Spending the Holidays in Sweden

Since the last time I've posted anything, a lot has happened. I got the amazing opportunity to not only experience Christmas and New Years but also many other Swedish traditions, during the Holidays. I hope you enjoy reading some amazing things that I have done over the past few weeks.
I'll go through some of the events, briefly, and after that, dive deeper into my experience in Sweden so far.

My Host family and I on a walk

Christmas and Christmas Eve
Before coming to Sweden, I thought that the Swedish Christmas was going to be quite magical. I had high expectations, and good thing my expectations we lived up to. Many people asked if I was going to go home for Christmas. It seemed like an acceptable question. Christmas is for spending time with your loved ones, so why would you spend it with a family that isn't even yours? I thought the opposite. Sure, I missed my family a little bit during the holidays but if Christmas is for spending time with your loved ones, than what better way to experience Sweden, then for being here for Christmas.

Christmas Eve, Eve
Swedes open presents on the evening of the 24th, so they also celebrate Christmas Eve, Eve, you could say. On the 23rd I went to my host dad's parents house and had a lovely dinner with my host dad's brother, his other brother's family and our family. On the night of the 23rd most Swedes play bingo, that is broadcasted all over Sweden.  I don't know if I could say that it was my favorite thing to do, as it took a totally of three hours. I did win 100 kronor ($10), however.

Christmas Eve
As I was saying before, the 24th is when Swedes mainly celebrate Christmas. That day I started off with a pleasant walk around the neighborhood, with my host family. Swedes also have an interesting tradition where exactly at 3pm, they watch Donald Duck Christmas. If you don't watch it, I don't even think you're considered a Swede.  We had to prepare for the "Julbord" we where going to eat for dinner. A Swedish Julbord is basically like a Smorgasbord. I ate meatballs, different types of fish, potatoes, and much, much more. I can tell you that I was quite full when I finished my plate.

My host sister, Agnes 

After all the eating and talking, we sat down on the sofa and started opening the presents. It's quite common in Sweden to have somebody dressed up as a "Tomte," or Santa and come to your house and deliver the presents to the little children. I don't know but in my opinion the Swedish Santa looks a bit creepy. And I guess luckily, or maybe unluckily for me, there was nobody dressed up as Tomte to deliver the presents. I guess you could say my host sister, Agnes played the role of Santa and gave everyone their presents. When doing this, it's popular to write a poem for each present, clueing to what that present may be.

I quite enjoyed my experience of spending Christmas in Sweden. I felt that I belonged with my host family and I felt that they did their best to make me feel apart of the family as well.

Agnes and I on the 24th

Christmas 
In Sweden, Christmas is still technically a holiday but there really isn't anything special about it. Contrary to opening presents on the morning of the 25th, Swedes do it the night before, so Christmas day is spent relaxing with your family and enjoying your time.
In America, my dad normally works on Christmas Day, so we either open our presents Christmas Eve, or Christmas night. When celebrating Christmas in America, our family is rather small, so it's nice to experience a Christmas where there was more people.

Storklinten
The following week, our family went to a Christmas party at the local ski resort, Storklinten. We woke up early and drove about 40 minutes. I started GS training early in the morning, while my host sister Agnes was working in the lodge. After training, I had a short rest but basically skied the rest of the day.
That night there was a Christmas party, with my host families friends. It was a nice dinner and both of my host families were there. Some of it was confusing, as I didn't know many people there,
and it was all in Swedish but what's new.

My little host sister, in my next family, and I at Storklinten

New Years
A fews days past after that, and it was time for New Years Eve. I celebrated with my host family, and some of their friends. Agnes and I wanted to eat Sushi for dinner, so we ordered 50 pieces of Sushi. Needless to say, we weren't able to finish all of the Sushi and were quite full.
After dinner we played quizzes. I don't know why but Swedes love to play quizzes, or at least my host family and friends, so I always joke about it with them. That night we played a music quiz. Much of the songs were Swedish but there was a part about Queen. Thanks to my liking of classic rock and seeing the movie "Bohemian Rhapsody" I got them all right.
After doing the quiz, and winning, it was time for the clock to hit 12. We went outside and watched as our neighborhood put on a firework show for us. It's sometimes nicer to just stay with family, being cozy, rather than going out and partying.

