Gothenburg: Con v. Pro

     We had this weekend off from volleyball so Meghan and I took a trip to Gothenburg (Göteborg). It's the second largest city in Sweden. It has a similar population to Kansas City, but about half of the square miles of Kansas City. Oh, did I mention only the Missouri side of Kansas City!? Gothenburg is on the west coast of Sweden. The trip didn't go as smoothly as we would have liked, so I made a pros and cons list to explain this adventure. ...So I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want to hear first?... The answer is always the bad news first, right? So you can end on the positive. Well, that's what I did here. So enjoy the cons and pros of my adventure to Gothenburg!!!

Cons

1. It was raining and cold the whole time. It was also foggy on Saturday. (See pro 1)

2. Liseberg, the amusement park, was closed until November.

3. Poseidon was ‘at the spa’ until November.

4. Frida Kahlo exhibit didn’t start until after we left.

5. The circus show didn’t start until November.

6. The Gothia Towers’ restaurant was too expensive. (See pro 10)

7. Everything is too expensive. My shrimp sandwich, fries, and a pint of Guinness was 225kr=$37.

8. The hostel. If I listed everything separate this list would be way longer.

            a. It cost 300kr=$50 per person per night.

b. It cost 60kr=$10 to get sheets which included a flat sheet, a duvet cover with no duvet, and a pillowcase with no pillow.

            c. We had to set the room, aka the beds were standing upright on the

            headboards.

            d. The room was freezing! The heaters didn’t work. I slept in pants and a

            sweatshirt.

            e. I used a pair of jeans and a coat as a pillow.

f. It said online that it was close to the centrum. This was a lie. It is about a 30-40 minute walk.

9. Crazy Stupid Love made us lonely. (See pro 6)

10. In order to get the amazing view of the city, we had to climb 195 stairs. (See pro 11)

11. We did so much walking that our bodies are very sore. (See pro 14)

12. Since our bodies were hurting so bad, we agreed that massages would be amazing. When we just so happened to find a spa, we thought it must be fate. Wrong. The spa closed 10 minutes before we got there.

13. We never found the big fish market.

14. The Mid Season Sale was not very good. (See pro 13)

15. I have still not been able to find a pair of black boots that don’t look like riding boots, don’t have a big heel, and are under $100.

Pros

1. I had the pleasure of exploring a new city with a good friend. (See con 1)

2. Gothenburg is wayyy bigger than Ljungby.

3. I finally found a fairly cheap purse and wallet.

4. I ate a delicious shrimp sandwich.

5. We had a free ride to and from Gothenburg.

6. I saw Crazy Stupid Love for the second time and loved it again. (See con 9)

7. Ryan Gosling is so attractive, hot, sexy, you name it.

8. I ate a bagel!!! (Yes, the bagel came with lettuce on it.)

9. I had both Subway and Pizza Hut (mmmmmm stuffed crust).

10. When we went to the restaurant at Gothia Towers, we got a great view of Liseberg lit up at nighttime. (See con 6)

11. It was not foggy on Sunday, and we got an amazing view of the whole city. (See con 10)

12. We found Haga, the old part of town, where we also found Skansen Krona.

13. We went into like 6 different H&M stores. (See con 14)

14. We enjoyed multiple ‘fikas’ to take a break from all the walking. (See con 11)

15. Through all the good and bad, I had fun and lots of laughs and memories!

Elitseriepremiär

We had our first real match yesterday against Gislaved. We lost in 4 sets, 17-25 18-25 25-20 22-25. Once again, our serve receive showed to be a weakness. When we had a good pass, we were able to score. This makes it difficult for our setter, Meghan, to get the ball to me, but she did a good job of still getting me the ball as much as possible. At each match, they announce a 'best player' from each team. I got the award for our team which happened to be..... lottery tickets?! haha I have no clue why that was the gift, and sadly I don't think I even won any money. What a bummer! Our next match is October 29th at home against Örebro.

