Last day of Sportlov, school tomorrow. I'm still in vacation mode and not really ready for classes. At least I start later at around 10 o' clock with SFI. Today was a great day. I started off slow with some Scrubs, then the biggest lunch I've had in ages. Lamb, potato gratin, green beans, broccoli, gravy, avocado with shrimp and salad. It was enough to cover the breakfast that I missed, lunch and then dinner. I haven't eaten anything else all day. Also, it was very, very delicious. My hat is off to Anette for such an achievement.
I got to meet Kjell's daughter Maria and her husband Stefan. And their two kids Ludwig and Adina. I spent most of the evening watching OS (the olympic games) and losing at FIFA soccer.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Berlin: Day Four/Vierte Tag
Our last day in Berlin, we left at about nine in the morning and headed off to Rostock to get on the ferry. Our GPS tried to sabotage our attempts at getting there by trying to get us going on tiny backroads so we decided to ignore her. We got back home at about six at night. What an experience Berlin was!
Crazy GPS...
Rostock Ferries
On the Ferry homewards
Back home to the snow in Sweden!
Crazy GPS...
Rostock Ferries
On the Ferry homewards
Back home to the snow in Sweden!
Berlin: Day Three/Dritte Tag
Third day in Berlin. The day before we just stayed on the bus and saw things from a distance because none of the museums were open. But on Tuesday we could visit inside and see exhibits. After another fine breakfast of bacon and eggs we got back on the Sightseeing Bus and set off see more.
Languages on the guide bus (German, English, French, Spanish, Swedish, Japanese, Italian, Russian). I listened to the English but tried to understand the Swedish and Russian as well.
The Reichstag
A sign in a church, I thought it was interesting that it had Russian.
KaDeWe: Kaufhaus Des Westens. The Store of the West. Very probably the biggest mall in Gemany, if not central Europe. It's huge.
I don't know what it is, but I noticed it in the seafood section so it must be fish...
A bell made completely of chocolate. One of the few things not for sale.
Kjell in front of a "field of cotton" by the entrance of KaDeWe.
Saw this on Kurfurstendam.
:)
Berlins Jewish Museum
Plaque in the Museum.
An example of persecution.
Jewish stars en masse. They were made by a flag manufacturer according to the sign next to it.
Checkpoint Charlie, the old way between the East and West of Berlin.
You are now leaving the American Sector!
The Pergamon Museum. We saw the Ancient Greek and Egyptian exhibits. Nepheriti's head was the highlight.
Lang Lang. Considered the worlds best pianists. We were very lucky to get tickets at the last minute and the concert was amazing. When he finished the ground shook and he came on for two encores thereafter.
Languages on the guide bus (German, English, French, Spanish, Swedish, Japanese, Italian, Russian). I listened to the English but tried to understand the Swedish and Russian as well.
The Reichstag
A sign in a church, I thought it was interesting that it had Russian.
KaDeWe: Kaufhaus Des Westens. The Store of the West. Very probably the biggest mall in Gemany, if not central Europe. It's huge.
I don't know what it is, but I noticed it in the seafood section so it must be fish...
A bell made completely of chocolate. One of the few things not for sale.
Kjell in front of a "field of cotton" by the entrance of KaDeWe.
Saw this on Kurfurstendam.
:)
Berlins Jewish Museum
Plaque in the Museum.
An example of persecution.
Jewish stars en masse. They were made by a flag manufacturer according to the sign next to it.
Checkpoint Charlie, the old way between the East and West of Berlin.
You are now leaving the American Sector!
The Pergamon Museum. We saw the Ancient Greek and Egyptian exhibits. Nepheriti's head was the highlight.
Lang Lang. Considered the worlds best pianists. We were very lucky to get tickets at the last minute and the concert was amazing. When he finished the ground shook and he came on for two encores thereafter.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The Berlin Wall/Die Berliner Mauer
On our tour route we passed part of the ruins of the Berlin Wall. International artists have since come and painted pictures and messages over it. I think that one of my favorites is a section that says "How's God? She's black".
