Saturday, March 17th, was our last match of playoffs and of the season. We played at Katrineholms one last time. Once again, they proved that they were in control the whole time. We lost 10-25 12-25 16-25. I am sad that the season is over, but I am also ready for a little break from volleyball. I’m sure by the time I am home again I will be dying to play.
The club surprised us on the bus home with some beer and wine. Also when we returned to Ljungby, the other members of the club were waiting for us. They had dinner and more alcohol! It was really fun to just hang out and party with everyone on the team and the club board for one last time.
It wasn’t my most successful season, but we still did accomplish quite a bit this season. Our record was 4-17. That is so very difficult for me to say, but if you look at the season from a different angle it isn’t as bad. This was Ljungby Volleybollklubb’s first year in the Elitserien. It is very very rare that a rookie team makes it to playoffs. It is a big accomplishment to make playoffs and secure the team’s spot in the Elitserien next season too.
Today is our game day vs Katrineholms at 16.00 (10am cst). You can WATCH LIVE VIDEO at this link then click on kvk play on the top right. http://www.katrineholm-vk.nu/
Or you can watch live stats at this link. http://www.cupassist.com/pa/livescore/?nr=17642494
This is the 3rd match of Quarterfinals so if we lose, our season is officially over!
GO LVBK!!!
Yesterday, we played our second match of quarterfinals against Katrineholms. Just a reminder that each round of playoffs is best 3 out of 5 matches. We played at home in front of a crowd of just over 450 people. Unfortunately, we did not play as we wanted. We lost in three games, 11-25 10-25 13-25. Katrineholms had complete control of the entire match. They served really well and kept us out of system all the time. They also played a very fast offense that neither our block nor defense was ready for. We were constantly a few steps behind them. Since our passing was so bad, it was really difficult to get our offense going at all. I had the most kills with 8, but also with 4 errors. Our other main offensive leader didn’t even get 1 kill. We mostly hit back spike because it was our only option. Katrineholms played really great, but we also played really terrible!
We have one more match to prove that we are a better team. We play again at Katrineholms on Saturday at 10am cst. You will be able to watch the match live at this link: http://www.katrineholm-vk.nu/. You can also view our match still from last Sunday on this site. I will post this link again on Saturday morning on here and my facebook.
I have two children here in Ljungby. My son is Joel, and my daughter is Meghan. They became my children because we hang out a lot and they always fight. I am the one who has to break them up and keep them under control. I have also cooked them dinner while they played with a balloon in the other room until Meghan got hurt and they started fighting!
Yesterday, we spent some quality family time together. Joel doesn’t have a job right now so he is able to hang out with us during the day. We went on a walk together around town. We decided that we wanted to stop at Roddy’s, the coffee shop, on the way back. Of course, Meghan and Joel did not bring their wallets so mom had to pay. I got an ice latte and a cookie. Both kids just got a latte because Joel said he could only have sugar on Saturdays. BUT Joel got a chocolate latte with whipped cream on top! His explanation was “mom bought me sugar so it’s ok.”
After practice, Joel made us dinner. It was very delicious! After dinner, we were watching some youtube videos. We came upon a video of attempts at the world record for number of times you can kick yourself in the head in a minute. I decided that I needed to see if I could even kick myself in the head. This of course turned into actually attempting to kick myself in the head over and over again. We decided to only go for 15 seconds though!
I thought that I had a shot at the world record until I heard the world record! It is 115 kicks in one minute. I definitely have a lot of practice before I am at that level.
I have not been keeping up with my blog per day promise. I am terribly sorry! Here is what happened this weekend.
I awoke at 3am Sunday morning from my stomach hurting. An hour later, I started throwing up. I was sick a few times with the last time being at 8am. Our bus was supposed to leave for our match at 9am! After talking with my coaches, they decided that it was best if I did not go to the match. Of course, I was not ok with this decision. I told them that I wanted to go still and that I wanted to play. After some convincing, they told me that our club president was driving to the game at 10:30 and if I didn’t get sick again before then that I could go with him. I slept until it was time to go and slept a little bit more in the car too. I even ate a banana and some crackers. I wasn’t feeling very good still, but I hadn’t gotten sick again so they allowed me to play.
This wasn’t the first time that I had played after throwing up all night! Last season at Illinois, I had the stomach flu 3 times in one month! I knew that no matter how I felt I still had to give full energy on the court. We lost in 3 games still, but I was really happy with how our team played. We played great defense! The scores were 15-25 14-25 22-25. We stuck right with them up until about 9-9 each game before Katrineholms rolled away with the set. We have had a problem with starting strong all season, but we didn’t in this match. Now we are looking to take our strong start and combine it with our typical strong finish for our match on Wednesday at home!
