Brianna comes to town....

I met another exchange student who is with another program but living in Stockholm a few weeks ago when I was there. Her name is Brianna and she's with some other program that is like Rotary but the biggest difference is that she's only here for six months. Out of the blue on Sunday afternoon she texts me and asks if she can stay with me for a few days, she had break a week after me, and I of course said yes! I asked my host mom and she said that it would be ok and so Brianna bought train tickets and came to Örebro for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. My Monday however started off with school and then I had previously agreed to talk to another English class and so I did that too! I love talking to English classes because I get to tell them about the great country from which I come! It was another class in the sports program and in the same grade as me so that was nice getting to talk to the kids I see everyday. It was a good class and they came up with a few good questions. After I was done talking I went to the Sape's house and hung out a little bit before going to the train station to pick Brianna up. I had really just met Brianna at a dinner before she came to town but that was ok, we're both from the US and and we're both exchange students, that's enough. When she got in we went almost straight to my house. I showed her around and introduced her to my family and we just chilled, ate dinner and watched a few movies. We got to know each other a little better and that was good, she's pretty cool and welcome back to visit anytime!

Sunday, time to chill...

Fish that Caitlin made, potatoe that I helped peel.

Caisa with a big lolli-pop from Eric.

Eric, looking confused!

Natalie's hand and Natalie's friend at Hälls.

Sunday was my chill day, I just kind of hung out with Caitlin's family all day :D. I woke up at about noon and went over to have lunch with them because they invited me on Saturday night after Claire and Caitlin went on the bus to Stockholm. It turned into a quick lunch because Clara, I think that's how you spell her name, was going to gymnastics practice and Caitlin and I agreed to go with her! I have been to a few gymnastics practices before and it's probably one of the only sports that is actually fun to go and watch them practice. Clara is only 10 but she is already doing some pretty cool stuff with her gymnastics. Caitlin and I were there for a little while by ourselves and then Caitlin's host dad Anders came and brought a fika for us as well, nice guy he is! We ate donuts, and drank juice for a while before going on a search for sushi to take to Annelie, Caitlin's host mom. Unfortunately you cannot get fresh sushi in Örebro on a Sunday, there are only two sushi places, that we know of, and they are both closed on Sunday's so Annelie ended up settling for something else. We took it to her and I got to see where she works, she works for the bus system in Örebro so that was cool I think. I then split off from Caitlin and Anders to go and take a fika with a few friends at a Café close by. I met Natalie and another girl, can't remember her name, and we took a fika at Hälls, a nice little coffee shop that I have been to a few other times. I hadn't seen Natalie for a little while so it was nice to see her and I got to meet her friend and that was really cool too! I then went home and changed clothes and then again went to Caitlin's house! I met a family friend of Caitlin's host family and he was really nice, Eric is his name. He had just gotten back from Italy on a ski trip and so he brought some gifts for the girls and the family. I ate a little with them and then I went home to see my host family as well! It was a good, relaxing day of just chilling around hanging out :D

Saturday, the big move!

My friends playing at the café, from left to right not including the drummer, Herman, Malcom, and David.

The guys that owned the café!

I had never seen a key like this before I came to Sweden but they are really common here.!

The cat's name is Stalin and he is deaf :D really a cool cat though, they have another one named Skrut, I think that's how you spell it, it means "apple core" in Swedish.

New kitchen, you can see Skrut on the table, he's black.

Tommy in the livingroom! Lots of moving stuff!

More moving stuff!

This was a 4-wheeler show thing, they had a little track outside.





