Today is my penultimate day in Sweden. I'm leaving tomorrow at 7 in the morning to catch my flight at 10.50 at Kastrup in Copenhagen. All of my things are packed and double packed and ready to go. I'm going to meet up with the other exchange students who are also leaving today, Brandon and Emily. Our newbies have decided to assemble at the airport to see us off. Those will be my last goodbyes.
I'm not sure whether or not I'm going home or leaving it. Neither am I sure if I'm happy or sad to leave. I do know that I've had the most amazing of years here. Of course, all I have to look forward to is studying for algebra 2 and government and reading "Crime and Punishment" for AP English. Then I'll probably be playing soccer and practicing for drivers ed.
For now I'm just enjoying the memories and looking at pictures on facebook. Lotte på Liseberg is on tv. It's a live concert that they air on tv with lots of Swedish artists. They usually have some kind of game for viewers too.
I can't believe my year is already over. It feels I've only just gotten here. I will unchronologically post about my adventures in Europe as soon as I can. I have a lot to write about.
Until then I leave you with a chorus of a song that's been stuck in my head:
"Don't tell me that it's over, it's only just begun"
- Amy MacDonald
Monday, July 19, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Royal Wedding
Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling were married today in Storkyrkan in Stockholm. Det Kungliga Brölloppet, or the Royal Wedding has been the subject of a media circus for many weeks now, culminating in today's tv special. It's Swedens first royal wedding since the king's back in the 70's.
Here is what I will remember about it:
Very, very long. The program was playing on tv before I woke from my fever-induced sleep at 15.30, and is still going strong now at 00.03.
Tv. The whole week was filled with wedding-themed movies like Four Weddings and a Funeral.
This is a pretty big deal. Apparently this is the first time a Crown Princess has gotten married. There are also lots of Victoria/Daniel themed things to buy, like plates, jewelry, chocolates and such.
Daniel Westling. He's a completely normal, non-royal Swede. Back in the day, this sort of thing wasn't allowed.
The hosts. There is one programledare who had one of the strongest Finnish accents I've ever only partially understood.
Pre-wedding concert. Ugh... opera. And Salem Al-Fakir was only vaguely okej.
Hymns, psalms, prayers. In abundance.
Lots of royalty. the Norwegian King, the Danish King, a few foreign dignitaries.
Kärlek, glädje, äktenskap. Words that mean love, joy and marriage respectively.
Long speeches. 'nuff said.
Here is what I will remember about it:
Very, very long. The program was playing on tv before I woke from my fever-induced sleep at 15.30, and is still going strong now at 00.03.
Tv. The whole week was filled with wedding-themed movies like Four Weddings and a Funeral.
This is a pretty big deal. Apparently this is the first time a Crown Princess has gotten married. There are also lots of Victoria/Daniel themed things to buy, like plates, jewelry, chocolates and such.
Daniel Westling. He's a completely normal, non-royal Swede. Back in the day, this sort of thing wasn't allowed.
The hosts. There is one programledare who had one of the strongest Finnish accents I've ever only partially understood.
Pre-wedding concert. Ugh... opera. And Salem Al-Fakir was only vaguely okej.
Hymns, psalms, prayers. In abundance.
Lots of royalty. the Norwegian King, the Danish King, a few foreign dignitaries.
Kärlek, glädje, äktenskap. Words that mean love, joy and marriage respectively.
Long speeches. 'nuff said.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Mattress Castles
All good things come to an end, of course. But I will start from the beginning. We exchange students had planned to meet in a village called Yngsjö for three days. It was Caienna's idea, one that we congratulated her on. Unfortunately, things didn't work out with the cabin that we were going to stay at. The pipes had frozen over the winter and since exploded. So. No Yngsjö after all.
So we decided to meet in Höör instead, at the scout-building. We came up on Saturday and got settled in. There was a room that was filled with mattresses, two piles that went all the way up to the ceiling. It was only natural that we would spend a good deal of our time with mattress-architecture.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce Greg. Greg is a former exchange student who has returned to Sweden to take advantage of the less expensive college fees. Greg is studying linguistics which is very interesting to me. He's also studying Mandarin Chinese. He was also our förmyndare, chaperone.
Caienna's host parents came at around five o' clock to help us with dinner. They sent us out into the woods with knifes to get some marshmellow sticks. Greg, Chad, Christoffer and myself tryed to start a fire for a good twenty minutes before we resorted to lighter fluid. That's really how you can see the measure of a man, the amount of time before he gives up on matches.
