Friday and Saturday!!

Both of these days were basically just hang out and recover days. I had to go to basketball practice on friday, I had to be there at 8am, way, way to early. After practice I went and slept for a few hours because I have a three hour break between classes on friday, luckily! Then I after school I just came home and chilled, I thought about going out and I kind of wanted to but then decided no, I can't do that. I was just so tired, that dance took it all out of me, exciting though and I am so glad I got a ticket. Caitlin ended up coming over to chill for a few hours and we watched a couple movies, good stuff. Saturday, I have just been chillin. Andreas woke me up at 11:30 and told me I could come with him to his parents summer house to do some maintnence stuff. Since I was just going to sit here all day anyway I decided I would go, why not right? So it ended up that me and Ingela came with Andreas and at the summer house we met his brother Jonas and his parents. We took down their dock and pulled their boat onto the shore for the winter and then we ate lunch together, after that we went to a big outlet store in a town close to their summer house and just looked around. Great day, just chillin. Now I am going to go hang out with Caitlin in town for a little bit, just observe the night life of Örebro, should be fun :D

Karrofesten!!

So I had a great, great birthday and then the next day it just so happens that Karolinska, one of the big gymnasiums in Örebro, was having a big dance. They do four Karrofesten's a year and they are crazy. I'll start with the beginning of the day thogh. I had English, the best class ever, and then I Swedish also so school was fun, I really enjoy being in the second grade. After school I worked out in the school gym for a little bit. I then went home to chill for a little while before going to get ready for Karrofesten! I met up with Caitlin at her house at about 4:30. You have to dress up for Karrofesten and it just has to do with a theme, this time it was "something you wouldn't want your mother-in-law to see you in". So I had the great Idea of being a gangster, I wouldn't want my mother-in-law to see me as a gangster, just so happens that Caitlin had the same exact idea. So we were both gangsters, I, sadly, didn't get a picture but we looked pretty thug. The dance was at a club that the school rented out and to get in you had to make it past three bouncers. The bouncers were basically just checking to see who was too drunk to come in. It was interesting because there were a lot of drunk teens. We got in and it was crazy, I thought outside was packed and uncontrolled but inside was even better. There were about 400, maybe 500 kids inside and another 200 outide, it was totally packed! The dance got over at 2am but Andreas and Ingela wanted me home at 1am so I had to leave a little early, it was fine by me though. When I was inside I was pumped up and dancing all over the place but when I got out I started falling asleep. All in all, crazy night, I don't know how Lakeview's dances will satisfy after this.!

My Sweet Sixteen in Sverige!

Well, what can I say about the day? There is really so much to say I don't know where to start so lets go in chronological order! It all began at 6:30am, my eyes were tired, I had just woken up to the sound of singing, the Swedish birthday song which doesn't even say happy birthday, I don't think! It was great. Haha I think it's a Swedish tradition to sing for the person whom is having their birthday, to sing for them loud and early in the morning! I knew it was coming and it was just as exciting as I had expected :D. They came into my room with food and presents! I had a big box from America and I had two gifts from the Ernestams to open, the opening is the best part! I'm only going to comment on two of the gifts I got, because everyone was so kind and therefor I got many. One was a blanket my mom had made for me, a big blanket that is my size so I can actually use it and enjoy it! The other is an innebandy stick the Ernestams got me, they realize I enjoy playing innebandy and now i am practicing with a team as well so they got me a stick, really nice of them. After I got woken up we all had breakfast together and then I went to a gymnasium that isn't mine, Karolinska, to get tickets for a dance the next day. I was told by some of my friends I had to be there at eight to get tickets, I got there at ten till eight and there was a huge line of kids and no one selling tickets. Luckily enough for me I saw some of my friends in the very front of the line and they told me what was going on, the people selling the tickets just weren't there yet and there would be enough tickets for everyone in the line. Knowing this I continued to sit in the front of the line with them, and continued to sit at the front of the line with them, and continued to sit at the front of the line with them. Finally at 9:15 someone came who was selling tickets then, it got crazy. Everyone was going to get a ticket, but still people gotta push, everyone behind was pushing up to the front and it was crazy. I got my ticket and got out of there. I made it home by 9:45 and then had to leave 5 minutes later to get to basketball practice at 10. Afterbasketball practice I went to the Rotary meeting like normal and they sang me happy birthday, in Swedish, the whole club, it was awesome :D. I went to school for an art class and then went to chill with Caitlin for a little bit. We went to the top of the Mushroom, a building a little like a small Seattle space needle. It was a totally clear day and so that was really, really cool. We went to my house to have dinner and when we showed up they had all the nice dishes and stuff out, fun! Andreas parents came and wished me happy birthday and had dinner with us! Then, a bunch of people just started showing up, haha, kids mostly, just a bunch of my friends here. Ingela had apparently invited them all over using facebook! Anyway, they all came over and we basically just chilled, it was a good party. We had birthday cake that Andreas "made" (bought from a store) and that was really delicious. Eva, my Rotary counselor, came to wish me a happy birthday also! Part of Swedish tradition is that when you get your presents you open them right then and there, it's cool, I like it. The neighbors even came over to wish me a happy birthday and give me a little gift! Nice people. All in all it was a great day. We just chilled, ate cake and talked, the only thing I could think of wanting to do on that day. It made me realize that I do actually have friends here, good friends. All in all it was a great Birthday and I'm really glad that I'm with Ingela and Andreas, and of course Hanna, love her too! They made it a really great day, it was like a half surprise party, people just started coming over :D

