LVBK at Örebro

The day began bright (only because the lights were on inside, the sun was still in hiding) and early at 7am. Malin drove Jo, Sofie, and I to Sunnerbohallen. The team loaded up the bus and we were off. We had been informed that we weren’t allowed to sleep past 9:30, and despite my initial intention to do so just to stick it to the man, I was unable to. I slept for about an hour and a half before I joined the waking world to watch Despicable Me. This is one of Jo’s favorite movies (and mine as well). We had to make two stops on the drive, the second at a mall where we spent a little over an hour to eat and hang out. Finally, after me becoming quite the PITA, we had arrived at the gym. We went on a brisk pre-match walk before heading into the locker room. The gym wasn’t anything special, and had really high ceilings with lights from the side angled to the court—perfect for blinding a hitter. I did manage to find a secret treasure in the locker room: a pretty pretty ring!! “Finder’s keepers, loser’s weepers!!!” Hey ohh!!!

The match was going to be tough, as are most of our travel matches. Despite beating them 3-0 at home, this was going to be a battle. We knew that they had a new professional player (their setter) in addition to a solid right side and American outside, so we would have to jump on them early in order to win. The match started out ugly with us losing the first set 20-25. Fortunately we were able to work through this tillsammans (“together” in Swedish). As the match progressed, we were moving better and better, but I think the biggest change was our mental game. We were able to maintain a steady focus and calmness throughout the last 3 sets, which is not usually the case. As Daniel said on our team website, “this gain was incredibly nice because we showed we can win even without playing at our peak”. We won the match 3 sets to 1: 20-25, 25-19, 25-22, 25-17. Jo led the team with points (20) thus earning the Best Player award of Sex and the City perfume and lotion box set. Malin and Jassi were the next two highest scorers with 13 and 12 points, respectively. It was a great match where we were able to secure another 3 points for our overall ranking in the Elite Serien. 

Procrastination: it's what I do.

As I sit here studying for the GRE’s analytical writing task, I am prompted to write a blog. Go figure. The first sample issue task states “as people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.”

First things first, technological advancements have allowed the human race to do the unimaginable. Franklin got struck by lighting and discovered electricity. Alexander Graham Bell made a phone call. The Wright brothers flew a plane. Without these, and the countless number of other inventions, life today would be much more primitive and thus, limited. Instead of taking months or years for Newton to get hit on the head by the apple, we can today obtain information instantly via the world wide web; now even more so thanks to wireless and mobile internet. The Internet merely allows individuals the luxury of doing research immediately rather than looking it up the “old-fashioned” way. In a society that is focused on the idea that time is money efficiency is key. I know that some people prefer to do research through books, newspapers, periodicals; my grandfather is one of these people. I receive handwritten letters from him about once a month (since that’s how long it takes for us to write, send, receive, and reply to one another via snail mail) updating me on his day and upcoming events, which may actually be past events by the time I receive the letter, but that is neither here nor there.

One of my letters; yes, that's $20

I love getting these letters, and will be the first to admit that I value holding something tangible in my hands much more than reading something on my computer screen (hint hint). If you want my mailing address, send me an email and I’ll gladly send it your way 

Next, my sister and I recently implemented a Tuesday night Skype date. This is hopefully going to become a weekly occurrence to better allow us to stay connected to each other’s lives. Skype, or more specifically the Internet, here can be quite temperamental and has caused a bit of stress throughout my stay in Sweden, but at the end of the day, it’s the closet I’ll get to having real quality hang outs with my friends and family back at home, so I can’t hate it. I’ve also been able to FaceTime with a few of my co-Apple lovers out there, which is equally as exciting. My first solo FaceTime experience was with two friends who recently got engaged—CONGRATS AGAIN!!! I was in shock the whole time (about the FaceTime, not the engagement) and kept saying over and over “ohmygosh, ohmygosh, it’s you! Ohmygosh, there you are! It’s you” Once I had finally gained some composure, my friend’s parents walked in the room, and I repeated my previous lines again. After ending the conversation, I realized that we didn’t actually say anything productive. Then again, that’s no different from hanging out with me in person, so I guess it was successful after all.

