A week ago today, Drums and I were invited to a local home in town to go fishing and have dinner.  Hans and Carin Ivarsson have a great house on a river, with many acres of forest all around their property (kind of reminded me of home).  Hans came and picked us up at the apartment and brought us out to his house.  We got there and immediately started fishing.  I got to use a little pole that just sat in the water and you didn’t have to cast, allowing me to just sit in a chair and watch.  Drums had a real pole and managed to get the line caught in rocks a dozen or so times.  Hans, and later Drums, had to go out in a little boat to get the line unhooked from the rocks.  After about an hour, I got our first and only fish…if you could call it that.  It was a pike, but it was about the size of my hand, extremely small, so we released it.  Unfortunately, Drums, with a real fishing rod, couldn’t catch anything. 

After about three hours of fishing, and only one caught fish, we made our way inside to have dinner.  We had this meat known as fleisk (sp?).  It was basically a really thick piece of bacon and it was by far the best food that I have had here.  We also had some potatoes and salad…it actually felt like a real American meal.  Meat, potatoes, and a veggie.  It was in a great room, all glassed in, overlooking the river.  When dinner was over, Hans showed us the family hunting rifles and then we all watched America’s Funniest Home Videos with their young daughter, before he brought us home.

That has probably been the highlight of the last couple weeks because it was one of the few times that we have really gotten out of downtown Osby and done something different.  It has been tough for me to get around on the crutches, so getting out in the fresh air was awesome.

Hockey wise, we won another game this week and then tied a game.  So after stating 0-5, we are 4-0-2 in our last 6, which is very encouraging.  The preseason is over now and regular season starts on Oct. 7.  We picked up two good forwards that will help us out a lot, but also loss two defensemen.   One of them quit and another guy, one of the two whose wife just had a baby two weeks ago, decided it would be better to spend more time at home – can’t blame him.  So Coach is hoping to add another defensemen or two.

This past Wednesday I went back to the hospital for a checkup on my leg.  I was able to get my first cast off and had an air cast made for me.  The air cast can be taken off when I shower, which is really, really nice.  Also, when I am sitting around, I can let the air out of four holes, which allows for the cast to loosen up a bit.  Then, when I am moving around more, I fill the four holes with an air pump and it tightens up.  This is much better than the regular cast, except I haven’t been able to sleep well with it.  Drums and Ola have been great helping me out with anything I can’t do on my own.  Whenever I was younger and got hurt, which happened a lot, my sister would give me a bell.  This way, when I was in my bed or sitting on the couch and needed anything, I could ring it and she would come running.  I actually just got Drums a bell too, so he now is able to get me anything whenever I need it.  Just kidding about this, but that’d be nice. 

A member of the hockey board recently got us both passes to the local gym.  It is a big step up from the gym that we were using at the hockey rink (see pictures from previous post).  Yesterday, we went down and lifted, I of course can only do upper body.  But it was the first time I’ve done anything active in two weeks and it felt great. 

Other than that and the fishing trip, there hasn’t been that much exciting going on.  The regular season starts this week so everyone is looking forward to that.  I’ll try to do another post in the next week or so.  I’m getting excited for the Yanks playoff games now, so I’ll have some late nights over here next week and hopefully will be able to post another update.

Here are some pictures from the fishing trip.

Last week, Drums and I finally started to get into the swing of things.  We would wake up every morning around 9:30 and grab a quick breakfast.  Then, we would walk 10 minutes up to the rink, change into some workout cloths and lift some weights for an hour and a half.  We’d then shower, walk back to the apartment and make a chicken wrap for lunch.  It would now be around 2:00 pm and  we’d take an afternoon nap, then head back up to the rink around 4:30, have an off-ice session at 5:00, and then practice from 6:00-7:30ish.  After practice, we’d come back home and make some sort of dinner and call it a night.  We felt like we were not wasting away our days but instead actually being somewhat productive and active.    

We also started our coaching duties last week.  On Monday and Thursday nights, we are the head coaches of the local U16 team.  In the afternoons we would plan out our practices and then on Monday’s at 9:30 and on Thursday’s at 7:30, we’d go run practice for an hour and twenty minutes.  The first two went really well (all the kids understand English) and as a result of that, both of us became pretty excited about this unique opportunity.  We have both worked hockey camps before, but have never had a “team” for longer than a one week period.  This is going to be our first chance to actually coach a group of kids and really see them develop as hockey players, and hopefully as people too.  It’s also a great experience for us to learn about how to be a coach, what works and what doesn’t, what we like to do and what the kids like to do, etc.  We’re both really looking forward to seeing where this can go.

