Soccer Trip

Michael's soccer club participated in a youth soccer tournament in Sweden this summer.  The team flew into Copenhagen where they stayed for a few days.  The remainder of the trip was in Sweden.  This was Michael's first trip away from home and family.  Needless to say, I was a bit worried about him being so far away.  While I recognized the fact that this trip would undoubtedly be a good experience for Michael, I did think it entirely reasonable to request daily communication via texts  so that I could ascertain how he was doing.  Apparently I should have been more specific about what I thought daily communication would entail.  Michael's texts, typically sent at least 24 hours apart would consist of the pithy, "I'm okay."  If I questioned what types of activities they were doing, how the soccer games were going, whether he was having fun, I'd typically get a reply along the lines of, "Everything's fine."  After the first couple days of the trip with little even non-substantive communication, I asked Michael to send some pictures.  He sent this.

Needless to say, I was not expecting to receive a picture of grass.  With no people in it.

Later, after much coaxing, Michael sent a picture of his host family in Denmark.

And a pizza (yes those are french fries) from a joint they frequented in Sweden.

The team stayed in a room so cramped that Michael commented, upon seeing a photo of where the other boys team stayed, "we didn't have nearly that much room."

And here are more photos from Denmark and Sweden...

They had a long layover in Iceland on the way back and stopped by the Blue Lagoon...