uh oh.

its getting colder each day.. and the days are getting shorter!!
winter is coming.... :S

Gröna Lund, Kate Nash and Tjejmilen

So.. I thought i should probably write something again... just because that goofy photo of me with blood pudding has been at the top of the page for too long now!

I have done a few interesting things in the last couple weeks....

This weekend just gone I went to Stockholm and went to Gröna Lund (the theme park there). There was about 15 of us exchange students there, it was a really fun day, except the weather was a bit of a let down.... it rained pretty much all day.. and it was really cold.. but we still went on all the rides and had lots of fun.

Me, Eliza (Australia) and Zoe (South Africa) at Gröna Lund

Earlier that week I went to see a concert in Stockholm with Jess, another australian exchange student. We went and seen Kate Nash... and she was amazing!! She is such a good performer, she played the piano and guitar and was just really cool! She played alot of songs from her new album, but then also sang the older ones aswell... oh and it was really cute, inbetween songs she would drink cups of tea.

Kate Nash!

And then the weekend before this I did a 10km funrun/walk in Stockholm... it was called the Tjejmilen, and it is only for females... Tjej - meaning girl... and milen - meaning swedish mile.. which is 10km..
My host mum was doing it, so she had asked if i was interested in doing it... so me and three of my friends... Eliza, Jess and Zoe did it.. we were entered as team of four.. and we decided that to make things a bit more interesting.. we would dress up as animals.. so I went as a parrot, Eliza was a zebra, Jess was a Leopard and Zoe was a lion.. it was a lot of fun! and we had so much organising our costumes and painting ourselves :)

We also got alot of attention from it... everyone was looking at us and saying things to us (all nice of course!) and we even made it onto the television news and also in one of Sweden's national newspapers...! so that was quite exciting.. we were the only ones out of the several thousand people that entered, that dressed up..

Zoe, Eliza, Me and Jess at the end of the race, with our medals!

I'm finding it hard to believe that September is almost over... time seems to be going quite quickly.. and it is so weird to think that i will be home again in a few months.. this scares me.. because i dont really remember what home is like anymore.. australia, all my friends and family... just feels like some weird kind of dream.. its such a strange feeling.. and i know that one day.. thats what sweden will feel like to me..

Back to School!

arghh. tomorrow its back to school again!

my summer holidays in sweden is over! I've had such a great summer, so its making school seem even worse than it normally seems.. but i'm sure once i start going again, it wont seem so bad!

Today I ate Blood Pudding! (sounds gross i know!) it is like an old fashioned traditional swedish meal.. it is pretty much just blood, flour and a few other things mixed together.. it was quite alright.. definately edible.. it kinda reminded me of fried fritz..

Way out West and Horse Wagons.

Last Friday i went with 3 of my friends, Angie, Philip and Axel to Gothenburg (the second biggest city in Sweden). We went to a two day music festival, called Way out West, which was sooo soo much fun! The festival was on Friday and Saturday, so we stayed at a hotel for 2 nights, so we wouldnt miss out on any of the bands. There were lots of good bands and artists there. my favourites were Mumford and Sons, M.I.A, Marina and the Diamonds, La Roux and Miike Snow. One of my exchange student friends called Tom, who is also from Australia was there for both days aswell, and so he hung out with us for the weekend aswell :)

Me, Tom, Axel - wearing free t-shirts on our heads.

Philip, Angie, Axel and Tom

Me and Angie

Marcus Mumford - Mumford and Sons

Entrance!

And then the week before Way out West, i went for a trip with my first host family. We went with 2 horse wagons through the forest for a week. It was so different to anything i have ever done before!

There was my Sanne (host mum), Mats (host dad), Andre (host brother, who has just got back from a year in Australia), Naya (host sister), Loella (Sanne's granddaughter), Bodel (sanne's sister) and Martin (Bodel's son).. now that i've introduced everyone.. i can continue!

we had four people in each wagon.. and then there was once horse pulling each wagon.. so we would drive for a few hours each day till we reached the arranged camping spots, and then we would camp the night there in tents.. then get up the next day and travel to the next spot.. it was quite fun. All of the camping spots were so beautiful, surrounded by forest and they were all right on a lake of some sort.. which was always such nice clean water.

The last few weeks, there have been lots of new exchange students arriving.. all the people from the northern hemisphere.. as our last lot of northern hemispherians have all left us and gone home now :(

luckily we get replacements.. there are 2 girls from Canada who are now living in Knivsta aswell, which is kinda exciting :) i have met them both a few times now..

then there is also 2 girls living in uppsala, one from france and one from Austria.. but I haven't met them yet.

I met some of the new people living in stockholm though, they're coming from a few different places such as America, France and Switzerland.