A great, great Birthday!!!

Oh yes, it was a really, really good birthday full of surprise and wonder :D!!! I really had a great time and I am so glad that I came to this family, they are really great to me :]. All in all it was a wonderful day full of good birthday stuff. I will blog more and share pictures tomorrow! Just so you know though, great, great day!!

Reflection on the 15th year of my life... :D

Well lets see, I have had a pretty exciting and crazy 15th year. I had pretty much this whole foreign exchange proccess during the past year and I had a lot of good experiences too. I am happy to be finally turning 16! Here in Sweden 16 is no bigger then 15 and you can't do anything more then before and also now I can't ride the trains for free with an adult but oh well, I am turning 16 in SWEDEN, that's a pretty good present in itself if you ask me. :D all in all 15 has been great but 16 will be so much better.

SIXTEEN,
Hit me like a train and then take me for a ride, I am ready!!!

Tuesday!

Today was also just a day haha just chillin out! I went to school, had to be there at 9:30 and it wasn't so bad waking up at 8. I had only one class with my class today, but it was a good class. We then had some school pictures. It almost felt like kindergarten again because we took a class picture, haha. We also took some individuals and me and a couple other guys took a buddy picture, it was great. After school I went to the post office to pick up a box from my mom :D I guess it's a birthday box so I am not going to open it until tomorrow! Tomorrow is my birthday, yes!! It's a big box so I hope that theres something cool in it!! After that I went to Karolinska, one of the other gymnasiums in Örebro, to buy tickets to a big dance they're having on Thursday, the office is closed so I will be going back tomorrow morning at 8 to try and get one. I was told that they are almost out of tickets so I hope I can get one :O. Another good day though!! Great dayz here in Örebro, Sverige!

Monday!

Well, today again, was just a day, chilled and went to school. I had to be at school at 8. In my life here, eight is so, sooo early. It always works out though, waking up early only takes a little while to snap out of. I went to school and had more good days with my class, just chillin and going to class. I had my first full day of class with my new class and that was nice. We did a group presentation in English class and that was pretty fun for me! After school I worked out in the school gym and then right as I was going home I saw a beautiful tree that I had to take a picture of just to show that fall is coming quickly. Caitlin called me and we hung out for a little bit! All in all a great, chill day. After dinner I went to an innebandy practice with an actual team for kids born 94 and 95. It was definately a little intimidating because I have never played a sport like innebandy before really, I have had a little experience in P.E. and then here with Andreas but it still wasn't even close to the same thing. They did drills and it was pretty hard to keep up but, they were nice and I just did what I could do. After the practice I realized how much more fun I had when I just relaxed and did it. I think that attitude is right on for this whole year. Don't be worrying about screwing up and looking stupid or even about pissing people off because your not good enough or experienced enough. I have to learn somewhere and so why not just full on jump in. Great day!

