Social Life

After our loss 3-2 on Thanksgiving Thursday to Satter, a team we should have beaten easily, a weekend to nurse our wounds and take our minds off of volleyball was in order. What you are about to witness is the "LA nightlife of the Vingaker youth." We started at Tarik's buddy's place for a game of poker. I had no inclincation to let these guys take my money so I sat out and "prepared" for the evening. Our second stop took us the local party where all of Tarik's friends were anxiously awaiting our arrival. These are the people who I haven't gotten to know at all, but are always happy to see and talk to "the American." Your typical house party:

These are a couple of the friends I've made here in sweden. The guy with the year-round tan is Sammy - a guy you do NOT want to cross and I'm happy to have on my side. Everyone knows Sammy in this little town and the next three as well. We've all met Tarik. Next to him is a guy I see every time we go out. I think his name is Matte. He's a bit of a party animal, but a really nice guy, always looking out for me, ready for conversation. The guy in the white with the striped scarf that looks a bit like an elf is Jonas. He plays on our division 1 team and has a real whip of an arm-swing. Why he's out the night before his match, I don't know. I'm only his coach. The next guy over is Mulke (pronounced like "puke" with an "M"). He grew up in Vingaker, but now is the setter for Satter, yes, the team we lost to the night before. I was a bit unsettled about how I felt about him until later this night when we had a chance to talk. Apparently he has trouble keeping a job, but he's a pretty nice guy. The guy sitting next to him is Thomas. Thomas is perhaps my favorite of all the "party guys" as I've dubbed them. He's always out, always having a good time, ALWAYS with a drunk look on his face, even when sober. He taught me my first Swedish sentence saying "it's the only thing you'll ever need to say." I'm not sure of the grammar or spelling but it sounds like this "Han er burg," meaning "he is gay." A real weapon with the ladies. ;) Then there's me, and well, when in Rome... They have all kinds of strange drinks here including this minty shot. The alcohol is not always as strong, but has some vile flavors.

We went out later that night to Katrineholm, the next town probably double or triple the size of Vingaker. Everyone 18-22 within a 20 mile radius comes to Katrineholm to go out on Friday nights. Naturally, I make friends quickly.

The place is called "Starlight" - your typical wannabe LA Club complete with dance floor, disco ball, and flashing lights. The dance floor is always packed, but everyone seems to have a blast, turning and dancing with everyone. Erick and Linus seem to be having a good time here.

While I was ordering a round at the bar the bartender leans over to me and says "Hey, your picture is on our website." I was a bit confused, wondering how this girl could know who I am, much less recognize me - I had just shaved my head, and the last time I was there I had a beard. Regardless she gave me a card and told me to check it out. Sure enough, there I was!

I mean, we look GOOD!

I had to be up early the next morning to coach the Division 1 team in Stockholm. Not a fun day stuffed in the back of a van with 9 other guys.

Saturday night, however, we had to gear up to do it all over again. I headed into Orebro with Bullin and Vedad. Bullin is our utility man on the Elite team, generally used as a back-up libero. He also plays outside hitter on the Division 1 team. His English isn't as good as I think it is - I find him just nodding along a lot of the time. Vedad is the other Bosnian on our team. I took his spot when I came and I know he wasn't too thrilled to have me on the team. This weekend was great though, giving us some time to hang out and get to know each other.

We all met up at Dave's apartment before we headed down to the bar that the other Jonas (our "coach") was working at. He had put us on the guest list and we got to by-pass the line and walk right in. It's all in who you know.

The place is for 25+ but luckily for us the Orebro women's team game to join us. Toby (our middle blocker) has a commonlaw on their team and Dave is sort of dating one of them as well. There was about 5 or 6 girls that came to provide a little interference from the cougars pinching our tushies and buying us drinks. That's Bullin top and bottom left. He's a machine on the dance floor, but can't seem to get out of the "friend zone" with the ladies. Vildan is in both top and bottom right. He's Tarik's brother with too much pent-up anger. He's with Malin in the top picture, a hitter for the women's team and Vedad in the bottom. Yes, it's snowing again and according to Dave "it's already snowed more this month than it did all last year." I love it.

We were out late and finished off our night at the local Max Burger for some tasty treats. I can see why Dave moved to Orebro: definitely an older, more mature crowd and you don't run into EVERYONE you know EVERY night.