The Return

I’ll quickly acknowledge that it has taken me far too long to revitalize my blog and keep everyone up to date. Ok, since that is done and dusted, we can move on to the interesting stuff, like are Swedish meatballs in Sweden really better than those found at Ikea in Schaumburg? And do all Swedes drive Volvo’s and Saab’s?

As I can’t really get everyone up to speed on what has happened in my first 6 months here in Uddevalla, Sweden, I will provide a quick recap of how the season with Ljungskile SK has gone up to this point and promise to be a more reliable fountain of information for the remainder of my time here.

We had our first day back in training today after having a full week off for our mid-season break. I had planned to do some traveling over this week to Ireland, but due to some unforeseen complications with my bank here in Sweden I was unable to see this trip through. I had to settle for staying in Uddevalla for the holiday, which actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I nearly finished 3 books, was able to soak up a miniscule amount of sun (more on that in a minute) and indulged in a few Gin & Tonic’s, while listening to some blues every evening, and I refuse to complain about a vacation when I’m able to enjoy a few G&T’s. Shout out to Beth Hopkins for providing the Gin. My prior indulgence also failed to keep me from completing my fitness test in the proper time, so successful holiday indeed!

It was nice to get back to work today feeling refreshed and looking forward to the challenge that we face in the second half of our season. We are currently sitting on 20 points from 15 games, which, leaves us stuck in the middle of the pack in the Superettan. With some better luck with injuries I don’t think it’s unrealistic to think we could be sitting on at least 25 points. But what’s done is done and we have to focus on improving on our first half results. Which, I most certainly intend on doing.

As for life outside of football, I have had some difficulties adjusting to life in Sweden. Most of those problems are completely out my hands and it has taken me some time to realize this, but now that I have I think life will be much more smooth going forward. The weather certainly hasn’t helped either. I think in the past 4 weeks there has been maybe 7 sunny days? The rest of the time it has rained. A lot.

So in the interest of moving forward I am hoping that re-starting my blog will force me to explore my area a little bit more, that people will get in touch with me and ask me questions about life in Sweden so that I can learn new things if I do not know the answer, and I’m also hoping that writing the blog will help me hold myself accountable to learning Swedish.

To answer those burning questions from the beginning, Swedish meatballs are better in Sweden when I cook them, and Swede’s don’t show anymore of a preference for Saab’s and Volvo’s than anybody else.

Hej då!