Its kinda weird watching them all arive and go through their first couple weeks in Sweden, it brings back lots of memories of when i first arrived... which seems like soo long ago! i have been here for over 7 months now!!!

Photos from Euro Tour.

Eurotour!

DAY 1 - Malmö (Sweden) - Berlin (Germany)
The first of July we left Sweden bright and early in the morning, all 65 (or so) of us got on our double decker bus which we would be on for the next 17 days and we left Sweden! We drove over the bridge to Denmark.. and then from Denmark we took the ferry to Germany.. we had lunch on the ferry. Then once we were in Germany we had quite a few more hours of driving before we finally arrived in Berlin.. Once we arrived in Berlin, we checked into our hostel (which was in a bit of a dodgy area) and then we went out for dinner. We went to a restaraunt and we ate German sausage and sauerkraut.. after dinner we just chilled back at the hostel..

DAY 2 - Berlin
Today we had a small tour of the city on the bus and we visited the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie and also a museum about the wall.. we then got dropped off in the centre of the city and we could spend the afternoon however we wanted.. A group of us went to a german pub and had lunch, which was really nice.. and then we took the subway and went and looked at a few different things, like the brandenburg gates, the jewish memorial and reichstag. It was a really nice day and really hot! then that night everyone went out to different places.. i went with some others to an outside type of club that was right on the riverside... it was really fun and we got some dancing in.
Berlin was a very interesting city to be in, and you could really notice the difference between eastern and western Berlin..

DAY 3 - Berlin - Cracow (Poland)
Today it was back on the bus, as we travelled to Poland.. we were on the bus for a full day.. Once we arrived in Cracow we went and had dinnner at a Polish restaraunt, and ate typical Polish food.. which was also accompanied with some violin and piano accordian playing.. the restaruant was really cool and had such a unique atmosphere.. then that night we just relaxed.

DAY 4 - Cracow
In the morning we had a walking tour of the city.. which was really cool. Poland was very different to all of the other cities we visited.. it was not as developed as the others and felt very 'Eastern Europe'. It was still a very cool city and had lots of pretty buildings.. after the tour we had our own free time for a few hours. So everyone just walked around and got some lunch. Cracow has a massive city square... like massive! there are restaraunts and shops all around and markets in the middle of the square..
Then that afternoon, we went to Auschwitz, which is a former concentration camp where several million people were killed. We had a tour here, which took us all around the camp.. it was a really tough tour, and i did not take any photos while we were here, cos i think it is a place where you need to go yourself and experience.. we went down into the gas chambers and into the torture rooms where so many people have been killed, it was kinda hard to handle. There was also rooms which had big displays of all the human hair and personal belongings which belonged to the prisoners in the camp.. this was really tough and affected lots of peoples emotions..
That night, to lighten the mood we all went out in Cracow and went to different bars and clubs and had a fun night.

DAY 5 - Cracow - Prague (Czech Republic)
Today we had another travel day on the bus.. we arrived at our hotel in the afternoon, which was really really big! it had over 1000 rooms and had a few shops and an indoor pool and gym and a big restaraunt..

DAY 6 - Prague
We had a walking city tour in the morning... Prague is such a beautiful city! there were lovely gardens, and the whole city is covered in pebblestones (which makes walking abit uneven!) the whole city seems to be perfectly layed out aswell.. i really liked Prague! in the afternoon we had free time.. as we had already seen most of the sites Prague had to offer... and also because it started pouring with rain! me and a few other girls decided it was the perfect opportunity to get some shopping in, so we spent the afternoon in a warm dry shopping centre :)
That evening, we all went on a cruise through Prague for dinner.. it was really fun, and so relaxing and beautiful as the sun was going down over the water... after dinner everyone went to a night club... which was 5 stories :) This was probably my favourite night of the whole trip, because everybody was in the same place, instead of all going to different places... it was lots of fun! :)

DAY 7 - Prague - Salzburg - Zell Am See (Austria)
Today we drove to Austria.. we had a brief stop in a small city named Salzburg.. which is the town where Mozart was born, and also where The Sound of Music is filmed and based.. it was a really sweet looking town. Then we kept driving on to Zell Am See.. which is the most beautiful town i have ever been in! its in the Austrian Alps so its surrounded by mountains and has the most scenic and clean lake!

DAY 8 - Zell Am See
Today was definately the most physically exhausting day.. we hiked up a freaking huge mountain! It took us about 4 or so hours to get up the mountain, and not everyone made it all the way up.. it was a really tough walk, but the view from the top definately made it all worth it!
Once we got to the bottom again, we were all quite hot and sweaty, so some of us stipped down to our undies and jumped in the lake ! which was the best feeling in the world! the afternoon was spent at the lake swimming and getting a little extra sun.