After a few more days of relaxing it would be time to go back to school, and continue back with the flow of things.
  Trip to Linköping 
At the party at Storkliten I meet a girl named Karro, who's friends with my host sisters, so I became friends with her as well. Her family and her live in the Southern part of Sweden, in a city called Linköping. She invited me to her birthday party.
I traveled by plane to Stockholm and then took a train to Linköping. It was crazy how warm it was down there, compared to lovely Boden. In Boden temperatures where as low as -15, which I never experienced before. When I got to Stockholm it really felt like it was summer there. That night I hung  out with Karro, her boyfriend Alex, and her older brother Viktor.
In Sweden it is quite common to eat dinner early, around 5pm but the family that I was staying with eats as late as 10pm, so we ate dinner and went to sleep shortly after that.
The next morning I went out with Karro's mom, Anna to go visit their horse. The Rönnbäcks live in the country, so it was quite beautiful there. I enjoyed myself visiting the stables and going for a quick ride on her horse.
That afternoon we went and played lasertag. It was my first time playing lasertag, so my expectations weren't that high. For my first time playing, I'd say lasertag is quite a fun game but don't expect me to become a professional in the near future.

After that I went back to Karro's house and got ready for the party she was going to have. At the party there was mainly her boyfriend's friends but I still had a lot of fun.
It was all fun, until I woke up the next morning, and saw that my insulin pump had stopped working. The whole morning I was throwing up and drinking and excessive amount of water. I forgot to bring any other insulin syringes, so there was no way of getting me to Boden that night, as I was supposed to go back up. I decided that going to the hospital was the only decision, as I was feeling horrible and could barely even walk. The ambulance came and picked me up. They needed to get fluids in my body but couldn't find a vein to put an IV in, so they had to wait till we got to the hospital. I remember the only thing I wanted more than anything was water. When we got to the hospital I asked the nurses if I could drink water but they said I couldn't, as it would mess up with the fluids they were giving me. The next few hours in the hospital I suffered, just wanting to feel better. They moved me to the ICU, where they monitored me well. The next morning they moved me to the children's ward. I was feeling like I could maybe leave but they decided I needed to spent another night, so that they could monitor me and make sure that I was okay. It gets quite lonely being in the hospital, with nothing to do, so I'm glad Niklas, Karro, and Viktor visited me some.
After 3 days in the hospital I was finally able to leave. I was discharged on a Tuesday and I went back home the following week on a Monday, so I spent the rest of the week going to school with Karro and hanging out with the Rönnbäck family.

I don't know if I've ever met a family as nice as them. They brought me in and made me feel like I was apart of their family. Their hospitality was above and beyond, and I'm very thankful for having a family as nice as them in my life.

After I got home from Linköping I started school back up. Nothing really special happening between that time, just very, very cold.

Me in the ICU

Reflecting on What I've Learned from my Time Sweden 

When I think about it, I feel that I'm quite a different person than I was 6 months ago, leaving for my plane for the long travel to Sweden. I have such a different perspective on life. I would say that before I left, I'd focus a lot about myself. I would put what I thought of myself, before what I thought of other people. Meeting all these new people really makes it feel as though I'm just a tiny ant in this big, big world. Nowadays, I really enjoy meeting people and hearing what their life is like. I have actually learned so much from listening to other's experiences.
There's something that's also changed. Before I left for exchange I was kinda lost, and didn't really know who I was as a person. I feel that now, slowly but surely, I'm figuring the ways of my life but not even close to figuring it out fully. Many people say that exchange is the best year of your life. There's many different perspectives you could think of that as. I feel that many people, including myself before, thought that meant meeting a ton of new people and just having fun all the time. I think that perspective has changed for me. For me, the "best year of my life," is bettering myself as a  person through my personality, maturity, and the way I see other's and the world. Being on exchange here in Sweden, has allowed me to think of what I've done in the past and learn from that. It's allowed me to develop my personality, to listen to other's. It's allowed me to mature into a better person. And yet, it feels that I'm just barely figuring things out. Only time will tell.

If your still reading this far, well hopefully you enjoyed my blog post.
Best Regards,
Kelsey