Time Flies

The past couple of weeks have just flown by! I don't even know where the time goes. Can you believe it is already December??!??!

Before Tyler got here there was the 200 dagars, which is a celebration with all the 3rd years and we dress according to the theme. this time it was red carpet so i was Audrey Hepburn, and in the picture above i am with my friend Emmie who is Fergie. It was a lot of fun and celebration that it is getting close to graduation! next will be the 15o dagars, then 100, then 50.

The first video is of me riding Shackis, we jumped for the first time this past saturday, I have to admit i do miss my horse but it was great to be able to jump once again!!!

This past week my boyfriend, Tyler, stayed with us and we went around visiting Sweden and such. We were in Gothenborg, Varberg, the market, the harbor, Karadal beach (near where I live in Askloster). we also went to a hockey game against two rivarlies gothenborg and stockholm. they tied 3 to 3. We also celebrated thanksgiving with my host family, and their friends camilla and lenart and their kids ( the family i was supposed to stay with come feburary but camilla has cancer). Thanksgiving ended up being a huge hit! everyone loved me and tyler's cooking :) i was really nervous about the turkey and stuffing but eva did the turkey and pie while tyler and i did everything else!! talk about busy!

Eva and I had our Cocktail party, that we have been planning for awhile, so that was quite exciting! it turned out to be a hit! people didn't leave till 2 30 am!! :) it was fun to mingle with everyone and to dress up in the pretty cocktail dresses and such.

I also brought Tyler to school with me. He was really nervous going to school because he was not used to the language, the way people dress, or how big the school is, but after the first day it was ingen problem!!! (no problem pa svenska). i am glad he got to meet all of my friends, the ones he is with in the picture are lejla and denice.

When we went to GBG (gothenborg) we walked by Lisberg, which is the biggest theme park in Sweden. The rides are closed now but they have the jul celebration, which is the christmas celebration in december and they have about 5,000 lights (i think it could be more or less but its A LOT of lights) that decorate the whole park! It looks beautiful with the snow, that is, if we ever get any. hopefully i will have the opportunity to go there sometime this month!

Included in the pictures are the typical swedish fika, mmmmm yummy! the cinnamon roll looking thing called kanelbullar and kaffe (coffee). there is also another fika, where we have sandwiches, but as tyler soon found here, swedish sandwhiches are onesideded. personally i like it better that way, you can mix it up more and there is less of the taste of bread.

Now that tyler is gone its quite lonely, but i will survive. he will be back again soon hopefully! but ive realized that time is going soooooo fast! i wish it would just slow down sometimes! Its already december! In January I will have been here for half a year, now that's weird to think about.

Update on school:

i took my dreaded french exam last week, it was veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy difficult. but i got through it and hopefully i didn't do too bad.

In my International Relations class we have just finished war and peace (I studied the Iraq and American war) now we are studying about Manskliga Rattigheter, translated, Multicultural Society. we are learning about different cultures and traditions and also about swedens culture. This is great for me because i get to learn more about swedish culture!! Some of Sweden's culture; Midsommer (midsummer, lots of celebrating and wearing flowers and old style typical swedish clothing, usually in July). Folkhemmet- the idea of a perfect swedish family (kind of like the american perfect family, mom dad two kids, you get the picture. Lagom-ideal (this is very swedish saying, it means inbetween, most people here like lagom. its a bit difficult to explain but it basically mean inbetween) the sprak (the language, of course). Musik (music, there is a lot of rock and roll here, from what people have told me the music in darlarna and varmland is quite "special" (thats toward the north of sweden) i haven't been there so i can't say much on that). the idea that swedes are very shy, in america the gretting is with handshakes and mr or mrs, but in sweden its not very common to see handshakes and greetings with mr or mrs. its all first name basis and the swedes like their own space. (thats why they toilets in school and many restaurants is a little room with its own sink and there are 5 or 6 of these lil stall rooms). Dalahast (which is a wooden horse and its typical swedish) Jantelagen (this is an unwritten rule that everyone is supposed to be the same. swedes are all about everyone being equal so i think this is a saying more or less, its hard to translate.)

this is what i have learned so far, but its only been the first day of notes, so more to come!!

I hope everyone back home has had a great Thanksgiving and Black Friday, and no they do not celebrate either of those here, this is Sweden not America (for those of you that have asked me this question :))

more bloging next week!!!

happy holidays!! (how kul, happy holidays, finally we can start saying this because it is the holidays!!! :)

p.s.... here are videos

here are two videos.. one as an introduction (which should have been done a long time ago.. but i just now figured out how this thing works!!! )
the next is when we went to stockholm :) just a view of the city :)

Pictures and Video :)

So I have finally figured out how this whole blogging thing works.

Thanks to the extra time in my Tourism class, now I can add pictures and videos.

This week and the weekend I have had my first relaxation time. Cozy up to a good book and sleep :). Even with this extra time to sleep and think, I haven't been homesick yet. Yes, I will admit I do miss some things, sometimes it will catch me off gaurd during the day and I'll just think for a moment, oh wow, I really miss that.

School is getting really busy, teachers are beginning to assign more homework and tests, bummer :( so I have been kept occupied by french, tourism, international relations, and pholosphy. Due to the extra stress, I have started taking yoga. Hanna my next host sister teaches the class. She makes everything look so easy, maybe I can become a yoga master when living with them??

This sunday mats and I went on a trail ride with the horses, Shacka and Jova. It wasn't sunny out but its good weather when there is no wind or rain, so we were lucky. I have to admit, there is no other experience that can relate to galloping through the forest on a sunday morning. That may sound like a line out of a movie, but its true! The colors on the trees rushing by, the chilly wind briskly catching you in the face, and the horses energy (well not necessarily the horse I was riding because he is quite lazy, but theoretically). It still doesnt substitute well for church but, it will have to do for now.

