Fotbol!!! (aka soccer)

Today was,in one word, exciting! I will give you more then one word though. I got nicely woken up at about 9:30 this morning by Andreas in the anticipation of scones! Apparently Hanna loves scones and Andreas makes them very well. So I got up and had my first (I think) home-made scone, it was absolutely delicious; a little butter and strawberry jelly, I was in breakfast heaven! Already the day was off to a good start. Today was declared cleaning day by Ingela and so we all cleaned our rooms, I've been keeping mine pretty clean so it didn't take me very long. Andreas had to go into town to return something and buy tickets to the soccer game, we later went to, so I went with him. It is nice to bike around and I am really starting to figure this place out. I found out today that a haircut in Sweden will run you 350 krowns (about 50 dollars), hopefully I won't need my hair cut very often. While Andreas was getting a haircut I rode my bike home by myself, it was actually quite easy and I didn't even get lost! I then called Caitlin (who had been invited to come with us by Andreas yesterday) and told her to be over here by 3:30 so we could get to the game that started at 4. FOTBOL!!! It was a very big game today! Sweden has their on proffesional fotbol league that is basically just different cities. Today was a home home game, Örebro vs. Malmö, Örebro is currently third in the league and Malmö is currently second. It was my first proffesional sporting event and I was very excited! Andreas, Hanna, Caitlin, and I (Ingela had to stay home and prepare for going back to work) went and had what I would think were pretty good seats. We sat just behind the Örebro benches in the third row. The stadium had 10.875 poeple in it today, a season record, and it was all just so exciting! Unfortunately Örebro lost 0-3 and it was very sad. I still had a good time and I was very happy to go! After the game we went to a movie store and rented a scary movie and came home to eat dinner and watch the movie, just relax. Caitlin relaxed with us and it was quite nice. Today was full of that new adventure and all in all a really great day!!

My first Swedish adventure without a Swede at my side :O

This was a fun thing to do. Caitlen, the girl here on Rotary exchange from Kansas, and I decided, with Andreas' good suggestion, that we would go to Gustavsvik (means Gustav's bay) today. We started off by meeting in the center of town at the tallest building and small indoor mall. That was an adventure for me because I was all by myself for really the first time since I've been here. I got to the building ok, it was about a fifteen minute bike ride so I was quite proud of myself. I think I look very Swedish because when I was waiting for Caitlen I had a man ask me for directions in Swedish I responded ''Sorry, I don't speak Swedish.'' He nicely said ''Oh, you are a... Thank you''. After I got together with Caitlen we found Gustavsvik quite easily. Gustavsvik is the largest indoor waterpark in Scandenavia! It had five different slides (haha), a little small compared to other water parks I have been to in the States. We had a lot of fun there though, it cost 110 Krowns (about 16 dollars). There was a big tower to jump off of and we decided to hit that up second, go big or go home, it's a long flight home. The tower is 10m tall and we were both pretty proud to tell our families we did it. After we were done there I went to see Caitlens house and then we went to experience Max, a swedish competetor to McDonalds. The food was pretty good and a little better quality then McD's. Then we went to my house to hang out for a little while. We decided that when we were there that we needed to experience some Swedish candy so we went to a large grocery store near my house and got a bunch of different candy out of one of those big bin things. All in all it was a 25o Kronor day. After that my family went to Andreas' best friend house for a bbq. His best friend has two sons born '93 and '95. It was fun to talk to them and we walked around downtown for a little while and played pool at a local gaming place. Today was fun and I gained a better sense of direction in Örebro!!

Working day!

Well now it has been a whole week for me in Sweden. It has been a good week, the summer camp stage is over, now I live here. I will be here for a long time more, this is my life for the next year and I am still very excited for all the adventures to come. Today we did some actual work. The Ernestams have been planning to have a deck for a little while now and today was the day to start the project. We (the family, a carpenter, and Andreas' friend) dug 15 holes for the supports of this deck. It was some good hard work that I actually enjoyed quite a bit. Andreas kept assuring me that I didn't have to help if I didn't want to but my outlook is, for the next few months this is my house too. I need to help out around as much as I can. After we worked for a few hours I got to relax and listen to music for three more hours before we went to Patrick's house for a bbq. There I met johannus (spelling), Patrick's daughter's boyfriend. He is 18 and is about to enter his final year of gymnasium (highschool). He's really the first boy I have met here, it was really nice to talk to him. He is involved in gymnastics and he was very friendly. Today has been a good day, hope I'm not sore from the work tomorrow!

