The Kindness of Strangers

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?
$1 = 7.6549 SEK
On Wednesday we went down to Kansas City to watch the Mariners play the Royals. It was a beautiful day and made for a nice night at the ballpark. The fountains (pictured above) are pretty cool. We were going to buy tickets ahead of time at the Hy-Vee (Midwestern grocery chain) in St. Joe but their computer was down so we figured we would buy tickets at the gate.

We arrived at game time and crossed the giant parking lot full of drunk college kids tailgating (it was College Happy Hour Night at the K -for Kaufman Stadium). There were still some long lines at the main ticket window and there was ushers urging people to walk down to the ticket window in right field. We were walking that way when this guy walked buy and said he had two free tickets. We didn't think much of it and kept walking, then thought free tickets would be nice so we tracked him down and asked if they were really free. He said that he had bought four tickets and couldn't use two of them and offered them to us instead of letting them go to waste. They were really good seats so we asked if he was sure we couldn't give him anything and he said we could buy him a beer since we would be sitting together.
You can kind of tell from the above picture that we were about 15 rows behind the Royals dugout along the first base line. It was pretty sweet. Much like babies wearing noise cancelling headphones. They had recently completed (or maybe half completed) major renovation of the stadium. It's pretty nice. We'll try to go back for some other games later this summer. There are new seats near the fountains in left field that run $7 and you get a free hat. An ugly hat but a free hat. Good times.
The new/updated video board in center field is absolutely huge and is definitely the focal point. Like I said before it was a beautiful night for a game. It was in the high 70's that day and stayed warm during the game (which didn't take that long because the Mariners swung at everything and got it over quickly - 9-1 Royals, UGH). There was some rain that morning but it burned off which was nice. Better than some of the other weather we've had in the last couple weeks. We've had the tornado sirens go off about a week and a half ago and we hung out in our basement until the sirens turned off. Now we have to figure out what room in the house will be good for hanging out during the storm and to pack an emergency kit. We had another tornado watch issued last night but luckily the storm missed us by a couple counties to the east where a couple tornadoes touched down. We did have a big thunderstorm during the night and woke up to some BIG THUNDER around 6:00 this morning. Always something I guess.

It was great to see this guy back in Seattle. He is definitely not as fast as he was and he's a bit heavier (like the rest of us) but he still has the sweetest swing in baseball (doubled and a couple walks).

In other sporting news the 86ers played their first game of the new season last Sunday in Göteborg on the west coast of Sweden. The guys had to leave Uppsala at 5 am to get there to play a team that moved down from the upper division during the offseason. My guys won 61-12 in dominating game. A good way to get the year started.

Now for what everyone has been waiting for, pictures of the house now that the previous owners have everything out. You'll notice the painting we've done in the dining and living rooms. Really the only rooms we have set up yet. Enjoy.

Big Belated News

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 8.0079 SEK

WE HAVE A HOME!!!  Most of you probably knew that but we have been gone awhile.  We closed on our home on the 17th, later in the day than we had hoped but still, we got it done.  We had to drive to Kansas City to get a cashiers check because our bank doesn't have a branch here and none of the local banks would do it for us.  We waited down there until we heard from our Realtor about when our closing time would be.  We bought some stuff and met a dude named Lars working at a Target.  I noticed he had a little accent and so I asked him if he was Swedish. He said he was and that he had just become an American in fact.  I took Lars as a good sign that we would get our house that day and we did.  So now we are home owners.  We've been busy painting and unpacking boxes.  Our shipments from Pullman and Sweden both arrived last week and I think we have 75% of the boxes opened.  Still don't know where to put half of if, but it's here.  And later next month we get Jax back as well.  Good times.

We also bought a new car.  A 2009 Ford Fusion.  It's a good car it has that SYNC feature from Microsoft so we can make calls with it or tell it to play "Michael Bolton" and it will do nothing because we don't have that on the mp3 player hooked up to it.  Can't have everything I guess.

So that is a quick and dirty update.  Maybe if I keep them shorter I'll update more often.  Kind of like twitter but not as mind-numbing I hope.

Later

Opening Day!!

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 8.0331 SEK

Our Rental Car

Hello again dear neglected readers.  How long it has been since last we spoke, er... read I guess. Whatever.  

