T-5 Days till Finland

Week 32:

Hello Everyone.
I know I said the coming weeks would be more entertaining but we aren't quite there yet. Not much happened during this week other than some more Innebandy practice. If I have mentioned the amount we train with Innebandy for the '99 (I am with the '99 in IBG) we have three training sessions in school, two of them are 8-11 (Tuesday & Friday) but we usually train 8:30-10:30 so we are able to catch the bus. Then Wednesday we have it from 13:15-15:45 and then after we occasionally have the little kids who we teach the game of Innebandy to.  I believe that's what it is for...but I find it funny since the little kids speak Swedish to me and I have to get my classmates to come over and answer their question since they do not understand English considering they are so young. Another funny thing about this is that Viktor told our team (of 6 kids) that I am from Canada and speak English and there was this one kid who just stared at me whenever he was on the bench (I found it funny). In addition to our training during the day, we also train in the evenings. We can have two to three practices a week. So I train a lot compared to a lot of the sports in Canada.
To understand what happens in regards to my schooling I will explain. In school I do not do any of the assigned work since the teachers do not want to mark my work.  The grades do not count in Canada, so in their opinion it is pointless. Also some of the subjects are similar to things I have already learned in Canada and then there are some things that I have never learned. So that is the other problem. The online course from Canada also did not work out for Native Studies considering the videos we had to watch would not allow me to access them since I have a Swedish IP address and you need to be in Canada to be able to watch a lot of the videos. Due to this issue I had to drop that course even though it was actually very interesting and I was enjoying it!
The good side of having a lack of school work is that I have more time to research cameras.  I would like to buy a new one as my Canon T1I is about 7 years old now and I would like to get more into photography like my Uncle. I will link his Flickr page so you can see some of his amazing photos! Right now I am looking at a Canon 7D Mk2 which is about $2,249.99. I would like to get the camera with the 18-135mm lens. So donations will be accepted by Shelley if you would like to help me out :').  On a serious note, I do like photography and Sweden is an awesome place for pictures since the nature is amazing and unique compared to Ontario!

Uncle Jamie's Flickr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmorphyimages/albums

My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tuck.campbell/

School Schedule (Left box beside VISA put in TE15 then Press Visa and that is my class schedule): http://www.novasoftware.se/webviewer/(S(iiabnkylaszbag55bi2sdz55))/design1.aspx?schoolid=21900&code=64878

The Grey parts are the IBG (Innebandy) and this is my new schedule since I switches to Teknik

A Penalty....

Week 31:

Hello blog followers and everyone who just thought they would see how my interesting life is going. Last week not too much happened. To start off Monday we had the day off so the Vasaloppet could get cleaned up more before we went to school. I just chilled at home that day and that night we had Innebandy so I went to that. On Tuesday in IBG we went cross country skiing which was actually pretty hard since the snow was melting so it kept sticking to our skis and was making some of us very annoyed. Then the rest of the week was more school and Innebandy practice at night.
Saturday HJ had a game. I played and it was a very close game against Sala.  I may have gotten a penalty which should have been 5 min. Just informing you all if a guy is running with the ball along the side boards and you think it would be a great opportunity to hit him...you should not do it.  Even if it is very tempting, DON'T!!!  You are not allowed to hit against the boards I figured out...OOPS! The game had to go to OT and Dennis sniped one to finish the game. So we are slowly improving...toward the end of the season. Then Sunday not too much happened we just chilled at home! The coming weeks should be more entertaining!

Vasaloppet Week

Week 30:

Hello Everyone! This week's blog should be longer since I will explain a lot in this post about Vasaloppet week and also what I did last week. 

To start off I will explain what the Vasaloppet is. On the Vasaloppet website they say, "Vasaloppet is the world’s oldest, longest and biggest cross-country ski race. It has a rich history and tradition; hundreds of thousands of skiers have tackled the 90 km stretch from Sälen to Mora since the start in 1922. Rigorous training and careful preparation is needed to complete this 90 km challenge. It is a race with classic technique along a magical landscape, followed by two million television viewers in Sweden alone."  The route that the skiers race was inspired by a notable journey made by King Gustav Vasa when he was fleeing from Christian II's soldiers in 1520. So now you see why it is such a big event in Mora and the Cross-country community. 

The races takes the participants through nine towns along the way to the finish which is in Mora and they start in Sälen. This race alone can bring 15,800 skiers and this year they had a total of 16,502 signed up but the maximum amount that can go in the race is 15,800 racers. The first racers usually cross the finish line after 4 hrs of racing.  They start at 8 am so they get to Mora by approximately 12 pm. So yes, the first heat of racers are extremely quick to finish a 90 km race in only 4 hrs. 

After searching for 20 min on the Vasaloppet result page I found the first Canadian who finished.  I found his result on page 84 of listed participants! His name is Daryl Remmler with a time of 5:38:36 which is a difference of 1:30:36 from the first place winner.  Our first female was Christiane Clavel and her time was 6:12:16 with a difference of 1:54:20. One person who I should also mention is a fellow Canadian Exchange Student and Ontarioian who came over with Rotary! His name is James Allen and he did the Vasaloppet in 8:36:35, and from what I could tell from his Facebook post he only trained for 3 months and finished in a great time!  

The Vasaloppet race is the last Sunday of our Sportslov break which is a week long. Before the big race they have nine other races, four of which are the 90 km but they are not as big as the Vasaloppet. So our Sportslov break is from February 26-March 8th and this allows sports clubs to make money since the Vasaloppet will sponsor the Clubs but they would like work in return during the Vasaloppet week. So on the 26th I had a 5 3/4 hour shift to load skiers onto buses to get to the start line. My next job was on the 28th which was 7.5 hrs, the two of us would stop traffic if there was any when the skiers were crossing the road and then we would fix the tracks after the car passed. We actually got many compliments from the skiers as they went passed regarding our nice tracks and what a good job we were doing. That was good and always nice to hear since every time the cars drove over we had to remake the track. I then had the week off with a few practices for Innebandy during the nights and on Saturday (March 5th) we had a game! We won the game 5-3 which gives us our second win of the season. I hope we can end off the season strong with winning the last three games! On Sunday the 6th I had my last shift since it was the Vasaloppet. I had to do parking with 14 other guys from Kais Mora. We had an 8 hr shift we needed to do and we were great at it. We also practiced our tennis skills when there were no cars. That made for some fun when we were doing that while waiting for cars! Finally, on Monday I just relaxed at home and went to Innebandy practice! I will post pictures below from Vasaloppet and all that fun stuff. 

Vasaloppet Website Link (English): http://www.vasaloppet.se/en/ 

The Vasaloppet Route

The top 25 Males 

The top 25 Females

All the Canadians (James is at the top)