One Month

I must admit...I am a horrible blogger. I don't think that's such a bad thing when you're an exchange student though. It just means that I have been too busy having fun and enjoying my time in Sweden.  It’s hard to believe that as of yesterday, I have been in Sweden for exactly one month. Wow.  In the past few weeks since my last update, I have been kept very busy here in Sweden. I began by moving into my house and getting used to living here.

This is my house:

And this is my room:

We also have a pool:

But I have only been swimming in it once, and it was not for very long. Why? Because it is not heated, so it is very cold. It was 16 degrees Celsius (about 60 Fahrenheit) when I swam in it. Burr…

I have also been to a week-long language camp. Having 51 exchange students from all over the world made it a very fun and exciting week. There were a lot of Americans, but there were also people from Japan, Brazil, France, Italy, Austria, Taiwan, Canada, and Colombia. I think I'm missing a few countries though. Anyway, we had a fantastic time getting to know each other, trading pins, and doing some pretty crazy things. For the language learning part of the camp, I didn't actually learn anything since my host family has been very helpful in helping me learn Swedish as quickly as possible. Due to that, I already knew everything that they tried to teach us. We didn't have language lessons everyday though. A few other things we did include: Learning a African Afro dance that we performed for some local Rotary members, playing soccer with/against another exchange group called Erasmus (they only came for the day and they are with a university exchange program in Europe), and attempting to cook sausages on a "one time use grill" that is really just an aluminum tin with charcoal in it. Overall, it was a very fun camp experience. I left this camp feeling like a real exchange student now.

I have also begun school here in Sweden. I have found many, many differences between American high school and Swedish gymnasiet. First of all, after grade nine, each student chooses which “line” he or she wants to go to. Each line is specifically designed to point you in the right direction in the future. For example, a student may choose to enter the hair dresser track if that’s what they want to do in the future. You can also choose tracks such as linguistics, social science, restaurant, nursing, mechanics, and many others I have not listed. I am in the naturvetenskap (nature science) program. That means that I take classes such as Math, Physics, World Religion, Chemistry, History, Swedish, Biology, Idrotts (gym) and Spanish. (My classmates take English instead of Spanish). In my class, there are 22 students. Since we are all in the same line, we all have every single class together. Since they began the naturvetenskap line, they have all been together. They have also had the same teachers every year.

Every day, we have a different schedule. For example, on Monday, I begin school at 8:00 where I have Swedish, Math, Biology, and History. I end the day at 3:30. Tomorrow, I begin at 9:25 and have Math, Physics, Religion, and Biology again. I will end my day at 2:10. I have two mornings where I begin at 8:00, two where I begin at 9:25, and one that I begin at 9:40. Each class is at different times too. I may have math in the morning one day, then the afternoon the next. I have also learned that each class is different lengths. They range from 40 minutes to 90 minutes. We also have different amounts of time for lunch every day. Today we had over an hour for lunch, but tomorrow we only have 25 minutes. To get to the cafeteria, we also have to walk outside and across the street to go to a different building.

Here are some other differences I have found:

·         There are no bells to end class. You just walk out when it’s time to leave

·         Students call the teachers by their first names, not last

·         School lunch is free (and good)

·         If a teacher is absent, there is no substitute teacher. Class is just canceled. (I get to experience this first hand on Thursday since my Spanish teacher can’t come. Yay!)

·         Snow days do not exist.

·         About 95% of all students either walk, ride a bike, or take a public bus to school every day

·         Bathrooms are not marked. You just need to know/remember where they are. Bathrooms are also unisex, and individual

·         It is completely normal to wear the same outfit two, even three days in a row.

·         Nothing is blocked on school computer

·         In chemistry labs, we wear lab coats and glasses.

Despite all these differences, I am having a fantastic time with my new classmates.

Last Saturday, I got the pleasure to go to the Nobel Museum here in town. Back in the day, Alfred Nobel created the city of Karlskoga, Sweden. Even though he only lived in Sweden for three years, his house in Karlskoga is where he considers his home. While he was living in Karlskoga, he wrote his will, which stated that he wanted his estate of 31 million Swedish Kronor to go to the creation of 5 Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, and Peace. There is also an Economic prize that is in honor of Alfred Nobel that is given at the same time.  On December 10^th of every year, the Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm (the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo though). After they receive their awards, many of the winners will travel to Karlskoga to see that town that Alfred Nobel himself created. Many people will also go to the house in which he lived (the museum).  While I was there, the tour guide was Alfred Nobel “himself”. It was a local resident that looks almost identical to Alfred Nobel when he dresses up, puts on some makeup, and has his beard. It was very exciting to be in a place of such importance in our history.   

This past weekend, I also got to spend some quality time with my fourth host family. I spent the night at their house on Saturday, where I got to sleep in my future room. While I was there, I spent a lot of time getting to know Louise and Victoria, my future host sisters. We ordered two pizzas, one Hawaiian and one pizza with sauce, cheese, banana slices, pineapple, chicken, and curry sauce on it. I don’t remember the name of it but it was very delicious. We also watched two movies, ate some godis (Swedish candy), and then decided to walk to the soccer field nearby and play soccer in the middle of the night. In the morning, we ate breakfast, and then baked a cake as a surprise for one of Louise’s friends. Swedish cake is very different from American cake since it is split into three layers. One layer, we filled with jam and whipped cream (which you have to whip yourself). The other layer we filled with chocolate. We then surrounded the entire cake with whipped cream and decorated it. After surprising her friend, we made lunch, and then I went home for a while before going back into town to play soccer.

On Sunday, Louise and Victoria invited me go play soccer. A new team was just being created, so I was warmly welcomed. Even though I was the only one who had never played soccer before, it was still a lot of fun. I now have soccer practice every Thursday night. That will be very fun and exciting for me.

This weekend I am going to Stockholm, so that should be very exciting as well.

Hej då!

Kristi