Adventures in Stockholm

We began today with a leisurely morning - we slept in until around 10am and then moseyed downstairs to enjoy our favorite event, the Scandic's breakfast buffet. Judging by the fact that most of our plates contained either a swedish pancake, croissant, or piece of toast covered in Nutella, I'd say we were pretty content. Once the feast was over and after a little downtime, we all piled onto the bus to head to a local soccer field for practice. We're not making very much use of our warm clothing here - it was around 29 degrees Celsius (84 F) at the field! As we worked on shadow play and some crossing and finishing, Ava watched from afar, but as soon as practice was over, she was ready to show us her stuff. Dribbling around with a ball half her body size, she made her way towards the goal. Once she got there, she turned around right at the goal line and ran the other way! We concluded that she's destined to be a defender, following in her dad's footsteps. Cool-down completed, we headed back to the Scandic for a quick shower and lunch. Several of us experienced Swede-Mex at a nearby restaurant called Zócalo, which had quite a different flavor than the Tex-Mex that we're accustomed to. Others grabbed salads and sandwiches at Sandy's or falafel pitas at the Kebab restaurant on the corner. At 5 o'clock, we ventured to the dock for a 2-hour boat tour of Stockholm. As we cruised around the waterways of the city, we saw lots of historical buildings, sized up the roller coasters of the Gröna Lund amusement park, experimented with the 9 language settings on the tour headphones, and chatted amongst ourselves... And we took tons of pictures the whole time (selfies included), as usual. After one final group photo upon our return to the dock, we all split up for dinner. Many of us ended up in a cool park area, complete with bronze lion statues, a dozen little open-air cafes, and a big fountain dotted with barefoot children wading in the water. Stomachs full, we strolled back to the hotel in small groups and got in bed pretty quickly - with a 7am wakeup time and a 10am game, we need to get some good sleep! -Jenni White, senior