Die Mauer 1
Die Mauer 2
Die Mauer 3
Die Mauer 4
Die Mauer 1
Die Mauer 2
Die Mauer 3
Die Mauer 4
Berlin: Day Two/Zweite Tag
Monday in Berlin. Woke up and ate a great breakfast in the Fruhstuckraum. Then it was out to the streets to see the sights of the city.
Outside the Hotel
A cool sign, but we didn't see the actual exhibit though.
Bags, bags, bags.
Newspapers from around the world. The cyrillic text reads: Berlinskaya Gazeta (Berlin Newspaper)
The old and the new
It's a giant U. You can't see it very well, but someone seems to have written "Free Iran" on the side
There are Smart cars everywhere in Berlin!
Interesting colors
Outside the Hotel
A cool sign, but we didn't see the actual exhibit though.
Bags, bags, bags.
Newspapers from around the world. The cyrillic text reads: Berlinskaya Gazeta (Berlin Newspaper)
The old and the new
It's a giant U. You can't see it very well, but someone seems to have written "Free Iran" on the side
There are Smart cars everywhere in Berlin!
Interesting colors
Berlin: Day One/Erste Tag
On Sunday, my host dad Kjell and I started our trip to Berlin. We left from Svarte about 9 o' clock in the morning and headed through Malmö and across the Öresund Bridge and into Denmark.
Over the bridge
We took the ferry from Rödby in Denmark and arrived about 45 minutes later in Putgarden, Germany. Then it was a long ten hour drive from there to Berlin. Most of our day was spent in the car, then later at maybe six we got to our hotel on Bleibtreustrasse. We went out to explore a bit before dinner where Kjell was quickly introduced to the streets of Berlin by way of a patch of ice. Then it was Chinese for dinner, and finally sleeeep...
Here are some pictures of the way there:
MacDonalds is everywhere. They're probably building one behind you right now.
We must have broken the sound barrier! No, it's just slow shutter speed. But I can dream...
I wonder what Kleine Kneipe means.
Some houses.
There are lots of trees in Germany. Here are a few fine examples.
This was as we came into Berlin.
German Radio
(This is only a small number of something like 250 pictures. The rest are on Facebook.)
Over the bridge
We took the ferry from Rödby in Denmark and arrived about 45 minutes later in Putgarden, Germany. Then it was a long ten hour drive from there to Berlin. Most of our day was spent in the car, then later at maybe six we got to our hotel on Bleibtreustrasse. We went out to explore a bit before dinner where Kjell was quickly introduced to the streets of Berlin by way of a patch of ice. Then it was Chinese for dinner, and finally sleeeep...
Here are some pictures of the way there:
MacDonalds is everywhere. They're probably building one behind you right now.
We must have broken the sound barrier! No, it's just slow shutter speed. But I can dream...
I wonder what Kleine Kneipe means.
Some houses.
There are lots of trees in Germany. Here are a few fine examples.
This was as we came into Berlin.
German Radio
(This is only a small number of something like 250 pictures. The rest are on Facebook.)
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Rasputin
Today, Thursday, was a good day. As far as days go. I spent most of the time in Språkvärlden studying Russian. I also found out that my bag ended up in Trelleborg Station after I lost it on the bus on Tuesday. Next week is a one week break from school called Sportlov. Tom from my district in Michigan who's been living in Åbo (Turku) Finland is coming here next week so we might meet up or something.
Anyway, I have a new song stuck in my head called "Rasputin" by Turisas which is a Finnish symphonic metal band introduced to be by Philipp Tyskan, the German. They have an accordion and violin player and they wear red body paint with black stripes along with furs and viking armor. Spännande.
Ra Ra Rasputin, lover of the Russian queen
there was a cat that really was gone
Ra Ra Rasputin, Russia's greatest love machine
it was a shame how he carried on
I leave you with these, from "The Meaning Of Liff", a creation of John Lloyd and Douglas Adams:
Aberbeeg: Of amateur actors, to adopt a Mexican accent when called upon to play any variety of foreigner (except Pakistanis - from whom a Welsh accent is considered sufficient).
