Saturday, May 18, 2013

Circuses & Soccer

The last week or so has been a good one, no complaints, but also not much excitement to post about, unfortunately. I’m beginning to think this may be just a once a week catch up type of blog, with a few exceptions here and there. I’ll try to keep it entertaining!

As far as practice goes, they were fine this past week. We practiced Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and got Wednesday, Friday and Saturday off. Lighter than usual practice, but still got some playing in.

On Saturday Carson and I went to a circus that we heard about last weekend. We were excited because both of us had the thought in our head that it was going to be the type of circus like in the movie Water for Elephants. We were under the impression that circuses were a big production in Europe. And there were signs up all over town, so we were looking forward for something to do in Tierp! Once we got there we realized it was a small circus production but didn’t mind because we still wanted to check it out and get the experiences of doing these things in while we are over here. We also didn’t realize that we weren’t going to understand a word of what was being said because it was all in Swedish! That didn’t make much of a difference though because obviously circuses are more of a show than a talking type of deal. There were 4 or 5 people who did all the different acts, while an older man was the one running it. Carson and I were most definitely the oldest people there, aside from all the parents who brought their children. I think it was a circus for younger children. Or just a really small production. Either way, it was an experience and I’m glad we ended up going. They had some balancing acts, an act with miniature horses, a fire breathing and eating act (which was really cool) and all the involve the audience and embarrass them type of acts, which everyone loved. The people doing the acts couldn’t have been older than 30, which I thought was pretty crazy. Can’t imagine traveling for a circus throughout your younger years. One of the clowns was, at most, 12! It was free and something do to on a Saturday afternoon and I’m glad we got to see what it was like.

Sunday was our second game of the season. We played Ostersunds DFF, which is a team from Ostersund, Sweden, 6 hours northwest of Tierp. I was nervous that it was still going to be freezing up there, but the weather was actually like it is here. Side note, I’ve never seen the weather change its mind as quickly as it does over here. It can be absolutely beautiful out one minute and the next, clouds roll in and it gets cold again. Crazy. That’s what happened right before the game. This team was supposed to be the best in the league, but I thought we were pretty evenely matched, honestly. We ended up losing 3-0, but the score didn’t reflect at all how we played.. for the most part. We dominated them the first half. They had one chance the whole half and happened to finish it. We easily could have had 3 goals the first half, but it didn’t go our way. The second half was a lot slower on our part and we didn’t play anywhere near the way we did in the first half. Didn’t help either that the ref and his side line refs were as dumb and unfair as they come. Sounds like a cop out, but it really does make a difference sometimes when refs are completely one sided. We got a pk opportunity late in the second half(shocking) but unfortunately didn’t make it. Aside from a few things we did wrong and the refs letting a totally offside goal count, we were pretty evenely matched and should have beat them. That’s just the game of soccer for you though.

The game was at 2pm on Sunday and we woke up at 4:30am to leave at 5am and drive there the same day. Never done that before. The day started at 4:30 and ended at 11:30 at night. Defnitely one of the longest days of my life haha. Props to the people of the world who start their day early and end it late. Takes a lot out of you. I couldn’t sleep on the bus, because as I said earlier, the sun starts to rise at 4 something in the morning here, so it was totally light out the whole way there. And sleeping on charter busses isn’t easy. We came home to find out that there had been a shooting at our home field. Police still had their crime scene tape up and were patrolling it when we got back at 9:45. Pretty scary. The person who was shot is in critical condition, which is always sad to hear.
The ride to Ostersund was beautiful. All of the lakes up there are still frozen, so it was really pretty to see that. There were houses all along the shoreline and it was very picture-esq. I can only imagine how pretty it looks when everything is in bloom and the sun is out. The stadium we played at was awesome. It was huge and over looked a lake. It even had some box seating. I think they have a good boys team, which explains why it was so big. Definitely fun to play in stadiums like that. Can only imagine playing in it when it’s packed full and under the lights. Must be awesome.

Already since I’ve been here, the days have gotten longer. The sun finally sets around 9pm and starts its rise in the 4am hours. I know there are soon going to be days with only a few hours of darkness. So crazy. We also heard that sometimes you can see the northern lights from here! We missed the season by 2 weeks, but that was cool to hear.

Sadly, we still haven’t moved into our new apartment, but holding out hope that it happens this week! I can’t believe tomorrow is going to be 3 weeks since I left home and next week will be a month! I knew it was going to go fast once I got into a routine and used to life over here. Thankful that things started right away for me, because had they not, it might not have been as easy to get used to being so far from home.

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