good team but we are ready for the challenge.

 We have this weekend off because of graduation; everything shuts down.  Graduating from highschool is a really big deal here.  Im really excited to experience a Finnish graduation. Well, with all this school, amuzement parks,  preparation for graduation, and a win for GBK, its been a great week. More to come soon.

Hejda!

Nature walk with the kids



Jamie, Kerstin, Jenna and I



Power Park