Min första veckan i Sverige

It's only been a week , but so far I'm in love with Sweden. Of course I suppose that might be the awe factor thats sets in your first time in a new country, but there is much to love.



For example, Sweden is absolutely a gorgeous country, in a country with less people than the whole of New York city, you know it's bound to be beautiful. Trees and feilds and flowers and rivers and mountains everywhere. And even the cities are beautiful, old buildings and winding walkways, tall metropolitan towers that gleam in the sun.



Yea a little too poetic, but you get the idea.



So my first week....



The first word my host family taught me was 'fika' (fee kah) its the Swedish equivalent to a coffee break and all Swedes love it. The difference is that the Swedish fika is a social thing, they all get together and go to a cafe or gather at someones house and have sweets like cake and pastries and cookies with strong black coffee (they don't use cream and sugar!) It's very important and popular, especially among highschool and college age Swedes.



It seems like everyone is always eating! Hahaha, and the diet (from what i've seen) largely consists of meats and cheeses and breads. Yet everyone walks everywhere and rides their bikes (I have already ridden my bike to so many different places there are even bike paths on the interstate and the highway) so there are hardly any overweight people.



It took two days for me to get my luggage (Eva was kind enough to let me borrow some clothes) and it arrived just in time for my first day of school. You can bet that I was extremely happy about that.



Which brings me to my next discovery, Alleskolan.



In America highschool is pretty much like prison. Adults yelling at you telling you where to go and when, disgusting food that is extremely overpriced and only adds to the growing obesity problem in the country. You aren't allowed to use cell phones, you aren't allowed to leave school grounds and in some schools (MINE) you have to wear a uniform.

But Swedish highschools are completely different. Students come by train or city bus (me included) and everyday you have different classes. The schedule is insane, for example, on Monday I start at 8:00 on Tuesday I start at 7:30 and on Wednesday I start at 9:30.

Every day except for Friday I have two or more periods free and students are allowed to leave whenever they want. My school is in a small city so just this past week my friends and I have gone to a cafe, gone shopping, gone to a grocery store and walked around the city. During school. If I have the same class, each day it is in a different room, and it can be confusing to find the right one.

You call the teachers by the first name and there are never any discipline problems, everyone treats each other with respect and the teachers treat us like adults. If you don't have a class during the last period you can just go home. (It's great!)

People use their cell phones in plain sight for their teachers to see and unless the volume is on they don't care.

And the food.

Holy crap, the food is delicious! And it's healthy too and guess what? It's free!!!! An example of what they eat, one day I had grilled fish with white rice and vegetables and it was delicious. They're are several meal choices as well and it's all served buffet style (no lunch ladies) No candy, chips or soda.

School is a social affair for Swedes and yes they have challenging classes, but their is not much emphasis placed on them. But it's hard for me.

Why?

To qoute perhaps the BEST movie ever made (Mean Girls) ''It's all in like Swedish or something''

I only speak basic Swedish and everything is in Svensk, the textbooks the teachers and my friends speak mostly Swedish too. I can understand my friends better than my teachers because they don't use such difficult words, but I think that it will get easier with time.

Speaking of Swedish, my family has told me that I know the most Swedish out of all of the exchange students they have ever had, and that surprised me because I was rushing to try and finish my Rosetta Stone, I was so sure I would'nt know anything and wouldn't be able to talk to anyone.

It's a very musical language, difficult and very strange for the native english speaker hearing it the first time. I have been studying for three or so months, so my ear is tuned to it, but someone hearing it for the first time would be very lost.

From what I've seen, Sweden seems like a beautiful place to live. Safe and idyllic while being urban and fashion forward at the same time. I could see myself living here, anyone could, but it would be impossible without speaking Swedish.

Swedish word for this post.....Skinka (Whink Kya) it means Ham

för exempel

Jag vill har röttskinka med ris och sallad

(I will have roast ham with rice and salad)

Flight Troubles

Hej to everyone reading this. I was originally planning to post a new blog as soon as I got here, but it's been a very hectic first week in Sverige.

Let me begin my story by prefacing that flying overseas doesn't always work out the way you planned. Originally my flight (Charlotte to Newark to Stockholm) was supposed to be about 9 hours, leaving at 1:20 pm and ending at 7:15 am.

No.

If you ever fly overseas please give yourself a day at the least before you absolutely have to be there. Trust me you will probably need it.

You see, my flight to Newark was delayed due to bad weather en route, delayed to after 3ish so causing me to miss my connection to Stockholm. So....being the experienced world traveler I am (haha) I went to the International counter and got my flight changed so that I could arrive in Stockholm the next day. After getting help from one of the nicest people I have ever meet and two hours later I was on my way to Munich. I changed my flight to Charlotte-Munich-Stockholm.

