Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we went to Niclas' school again to talk to the students. This time, we helped teach a lesson about American history and current events. We covered basic facts about our country, the government, the landscape, the people, and past events (ie. The Civil War/slavery, the Native Americans, 
Thanksgiving, etc.). The kids also asked us fun questions about football, cheer- leading, and TV shows. On one of the days, we were invited to eat lunch in the cafeteria and they were serving a traditional Swedish dish called blodpudding (also known as black pudding, blood sausage, blood pudding). It's a sausage dish made from
animal blood and other ingredients-- almost has a sweet taste. The teachers laughed when they were explaining it to us because we looked a bit nervous. Actually, we were going to be brave and at least give it a try just to see what it tasted like. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), they had ran out so we had sausage and potatoes. We felt a little better though because at practice that night, we told our team about it (side note: every practice, our coach asks us what our new Swedish word for the day is and we said "blodpudding" that night) and everyone groaned.
On Friday, we made another trip to Gothenburg for two reasons. One was to get shopping done because we didn't have a lot of time the last time we went. Two, I think we wanted to have a better experience and make up for last week because it rained on us the whole time. This 
week's trip was much better. "T" calls it the "Perfect Day." After getting into the city, we set up a plan on where to go and went for it. Our first stop was Gamla Haga, which is an old-town area with shops, cafés, restaurants, antiques, etc. We did some window-shopping and stopped for lunch at a cute little place called Jacob's Café. The meal was phenomenal; we had a chicken, broccoli, and red pepper "pie." It was very similar to what we know as a quiché.
After filling ourselves, we made our way to the next stop: shops in the downtown area. Other than a teapot, some cigars (as gifts for people...don't worry, neither of us smoke), and jewelry, we mostly window-shopped and continued our search for handball shoes. We did go into a Timberland store because there were these great pair of boots that "T" spied from the street. However, apparently her feet are too big for women's sizes here and the lady recommended the men's shoes. HA HA HA! Between the jeans, shoes, and shorts, "T" feels that her feet and butt are too big for Europe. After feeling dejected, we continued on our day.
Our next destination was the Universeum, which is a science center/ natural museum for children. The first section we entered was a real climate-controlled rainforest. As soon as we entered through the air-locked gate, the heat and humidty hit us. Within the first 5 seconds, "T" was sweating bullets. While "T" was trying to get to the next section as fast as she could, Kya kept asking questions and wanted to stop and look at the plants, birds, and fish. I, on the other hand, was trying to take pictures, but my camera kept fogging up (as you can see from the picture).
After a quick walk-through, we went to the next section: the aquarium. The air was much more comfortable here. We saw fish, sharks, and other marine life. We also went to the open tank to pet some rays and fish. There was a funny moment when we were looking at the sharks and one of them swam overhead really close to "T" and made her jump, almost dropping Kya. Here they are making mean shark faces.
The next part displayed a wooded environment with snakes, frogs, birds, etc. Nothing funny happened there, but it was all interesting.
On our way out, we stopped at the store and Kya picked out a white tiger--another stuffed animal to add to her collection. Seriously, from all the toys that Kya has gotten here in Sweden, "T" is going to have to check in another piece of luggage when we fly back.
After the Universeum, we headed to Liseberg, the largest amusement park in the Nordic countries. Un- fortunately, at this time of the year, the big rollercoasters aren't operating, but they did have little kiddie rides. They also set up the holiday theme with lights, booths, ice-skating, etc. Since "T" was too cool for school, I went on the merry-go-round with Kya. It was okay though because I was just happy from the Christmas atmosphere. From the lights to the music, I was all smiles and felt like a little 
kid again. We grabbed dinner at the local vendors and called it a day. When we got home, we were exhausted from all the walking but had a great time. We looked forward to just relaxing the next day and taking it easy.
Our plans changed when Jocke, our trainer, called this morning. Some of the girls on the team got sick, so the coaches asked "T" to dress for the game. As we rushed to get ready, we power-walked in the rain to the team bus and went down to Gothenburg to play Torslanda HK. The game stayed close and we gained a 3 point lead by half-time. However, in the second half, the other team marked our two big scorers and we had some trouble with the offense. We played hard but eventually lost 22-27. We learned that it is very unusual here to take out the two best players man-to-man, which is interesting because we, in our hemisphere, are so used to it.
So we're making it an early night tonight because we'll be traveling with the 2nd team tomorrow for a game. Sorry for a super long post, but if you got all the way through, thanks for reading and we'll try to break it up more next week. GOOD NIGHT!
Countdown until we see our USA Team: 7 days
Wednesday night, instead of practice, we had a team dinner at a local Italian restaurant. It was a nice get-together with good people and good food. "T" now gives me a hard time because I busted out a Tide stain stick in the middle of dinner to clean a spot off of my shirt. Whatever! I'm proud of my stain stick. At the end of the dinner, the team presented us some very nice gifts. One was a crystal star candle, to signify the club's emblem. The other was a pair of Resteröds underwear, which is a really popular Swedish brand. Here I am modeling them. In return, we gave each of the girls a USA pin. After receiving such nice gifts, "T" and I felt kind of embarassed with our small tokens, but the girls were gracious and it was just a nice night in general.
Today, we went to the school for the last time and talked to the students. They were really sweet because they were sad to see us go and wanted us to come back. We learned about the Lucia holiday, where children dress up as different roles, such as maidens, Santas, gingercookie boys, boy attendants, and one (Saint) Lucia. They sing traditional songs for the elders and it's a nice little celebration. Yesterday's class sang one of the songs for us with their music teacher (as seen in the picture). It was very cute. We also received gifts from Maria, the English teacher that we helped out. She gave us a bottle of Glögg, which is a traditional non-alcoholic fruit and spiced flavor drink. You're supposed to serve it warm with finely chopped almonds and raisins. We're told it's usually drunk around Christmastime so we'll have to try it out when we get back to the States.
I thought these guys were going to fall off the scafolding!
This heron seemed pretty intent on taking out the goalie
LOL...even the Amersterdam's Red Light District was depicted!
