I just realized I haven't writen in quite a while. It doesn't seem like it's been a month but it nearly has. Time here is starting to fly by, as I sit here at write this, it is exactly four months to the day that I arrived in Sweden. This is something that is hard to imagine and I'm realizing what other exchange students mean when they say how fast it seems the year goes. After talking with many Australians this weekend who have only six weeks left, I am really not looking forward to sharing that feeling in what will probably be here before I know it.
Anyways, news here: two weekends ago was a huge snowboard and ski competition called Stadium Winter Jam. It was an awesome event. I got a press pass to take pictures in designated ares and managed to get some pretty decent shots. If you have not looked at my flickr in a while, the best ones are on there, here is a link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kynite/
Because of my press pass, I was also able to go back to the inside of the stadium where the riders had all their stuff. A friend of mine who is a big skiing fan was able to talk to one of the best freestyle skiers in the world for a while, something he will never forget I'm sure. I also got to talk to an italian rider that was there for the comp. It was a long day and a really fun one.
This last weekend Rotary held an event here in Stockholm. It was just a one and a half day thing, but it was a great excuse to get 60 rotary students together for some good old fashion bonding. Saturday everyone met at the train station at 10. We all got on a bus and took a short walk around the old part of Stockholm. We then took a tour of the nobel museum which is right in the middle of the old town. We ate a quick lunch there, then got back onto the bus and went to a church choral concert at a very old church just outside Stockholm. Then back into Stockholm for a christmas dinner and a play performed in swedish after that. It was an extremely full day and we didn't get to our hotel until about 10. Now when I say hotel I use that lightly because we did not stay in an ordinary hotel. It was actually an old PanAm 747 converted into a hotel a few years ago. It is really wild, they tore out everything from the inside and made rooms and bathrooms and the likes inside the plane. There were also two lobby areas where we could relax, talk, and eat food. Being that we were 60 rotary students inside a plane for the night, it goes without saying that we didn't get much sleep. I think I went to bed at 5:30?
We had to be on the bus at 9:45 the next morning so that was fun. That morning we went to a place in Stockholm called skansen which is a zoo that has typical swedish animals such as moose, wolves, owls, and the likes. There was a christmas festival there where one could buy typical swedish christmas food and gifts. We got lunch there and then headed back to the train station to see everyone off. It was a great weekend mostly because of the people we were all able to meet. I met a ton of australian "oldies" who have been here 10 months already. They told us all about things like the Euro tour and trip to Åre and other things they have done in sweden. They got me really excited for the trips, especially the Euro tour, but I know they are changing it this year so we'll see what happens with that. I'm also looking forward to meeting the "newbies" when they get here. The oldies only have about 6 weeks left and the newbies come a couple weeks after they leave. It's hard to believe I will be an oldie already, but I'm looking forward to filling the role.
This next week I am going to Copenhagen to visit my Danish brother Niko! I'm looking forward to seeing him again so much! We had a great time when he came to Stockholm and I'm thinking going to visit him in his hometown will be even better! I'll write another blog entry sometime after I get back from his visit.
Overall, I can say I am loving life and Sweden is treating me quite well these days.
No comments:
Post a Comment