I agreed to help my brother Emil and his girlfriend Mathilda move a while ago and this was the big day! Emil and Mathilda weren't just moving apartments, they were moving towns, from Kumla to Örebro. They had thought about it for a while and when the opportunity came up they decided to take it! I am happy they moved here because hopefully I will see them more often. Emil and Mathilda are really nice to me and I like them! The day started out groggy and just out of bed, I wasn't sure what time I had to get up so I didn't set an alarm and I just got up when I heard movement. I went with Tommy around to try and find a trailer to rent, which was way to hard, pretty much every single gas station has trailers to rent out and we had to go to at least 5 different ones to find a trailer. After that we drove to Kumla and met a bunch of people at Emil's apartment building, he had a few friends and Mathilda's family was there to help out with the move. It was a pretty simple move, they moved from the third floor of one building to the second floor of another building. I broke the glass in a door that was inside their apartment :( I feel bad about it but it was an accident and they ended up taking the door off anyway. After we were pretty much done Mathilda and Emil bought us pizza! It was fun eating pizza and stuff but I had to run early because I wanted to say goodbye to Caitlin's mom, Claire and Caitlin left on Saturday night because Claire's flight went early Sunday morning. I walked to the bus station to say goodbye and then I walked back and chilled with Mathilda and emil for a little while before heading off to chill with friends. My friends told me about this gig they were going to play because it was this café's last night open and they decided to go out with a bang! 4 different bands played and one solo act, we then chilled for another hour or two there in the café! It was a lot of fun an something very different from what I can do in Lakeview, I enjoy those kinds of things! All in all a great day actually :D Saturday's are always fun.

Then came Friday!

This box is much older then the United States of America, I can't remember exactly how old but I think it was made in the early 1600's.

Delicious fish and potatoes!

Ost kaka, which translates to cheese cake but is not in fact the same thing as cheese cake, not even close. Also there is some real caviar there, the orange stuff, it was good!

See those two candles at the beginning of the walkway, this shot is taken from the door of the house, when Swedish people have a party they put candles out like that so everybody can see they are having a party, it's cool.

Well I was continuing to enjoy my break by sleeping in, I wanted to go the the club that meets on Fridays but I wasn't physically able because I was sleeping. I did however make it into town to meet up with my friend Lina and have a fika at a common place that we meet, Java. It was a good fika that lasted a few hours, we haven't seen each other for a while so it was fun to catch up, it was a interesting multi-lingual conversation because I enjoy speking Swedish and she enjoys speaking English. It turned out for us to speak Swedish for a while and then switch to English for a while and then back to English, I love doing that it makes me feel like I have so much skill. About two hours into our fika Caitlin showed up with her mom, her host sister, and her friend. Totally random meeting, there are so many places to go for fika and she comes to the place I am at, awesome. Lina left fairly soon after Caitlin's mob showed up and so I hung out with them for few hours and caught a ride home to Adolfsberg with them. We came home almost just in time to go to dinner at Caitlin's club president's house, which is conviniently located right across the street from Caitlin's house. It was the first time I had been to their house so I was naturally excited to go somewhere new. It was a good night, turned into a late night of good food and talking about different cultures and things like that, it was very nice and I was happy to have been invited. Thank you Busse for the invitation! It was the last night I spent with Caitlin's mom Claire, she is a very nice lady and I hope to see her again in a few months when I go and visit Caitlin! It was a nice, long Friday night though, just the way it's supposed to be!

Thursday...

Thursday, again, began with a Rotary meeting. Caitlin's club meets on Thursday's and it just so happened that Caitlin was doing her presentation this day! Caitlin did good on her presentation and it was fun to watch her do it. A lot of people came to see her, I met some new people, it was all good! After the meeting I asked if it was ok if I came around town with Claire, Caitlin's mom, and the Skinnars and they said that it was fine! We walked around and did the tourist thing in Örebro for a few hours, went for fika, went to some souvenir shops, did all the right stuff. We ended up taking a fika at svampen, the mushroom, it was only the second time I had taken a fika there and it was within a week, funny. Caitlin's Rotary club planned some fun stuff for Claire when she was in town, a dinner was being held on Thursday at Caitlin's counselor's house, Björn. Björn is a really nice guy and he has been great to me throughout the whole exchange experience as well! They asked if it was ok for me to tag along and Björn said I was always welcome, that's always nice to hear! I tagged along for dinner and unfortunately missed Tommy's day of cooking for our competition, I did get to taste a little of his dessert though and it was delicious. Ronja and Caisa ended up winning the competition but that is ok, they did a good job. The dinner with Björn was very nice, it was the first time I ate reigndeer! It was cooked deliciously and I enjoyed the dish very much, it was interesting flavor bu I did enjoy it! The night was good and it ultimately turned into a musical with Björn and Caitlin singing. Fun times and Busse, Caitlin's Rotary president invited me to the dinner the next night at his house! Good day, the break was going pretty good!