The first picture is of my and my friends Katrin (closest to me) and Frida H.

The next is of Shacka the horse that i ride :)

The next is of me before I go off to school in the morning.

Mick McCormick, my first visitor :) and not the last!

All the exchangies :)

My friends Lejla and Frida G our lil day trip to Goteborg on our fall break. they have never tried recees pieces!!! (thanks mom for sending those btw :)

Amanda my canadian friend and I carving a pumpkin on halloween!

My family in stockholm!!

5,6,7,8, who do we appreciate??

Now, that I have been in Sweden for over 3 months. i have begun to realize how much i really do appreciate home, my family, friends, and just the U.S. in general. Not that im homesick, but when you move away from home you really begin to appreciate what you had.

My first visitor came, on october 23. Mick McCormick. I have to admit, it was really weird seeing a family friend in sweden, but it was so nice to have a visitor. We talked about the differences between here and home, how school is, how everything back home is, a lot of things really. to be honest it really didnt make me that homesick, i love where i am now, i wouldnt have things any other way. it was sad to hear about home and how everyone is doing and how im not there with them, but, its just a year, i'll be home soon and this is a once in a life time experience.

this past week i was in the local newspaper back home, i was sooo nervous about writing an article about my life here, and having everyone i know back home read it. but in a way i want them to know also of how things are here. i wish everyone could have some of the experience i have. my eyes have been opened and now i view the world differently. ive begun to read the news a lot more, come up with my own opinions on things, and make my own decisions and have a sense of independence. i cant begin to say how thankful i am for my parents allowing me to come here, and everyone here that has been incredibly helpful and friendly. i wouldn't have things any other way.

school has begun to get a little harder. now that things are getting closer to the end of first semester, more tests are becoming more apparent. for me i dont take the same test as my friends. (because its in swedish) for history i did take a test in swedish, it was difficult but i had lots of help from the teacher. in my international relations class i took a test and wasn't too hard. i had to write a two in a half page essay about all that i have learned from the class thus far. i have a big french test coming up in two weeks, that should be intresting because i think it will be quite difficult. lots of vocab grammar, listening, reading, writing, and speaking.. all in french! but im trying to study hard so i can do well on it! more updates on that later. in french class we actually were able to use our french and converse with some french exchange students that came to our class for a day. i didn't say much to them, they talked so fast it was hard to understand it all, but i was suprised with how much i understood! which reminds me of how my swedish is coming along. i think im getting pretty good. i mean im not speaking it all the time. my main objective for coming here is not to learn swedish, its to make connections and have a great year, but i do know quite a bit. in class i understand some of what the teacher is saying, it depends on the subject really. sometimes they use big words, then i have no idea what they are talking about. all in all the swedish is coming along slowly.

i think i have begun to suffer from the worldwide epedimic. maybe not the swine flu, but something, ive been sleeping all the time and i feel really queezy its been like this since sunday, hopefully it will get better. i believe i will be getting the svine flu shot this thursday. eva got hers yesterday and said it hurt, im not looking forward to it at all. but its free and i might as well get it to be on the safe side.

this past weekend was halloween. no, it is not like in the US, there were no haunted houses, trick or treating (at least around where im living in some parts of sweden there were), there wasn't much of a halloween spirit anywhere. so that was kinda sad but oh well its just the different culture. but my canadian friend and i carved a pumpkin and ate some candy that my mom had sent from home. we had our own little halloween :) we also went to a halloween party. but no one had any creative costumes and there were not many typical halloween games or movies, so that was quite a bummer. now shops and cafes are starting to get into the christmas spirit. there are special kinds of drinks, like sodas and fruity drinks, and kinds of food, im not sure of the name but i will find out, these are all only available during the christmas season. they start kind of early here but thats no problem with me! i love christmas, it will be really really realllyyyy weird not to see any snow! well not a lot at least.

no eva has not found a horse yet. she is still trying to find one that can pass a vet check. she has been really really busy with work. because she is a nurse she has a lot of work to do with all the swine flu chaos. and mats is just mats being mister fixit around the barn and what not. we went on a trail ride last friday when i had the week off of school and it was really nice, its starting to get really chilly. but we took a fika and had some warm kaffe so no worries!

this past week i had a break from school. it started with the district conference for rotary in alingsas, we went to a light show around the small town there, it was okej, we were walking arouund in the rain for what seemed like hours. but the lights were really really pretty. then i went to boras to stay with amanda, my canadian friend. we just hung out and had a couple relaxing days. on monday we went to a spinning class with her host sister, it was funny because the instructor would yell encouraging phrases but it was in swedish, but still it was fun to go. :)
then tuesday and wednesday i didnt do a whole lot. wednesday eva and i went to a nice little restaurant on the outside of town by the main harbor called stina's and they have typical swedish food. i had the typicall swedish meatballs and potatis and lingonberries, it was delicious! on thursday i went with two of my good friends, frida and lejla, to goteborg for some shopping and fika. it was a super nice day, perfect weather. i found a new coat and just a couple things that i need for the soon to come cold weather. on friday i went to my next host sister hanna. i will move there in feburary and i cant wait. its like having the sister i always wanted! she loves to cook so hopfully i will learn a few things here and there :) i move there in feburary, it will be really hard to leave mats and eva but no worries ill be back for little visits! so we had a cozy time and watched the swedish idol. yes you heard me right, the version of american idol. it was actually really really good. even though its all in swedish they sing english songs and the performers are really talented. its a big deal here and its fun to talk about it in school the next day.

so this is what ive been up to, taking it easy for now, i hope i will be feeling better by this next week or so. more updates soon!!