I am not completely sure what all of this means. Set indicates in what position you started the set. I have absolutely no clue what vote means. I don't really understand Points either. Serve is the total, errors, and aces. Reception is serve receive total, errors, and percentage. Attack is total, errors (such as hitting in the net or out of bounds), blocked (getting blocked), kills, and kill percentage. Kill percentage is different than the normally calculated attack percentage. Kill percentage is kills divided by total swings (ex. 11/21=.523). On the other hand, attack percentage is kills - total errors (errors and blocked) divided by total swings (ex. 11-1=10/21=.476). This is looked at more often because it takes into account errors as well as kills. Last BK stands for blocks. I am not exactly sure how they keep this statistic when it comes to block assists (where there are two players jumping on the block). I think they may just give the stat to only one of the blockers, but not completely sure. To view the full stat sheet, go to http://iof3.idrottonline.se/SvenskaVolleybollforbundet/Elitserien/Nyheter/Matchstats/ and click on Gislaved - Ljungby 3-1. You can also still watch the match at http://www.volleykanalen.se/.

Life Changing

Here is a list that I have been keeping of ways that my life is different since I made the big move to Ljungby. I don't think there is really anything profound on this list, but none-the-less my life is very different now. There is no particular order to the list; they are simply written as they came to my knowledge (or as I remembered them when I was sitting at my computer).

1. American DVDs do not work in European DVD players.

2. I do not have a cell phone. What I miss the most about this is having a notepad with me at all times. It would have come in handy while creating this list.

3. I read books all the time and thoroughly enjoy it.

4. I cook dinner almost every night.

5. I eat fresh vegetables or salad everyday.

6. I go to church, but it is all in Swedish. Although I don’t understand what is being said, it is still nice to be in God’s house. I come home after church and listen online to the sermon from Immanuel Lutheran.

7. All of my friends here are female.

8. I sleep in a twin-sized bed that is just a wooden frame with a couple springs and a mattress pad (no box spring and full mattress).

9. The light switches r upside down.  When the light is turned off, then the switch is up.

10. All cars always stop at crosswalks.

11. You can’t get a meal under $10, not even Burger King.

12. I have not driven a car since I left America.

13. You have to pay for grocery bags and shopping carts (but I learned that you get the money back for the cart when you return it).

14. I brush my teeth twice a day, floss, and use mouth wash everyday. If I have any cavities when I come home, I am suing someone.

15. You reserve seats at a movie theater, and everyone talks all during the previews! Meghan and I kept shushing them! At least movies are still in English just with Swedish subtitles.

16. American websites like nbc, cbs, fox, abc, cmt, hulu, Netflix do not work in Europe, thank goodness for ch131.com!

17. I used to easily sleep past noon everyday, but now I struggle greatly to sleep past 9.

18. Nowhere has bagels. Nowhere.

19. The water is fizzier than the soda.

20. I am an avid recycler (you get money back for it so we are collecting everything we find and saving all the money until our last in Ljungby!).

21. I drink a lot of coffee.

22. I have a Swedish bank account and a debit card with a chip, officially Swedish.

23. I do laundry every week that you have to sign up for on a wooden chart with a lock.

24. I play the M1 position, and sometimes I even play back row, which I absolutely LOVE both of those.

25. Most people don’t know my real name isn’t Jo, which they also pronounce as Yo a lot of the time.

26. I never know what time it is. I don’t wear a watch or have a phone to tell me the time so I just go about life and not worry about time.

27. There are no stop signs (or stop lights for that matter). Everyone just yields and follows the right rule. There are lots and lots of round-abouts too.

28. I help at a school once a week in an English class. I was just asked to help with an American history lesson as well (can I do a math lesson instead please?).

29. I haven’t been this long without seeing my parents ever, but we do get to Skype quite often, which I am thankful for.

30. I have no doubts about my life right now. I have lost some friends because of this move, but it has also strengthened other friendships. I still don’t know what I want to do with my life when I am finally finished playing volleyball. Of course, there are still things that I am working at to grow and develop, but as a whole, I am happy. God has truly blessed me!

