Dec. 24- Amsterdam

     Saturday morning, Ellen L. took me back to the train station in Utrecht. Arjen was meeting here to take the train to Amsterdam for the afternoon. I was feeling pretty tired after the night before since I hadn’t really had a night out like that since before Halloween! So I got another Starbuck’s. :) I should have kept a count for all the coffees that I drank on this trip. All I know is that it was a lot!

Our first stop in Amsterdam was the Anne Frank house. I wish I had pictures to show you, but you aren’t allowed to take any. If you are ever in Amsterdam though, I highly recommend going. It was really awesome! It is basically a self-guided tour through the actual house where Anne Frank and her family were hidden. There are lots of different artifacts still in the house along with quotes from Anne’s diary all throughout. I have never read her diary, but now it is definitely on my list to read.

Here are some pictures from other sites I saw along the way:

The Queen's Palace.

A memorial for WWII soldiers.

Arjen eating a whole herring!

A wooden shoe, of course.

Another view of the Queen's Palace.

Famous coffee shop aka place to smoke weed.

     Most of my time in Amsterdam, I could always smell weed. People don't smoke on the streets, but they keep the coffee shop doors open. It didn’t bother me at all though. It is not something that is over powering, but just something that you notice. I also took a walk down one of the red light district streets. It really was not as big of a deal as I expected. Of course, it was still disgusting and one small street was enough for me. I probably saw 5 girls in lingerie standing in windows. As far as Amsterdam being compared to Sodom and Gomorra, there are certainly parts of Amsterdam that are very sinful, but overall, it is a very cool city with lots to see that is both historical and moral.

     Arjen and I also tried to visit the Heineken brewery. We thought they were open until 16:00, but they actually closed at 14:30 since it was Christmas Eve. This is the second brewery that I have tried to go to in Europe. I have not been able to tour either of them because I got there after they were closed. Fail!

     We headed back to Tiel. Arjen had been sick for over a week. He had gone to the doctor, but only told that he had a bacterial infection. I could definitely tell that he was sicker than that as he fell asleep on the train ride home. I have to give him a big thanks for sticking it out with me and still showing me around! He went to the doctor again after Christmas and found out he has pneumonia. For dinner that night, we had Dutch pancakes. They are similar to crepes, but a bit thicker. I had two with taco meat inside and one with powder sugar for dessert. Like all the other food I had, they were delicious! Arjen and I sat around after dinner talking and drinking some beer. I had a Grolsch beer that was 11.6% alcohol! It is called Kanon, because it hits you like a canon! Needless to say, I slept great that night.

Dec. 23- Utrecht

     Friday morning, Arjen and I went into downtown Tiel. I never really realized how much water there was going through Holland. There are rivers and canals everywhere! Arjen told me that there are a bunch of dams holding water back. If these were not in place, 2/3 of Holland would be under water. We took a little ferry across the river to a very very small town. Bridges are not built in towns, but they are built in between towns. In order to get to this town by car, we would have had to drive out of Tiel to the bridge and then drive all the way back on the other side of the town. The town is so small that there isn’t a high school there. Many students take the ferry back and forth from their town to Tiel where they have to attend school. We only took the ferry across to have a coffee on the other side.

      We hurried back across the river so Arjen could take me to the train station. This day, I was going to Utrecht to spend the day with my friend, Ellen L. She met at the station. After getting some Starbuck’s, we continued on to shopping. She had to do some last minute Christmas gift shopping. It was great to catch up with her and see the city of Utrecht. Utrecht is home to the largest university in all of Holland. It was nice to be back in a university town. It is very comforting to feel like I am surrounded by other people my age. 

     We stopped for lunch where I had a traditional Dutch food. It was called broodje kroket. It has potato and beef on the inside. Mine was a sandwich so I smashed the broodje kroket on the bread.  

