Spring, The Beach, & Easter

<-- These colorful stands were in various spots around the city. All with assorted colored feathers :)

Spring break- Påsklov- pretty much began on Friday the 15 for me! It was a  great week to say the least all thanks to the very good weather here.

I began my break with a volleyball tournament that Saturday. We were the only B team, meaning that all the other teams we played against were in higher divisions than us...and older than us by 5-30 years. But that's not that important, we played three matches each with two sets. And well we lost all three. I did have a good time playing pool in between matches though, I won those games :)

The next day some of us from volleyball (guys and girls) went to the beach to do a little spring cleaning. We spent a few hours picking up trash from the beach then played some volleyball. Afterwards we did a little grilling...of hot dogs.

Monday I headed to the beach with Handi, Fatih (her brother) his friend, and two other girls. We played a few games of beach volleyball. Handi and I against Fatih and his friend. Losers had to buy the winners a pizza...well you'd think since Handi and I have actually been "playing" volleyball we'd have won. We didn't! Thankfully we didn't have to actually buy them a pizza after all ;) That night I went to wrestling practice, always tough but always so good.

Tuesday I laid out in the sun all day. Weather was finally feeling like spring. And yes I did get a tan!

 Wednesday I did the same, of course. Went to the beach with some friends as well. And also had wrestling practice that night.

Thursday Keisha (girl from Canada) came over for the day. We made chocolate chip cookies, tanned and had a good conversation with the 4 year old neighbor. She came over into the yard and started chatting with us...she is adorable. At one point she tells us about her grandpa. "His name is_______, he is___ years old and he's in the bathroom right now"! Kids say the darnest things.

Friday was another day well spent on enjoying the sun.

Saturday I joined the little girls wrestling team by helping them pick up trash in the woods/park for a few hours. It was a really nice day again so lots of people were out on walks. After that we grilled some hot dogs and had cookies too. Right after that I went with one of the moms of a girl from "my" wrestling group (older girls). We drove to the older girls training camp in a nearby town. There was a team from Germany there as well training with them. It was a lot of fun to watch them train...in Swedish and in German. That night I also went on a walk with Asa along the beach, so many people were out.

Sunday was another day spent at the beach with friends. We took out some grills and made kebabs, played volleyball and enjoyed the sun. 

My Easter decoration :)

Monday was a red day (swedish holiday?) meaning no school, no working, no nothing. I enjoyed my final day of break by relaxing in the sun all day.  I also went on an Easter egg hunt :) to find my one and only egg. After I found it I suggested to Mikaela that we dye some eggs for the 4 and 6 year old neighbor kids. I guess the tradition of hiding a bajillion eggs around for kids to find isn't really a tradition in Sweden.

So now that break was over...school started back up :(

It was boring as always.

Wrestling was extra good this week though, we had a team from France come and train with us. On one day their coach trained us, really cool to have had the chance to learn from so many great coaches. On Friday I was asked to speak as part of a panel of American-Swedes...Swedish-Americans to a group of students. We discussed lots of topics from school, the lifestyle, to racisim and hooliganism. And that same day I moved to my third and final host family of this year. I'll blog about them later once I've gotten to know them a little better :) Now, I'm just enjoying the weekend at the beach with friends until lovely school begins on Monday.