DAY 9 - Zell Am See - Lido di Jesolo (Italy)
Today we drove to Italy.. and seen some of the most amazing scenery on the way.. we arrived in the afternoon, and had a few hours to look around and explore the new place.. which was a beach side resort town.. it was also very hot in Italy! we spent the afternoon at the beach and also a lot of the night. we were staying in a really great spot.. on the main street which had shops and lots of pizzerias and places to buy gelati!

DAY 10 - Lido di Jesolo
Today we had the whole day to do whatever we wanted, so we spent the morning looking around at some shops and then the rest of the day at the beach and eating ice cream... it was really hot today! that night, after some pizza for dinner.. most people went back down to the beach.. they had a big screen set up and were playing the soccer.. so there were lots of people there watching that.. then we went to a club that night..

DAY 11 - Venice
Today we took the boat over to Venice and spent the day there.. Venice was really something different.. the city is sinking and alot of the streets are water.. we all went on gondola rides here through the city, which was sooo cool and i felt like i was a character in a movie.. after that we could explore on our own.. Venice has soo many tiny narrow streets and small bridges.. it was kinda surreal.. it was also swarming with tourists.. which kinda lost a bit of its appeal for me.. it was TOO touristy.. it was also kinda dirty and the narrow streets made me glad taht we werent there at night.. i was happy just to be spending the day here and go home to our awesome beach town..
that night it was the Soccer world cup Final.. so we went back to the beach and watched holland lose to spain.. it was a really cool atmosphere. and it was a perfect warm summer night..

DAY 12 - Lido di Jesolo - France
It was finally to leave our relaxing beach town and head to France. we spent the whole day driving.. and then spent the night in some random small town in France..

DAY 13 - Paris
We had another pretty full day of driving today before we finally reached Paris.. we arrived at our hotel.. and had a bit of time in the afternoon to check out our surroundings... we realised that once again we were staying in a bit of a dodgy area, kinda ghetto like.. but our hotel was really nice.. that afternoon we also drove by the eiffel tower and got to take photos.. after dinner.. we got to do whatever we liked.. so everyone split off in there seperate ways.. we walked around alot and seen the Arc De Triomphe at night time, and then also the Eiffel Tower at night.. with its flashing lights display..

DAY 14 - Paris
We had a free day to do whatever we wanted today, and this particular day it was Bastille day in France... so there was a big parade in Paris and also LOTS of people! we seen some of the parade.. through the massive crowd.. however then it started pouring with rain! none of us had rain jackets or umbrellas.. so we ended up running around and dancing in the rain.. which was kinda cold..but also kinda fun :) then some of us decided that wed had enough of being in the rain, so we ducked in and out of a few shops along Champs Elysees - the famous shopping street.. where all of the big designers have stores..
that night there was fireworks by the eiffel tower, so most people went and checked them out.

DAY 15 - Paris
Today we had a tour on the bus of Paris and dove by some of the famous sites.. and had another stop at the eiffel tower for some photos etc.
The rest of the day we had to ourselves, so it was a perfect opportunity for some more shopping! :)
That evening we went to a fancy restaraunt.. so everyone got a bit dressed up which was kinda nice..

DAY 16 - Paris - Brussels (Belgium) - Hagen (Germany)
We had a really early start today and we left the beautiful city of Paris and headed towards Belgium... we stopped in Brussels for a few hours and got a chance to look around... Brussels was a cool city, and i think it would have been nice to spend a full day there.. while we were there, almost everybody had to try some belgium waffles!
Then we kept driving till we reached a town called Hagen in Germany.. this was the last official night of the tour.. this night we had a dinner all together, and then we had our own party... where some people gave out funny awards to people and we all signed each others flags and just talked and had fun.. a small group of us didnt sleep at all this night.. which was lots of fun.. and kinda convenient that there was a 24 hour mcdonalds just next door to our hotel..

DAY 17 - Hagen - Malmö (Sweden)
We were driving all day again today.. and we took the ferry from Germany back over to Denmark, then the bridge... and we were finally back in Sweden! Once we arrived back in Malmö it was time for alot of us to say goodbye... as some people were heading off straight away.. this was quite the emotional goodbye.. with lots of tears... as a lot of us will never see each other again.. i stayed in Malmö that night though, as did quite a few others.. and then i took the train home the next day..
it was the best 3 weeks of my life! and i met so many amazing people and everyone became really close by the end of the trip.. it was kinda special.. i loved all of the countries we visited and they were all so different :)


The last few weeks have also been pretty busy... oh and i turned 18! :)

Midsummer

Tomorrow i leave for Malmö!!!! ahh im so excited..

then i will be spending 3 weeks in Europe!!!!!!!!!!! the countries we go to are....

Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Austria and Belgium.

I will get home on the 18th of July

I had a really nice past few days.. me and Alex went to Megans in Örebro.. her host family have a super nice house.. complete with indoor swimming pool and a single lane 10 pin bowling alley in the basement! so that was fun and her host family were super lovely..

On friday it was Midsummer's Eve, so that is when the celebrations are done... at midday we all went to a part of Örebro and watched some traditional midsummer celebrations.. there were lots of people dressed in old style clothes and they danced around the maypole... then after, everybody else (including myself) also danced around the maypole.. it was lots of fun, and they had lots of silly songs and dances..

then that afternoon, we drove about an hour away to megan's host families summer house... that was also really nice.. it is on the lake..

we went to their friends house for dinner, where we had a traditional swedish smorgasbord... complete with herring :S

we also picked flowers and made midsummer crown things.. that was really cool, and there are soo many different kind of wildflowers in sweden.

on the saturday me, megan and alex just relaxed a lot infront of the tv and in the sun... and me and megan also cut alex's hair :)

then that night we went to the friends house again for a bbq.

On sunday we relaxed again, and went for a ride in their speed boat, we went across the lake to a different town and ate ice cream.. and then we spent the afternoon laying in the sun and briefly swimming in the lake..

i went home that night... my train left at 8pm and it was meant to take around 2 hours.... however.. there was electricity problems with the train tracks.. so we had to stay still for a few hours.. and we couldnt go on the tracks.. we didnt get into stockholm central until well after midnight... and by then, there were no more trains running.. and i still had to get home to knivsta.. so i was a bit worried and reallly tired.. i managed to get on the last bus that was running that night to uppsala, and convinced the driver to stop in knivsta for me.. which luckily he did :) i got home just after 2 and was very happy to crawl into bed!

the last 2 days i have just spent packing my things...

and now i will say goodbye for a few weeks!!

cos im off to europe!!!!! woohoo!

So the last few days i have spent trying to get things organised for my europe trip.. its getting really close now! less than a week!! ahhhhh so excited :)
On Tuesday Megan and Phil (exchange students) came to Uppsala, we walked around a lot and looked at the church and the castle, spent several hours at a chinese restaraunt with a buffet ;), and then ate numerous strawberries and cherries in the park.. it was a nice day.
In a few hours I am going to Örebro, which is where Megan lives... I am giong to stay there till Sunday.. Another exchange student called Alex is also coming to stay..
we will be spending midsummer there aswell, which is this weekend.. it should be a nice couple of days.
then i should get back sunday, and then have monday and tuesday to pack....... and then.............. Wednesday i leave to go to Malmö ( a town in the very south of Sweden) to be ready for the Thursday morning when we leave for Europe !

Royal Wedding

So on Saturday i went to Stockholm, to try and be part of the royal wedding..
There were soo many people in Stockholm, and the whole city was decorated in Swedish flags and other banners and decorations.. There were people handing out, paper swedish flags, candy, little cups of fruit, cardboard crowns and even Phone cards with 100kr of credit on it.. (i like freebies!)
Most of the day i spent with Megan (exchange student from U.S), Sofi (from Mexico) and Sofi's host parents. We just walked around and looked at different displays and things like that in the morning, then went and had lunch at a mexican restaraunt.. we watched the wedding on a big screen in like a park type area in stockholm.... (with hundreds of other people).. even though, i wasnt seeing it all happen in the flesh... it was still really cool.. to be within a few kilometres of it.. and to be watching it live... it was really nice and everyone was so into it.
after the wedding.. Victoria and Daniel went around town in a horse carraige, so people could get the chance to see them.. we set up in a spot.. we were like less than 10 metres from the road.. so we were realy close.. but we couldnt see anything cos of all the heads squished in front of us! it was kind of annoying.. we seen the tops of all the horse rider peoples who were riding ahead of teh carraige.. so we seen all these bopping heads.... but the carraige they were in was quite small so we coudnt actually see them... but ah well.. we were close.. :)
then that evening.. we met up with lots of other exchange students.

This is Megan, me and Sofi infront of some old styled boat they had in stockholm.. they were people all dressed up old fashioned and stuff aswell.. it was cool.

Today it is the longest day in Sweden... at the moment it is 11.19pm.. and it is still light outside... of course the sun is setting.. but it is still plenty light enough to see perfectly fine.. im not sure what time the sun will rise.. .but it normally is light at like 3.30 am... it makes sleeping kinda difficult sometimes.. but luckily it is summer holidays so i dont have to wake up early for school anyway!

