Dag Femtionio (59)

 

I realize I’m really behind in posts and I’m trying to catch up now!
Wednesdays are normally my short days, but today I didn’t have school at all! The other exchange student from Colorado (Margo) didn’t have school either, so we met up and did a little shopping, then we went and got my hair cut! I have really thick, curly hair, and in this humid, rainy and windy environment, it was just too much to handle, so I cut it all off! Okay, well, not all off it, but most of it. After my hair cut, we took the tram back to my house where we made some spaghetti for lunch because we are too cheap to eat out, which is pretty expensive here. Then we went back into the city and did some more shopping. I got a purse, some Swedish styled shirts and sweaters and a pair of leggings so I can start to dress like a Swede. After some more shopping, Margo and I went to a cafe and had fika where we people watched for a while, then we were both really tired so we went home.

Dag Femtiofem (55)

Me on the train

Today me and the Italian exchange student met up at her house then took the tram down to Central Station. We had a bit of trouble finding our train and figuring out how to get tickets, but we got it done just in time and made it on the train. Elisa (the Italian) was fascinated by how fancy Swedish trains were, and explained to me that our country was doomed to fail just because we don’t use trains very often (it was only my third time ever on a train that wasn’t for scenic purposes) and then she took my camera and ran around the train taking pictures of the train. It took about forty minutes and then we arrived in Varberg. There we met some other exchangers, Simon and Jess (Australia), Natasha (Canada), Keila (Argentina), Lisa (USA), Deigo (Chile), Chihiro and Nao (Japan) and Pablo (Hungary), and we went to a cafe. So basically we just terrified the cafe with our foreign-ness for an hour. We played a little game where we guessed where each person came from and people seem to have trouble believing I am from the US. They always seem to think I am either from Italy or Eastern Europe… I have no idea why. Anyway, after fika we went to an autumn festival at an old fort. There was a museum talking about the fort and the skeleton of some guy they had found murdered hundreds of years ago. We chilled for a few hours and then Elisa and I had to go catch our train.

 

Dag Femtiofyra (54)

Poseidon statue on the way to school

Today I started at 9 with GeMu Rhythm (music theory rhythm section) where the teacher played rhythms and we had to write it out. I really like this class, not because it’s interesting, which its really not, but the teacher is pretty old and speaks slowly so I can actually understand pretty much everything! Then I had an hour break where I just chilled in what is called the Ghetto which is just where the music kids hang out. Then we had Kultur och Idéhistoria which was pretty boring because the teacher talks really fast so I can’t understand anything. Then I went out to lunch with three of the guys from my class and when we got back, I found out our next class was cancelled so I had a jam session with some other kids from my class. After our jam, we had sport class, but me and two of the guys forgot our gym clothes so while the rest of the class did orienteering (you get a map and run through the forest trying to find certain points on the map) we hung out in a park. Then when the class ended, one of the guys had to go home so me and the other one went to Burger King, which is actually much better here, and we chilled for a while.

Dag Femtiotvå (52)

Fake mustaches

Wednesdays are my short days! I start at 9:45, so I got to sleep in a bit, then I chatted with my host mom while I ate breakfast. I started with English class where we read a story about some gangsters. The story was written the 1960’s and was set in New York, but the teacher was like “This story is set in America so it uses a lot of American sayings,” then he kept asking me what they meant and I was like, “I have absolutely know idea what that means” and then everybody laughed. After English we had Svenska (Swedish) I don’t really know what we did because the guys sitting behind me kept talking to me, then they started going through my bag, and took a big stack of my business cards, which is okay, because I still have about 200 of them, haha. We left Svenska early because it was picture day today! For some reason they guys in my class all decided to draw mustaches on for the picture. The picture took forever because we kept screwing around, then finally we finished and went to lunch. I didn’t have any other classes but was bored so two of my classmates and I went to a candy store and hung out for a little while. Finally they had to actually go to class so I took the tram home and did some homework.

Dag Femtioett (51)

Contents of my package

This morning I went and picked up the package my parents sent me from the post office. Then my host mom and I had to go to the immigration office to make it legal for me to be here. It was legal before but now it’s ‘offical’ haha. Anyway, by the time we got out of the office, it was twenty minutes into my first class so my host mom just dropped me off at home, where I opened the package and enjoyed my snacks and candy. At noon I had a Rotary meeting but I was bored so I went in around 11 and wandered around town for a while. The Rotary meeting was fun, but pretty boring because it’s all in Swedish and it was some guy from Volvo talking about environmental cars or something. When the meeting ended it was raining out but one of the guys was going the same direction as me and shared his umbrella. I got to school half way through English class. We were writing scary stories, so I just helped some of the groups. After English we had choir, where we are singing a songs in German, Norwegian and then an English song written in the 1500’s.