After playing on Sunday, I had no energy. I slept most of the day on Monday and had a good night’s sleep again last night. I still don’t feel like I have my typical energy back, but tomorrow will be a different story. We are expecting to have around 700 people at the match! I feel very positive about this match. I know everyone is going to be giving 100%, and I can’t wait to see how we do! You will be able to watch live stats at 1pm cst at http://www.cupassist.com/pa/livescore/?nr=17642493.
This morning, Meghan and I had the team over for a pancake breakfast. I should clarify… an American pancake breakfast! I made chocolate chip and banana pancakes with bacon on the side. My favorite way to eat them is with peanut butter and maple syrup on top. Talk about a sugar high! All of the girls loved the pancakes too.
Sofie's daughter, Ida, loved the pancakes too!
After breakfast, I was in the mood to go play. It was nice day here, which means it was 45 degrees and the sun was out! I called up my other American friend, Erik. Erik, Meghan, and I headed to the toy store to get a Frisbee before going to the park. We tried to get some Swedes to join us, but no one wanted to so we were on our own. We threw the Frisbee around for a while, but it was very windy. So we decided to play on the playground instead. It was lots of fun!
Erik and Meghan on our new favorite thing to do in Ljungby!
NO HANDS!!!
My sugar high finally wore off, and I returned home for a nap. Meghan and I went to our friend, Joel’s apartment for dinner. He cooked us some delicious fish and pasta. We watched Our Idiot Brother, which by the way is a very funny movie! After playing some group Sudoku, I am home and packing my volleyball bag for tomorrow.
I had a really fun day today hanging out with my teammates and some other friends. But tomorrow is the big day! It is our first match of playoffs against Katrineholms. Our goal is to leave everything on the court and have fun playing. I am really looking forward to our match tomorrow!
I don’t have too much time left in Sweden so I have decided to take full advantage of it! And I want to make sure that I am keeping my loyal readers informed. ;) I have decided that I am going to write a blog every day for the rest of my time in Sweden. This is going to be a difficult task for me, but I am looking forward to it as well.
BUT I am going to need your help! I am sure that I have not written about everything that you are wondering about my life. Now is your time to ask me any questions about my life in Sweden and get the answers you have been looking for! Either comment on this post with your questions, or email me at johannah.bangert@gmail.com.
Now I am going to ask another favor of you… Please sign my guestbook! I plan on creating a scrapbook of my time in Sweden when I return to America. I would really like to include a page of people who followed my adventures. All it takes is clicking HERE to sign my online guestbook. Someone told me that they did not want to sign it because you have to enter an email address. If this is the case for you, please just enter my email address from above instead. Or you can simply comment on this post. Or send me an email. The only thing I ask is that you include the country that you are reading from.
Shout out to my readers in Russia, Latvia, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, etc. I want to know who you are! Thanks for reading. :)
About a month ago, Meghan and I went to the local high school to speak in an English class about September 11th. It went really well! The students paid attention the entire time we talked, and they asked questions. I was amazed how well a class of 24 15-year olds paid attention. It was very different than my experiences during student teaching.
So two weeks ago when the same teacher asked me if I would like to teach two math lessons, I gladly accepted. I met with her for coffee to discuss the math lessons. She is an English and Swedish teacher so she didn’t have too much information for me at least mathematics wise. She told me that the first lesson would be going over some English math terms and that she would make a list of these terms that she would give to the students and me. As for the second lesson, I would be working with a different teacher. She gave me the textbook and showed me the activity that I would be doing with the students. It was an activity working with the quadratic equation and discovering how the parabola shifted around the graph.
It was then up to me to come with what to do! I decided that a good way to learn the different English math terms was to play a game like Pictionary. I gave the students about 5 minutes to look over the terms again, and then I divided them into groups of 4 students. I gave each group four different terms that they would have to draw on the board to have the rest of the class figure out what mathematical term they had. I thought this lesson went really well. The students all participated, and even better, they also paid attention while the other students were drawing. It wasn’t the same students who knew the answer every time either. I was very satisfied with how the lesson went!
The second lesson did not go the same at all. :( I met the math teacher for the first time at 14:20, and the class began at 14:25! All he really told me was that first he wanted to show the students how you go from ax2+bx+c=0 to the quadratic formula.
After that, I would do the activity as a class. That was all the instruction I got! The lesson could have been done in 15 minutes. I tried to add in a little extra information to stretch it out. I decided to show them how we F.O.I.L., but I was flustered from not being prepared and I made a mistake. I think I only confused them rather than teach them! I made it through the rest of the activity as best as I could. But by no means am I satisfied with how it went. I am actually really upset about what happened. It was my first time back in a math class since student teaching, and it was terrible! I am trying to tell myself that it was not my fault. That if I would have had more information and able to prepare for the lesson, I would have done better. But I am still very disappointed right now…
There are some different rules in Swedish/European volleyball than in American volleyball.