:)

hello again..
sorry its been a while..
alot has happened since i last wrote and im struggling to remember what excatly has happened...
so i moved to a different family, i was there for 3 weeks.. and i am now back at my first host family while my second family go to Greece for a few weeks...
Where i have been living, there is Anna who is my host mum and then her daughter Johanna, who is almost 16... Anna works as a pilot captain for SAS airlines..
while Anna is at work, her mother Elvy is quite often at the house helping out and keeping an eye on Johanna and I. The three of them are all so lovely, and made me feel very welcome.. and i look forward to staying there for a longer period of time, later in the year..
okay so now im going to attempt to say a litte about what i've been doing the past 3 weeks.. and it is going to be in no particular order...

One of the days, i went to gröna lund in stockholm with some friends from school... Gröna Lund is the theme park in Stockholm... it was pretty cool, and there were lots of cool rollercoasters and other scary rides! it was a really fun day...
Except there was a thing called Lustiga Huset... which is like a crazy house that you walk through and have to try and get out alive... (think in grease, when danny and sandy are singing your the one that i want, and theyre in that crazy house thing at the carnival)
anywho, i dont like this house... there was a tunnel thing that you had to walk through.. and while you walked through it was rotating... and so your meant to like walk against the movement or some crap...
which i didnt do.... so i took one step.. and fell. which was embarassing... but you know, i could deal with that..
but then i tried to get up.... and couldnt. and kept trying.. but couldnt... i was like starting to rotate around and my bag was rotating.. and i had arms and legs going everywhere.. anywho after a decent minute or so, i finally got dragged off the 'tunnel of hell' by one of my friends..
i was very happy to get out of lustiga huset!

I also went camping for a weekend.. i went to a place called oxelösund and went with other exchagne students... there was 8 of us.. four girls and four guys...
it was a really fun weekend.. we were camping in some forest and were right on the coast of the baltic sea.. and it was really pretty...

Another sunny afternoon, Anna and her mother took me to Sigtuna, which is a town quite close to Knivtsa... it is one of the oldest towns in Sweden..
its quite a small town (although, not parrakie small!), it probably has around 10,000 people or less. it is quite a touristy type town and has lots of litte shops and cafe's..
we spent the afternoon walking the streets and lanes.. and having fika.. and also walking along the water..

I also witnessed a Swedish graduation.. all 3rd year students graduated a few weeks ago.. and they celebrate this a bit different to how we do in Australia.. to begin with, they attend a Champagne Breakfast... which i think is pretty self explanatory.. they all get together.. eat and drink.... then they get they're results.. and get let out of the school..... and outside is friends and family.. waiting for theyre 'student'.. they have a big poster thing on a stick with the students name and a baby photo.. and then when they come out.. everyone gives them flowers, and alcohol, and other things which are all on necklace type things, so they can have it all hanging around their necks.. then.. they the class gets in the back of a big truck... which they have all decorated with banners and big branches of leaves and stuff.... then they drive around the city in these trucks for a few hours... and they have music playing... and are all dancing and screaming.. and drinking.. and just celebrating..
then normally everyone goes home to their houses.. and they have a party.. for like family, and close friends.. where there is lots of eating and drinking.. and they get presents and so on..
i went with the president of rotary, to watch her granddaughters 'graduation'.. we went into uppsala.. and watched her come out of school, then watched her go round on her truck.. and then went back to her home for a few hours.. it was quite interesting to see how they do it in sweden..
oh and they all have hats.. that look like sailor hats.. and they have their name on them and their class.. :)

we also had our school 'avslutning'... which i think is just a fancy word for end of school year/last day.. we didnt have any lessons or anything.. just went to school for a few hours.. and all of the students who do music, sang songs and things like that.. it was quite nice... then our whole class, went to a chinese restaraunt and ate lunch together..
so now when i start school again, in the autumn.. i will be in the second year :)

i spent a day in stockholm.. it was a rotary organised day.. and we went to the three different parliament houses in sweden.. it was kinda cool... we had guided tours through them all, (in swedish), so i didnt really understand much at all.... but they looked really fancy and they were really old buildings so that was cool.. and it was fun to see people..

i also went to stockholm for a day shopping with angie.. that was fun and it was really nice weather :)

hmm ive also done a couple other things in there, but theyre not that interesting and this is already quite lengthy...
but tomorrow....
i am going to stockholm, yet again..
The crown princess Victoria is getting married tomorrow, to a man named Daniel.. and the wedding is in Stockholm... so there is a whole bunch of other exchange students going to stockholm tomorrow aswell... so i guess we will just look at all the people and see, what we can see!

p.s. i leave for my europe trip in 12 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Procrastinating!!

