Working Woman

     I have been coaching our B team since the middle of November. Most of the girls are around 16 years old, with a few younger and a few older. We run their practice twice a week on Mondays, 16:00-17:30, and Thursdays, 17:30-19:30. We have been working on a lot of ball control and free ball passing along with arm swing. One of the dads, Stefan, is also at all of the practices with us. We asked him if we could get some tennis balls. We have implemented using the tennis balls to learn the correct arm swing. The girls are all improving a lot! They can all throw the tennis balls great, but we are still working on them transferring that into actual hitting. They are still improving every practice though. It is nice that all of them speak great English that we don’t need to have someone translating to them what we want them to do. We have even taught them some American volleyball terms that do not translate, like shag! Whenever we yell out shag, the girls all know to run and pick up all the balls.

     December 15^th was the B team’s first match after Christmas. Unlike my team, they started a new league with new teams. They beat Lund in 3 sets. December 21^st was the second match. Unfortunately, they lost in 5 sets to Ystad. Ystad had two really tall good middles that we struggled to stop. We played really up and down as well. We lost the first two sets by like 10, then the third set we were winning 18-1! We won the third and fourth sets, before dropping the fifth and final set. Although we didn’t play consistently, I was still proud of how well the girls played. They were even missing one of our starting outsides and middles. I think we will be able to beat them when we play them in Ljungby.

     Meghan and I have also started working at a factory in Ljungby! It reminds me of my days working at Enduro factory in Washington, MO. We worked on Wednesday from 13-16 and Thursday & Friday from 8-12, but we aren't sure when we will be working next. It is a graphic production factory called JOMAGP, but we like to call it JoMeg. :) We worked packaging the different printouts. Meghan did a couple different jobs like laminating papers, putting postage and labels on envelopes, and the same job that I did. I was a Plastic Wrap Specialist! Here is a step-by-step picture explanation of what I did:

Pick up stack of handouts.

Slide handouts into the plastic wrap.

Align handouts on corner of machine.

Press green button for top to come down.

Peel away excess plastic wrap.

Repeat hundreds of times!

We finished the job a little early on Friday so we also got to put together some boxes!

Harry Potter Puzzle

      My friends, Jamie and Nikki Gross, sent me a Christmas present! They sent it with Mike so he gave it to me in Paris. Jamie and Nikki had told me ahead of time though that they had found me the perfect present. They were definitely right! I do love Harry Potter; although, my love comes nowhere close to their love for Harry Potter. They are kind of obsessed. ;) I really love doing puzzles though! I did a blog a while back on my progress doing a 500 piece puzzle. Well here is my progress on doing my 1000 piece Harry Potter puzzle!

After 1.5 hours of work.

After another 1.5 hours of work.

After another 4 hours of work.

 So I thought that I had taken another picture after the previous one, but I was wrong. So here comes a big leap to the finish!

After another 6.5 hours of work. Finished!

Happy 2012!

Warning: I was very lame on New Year’s Eve.

     I had just gotten back from my Christmas break trips, and I didn’t really want to spend more money. Some of the girls on the team were going to Copenhagen. Another teammate, Selma, invited me to her parents house and then to another party. I decided to turn down all of the invitations. Meghan stayed home with me also. We decided to skip Swedish NYE and wake up in time for American NYE. I was asleep before midnight Swedish time. I woke at 6:00 though. Meghan made pancakes, and we had an American midnight breakfast. After we finally reached American midnight, I went straight back to bed!

Here is what I found out the next day…

     The party that my teammate invited me to ended up having a fight start out. The cops came, and at least one person had to go to the hospital.

     My friend that plays volleyball in Denmark and I had talked about meeting up in Copenhagen. She still went, but she did not have a great NYE either. I have to start by saying she was not drunk! The wine glass in her hand was the only alcohol she had all night. In Copenhagen, you are allowed to drink alcohol while walking around the city. She had dressed up for the night and was wearing heels. Her heel got caught in the cobblestone, and she tripped and fell. As I said she had a wine glass in her hand, she tried catching herself but her hand landed on the broken glass. She cut up her hand really bad and ended up having to go to the hospital and get stitches. She is a setter so she has to sit out from volleyball for a while.

Moral of the story: I may have been very lame on NYE, but at least, I was safe and didn’t go to the hospital!

