Finally Summer

Sorry, haven't updated for a while. But FINALLY the summer weather decided to come to Sweden too. Therefore, I haven't spent a lot of time inside  in front of my computer.

Tomorrow, Swedish nationals starts!!! Im so excited! I have been tapering for a while and I feel good in the water so i should be able to bust out some fast swims :) It's in Link;ping, where Tess practices!

For like a week ago, the most Swedish thing I can think of happened - Midsummer. Its a swedish holiday and everyone celebrate the summer I think, dancing around a big stick covered with leaves and flowers and play a lot of games. Another thing we do that day is eating a special Midsummer Lunch which includes sill (a salty kind of raw fish, its actually really good!). I spent it with my family at out summerhouse by the east coast. I will add some pics soon to explain it better!

Last tuesday, I went to Allsång på skansen with my swim team. It's like a concert where the audience get to sing the songs along with the artists and they make a TV show out of it. We made a big poster with our swim team's name on it, and you can see it really well on TV! :D

We stayed there all day and had picnic in the wonderful weather - t was a fantastic day! 

Some pics:

No Swim

Usch, The weather is soooo boring (the coldest June in Sweden since 1950). It just keeps raining and raining and raining.  And Im sick, Im like having a cold so I couldnt swim in my meet yesterday :( But I feel a lot better now so im gonna go to practice today :D 

I rearranged in my room recently, I like it a lot :) I moved out my desk because I figured Im never gonna study here again haha. 

Only 2 weeks till Swedish Nationals now! Wohooo :D

Sunday recap

Friday, I went to Carolinas Graduation recepltion with my family. Then I went to Jonas' from my swim team with my sister. It was a lot of fun and a lot of cake :) After that we were gonna go out, but we ended up at a party at St Eriksplan and with a rescue of people in need...

Saturday, The swedish national Day, me and fam drove out to Ingarö where we celebrated Jeanette's birthday. (She will really turn 18 on tuesday, Yay!). 

Last week I worked too, I spent all monday constantly smiling and welcoming/ checking in rich Americans that come to board a cruise that starts in Stockholm. It's pretty fun, always fun to work with Americans - so friendly ;) And the cruise concierge is from Brazil and he reminds me very much of Coach Arthur :)

I just got home from Practice where I almost drowned because I was so full from all the food CC made when me and Sara (:D) visited her in Bagarmossen for brunch. It was fun to see her, her Boyfriend Richard and their apartment again - so pretty!

Something BIG

I feel very important right now. I voted today. I am old enough to be a part of the Swedish population that decides how Sweden should represent itself in the European Parliament. I feel privileged to be one of the lucky people in the world that lives in a country with democracy and therefore being able to vote and have a little control over the people that decide everything. So of course, I went with my mom and dad to our voting place nearby and did my duty as a citizen. It went very fast, I just put the sheet for Moderata Samlingspartiet in my envelope behind a shield, then went to a guy behind a desk that checked my ID and put my envelope with my vote together with everyones else's in a box. Done! 

I voted for the party "Moderaterna". I like almost all their values and ideas for Sweden and Europe. It's the most republican party out of the two Main parties in Sweden. But everything is so much more on the Democratic side in Sweden, so Moderaterna would probably be somewhere in the middle seen from an American perspective. I like their ideas about creating new jobs by making it easier to open companies, their environment politics and how theywould handle the balance of what should be included in the EU. They also want Sweden to convert from the Swedish SEK to Euro. I don't like their new copyright laws though, it makes it impossible to download stuff and watch videos etc from other countries n the internet. But that's about it on the negative side. 

Swedes, if you haven't yet, use your privilege and get out and vote!

Meet

This weekend, there was a meet in Täby. I swam a lot, and sometimes in very short amount of time. I actually had a break dedicated to me because I swam 50 fly, and then 200 IM the event right after. So everyone had to wait for me while I walked back to the blocks. Haha. 

Conclusion from practicing in the US - we did too much under waters. I got DQd on 100 back for staying 15.2 meter under water... I would have won and made a best time :( 

I won the Medley Cup at that meet. You swim 50 of each stroke and the one with the best total time on 200 IM wins! I won a (I will not say ugly) special glass statue called the blue lady. But its really yellow and green and the hair looks like a big hand with a f you finger...