Still in the hotel.  So that's what's new. Um, good make your own waffles thing which is nice. Ready to move into our home though.  On that front, we are finishing up our loan papers.  Trying to figure out how to get some of our Swedish financial information in a timely fashion.  Always difficult.  We did however go down to the giantist furniture store in the whole world (at least in the greater Missouri/Kansas area) and order a new bed and couch to be delivered to the house the day after we close. Exciting! We'll stay in the hotel one more night just in case it we don't close until late in the day and we want to get a cleaning crew in before we move in there. 

On the job front:  I've got a few federal job apps in, several with one agency.  I spent four-and-a-half hours at the local Office Depot trying to fax cover letters and copies of transcripts to support these multiple job applications.  Apparently a lot of people were trying to do the same thing and I kept getting a busy signal when trying to fax.  Not a bad way to spend a Monday afternoon.  You get to meet a few of your neighbors that way and see what kind of interesting things they are copying and faxing and printing.  I would say it's similar to sipping coffee along the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris.  You know where if you sit there long enough you'll meet everyone you have ever known in your life.  And I think I've just become the first person to compare the Office Depot in St. Joseph, Missouri to one of the most famous streets in the entire world.  How's that for cultural significance. I know that's why you come to this blog. To here the worldly musings of an over-educated and under-employed globetrotting cultural ambassador of overlooked bastions of high culture.  Now excuse me while I go check out the Big Kmart here where rumor has it that James Joyce was inspired to write Ulysses.

Oh yeah, opening day today.  Hope springs eternal today, at least until tomorrow.  Go M's.

Hej då!

Over the Jet Lag

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = $1 in St. Joseph, MO 

(but 8.0117 SEK)

Apologies for not getting back to y'all.  We successfully made it to St. Joe! We are now two weeks into our new life in the Midwest and things are moving right alongish.  Ragen has been on the job for a week and is enjoying herself.  I am looking for work and have made some contacts and sent out a few applications to see what kind of nibbles I get. 

The big news is that we have purchased our first home! Technically we are under contract and things could change prior to closing but we are 75% there according to our realtor, who has been nothing but the best. It is a beautiful home3 that overlooks the parkway in town so there are no neighbors behind us.  We will be on a quiet little street in a nice neighborhood and are looking forward to moving in.  We don't close until the 17th of April so we will be living in the hotel until then.  It's not a bad hotel and would recommend it to anyone while they are in town, but after a couple weeks it gets kind of old.  And we still have 4 weeks to go. But there is a pool and waffles in the morning and we don't have to vacuum so that's nice.

We are getting to know the surrounding area somewhat, mostly by accident.  The first weekend here we drove through Kansas to go to Kansas City.  We went through Atchison and Leavenworth and stopped at a nice antique mall somewhere in the middle.  We went to Kansas City without really having a plan, which is something I would suggest you don't do, so we drove downtown to see what we could see.  We did find the equivalent to the Pike Place Market near the river so we will go back there another time. Also parking is ample with 30 minutes until close, just so you know.  We also found the Nebraska Furniture Mart which is a mind-bottling huge furniture store outside of Kansas City, Kansas (not the Missouri side which we found out by taking the wrong part of Interstate 435 - but on the plus side if you just stay on it you get to where you wanted to go because it is a loop).  It took us nearly two hours to get there when it should have taken about 45 minutes.  So that was fun.  But we did go by one of the companies I've applied to so that's good.  Anyway, BIG. STORE.  It was well worth the trip though because we found much more furniture to fit our style than was available anywhere else.  We'll probably go back and order some pieces next weekend.  Maybe take a picture or two in order to convey the magnitude of this place.

More pictures of the house as we get closer to closing.  Back to job applications.

Later.

The Final Countdown

How Much is Your Dollar Worth? (A LOT)
$1 = 9.152 SEK (down from 9.3 yesterday)
Range during our time in Sweden: 5.8175 - 9.3856
That's a lot of flux, most of it since July. Crazy.

We are in our last couple days here in Sweden.  Monday morning we are catching a flight from Stockholm-Arlanda (subject of a new airport related reality show here) to Kansas City.  We have been making the good-bye dinner rounds the last few days.  Another one tonight and my last football practice tomorrow evening.