Skype date with Erica <3

I know that there are many of you who will read this and instantly think “I want a Skype date!!” so if you are one of those people, check my schedule and email me when you’d like a date:

MONDAYS: 4am-9:30am PRACTICE 3pm-6pm

TUESDAYS: 4am-12:30pm PRACTICE 3pm-Kamryn’s skype date-6pm

WEDNESDAYS: 4am-6pm (times may vary as this is our free day from practice)

THURSDAYS: 4am-1pm PRACTICE 4pm-6pm

FRIDAYS: 4am-10am PRACTICE 12pm-6pm (evening times vary)

SATURDAYS: match days, times vary; usually any time after 12pm for home games

SUNDAYS: times vary

*all times are EST (aka Florida time zone)

**only practice/match times are set in stone so if you give me a time I can most likely make it

After reading the GRE prep booklet, I know that there is no “right” answer to these writing prompts, but they grade you instead on how well you can identify and address the issue, present your analysis, and support your point of view. I’m definitely going to fail.

Kids, this is your brain not on Ritalin. 

Don't quit your night job...

As most of you know, Sweden has given Jo and I quite the surplus amount of free time. We initially solved this “problem” by agreeing to coach Ljungby Volley’s “B” team; however, they only practice during the evenings, which merely increased the amount of consecutive time we spent in Sunnerbohallen (the volleyball gym). We coach the team Monday and Thursday evenings before our own practices, and attend their matches when possible. Stefan, one of the girl’s fathers, is acting as coach throughout the season so the team always has an adult present. We have only been coaching the team since mid-November, but have already seen quite an improvement (and increase in numbers!). Both my dad and mom were able to come to practices this year and the girls seemed to enjoy having another American around to help out with advice. They are all really eager to learn and it’s been a great coaching experience overall.

After the New Year, we again expressed our interest in finding jobs to help occupy more of our time. The club spoke with a few sponsors and found that one was able to have us come to help in their factory. Thus, Jo and I have recently begun working at a local graphic productions company called JOMA, GP. We like to refer to it as “JoMeg”. Unfortunately, part of our visa/immigration to Sweden limits us legally working to only playing or coaching in the volleyball club, so instead our work for JoMeg must be part of the company’s sponsorship of the team. Either way, we were pretty excited to begin our factory jobs!

We've only worked 3 days so far, but things have been going pretty well. I started as a lamination specialist while Jo was working as a plastic wrap technician; terms coined by Jo and I, of course. I spent the first day and a half as an LS but upon completion of this task, I joined Jo as a PWT. We photo-documented a play-by-play of Jo's daily job as Plastic Wrap Technician. Sort of tutorial-esque fashion, in case any of you ever desire to go into this line of work. Keep in mind we are trained professionals and you should not try this at home.

Step One: grab stack of handouts

Step Two: slide handouts into the plastic wrap

Step Three: carefully slide handouts onto the grill

Step Four: press the green button
**Note: do NOT press the red button

Step Five (a): remove excess plastic wrap

Step Five (b): remove excess plastic wrap 

Step Six: repeat

As you can see, this job is quite tedious and requires a meticulous eye. If done incorrectly, you can face dire consequences such as steam in the eye, burned fingers/arms/clothes, cuts and abrasions, etc. This job cannot be taken lightly. After joining Jo on this task, I was switched to Postmaster on Friday. I labeled, stamped, stuffed, and sealed over 200 envelopes in just under 2.5 hours. Check out my super sweet workstation:

My postmaster's station

We ended all of our assigned tasks about 45-minutes early, so we were sent to the back of the factory (!) to help tape up boxes. We assembled those boxes and taped them like champions, leaving nothing but a box maze as a trail. 

Tape Master

We got boxed in...

 Until next time, JoMeg out!

