Settling down.

Today was just a day, a normal day in the life of Gabe in Sweden. I woke up at 6:30, went to basketball practice in school at 8. Got done with that at 9:30, then I didn't have a class until 12 so I went to the school weightroom and lifted for an hour or so. After that I went to talk to my Rotary counselor about making a trip to France, will talk more about that when I know more, and she invited me to Germany with her family in December, will talk about that more when I know more. Then I went back to school and had two Swedish classes in a row and then school was done. I went and hung out with some guys I met here and we ended up walking around the town at night. On my way home I stopped at a grocery store and bought what you can see here for snacks/dinner, ate and watched a movie on my laptop. All in all a great day but just a normal day :D.

Today was just a day!

Today was a good day, but just a day at that. I woke up to a man replacing the kitchen window. I had two pieces of nutella toast for breakfast! I had PE as my first class in the morning and we did some team building activities. I had math and then instead of english I tried to find my swedish class, when I couldn't find them I went to the library and worked on some papers they had given me. After that I worked out in the school gym for a while and then went for fika with Lina. Lina introduced me to a man involved with church, really nice guy and now I can't remember his name but I think I will attend his church sometime. Hung out in town for a little bit, came home and had soup and pancakes for dinner! Went on a run and skyped with my family back home, great, great normal day :D.

The Mall.

Well today I woke up to some guys in the attic. Yes, there were two men in my attic spraying insulation, it was loud and the door was open so it was cold too. Rude awakening. I ate breakfast and went to the basketball stadium here in Örebro to have my special sport, in school we have to choose a sport that we will be practicing all year in school. Everyone else has their own sport that they have been doing for ten or so years but I, being a foreign exchange student, can do whatever I want, I just need to figure out what I want to do. Today I met the basketball kids and practiced with them. I had to be there at ten and we were done by 11:30. I then went to the weekly Rotary meeting, I plan on going to the meetings each and every Wednesday. I then went back to school and got a key to the school gym from one of the teachers, it cost 200 krowns but I need to have it for school, I can use the weightroom with it though, whenever I want. After school I went to Caitlins and helped her kill a big spider. It's getting more friendly here for me though, the more people i know, I saw three kids I knew on the way to Caitlin's. William, Philip, and Karl, the kids I met last weekend at the horse riding event, saw me riding my bike and yelled my name! I stopped and talked to them for a few minutes. Me and Caitlin decided to go out to the mall that is outside of town! To do this we needed to ride a bus, I had been on the bus once before and she had been on the bus once before. We did figure it out though and we got there and back by purchasing a little ticket at the bus stop. While at the mall I ate at my first Swedish McDonalds. McDonalds is much more expensive here, I paid 77 krowns, about 11$, for what you see in the picture, but it is also cleaner, and better tasting food. So I guess you really do get what you pay for. All in all a great day full of new experiences!

P.S. In the pictures I show the LCD TV screens that are the menu in McDonalds. I show the mall and I show the bus ticket. I also show the tube leading up to the attic.

Svenska i skolan!

(Sven-skaa ee skoo-lan) I started my Swedish classes in school today! I am the only caucasion in the whole class, haha, but all the kids are very nice and most don't speak english so our only means of communication is Swedish. I started off the day pretty bad though. When I first got to school I saw a bunch of kids from my class, they were getting into their lockers, doing what i would expect them to do. I looked on my schedule and it said that we would meet in the gym. Well everyone else knew, I didn't know though, that we were meeting in the park across the street from the school. That was a fun little search, I only showed up ten minutes late though so it wasn't too bad. After that it was just a normal school day in Sweden. I started my Swedish classes and did an evaluation test, it's going to be very good for me. After school I came home, cleaned up my room and watched a little TV. School got out at four and I was scheduled to be at a basketball practice with a local, division 3, team at six so I got about an hour of relax and cleaning time. I have been forced to learn how to commute. I have to ride my bike everywhere and that takes time, my school is 4 kilometers, there are streetlights, a lot of other people riding bikes, it's like an actual commute to the city for me each day. I leave home a half an hour before school starts and most the time I get there with 5-10 minutes to spare. Commuting isn't fun and I think I spend about an hour and a half a day on my bike, I cover a lot of ground. Anyway, I had to go to basketball practice and that was fun, playing with people who are really good is always fun. After basketball I rode my bike home and had a quick dinner with Andreas and then went to inneband with Andreas at 8:30. I got home at ten, took a shower and now it's eleven and I'm going to bed! Good day :D!

More Swedish style..

Sverige Jobbar:Sweden Works

Today was just a normal day now. A lot of things happened but, that's the way I live; I try and make things happen each day! It all started with school at 10. I got there and went to my locker like normal, went to class like normal. In class we got put into groups of four and were given one of the seven political parties here in Sweden. I couldn't read the paper but it was explained to me that we are doing a small report on the views and ideas of each different party. We walked uptown to the small square with all the parties little houses where they all serve people and talk to them about voting. We did this Swedish style, with no adult supervision and totally free. It's great to go to school here, your treated more like a person and not more like a child, I think kids rise to it also, they don't do stupi stuff. While we were talking to out political party a man counted us and then went into his little house and grabbed what is pictured above, condoms, one for each of us. They aren't normal condoms though, they are condoms advertising the Modertapartiet. After we talked to them we went back to school for lunch. Then, instead of going to Svenska class we just worked on the presentation more, again Swedish style, with no teacher sitting on us to actually do work, and we actually did work. I payed for a membership to the school gym and now I have key so I can go use it basically whenever I want except not on the weekends. I also found that starting tomorrow I will be starting on my intensive Swedish learning schedule! After school I hung out with Caitlin for a while and then went home for about a half an hour before going to talk to a basketball coach and watch part of a practice, I am thinking about joining a basketball team. I then rode my bike to my American football practice. After practice I went over to Caitlin's house for dinner and we chilled some more, I got home at eleven. I have been home for a total of 30 minutes today, just like home!

Off to the horse event!

Well, it has been a fun weekend! It all started on the early morning of Saturday, August 28th, at 6am. I had to get up and meet the Sape family at 7:30 to go watch some horse riding stuff. I call it horse riding stuff because I have no idea what the word for it is in English, they said it was called military riding, look at the pictures and judge yourself. So anyway, I met Eva's daughter, Theresia, and Theresia, Karl, and I headed out of town to where this event took place! When we got there I found out I would be working in the V.I.P. dining hall being a bus boy. Severin, Eva's son, and I both did that for the whole weekend. It was just a building where people with special little badges could come into and get whatever they wanted to eat and drink! Since I was working there I also got whatever I wanted to eat and drink! It was amazing, I got to meet a lot of people and see a lot of good horse riding and eat a lot of delicious food! There was a party for all the riders and sponsers on Saturday night, I was able to attend that also and I had a good time. There were other kids there also, Phillip, Karl, William, Severin, Henrik, and I. They were all really nice kids, Williams family owned the land that this was happening at and his parents are in charge of all of it. I stayed the night at Williams house along witht the kids I just listed and we had fun, we stayed in the pool house. In the pool house there was a sauna, so we got into the really hot sauna and then jumped into the freezing cold pool and that was definately good fun! We woke up this morning and headed back to the dining hall to work a little more and watch some more riding! I didn't actually have to work at all but I felt like working and it was a lot of fun! Man, I really love Sweden, this whole experience is great! I came home this afternoon at five and have tried to just relax. I met up with Caitlin and she introduced me to a girl who lives in northern Sweden, that was nice. All in all a great weekend and I am so grateful for being invited to go!