The movers (actually just one dude) came to our flat this morning to pack up our stuff and ship it for us back to the states.  We packed up everything, except for one suitcase each, to be shipped by boat and some by air.  The boat shipment will take 6 to 8 weeks to get to us while the air shipment will be 1-2 weeks.  We had to inventory everything that was packed with approximate replacement values for insurance reasons and fill out customs forms.  Good times.  Needless to say that we were finishing that at 2:00 am this morning with the mover coming before 9:00 am. When we moved over here we packed for a year and brought everything we could carry in six suitcases.  Not too bad.  But we made two trips back to the states for a wedding and the holidays, and ended up bringing approximately two extra suitcases of stuff back.  And of course we bought things here like bedding and a few clothes (not as much as you think though, things cost a bit more here).  We were lucky in that we found two furnished places to live so we did not have to buy furniture and dishes, but still. When you pack up your house you realize how much junk you really have.  We went through the same thing last year when we left Pullman, but this was more than I thought for just over a year.  I was impressed by the guy packing everything; it only took him an hour-and-a-half to pack it all up.  Snabb (I don't think that's right but you don't know so why am I even bringing it up).

It has been harder to say goodbye than we originally thought.  We lived in Pullman for 10 years. That's where we met, went to college, watched two Rose Bowl teams and two NCAA tournament teams, tailgated, played in the snow, never had classes cancelled for snow, earned our degrees, earned our graduate degrees, worked, began careers, made some really good friends, it's where I really got to know and be closer to my two younger brothers, and it's where we met most of the people that read this blog.  And that was difficult but because it is college town which is by definition transitory, and we stayed long enough to see a lot of our friends leave first (plus we left during the winter break so there really were fewer people to say goodbye to).  But I'm not sure that saying goodbye to Sweden hasn't turned out to be more difficult.  I mean we love Pullman, to me that really is what I consider home, but after 10 years it was time to move on.  I was working for WSU in the administration in an important position but because I went to school there and was still playing intramurals with my brothers and friends it seemed almost that I was still a student and not a professional and I needed to move on to really "grow up."  Well I can say that moving from your comfort zone to a country where you don't speak the language will make you grow up fast. Ragen loved her job here and had awesome colleagues, nej, friends who were so helpful in finding us a place to live before we got here and navigating life in Sweden.  Friends who are still helping us out as we are leaving like taking us to the airport on Monday.  I know that it would have been a bit tougher on us if wasn't for Tess  and Yezica (enjoy Africa), Sanna (you too) and Andreas, Emma, Elke, Fredric, Arnd, Birgetta (I think), and Linda.  Thanks to Sarah and Åsa for letting us live in your great apartments, we hope you both enjoy Australia. We are completely indebted to you guys and I know there is no way can really pay you back but you are always welcome to stay with us in St. Joe, a real destination for Swedes. 

For me my time with the 86'ers is something I will remember for the rest of my life.  The fact that the players and coaches welcomed me in, literally from out of the stands, was great.  Plus people listened to me at practice like I knew what I was talking about.  There was real improvement in the guys I worked with and I think I made an impact with them all outside of football as well.  And all this with these guys using a second language. I think I may actually be good at this kind of thing and definitely feel more enriched as a person having done so.  I will be seriously considering teaching and coaching when we get to St. Joe because of this time.  There are too many guys to thank all of them by name but I wanted to say thanks for letting me hang out and giving me something to do while I was here, especially Bodin, Andreas, Edvin, Frisk, Anders, Daniel, Jonas, and Coach.  And I hope Andreas and Edvin both stick with it so that I can have a lasting contribution to the club.  And I hope Fabian, Alex, Eric, and Jonathon make the U-19 national team so I can see you guys play in Ohio this summer.  And make sure you guys support Sarah and the women's national team.

Well I think we passed the point of this being a sappy Oscar winner speech or something but you all get the idea.  We had the time of our lives here and are counting the days until we can come back for Ragen's conference in August 2010 and spend a couple weeks catching up with everyone.  I would suggest anyone who has not been to Sweden to come see it.  It is a beautiful country with great people who are more than happy to speak English.  They like salty licorice here and pear ciders. And a final CiS cultural fact #1: Crocs (the shoes) here are referred to as "Foppas" after former NHL great Peter Forsberg (pronounced forsh-bury I believe) who has an endorsement deal with them here. That's right, I'm here to educate.

We also want to say thanks to our family for supporting us and understanding why we would want to move so far away for awhile.  Thanks to Ryan and Kim for coming to see us over you honeymoon.  The rest of you guys are jerks.

