Summer in Sweden is officially over (and has been for a few
weeks now), and although the nice weather was only here for a short time I find
myself very excited for the fall season. I haven’t experienced the fall in 2 years
and it just feels right being able to watch some football Sunday evening and
have the weather outside be just cool enough to wear jeans and a sweatshirt
when I venture out. Hopefully, I’ll even be able to teach these Swedes how to
make a proper bonfire with some S’mores one of these evenings, even though
everyone thinks I’m crazy for being so excited that the weather is getting
colder.
I also thought that I would be really homesick at this time
of year. It’s exactly 8 weeks until I make my way back to Chicago, which is
close enough that I start to think about having some good pizza nearly every
night, but not quite close enough that I can start to get excited about being
home. But with the fall finally here, and the next 8 weeks broken into 3
separate blocks of time (3 games in the next 10 days, then 1 month left in the
season, then 2 weeks until I’m home) I know the time will pass quickly.
Speaking of the season, we lost to a red hot Halmstad on
Monday night, and now find ourselves in need of a win Saturday afternoon
against Umeå to stay in 5th place in the league. At this point in
the season promotion is an unrealistic aspiration, and we are just a few good
results away from being safe from relegation as well. If we can continue to
string together solid performances, and win our remaining home matches, we
should finish the season right around 5th position which would be a
very good result for this team considering the significant disadvantages the
club faces financially and how unlucky we have been with injuries this year.
In other news, I am only a few weeks away from becoming a
functioning member of society in Sweden. I believe I’ll actually be immigrating
to Sweden, which will allow me to take Swedish classes offered by the town, pay
my own bills, rent movies, and a lot of other things that I haven’t been able
to do on my own. Needless to say it will be nice not to have to rely on other
people to take care of simple tasks. I’ll most likely have to wait until I get
back in January to start taking Swedish classes but it’s something to look
forward to!
Hope all is well back in the states, go Bears!