     Ellen L. and I did some more shopping before stopping for a drink while we waited for our friends Ellen K. and Thijs and the Ellens’ friend Ruth who were going to be meeting up with us later. I was very excited when I saw ‘margarita’ on the drink menu! I haven’t had one since leaving America. In fact, most Swedes have never had one in their life. It tasted fantastic.

Ellen K., Thijs, and Ruth met up with us for dinner. I had a Dutch pea soup and some seafood. It was all very delicious! This was also when Ellen L. gave out the gifts that she got for all of us while we were shopping. I think the picture explains better than I can!

     We went back to Ellen L.’s apartment to get ready to go out. Ellen K. curled my hair! It looked really cute except that as typical it was flat in about an hour. My hair just does not hold curl. Thijs and Ruth both went home, the Ellens and I headed to a bar to dance! It was a lot of fun to go out to a real bar with dancing. We don’t have anything like that in Ljungby. They played a lot of American music so it was easy to sing and dance along. I don’t even know how late the bar was open. We left at 3:30, and there were still people coming into the bar at that time! I passed out on Ellen L.’s couch as soon as we got back.

Dec. 22- Den Bosch and Black Pete

     Arjen had to go to work on Thursday morning so I went to ‘s-Hertogenbosch, or Den Bosch, for the afternoon. Arjen dropped me off at the train station. I went to buy my ticket, but unfortunately, neither my American VISA nor my Swedish VISA worked in the machine. I had to call Arjen to come back to the train station to buy a ticket for me. I was then finally on my way to den Bosch! I greatly enjoyed walking around Den Bosch because it is an older town with really cool architecture, but there are also a lot of stores for shopping.

     My first stop was St. John’s Cathedral. It dates to around 1220. It was a beautiful gothic church with a nativity set up inside the church.

     After looking around the cathedral for a while, I made my way to a bagel restaurant for lunch. I have only had 2 bagels since I left America so I always eat one when I can find them. I had an everything bagel with bacon and goat cheese. It was absolutely delicious! I could have eaten more than one.

     I continued my walk around the city. This time doing more shopping! Here is a little math for you…

American prices < Dutch prices < Swedish prices

Moral of the story, I did some shopping because everything seemed so cheap compared to what I am used to. Looking back, I wish I had bought even more. :)

     Arjen met up with me in Den Bosch after he got off work. We stopped in a coffee shop for a Bossche bol (Den Bosch ball) and a coffee. This was my third coffee of the day. When I am in America, I never drink coffee. I would occasionally have a chai latte, but never a cappuccino. When in Europe, do as the Europeans. I drink lots of coffee and cappuccinos now!

     Thursday night, Arjen’s volleyball team had a Christmas party. Christmas for the Dutch starts on December 5^th with the visit of Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet. Sinterklaas or Sint Nicholas was a Roman Catholic bishop. He is the patron saint of children. Sinterklaas rides a white horse and brings little presents or cookies to children with the help of Zwarte Piet, or Black Pete. Children leave out their shoe for Sinterklaas to fill with gifts and some carrots and water for his horse. This is partially where we got our American tradition of Santa Clause. Anyways, Arjen decided to surprise his team by the two of us showing up as Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet!

     The party was a lot of fun. We played a Christmas present exchange game. Everyone brought 2 presents, one that they wanted themselves and one that they didn’t want. Some of the gifts were a bottle of wine, a water gun, a ceramic bird, an incense set, a quote book, a candy g-string, etc. I ended up with the bottle of wine, but I left it at Arjen’s house. The whole night no one ever found out my name. I was only known as Black Pete!

Dec. 21- Travel

     It’s finally here!!! Today truly starts my Christmas vacation. We hit the rode at 7:20. Our friend, Joel, was giving us a ride to the airport. I sat in the back and couldn’t really hear much of the conversation. Instead, I spent the 2-hour drive listening to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer on my i-pod and sleeping. Joel dropped us off at the train station in Malmo. It is cheaper to take the train across the Sweden-Denmark border than to pay the toll fee.