Göteborg!! or, Gothenburg!! (depending on what language you speak of course)

Bus card

Mac and Cheese given to me by Kendra's host mom :D

The actual trail to the little castle thing

The stairs we walked up looking for the little castle thing

Cool American "Doritos" they tasted good but I don't think they were legit Doritos, hard to tell

Göteborg, model size!

The "eye" or in Svenska "gö"

So, Göteborg. Well lets see, I had a really fun time and now I am totally broke :) those are the best weekends! Haha. My adventure all started on Friday at 6 in the morning, I had to be on my train at 7:10 so I woke up at 6 and got my day going! Andreas gave me a ride to the train station and that was nice because I then I didn't have ride the bus at 6:30. I did this whole trip on my own too, by the way. It was a three hour train ride there and it was really pretty because the morning was just getting up, there was mist and dew everywhere and the sun had just risen, beautiful. Once I got to the train station I got a big hug from Kendra, she was happy to see me and I was happy to see here, she's from home and I'm from her home. Familiarity is a great thing to have sometimes. I learned in Stockholm that you need to have a good way of riding the busses and such, therefore I bought a bus card for the weekend. It was 200 krowns for the whole weekend but in the end it was worth it because I knew it would work all the time. Kendra and I went for a fika first and walked around the city a little bit then went to her house to drop my stuff off. I had fun touring her house, her bathroom had automatic everything, when you walked in the lights just came on by themselves, that was really awesome. One of her friends, Zara, came over and hung out with us, and she was really nice. I met her host family and they were really, really nice, especially her host mom. After that we just chilled at the house for a few hours. We ate Kebab pizza that was really delicious, the sauce reminded me of ranch and it was just total amazing-ness in my mouth. After dinner we went to the city and walked around with some of her friends, lots of fun, Göteborg is cool on a Friday night. We slept in on Saturday and when we woke up we had the house to ourselves, so what did we do? We raided the kitchen and made ate a super yummy breakfast. Oh yes, a good breakfast satisfies on any continent. Kendra had peanut butter so we made little PB&J sandwitches. We started watching some stupid movie and then I started bugging Kendra about going somewhere, after a few minutes she gave in and we headed to the city. We went in search of the ship Göteborg. We did not see the ship Göteborg. We went to where the ship used to be and then found out that it was in a new place about 40 minutes away and it was only open till 3 and at that point it was about 2:15, we didn't even try. Instead, we went to another place that a nice young lady recommended for us tourist types, a beautiful old castle type building on top of a big hill where you could see a good view of the city. That was also an adventure trying to find but, eventually, we found it and had a nice little, "WOW" moment. We ended up finding an awesome bakery right as it was closing and we got what they were famous for, a gian cinnamon roll. We went back to eat dinner with Kendra's host family and then headed to a friend of Kendra's, William. William was a really nice guy and we hit it off pretty good. All the times that I am saying we went to the city or we went anywhere those times are 40 minute spans of travel. Kendra lives about 15 minutes by car but about 40 minutes by bus from the city so we spent a lot of time on the bus. Sunday went about the same as Saturday, woke up and ate and packed up all our my stuff. I was trying to leave the house by 1 because my bus for Örebro left at 1:55 but, that didn't happen we left at 1:10ish and due to that I almost missed my bus. We missed a bus change by like five minutes and there was no way I could have made it if I waited for the bus, I called Kendra's parents and luckily they were nice enough to pick me up and give me a ride to the city, I got there with a solid 5 minutes to spare. If I would have missed that bus I would have gotten home at about midnight just because of how the busses work. I got home at 6 and just chilled at home, I brought Robin and Oliver, some friends over to meet Andreas and Ingela. It went good and I think my parents liked them!!

All in all a great, great weekend where I spent tons and tons of money on food. I don't regret it though it was a lot of fun!