Late Update!!!

I believe that i have been so blessed and that i must thank my lucky stars.

Sweden is one of the best choices I think I have ever made. Its a great feeling when you can go to a birthday party or a get together with people and just make friends that you can hang out with in school or outside of school! But i think that because i am away i have learned to appreciate my home a little more. most of the time i was with my family i think i took it for granted. dinners and family time were quite limited. but here dinners may last over an hour or i may go fika with a friend then go for a walk on the promenade (boardwalk by the beach). its all about just enjoying the time you have and making the best of it. :)

Now that i have been here i have been more open to traveling. Either in college with studying abroad or finding a job somewhere over here after im done with college. Either in journalism or internation studies, not sure what i want my major to be yet, the possibilites are endless. Which makes choosing even harder!!! but right now i hope to study at CSU in fort collins colorado. I am in the process of writing my essay, so hopefully soon i will get my app sent!!! wish me luck everyone!!! :)

already I have begun to open my eyes to how much there is in the world. how different but similar cultures can be. even though its a different country with a different language culture and different people... parents still want the same thing for their kids, teenagers are like teenagers anywhere else, and you can make friends just as easily as back home. obvisly its not the same but its comforting to have things that remind me of home.

This weekend i was in boras and gothenborg, visiting my friend from germany, viola and my friend from canada, amanda. it was lots of fun. the shopping seemed like it was endless, we definately shoped till we dropped!!

I have switched my french classes, thank goodness. I love my new teacher now! even though it is french 5 ( a level higher than the class i was in) I understand it more because she even explains it in english for me!! The fact that we get to go to paris at the end of the year is also a huge plus :)

To all those reading this, if you could keep my 2nd host mom Camilla in your prayers. She has cancer and the doctors have found tumors, they still haven't found the main one yet. she is going back to the hospital this week. Things are not looking positive for her. If you could just please keep her in your hearts and prayers that would be grately appreciated.

On a lighter note, this last friday i went with mats on a trail ride to the beach!! :)
it was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect!!! it was the first time and definately not the last time that i will go riding in the ocean :) It was one of those moments that you realize how lucky you are. I couldn't help but smile and wish that everyone could experience something like this sometime in their life.

Even though i have been here almost 2 months now, I still have moments where I just realize I'm actually in Sweden. Sounds strange I know. When I'm taking a fika, going for a walk, horse back riding, sitting in school trying to understand the teacher, riding the bus or bike, I just think, woww i really am in Sweden. Even though I'm hundreds of miles away from my close friends and family who I miss terribly, I have a year to enjoy my time here, I need to make the most of it because I dont want to regret anything when I leave. This week is homecoming for my school back home, its really hard for me to miss it, because i miss out on shopping for a dress, or going to the football game and dressing up for the theme, the coornation of king and queen, I wish everyone to have the best time this week and to live it up!

Despite this week being a hard one for me, I won't let it get me down. I will be pretty busy so that is good, hopefully I wont have too much time to think about what i'm missing out on!! I am meeting lots of people for fika after school almost everyday. environmental club on tuesday ( the article is coming along just slow) thursday meeting with my counselor for rotary. and friday i may be going to a concert with olivia.

I encourage you to e mail me!! its nice hearing from everyone, even if i dont reply for a couple days, i still read the e mails!!! Ali and ari, you girlies have fun this week, I'll be thinking of you!! Taylor, Ashlee, Erin, you girls rock for being on court!!!! I'm so proud of you!! wish i could be there cheering you on!! glad i dont have to vote, cuz i would vote for all of you! :) good luck, your all winners in my book!!! Take lots of pics! :)

More blogging next time! I promise i will blog next sunday, I have been bad about keeping up with this for the past 2 weeks, my bad!!!

Weekly Update (29/08---08/09)

Since I started school I have met a number of great people. i keep meeting more and more every day!!

I have not been able to update this in a little while, I am terribly sorry. I have been so busy with futbol, meeting friends, and school.
I have recently joined an enviornmental club. Thanks to Rebecca who asked me to come to a meeting. I decided i would and now i am going to take part in writing an article for the club that the school will be able to read. we are trying to get the school more involved and aware of what we are doing.

Soccer has been going great. its quite hard when i am not very good at it but the team i am with are like allstars!! but it is fun to go out and train with them and to meet new girls. its funny hearing them yell in swedish, it just sounds like jibberish to me... well the words i dont understand.