I have spent all day.. packing up my room! gahhhh. it is not fun.
I am so bad at it, i keep procrastinating (like now for instance), i dont know where all the stuff i have here came from :S it is definately more than 20kg!!
anywho i really have nothing interesting to tell you, apart from i dont like packing.. and i suppose i should keep at it, cos i still have lots to do and i am shifting tomorrow morning!
adios amigos.

MOOSE

Last friday afternoon i went to Nyköping, a town south of Stockholm.. There are quite a few exchange students living there.. and this weekend there were a few others (like myself) also there.. I stayed at another exchange students hosue, called Nathan (hes from canada), there was also a french exchange student named Nathan staying there aswell.
That night there was a group of us that went to some place on top of some hill surrounded by trees and stuff... and we had a fire.. and cooked korv (sausage) and all talked lots... There was Me, Megan (U.S), Stevie (NZ), Nathan (Canada), Zach (US), Maxence (France), Nathan (France), Mayuka (Japan)... There was also a group of swedes at the same spot.. and they were playing a Swedish game called Kubb.. and we talked to them for a bit and played Kubb with them, which was really fun.. (google it, if you want to know what it is)..
it was a nice night.. with only a little bit of drama.. involving a certain exchange student deciding they would spend 3 hours up a tree in the late hours of the night/early hours of the morning.. and not get down..
The next morning we went to Trosa, which is not far from Nyköping.. (Trosa means womens underpants in Swedish.. hehehe).. On the drive there, we seen two mooses on the side of the road! i got sooo excited, and was making little excited noises :) one of my aims this year, was to see a moose.... and now i have seen two of them!!!
we were at Trosa for saturday and sunday... there was exchange students there that are currently in sweden (like me) and then there were some swedish students who were going to be exchange students.. The weekend was really chilled, and we all just talked lots and played sport and stuff.. where we were staying was really nice.. it was actually a school.. but it was right near a lake.. and forest and there were all beautiful gardens all around.. while going for a walk.. we seen a dead snake on the path... which was also another exciting moment... even if it was dead..
it was really small and it was chopped in half, with all its snake guts coming out ;) there are only two types of snakes in sweden and only one is poisonous... this was one of the poisonous ones :)

Yesterday, we had a thing called Slaget... it was like a sports day type thing for school.. the school i go to, Rosendal was competing against another gymnasium, called Fyris.
Throughout the day, there were lots of different sports being played... there was Innerbandy, Dodgeball, Basketball, Handball, Soccer and Volleyball... it was all played in a stadium thing... and on one side sat Fyris and then on the other side all the people from Rosendal sat... everyone was wearing their schools colours.. and it was such a cool atmosphere.. by the end of it.. my throat was sore from yelling and my hands were sore from clapping.... and i wasnt cheering half as much as most people were! we ended up winning the day, which was really cool... cos the people from Fyris were all really annoying and such bad sports, so i was glad they didnt win :)
Afterwards.. me, angelina, philip and axel went to a chinese restaraunt and had the buffet :) yummmmm.. i was soooo hungry.. i hadnt eaten all day.. and so, all you can eat chinese went down very nicely :)

Last night i also got a package from home in the mail, which was really exciting.. it was all pretty ordinary things that if i was in australia i would have and see quite regularly... chocolate, vegemite, some local newspapers from home, a frankie magazine and a few photos... but seeing im not in australia at the moment, it was so exciting to see all these familiar things :)
This sunday i am moving to another family for two weeks.. so before then i have to pack up all my things here, which is a big job.... i have already bought and collected so many things in my four months here.. so i am not looking forward to the next few days where i have to pack it all up and shift it.. I am a bit nervous about changing families, but i am also excited.. I guess it is going to happen whether i am nervous about it or not.. so there is no use in worrying too much about it..

Long Weekend

Last weekend was a long weekend... we had the Thursday and Friday off... I'm not sure what the long weekend was for, but any reason is good enough :)
On the Thursday Mats, Naya and I drove about 3 hours north.. and went to stay in Mats' fathers summer house in the woods... It was quite fun.. we went for lots of walks in the forest and just relaxed a lot.. i was really hoping to see a moose.. but unfortunately I didnt see one! there was sooo much moose poo though.. and there was some only like 10 metres from the house.. so they were around..
there are also supposed to be bears around that area, but i didnt see any of those either!
it was funny, when we were walking around the forest.. instead of looking out for snakes and lizards.. i was looking out for mooses and bears! quite a bit different! oh and i kept expecting to just see a kangaroo jump past.. but believe it or not, i didnt see any of those either!

we stayed there for the night.. and then we went home friday evening.

