December Update

December Update 

Well, it's been awhile since I've written anything on here. I'll try to summarize my past few months as best as I can. I will also try to write more on this blog and document my different adventures better. Haha

School

There has been up and downs for my experience in Swedish school. I think it took me a little bit to become friends with everyone in my class but now I think I'm comfortable talking to my classmates and I think for the most part, they're all comfortable talking with me. School doesn't count for me here, as I don't receive any credit back home for the classes I take. I try to listen to the lessons at the start but then it's hard to comprehend Swedish for hour plus classes. In some classes I have English textbooks, which help me follow along better. I'm in the "Nature-Science," program, so that means the program focuses on the topics of biology, math, and physics. Some of the topics are quite interesting but very hard even for the students in them. It makes it 100x harder for me. In general school is going well, and there isn't anything that bothers me about it.

New Host Family 

Last weekend I just moved in with a new host family. The family lives in Sävast, about 15 minutes outside of Boden and has a girl named Agnes. Within any family there is a family culture, meaning morals and differences. It is quite interesting seeing this within different families that I have lived with. In rotary I live with 3 different families throughout the year, as they want you to experience this "different family culture." Back in the small village of Lillivan there wasn't really any close neighbors and didn't see any other people around. In Lillivan, it was quite desolate but very pretty, with the river close, and no houses or traffic near by. In Sävast, it's a neighborhood community, so more people living closer and such. It is also nice living here, as there's good public transpiration and with where I used to live, there was none. I like my new host family and hopefully will continue to have an amazing time with them.

Adventures 

This past month I've been pretty busy. Here's some various different things that I've done.

Stockholm 
A few weeks ago, I flew to Stockholm to see my good Swedish friend Cecelia. I meet her 2 summers ago, in Tahoe, so it was nice to see her again. First, it was a bit of a hard time finding her, as my phone died and my charger stopped working. Very nice for that to happen when I was in Stockholm. I eventually found her and that day we hung out and catched up on things. We later took the train to the sea and watched the sun set. The next day we went to Stockholm. We walked around and saw the amazing architecture and different spots of Stockholm. Stockholm is really a breathtaking place and one of the prettiest city's I have been to. It's quite intuitive of the architecture, placed along the sea. I saw a lot of people all around but if you looked in another direction it was completely empty, due to the sea. Living in Boden, I don't see that at all. It has a small town feeling. When  you go somewhere, it is a common thing you see someone you know. In Stockholm it's eye opening, seeing all these busy people pass you. On Sunday we went to the beautiful Mall of Scandinavia and did shopping for the day. That night we went to the movies and then I had to go home. It was a long weekend, as I got home at nearly 2 at night.

Christmas Show, Thanksgiving, and Moving

Last weekend was very busy for me. Last Friday I went to a Christmas Show with my past host family. I thought the whole show was really good. We started off by eating Swedish Christmas food. I had an assortment of fish, potatoes, and meatballs. Very tasty. It is a good thing that Sweden offers good gluten free food, as they offered also very tasty desserts. After eating dinner we watched a fantastic performance of various Christmas songs, and difference performances, They even including Lady Gaga. I had an amazing time with my old host family!

The next day my old host family and I invited all my host families to come and eat together and my exchange friend from Luleå. I started off the day making the pumpkin pie dough. I wanted it to taste good, and not be a disaster, so I asked my mom for some recipes. At lunch I made some gluten free pumpkin pancakes, sent from my mom, from the one and only, Trader Joe's. That is one thing that I missed having from the US. After that we were busy preparing all the different foods. When everyone showed up and had the meal, I think that most everyone enjoyed it, and the turkey was cooked perfect. It was really nice enjoying time with all my different host families. It was my first time cooking a Thanksgiving meal without my mom, so I wasn't very confident in myself. I think it turned out really good, with of course the help of my host family. I thought it was so nice that I could experience Thanksgiving, even if I wasn't in the US.

That Sunday I moved in with my new host family. I was carrying a great amount of baggage. I don't even know how I'm going to get everything back the US!

Other Updates 

Yesterday and today it has been snowing quite a lot. I'm hopefully going to start skiing very soon.
It has been very convenient to have buses so close, so I have taken the advantage of sleeping in, and being able to go home easier.
I have been trying to work out at least 5 times a week. I try to be active, so that I stay both physically and mentally strong.
The light change here hasn't effected me that much. The sun comes up at 9:30 and sets at 1:20. Many people say that you can get depressed from not having the vitamins from the sunlight but I think that I'm doing just fine. Although, it is weird sometimes, as I think, "Oh I should start getting ready for bed," but it's 5 o'clock. I think that the sun does make be a bit tired but all in all, doesn't affect me too much.

Reflections

This month has had its up and downs. Sometimes I've been really sad, and other times I've been really happy. I think I've learned a lot about myself but more so about what I perceive of the world. When I just lived in the US, I wasn't thinking of really anyone or any other country in the world. I didn't care what was happening. I wasn't mentally aware of different cultures, the way different people act towards each other. Spending some months here has definitely opened my mind to see that there's a whole other "world" out there, besides the one I live in back home. I hope to continue learning more about the Swedish culture and experience more adventures.

Thank you for reading my blog. I hope that you enjoyed my update. I will try to post more!

Tack så mycket,
Kelsey