1. Substitutions. This is the biggest difference that actually affects the game. A player can only enter the game once per set. This means that if you start the set on the court and are subbed out, you can go back into the game. But if you leave the set again, you are done for the rest of the set. So if you start the set on the bench, you can be subbed in. But once you are taken out, then you are done for the rest of the set. This completely eliminates the ideas of a 6-2 offense or a defensive specialist or serving specialist. Each team has 6 substitutions each set. Players also have to hold up a number paddle indicating which player they are going in for.
2. Liberos. A team can have two liberos for a match. Only one can be on the court at a time still, but they can switch freely. This means that if one libero is in, then the other libero can switch right away with them. Ultimately, you could have a defensive libero and a serve receive libero that you switch every single time based on if your team is serving or not. This doesn’t happen, but it could. The libero is not allowed to serve ever. Once you have declared your one or two liberos for the match, they cannot switch during the match to a normal player unless there is an injury and vice versa.
3. Ceilings. If the ball hits the ceiling, it is out of play. It doesn’t matter if it stays on your side or not. It is automatically out, and the other team’s point.
4. Screening. There is no such thing as screening here. Screening is when the team is serving, and they strategically line up their players so that the other team cannot see the server. In American, your captain can say something to the referee, and he will have the blockers move so that the other team can see. Here people purposely line up so the server is difficult to see.
5. Randoms. Hitting and serving warm-ups are all shared between the two teams. Teams do not say ‘good luck’ to each other before the match. The referees almost do not call any lifts or doubles. They let everything go! Before a set starts and after timeouts, you are not allowed to go back onto the court until the ref blows his whistle. Often times, there is no break between sets 2 and 3. There are no line judges.
The regular season is over, and it’s time for playoffs! Our team goal at the beginning of the season was to make it to playoffs. It feels really good that we accomplished our goal! As the rookie team in the league, it is a really big accomplishment that we made it to playoffs and able to stay in this division for next season.
Here is the run down for how playoffs work here. There are 10 teams in our league, and the top 8 make playoffs. It then turns into an 8-team bracket. Each round of the bracket is the best 3 out of 5 matches though. The other different part is that #1 does not play #8 and so on. The #1 team gets to pick who they want to play of #5-8. Then #2 gets to pick from the remaining 3 teams of #5-8 and so on.
Here are the final rankings of the regular season:
Engelholms picked to play Gislaved. Katrineholms picked to play us. Lindesberg picked to play Sollentuna. This leaves Falköping to play Hylte/Halmstad. Teams normally pick their opponent based off of location and ability. Engelholms has been in the top of the league for quite a while so they are known to pick one of the better teams even for the first round because they want good competition throughout all of playoffs. We are about 4 hours away from Katrineholms.
Our first match of playoffs will be next Sunday, March 11th, at Katrineholms. The second match will be on Wednesday, March 14th, in Ljungby. The third match will again be at Katrineholms on Saturday, March 17th, or Sunday, March 18th.
Sunday was our last regular season volleyball match. We played Katrineholms, which is the 2nd place team in the league. We lost in three, 11-25, 23-25, 15-25. We did not play well in the first, but we really stepped it up in the second set. I think we played the best in that set that we have since January. It was good to see that we do have the ability to play with a really great team. We still just need to learn how to sustain that level of play for a longer amount of time.
After the match, a lady came up to our coach and all I heard was “blah blah blah Johannah Bangert blah blah blah.” Our coach then informed me that this lady had picked me to be drug tested, along with my teammate, Sofie (she had no problem and peed right away!). Apparently, there is something about me that just screams DRUGGIE!!! This happened at Illinois too. Every single time people were picked to be drug tested, I was always picked. I was drug tested by the University of Illinois. I was drug tested by the Big Ten. I was drug tested by the NCAA. And now, I was drug tested by the Swedish Sports Confederation. Back in the states, a computer randomized who got picked. Here, the people doing the test picked which two girls they wanted to test. I still don’t understand what it is about me that makes computers and people think I do drugs?!
This might be too much information so I am sorry, but I have a very small bladder. If you have spent any time with me, you would know that I have to pee all the time. This is not the case when I am drug tested. The first time I was tested, it took me over 2 ½ hours to be able to pee. Once I finally peed for the test, I honestly peed every 5 minutes for an hour because I had drank so much water and Gatorade to be able to pee for the test.