Saturday i went to Stockholm and met up with some exchange students... Saturday the weather was soooooo nice.. it was around 25 degrees in stockholm.. and so there were people everywhere trying to get some sun.

i wore a dress that day... without stockings and without a cardigan or anything!! it was a very exciting moment ;)

we didnt really do much in stockholm.. me, claire and megan (both from the u.s.) just went and sat in a park in the sun talking all afternoon.. it was really nice... and i even managed to get sunburnt...

Then on Sunday Mats, Naya and I went to the stables where they both ride at... There was a special 'horse day' on.. and there were different demonstrations.. they had a dressage demonstration, a gymast on horseback demonstration, some iceland pony demonstration, and then some people acting as knights.. and they did jousting and stuff.. like in the movie 'a knights tale' it was really cool :)

Anywho, that was my 4 day weekend :)

This week i've just been going to school.. its been warm all week though.. which is really nice.. i've been checking the weather back home on the internet.. and its been warmer here lately or around the same temperature.. so i think that is pretty cool :)

Everything is soo nice and green here at the moment.. ive never seem so many different shades of green in my life!! i will take some photos soon so i can show you :)

Valborg, Norberg, Stockholm

Because i am so slack at writing.. i now have a bit of a list of things i should write about... gahhhh..

I'll start with Valborg..
Valborg is a celebration in Sweden on the 30th of April.. which from what i gathered, celebrates spring.. noone really knows the true reason of what they are celebrating.. but in Sweden, you dont really need a reason :)
Valborg in Uppsala is pretty massive.. I'm not sure how many people were in Uppsala that day... but there was a lot! Valborg is celebrated all throughout Sweden.. but because Uppsala has so many students living there, the event is a lot bigger here.

I went with some friends from school and we watched the boat race in the morning... all the university students make some form of boat.. and race it down the river which runs through the centre of Uppsala.. this was quite funny.

Some of the boats were really good.... and some were really bad!
It was a really nice day, and the weather was nice and sunny.. we walked around alot, ate strawberries, sat a bit.. and walked some more.. at 3 o clock, all of the students gathered together wearing funny white hats, that looked like sailers hats.. then the head of the university (i think thats who it was) said something.. and then all the students ran down a hill.. that probably doesnt make much sense how i explained it.. but to be honest.. i didnt really get it ;) so thats the best i can do.
then that night me, Lara, Clara, Johanna, Lovisa and Lina all stayed at Angelina's house.. which was lots of fun..

The weekend that has just been i went to Norberg. It was a Rotary event.. there was about 20 or so exchange students there and then there were lots of swedish students.. that are going to be leaving sweden to be exchange students in July. It was like an information weekend for the swedish students and their parents.. (I went to a similar thing in Australia this time last year)
so it was kinda cool to think back and finally be on the other side of the whole thing... there were a few boring talks about preparing for exchange that were aimed for the swedish people.. and then in the afternoon all the parents went home.. and we all stayed the night at the place.. it was pretty fun.. we played some games and things, and all just talked alot.. we went for a walk that night to try and find the old mines.. (cos norberg was a mining site) but nobody actually knew where we were meant to go.. and we didnt end up finding them... we did however find snow! which was odd... as i thought all the snow was gone!

At about 1am.. someone suggested we should go swimming in the lake... so unable to think of a reason why not too.. some of us went.. there was me and three other girls who are all exchange students here and then two swedish boys that went... and then some people came to watch us..

It was a cold night.. so the lake was absolutely freezing!!!! and by swimming... i mean more or less.. getting in.... diving under.... freezing.. then getting out :) it was pretty fun..
It was a cool weekend.. and was really good to catch up with all the other exchange students... and cool to meet all the swedes that are going to be exchange students!

Then today, i have been in Stockholm... this was another Rotary thing... the Rotary club of Sundbyberg invited some exchange students to spend the day there.. we had lunch at their rotary meeting... which meant that we got to eat super nice food :) then after lunch we went on a boat ride around stockholm.. Stockholm is built on 14 islands.. so there is a lot of water.. and it was really cool to see the city from the water... it was also really sunny today.. so perfect weather for being on a boat :) i think i may have also got a tiny tiny bit of a tan... which is hard to come by! It was such a nice day.. and yea once again really cool spending time with exchange students..

The next exciting trip i have.. is the Euro Tour.. which is in July... so its still a little while away.. I'm already super excited about it though!

The past week...