     Meghan’s and mine first stop at the airport was Starbuck’s! We haven’t had any the whole time that we have been in Sweden. I got my typical chai latte, and it was delicious.

     Meghan went on to her gate. Her flight left at 12:25. My flight on the other hand didn’t leave until 16:45! I was able to print my boarding pass so I decided to go on through security as well. My flight was nowhere close to being on the board yet so I found a random spot to sit and read my book. At 14:00, I decided to get some food. I got a cheeseburger with french fries and a Coke. It cost $30! The surprise of the extreme cost of everything here has started to wear off. I don’t even convert prices anymore to American dollars; I just get what I want and say here take my money.

     It was about 2 hours until my flight left so I decided to go check the screen to see if my flight was up yet. No luck. I found a new place to sit and read. Finally at 15:00 my flight and gate were on the screen! I made my way to my gate. Guess what I did there? I sat and read!

     I finally boarded my plane at 16:00. Once again, on the flight I continued to read. Every time I fly I get Mr. & Mrs. T’s Bloody Mary Mix. When the flight attendants came around with the cart, I ordered my drink. She brought me back my drink and said that it was 20 Danish kroner or $4. She had already handed me my drink so I didn’t want to say I didn’t want it anymore. Once again, I just handed her my credit card and said just take my money.

     I safely landed in Amsterdam. From here, I took a train to Utrecht Centraal train station. Arjen was waiting for me at the train station. It was so nice to see a friend again. We drove back to his house in Tiel, Holland. Dinner was waiting for me when I arrived. I had a typical Dutch winter food, boerenkool, which is potatoes and other vegetables mashed together. I also had some greasy chicken wings to go with the boerenkool. It was all very yummy! I was tired from a long day at the airport so after talking with Arjen and his wife, Alletta, for a while, I went to bed.

It's Christmas Time!!!

     I have had the pleasure of taking part in many different Swedish Christmas festivities. Here are all the ways that I have been getting into the Christmas spirit!

     December 13^th is Sankta Lucia day in Sweden. I am not really sure why the Swede’s, and Scandinavian’s in general, celebrate this holiday as Saint Lucy is from Italy. I have asked some Swede’s about Saint Lucy and why they celebrate the holiday, but none of them have really given me an answer. Here is an article with a little more information on Saint Lucy, http://cyberbrethren.com/2011/12/13/commemoration-of-st-lucia-martyr-antidote-to-holiday-escapism/#comments.

Lucia bread with saffron and raisins.

     On December 14^th, I went ice-skating! I love going ice-skating, but this time was different. Every time I have been ice-skating before everyone just skates around the rink in a big oval. This time it was just a free for all! There were hockey games going on, and people just skating every which way. It was a lot of fun to be able to just skate wherever I wanted. I once again attempted to learn to skate backwards, but once again I had no success!

Me, Selma, and Meghan.

Me attempting to play hockey.

     I baked candy cane cookies on December 16^th. My mom makes them every year so this year I made my own. They are sooo yummy! I shared them with the rest of the team, and they all enjoyed them too.

     On December 17^th, we had a team Christmas party. There was good food, good company, and some funny games! We played a challenge game that was everyone at the party versus our two coaches. The challenges included flipping a cookie in your mouth, putting the Elitserien hockey teams in order, naming the Swedish counties, picking out a missing item, and smashing cookies between your butt cheeks! Everyone was laughing the whole time. It was really nice to meet some of the people on the board who support us. My favorite moment of the night was talking with a lady on the board. She told me, “It’s good for me to speak in English because it’s the only time when I think before I speak!” I was cracking up!!! The more I talked with her the more I realized that she didn’t think that much before speaking in English either. She had me laughing all night.

