Shortly after I completed my previous blog post, I was invited by Sarah Johnsson to a get together at her and Lucas Grip's house in Hässleholm. Despite being told that there would be nothing but Hurricanes in attendance, I accepted their gracious invitation.
I arrived in Hässleholm that evening to the very familiar central station I had come in and out of so many times last summer and continued on the ten minute walk to Lucas and Sarah's house.
Shortly after my arrival, a number of other people arrived. As promised, they were all Hurricanes (or girlfriends thereof). As expected, conversation often turned to football and the changing landscape of American football in Skåne due to the recent withdrawal of the Kristianstad C4 Lions from this season's competition. Discussions of Hurricanes' inner workings and strategy took place only in Swedish, unfortunately, and nobody was kind enough to translate. Discussion of Predators strategy did not take place at all.
I met three new Hurricanes: Tim Schröder (above Left), Niklas Kyhlström (above center), and Martin Rosen. Martin was actually only new to me, as he injured himself very early last season and was not with the team at the same time that I was. Also above Lucas and Sarah are fixing drinks while Mattias Lundquist talks with Niklas and Tim.
I also saw Marcus Lundquist (Mattias's brother) and his girlfriend Johanna again. Linus Nilsson and his girlfriend were also in attendance. Martin Andrä rounded out the group.
I was very happy that Johan Persson and his girlfriend Mariana Nilsson dropped by with their newborn daughter Cornelia, who is just a few weeks old (and looks just like Johan!). I hope to be able to spend time with them again soon, perhaps after they have adjusted to life as proud parents!
After spending time getting reacquainted, the hosts urged us upstairs for some SingStar, which is like karaoke on Playstation 3. Luckily for me, almost all of the songs were in English, so I was able to hold my own.
The only member of the group I haven't yet mentioned is Kitti Jonas, Mattias's girlfriend. I was fortunate enough to be able to have a long and very enjoyable conversation with her. Kitti is Hungarian and is in her third year of being a figure skating coach in Sweden. She and I shared common observations about Swedish culture, common complaints about the Swedish language, and common fondness for Swedish people. We also talked about living and working in a strange place and working with children (and their parents) as all coaches must do.
We capped off the night by going to Harry's, a bar/club in Hässleholm. Lucas and Sarah were kind enough to let me crash at their place since the trains had long since running by the time we called it a night. I highly recommend the hospitality of Sarah and Lucas's Bed and Breakfast!
Sunday night was our second outdoor practice at Kristianstad IP. Again, I forgot to take pictures. The first Sunday practice left me a bit disappointed due to some players being absent for a variety of reasons. This Sunday, however, things were MUCH better and I felt really good about the progress we made. We were still a little light on lineman (two had spent all weekend at a Junior National Team camp so were not practicing), but we got excellent work done in 7 on 7 and even in the team period going half-line up front. Again, we had great work by some players stepping in out of position for the good of the team and showing a lot of leadership and sacrifice. We are definitely getting better every practice.
Upon recommendation by receivers Emil and Ben, my trip to Maxi on Monday included picking up some Vacuum Cleaners:
Or, translated back into Swedish, Dammsugare. I can't really describe exactly what's going on inside of these little guys, but the ends are dipped in chocolate, and the middle is wrapped marzipan. I couldn't place what filled the marzipan wrapping, but it was sort of like a dense cake. In any case, they were ok, but not my favorite. I definitely lean toward the pastry.
Monday night I returned to enemy territory to hang out with Lucas. He picked me up at the train station in Hässleholm and we had dinner at Infinity Restaurang, the site of George and Laurie Contreras's fairwell dinner, and also were Lucas, Sarah, Johan, Mariana, and I had eaten before I left last summer. Afterwards we watched The American in Lucas's home theater. A fan of action movies, Lucas was somewhat disappointed in the lack thereof in the film. We both agreed it was decent, although somewhat depressing with a disappointing ending.
My walk back from the Kristianstad train station included some oddly lit night shots of Kristianstad's architecture:
Including a building a building just across from the station (above) and a theatre down the street (below).
On Tuesday, Modou Colley (Predators Speed Coach and rookie WR) picked me up and we, with Marcus Johnsson (WR, our left) and Martin Sjöstedt (DB, our right), went to Cafe Felix in the centrum to talk football. We were able to break things down a little more and I think after the meeting the guys had a better understanding and fewer questions. Again, I love guys caring enough to put in the extra time!
That night we had a good (not great) turnout for speed training. Modou (far right, below) does a good job of working with the guy's running technique and building their speed. He also works them pretty hard, which is great for our conditioning.
We had a little bit of time after Modou finished his session, so we broke the guys up and did some teaching. The guys continue to pick things up well and respond well to instruction. Another practice where everyone in attendance got better!
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