The End Is Getting Near

On Sunday, we played a team called Kållandsö HF. They were an older team, but still good (currently, 2nd in the league). We didn't have a regular goalie so we had to use one of our court players--she was a trooper. In the first half, the score stayed close; we pretty much exchanged goal for goal. However, in the second half, they started to build up a lead with some smart shots. In the end, the final score was 27-38. This was definitely not a reflection of our team's effort, but more of a reflection of the other team's experience. The girls worked hard and we had a lot of fun playing with them. Sadly, that was our last game as part of Kroppskultur. And it was cute because I think the girls really warmed up to us and liked playing with us. They were sad to find out that it was our last game with them and we were leaving at the end of the week.

Monday night, we were told we were going to have an easy practice, consisting of a game of soccer (fútbol for our European readers). Little did we know that all the coaches, assistants, and managers (even the club's president!) would be joining us. They came dressed like it was the real deal too. So, it was guys against girls. Our team vs. the older men. We found out that this was a huge rivalry--the winner had major trash-talking rights--so the girls really wanted to win. We stayed close in the first half and most of the second half. However, in the last 10 minutes or so, the guys scored 2 goals and beat us 3-5. Booooooo.

Today, we went up to the school again to talk to the students. This time, they were asked to tell us about Swedish holidays. It was really interesting to learn about some different traditions that they have for holidays like Easter and Christmas (which is celebrated on December 24th in Sweden). Another special holiday for them is Midsummer, which is supposed to be on the longest day of the year--sometime around the end of June. There's a lot of food, dancing, and celebration. The traditional singing and dancing is done around a maypole. The girls in the class even did a demonstration for us (as seen in the picture).

Countdown: 4 days

P.S. I (Jennie) forgot to mention this before, but I have a new handball hero: Henriette Mikkelsen from Denmark's National Team. She's a wing player and she is amazing.

P.P.S. "T" wanted to mention that Jennie dropped a glass cup in the cafeteria today and it shattered everywhere. Kya said, "Ooooh, Jennie's in trouble." She wanted to say that it's not all roses here for Jennie...