The Players Get Acclimated and Have Some Fun

Wow! Here it is the end of a weekend and although we’ve only slept in a bed one night, we have already experienced three full days of international sensory overload. Everything is going extremely well, it’s just extremely difficult to post a ‘little snippet’ to describe all that is being seen and absorbed. Speaking of absorbed, the weather has been a beautiful 70 high, 55 low with an occasional 30 minute light shower, but the sun will pop right back out and it appears this will continue throughout the week. The 26 astro turf pitches are going to prove their worth this year as every team is quick to want to put their foot on a ball, whether it’s raining or not. They are about all set up for the Gothia Cup; the streets are lined with flags, the tents are set up and the teams are about all here now. Almost every building in downtown Gothenburg is a masonry 7 story historic piece of architecture. The streets are four lanes of paved asphalt divided by a double set of tracks for the electric trams down the middle and lined with extra wide granite sidewalks. We were one of the earlier teams to arrive, which was great to overcome the jet lag and provided us a chance to experience the local cuisine. Pizza Butik was an excellent test of learning our first entrée; ost = cheese, champinjoner = mushroom, skinka = ham. After passing the ‘translation’ test, came the ‘conversion’ test…you guessed it, the math in paying for it. Most meals are running about 79 Kronors, or with the 7 Kr to $1 conversion, a little less than $12 with the 25% tax already included. Note in the picture that the smallest bill is the 20 Kronor, then it drops to a 10 Kr small brass coin, a larger in size 10 Kr coin and the popular 1 Kr, which is about the size of our quarter.
The boys are staying at the ISGR school, about a 15 minute walk from the Scandic Crown Hotel where the parents are...and the hub of the week’s activities (both the Heden Center and Ullevi Stadium) is right between us. ISGR stands for International School of the Gothenburg Region, dates back to 1906 and sits quite a bit above the downtown area. Though more than a 100 years old, it is very clean, well maintained and the boys acclimated quickly to it being their home away from home. You may recall reading Coach’s blog on Wed, July 8th, “(if rumors can be believed) making some bad choices at the barber shop” and then seeing him pictured Fri, July 10th? The picture with Mac’er and the welcoming cardboard figure w green Mohawk outside their classroom demonstrates how the trend continues. Sunday was spent taking in the sights and sounds including the first ride on the tram to Liseberg, an amusement park very similar to a Six Flags. You can learn more at liseberg.se, but the experience can best be summarized on polarizing ends of a spectrum with fun & enjoyable on one end and exhilarating terror on the other as a few experienced their roller coaster on the Balder (similar to the Screaming Eagle). Judged by the fact they were ridden more than once; the log flume, bumper cars and Lisebergbanan (another roller coaster) also proved to be favorites of the 35 rides and countless games with mega-packaged candy as their winnings. A view from the gardens within Liseberg shows a reflective contrast of the historic wooden windmills with the only two new, modern all glass high rise buildings in Gothenburg called the Gothia Towers. This contrast was a reminder of how far we’ve come in luxury and technology as developed countries on this earth, but it was also brought to our attention how some countries appreciate the basics we may take for granted, like our freedoms and independence. This was evidenced by the parents as we were drawing the evening to a close after eating dinner on the main drag named Kungsportsavenyn. Everywhere you turn there are teams traveling in packs and some even have chants or songs they sing. However, one was unique in that after singing they would clap almost as if to applaud themselves. It wasn’t until we noticed a bed sheet they had written on, that we felt a huge lump in our throats. It read, “Thank you USA and Sweden” from the Kosovo/Albanian team. So as we head to bed tonight, we are again reminded of the meaning of peace. And as I am getting asked, "Does it really get dark?", "How dark does it really get?, I close with a photgraph on a very slow exposure showing the Northern sky at 1:30am...the 'dark' of the night. Tomorrow's a full day with finding our fields via Speed Train, playing our first game and enjoying the Opening Ceremony. Til then, "goot net"!

TEK