Catching Up

Hi!

I know that I have not written in a long time. And that's not because nothing has happened, actually a lot has happened!!

Monday October 28

         It was an early morning. Woke up at 5:50 and Jan drove me the train station so I could take my 6:53 train to Goteborg. I met Misha there and at 10:00 we left for Vasteras. Once in Vasteras Mormor and Morfar met us at the train station. We had lunch in town and then went home. Misha and I entertained ourselves for a very long time by playing dress up with all kinds of clothes we found from all over the world.
Then we took a well deserved nap. When we woke up Moster Cecilia, Morbror Fredrik, och Teija were all there. We had dinner which my mom had decided would be renskav (reindeer meat). It's one of my Swedish favorites! We had a great time with lots of laughs and smiles :)
After our company left Misha and I relaxed and found Duck Dynasty on TV and shared some laughs over that.
Sunday was also the day when the storm, Simone, hit Sweden. It was very lucky that Misha and I left in the morning because after 4pm all trains from Goteborg were cancelled so thank goodness! I think that it would have been fun to be home when the storm came. Thankfully there was not much damage. Some fallen trees and stuff blown around.

Tuesday October 29

      Mormor, Morfar, Misha and I all took the train in to Stockholm on Monday morning. We had some time to kill so went, suitcases and all, to "City Hall" which was lovely as always. Then we walked back to Centralen and ate a great lunch. Then it was time to say goodbye to Mormor and Morfar. Though our visit had been short it was so much fun to get to see them and Misha and I had such a great time!
Next we found our YFU group and waited with them. It was so much fun to see people that we hadn't seen in months. Once everyone got there we went to our hostel at Fridhemsplan. I roomed together with Mish and Greta from Germany. We dropped off our bags and then headed to Gamla Stan. Literally the Old City, Gamla Stan is an island in Stockholm that was originally all of Stockholm. A YFU volunteer that had been at the on arrival orientation gave us a tour. After dinner we went back to the hostel. Some of us went to buy some candy at the ICA down the street. We socialized a little bit but then retired to our room. We had the genius idea of putting the beds together so make a giant one right in front of the TV. So we had our candy, our giant bed, and Star Wars was on TV...we were set!

View from our room

 

Wednesday October 30

     Breakfast 7:30. The breakfast at the hostel was very nice, they even had one of those orange juice machines in which you can see the oranges getting juiced, so entertaining!
On the agenda that day was Skansen. Which is on djurgarden and it's popular to take a ferry to djurgarden so that's what we did! We went to Skansen and had a few hours to do whatever. The place was kind of dead and there weren't many places open. It was also very cold so it was difficult to fill the hours. But the highlight was definitly seeing the bears, they were so cool. Lunch was at Skansen too.
Next on the agenda was the Vasa Museum. The Vasa is a giant ship that it like an ancient titanic. It sank while still in sight of shore. After 333 years underwater it was recovered and now it fills this huge museum. It was really fascinating (I remember being there as a kid and thinking that it was the most boring thing ever). We unfortunately did not get much time there.
After did we did the Amazing Race YFU Stockholm style. We were divided into teams and got a list of places to go and take pictures of. Out group got off to a great start. One of the leaders called to check in and he said that we had a good chance at first place because none of the other teams had returned so we were pumped. Then we made a fatal mistake. Instead of going to Margaretha Krooks statue at Dramaten in the middle of the city we went to Margartha Krooks gata in Ornsberg. Which is like way outside the city. There goes our chances of winning. But we wanted to finish so we got back on track. When we were back in the city we got another call saying that no teams had finished! We were so surprised! They must be really lost we thought. Renewed with energy we rushed to our meeting place. We saw the leaders on the steps but no students. Could we really have won? We all started cheering and then from across the square a large group of people start cheering too. Just friendly people? Nope. All the other students. We were dead last, a solid hour after the first team. Everyone had been waiting in the cold and was hungry. So we went straight to dinner. Needless to say, a huge blow to my competitive side.
So after our late dinner (thanks to my team) we headed back to the hotel. It had been quite a full packed day!

 

 

During the not so amazing Amazing Race

Thursday October 31

Halloween! Let me start by saying that you would never had known it was Halloween. Maybe a few people dressed up, but nothing like in the states.
We went back to Gamla Stan to go to the Royal Armory. But it was closed. So we got some free time and Misha, Greta and I headed to Urban Outfitters because Greta had never been there. It was such a cool Urban Outfitters, like in an old movie theater. Super classy.
Then we met up with the group again and went to the Nobel museum. I think that all that type of stuff in incredibly interesting and it was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me!
Then we all went to a cafe for lunch followed by some free time. We went shopping because we needed to buy a gift for a person in the group. (We had drawn names earlier in the week, think Secret Santa type thing). So after we made our purchases we met with the group again and went to the YFU office. The office was very nice and cozy. It's so much fun to meet the people that have made this year possible for you and who knows all kinds of things about you. I loved looking around the office and seeing my face on the wall tracking progress of students placed with families and with a little mini bio.
After this we had free time which we devoted to shopping. Since we had been late several times throughout the week we made sure to be early to our meeting place after free time. Then we all went to pizza dinner together which was a lot of fun.
We came back and socialized. We did not have a lights out time so let's just say, it was a late night. We also received our 'secret santa' gifts which was a lot of fun!

 Urban

 

Friday November 1

This morning we got to sleep in which was much needed. Then we went to Central station to drop of our bags. While someone stayed to watch it we went back to Gamla Stan to visit the Royal Armory which we had missed earlier. Honestly it wasn't my favorite thing ever. But it was just fun to be with friends!
Finally it was time to go. We went back to Centralen and did the famous YFU hug circle. We just sat there and talked and people left one by one. My train left at 3:21 and I was on the same train as Franziska and her host sister. It was a simple travel home and I got home around 9:45.
Yvonne was picking Anton and Anita up from the airport since they had been in Lanzarote. Once they got home we shared about our trips.

The rest of the weekend was chill. On Saturday I did practically nothing and Sunday followed the same trend with a little bit of homework sprinkled in.

And now we are at Tuesday and chugging through this week. My motivation is 7 school weeks until Christmas. We can do this!

I had a great fall break. I loved talking and sharing stories with the other exchange students. We don't get to see each other often but that does not keep us from having plenty to talk about. Misha and I counted and we have actually seen each other face to face for a total of 14 days combined. That's very little but I consider her one of my best friends.

At a metro station

 

FRIENDS :)

 

That is the jist of my last week.