Thursday, April 5, 2012

Missin that NW atmosphere...

I happen to have a cold currently, soo I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to take my water bottle with me to school. TURNS OUT: Swedes have probably never seen a metal water bottle before in their life?? I had person after person look at me funny and ask some version of, "What are you drinking...?" and I would look back at them funny and say, "Uhh...water.." like that is the most obvious answer ever.. Cause in good old Bham no one would everrrr ask me what I was drinking...so that was what I learned today. Plus the idea of carrying around any type of water bottle that isn't bottled water you just bought, is rather uncommon here in Sweden. I am still a proud owner of my metal water bottle with gorillas on it! :) Yes, over and out for now!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Welllll. Before everyone gets even moree on my back about posting...
It was a while ago I posted.
So I have to do some thinking and remembering..because it has been over two months now..
First of all, I have now been here for a little over seven months! Time flies way faster than birds and airplanes. But at the same time I am so at home here that it feels so strange to think about the fact that I met my family for the first time seven months ago...and even stranger to think about the short three ish months I have left! I can't explainnn how excited I am to see everyone back home..but leaving here will not be so fun. Being homesick is just a waste of time, so I avoid that! Looking at prom pictures from last weekend made me miss friends..but I definitely am not disappointed that I missed prom..expensive dresses and dancing are better without me involved!
Let's see. February...now I am regretting putting this off so long...anywaysss. The first week of February was the AFS ski trip! 4-5 hours of train the first day, followed by a good 8-9 hours in a bus the next day...and we were finally there! It was a whole lots of fun to see the other AFS kids again, many of which I hadn't seen since the orientation camp. It is really quite amazing how exchange students bond. We are all completely different individuals from different countries, but we have at least one thing in common: our exchange student-ness..it is rather hard to explain. Something only us exchange kids can understand:) But anyways. We stayed in the lovely little cabins with 8 or 9 other students and one volunteer. I only skied one day. Becauseee. I have skied before, I like it, but I don't love it...and skiing just so happens to be cold. And if you know me, then you know how I feel about the cold. That was the coldest week of my entire life. I have never been in such cold weather. I hope you guys are realizing how cold it must have been! It was ranging between -15 to -28 degrees Celcius. In Fahrenheit that would be ranging between 5 to -18 degrees. YEAH. It was cold. And I lived. The lodge place where we ate dinner was about a ten minute walk from the cabin as well...so I couldn't avois being outside. Each cabin also had their own sauna. I can't say I went out and rolled in the snow.. because I am only half Swedish...and wasn't really interested in torturing myself! But I did go outside and stand there in just a swimsuit! Anywaysss it was a fun trip and I discovered I am pretty darn good at the limbo. I tied for first place! And one the last night we didn't sleep at all..which was strange..we had to clean our cabins superrr well before we left and instead of doing it the evening before we did it at about three till six in the morning..thennnn it was the long travel home. I did a lot of sleeping on the bus, as well as looking out and the snowy scenery and eating candy!!
Nowww..the rest of February...I can't remember any of. So I guess it was school and school and gross weather and such.
Speakinggg of weatherrr! Spring is finally beginning to pretend it is coming! The sun didn't set until 18:29 today which is so wonderful, and I no longer walk to the bus in the dark! Today it was around 45 to 48 ish degrees F! Sooo of course the guys are suddenly wearing teeshirts and everyone had there sunglasses. Even though it was still foggy the whole day..:)
Hmmmm what else. GREECEEE. Yeahhh you thought that was random of me to say I bet. BUT it isn't! Because I get to go to Greece with my lovely host family!! I am oh so excited. Sunshine is a wonderful thing. And traveling. All that.
Ohhh. So I'm not a huge bragger, but I am pretty proud of this so I will say it. Do you guys know the book A Thousand Splendid Suns? Same author as The Kite Runner. Anyways I read that whooooleee book for my Swedich class! I am really proud of myself. Plus I read Eragon before that. Now I am reading Holes for me special Swedish class and I loooove how fast I can read! And I am going to start readin Eldest soon too. Reading is fun! It is nice to have time to read.
My hair is really long these days. I haven't had it cut since before I left for Sweden. It's to my belly button when it is straight...crazyy. I am hopefully getting it cut soon. Not much more than a trim though..cause I like it long. Then I can braid it!
I really love art. And I really love music.
Today when I was on the bus in to town my iPod was one shuffle and these three songs came on in this order: Stairway to Heaven, Beautiful Day, & Imagine. WHAT could be better. It was a nice day. I took pictures too. I really love taking pictures. I might not know anything about cameras...but so goes life.
I should clean my room. But right now I should consider bed..though that really means I will brush my teeth and then read :)
Oh. I forgot to talk about my birthday. Birthdays are never really such a huge deal to me. I asked for Swedish pancakes for dinner and my dad put food coloring in them, I thought that was fun :) And other than thattt...I am now 17! And that is all I have to say about that.
I FINALLY got to skype Katie today! It had been two weeks and one day...and it felt like the longest time ever. Katie is the best :)
Yess..now I think I am done..I hope I haven't forgotten anything important..

So long for now!

It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
It's a beautiful day
-U2

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Here are pictures...that I have put off putting up...

I know that Christmas was about 200 years ago...but I figured better late than never? Soo here is our tree and the gifts!

This is the only picture of me from Christmas time this year... :)

The parents!

Far too much excitement to contain it!

Here is the lovely Marstrand! You can see the castle in the back.

My youngest and cutest cousin Celia!

My twin cousins Johan and Lucas seem to like each other :)

There are rocks like this alllll over Sweden. It seems as if all the waterfront I have come across is made up like this.

Windiest day everrr. I love the ocean.

This is a bit of the countryside in Grimeton, where I live! Fields surrounded by forests.

This is the only real sunset I have experienced in Sweden. Nothinggg measures up Bellingham's sunsets.

Snow. Yupp. I don't love snow. It is pretty. But it is so colddd. So I prefer to stay inside by the fire :)

I do admit it looks nice! Though it doesn't last long before it is an icy mess.

Sweden=Sverige if you for some reason didn't know that.

Sledding at the golf course! No time to be lost!

Most of the AFS kids took part in a ski trip at a place called Ramundberget. In other words...a place it takes a very long time to get to....and is nothing short of the coldest place I have ever been to. If you look closely...you'll notice that Sweden does in fact NOT have any mountains! I mean...sort of...but there are no peaks like I am used to.. Still very beautiful nonetheless!

Sweden is fulllll of candy! Three bowls of chocolate...and a huge bowl of candy goes very quickly!

These are my wonderful cabin mates!

Elif is my friend from Turkey!

I started drawing on these shoes monthssss ago...and now they are finally doneeee! :)