     December 18^th, I went to a Christmas concert at a church. It was really nice, but it was not what I expected. I expected it to be Christmas songs about Jesus, but there were only a few Christian songs during the 2-hour concert. They did sing a lot of songs in English, which was really awesome! I sang along with all of the English songs. The biggest surprise of the concert was that they sang Fairytale of New York. They sang it in Swedish so I am not sure if they sang a different version than I know, but the version that I know goes “You’re a bum. You’re a punk. You’re an old slut on junk. Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed. You scumbag. You maggot. You cheap lousy faggot. Happy Christmas your arse I pray God it’s our last.” Needless to say, my jaw dropped when they sang this song! One of my teammate’s, Emma, also sang in the concert. She did a great job!!!

     After the concert, we went over to Linn’s, another teammate, parent’s house for a Swedish Julbord, or Christmas table/dinner. It was delicious!!!

The cold table: ham, some kind of calve meat, sausage, salmon, liver pate, deviled eggs, and herring!

The different cheeses.

The hot food: little hotdogs, meatballs, and janssons frestelse which is a potato and anchovy dish.

Julöl, Christmas beer. yummm

Swedish tradition of taking a shot of vodka and chasing it with piece of herring

     We haven’t had much snow this winter. It has been snowing all day though today! Snow really helps to get me in the Christmas mood.

I love the 'presents' under the tree, aka hay-bails.

     Tomorrow, I leave for a week Christmas vacation. My first stop is Holland. I will be visiting my friends Arjen, Thijs, Ellen, and Ellen. I am sooo excited to see them! They are all from Holland, but they come work our Illinois volleyball summer camps. I will definitely be posting more later about my Dutch Christmas experiences! Early morning on December 26^th, I am taking a train to Paris, France. There I will be meeting up with my really good friend from Illinois, Mike, and his family. I am also very excited to see them too! I miss my friends so much, and I can’t wait to see some of them! Of course, I wish I could be with my family for Christmas, but visiting some of my friends will still be awesome! :)

Merry Christmas!!!

Volleyball

     It’s been quite a while since I wrote about volleyball. In fact, it has been over a month since I wrote about our matches. I can sum it up in one word why I haven’t written about volleyball: losing. I hate losing so much! Anyone, who has ever seen me play volleyball or played against me or even had an argument with me, will know that I am super competitive. When the Illinois volleyball team would all get flu shots, I started a competition of who could keep their Band-Aid on the longest. I really really hate losing! Anyways, my team is 2-7 right now, losing the last 6 straight matches. I definitely wouldn’t say that everything has been bad when it comes to volleyball; it’s just that we haven’t been able to play great for a long enough time to get the W. This is our team’s first year in the Elitserien, the highest division in Sweden. There is a really big difference between this division and the division that they played in last year. Our biggest issue is giving away points/making errors. They have told me that last year they could make many errors but still win because the other teams would make even more errors. This is not the case in the Elitserien. I think we are getting better at keeping the ball in play, but we still have a way to go. Here is a little information about each of the previous matches that I have written about.

     November 26^th, we played Engelholms, which is the #1 team in the Elitserien. We lost to them 20-25 25-20 16-25 23-25. Now this sounds like we did really well, right? Well, we did play the best volleyball that we have played the whole time I have been in Sweden. This was also the most frustrating match I have played since I have been in Sweden. We were winning the 4^th set 20-8 and 23-13 before losing 23-25. I was on the bench during this run. It looked like no one had the confidence to pass the ball or put the ball away, and that we were just waiting for them to make a mistake. They obviously didn’t make one. We played the best volleyball and the worst volleyball in the same set. To view match statistics, go to http://www.cupassist.com/pa/livescore/women/stats.php?year=2011&id=M_W11_26-1112.htm.

     On December 4^th, we lost to Falköping 16-25 23-25 11-25. This match we really struggled to pass the ball. In serve receive, we had a positive touch on the ball only 38% of the time. This is not good! Our serve receive struggled so much that then our hitters were worried about that and made a lot of hitting errors as well. We had 20 kills with 17 errors. To view match statistics, go to http://www.cupassist.com/pa/livescore/women/stats.php?year=2011&id=M_W11_33-1112.htm.

