stockholm roller derby!

for my derby-curious friends here in stockholm, and my derby-fan friends back home, take a look at stockholm's A team vs. paris rollergirls! sadly for paris, it wasn't much of a matchup--stockholm completely destroyed them--but astrid and i had an absolute blast out in farsta. after today i can say that swede hurt, red e krueger, lil slinky, and mad maloony definitely have two new fans!

things i learned today:
-european derby girls are, overall, physically smaller than their american counterparts--a couple of the paris jammers were about sophie-sized;
-european derby names are considerably less-risqué;
-the derby aesthetic in the US (tonya, i know you know what i'm talking about here) is super-subdued here...in fact it is almost nonexistent;
-every element of derby is absolutely appropriate for a 7-year old girl to watch--in fact, astrid wants to do it more than ever after today! (so do i...but sadly my body wouldn't appreciate such an assault.)

other than the above the bout was the same--the stockholm roller derby girls are phenomenal and i so hope to someday be able to see them again. if only stockholm would build JUST ONE roller rink...i'm sure basketball players all over town would rejoice (and derby girls/fans).

astrid was riveted throughout the entire bout...

...and used her bracelet to pretend she was a rollergirl herself, being majorly cool and wearing a mouthguard (safety is cool, as my still-painful radius can attest)

OF COURSE she got a t-shirt!

this was the final score...ouch!