Dinner was hotdogs and vegtables. After we ate Greg showed us a tower made of timber and binder-twine that was constructed by ten year olds.
The rest of our weekend and monday was basically lots of mattresses and bookworm. Bookworm is a very addicting word game that Christoffer has on his iTouch. At the end of our trip I had played a lifetime of bookworm in the darkness of several different mattress castles.
We left our mattress shrine at five on monday weighed down with lots of leftover food that was originally intended for the five or six people who didn't come. Chad had already left early in the morning because he had to meet with his Rotary Club and get ready for his departure at ten in the morning the next day. That weekend was our last time with Chad.
Breakfast:
Chad asleep in a pile of mattresses:
Grilled Dinner:
Matress fort under construction:
So we decided to meet in Höör instead, at the scout-building. We came up on Saturday and got settled in. There was a room that was filled with mattresses, two piles that went all the way up to the ceiling. It was only natural that we would spend a good deal of our time with mattress-architecture.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce Greg. Greg is a former exchange student who has returned to Sweden to take advantage of the less expensive college fees. Greg is studying linguistics which is very interesting to me. He's also studying Mandarin Chinese. He was also our förmyndare, chaperone.
Caienna's host parents came at around five o' clock to help us with dinner. They sent us out into the woods with knifes to get some marshmellow sticks. Greg, Chad, Christoffer and myself tryed to start a fire for a good twenty minutes before we resorted to lighter fluid. That's really how you can see the measure of a man, the amount of time before he gives up on matches.
Dinner was hotdogs and vegtables. After we ate Greg showed us a tower made of timber and binder-twine that was constructed by ten year olds.
The rest of our weekend and monday was basically lots of mattresses and bookworm. Bookworm is a very addicting word game that Christoffer has on his iTouch. At the end of our trip I had played a lifetime of bookworm in the darkness of several different mattress castles.
We left our mattress shrine at five on monday weighed down with lots of leftover food that was originally intended for the five or six people who didn't come. Chad had already left early in the morning because he had to meet with his Rotary Club and get ready for his departure at ten in the morning the next day. That weekend was our last time with Chad.
Breakfast:
Chad asleep in a pile of mattresses:
Grilled Dinner:
Matress fort under construction:
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Robin Hood
Good movie.
Saw it Wednsday night with my friends Saksaalainen (Philipp) and Gabbebjörn (Gabriel). They are two of my good exchange student friends. Gabe is from Costa Rica and Philipp is from Germany. He's going back to Germany tomorrow from Kastrup :(
Nicknames:
I nickname most of my close friends. I have been a big fan of nicknames ever since I saw Disney's film version of "Holes". Almost none of the contacts in my phone are saved under their real names.
Gabbebjörn - A common Swedish shortening of Gabriel is Gabbe (Gah-beh). I thought that Gabbe sounded a little like gummi as in gummibears. Björn means bear in Swedish. And simsimsalabim, voila, there you go. That is just how my brain works. We also call him "Gabe".
Saksaalainen - This one is much less complicated. One of Philipp's ambitions is to learn all of the nordic languages except for Danish on the grounds that it sounds too weird, so Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Icelandic and Faroese. His other goal is to become a viking folk metal rockstar, but that's another story.
But I digress...
Saksaalainen means "German" in Finnish. I chose that nickname because he's German and that he likes Finnish, but mainly because it sounds REALLY COOL. I think that the root "saksaa" comes from "Saxon". We also call him "Tyskan" (German in Swedish) and "Phil", which causes a fair bit of confusion.
Chadstopher, Skägget, Beardman Ball, Karl Bulle: These are all nicknames for Chad. "Skägg" means beard in Swedish. "Skägget" means "The Beard". Karl Bulle is like direct translation of his name. The rest are pretty self-explanitory.
Saw it Wednsday night with my friends Saksaalainen (Philipp) and Gabbebjörn (Gabriel). They are two of my good exchange student friends. Gabe is from Costa Rica and Philipp is from Germany. He's going back to Germany tomorrow from Kastrup :(
Nicknames:
I nickname most of my close friends. I have been a big fan of nicknames ever since I saw Disney's film version of "Holes". Almost none of the contacts in my phone are saved under their real names.
Gabbebjörn - A common Swedish shortening of Gabriel is Gabbe (Gah-beh). I thought that Gabbe sounded a little like gummi as in gummibears. Björn means bear in Swedish. And simsimsalabim, voila, there you go. That is just how my brain works. We also call him "Gabe".
