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.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Time is now flying by
I have reached and passed the well known three month mark. I remember thinking before I left that the first three months would be the hardest, and so far I would say I was correct. While the first month was a lot of fun, the last two have been full of frustrating progress on the language, and not really fitting in and knowing what to do. But I would say all of that is starting to change. I switched into a better swedish class at school, one where I get one on one time with a really great teacher who has been extremely helpful and nice while teaching me. This has helped me to step over a sort of plateau I was at with my language. I feel again that it is moving along pretty well now. I'm understanding more and more, to the point where if I listen hard enough, I can usually understand whats going on in a conversation, as long as it's not about neuroscience or something. I'm also starting to speak more, especially at home. My host brother has actually been great at getting me to speak swedish with him. I'm really hoping that by Christmas I will be speaking almost only swedish at home, but we'll see. I've also been making a lot more friends who are actually swedish. My exchange student friends are getting quite annoyed that I'm not hanging out with them, but that's okay in my mind since I'm with swedes. Actually, one of my friends is originally from Los Angeles but he moved here about 5 or 6 years ago, so speaks fluent swedish.
For my three month anniversary of sorts, I made fajitas for my host family. they turned out really well and tasted like the real thing from home. my family also really enjoys it when I cook for them so I thought it was a good way of saying thanks for the first three months of my year with them.
Another thing that has been great here is the upcoming snowboarding season. I had my first opportunity to ride about a week and a half ago now at a ski/snowboarding competition in Uppsala. It was a ton of fun and I almost didn't compete but couldn't stand watching others ride so I did. It ended up being a good choice because I wound up the only snowboarder in the finals, and had a chance to win a trip to Austria, but fell on both of my last runs... Bummer. Two days later I found a board in Stockholm cheap and bought it. I've now gotten to use it twice, both times again in Uppsala at a HUGE outdoor ice rink where they have big piles of snow which riders have turned into a preseason rail setup. I took video from my last trip and will put it up as soon as I can find some software to edit it with. Unfortunately I still have about a month until the real slopes open up. Luckily I have found a couple buddies that are big time riders like myself that I should be taking many trips with to go boarding. So this season is shaping up to be another good one!
In other news, school is about the same old same old, I don't do much other than listen and play cards, but I still don't mind going much. We just finished fall break which was a great week off. Went to a halloween party, and that was about it. The break was uneventful for the most part but that was just fine in my book. It is also getting quite dark here, the sun now goes down around 4:00 maybe? and I'm not sure when it gets up, but the sunsets are amazing.
The next couple weekends will be fairly busy actually which is nice. This weekend there is a ski/snowboard gear convention in Stockholm, and next weekend is a huge ski/snowboard event called stadium winter jam, where they set up a huge jump in a stadium that pro riders compete on. there is also some rails that anyone can ride. afterwards there is a photography convention as well. The weekend after that is a Rotary weekend in Stockholm in which I have heard about 65 exchange students will be in town for tradition advent/Christmas traditions, so that will be fun. Then the first weekend in December I am visiting my good ol Danish brother Niko in Copenhagen! It's his birthday so I am helping him celebrate and plus I get to see Copenhagen which I am really excited for! So I have a busy next couple of weeks, which will be a lot of fun.
Hoppas allt är bra i USA!
For my three month anniversary of sorts, I made fajitas for my host family. they turned out really well and tasted like the real thing from home. my family also really enjoys it when I cook for them so I thought it was a good way of saying thanks for the first three months of my year with them.
Another thing that has been great here is the upcoming snowboarding season. I had my first opportunity to ride about a week and a half ago now at a ski/snowboarding competition in Uppsala. It was a ton of fun and I almost didn't compete but couldn't stand watching others ride so I did. It ended up being a good choice because I wound up the only snowboarder in the finals, and had a chance to win a trip to Austria, but fell on both of my last runs... Bummer. Two days later I found a board in Stockholm cheap and bought it. I've now gotten to use it twice, both times again in Uppsala at a HUGE outdoor ice rink where they have big piles of snow which riders have turned into a preseason rail setup. I took video from my last trip and will put it up as soon as I can find some software to edit it with. Unfortunately I still have about a month until the real slopes open up. Luckily I have found a couple buddies that are big time riders like myself that I should be taking many trips with to go boarding. So this season is shaping up to be another good one!
In other news, school is about the same old same old, I don't do much other than listen and play cards, but I still don't mind going much. We just finished fall break which was a great week off. Went to a halloween party, and that was about it. The break was uneventful for the most part but that was just fine in my book. It is also getting quite dark here, the sun now goes down around 4:00 maybe? and I'm not sure when it gets up, but the sunsets are amazing.
The next couple weekends will be fairly busy actually which is nice. This weekend there is a ski/snowboard gear convention in Stockholm, and next weekend is a huge ski/snowboard event called stadium winter jam, where they set up a huge jump in a stadium that pro riders compete on. there is also some rails that anyone can ride. afterwards there is a photography convention as well. The weekend after that is a Rotary weekend in Stockholm in which I have heard about 65 exchange students will be in town for tradition advent/Christmas traditions, so that will be fun. Then the first weekend in December I am visiting my good ol Danish brother Niko in Copenhagen! It's his birthday so I am helping him celebrate and plus I get to see Copenhagen which I am really excited for! So I have a busy next couple of weeks, which will be a lot of fun.
Hoppas allt är bra i USA!
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