Dagar Fyrtioåtta - Femtio (48-50)

I don’t have any pictures for these days, because I was sick. I somehow managed to catch a cold even though no one around me had a cold. This was my first time ever being sick while away from home/away from my parents so it was a little hard, but it wasn’t too bad. Basically I just watched tv and laid in bed for Sunday and Monday, and on Saturday my host mom and host brothers went shopping and I got a sweatshirt and a coat.
I’m feeling better now so it will get more interesting.

Dag Fyrtiosju (47)

 

Today I had Rhythm Ear Training starting at 9, then we had Kultur och idéhistoria which is sort of like social studies. They were reading about Plato’s philosophies which was way above my Swedish level so I doodled. I also discovered that the teacher doesn’t know I don’t speak Swedish, because he keeps calling on me and all I ever say is “Jag vet inte” or “Jag förstår inte den” (I don’t know and I don’t understand it) so he probably just thinks I’m really dumb, but I’m going to see how long it takes him to figure it out. After that we had lunch then Arbetsmiljö och Säkerhet which I don’t even know what is about so I just spaced out. After school I hung out with my friend Joel for a little while, then I took the tram home.
Then we went golfing! I have never golfed before, besides put-put so I was reallyyyy bad but it was fun away. I was on a team with three girls who were friends of my host family and their dad was a pro golfer so they lived in Florida half the year and all spoke English with a perfect American accent. After we golfed for about four hours, about eight families that all used to get together to golf when the kids were younger, all went to our neighbor’s house for a party and I won an angry birds pillowcase just because I was so bad at golf, hehe.

Dag Fyrtiosex (46)

My host doggy Gibson

Today I started school at 9:50 with my Musik och Kommunikation class. It’s a strange class and I really don’t have any idea what is going on. Last week we played games but this week we read poems to the class. After Mu Ko we had Svenska. I tried to pay attention but ended up drawing a muffin with a face on it, then we were left to work on some questions in groups and my group spent the time trying to teach me Swedish. Then we had studiegrupp which is like homeroom and I finally got my bus card. Then I ate lunch with two of my friends and I tried to teach them how to say ‘th’ and they tried to teach me to pronounce Swedish ‘r’ ‘å’ ‘ö’ ‘ä’ and ‘sju’ which I have trouble with because we don’t have those sounds in English. Then I had a break for two hours then Svenska som Andraspråk (swedish as a second language) but the teacher never showed up so all of us exchangers and foreign students just messed around in the hallway then went home.

Dag Fyrtiofem (45)

Skype screen shot

Today was my short school day. I began at 9:45 with Engelska/English where we talked about dialects and I tried to imitate Southern, New York, Boston, Minnesota and Chicago accents, then we wrote ghost stories. After Engelska, I had Svenska/Swedish and I have no idea what we did. Then I ate lunch with my classmates and went home. When I got home, my Mormor and Morfar/Host Grandma and Grandpa came by, then I spent about four hours skyping with my best friend Carli who is on exchange in Romania right now.
http://carliexchange.blogspot.com/ link to Carli’s blog =)

Dag Fyrtiofyra (44)

My School

In Sweden (and most of Europe) you have different classes every single day, which is definitely hard to get used to, but I really enjoy it. Today I had Orkester/Orchestra, Matematik/Math, Engelska/English and Kören/Choir. In orchestra, we played a Queen medley, Don’t Stop Me Now, and The Show Must Go On. My school’s music program is rated the best in Western Sweden so our orchestra is really good and it was really fun to play these modern songs with such an advanced orchestra! In math we had a test that was only three questions long! It was really easy, but I did that math two years ago, so I have an advantage. In English we read some story then watch Monty Python! In Choir we sang some song in German and then I finished at 3:50 and took the tram home.

First Two Weeks Of School

My class

Ahh! Sorry I haven't posted anything in so long, but with school going I have not too much time (Read: I find sleep more attractive then anything else) School here is so relaxed, but also very tiring because other than Engelska (English Class) it is all in Swedish. Other exchange students will know what I mean, but for those of you who have never been completely surround by a language you only know a tiny bit of but are expected to know a great deal of, most classes go like this: first five-ten minutes I pay a lot of attention, focusing very hard on trying to figure out what the teacher is talking about. After a little while (it varies on the class, swedish=2 minutes, history=15) I will get caught up on a word. They will say something that I recognize and I will stop and go 'Wait, what does that mean... is it ancient or important? okay, so if it means ancient, how does it fit into the sentence... wait, what was the sentence again?' and then when I focus back in they are a million miles away and I am lost, but things are slowly getting better.
I will try to be more regular with posting from now on, and I will focus more in on what I've been doing and what school is like.