Language Camp

So, I actually have an excuse for not posting for the past week and that reason is that I was at language camp in Borås! There were 52 exchange students (29 from the US, 8 from Canada, 6 from France, 3 from Japan, 2 from Taiwan, 2 from Brazil, 1 from Austria and 1 from Italy) so basically the US just took over. There were even THREE Coloradans! The first day we just sort of chilled. There was a lot of sitting there listening to the director talk for hours. The second day was all language learning, except, not really. The classes were more geared towards those who did not study the language what so ever before coming here so basically I sat there having to repeat ‘Jag heter Danni’ ‘Jag kommer från Colorado’ ‘Jag pratar engelska och lite svenska’ for six hours. On Tuesday we learned an Afro dance (no one knows why) and we learned some tradition and culture stuff. Wednesday morning we had more Swedish lessons, which again, were pretty useless and then in the afternoon we did a soccer tournament with some college exchange students. I played soccer for about ten years but after two years of not playing I was really bad. Thursday we worked on our country presentations and practiced our Afro dance again. That night we had some local Rotarians and some of the exchange students that had been here for six months (oldies) come for a fancy dinner where we performed our dance and every state and country did a presentation about our area. The Coloradans did a power point, but it ended up not working so we just showed some pictures and talked and I got to dress up like a cowboy! On Friday we went over some rotary rules then went home around noon. The camp parts were boring, but the best parts were definitely hanging out with the other exchange students.

Days Ten and Eleven

View from my bedroom

 So the past two days were not too eventful so I’m just combining them into one post. Since my host mom was at the summer house, my host dad was at work, my youngest host brother is away sailing camp and the other two host brothers like to sleep until two or three, I spent a lot of time studying my Swedish. I also used sticky notes to make my ‘Swedish Word Wall’. Every time I learn a new word, I am going to write it on a sticky note then stick it up on the wall.

I spent a little bit of time downtown with Johan and his friend but it was pouring rain most of the days so we just sat in a café for a couple of hours. I also spent some time at an ICA, which is like the Swedish Wal-Mart, but not fat and disgusting, so more like the grocery version of IKEA. Grocery stores here have this awesome thing where you actually check out with the cool little scanner beepy thing when you put the item in your cart, so you don’t have to wait in a line. I’m not really sure how it works, but is seems really cool.

Day Nine

The wheel and one of the smaller freefall towers at Liseberg

Today we left the summer house around noon, after a small fight between my host mom and host brother, which seems to happen quite often. We got back to Göteborg and picked up Ellen and Satomi, then went to Liseberg which is a big amusement park close to my house. I think it is the biggest in Sweden and it has the highest freefall tower in Europe, I believe. We went on a lot of rides, and I even went on a rollercoaster! I have never been on one before, and was pretty terrified, but it turned out to be really fun! They even had a ride called Colorado, but spelled wrong, which was supposed to be a river ride going through an old mining building. The building actually looked a lot like the old abandoned ones you see on the passes, but the river was much calmer than anything I’ve been on. The three of us spent about four hours there, then I took the tram home, and managed to find my house all by myself!

Satomi and Me

Day Eight

Today was a very lazy day. I went for a walk with my host mom and Gibson, and met my host mom’s sister, then we went back to the summer house and sat there doing nothing for a couple of hours. Footloose was on TV with Swedish subtitles so I watched that, even though the songs all bother me after hearing so many times when my theater did Footloose for our fall musical. Then around nine o’clock my host dad decided he wanted candy, so we took the little boat over to the next island and bought candy. I thought it was a funny but very typical Swedish thing to do.

My host dad on the boat

Sun setting, this is maybe 10:30pm

Sampling of Swedish candies

Day Seven

I still hadn’t remembered to take pictures, but oh well. Around eleven o’clock my host mum and I went over to Ellen and Satomi’s house (the family that will host my later on). We played some card games, I taught them Spoons and Ellen taught me some Swedish games. Then we played the wii, which Satomi and I had never played before so we weren’t so good, but Ellen’s little brother Martin kicked all of our butts. After a couple of hours I had to leave, but I got to take home Ellen’s cello which I will be using for the year while she is in Japan. We stopped by the house for a couple of minutes then we drove out to the summer house and had dinner with some of Anna’s friends.

Day Six

Another lazy day! I kind of forgot about my camera for a couple of days, so I don't have any pictures, but oh well. Today I went for my usual morning walk with my host mom and Gibson, then we had köttbullar (Swedish meatballs) for lunch, and they were absolutely amazing!!! After lunch I studied some Swedish. For fika (coffee date sort of thing) a family that will host me later on who have a daughter, Ellen, going to Japan and are hosting a Japanese girl came over and we ate gingerbread cookies and cinnamon buns. After Fika we just hung around in the back yard and played with Gibson. For dinner we had Thai food that made me think of Vee, the girl my family hosted last year, and even though the food was good, it made me kind of sad because I miss her.

Day Five

This morning was pretty lazy, we just hung around the summer house, I went for a walk with Anna and Gibson, then we had hamburgers for lunch. They don’t taste the same as American hamburgers, they kind of taste like they actually make them with ham instead of beef, but they were good none the less. After lunch we dropped Axel and Emilia off at Marstrand then drove back to Göteborg, and I slept most of the ride. When we got home we just hung around for a while, then I thought my host mom asked me if I wanted to go to school with Johan. I was confused because I already knew I was going to the same school as him, and I also knew that school hadn’t started yet, but I said yes anyway. So we drove into town and she dropped me off at the school I will go to. I stood in the parking lot kind of confused for a minute while she drove away, but then Johan showed up and led me into the school where he and his friends were filming some sort of video for the school board. It was a parody of The Godfather, so they were smearing ketchup onto Johan’s face, which was pretty funny. After they finished filming, Johan, his friend Tim and I went to a grocery store to buy stuff for dinner then we walked over to Tim’s house where we cooked pasta with sausage and carrots. We ate, then walked through some old cemetery, then they took me to a candy shop and we bought a whole bunch of Swedish candy for me to try. We ate the candy while watching some really strange movie, then Johan and I got back to our house around midnight.