T.G.I.F.! Haha

Well today was another really fun day! I only had two classes, I had a two hour break between my classes because the teacherd told me to skip a class, because they didn't know where I should go, it was awesome. I had Svenska, Swedish, like not the learning Swedish but the Swedish for Swedish kids, and I finally talked to some other kids! Actually the other kids talked back to me, that was very nice, so far I have been talking to the other first year students and they just kind of look at me and smile. I figured out that most of the second and third year students will talk to me and the first year students won't really at all. It's alright though, it's still the first week, they'll get over it. I am 99% sure that they are just intimidated speaking english. Anyway, school was good! After school I came home and went on a short run through the nature reserve that is right next to our house. After that, Caitlin came over and we hung out for a little bit before dinner. She ate dinner with us and then we rode our bikes back to her house, she had plans with some old friends of hers and I had made plans to go bowling with a guy I had met last week. We hung out some more at her house and I got to see an apartment that is in her house! It's a big house that her host mothers boyfriend owns and they live on the base floor and on the second floor there are two small apartments, one rented out by a German man and the other is about to be rented out by a college girl. We then parted ways and I went to meet my friend Issi at the library uptown, he was late so I just sat down on a bench and chill for about a half an hour. It was nice to just sit ther and look up at the sky, sometimes it's just really nice to relax and not have to do anything. Once I met up with Issi we didn't go bowling, instead we went to another girl's apartment and then up to the roof of her apartment and that was pretty cool. The roof wasn't so high but it was still up in the air and I liked that. After that, we went to hang out with some other kids and, lucky me, all these kids I met went to English school! They are all first years at Karolinska except one that I know goes to my school. Them being in English school ment that they weren't afraid to talk to me at all, yay!!! So I made some good friends. All in all a great day, hope to have more like this in the future!

P.S. I am writing this at 6am because I didn't want to do it last night. I am going, with my counselor, to a horse thing, not really sure what the proper name for it is, I have to be to her house at 7:30. It will be a long day for me and I don't know if I'll be returning home, don't expect a post from me tomorrow! Sweden.... It's crazy, crazy!!!!

4 weeks in Sweden! Also, first day of real school!

Again, a big day! Today I had my first day of real school!!! It was actual classes with actual teachers and it was actually fun for me! Now that real classes have started I realize how totally different this school is from what I'm used to. I'd have to say I like it about 50 times as much also, just the system, I'm not trying to put down LHS. There are so many kids and everyone is on such a different schedule so there are absolutely no bells; that means no tardies, no running to get to class on time, it's amazing. You just know where you're supposed to be and you get there. Also since there are no bells and there is no set schedule, there are always people walking around, people going to lunch, people hanging out in "The Ocean", a sort of lounging area for the sports program kids. This means that teachers have no reason to keep you in their class when your not learning something. Therefore they let you go when you are done. No stupid sitting in your chair trying to talk to another kid who is already done and getting yelled at by the teachers, you can just leave it's OK. I really love that system, I can already see that each day I will meet new kids and see new people. Nothing is ever quite the exact same, I really like that. Today was also very exciting for me because I had English class! We started with a test, haha, I think I did pretty good on that test except some of it was translating Swedish to English and that was a little challenging, it will be a fun class for me though I am sure. I was also informed today that the school will be offering to me a, what I like to think of as, "Swedish language bootcamp", for the next few months I will ba able to take Swedish as a second language six or seven times a week, in school. This is such a great thing for me I can't even believe they're offering it to me. Everyone here in Sweden has been so absolutely good to me, my Rotary club, my host family, my school, this is just molding it's way in to the year of my life! I went home and relaxed again after school today and then I attended American football practice again. I think it's funny how different it is here, the first day they just handed me my pads and threw me into practicel. The second day they have me running routes and working with the quarterback, I don't know if they're giving me special treatment because I'm an American but I am really enjoying it all right now. I go to sleep tired tonight, it's been a good day!

American Football...

Rode to school in the rain.

Let the photo-hunt begin!

Art.

Find the legos, pictured above, in this scene at the bank haha.