Chill Day!!

Today was just kind of a relax day. I woke up at about eleven and got some breakfast. After that I just kind of hung out till Andreas asked about geocaching! Therefore we went and found a few geocaches that are in the nature park right next to my house, remembered my camera but forgot to take a picture of Ingela and Andreas' first find! Sorry Mom! That was pretty fun though and I got a little better tour of the nature park and Andreas showed me a few spots that thay go to have picnics sometimes. He also told me that in the winter they ice skate on the lake! It freezes enough and the Municipality clears away snow on the ice to make roads and they also check to make sure it is deep enough. After that we went to rent some equipment that will help us begin to build a deck at the end of the Ernestam's back yard. And after that Caitlen from Kansas came bye to say hello and we set up a time on Friday to go to a little pool/water park together as a kind of exchange student adventure! Then finally I went on a 5k run with Ingela and a few of her friends. That felt very good indeed. I enjoyed the run and it was nice because we ran in the forest :O! We came home to kladd kaka, kind of like brownies, that Hanna made, Hanna's the best, sometimes, that was a nice ending. All in all a good day, tomorrow we will dig holes for the deck and that should be some good work.

2nd Summer House!

Today we visited Nöra! This town is known around Örebro and Sweden for their glass (ice cream). We got some of that delicious ice cream and walked around a little, it is mostly older wooden buildings. Then we went to pick up Ingelas mother who has a summer house just outside of Nöra. It was a very nice place and I liked it a lot, out of the two I have seen Im not sure which one I like better. While we were there we got a call from another family who is hosting a girl from Kansas. They have a summer house right next to Ingelas mothers and so we met for ficka! Ficka is sort of like brunch. It was fun to talk to her and I will probably be seeing a bit more of her in the coming months, she is very nice and I like her quite a bit. Then we came back to Örebro and just relaxed. It was nice to finally have some chill time and I was quite grateful for it. Ingela figured out how to change the keyboard type on my laptop so I could have the extra swedish letters (Ö, Å, Ä), its nice to have them but it changed my whole keyboard layout so now I have to figure out where things are. All in all a very good day!

Today was...

Today was good, I am really enjoying my time here. I cannot judge an entire society based on a few people but, those that I have met are very excepting, kind, and good humored. I met a few of Andreas' friends yesterday when I went motorcycle riding and both of them were very friendly. We're talking two middle aged men with children and both seemed quite interested in American culture and also me as a person. Today we went to the university near our house and played volleyball with two other families. Patrick, one of the men I met yesterday, and his family came and Niko (spelling) and his family came. Both have teenage daughters that are about my age and I enjoyed meeting them and playing volleyball. We even had a bbq right there in the playground, I've really been eating well. Also today I went on a bike ride into town with Ingela and Hanna. I bought a pair of running shoes that I will need for school, I found them on sale for 599 swedish krowns (about 85$). Things are a bit more expensive here, I also found a belt half price for 149 swedish krowns (21$). Ingela and Hanna tested me coming back by letting me lead the way home, luckily it was pretty much a straight shot so I found my way easily. 'O'rebro is a nice sized city, about 130,000 inhabitants but it's fairly easy to find your way around. All in all a good day!!

P.S. The motorcycle ride we went on lasted about three hours, probably 300 kilometers. We went to a place that Andreas had summer camp as a kid and had a cup of coffee and a sandwich. I rode on the back of Patrick's motorcycle because Andreas said Patrick drove a motorcycle in the military so he was very good.

Summer houses!

In Sweden they have a thing about summer houses, everybody has them. I had my first summer house experience this weekend. We went to ONE of Andreas' parents summer houses, they have two. It was very, very fun! Apparently the Ernestams just learned the game volleybol this past summer and they really enjoy it. I played so many games and heard so much swedish small talk my head was swimming. All the games helped my counting skills quite a bit because of them keeping track of the score. It was Edvin, Hanna's cousin, Andreas' nephew's birthday. He turned seven on Friday. There was cake, coffee and cookies for his party and it was all very delicious. I learned happy birthday in Swedish and observed what seems to be a tradition of making speeches at birthdays. I tried kayaking and fell in water, but you know what, stuff happens!!!