Saksaalainen - This one is much less complicated. One of Philipp's ambitions is to learn all of the nordic languages except for Danish on the grounds that it sounds too weird, so Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Icelandic and Faroese. His other goal is to become a viking folk metal rockstar, but that's another story.
But I digress...
Saksaalainen means "German" in Finnish. I chose that nickname because he's German and that he likes Finnish, but mainly because it sounds REALLY COOL. I think that the root "saksaa" comes from "Saxon". We also call him "Tyskan" (German in Swedish) and "Phil", which causes a fair bit of confusion.
Chadstopher, Skägget, Beardman Ball, Karl Bulle: These are all nicknames for Chad. "Skägg" means beard in Swedish. "Skägget" means "The Beard". Karl Bulle is like direct translation of his name. The rest are pretty self-explanitory.
LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!
Well, I think the title pretty much says it all, but just in case there's still some confusion, NO MORE SCHOOL!! WOOOO!!!
I came in at ten o' clock and had fika with my class. Then we sat about and waited until our avslutning in the auditorium. We ate our cakes and cookies and talked. Then Ubbe, or Urban as he is actually called, organized a game of charades.
My Class SP2D and our teacher:
Then at twelve we all filed down to the aulan, the auditorium and took our places. There were a few performances by the musik program and the rektor, principle of our school section (called rektorsområde, there are something like nine rektorsområden in the whole school) gave a little speech. Then he introduced Gabriel and myself.
He gave us each a little memento of Ystad in the form of a book and then we said a few words. I had actually typed up a little speech. Incidentally, I had forgotten that very same little speech in my thumb drive. I started shaking all over and my mind went totally blank. I barreled through the whole thing and ended with a thank you to my class, my teachers, Rotary and my host families. Then I shuffled off to the side amidst applause. Then Gabe went up and breezed through his improvised thing and we both sat down. Applause.
Apparently, we both did pretty well, and the shake wasn't noticable. So that's alright then.
I came in at ten o' clock and had fika with my class. Then we sat about and waited until our avslutning in the auditorium. We ate our cakes and cookies and talked. Then Ubbe, or Urban as he is actually called, organized a game of charades.
My Class SP2D and our teacher:
Then at twelve we all filed down to the aulan, the auditorium and took our places. There were a few performances by the musik program and the rektor, principle of our school section (called rektorsområde, there are something like nine rektorsområden in the whole school) gave a little speech. Then he introduced Gabriel and myself.
He gave us each a little memento of Ystad in the form of a book and then we said a few words. I had actually typed up a little speech. Incidentally, I had forgotten that very same little speech in my thumb drive. I started shaking all over and my mind went totally blank. I barreled through the whole thing and ended with a thank you to my class, my teachers, Rotary and my host families. Then I shuffled off to the side amidst applause. Then Gabe went up and breezed through his improvised thing and we both sat down. Applause.
Apparently, we both did pretty well, and the shake wasn't noticable. So that's alright then.
Västra Hamnen
Last Tuesday I went into Malmö with Chad, Chad's host sister Cecilia and Marcus. Cecilia showed us around Västra Hamnen which is considered to be one of the more beautiful parts of Malmö. It's also where Turning Torso is, a giant twisty skyscraper. We walked around and saw the sights; the sea and the gallery in Turning Torso.
Cecilia told me a little about Malmö that I didn't know, there are lots of different neighborhoods. Västra Hamnen is where all the rich people live, there are lots of expensive apartments with glass walls that look out over the sea and immaculate landscaping. It's home to Malmö's best (and most expensive) ice cream and a plastic surgery clinic. In constast, there is an neighborhood called Rosengård. That is basically the ghetto of Malmö. Malmö is a pretty big city, with over 290,000 million inhabitants. It's Sweden's third largest city, and there is still lots of it that I haven't seen yet.
(you can see bigger versions of all pictures by clicking on them)
Cecilia told me a little about Malmö that I didn't know, there are lots of different neighborhoods. Västra Hamnen is where all the rich people live, there are lots of expensive apartments with glass walls that look out over the sea and immaculate landscaping. It's home to Malmö's best (and most expensive) ice cream and a plastic surgery clinic. In constast, there is an neighborhood called Rosengård. That is basically the ghetto of Malmö. Malmö is a pretty big city, with over 290,000 million inhabitants. It's Sweden's third largest city, and there is still lots of it that I haven't seen yet.
(you can see bigger versions of all pictures by clicking on them)
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