Interesting Idre

Hello All! I hope life is just great.

Well, I stayed at Leif's for 2 nights. It was great having a comfortable place to just relax. The day after I arrived Leif and I went for a 1 hour 45 mins run in Ostersund. It was raining, but +2 degrees so pretty warm. Leif took us, I guess you could say, on a bit of an adventure; around a lake where there was a warning sign about cows, past a circus, through a muddy farmers field, and finally up to the top of the local ski hill. Leif got me all exciting by telling me all about the beautiful view at the top. Upon arrival, we had an amazing view of the mass of clouds we were in. It was hilarious. But as we ran down the ski hill and emerged from the clouds we could see a bit of the area and it was gorgeous. That night, I surprised Leif, and myself, by making an edible chicken lasagna. Let's just say the last time I cooked I caught a tea towel on fire causing there to be a permanent boot mark on the wood floor and broke a pot, spilling it's contents all over the floor
92 separate occasions). So it was pretty exciting that nothing crazy happened and I only cut my finger once.

The next morning, I have to thank Leif so so much, he drove me at 6:50am to meet the Swedish team. We packed the covered trailer full, I mean FULL to the brim, and all squished into a couple different cars. We were like clown cars almost. Now let me remind you, last year on our drive down we slid off the road into the ditch, were pulled out by a crazy Norwegian man, and almost hit a hundred Raindeer. So this year I was hoping for a smooth trip: Nein, niet, no way.

30 or so minutes down the road our lovely Swedish filled van is pulled over by none other than some investigators. I don't even know if they are allowed to pull people over, I guess they are. There were 3 of them in this van and 2 of them got out to talk to the coach. Turns out he was not licensed to drive a VAN and a trailer, but he could pull a CAR and a trailer. So we have this huge trailer full of who knows what and we have to call one of the other drivers to come pick the trailer up in his little car. Oh man, it was hilarious watching them drive away as there was hundreds and hundreds of kg's in the trailer. Anyways, we sat some more and Jonas ended up getting a 3000Kronar ($500CND) fine for I'm not even sure. But, once again, our smooth trip did not go as smoothly as planned. After seeing two moose and a couple more Reindeer we made it to Idre and everything was super.

Today was my first day on skis in a week. It felt great but the track is a bit slippery so it should be interesting tomorrow. There is not a lot of snow but tonight it is supposed to snow 1/2 an inch and get to -2 degrees. I also met back up with my Ukraine team which was GREAT! I saw my Ukraine Papa and it was such a happy moment. It is really nice to have a team that knows you, and that you know, to support you even if you don't speak the same language. But, we have a large improvement already from last year: I bought a Russian/English dictionary! I know, crazy, but it might help a bit more!

I am number 44 tomorrow, starting at 1:22pm. There are 115 women and 159 men! There is more here than World Cups! It is absolutely insane, but exciting.

Take care, smile, have fun and stay healthy!

xoxo Sarah