Anyway thanks for following us on this adventure and please keep coming back to see how we are doing in St. Joe.  Also because everyone here wants us to start a Facebook page and the lawyer in me says that's not a great idea (although I do blog like an idiot) look for Jax to get his own Facebook page, soonish... Now enjoy this awesome photo montage, and for added cheese factor hum Green Day's Hope You Had the Time of Your Life while you look at it.

Glad Fettisdag

How Much is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 8.9056 SEK

Glad Fettisdag!!! Bon Mardi Gras!!! Happy Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras everybody.  Here in Sweden you traditionally have semla (pictured below) with tea or coffee.  It's a cardamon-spicked bun with the top cut off and hallowed out and then filled with a mix of the bread crumbs, milk, and almond paste, topped with whipped cream.  Then the topped is put back on and dusted with powdered sugar.

You can find them at all the grocery stores and all the bakeries around town.  These are from coach's bakery. I went to a grocery store to find stuff for dinner and they were being put together in front of people in the middle of the store.  Lots of them.  I went by a little bakery and there was a line of about 12 people out the door.  Popular I suppose.  Well that's me droppin' a little knowledge on y'all.  I'm here to educate.

Make sure to listen to the President's address tonight (3 am Sweden time).  Important stuff. We'll catch the highlights in the morning.

Hockey Night In Stockholm

How Much Is Your Dollar Worth?

$1 = 8.6981 SEK

The Globen Arena in Stockholm

(The world's largest spherical building but not where we watched the game)

Sorry for not getting this up sooner but I've been battling a cold the last couple days.  Last Thursday we went with a couple friends to a hockey game down in Stockholm.  Our first Swedish hockey game was a between Djurgården (a Stockholm club and home team as well as one of the clubs that the 86'ers played against this past season as our astute readers will no doubt realize) and Färjestad who was the top team in the league coming into the game.  

Now we've only been to a couple hockey games in the US, both minor league hockey games in Spokane and Boise, but it seems like the games are more of an event here, more like college football maybe.  Here are fans waving flags with the Djurgården colors.  These folks are more of the classy supporters with the nicer, more expensive seats along the side of the rink.  We sat in the end near the more rowdy supporters who were calling the flag-waving supports "peasent mother f^%#ers" before the game.  You stay classy Stockholm.

One thing people may notice about these pictures is the amount of sponsers on the uniforms.  This is really common here in Sweden to have like 50 sponsers logos on uniforms and a stark contrast to sport uniforms in the states (aside from soccer and Little League).  In addition there are logos on the ice surface in addition to along the boards.  So that's different to.  It's hard to tell in the above picture but the player names are in yellow below the numbers on the Djurgården uniforms.  Above the numbers is the sponsor logo for Bauhaus which is the equivalent of Home Depot here in Sweden (I think they are a German company).

Now it was hard for me to root for Djurgården since we played them in football but they did have an American on the team.  The little guy on the left is #4 in your program and #1 in your heart - David Schneider.  He's a defenseman that even had a goal on the night.  So good for him. 

We have a keeper down!!!

This thing is the Djurgården mascot.  Some sort of rabbit/dog/wolf thing with a hockey helmet and ninja-like quickness in it's hands.  Even with ninja hands it's pretty lame.  Doesn't even do anything, just kind of walks around.  This guy ain't got nothin' on Butch.

This picture is here so you can see that the photographers in the background have to wear helmets if they are going to sit rinkside.  However the coach/trainer guy to their left does not have to wear a helmet. Interesting...

It ended up being a pretty good game in the end but it started ugly.  Färjestad was up 4-0 in the first 5 minutes of the third period.  Djurgården came back in the third though with three goals and a frantic last few minutes but they just couldn't get it done and lost 4-3.  Like I said before Färjestad is at the top of the league and Djurgården is in the lower third so the result was not unexpected but it was fun either way.  Our friend Andreas above in a Djurgården sweater was took the loss a little harder than the rest of us.  Poor guy.

For our entertainment we got to watch some peewee hockey between the first and second periods.  It was fun to watch and there were even a couple girls on the teams. So there you go.

This sign was found on an overpass after leaving the subway station and heading to the areana. Basically it says: "This way for a restroom don't pee here."

Below is a random video taken from the hockey game that shows our enthusiasm early.  Best. Camera. Work. Ever. Enjoy.