Ewelme: The smile bestowed on you by an air hostess.
Liff: A book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover. For instance, any book the dust jacket of which bears the words. 'This book will change your life'.
Meathop: One who sets off for the scene of an aircraft crash with a picnic hamper.
Peoria: The fear of peeling too few potatoes.
Scraptoft: The absurd flap of hair a vain and balding man grows long above one ear to comb it to the other ear.
Thrupp: To hold a ruler on one end on a desk and make the other end go bbddbbddbbrrbrrrrddrr.
Ventnor: One who, having been visited as a child by a mysterious gypsy lady, is gifted with the strange power of being able to operate the air-nozzles above aeroplane seats.
Yarmouth: To shout at foreigners in the belief that the louder you speak, the better they'll understand you.
Anyway, I have a new song stuck in my head called "Rasputin" by Turisas which is a Finnish symphonic metal band introduced to be by Philipp Tyskan, the German. They have an accordion and violin player and they wear red body paint with black stripes along with furs and viking armor. Spännande.
Ra Ra Rasputin, lover of the Russian queen
there was a cat that really was gone
Ra Ra Rasputin, Russia's greatest love machine
it was a shame how he carried on
I leave you with these, from "The Meaning Of Liff", a creation of John Lloyd and Douglas Adams:
Aberbeeg: Of amateur actors, to adopt a Mexican accent when called upon to play any variety of foreigner (except Pakistanis - from whom a Welsh accent is considered sufficient).
Ewelme: The smile bestowed on you by an air hostess.
Liff: A book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover. For instance, any book the dust jacket of which bears the words. 'This book will change your life'.
Meathop: One who sets off for the scene of an aircraft crash with a picnic hamper.
Peoria: The fear of peeling too few potatoes.
Scraptoft: The absurd flap of hair a vain and balding man grows long above one ear to comb it to the other ear.
Thrupp: To hold a ruler on one end on a desk and make the other end go bbddbbddbbrrbrrrrddrr.
Ventnor: One who, having been visited as a child by a mysterious gypsy lady, is gifted with the strange power of being able to operate the air-nozzles above aeroplane seats.
Yarmouth: To shout at foreigners in the belief that the louder you speak, the better they'll understand you.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Helgen
This weekend I was at a birthday party for my friend Peter in a place called Byärsjölagård that I defy you to pronounce on the first try. What I've noticed about birthdays parties, or at least 18th birthday parties is that they celebrate them later after the actual date and make a rather big deal about it. They also do them in pairs from different classes, presumably to double the guest list and split the costs. I had a pretty good time there.
The day after I went to Simrishamn with my host family for a more formal party with some of their friends. It was very fancy, we had several courses, from soup with champagne and cream in it to Italian meat roll type things and then on to dessert which was kind of like custard with sweet almonds. Very good.
Today was a pretty normal day, Swedish For Immigrants then to Språkvärlden where I studied some Russian. My German friend Philipp got his Finnish book in the mail the other day so I helped him study with that as well. Philipps goal is to learn all the Scandinavian languages with the singular exception of Danish on the grounds that it sounds like someone trying to speak Swedish while choking on a hot potato. That includes Faroese and Icelandic, which are together only spoken by about 500,000 peopler. However, it's low number of native speakers is almost certainly made up for by or perhaps adds to the inherent coolness of both languages.
Dugir tú føroyskt? Eg veit það ekki!
(Do you speak Faroese? I don't know!)
Also in Icelandic, they don't take in any loanwords. They kind of just make it up from older words from their own language. For example is "talavölva" which means "computer" can literally be translated to "number seeress".
The day after I went to Simrishamn with my host family for a more formal party with some of their friends. It was very fancy, we had several courses, from soup with champagne and cream in it to Italian meat roll type things and then on to dessert which was kind of like custard with sweet almonds. Very good.
