Day 1-2: Traveling to Vasteras, Sweden!

Amazingly everyone got on the bus and we left as scheduled from Cortland! The team arrived in Syracuse around 11:15am to find out that the 12:55pm flight had been delayed until 2:45! The snowstorms in the midwest had caused many of the planes to be late, so we just kicked in the terminal until the plane took off.

Thankfully it took off a little earlier than expected, and the team landed in Newark with plenty of time to spare before the flight to Stockholm. Once again, the flights were struck with delays and the team sat on the tarmac for two hours until lift-off around 8:45pm. The flight went smoothly and everyone landed safely in Stockholm at 8:30am, just one hour later than expected.

Everyone was surprised at the lack of fanfare getting off of the plane. No customs forms, no major security, just a guy stamping the passports and letting everyone walk out to grab the bags!

The team met with assistant coach Dawn at the baggage along with Sunny Chen, who had taken the train that morning from the Netherlands. Goran, the coach of the host team Vasteras, was waiting for us outside with a big bus to take us to Vasteras.

Most of the team was pretty tired, but the goal was to try to stay awake so that everyone could adjust to the time! The players kicked it around for an hour and a half before lunch, chatting with their teammates "T" and Jennie (and T's three-year old daughter Kya) who met us at the hotel around 10:30am after travelling from where they'd been staying in western Sweden. At noon everyone went for lunch at a bistro across the street where the team is being sponsored during the trip.

After lunch everyone settled into the hotel rooms at the Ibis, and despite warnings to try to stay awake, some of the girls couldn't help but to take a nap. After a nice rest, the team met in the lobby at 3:30pm (and it was already dark!) to get ready to go to their first practice in Sweden.

Several girls from the local club team (the hosts) Vasteras, met the WNT at the hotel to drive them to practice. The regular practice venue, which is just a short walk from the hotel, was being used by a Lego competition, so they had to drive to another gym about 20 minutes away.

It was excellent to practice with the Division 1 girls and their coach, Goran Lindsgard. The joint practice went really well, and everyone enjoyed having so many great players around to share their experience, and learn new drills.

When practice ended, the team headed back to the hotel to shower and have dinner before crashing for the evening. It was a long day, but everyone was excited about the week ahead.