P.S. I forgot about Caitlin, Kajsa, and I taking a sauna in their house, it was awesome and we went out on there roof and rolled in the snow because at the Skinnars house they have a sauna in their bathroom on the second floor! AKA awesomeness, first time I have sauna'd on the second floor!

And then came Wednesday...

Bag of American candies from Caitlin's mom!

Fun picture.

Gunn's dessert, so good.

Main course from Gunn.

Fun picture.

Tomatoe soup with garlic bread!

First dinner with the Skinnars, this is Kajsa Caitlin's 13 year old host sister.

Here is Caisa at the stalls!

Stalls!

Wednesday is always a good day for me, I just get to chill most Wednesdays and hang out :D. This was a break day Wednesday so that was taken to even more of an extreme, I woke up around 11am and took my bus into town to catch the Rotary meeting. It was a normal meeting, a lot of people and a good speaker. I then got a ride home with Gunn and went directly to the horse stables with Caisa! I hadn't gone to ride a horse since the first week I moved in and so I thought it was time for another visit. Horses are a huge part of Caisa's life and therefore a large part of the whole family. I enjoy horses too, I've ridden in Lakeview but it's a lot different here. The saddles are different, the whole style is different actually so it's good to broaden my range of horse riding and improve my skills. I did all the other horse care things with Caisa as well, cleaning, watering, feeding, it takes a lot of time to have a horse. We rode for a little while and I had a lot of fun doing it, I don't think I will be buying a horse anytime soon but it is fun to go and ride every once in a while. When we got back home I talked to Caitlin a little bit on skype and found out that she was home in Adolfsberg with her mom and so I decided to go pay a little visit! I met Caitlin's mom and hung out with her family for a little while, always fun with those people! I sat in on dinner and then I came home and ate dinner with my family! It was a good day, I got to do a lot and talk with a lot of people, I enjoy talking....

Tuesday was another day....

Smoothie for desert from the girls, blueberry really good!

Cupcakes, a very uncommon in Sweden actually but really delicious! :D

Taco plae from the girls!

First dish, not totally sure what it was but it was good :D.

Pauline's grandma!

Flowers in Pauline's grandmothers house!

The mittens she made me :D!

Pauline eating.

Pauline's grandmother's delicious food, typical swedish actually ;D.

They are building a dock in the moat of the castle, cool!

Gaming computer.

Here are a few of the kids I was playing with and how it was lined up in the LAN place! All the computers were right next to each other!

So Tuesday, I went into town after I made dinner, it was about 11pm when I got there and a friend met me up to help me find the place. Diyar, he thought of this on Saturday and invited me then, he then again reminded me again on Monday, I wasn't sure if I was going to go because it cost 150 krowns but then I thought, "Why not, I mean this isn't very common in the US and it is in Sweden, plus I they are my friends, I can't leave them now!", so I went. It was a special place to play video games, you pay 150 krowns and chill out all night and LAN with your friends, it was a fun experience. Going into this I only knew that we were going to play videogames, I wasn't totally sure how long or what we were going to play but it ended up going until 8am. I took a bus home and got there about 8:30, right as my host mom was waking up, she asked if I had fun, I did infact have a lot of fun. I woke up again at 11am to go to a Rotary meeting, in Mosjö! Unfortunately it was not easy for me to find the Mosjö golf club and therefore I did not get to the meeting, I did however spend about an hour on the bus trying to get there and failing, that wasn't so great but it could have been worse! I went back home and chilled for a little while before heading into town and takingthe train to KUMLA! I had planned to visit Pauline in Kumla and take a fika at her grandmothers house, so that is what I did! It was a very nice day weather wise and so we walked to her grandma's house, I actually like Kumla, I think it's a nice little town! We ate lunch with her grandma and then had a fika and just talked, all in Swedish, it was a lot of fun to meet her and she is like a very, very nice lady, she actually made me a pair of gloves, how sweet is that! I hope to see her again in the future before I leave. Pauline and I then went to my house to have dinner. It was Caisa and Ronja's day to make food and so we had to judge! Caisa and Ronja did a very nice job, they made normal tacos and did some other fun stuff with the food. Ronja and Caisa did infact end up winning the competition! Pauline went home soon after that and I chilled out, tiredly! It was a good day though, long and fun :D.