On Sunday, we had our first home game.  We probably had a hundred fans in the building and it was great to finally play on home ice.  We played a team that we had lost to previously 4-1, but this time, we had all of our players.  We won the game 5-3 and Drums and I both had two assists.  The team as a group played much better than we had up to this point and it really showed during this game.  It was also pretty exciting to see how good we could potentially be with our entire lineup on the ice.

Unfortunately for me, I awkwardly landed on my right leg in the third period.  I tried to get to the bench and could not put any weight on it.  The rink had no crutches so I was hobbling around trying to get to the locker room.  I ended up getting an ambulance called for me and was taken to a hospital around 45 minutes away.  After waiting for 4 hours – a common occurrence in Swedish hospitals I’m told – the doctor told me that I had a 2 cm crack in my right fibula.  Right after the nurse was finished putting my cast on my leg, I headed to a different wing of the hospital for an additional type of treatment.  At another point during the game, I was hit in the face with a stick and needed to get a handful of stitches to sew shut the hole in my mouth.  Not a great night for me.

The last two days have been spent lounging around the apartment because there is not much for me to do.  We actually have a game tonight so I’m pretty excited to finally venture out to the rink to watch it.  I just received a letter in the mail that I’ll be going back to the hospital next Wednesday for a checkup.  Maybe that will be the next blog update.

Also, here are some pictures of our current injuries…Drums took a hit to the face in our last game, the stiches in my mouth, and my broken leg.

The first game was a rough one for us and we lost 3-1 to yet again, another team that we should have beat.  It probably sounds like a lot of excuses, but we were still down a bunch of players: the two guys expecting children, the young player who is playing on a select team, both my line mates who were out with injuries, and potentially another player who is on a Division 1 team but is thinking of coming back here.  Defensively, we were rotating 5 d-men and doing this for two periods just exhaust the team.  Excuses aside, we played horribly and didn’t deserve to win.

After the first game, we had about an hour before the second.  The second team we were playing was a team that was in our division.  We watched a bit of their first game and they looked like a really strong team.  After our first game, Drums called out the entire team in the locker room and got really fired up about how frustrating it was to go out and lose like we have been, and I think guys kind of rallied behind this.  We played the best we had played all year and tied this team 3-3.  To me, as I was coming back into the locker room after the game, it felt as though we had won and I think that this was a huge confidence builder for the guys.  We went in and tied a really good team, missing some of our better players and while rotating 5 defensemen, and 2 centers.  This was the first game that I was playing every other shift, but Drums had been doing it pretty much since we got here.  Playing two periods helped us out a lot – so far, we play really well for the first two periods of most games and then in the third, when we are all exhausted from not having a full bench, other teams go to work against us.

After this game, we had about a two hour break before playing the third game.  We came out playing really well this game and quickly had a 4-0 lead.  This team was not that great and we played our second goalie, a younger guy.  Our starting goalie is 31, our backup is 18.  We ended up winning 5-2 and coming in 2^nd place in the tournament, out of 4 teams.  Drums won MVP for the second game and we each came away with a handful of points on the day.

We get back to Osby around 9:30 and quickly came back to the apartment to change.  Then we met a majority of the team at one of the guy’s house.  The rest of the players organized a bus that would take us about 2 Swedish miles, 20 kilometers, to a Swedish “club.”  We all piled in and drove about twenty minutes to the place, which was out in the middle of nowhere, kind of in the woods.   But it was huge.  The first floor was slow dancing, the second floor was a hip-hop dance floor, and outside in the back was a live rock band.  It was a pretty neat place and it was packed with people.  The night flew by and at around 2am, our bus drove us all back.

Today we spent lounging around and recovering.  I actually just got done watching Nadal lose.  Tomorrow, we have our first practice coaching a local team of 15 and 16 year olds.  We’ll be running the entire practice, planning it all out and everything – kind of excited to do this.  We’ve both worked camps before, but never actually had a team to coach so we are thinking this could be a great experience.  We coach them twice a week for practices, and then someone else has them for games on the weekend.  Wish us luck…

Here are some pictures of the street we live on (with Drums and our roommate, Ola), the local tennis court, our team weight room, and our home rink.