A lot of things happened today. I recently, about five minutes ago when I was thinking about this blog, realized that I do a lot in each day. I woke up at 7:30 and started riding my bike to school at 8:30 in order to get there by 9. We, the whole sports program, a little over 300 kids, met in the gym at the school and were split up into groups of 7 or 8. These groups mixed different years in school and different classes. Then we started our great adventure, first we had to solve a word puzzle and then we went on a photo-hunt throughout all of Örebro! We walked all over and took pictures of things that were on our list. That was a lot of fun and again, I had no idea what was going on the whole time, I just kind of followed and talked to a few of the kids in our group a little. It's hard for me to just sit back and not do anything, I couldn't help with the word puzzle, I couldn't understand any of the directions, it's not my personality to just sit back and have no say in what's going on. Anyway, we did the photo-hunt through Örebro for a few hours and then we started walking out of town towards a "house" where we were supposed to have lunch. I knew I needed to be at the Rotary meeting at 12:00 and we started heading that way at 11:15. I didn't know if I could leave or if I had to go for lunch, I didn't even have any idea where we were going, at all. So we showed up to the "house", which was really like a small event center that had a soccer field, at 11:52. I found a teacher and talked to him, found out I didn't have to come there at all and that it was totally fine for me to leave. It took us 40 minutes to walk there, I checked my watch and it was 11:56, so I started running. I saw a sign that said the center of town, near where I was going, was 1,8 kilometers away. I ran, and ran, luckily I came to my school with .3 kilometers to go so I could ride my bike the rest of the way. I showed up to the Rotary meeting at 12:08, I even got there before my counselor so luckily it all worked out well. I listened to the pitches of a few local polititions and had my first conversation all in Swedish. It lasted for about 45 seconds and I felt very proud of myself afterward, she asked me where I was from, how old I was, how long I had been here, what school I was going to and, what family I was staying with. After that I met up with Caitlin to talk about her day of school also. I then went home to chill before American football practice. I enjoyed it, it lasted about an hour and a half and I met some nice guys. It's not nearly the same as it is here, more for fun and with a better sense of humor then the U.S. I enjoyed it and I'll keep going. In a town with a population that is 43 times as big as Lakeview there were 25 people at the only American football practice in the whole place. All in all a good day, going to bed earlier tonight!!

First day of school pic!

I know you heart was broken mom when I didn't give you a first day of school picture. Luckily enough I had taken one picture on the first day! Here you go!

You can really tell it's the first day because I am wearing a backpack. I don't know if I talked about this yesterday but nobody here wears a backpack, I was the only one. So today, on the second day of school, I didn't wear it. I'll go back to it when school really starts though!!

2nd day of school!

Just to give you an idea of how relaxed the school is here, here are a few of the advertisements in my STUDENT HANDBOOK, it's much different.

Today, again, was just an introductory day. This time though the second year students gave us a tour of the whole school! It was nice to see it, and yes, it's huge, the one building that has the sports program and part of the media program is 5 stories tall and has, I think, six classrooms on each floor. And that building is just a part of the school, my school has a bakery shop where you can buy freshly baked goods, baked by the culinary arts program. Also there is a barbor shop that you can go to whenever you want during school time. There are two cafeterias in the school that are going pretty much all day and a small deli/snack counter thing that's open from 8 to 4 everyday. I think this is going to be a fun year for me, easy schedule and giant school! Yay!!! After school I just rode my bike home, I arrived to an empty house and made myself a snack, Nutella and Digestive's Original Cookie. Haha, weird name I know. I helped Andreas with dinner and Caitlin came over and ate with us and we talked about her first day of school, which was today. I then went and played innebandy with Andreas and his friends, I really enjoy innebandy, I plan on going everyweek! Life is good and I go to sleep happy tonight!!

First Day of school!!

I just want to start this post of by saying, I love Sweden. Today was my first day of school and only first year students came, tomorrow it's everybody. However school today only lasted an hour and a half, it was great, all we did was meet our class and ''Gain information about the year''. I put that in quotations because I gained no knowledge about the year. I realized that I wouldn't understand anything but when it actually happens and you sit there for an hour and gain nothing from it it's just different then you could expect. I see how I will pick up Swedish a lot faster this way though, I need to know it to have any idea what's going on in my life. It was freshman year all over again, everyone was afraid and there was little to no talking/laughing. I kind of felt older, I'm the same age as everyone there but I've already done all that. It wasn't so bad at all, I'm really looking forward to school for one big reason, my schedule.
Måndag: 10-14:20, 3 classes, 40 minute lunch
Tisdag: 8-16, 5 classes, 50 minute lunch
Onsdag: 10-13:50, 2 classes, 70 minute lunch
Torsdag: 9:30-15:50, 4 classes, 55 minute lunch
Fredag: 8-13:30, 3 classes, 50 minute lunch
This schedule is great, I really really enjoy the idea of it, get out early on Friday, start late on Monday. It's totally different from anything I've experienced before. I can see this year being great. After I got out of school I walked around with Caitlin and charged my cellphone with some money. I saw a lot of people downtown that I knew, felt good to know people. All in all a great day!! Sorry I didn't take any pictures, I didn't wanna bust out the camera on the first day of school, that obviously says ''Not from around here''. Not that I don't enjoy being different, I just don't feel like getting that attention on the first day!

