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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.