Hockey, soccer and other games dominate the Swedish sports scene, while basketball has a long way to go before establishing a strong following.
However, last night, I experienced the Svenska Basketligan (Swedish Basket League) thanks to an invite by new friends Holly and Gabe. A crowd of a few hundred people cheered on the game between the reigning national champs, Norrköping Dolphins, and our very own Eco Örebro.
Clad in green uniforms, Eco, according to the team’s website, makes a claim that they are the most environmentally conscious team in this league.
UPDATE: Thanks to help from a Swedish person (in comments), I was able to find where the environmental policy was on the website, and read about how the team has "planted rainforest equivalent to the amount of emissions caused by the team's travel."(note, this is the rough Google translation). They also have strict waste separation at events and sell only organic tea and coffee. I did a search to see if there were any other such movements on other basketball teams, but all I could find were basketballs made from recycled materials.
Trying to be more environmental is of course a good thing and a particularly strong focus in Sweden and Scandinavia. My global journalism class is going to Finland in November for a media and climate change course, and multiple professors at my university are working on climate change-related research.
Eco put up a good fight but lost to the Dolphins. It was still within 10 points, which is pretty good since they were playing the championship winners, so I have a feeling I’ll go again, and perhaps buy one of those shirts with the greenery surrounding the logo. Russell, whose obsession with American football is followed by basketball as a close second, was pretty sad to miss the game since he was in Germany for a business trip. He proposed we make a fan group called “Eco freakos,” but that’s still up for debate.
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Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Stockholm in photos
After living in Sweden for almost four months, I finally took a train to the country's capital, Stockholm, with Russell last weekend. Other than going to the famous Vasa museum, we didn't have anything specific planned, and decided to go on foot and discover the sights as we explored. Below are some highlighted photos from the trip.
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Friday, October 8, 2010
Newlywed adventures in a Swedish kitchen
Russ and I love watching “Masterchef Australia” and aspiring to one day create culinary perfection, but that day hasn’t come. This goal becomes more of a struggle when you go from cooking in America to Sweden.
On Russell’s birthday, I decided to make a pot roast. Cooking roast beef in an oven for half a day in Texas produces a wonderful, succulent meal. Cooking roast beef for the same time in Sweden creates a dry, chewy, “I’m sorry your birthday meal isn’t good” result. Why? Our assumption is the difference in meat quality. I know, I know, I should have known better, but when you see it in the store and it looks like it could be good and you've been craving it for a long time....well, you get the idea.
But we continue to persevere and experiment with different ingredients that go beyond our former bachelor/bachelorette food groups. Yesterday, I came home from the university and heard Russ coughing in the kitchen. I asked, “Are you OK?” This was shortly followed by breathing in a strong smell and my own coughing. Between gasping for air, I asked Russ what was going on, and he said he had (through his coughs) cooked a chili pepper in a pan, causing some kind of pepper gas to emit in the air.
We think this has something to do with not taking out the seeds before cooking, but if anyone has a better explanation, please let us know. We finally opened some windows and the balcony and were able to breathe a little easier. Russell had the strongest whiff directly in his face from the pan, so he was sniffling the rest of the evening. I’d share one solution he tried to help alleviate the problem, but he repeatedly asked me not to do so on this forum.
How was the food? The spices Russell used on the pork actually tasted pretty good, albeit a little too overpowering for my taste. I only got through half a chop while Russell ate his in full along with my half. Every time I kissed Russ during the evening, my lips burned a bit. You can imagine the jokes he made about this.
If Russ is able to reduce the seasoning and not cook the seeds, we may have a great meal on our hands. Sometimes, like any budding chef, you have to learn the hard way. Let’s just hope next time, no gas is involved.
On Russell’s birthday, I decided to make a pot roast. Cooking roast beef in an oven for half a day in Texas produces a wonderful, succulent meal. Cooking roast beef for the same time in Sweden creates a dry, chewy, “I’m sorry your birthday meal isn’t good” result. Why? Our assumption is the difference in meat quality. I know, I know, I should have known better, but when you see it in the store and it looks like it could be good and you've been craving it for a long time....well, you get the idea.
But we continue to persevere and experiment with different ingredients that go beyond our former bachelor/bachelorette food groups. Yesterday, I came home from the university and heard Russ coughing in the kitchen. I asked, “Are you OK?” This was shortly followed by breathing in a strong smell and my own coughing. Between gasping for air, I asked Russ what was going on, and he said he had (through his coughs) cooked a chili pepper in a pan, causing some kind of pepper gas to emit in the air.
We think this has something to do with not taking out the seeds before cooking, but if anyone has a better explanation, please let us know. We finally opened some windows and the balcony and were able to breathe a little easier. Russell had the strongest whiff directly in his face from the pan, so he was sniffling the rest of the evening. I’d share one solution he tried to help alleviate the problem, but he repeatedly asked me not to do so on this forum.
How was the food? The spices Russell used on the pork actually tasted pretty good, albeit a little too overpowering for my taste. I only got through half a chop while Russell ate his in full along with my half. Every time I kissed Russ during the evening, my lips burned a bit. You can imagine the jokes he made about this.
If Russ is able to reduce the seasoning and not cook the seeds, we may have a great meal on our hands. Sometimes, like any budding chef, you have to learn the hard way. Let’s just hope next time, no gas is involved.
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