Beach Volleyball

     On December 30^th, I went to Göteborg to play beach volleyball. Göteborg is the second biggest city in Sweden. I went with my teammate, Selma, and 2 other boys. Of course, it was indoor beach volleyball since we are in Sweden! The facility was awesome though. There were 9 indoor beach courts. There were very bright lights that made it feel like we were out in sun. All of the walls were covered with pictures of the beach. There was music playing, but you could also hear sounds of waves and birds. It really heightened my spirits playing there because I truly felt like I was back playing beach volleyball in the summer. Even though, I didn’t win until our last round (of 6 games!), I still had a great time! It was a lot of fun, and I hope to make it back there before I leave Sweden.

Dec. 27- Paris Day 2

     We awoke our second morning in Paris to find it very foggy. It was foggy the previous morning when we all had arrived, but the day cleared out to be very nice. We would not have such luck today.

     We grabbed some quick breakfast to eat on the train into the city. I think I got the world’s smallest coffee!

We went straight to the Eiffel Tower to try to go up it today.

     It was still quite foggy so we decided to go on to Versailles and hope that the sky would clear up as the day went on. The line to get into Versailles was extremely long! Also there were two very long lines. First, you had to get in line to buy tickets. Then, you had to get in a long line to get into Versailles.

     We decided to split up. Mike’s parents got in the ticket line while the rest of us got in the other line. It worked out perfectly; although, we were still only half way through our line when they rejoined us! The paintings and everything were just incredible. There really aren’t any words to describe how beautiful the palace is. I don’t think my pictures even come close to giving it the proper credit, but here is my attempt!

It was so foggy that we didn't walk around the grounds, but they are huge!

He is a math guy!

Even the doors are cool.

The ceilings are all absolutely amazing.

Hall of Mirrors.

The kids in the Hall of Mirrors.

     We grabbed some lunch again before hopping on the train. This became a very common occurrence. Mike and I got McDonald’s! I was excited because they had this awesome Easy Order station.

You need a credit card with a chip in it. I was so proud that my Swedish card has a chip so we could use it! We placed our order with no problems. I was so excited because we got to skip all the long lines. Within a minute after ordering, we saw the girl start putting our food in a bag. She got our drinks and one burger, but then she took all of it back. I asked and she said that my card didn’t work! I was so upset! So we ended up having to wait in the lines anyways.

     We were then on our way to the Louvre. We found out on our way that the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays! We were disappointed, but we decided that it is still worth it just to go and see the buildings.

     We headed on to the Arc de Triomphe. It is a monument in remembrance of those who fought in the French Revolutionary war. It is in the center of the biggest round a bout I have ever seen. I think it was like 5 lines wide! We did not chance it to get out there, but I was amazed how many people were standing under it. I have no clue how they got out there through all the lanes of busy traffic.

     We grabbed some sandwiches and pizza for dinner so we could make it to the Eiffel Tower on the hour for the sparkling! It is kind of like a seizure Eiffel Tower, but it was definitely worth seeing. I think I was expecting something more like the Christmas lights that go along with the music, but instead it just twinkles.

     It was still very foggy out, but we decided that we would still try going up in the Eiffel Tower. I was excited when we bought our tickets because I was still considered a child! Ok, it was called ‘young’, but still I was excited.

     We didn’t go all the way to the top, but the second story was plenty high enough for me! Have I told you that I am terrified of heights? The elevator ride up was so scary. I did brave it out though and stood at the edge. There was caging that goes all the way up and over your head, but I was still very scared. I couldn’t get very good pictures because it was so foggy and dark, but I am very happy that we still went up in it. It was really cool!

     This next part was one of my favorite parts of the day! We went back to the train station to head back to our hotel. We had to wait a little bit for a train that was heading to where we needed to go. We noticed that there was another train a minute after this first one that was going to the same place. We also noticed it last night when we were going back. The train we took the night before had stopped at every stop. We asked some people if they knew if the second one made all the stops as well. No one knew the answer. We decided to chance it and wait for the second train! There is a board that lights up for the next train and shows all the stops that it is making. All seven of us were standing around the board crossing our fingers for an express train and saying com’on com’on! As soon as the board lite up we all started cheering like we won the lottery! We were all so excited! I wish I could have gotten a video of all of us waiting and celebrating. It would have been great.

     We took our express train back to the hotel. Mike’s sisters and grandma headed to bed. Mike, his parents, and I went to the hotel bar to have a beer. It was a great end to the trip with them, just sitting around talking and having a drink! I am so happy that it ended up working out for me to see the Milligan family. I really can’t explain how happy it made me to spend time with great friends from home!

     The following morning, they headed on to Venice, Italy. I was heading back to Sweden. I had such an amazing trip in Holland and France. I could have definitely had a longer vacation, but I was definitely refreshed and ready for the second half of my stay in Sweden!

Thank you so much to everyone who helped me during this trip!!!