Rematch: LVBK vs Gislaved

Our first home match of 2012 would be against our biggest Elite Series rival, Gislaved. We had spent the whole week in preparation for this match and were ready for revenge, as they had beaten us in the Elite Series premier match 1-3: 17-25, 18-25, 25-20, 22-25. The Lagan Floorball team came to help support our team for this match, complete with drums and vuvuzelas. We wound up having just shy of 500 fans, which I’m pretty sure is a Sunnerbohallen record. The gym was packed and full of energy as we began warming up. 

In set 1, Gislaved jumped to an early 2-8 lead, but we managed to come back and fight point-for-point with them, finally winning 25-23. Set two had a similar trend, with Gislaved starting out strong, but this time they never allowed us within 3 points, allowing them to take set 2: 19-25. So far in the match, we had been forced to earn many of our own points, while we were able to help Gislaved off the hook with some of our own unforced errors. 

During the 10-minute break, our team recomposed and came back to the court strong, leading throughout the set to win 25-21. The fourth game was ours, as we led at 8-4, 16-11, 21-19, finally having match point with a comfortable 4-point lead. Unfortunately we were unable to close this set, similar to our match against Engleholm, and Gislaved was able to force a 5^th and deciding set after winning 25-27. 

The biggest different in the 4^th set was that we had to make 21 of our 25 points, while Gislaved only had to make 17 of their 27 points; meaning we gave them 10 “free” points from serving and hitting errors, while they only gave us 4 “free” points. If we were able to minimize our own mistakes, then there is no doubt in my mind that we could have won the match in 4 games. 

The 5^th set was back-and-forth, with neither side breaking away until about 10-points, where Gislaved went on a solid run, and finally took the match 11-15. This was a real heartbreaker. Despite the support from our fans, and the huge amounts of energy they brought to the court as our “7^th man”, we could not mentally close the match. On the bright side, because the match went to 5-games, we were able to gain one point. It was a great game and a lot of fun, however disappointing the end result was. Hopefully we can learn from this match and turn it around in our favor next time we are in this situation.

LVBK at Svedala

January 7th was a relatively stressful weekend for me, as my mom was trying to get from Innsbruck, Austria to Munich, Germany, and then up to Copenhagen, Denmark so she could come visit me for a few days here in Sweden. Unfortunately, there was a blizzard in Austria, thus creating a terrible domino effect. She was unable to make her originally scheduled flight, which meant she would miss her train over to me. She called me in a panic and asked me to contact the people at AirBerlin and reschedule her flight for the next day, but since my name wasn’t listed on the ticket, I wasn’t allowed. I called my dad via FaceTime (thank God and Steve Jobs for this amazing technology) while mom was in transit from Innsbruck to Munich to try to figure out the best plan of getting her up to me. 

Oh, did I mention that Thursday and Friday were “holidays”? I say this is quotations strictly because here in Sweden they call January 6th a red day, which means they are free from work, but some places also allow you to leave work early on Thursday; whereas in most of Europe only Epiphany is celebrated (Jan 6). I not only had Mother Nature working against me, but also the three wise men. Note: Epiphany is the Christian holiday that celebrates the revelation of Jesus as the Son of God in human form, as commemorated by the visit from the Biblical Magi to Baby Jesus. 

The girls on my team were so helpful during this time, as my mom was going to need to rebook her flight on AirBerlin (the airline man was NOT helpful at all), rebook a train in Copenhagen (which she would have to do on her own), and then find a way to get to our match on Saturday from Malmö to Svedala (good luck). Luckily, Julle’s parents were driving and offered to pick my mom up from the Malmö train station. My mom had landed in Copenhagen before our team even left Ljungby for the match, so she had quite a bit of time to kill at the train station. Despite her many attempts to call me (AT&T lied about having the fewest dropped calls), we finally were able to piece together a conversation long enough to figure out where and when she could meet Julle’s parents. 