I have been talking to my friends emmie and hanna and i think i will try out for the school play in october! :) it is an english play called Hair. If anyone has suggestions for music let me know!! i am nervous to try out but it will be fun meeting theatrical people and i miss being in a play! (was in the play Annie when i was in middle school)

I may try wind surfing soon also!!! Hanna is on the windsurfing team with the school. she is in the first year. (eva's friend from work is hanna's mom and i met here through eva) she is really good at surfing!! she went to wyomming in the US for a swim competition so her english is very good. and she is great fun to talk to! :)

Last weekend i went to Veddige with olivia to go to her youth group. i had not been to a swedish church yet so it was intresting to go with her. it was not catholic which i am used to but its still the same concept. the closest catholic church is in gotembourg which is 2 hours away by train, and the ticket is expensive. there was lots of singing (btw, great job emmie no matter what you say!!) and worshiping, then fika after! i am really glad that i went because i got to meet kids that actually go to church. maybe not the same kind of church i do but its the same concept! that is a rare thing to find kids my age that go to church. no one is very religious in sweden, it just part of the culture. thanks again olivia..its a repeat!!! :)

this past weekend i had about 10 girls over to my house for american pizza and a movie night. it was nice to see my class bonding, and it made me feel at home to have friends that i can just have a relaxed night and talk about movies, laugh, and enjoy one anothers company. i think i am very lucky to be in the class that i am in. other exchange students in my district are having problems making friends and having activities outside of school. i just tell them to come to varberg and we will show them a good time!!!

i have been busy almost every day during the week. between soccer, meeting friends for fika, working on homework ( ok more like translating what the notes were for that day), riding horses, it has been a very busy couple weeks!! school is kind of hard and i am tired a lot. but i have gotten used to it and i wouldnt have it any other way!!

as i look on facebook and see what my friends are up to... i realize how lucky i am to be in sweden!! they have almost the same classes as past years, the same people, and the same town and school. i get to meet´at least one new person almost everyday, the classes i take are so intresting and were not available for me to take back home. i just wish my friends back home had the same opportunities i have!!!

as im sitting in my religion or pholosphy class i think, wow i never would have thought about any of this stuff!! and why is that?? why can't american schools teach about the millions of different religions, or how the human soul thinks and how it became to be? why cant we learn about other cultures and ways of living. if the US is a powerful country then why is it that the young minds of generations to come know close to nothing about developing countries, or europe, or just about the rest of the world in general?? sure we have our history class, but we just learn the facts. not how to apply the things we learn in the classroom. in my english class we are learning about english being the one language that can unite the world (in a way) most countries speak some form of english. are americans so close minded and concedded to not learn of other languages and cultures?? many of my classmates are taking 4 or 5 different languages!! i have never heard of anyone doing that unless majoring foreign languages in college.
these are just my thoughts, they are not facts. so if you are reading this please do not take it too seriously.

on a lighter note i would like to know who is coming to visit me and when!!! :) eva and mats are open to having people stay at the house. i will be leaving their house towards the end of january.. i will be quite busy may and june. end of the year trips, graduation and prom!! but let me know and we can work something out! also, if anyone would like to send me anything let me know in an e mail and i will send my address!! i havent had time to look for presents for anyone yet, that may have to be closer to christmas. :)

i am suprised because i am not homesick yet, i was thinking that i would be within the first month or so but i have been so busy its hard to stop and feel sorry for myself!! yes of course i miss having my friends around. i do miss the football games. and of course my family but not to the point where it is sad. i dont miss any american food either..which is weird because i thought i would miss that too!! ok no i miss frosted mini wheats. but thats it. i eat potatoes almost everyyyy day. it gets old but there is always some new sauce or meat to switich it up a bit! ;)
my favorite thing that i have had so far would have to be the coffee and the bread and cheese. its so hard to pick just one thing. i love all the food here! its so fresh and delicious. and most all of it is healthy! well if its not, there is always the bike ride to school the next morning :)

in case you are wondering how the swedish is coming along. it is going veryyy slowly. swedish is one of the hardest languages to learn, good thing most people speak english!! :) but i hav picked up some swedish sayings. :) its so funny to listen to them talk, the tones go up and down and when someone is telling a funny story i just laugh right off the bat because of how they are telilng the story.

this last sunday i spent the day in town because i had a meeting for the environmental group. but i was walking through the town square and it was about 10 in the morning and it was fairly quiet... most of the shops are closed on the weekends and most of the people were out partying the night before. but the trees are starting to change colors and the weather is starting to get cooler.. my kind of season!! the sun was shinning just enough to get a little warmth on the chilly morning. perfect time for a fika! these are the days that i look forward to and love. just thought i would share that with you to let you know what the weather has been like, after all, the swedes loveeeeee talking about the weather.

i must come to an end of the blog for this week, i am at school and on one of my many long breaks but now it is over. i appologize for my grammar mistakes, it is a little diffcult to write on a swedish computer. so please keep this in mind while reading!!
i have a busy week and weekend ahead so more blogging next week!! feel free to comment whenever!!! :)

hej då!!! (bye bye!!)
kram och puss (hugs and kisses)