The Last Days of Fall

Hej hej,

It seems as though it's been a while since I last updated this thing, so here's what's been going on in October.  It hasn't been quite as eventful, but it's been nice, and I have a feeling there will be plenty more travel and adventure to come before all is said and done.

Probably the first major event was by birthday.  I had some friends over for dinner the night before, and then on my birthday itself, my friend family took to me to see the Vaxjo Lakers hockey team play a game.  The team is in the process of building a new rink next to the old one as we speak, but the rink they play in now is a tiny, old little place, but it has a nice cozy feel to it that I kind of like.  The team has a great outing and ended up beating the team from Malmo (which apparently has a much larger salary budget) 7 to 4.  The first period was crazy with Vaxjo getting out to a 5 - 1 lead before things started slowing down.  The game seemed a bit slower than I'm used to watching UVM play, but I guess that the dimensions of the ice over here are bigger than the ice we play on back home, so that could account for some of the difference (although I still think the guys at UVM are a bit better).  One of the craziest parts of the game was the fan section at the end of the ice (like the student section at the Gutt), they chanted and sang for the entire game, with hardly even a break between each one.  Then after the game when everyone was leaving, they stood there and kept on singing until the team (half undressed already) came back out to salute them one more time (which I guess is a tradition they do after every game).  Going to the game was a lot of fun, and I hopefully I'll go to some more soon.

The Lakers being introduced, full with lights, fire, music and props

The opening face-off, notice the big ice and the tiny stadium

The team coming out one last time to give thanks to the dedicated cheering section

The following week, some of Andre and Christoph's friends from Germany came up to stay with Andre.  They were a great bunch of really nice guys (Christian, Christian, Pierre and Daniel) and we had a lot of fun the whole week.  Hopefully we will go visit them in Germany sometime soon (and I know that Mike and I will see them again when we go visit Andre and Christoph next semester).

The musician at the pub that night took requests, but you had
to come on stage and sing the songs you requested with him

Group photo outside.  The one visiting are the four on the left
(Daniel then Pierre in the front row and Christian and Christian behind them)

The next few days were absolutely amazing outside, and I had a feeling that the beautiful weather wouldn't last long, so, although the trees hadn't yet peaked their color, I went out for a stroll with the camera.  The little point-and-shoot isn't quite the same as the SLR I'm gotten used to since we got it, but it was nice just to get outside, enjoy the weather, and take pictures.  I even ran into Jonna, who was out taking pictures, and she pointed me towards some really nice places to get some good shots (she told me there was an open field with cows, but she didn't tell me how close I could get or how friendly and curious they could be).  Here's a sampling of the day's photos that I tried to keep to a reasonably number so it wouldn't take forever to load on a slow connection.  I promise they are much better when full screen, but the best you can probably do without downloading them all is just to click on the picture to get it closer to full size.

That weekend, I went to my first floorball match with a couple of friends, Markus (from Germany) and Tor Emil (Norway).  I thought it would be a lot like hockey, but for some reason it really didn't feel the same at all watching it, something about the strategy and the pace of it was very different.  The Vaxjo Vipers ended up winning (I think the score was 6 - 4), but the game was pretty fun to watch and student tickets were just $3 each, so I'm sure I will try and make it to some more games this year (it's also only a 5 or 10 minute walk from my place).

The opening face-off

Half court offense

Vipers celebrating after a goal

After that I had to rush back because we were having another corridor dinner.  This time it also happened to be one of my hall-mate's birthdays (Momoka from Japan).  There's not much to say, but the food was delicious as always (we each cook a dish to share).

Our wonderful dinner.  My dish is the stuffed pesto chicken with roasted tomatoes in the middle.

And you can't forget desert!

The following week was another fun event every year, the first snow!  On October 20th!  It actually stayed on the ground for a few days too, which was nice.  But now it's gone and it's back to being 50 degrees outside.  The snow was nice, but I am sure we will have plenty of it before the year is done.  That evening my Swedish Sports, Leisure and Culture took a field trip to the ice hall to go skating.  I spent a lot of the time there teaching people how to skate, but it was really nice to be back on the ice after a few months without it, and I hope the lake freezes over and I find some skates so I can go skating on the ice all winter long.  Later that night we also went downtown for a Swedish Night the VIS was putting on.  The night wasn't all that I had hoped, but we got to try a tiny (very tiny) sampling of some traditional Swedish foods.

The view out my window the next morning.  The snow started around 10 or 11 the night before.

A shot of the snow covered trees outside the ice rink

A couple days after that, Mike, Sari, Jonna and I went downtown to a bowling alley.  We were all terrible, but it was fun and I bet we'll do it again.

Mike, the eventual winner, showing some great form

Then last night, Sari, Jonna and I went downtown to a little restaurant and bar to listen to some live jazz (which they have every Thursday, but somehow we haven't been out to see yet).  It was really nice to hear, and I'm sure we'll be back there again.

The jazz band (there are a drummer, guitarist, and pianist you can't see too) and Sari, apparently giving
Jonna a strange look.  The room was small and  pretty full, but as you can see, we were right near the front

Considering that we didn't actually go on any trips this month, I guess I had more photos than I thought.  That's it for now, but the next installment promises to be full of great pictures as some traveling is in our future, so be sure to check back for that.

Hej-hej