Jo and I cheesing -- photo courtesy of Mom

A few hours later, we were reunited in the Svedala volleyball gym! It was a great match for her to come to, and definitely felt great to have a familiar voice cheering (and sometimes booing) me from the stands. Our team struggled initially, but was able to win 3-0: 25-20, 25-21, 25-21, successfully sweeping Svedala in both matches this season! We were pumped to gain our first road victory of the season. 

Random side note: one of the new professional players on Svedala's team is a Canadian player whom I had played against while in Hungary. She had taken the fall off, but had recently been placed here in Sweden. Talk about a small world! 

LVBK's January Match Schedule

Ljungby Volleybollklubb has a full month of matches ahead of us during January. Luckily for me, I will have at least one guaranteed fan from home at our first match as my mom is coming to visit me for a few days after wrapping up the New Year’s Bash tour. She will be able to travel with the team and watch me for the first time as a professional volleyball player! I’m really looking forward to showing her around the town and spending more time with her like I got to with my dad while he was here for Thanksgiving – but back to the team.

Current Elite Series Rankings

Our spring opener, because now we are in 2012 and thus we call it the “spring”, will be January 7^th in Svedala. We are currently ranked 8^th in the Elite Series, with a record of 2-7, while Svedala is 10^th with a record of 0-9. We played Svedala at home on November 5^th, defeating them in 3 sets: 25-15, 25-9, 25-15. Svedala is located in the southern part of Sweden, near Malmö, and will take us about 2 hours to get there. We will meet Gislaved (ranked 5^th, record of 5-4) on January 14^th in our home gym. We lost to Gislaved in our season opener on October 15^th: 17-25, 18-25, 25-20, 22-25, and are looking for revenge, as they are our biggest rival. Julle, Malin, and Jassi played for them in the past, and Jocke was once their coach. On January 22^nd, we travel to play against Örebro (ranked 9^th, record of 1-8), about 4 hours north of Ljungby. We defeated Örebro at our place in 4: 25-19, 19-25, 29-27, 25-19. Our final match for the month will be on January 25^th against Hylte/Halmstad (ranked 6^th with a record of 5-4). We lost to them at their place in 5: 26-28, 25-21, 25-22, 23-25, 17-19. We had many possible match points in both the 4^th and 5^th sets, however we were unable to close the match. Hopefully playing on our home court will prove to our advantage against both Hylte and Gislaved and we can pull through with two more home victories.

LVBK's Match Schedule and Results

This winter, we had many illnesses and injuries, and the New Year has been no exception. One of our outside hitters, Lisa, had gotten the flu towards the beginning of December, which turned into double pneumonia and then resulted in her popping on of her ribs out of place and a loss of about 7 kilograms (roughly 15 pounds). She has been on medication and seriously limited by her doctor and is just now able to begin walking and light stationary bike riding. Our Polish middle, Asia, has really injured her knee, and was unable to fix a doctor’s appointment before winter break. She is back in Poland and hopefully is getting her knee looked at; however, we have been informed that she will most likely not be ready to play again until the end of January, pending on the doctor’s findings. Another outside, Malin, who is “always cold” - refer to the Borås Cup Tournament blog for that whole ridiculous story - has managed to have almost 4 colds this winter. This last one has hit especially hard, and she was prescribed penicillin and informed to not practice until she was feeling better. A day after getting checked out by her doctor, this same doctor was fired/quit and Malin was told that this prescription was incorrect for her ailment. Now we are hoping she can train by this weekend, but not expecting her to be back full force until next week. As some players miss trainings, others are required to step up and take over their responsibilities and have done so to the best of their abilities. Many players have been playing new positions, which will hopefully prove to be beneficial as those missing from the team come back and add more depth to our positions.

This month has a lot of promise for LVBK to come out with some W’s. I hope everyone at home can keep their fingers crossed (or “hold your thumbs” as they say in Sweden) and send all the good vibes our way.

Ciao Bella!