My Trip to America!!!!!

     I found out that I would have some time off where I could travel back to America. My choice of destination was Champaign (naturally). I called my parents to inform them, but sadly they told me that they would not be able to make it. I arrived in Champaign and went straight to Huff Hall. There was going to be a volleyball game there that night. I immediately headed straight to the gym because I knew my friends would already be there to make sure they got the good seats. But as I entered the gym, I found it empty. My next idea was to look outside that they would probably be standing in line to get in. I was filled with joy as I walked out the doors to discover that the first people standing in line were my parents and a group of people all from Immanuel. I was so happy and surprised that they all came. I knew that I didn’t have long to stay in America before I had to return to Sweden, but I couldn’t remember when my flight back was. I knew that I needed to get food though before I returned to the airport. There was no doubt in my mind what I was going to have for dinner. Chipotle! I couldn’t wait to tell Meghan that I ate Chipotle because I knew that she would be so jealous. I was starting to panic though if I was going to miss my flight or not since I didn’t know when it was. I was really starting to freak out when all of a sudden…

     I woke up in panic thinking that I overslept and had missed volleyball practice! I wonder when/if my dreams will change from in America to in Sweden…

The long awaited...

APARTMENT VIDEO!!!

We moved into our apartment on September 9th, but it has taken awhile for us to get it all set up and ready to view. So I hope you like it! Everything we have is an accumulation of things from our teammates and other people in Ljungby. It is really starting to turn into our home now.

Best Practice Ever

     I do not think I could have imagined a better practice tonight! All weekend my lower back had been hurting and was super tight. This has been an issue for me in the past especially during high school and club days when I would play multiple matches a day and standing a lot. So for me today’s practice started out with… wait for it… MASSAGE! I got a 15-20 minute massage just on my lower back. It was so painful; she had to remind me multiple times to keep breathing. But just like John Cougar Mellencamp says, it hurt so good! She worked out a lot the tightness. It was seriously exactly what I needed. After that, I just rode a bike for a little while before it was team aerobics time. We rolled out a big long gymnastic mat. We did different kicks, somersaults, cartwheels, and jumps all down the mat! For those of you who don’t know, I cannot do a somersault so naturally I cannot even come close to doing a cartwheel. After I finished my embarrassing attempt at cartwheels, I ran and grabbed my camera to get the rest of the girls on video! At least I wasn't the only one who can't do a cartwheel. :)

     After that, we all changed into our swimming suits. We had to swim 5 down and backs. Another fun fact about me is that I don’t know how to swim. Many people have tried to teach me, and I just cannot do it. So I doggy paddled the whole way (and just walked some times when my feet could touch the bottom haha). Needless to say, I was the last one done. We finished off ‘practice’ with sitting in the sauna for a bit before showering and heading home. Like I said at the beginning, best practice ever!

Borås Tournament

     I woke up early Saturday morning to get in the van to go to Borås, Sweden, for our first tournament. We had two red 8-passenger vans that we took on our two-hour ride. Lena drove our van with Malin in the passenger seat. Meghan, Selma, and I were in the middle row, and Nata and Linn were in the back row. We had some very interesting conversations courtesy of Selma! There were a couple times where I literally had tears in my eyes. Not sure how many of you know this next fun fact, but while I was at Illinois, I kept a Kevin Hambly quote sheet. There were many times when Kevin said something funny or inappropriate, and I had the joy of keeping track of them all. Well, I have a new person now take Kevin’s place, and her name is Selma! For instance, the whole van ride Selma was drinking my water bottle because she thought she left hers in the fridge at home. All of a sudden, she turns to me with a completely straight face and says “I think I am stupid” after figuring out that her water bottle was right next to her the whole time! Shortly after this incident, she points out the window to a group of cows and says “Look Jo! There is my family!” I am always anxiously waiting to hear what she has to say next!