     We took Sollentuna to 5 sets on December 10^th losing 20-25 25-18 15-25 25-24 11-15. This match there wasn’t really any one thing that we did poorly. Our serve receive had a positive touch 71% of the time, and we had 49 kills with 19 errors. We just couldn’t get over the hump to actually win. We played alright, but just didn’t take care of all the little things like perfect passing on freeballs or coverage. To view match statistics, go to http://www.cupassist.com/pa/livescore/women/stats.php?year=2011&id=M_W11_38-1112.htm.

     On December 17^th, we lost to Katrineholm 10-25 12-25 17-25. I personally think that they are the best team in the league. They are in 2^nd place after losing to Engelholms. They are tall! Every single girl was over 6 feet tall. They didn’t even bring their libero to the match, but still played great defense. The 3^rd ball that I was in the match, I blocked their middle. It was an awesome block! The bad part was that I hyper-extended my left elbow doing this. It is feeling better now, but I had to take myself out of the match to get it wrapped. Having it wrapped definitely helped, but I was very hesitant to block again. I got a touch with my left hand again later in the match, and it hurt terribly! This loss was strictly that they were better than us. They really are a great team. I think we could have played better. We had more hitting errors than we had kills, but overall Katrineholm was just a better team than us. To view match statistics, go to http://www.cupassist.com/pa/livescore/women/stats.php?year=2011&id=M_W11_42-1112.htm.

      I think everyone on the team is going to benefit from our week off! We have a lot of little injuries and sicknesses. We all definitely need and deserve a break. I am looking forward to the second half of the season. We are not satisfied with how the first half went. I think we will all come back from the break re-energized and ready to compete!

 

CSI Ljungby

     Before I came to Ljungby, everyone assured me that it is a very nice safe small town. After being in Ljungby for a month and a half, I wasn’t sure if I believed them anymore! On October 16^th, I found out that there was a 4-year-old boy that murdered that evening. I have been trying to keep up with the investigation online. There was a time where they were looking for a man with a red car that had been seen on the crime scene that evening. They finally found the car and the man who owned it, but soon realized he had nothing to do with the boy’s death. At that discovery, they believed that it was another child who was responsible for the murder. The 4-year-old boy had been playing on a playground with some children when a quarrel broke out. Soon after the fight, the boy was missing; and a few hours after that, he was found in a wooded area dead. Because the Ljungby police are not specifically trained for such cases, they had to call in a team from Stockholm! I hadn’t heard anything about the case for over a month now. Until today!!!

Here is a translation of an article from today:

According to police, the four-year-old was strangled with a jump rope. The 10-year-old in the interrogation who is now suspected of the murder told what happened.

Early in the investigation the ten-year-old was interesting, police said. He has been interrogated several times and finally told me what happened the evening of October 16. Classification of offenses persists and remains murder.

A breakthrough took place yesterday, says the prosecutor. Then held a new hearing with the age of ten.

- There has never been any other suspicious than this boy, said Deputy Chief Prosecutor Yvonne Rudinsson says.

Prosecutors and police are silent about both the motives and the details of the quarrel that led to the boy's death.

Rudinsson would not say if the boy has admitted to the murder, but says she considers it to be cleared up.

According to the prosecutor, there is no relationship between the ten-year-old and killed the boy.

This murder case consists of more than 3000 pages of investigative materials, told police during today's press conference. It has been about 540 interviews, of which 65 are children. The children questioned are aged 5-15 old, tells the police.

It is very uncommon for children to kill other children. Between 1990 and 2011 there have been children who act in five cases, Ljungby case included. During the same period 1200 murders committed in Sweden.

http://www.smp.se/nyheter/kronoberg/polisen-10-aring-lag-bakom-mordet%283073399%29.gm

     It’s so sad, but at least they have solved the case now. I am curious to hear what will happen with this ten-year-old boy. Strangled with a jump rope does not really sound like an accident… Pretty crazy stuff!?