I told the lady that I was not ready to pee yet and asked if I could shower first. She said that would be fine, and then told me that she would have to come with me! Yes, she had to come and watch me shower! In America, I would find out one afternoon that I was going to be drug tested and then the test would be the next morning. Here, they told you right on the spot and you are not allowed to be out of their sight until you take the test. I drank 2 big water bottles, a bottle of Powerade, and I ate a juicy apple. After an hour and a half, I finally felt like I really needed to pee. It was to the point where my bladder was really starting to hurt because it was so full! But when I sat down, I still couldn’t go. It was a very small bathroom, and I felt like the lady was standing on top of me.
She said that we could go and walk around some because that helps sometimes.We walked out to where my team was all waiting for me. I ate a few french fries, but I was so uncomfortable that I couldn’t eat. I had to pee so bad! After lots of encouragement from my teammates, I went to try again. She said that we could go to a different bathroom too if there was a bigger one somewhere. We found a handicap bathroom and… I finally peed!!!!! The drug tester lady and I walked out of the bathroom triumphantly, and my whole team started cheering and clapping. I felt victorious. After filling out a little more paper work and properly packaging my sample, I was free to leave. It took my just under 2 hours! Before I could even get on the bus, I had to pee again! I was very worried because our bus had no bathroom. I am very proud to say though that I made it an hour and a half before I had to pee again! It was also the only time that I forced our bus to stop on the three and a half hour drive.
In school, I always viewed myself as a good test taker. When it comes to drug tests, it is a totally different story!
Saturday was my half birthday!!! It also means that I have lived in Ljungby for just over 6 months. It is amazing how fast the time has passed. I can’t believe that our season is going to be over very soon, and I will be returning to America. In some respects, I can’t wait to come home. On the other hand, I am going to be extremely sad to leave here. I have made so many friends. I can’t imagine not seeing them every single day. It makes me sad to think about it right now even! So enough about that and back to my half birthday!!!
I like my half birthday more than I like my real birthday. My real birthday is September 3rd. It normally falls around Labor Day, which is nice because in school it meant a 3-day weekend, but I actually don’t like it still. My birthday is too soon after the start of something new. When I was in school, it was always the 2nd week after school started. I normally have the first birthday of my friends from when the school year starts. There is too much novelty around that time that nothing special normally happens for my birthday. It was the same way here in Sweden. My birthday was the first weekend I was here so I wasn’t really friends with anyone yet. This is how it normally is for my birthday, but not for my half birthday! By the time March 3rd rolls around, I have lots of friends in the new place that I am in. This year was no exception. I had a fantastic half birthday!
It started out by traveling to Lund to coach the B team. Meghan and I went to Lund back in November (you can still read my blog about that crazy adventure). I remembered seeing a mexican restaurant on our drive back to Ljungby so I asked our driver if we could stop there on the way home. He said yes! Anyways, the B team played really well, and we won in 3. Every girl got to play, and every girl played really well. I think it was the best we have played all the way around. Our communication, defense, and offense were all really good. And the girls had fun playing too!
Now I have to take you back to my tragedy on Wednesday night so that you can truly understand my happiness from Saturday. Two weeks ago, I met an American guy that is living and studying in Ljungby. It’s really nice to hang out with someone who understands all of my jokes and references! Erik, Meghan, and I went to Harry’s on Wednesday night to have a drink. I was also a little hungry so when I saw on the menu that there were nachos, I decided I needed to get them. It said that it came with 2 dipping sauces too. I thought it sounded great! I can’t even describe to you my disappointment…
As you can see, it was simply cheese-flavored chips with fake guacamole and sweet chili sauce. They literally bought it from the grocery store and just put it in the basket. Did I mention that it cost over $10?! I was so upset.
Ok, back to the happiness of Saturday! After the match we stopped at Taco Bar: A Small Piece of Mexico.
I didn’t want to set my expectations too high after my disappointment on Wednesday. I was amazed to see that the only menu items were nachos or nachos deluxe, but I was not disappointed in the food this time! Of course, it was no Chipotle. It was by far the best Mexican food I have had in Sweden (I don’t include my own cooking in this haha). I was so happy after eating it. I was as full as can be, but I was so happy that I didn’t care!
When we got back to Ljungby, I took a nap. It was also the best nap that I have had in a long time. It was one of those naps where you are completely out! If Meghan hadn’t woken me up, I think I would have slept all the way until the morning. It’s a good thing that she woke me up though because it was time for my ‘party’! We had balloons all over the apartment, and our friend, Joel, was coming over. We had a lot of fun with the balloons!
I made Kickin Tequila Shrimp (click on it for the recipe) for dinner. It was really delicious!
Meghan’s mom had mailed her some Funfetti cake mix so Meghan made Funfetti cookies for my half birthday too! She even decorated them and had candles too. They were super yummy.
Notice there are 23 1/2 cookies :)
We finished off the night by watching one of my favorite movies, Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
I had a fantastic half birthday!!! Maybe even the best half birthday ever…
