Tuesday night, I arrived in Sweden after a week in my hometown, Vinton, Virginia.
So, I have slowly been recovering from a little jetlag and extreme euphoria resulting from my time with loved ones in the states. Although, on my way there, I actually had some terrible visions of being stopped at border control and being denied entrance into the country because of my exotic facial features.
Silly. Why would I even imagine that happening? Well, I won’t mention any names… #orangeisNOTthenewblack #butletsnotgetpolitical On the contrary, I was greeted with a big smile and a bold “Welcome to the U.S. Mrs. Andersson”.
This kind of friendliness continued throughout my visit. Not just from the hospitality of my own family and friends, but also from strangers -- from the guy in the car stuck in traffic next to me to the lady crossing my path at the grocery store.
Say what you want about the states, but there is a certain sense of warmth and community that I have a difficult time finding in most parts of Europe. Don’t get me wrong. The U.S. has many evils, but so does any other country. In any case, I felt there was something about the air there. I found myself briefly closing my eyes and just taking it in. You can compare it to when Swedes get their first moments of sun in the Springtime. They stop, drop what they're doing, lift their chins to the sky and breathe it all in…
OK, onto the next cultural experience -- namely some hot sweaty padel in Spain! On Wednesday night, World Padel Tour Barcelona released the draw. This is when the padel butterflies started fluttering around in my stomach because I'll be getting another chance to test the waters in the ocean of international padel players. I consulted with Billie #mypadelmama for an explanation of the draw and if I understood it correctly, after our first-round bye, we have one pre-qualy match and two qualy matches to tackle before making it to the main draw. I didn't recognize any of the names of our opponents. All I know is they all sounded Spanish. #wevegotourworkcutoutforus
Just recently arrived in Barcelona -- one of my favorite European cities and have reunited with Billie. It's always fun catching up with her and warming up our laughing fits. And we've already downed our first portion of churros... Tomorrow, we are looking to get in some court time and hopefully a practice match.
Our first match will be on Tuesday at 11.00 so we will be tightening our ponytails and greasing our elbows in preparation to fight our way towards the main draw... Please cross your fingers (if you're an English-speaking friend) or hold your thumbs (if your a Swedish friend).
Talk to you soon!