However that did not go as planned. About an hour into our flight the captain comes over the loudspeaker annoucing something in German. All the German's around me start looking around and talking in hushed voices. At this point it's pretty clear that there is something wrong.

I already made a friend beside me, a talkative French girl named Laurie, and she was in a very big hurry to make her next flight (Munich-Paris-Rekavyk) so she is clearly distressed at this. Finally the captain switches to English (Engelska as they say in Svensk) and announces that there is something wrong with the plane and that we are turning around.

At this point I am very worried, I don't know exactly whats going on, but I try to listen to my music and relax a bit as we fly closer and closer to death. (Hahaha just a joke by the way.)

So about thirty minutes later the Captain comes on again announcing that the problem has been fixed, but we cannot fly to Munich because we had lost too much fuel during the problem and that we were flying to Manchester England instead.

I'm afraid that I'll be stuck in the airport in Manchester, while my French friend is too busy cursing the airtravel system to notice my distress. Anyway she lets me borrow her international phone to call my mother and give her a heads up that I will be late late late late to Stockholm/Arlanda.

Well refueling in Manchester only takes an hour or so and FINALLY we are on our way to Munich. By now both Laurie and I have missed our connecting flights and the good people at Lufthansa rebooked our flights midair.

They rebooked mine to Stockholm at 11:45.

We land in Munich at 11:30.


Finding my way through the German airport, going through airport security and finding the right gate takes much more time than fifteen minutes.

So again I miss my connection to Stockholm.

Again my flight is rebooked for 12:45.

So I hang around in the Munich airport for a while, and end up sleeping on the plane. I don't even wake up untill we land at the airport and by then I am so tired and frustrated. We land around 5ish and I am hoping that my family will be there to pick me up so that I can get to a bed and quickly.

However it was not to be.

Through no fault of theirs they were told that my flight would not land untill 10:00 or (22:00 Swedish time) so I was a little panicked seeing as how I did not know this and did not have a phone.

Surrounded by people who did not speak my language and in an unfamiliar place with no money is NOT a fun experience. But it is a learning experience. Finally I figured out how to use the pay phone (even though it was all in Swedish) and got in contact with the right people.

So finally around 8 or so my family Eva and Erland come to pick me up. We drive the three or so hours drive from Arlanda to Kumla in awkward conversation, stopping breifly at McDonalds so they can get something to eat. (Swedish McDonalds sell Mineral Water by the way)

We drive some more in the dark (Sweden does not get dark untill 10ish or 11 in the Summer) and finally came back to their house. Eva was kind enough to let me borrow some clothes seeing as how the airport had lost my luggage and I was stuck without any of my clothes save for the ones on my back.

So yes a rocky start to my yea, but something tells me I will have a great time here.


Swedish word of this post: Gröna (greu-nah) Green





Next time..........................

Sight seeing, Fika, Alleskolan, Riding the city bus and first week of school

Pre Departure Jitters

So it's exactly 12:55 now and in less than 9 hours I will be on my way to the Charlotte Airport and then it's off to Stockholm. It's kind of a surreal feeling, because I keep thinking how weird it is that I won't see my friends or eat Taco Bell, or even sleep in my own bed for ten months.

But at the same time I'm really excited.

I know I'm going to miss my friends most of all. I'm scared that when I come back they will all have moved on without me, and I know thats a stupid thought, because life goes by with or without you, but I know my friends will always be there for me. Things will probably be awkward at first, but they'll get better, get more normal, and then I'll be missing the friends I made in Sweden.

Things have been so hectic today, I've been packing and with my mother's help I think I got enough in that suitcase to last more than a year. I hope that it won't weigh more than the limit amount, but I can still lift it so I think it will be fine.

I should probably tell you something about my host family, considering I'll be meeting them very soon. I will be living with the Claesson family in Kumla, Sweden, and they seem like great people. My host parents names are Eva and Erland and they have two foster children who will be meeting me in the Stockholm/Arlanda Airport named Pamela and Mary.

I will be going to school (and once I take pictures they will be veiwable here) at Alleskolan in Hallsberg, which is close by bus, and will be in 3rd year (which is the equivalent of senior year in America)

I will probably be older than my classmates, 18 (and also the legal drinking age), but hopefully I'll be able to make friends without a problem.

So now it's 1:09 and I really need to get some sleep, but I've actually gotten off my butt and posted my first video blog so go watch it on my youtube channel- http://www.youtube.com/user/lynninsweden

And wish me luck.

Lynn