And here is one more while I'm at it!

Since I'm bad at posting real posts...here is another video...

Here is a new video! Hope it is a bit better than the last one.. :)

watch this if you dare..hopefully understand it...and don't get bored

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!

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

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! :)

Jul och Nyårs och Sånt

Well. Noww that January is close to done...and December has happened..and I have neglected to blog...I guessss I will go ahead with it. Since about 1700 people have told me to. I don't know whereee to begin.


Let's seeee. Winter is dark. Winter is cold. I don't love winter. Ok so December in Sweden. On the 13th is Lucia Day. Girls dress up in long white dress things with a red sash and a crown of candles. If you are a brave boy you also wear a long white thing and you hold a star and have a pointy hat of sorts. Traditionally the girls get up early in the morning and go around singing to everyone and giving out lussekatter (saffron buns). Each town or city gets to vote for the girl they want to be the main Lucia girl. I opted to not take part...surprise? But I went to my bother Lukas' school and watched their Luciatåg. All of the kids in the first couple grades take part. It was adorable. And my brother was of course the cutest little Santa.

Next...Christmas I guess? Welllll. Let's see here. I loveee all of my relatives in the states. Pretty much every Christmas I can remember is spent with my family and Newell relatives. Being away was not the greatest. I haven't really had trouble with homesickness. But Christmas...yeah. I missed my Bellingham Christmas. On the bright side I now know how special Christmas really is! Aside from missing Bham, it was still a good Christmas, just different! Soo Swedish Christmas traditions. First of all Christmas in Swedish is jul, and that is a lot easier to write. SO. Swedes celebrate jul on julafton (Christmas eve). We began our day with breakfast. Pretty sure I just ate cereal...cause that is the only thing I ever manage to eat for breakfast. But I don't remember. Then we went to the church service at ten. Came home and ate? And ate some more? Julgodis=candy. Tasty candy. Homemade! My mom's parents came to visit for a bit in the afternoon and we had fika. Of course. I think we had raspberry pie. And I knowww it was delicious. Then at threeee. The famous Kalle Anka! Donald Duck in english. Every year this same show plays on TV. It is a collection of clips from Disney movies. I am pretty sure I was struggling to not fall asleep, it was very good though! My favorite was Mickey Mouse in the camper RV thing. Thennn it was time for dinner. So Swedes eat ham on Christmas. It was tasty. Of course they have sill (herring). I don't eat that kind of ridiculous food though. Basically there are fifteen hundred different kinds of meat or fish. Can't forget about the special potatoes. A Halland specialty is grönkål, kale. I just google translated that for the first time...I didn't realize I was eating kale! It isn't that great though...but better than brussels sprouts! Hmmm I'm sure there is more...well Swedes have this drink called Julmust. It is carbonated. I don't really know how to explain it...other than that they have it during jul time and then again around Easter..but then it has a new name. Sweden doesn't have eggnog. So that is sad. Thennn finalllly in the evening it is presents time! The Collander method involves each person opening one present at a time in a very methodical manner. No ripped paper, because we of course use the same paper for years in a row! Calvin and I usually order them in size and so on. Anywaysss that is not the Brosved method! The Brosved method is more along the lines of Lukas and Lousie making everyone a pile of their gifts and then the ripping begins all at the same time. And all of a sudden the floor is covered in wrapping paper. So that was a bit different. Funny story though. Well...I thought it was funny. When I opened my package from my Bham parents...I recognized one of the wrapping papers from a former Davis gift, the other was one we have literally had since we lived at Grandma and Grandpa's house..and the other was a former Newell gift. So that was entertaining, and very typical Collander. Plus I got gummy vitamins from my mom, of coursee:) No sunshine or fruits or veggies in this country. Just kidding. Not about the sun though..

Alrightt so after jul I headed up to Kungälv for a few days. First to Marstrand Erica and the cousins though! Such a beautiful, Swedish place. Love it. Even if I froze. That's just typical. But yes, it was nice to see family again! I got new knitted socks, so that of course was wonderful! Plus I completed farrr too many sudokus in just two days.

Ok so moving on from jul. Nyårs! New years! Well during the day I went to Göteborg with my friend Josefine. In the evening I went home and had dinner with the family. Hung out for the evening. And went in to town to watch the fireworks. Yeahhh so no super exciting stories there.

After thattt I roadtripped with the family to Västerås. You guys can feel free to test your google maps skills and figure out where that is. I slept in the car. We ate at IKEA cause it is cheeeap. And yupp! It was fun, stayed with some family friends who have three kids from South Afrika. Wow cool...I just spelled Africa with a K...that is the Swedish way to spell it. Ahh. The confusion that C and K are creating now that I am learning the Swedish spellings of everything. Anyways it was fun! Really nice family. I didn't do much. Just sat and listened, talked some. I was the not young kid..but not adult either person. It was cold there. I do not enjoy the being in the cold, or being cold. Surprise surprise.

My inspiration seeems seemingly lacking today. But I reallllly can't put this off any longer. Cause I happen to be quite talented at putting things off! So that hasn't really changed I guess. But I am a better person! I eat fruit. Willingly! I eat whole apples! Today I had a clementine and a banana. And an egg. Yogurt is delicious here. Chocolate. Is chocolate. SO. It is of course delicious. I just like food! Welllll that was a lie, wasn't it. I like certain foods would be more accurate.

Today I was down in Lund for an AFS meeting. Our half your year is basically over meeting. So in other words I spent most of the day on a train. Okkk not most of it. But a lot of it. Not much else to say. Though it was fun to see some of the others again. It snowed yesterday, and more today. Bellllingham and Sweden switched weather since I came here. As you all know there were four snow days and a whoooole lot of snow in Bham. Soo when I woke up Friday and there was an inch or two of snow I was in that "yesssssss snow day, back to sleep" mindset. Nooope. I wish. Swedes are completely baffled by the idea of any amount of snow causing school to be cancelled. It is amusing to see their reactions.

I've made a conclusion about my bed. My bed here is more comfy. BUT my my bed at home has better pillows and it is a bunk bed. So my new conclusion is simply that I enjoy beds. And my bed is what I should be in right now! I am reading Matilda in Swedish currently. And I am going to read Eragon too I think. If anyone was for some reason or another wondering about beds or books...I can't think of anything else to say. I was going to try to explain my most common, or at least most amusing Swedish language mistake. But it is too hard to describe in English. För ni som kan svenska, ni kan skratta åt mig. För att jag "går" överallt...jag "åker" aldrig. Vet inte om ni förstår vad jag menar...men min mamma och pappa gör det iallafall:) And for those of you who just google translated that...I know it makes absolutely no sense...I don't even know if it makes sense in Swedish. Oh well. Spelling and grammar have still not decided to be my best friend. In either language for that matter...mooostly Swedish though. You know what is really nice about Swedish though...in Swedish you capitalize soo much less, and apostrophes don't really exist? I don't think? Who knows...it is almost one thirty in the morning. SO I have a good excuse.

I will put up pictures. Some day. Now it is time for bed. I hope this satisfied all you who have been waiting. If I have left anything out that you happen to be very curious about....you can tell me! I would love to answer any questions if I can! Now I am going to go hibernate. Godnatt till er alla!