Today was a pretty normal day, Swedish For Immigrants then to Språkvärlden where I studied some Russian. My German friend Philipp got his Finnish book in the mail the other day so I helped him study with that as well. Philipps goal is to learn all the Scandinavian languages with the singular exception of Danish on the grounds that it sounds like someone trying to speak Swedish while choking on a hot potato. That includes Faroese and Icelandic, which are together only spoken by about 500,000 peopler. However, it's low number of native speakers is almost certainly made up for by or perhaps adds to the inherent coolness of both languages.
Dugir tú føroyskt? Eg veit það ekki!
(Do you speak Faroese? I don't know!)
Also in Icelandic, they don't take in any loanwords. They kind of just make it up from older words from their own language. For example is "talavölva" which means "computer" can literally be translated to "number seeress".
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Familjen Barlöv
Yesterday I moved in with my new host family, the Barlövs. There's Anette my hostmom and Kjell (pronounced "Shell"). She's a gynecologist and he's a retired gynecologist. Anette works at a clinic in Ystad and Trelleborg. My new room is quite impressive. There's the room itself of course and then there's the the adjoining study and mini-kitchen. And bathroom.
Svarte is a small town about about 5 kilometers and 5 minutes from Ystad by either train or bus. I have a great view of the sea from my bedroom window which is nice. I'll be staying here for a couple of weeks, until they go on vacation to New York. Then I'll move back in the Grahns for the remainder of the year.
Svarte is a small town about about 5 kilometers and 5 minutes from Ystad by either train or bus. I have a great view of the sea from my bedroom window which is nice. I'll be staying here for a couple of weeks, until they go on vacation to New York. Then I'll move back in the Grahns for the remainder of the year.
6 of 12
The first thing I would like to address is the ungodly amount of snow that we're getting down here. If you want to go outside you can't walk, you can only hope to wade.
The next thing is that I have been here for a little more than a half a year. I remember landing being a disoriented in the airport, waiting as continental drift slowly overtook baggage claim, seeing the "Welcome Phil" sign being waved over the crowd at Arrivals. Over the past six months I've experienced a lot from Tivoli Amusement Park in Copenhagen to Skansen Zoo in Stockholm to Sweden's southernmost city, Ystad. I've still got about six more months before they can deport me and there is still so much to do and see.
Over the year Rotary arranges a lot of trips around the country (and sometimes out of it) for us to go on. There was a trip to the Rönne river where we canoed for two days, we visited the National Museum (National Muséet) and of course there was the language class where we all met for the first time. I'm looking forward to our Kiruna trip sometime next month and then there's our big end of the year Eurotrip.
It's about this time of year that the new exchange students from countries like South Africa, southern Brazil and Australia in the Southern Hemisphere come to replace those who have already been here for the year. We now have five more exchange students in our district. Three girls from Australia, one from the US and a guy from Argentina. I'm looking forward to meeting them.
The next thing is that I have been here for a little more than a half a year. I remember landing being a disoriented in the airport, waiting as continental drift slowly overtook baggage claim, seeing the "Welcome Phil" sign being waved over the crowd at Arrivals. Over the past six months I've experienced a lot from Tivoli Amusement Park in Copenhagen to Skansen Zoo in Stockholm to Sweden's southernmost city, Ystad. I've still got about six more months before they can deport me and there is still so much to do and see.
Over the year Rotary arranges a lot of trips around the country (and sometimes out of it) for us to go on. There was a trip to the Rönne river where we canoed for two days, we visited the National Museum (National Muséet) and of course there was the language class where we all met for the first time. I'm looking forward to our Kiruna trip sometime next month and then there's our big end of the year Eurotrip.
It's about this time of year that the new exchange students from countries like South Africa, southern Brazil and Australia in the Southern Hemisphere come to replace those who have already been here for the year. We now have five more exchange students in our district. Three girls from Australia, one from the US and a guy from Argentina. I'm looking forward to meeting them.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
January 14 - Present
Our computer broke. I turned 17. I started to study German. There was a snowstorm yesterday and we had to stay at home. Other than that the only thing less impressive than the past few weeks is my ability to write about it.
Forgive me.
Forgive me.
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