Sunday = Church

Well Sunday doesn't always equal church but today it did. Today I went to church with Lina, one of the Swedish twins, and her family. They came to pick me up and at 10:45 and church started at eleven. It was basically all the same. Besides the fact that it was in Swedish but, even that didn't matter because I got a special earset thing that a man translated and spoke into so I got to get the message in English. I had a good time there and then I basically just came home and relaxed the rest of the day. I cleaned my room and watched part of a movie that was all in Swedish, while eating the Swedish version of cup-of-soup. I was getting ready for tomorrow, the first day of school. We ate a really good dinner and then I got together with Caitlin for a little while to just talk about stuff and almost say bye because now we're both getting more busy. All in all a chill day, nice to relax!

Some Thoughts on Yesterday...

Kapten Röd, a swedish reggae singer that was singing in town yesterday, I talked to him so I had him sign my arm too, really nice guy.

Well I just had a few thoughts on yesterday that I didn't express in my blog so here goes. I really am seeing the amazing part of this exchange now. During one part of the night last night there were six of us walking the streets hanging out together, Albert, Harald, Caitlin, Pierre, Hanna, and myself. We were two Frenchman, two Swedes and two Americans, walking around talking, laughing and just hanging out. It didn't matter what country we were from or anything, we were just a few kids having a good time. I am so happy to be able to have those experiences, that's a big part of what this is really all about. People are people the world over, take them as you meet them.

Long live the King!!

Today was a big day, now I have seen all the famous political images of Sweden! I woke up at nine this morning ready to go. I had a delicious breakfast and then me and Harald, he's intown for the weekend, went to ride around town. We, I, decided to go and wake up Caitlin! So we rode our bikes to her house and I ran into her room yelling ''Good morning!!!'', it was absolutely great. We have come to be really good friends so she didn't mind too much I don't think. After getting her out of bed the three of us rode to the grocery store to pick up some snacks and go visit Svampen, a large mushroom shaped building similar to the space needle in Seattle. Right after we got done at the store my new French friends called me up to hang out. We all met up for lunch, Pierre, Albert, Caitlin, Harald, and I met at the church where the ceremony later took place. We ate Ikea dogs together and walked around the city, we showed them some good spots and we ended up having a fika together. I am building bridges between myself and other countries. We left the French and went back to my house to get ready for the big ceremony with the king. We were on our way to the church, riding our bikes like we always do and what do you know, I crash on my bike. Literally the first time I have fallen on the bike and it's while I am all dressed up and on my way to a big ceremony, just great! Haha well I only skinned up my hands and nobody was freaking out about it so Andreas went to a small grocery store and got some bandaids, it was all good. The ceremony was a lot of culture and unfortunately for me it was all in Swedish, however fortunately for me I recieved a program that had all the speeches translated to English so I could follow along. After the ceremony at the church me and Hanna got to walk down the street like famous people, we were on the side of the barriers with the police, I thought that was a lot of fun! Afterit was all over Andreas and Ingela took everybody out for Thai food, deliciousness. After that I went home to change and then came back for the music and other entertainment. It was fun because I got to see a lot of people I knew and the music was great and I spent some more time building bridges with freinds. I saw fireworks, and listened to great music. All in all a great day, I saw the Prime Minister of Sweden last week in Stockholm and this week I saw the whole Royal Family in Örebro. I am so happy and appreciative for everything that the Rotary Club here is doing for me, they have truly been great to me and they recognize how these experiences help me make connections and better myself as a person. Thank you so much Örebro Rotary, you are being more kind then I would have expected!