Tuesday morning, we woke up, finished packing and were ready for transport to Venice. Steve, one of the army guys who had spent the past two days with us, came over to drive us to the airport. I think he seriously underestimated our packing abilities, when he pulled up in his 2-door European car. His stereo system bass took up half of the trunk, which left us seriously limited in where the bags would all fit. Eventually we were folded into position and, with a large suitcase across our laps, Kam and I were shoved in the back seat. The drive was luckily less than 30 minutes, but still just long enough for my butt to completely fall asleep.
We unloaded the car, stretched a little, and headed inside to find Karla (aka Chardonnay) and her daughter Amanda waiting for us. We got our bus tickets and headed into Venice. Karla's husband had been able to reserve us a Hilton hotel on his reward points, so we were on a mission to find the hotel. The airport bus took us to Piazzale Roma, the main bus station where most tourists enter Venice.

Wandering through the streets of Venice

Instead of walking towards the main sights (Rialto Bridge and Piazza San Marco), we headed through Dorsoduro towards Carmini and then continued on to Zattere, one of the courtesy Hilton water taxi stops. The walk was tiring, as we all were carrying our week's worth of luggage with us over bridges and through these small alleyways. Despite having a map, we still found it necessary to ask the various passerby for directions.

Finally at Zattere!

Finally, we had found our water taxi stop! Amanda and her mom were feeling the impact of the time change, as neither were able to sleep much on the flight across the Atlantic. We knew it was important to try to keep them awake so they could sleep as normally as possible tonight, so we pointed them in the direction of a cafe for some hot coffee. Our hotel rooms were not quite ready, but we were allowed to go to eat and relax in the executive lounge--thanks, Mr. Joe--where we enjoyed free wifi. About an hour after we arrived, Kam was sent back towards the airport to pick up another friend, Derek. She waited on the dock for about an hour, while we were all upstairs in the room admiring the view.

View looking straight out from our hotel room

The tall tower with gold on top is in Piazza San Marco

Kam waiting on the dock to get Derek

While she was away, Amanda, Karla, mom and I wandered around the Guidecca Island on which our hotel is located. It is across the Guidecca Canal from the main island of Venice. Amanda was enthralled with the hanging laundry down practically every street.

Me, Amanda, Karla

Mom and I in Venice

We ventured in to one of the mask shops, which greatly creeped me out, before continuing on our little adventure. We were able to get an awesome view of Piazza San Marco aka St. Mark's Square from across the canal.

Masks in Venice

Piazza San Marco//St Mark's Square

After wandering what felt like the whole island, we stopped in a grocery store to make some wine purchases for under €2!! This is unbelievably cheap for alcohol compared to that in Sweden!

Karla, Amanda, and I in Venice

Amanda and I

Mom and I on one of the bridges in Venice

We wandered back to the hotel so Amanda and Karla could rest a little, while mom and I checked email and Facebook for updates about the tour groups that would be joining us the next day. Kam and Derek finally arrived and were starved, so they joined me for some snacks in the executive lounge before we all reconvened and headed across the canal to Venice for dinner.

Amanda, Karla, mom, and Derek on the water taxi

Karla, Kam, mom, Derek, Amanda and I in St Mark's Square//Piazza San Marco

Me, Mom, and Kam on the Rialto Bridge

The meal was simple, but delicious, and much needed for the three travelers. We enjoyed sightseeing around Venice at night, and Amanda, Karla, and Derek were eager to see the hustle and bustle of the city during the day. We returned to the hotel for a few glasses of wine, complimentary in the executive lounge. Karla and Amanda were able to Skype with their family at home, while the rest of us were Facebooking and checking emails again to check our last minute schedule changes.
That night, mom's phone went off two different times with news from kids on the tour group informing her about flights being delayed and rescheduled. Luckily I would be leaving in the morning around the same time the first group arrived, so we could all go to the airport together. Unfortunately, the next morning, we missed the 10am free water taxi, so I had to say my tearless goodbyes at the hotel and begin walking to the public water taxi to get across the canal so I could begin my journey back to the airport. Over an hour later, I was finally at the Piazzale Roma and on the bus to Aeroporto Marco Polo ready to begin my journey back to the dark side, aka Sweden.