American Desserts and Swedish Food

Yesterday I was invited over to Karin's house who is a player on the team as well as a mom of two other girls on the team. Taylor is staying with them this summer. She is also a 9th grade English teacher at the high school. The school was holding a culture week at the school so Karin's class made American desserts and brought them over to her house. There were about 24 students in the class; they all presented their dish and  served everyone. There were sweets like carrot cake, blueberry cupcakes (which I think were blueberry muffins), brownies, chocolate cupcakes, blueberry pie, chocolate cookies, and many others. They all did a very good job and some of the desserts were pretty impressive!

After the dessert party I went to practice. We did outfield, infield, and some hitting. Our game is on Saturday; I will be pitching the first game and playing first base the second game. We are playing Söder, which means "South", in Stockholm at 12:00. Ingrid also informed me that Taylor or I may be driving a car to Stockholm because we are the only girls on the team (that are playing this weekend) that know how to drive and there is not enough room on the bus to fit everyone! I'm a little nervous for that, but Ingrid said the rules of the road are the same here as they are in the US, except that there is no right on red. We'll see how that turns out! :)

Yesterday was one of my first real exposures to Swedish cuisine. Taylor and I biked into downtown for lunch and we stopped at a place called Cafe Magnifik. We ordered grilled chicken salads that included couscous on the bottom of the plate, topped with lettuce, tomato, corn, cucumber, pear, a slice of melon, a slice of orange, red pepper, and on top was a marinated chicken skewer. It was really good! Then last night we had a frozen dinner that was heated in the oven. There was fish on the bottom and on top was mashed potatoes and a creamy dill sauce. Also very good! The Swedish really like sandwiches; except their sandwiches are openfaced and usually only consist of butter and cheese. They usually eat a lot of red meat, like ham and ground beef. I'm a little bit of a challenge since I do not eat red meat. Ingrid bought her first turkey burgers and chicken hotdogs yesterday. They have been so nice to making me feel comfortable here; they even gave me the spare bathroom, which is covered with beach things, lighthouses, and pictures of Maine!