     Our first match on Saturday was against ____ (I don't remember who we played...). We played like we were still asleep, and lost in two to a team that I believe we should have beaten in two. This match though was a good wake up call to us, as we played way better in our next match. We played Lindesberg, which is a team that is in the Elit division so we will be playing them again in league play. We won the first set! Meghan told me later that she felt like she could set anyone that game and she would get a kill. That’s exactly how that set it; I think it was the best and most consistent game that our team has played so far. The next game was not like that. In fact, it was almost the opposite. The third set, we came back out strong. The score was tight the whole set. At 14-14, our middle back hit a back row attack that Lindesberg’s middle blocker CLEARLY touched. To our dismay, the refs did not call it. We ended up losing 14-16 in the 3^rd. This brings up another interesting difference between here and the United States. There are no line judges at any matches until you are in the playoffs. Could you imagine the final point of the September 24, 2010, Illinois victory over Penn State without line judges?! If the ref had called it out (which it was), Penn State would have gone crazy. But if the ref would have called it in, we would have gone crazy yelling at the ref too!

     Our last match of the day was a big match for me personally. From January to August, I did not have many opportunities to play volleyball. I have felt like my blocking has been terrible (at least in my own terms) every time I play. I wasn’t closing blocks like I normally do, and I wasn’t making moves with my hands like I normally do. I felt like I was just trying to get out to the ball and throwing my arms up wherever they would go. This match was the pivotal changing point where I finally felt like I was blocking like me! I was able to actually feel when I was reaching high on the block and when I was staying low and reaching far over the net. I blocked their huge outside sitter twice with my left hand (volleyball people know what I’m talking about here). There was a streak of points where I think I got 6 blocks out of 7 points! It was just such a confidence boost for me to finally be back to the point that I am happy with my blocking. I forgot to mention who we even played!? We beat Halmstad in two sets. They are also in the Elit division so we will be playing during league play as well.

     After that we still had a few hours before we would be going to dinner, so we went to the salad bar at the grocery store. It was soooo good! I had pasta with corn, green olives, avocados, mozzarella balls, and crawfish! It was just so yummy that I had to take a picture.

I should have taken another picture at the salad bar at dinner Saturday night too. I had green olives with garlic inside, garlic cloves in a marinade, pickled onions, cherry peppers, marinated mushrooms, corn nuts, sundried tomatoes, and more! I am in love with salad bars here. The dinner that Meghan and I both got though was a chicken breast that came with the salad bar. So this is what the plate looked like that they brought out to us…

     I learned a valuable lesson on this trip also about the sleeping situation. There were three of us each in a room so I thought there were beds. But when I was the first person to walk into the room, I was surprised to only see two beds! I was in mid-sentence asking Nata and Mia what we were going to do when they both jumped on to the two beds claiming them!!! I have learned my lesson now, and I do not plan on sleeping on the pullout couch again.

     Our first match on Sunday was against Vordingborg, Denmark. This just so happens to be my friend Tara’s team! We played much better in our first match today than we did in our first match the day before. We won in two sets! There were three matches before we had our next match. It was nice in the beginning to just sit around and talk more with Tara. I can’t say enough how nice it was to see her! I also took a little nap on the bleachers during the break. Even though all of this was nice, we were all completely cold before our next match. We had to totally warm up again. I thought this was apparent in our last match, which we played Halmstad again. We came out flat and with not a lot of energy. We ended up losing in two this time.

     After this weekend, it was obvious that we need to spend a lot more time working on serve receive. This was probably our biggest problem. Our other main issue still is just consistency. We had moments where we were playing really well and moments where we were playing really bad. The good thing about all of this is that it is still only like pre-season matches. Our first real league is not until October 15^th. We have a lot of potential, and we still have time to work hard in practice to get there before our start the matches that ‘really count’.

      We ate dinner in Borås before heading back to Ljungby. Where did we eat dinner you ask? Burger King!!! I walked into the restaurant, and the very first thing I said was “It smells like America!” I had a Whopper with cheese (med ost) with french fries and a Coca-Cola. It all tasted exactly like it does in America. It was a nice taste of home, no pun intended! Now if only I could find a Chipotle…