The biggest change since being here so far has been figuring out all of our meals.  I always appreciated how different and thought out all of my home cooked meals were (thanks Mom), but I never realized how much effort actually went into preparing them.  For breakfast, we have been doing cereal.  Everyday lunch mainly consists of a wrap with some form of meat, onions, peppers, jalapenos, and cheese.  Dinner has normally been a meat, some form of potatoes, and a veggie.  We spend about twenty minutes walking around the grocery store looking for options and always seem to end up with the same thing.  The variety that I have had at home throughout my life has been amazing and I am hoping that I can figure out how to incorporate some of that here in Sweden.  Any suggestions?  Leave them in the comment section.

In blog news, I have lost my guest blogger, Ian Bradshaw Drummond.  He instead decided to start his own blog and you can read that at http://iandrummond.wordpress.com/.  I also realized that I was a bit ambitious when I thought I could write 4 updates a week – especially now without my guest blogger.  So for everyone who anxiously awaits a new update every other day, sorry, but I don’t think that is going to happen.   

We have an off day tomorrow and are going to play tennis with our roommate Ola and another guy on the team Johan.  I am planning on sleeping in tomorrow because one of the few American channels we get here is called ESPN America and tonight’s featured program, starting at 1:00 AM, is the New York Yankees vs. the Tampa Rays.  And I am very excited for that.

This is going to be my first blog update ever so hopefully it is somewhat put together.

We just got back from our third preseason game and after losing the first two 3-2 and 5-2, we lost again tonight 6-4.  However, we were missing our #1 goalie, two of our top forwards, and a defensemen.  So while we have lost all 3 games, I think that when the regular season comes around we’ll be in good shape.  A lot of the guys have other commitments, such as work and families, and hockey is something extra they do.  So missing preseason games and practices is something that they are allowed to do in hopes that they won’t need to miss regular season games.  Drums and I each had a goal and an assist tonight so both of us are among the team leaders in points, probably at the top.   

For those of you who don’t know, Osby is in Division 2.  Supposedly, the conference we are in is the strongest D2 conference in Sweden and Osby has finished 5 out of 10 teams the past two years.  Each year, the top teams in D2 move up to D1, while the bottoms teams from D1 move down to D2.  It’s kind of weird that we have played in three games without practicing yet and I think it definitely shows during the games.  The typical week consist of practices Monday and Tuesday, game Wednesday, off day Thursday, practice Friday, game Saturday, off day Sunday.  The hockey is a lot better then I originally expected which has been a huge bonus so far, but it is also a completely different style of play.  There is almost no hitting.  Everyone moves the puck so smooth that it’s fun to sit on the bench and watch the plays develop.  One thing that we both have to get use to is that whenever you touch another player, they always go down, and you almost always get a penalty.

Drums and I have moved into the coach’s apartment with his son, and our line mate, Ola.  The coach moved to another place he had in town.  We’re in a great place right on main street, across from a supermarket and a pizzeria.  We have wi-fi, a flat screen TV, leather couches, etc.  It’s in a perfect location and only about a 10 minute walk from the rink.

This past Friday we had an evening with the board members and local sponsors.  It was a really interesting night and it’s a way for them to get to know all the players.  We all met down at the rink and were divided into 4 teams consisting of players, coaches, board members, sponsors, etc.  First, we each got a golf club and had a blind folded long drive contest, followed by ATV races and then a skeet shooting competition (my first time shooting a real gun).  After that, a local family cooked us all a traditional Chinese Swedish dinner – great food. 

Throughout the entire evening, everyone had been heavily drinking.  So towards the end of dinner, everyone in the room started singing Swedish drinking songs.  It basically consisted of going around the table and getting everyone to chug their drinks.  This is when the night got a little weird.  All the new players had to participate in an Osby hockey tradition that has been happening for decades.  We were all escorted outside (around 10 of us) and instructed to strip naked.  We then all had to come inside holding plates around us and dance around all the tables.  It was a bit awkward at first thinking about doing this in front of board members and sponsors that consisted of a handful of women, but doing it as a group made it pretty fun.  Everyone who was not part of the new group was sitting around the tables singing and chanting.  After this, everyone started clapping.  Finally, after putting our clothes back on, we all headed down to the local pub.

This area of Sweden looks a lot like Vermont and northern New York – lots of open fields and farms.  One thing that is different is that they have huge wind power turbines everywhere.  Pretty much any open field has at least one.  The town of Osby is a lot smaller than I imagined.  Everyone knows everyone in the town and the front page of the newspaper everyday is a story about the hockey team – hopefully we can win a couple games to get some good articles.

So far everything has been great.  The guys all seem like really good guys and have included us in everything and helped us feel extremely comfortable.  We have our first practice tomorrow night so pretty excited for that.  I miss watching the Yankees though.