Thursday, December 4th - last day in Sweden

We slept in late today and barely made it to breakfast. The sun is out. The first time in days. We'll go out and ski this afternoon and help with the Women's 15km race. Off to homework! More updates and pictures later.

Wednesday, December 3rd

We got up early this am and went for a ski with Bernd, Per and Patrick, the coaches on the 20km loop. It had snowed the night before and they had freshly groomed the tracks. We were the first ones to ski! We skied for over 1.5 hrs. We then went back for lunch, reading and homework and a nap. Later in the afternoon we went out to get ready for the evening race at 5:15pm. We prepped skis with the Ski technicians and hung out with the athletes. I delivered skis to the start line and my Dad and I went up on the ski course. I did all the video of our athletes and some from other countries during their race. My Dad gave them sport drink for feeds during the 20km race. We had a great time. Lowell Bailey, one of our athletes placed 15th (out of 120). Afterwards we headed back to the hotel, ate a late dinner at 8pm and went to bed. Here are some pictures of me on the course. The entire course is lit by bright lights.

Biathlon | BEST from Eurovision

Biathlon BEST from Eurovision


Use this link to watch the International Biathlon Union Men's World Cup on Wednesday and Women's on Thursday at about 11:00 AM.

Monday

We got up earlier today, had breakfast (cornflakes, yogurt, eggs and swedish meatballs!) and went out to the venue. There was a wonderful 'ice fog' or dimma in Swedish, covering the trees in a white crust. The 22km course had not yet been rolled (maybe tomorrow?) as they are getting the courses and stadium perfect. We skied over an hour on the 15km and other trails.

We went back for lunch, homework, a trip to the store (the COOP! just like home) . I got my official International Biathlon Union (IBU) credentials.


Later we returned to the venue where the men were having offical practice. I worked with the coaches in the range and Dad did video up on the course while the men did their time trial. It was cold, but thankfully the coaches like to stop and have coffee (and tea!).

After the time trial we went back and had dinner (salads, vegetable soup, fish, rice and warm sweet bread and butter.
I was sent off to homework land while dad went to team meetings.
Here I am back in the room.

Sunday

Alas, a little slow getting yesterday's post up as it's been busy and we moved from Camp Sodergren to the Hotell Ett farther from the venue. We got at least 6 inches of fresh snow last night. We returned to the venue for a ski in the snow.

Petr Garabik('Gara'), one of the wax technicians and a 20 year veteran of the Czech team was working in the wax cabin with me. Yes I am doing my own skis!

Saturday in Östersund!

Today I slept in late then lazily walked to find that Dad had made me some breakfast. We then got dressed warmly and walked into town to go and see the "Jamtli" museum. The museum's main focus is the region known as Jämtland in Sweden and Norway and people and animals that lived and live there. There were many interesting exhibits about the Sámi people of Jämtland and their ways of life.

After going through the exhibits, we headed upstairs to the gift shop and then on to the cafe, where we had a very relaxing lunch and coffee.

After that we headed back to our room and got ready for our afternoon ski. We skied for about an hour and 15 minutes, we did 2 of the lower loops and 3 of the upper ones.

After the ski, I was pretty tired, but I read for a while and then we watched some alpine racing on TV.

We hosted dinner tonight so we had everyone over for some very, very rich rice and beef stew (or as the caterer said "Swedish Buffalo!" A perfect meal for the night when Dad was giving the talk about nutrition and dietary practices. After his talk, I headed over to one of the other athlete's houses to get a better WiFi connection to blog. Later I went back, read, and fell asleep early.

Friday: Rest Day

Today I woke at 8:30 as Dad rushed out the door to go and help with the exercise testing with the women on the team at the University. After breakfast I went for a morning ski out on the course. I thought it would be relaxing, but no. Biathletes from every country in the world were rushing around the stadium and the course speeding, shooting, crashing, yelling, and anything else ending with -ing. Not my thing in the morning. So I went back inside to do some homework (yeah I actually do homework Mom!). When Dad came back we ate lunch and he went out for a ski on his own. Later we walked into town together to go check out the scene there, we decided to eat dinner at a place called "The Bishops Arms." They had some of the best burgers and fish n' chips that either of us had had in a while. We walked back from town and spent the rest of the evening reading, blogging, and watching Eurosport soccer.

Thanksgiving for Sweden!

Today Dad and I woke up early to go to the University for testing with some of the athletes. In the test, you ski on a giant treadmill. The hardest part of the test is when you have to ski the hardest that you possibly can, until you fall down. Here is me next to Lowell Bailey (one of the athletes) and Per Nillson, the US team coach from Solleftea, Sweden:After testing, we went back to the house and I did some homework. Yeah, I actually do homework! Later I went out skiing with the junior xc-ski team here in Östersund, where I give thanks I didn't die on the extremely icy hills. We had Thanksgiving dinner (chicken with lingonberry sauce), then we went and picked up my lost baggage at the hotel where it had been shipped. We headed home where I promptly fell fast asleep:

Wednesday in Sweden

I woke up this morning at about 10 o'clock then went back to sleep and was woken up by dad again at 11. This is what I looked like whern I stepped outside:

Yeah, definitely jet lagged!

At 11:30 we went for ski on the course, I felt a lot better after that:After that I did some homework and then went out shopping with Jeremy Teela (one of the Biathletes). This is what the sky looked like at about noon:

Later we went out with the whole team and had coffee and shopping. At 4:30 this is what it looked liked: After that I went back to the room and did a little more homework. At 6 one of my friends came and picked me up for a race we were going to. I wasn't in the race, but we skied for about an hour and a half around the course. He introduced me to his friends and we had a great time! Finally, I came back for dinner, it was a great day.

I'm in Sweden...skiing.

After just about the longest 24-hours of travel ever, we arrived in Östersund, Sweden. We were promtly greeted by our friend Bernd, who drove us to where we were all staying. Unfortunately, my bag with all of my clothes was lost in transport so I won't get it until tomorrow. We arranged so that I will ski with the youth biathlon team during my time here. I am so excited to ski with people my own age from a different country, dad says that they'll be able to speak English and I'll be able to learn a lot of good training tips. Bernd gave me a lot of nice Adidas gear, and that really helps seeing as my bag is lost somewhere between Östersund and Boston. Check back soon when I post more about the skiing conditions.

Buppa and Nena!

Bye Bye Buppski and Nenski!

zzzzz

Sleep will come soon my apprentice.

My Coordinates

In Ostersund my coordinates will be 63˚ N, 14˚E, just 3˚ south of the Arctic Circle.  So it will be relatively dark most of the day.

SWEDEN IS TOMORROW!!!

SWEDEN COUNTDOWN: TOMORROW!!!

Today I am going to finish packing my bag and putting everything together.  But tomorrow, we get on the Dartmouth Coach and ride down to Boston.  Then we catch a flight to New York, and then another one on to Stockholm.  And then finally we fly from Stockholm to Ostersund on Swedish Air.  Definitely a big day.

Oh, the Excitement!

I'm way too excited than is good for my health.

'Sverige'

Fast Fact: Sweden in Swedish is 'Sverige' (s-ver-ee-ya)

New Blog for Ostersund!

I will begin blogging immediately after arrival!  I will have a lot of down time to blog (and do homework).  Check back soon!