Halv åtta hos mig! Hemma!

MMMMmmmmmmm foodness.

Shopping list, the meal came mostly from the internet.

Thursday the week before Gunn decided to have a competition that is on here in Sweden every week called "Halv åtta hos mig" which means "seven thirty home with me" home at our house. The way this competition works is there are four people and each of them host the other three for a dinner night and at the end of the night the three who were invited give the host points, from one to ten. This program airs Monday to Thursday at seven thirty in the evening and then on friday they reveal the winner and give them 8,000 Swedish krowns! It is a very exciting little program and so we did it at home just for fun. The only criteria was to have a three course meal and so that's what I did! I had dinner on Monday, Caisa and Ronja had Tuesday, Gunn had Thursday and Tommy had Friday. I decided to do a Mexican theme, for a starter I did quesadillas, chips and a bean dip chip thing with home made salsa. Main course was fish tacos just the ay mom does them, except for the fish, I did it with luttfisk which was kind of weird, apparently luttfisk is a Christmas fish for a special dish that you only make at Christmas time, it is weird so it didn't work out totally great but it still tasted ok. For dessert I made soe tortilla roll things that I have made in the US before, it all worked out ok but not totally great, I think it was the first time I had ever made a complete meal by myself and it was really fun! I had to make a menu, buy all the food and cook it myself, I am glad that Gunn decided to make this competition happen! The dinner went over pretty good and directly after I went into town to play videogames with my friends all night! Great day to be alive!

P.S. I forgot to mention that this day I went two different Rotary clubs. I decided to try and go to all the Rotary meetings in the break week! I went to one that met at a hotel in the morning, 7:30am to be exact they were really nice and I enjoyed the meeting, it was infact the first time I had been "out" for breakfast in Sweden, they don't really do that here! I went to a lunch meeting at twelve in the normal place that I go for my meetings, they were nice people too!

Then Sunday came...

Sunday was a pretty relaxed day Thomas train left at 5pm I think and so we again woke up pretty late and just chilled while eating a good breakfast. We then went into town to watch a basketball game that some of my friends were playing in, thos friends being, Christos, Claez, Herman, Alex, and Enoch. We didn't stay for the end of the game but the time we were there they played really good. We got to the train station just in time for his train to leave and we took this picture. I then went home and chilled out for a while before going to sleep! It was a good visit from Thomas and I am really glad he came!!

Saturday was like...

After the very exciting night in the city we needed to sleep so Thomas and I slept quite well. I woke up at about 11am to find my house empty except Thomas eating breakfast, I ate breakfast aswell. We then went into town to watch a Handball game that a few of my classmates were playing in. We watched the game and unfortunately they tied and a tie means that nobody wins, they don't continue to play or anything, it's just a tie. After the game though we went to Max, the Swedish hamburger place almost like McDonalds but better. We met up with my friends who had played in the game, Diyar and Philip, and talked with them, just kind of chilling out. All of us then went back to the idrottshuset to watch a girls handball game for a little bit. Thomas and I however decided to go and check out the other big attractions in Örebro. The castle and the mushroom are two things that everyone who comes to Örebro has to see. We toured those things and when we were at the mushroom we took a fika becuase we had some time to kill and it was the first time I had taken a fika up there, it was nice. We caught the to bus back to my house and ate dinner again with my family. Some friends invited me to a party and so that's what Thomas and I did, went to a little party and I introduced him to a few of my friends, it was a good day all in all!