It feels like i have a lot to write.. and i don't really know where to begin... i guess the beginning of the week is a good place to start.. The train trip to Kiruna was as expected... quite long! just a nice 16 hours or so... (could've been more than half way home in that time ;) we left sunday night.. and arrived monday at around 2pm.. there were about 8 other exchange students on the same train as me.. and we were the last ones to arrive.. once we had checked into the hotel we were staying at and got settled in.. we all got on the bus and went to the ice hotel

The Ice hotel actually closed the previous day.. and we were going to be unable to go in, because it was beginning to melt.. however this day it was colder again.. so they said we were allowed to go in and have a look.. which was really cool... It was massive.. and each year they make a different one, with a different design.. Even though it was really cool.. (in more ways than one! hehe) i dont think i would like to actually spend the night there... it would be quite boring.. in all the rooms.. all there is, is some cool form of ice art and then a bed...

All of us outside of the Ice Hotel

That night some of us went sledding/sliding down a hill.. and some stayed at the hotel.. I went and it was lots of fun.. i hadn't actually done it since i have been here in sweden.. so i cant really compare.. but this hill was really steep! and pretty icy.. so it was scary aswell as fun.. one time i was going down on this plastic thing.. and it fell out from underneath me.. so i slid the whole way down on my back.. it was pretty funny cos i had no way of stopping.. and like i said it was a big hill! but i will admit.. i was pretty scared ;)

The next day we had an early start.. and breakfast was at 6.00.. The week was run by the 2nd and 3rd year students at the gymnasium in Kiruna as part of their tourism programme.. so we spent the week with them and quite alot of time at the school.. all of our meals were at the school, which was about a 10 minute walk from where we were staying.. Anywho on tuesday we all got in the bus and we we went to a town/city called Narvik in Norway! It took a few hours to drive there... and all the scenery along the way was soo beautiful!

While were in Narvik.. we just all looked around, there was a small shopping centre there.. but none of us really wanted to shop.. so we just walked around and took photos and stuff. it was quite fun..

Wednesday we split up into two groups.. My group went snow skootering first... which was super fun! we all sat in trailer/cart type things and the swedish students pulled us by the snow skooters..

we went along a track for about 20 minutes or so like this.. then we reached a large snow field.. and this is where we stopped..
Then we did lots of different activities.. to start with we played a type of chasey.. which was fun. then we got put into teams of four.. and we rotated through different things.. one was drilling a hole into the ice.. (for ice fishing)

Another was we had drunk goggles.. and we had to wear them and kick a soccer ball and get it around a cone and run back.. and then we had to run and weave in and out of the cones with the goggles on.. i sucked at this.. and fell on the ice and got a nice bruise on my knee :)

Another one of the activities was we had to weave in and out of cones while our whole team was on wooden plank things... and then the last thing was we had to light a fire in the snow... all of these activities were timed.. and the team with the fastest times won a prize.... (my team didnt win).
After this.. we could do whatever we wanted... they were letting us drive the snow skooters.. so everyone had a turn at that... some of us also went ice fishing.... but nobody caught anything..

Everyone was pretty excited to drive the snow skooters.. including myself.. however unfortunately we had to go back.. and i still hadn't had a turn at driving one yet... so they said that i could drive it back to the place.. this was all well and good.. but it meant i had to tow a trailer of exchange students.. and also had to go along a narrow path.. (i'm not the world's best steerer)..... and there was a part of the track that was quite narrow.. and on a bit of an angle.... and so i was driving along.. and i slowly began to feel that i was on more and more of an angle... and the next thing i knew.. i had tipped the snow skooter... gahhhhh.... it was a tiny bit embarassing.. and i felt a bit bad.. cos the guy who owned the snow skooter looked a bit pissed... but it wasnt broken or anything :) but the people that were in the trailer that i was towing seemed to find it quite humorous..

After that.. i let the guy drive.. and i sat behind him ;) Once we got back. we had lunch at the school.. and then after lunch we went into lessons. and spoke to the students about where we came from and things like that..

Thursday was the last day.. and alot of people were going home at different times during the day.. for those that weren't going home until that night.. (which was me!) we got to go and have a tour of the mines... we took a bus and drove down into the mines.. which was really cool. cos i havent done anything like that before... i didn't realise what it was like down there... just roads and tunnels everywhere.. with trucks and utes driving everywhere... we got to stop on the visitors level and we had a tour... it was really cool..

Our train leaving Kiruna left Thursday night.. but was about an hour late... and then when i woke up in the morning.. i found out that it was now two hours late! so this meant that i had missed my bus to Gothenburg.... i was kinda freaking out just a little bit... When we got to stockholm central station.. me and Stevie a girl from new zealand who was going on the same bus as me went and spoke to the train people.. and they put us on a train to Gothenburg, and we didnt have to pay any extra... it ended up working out a lot better. as the train is a lot quicker and more comfortable than a bus!

We arrived in Gothenburg at around 3.30pm.. and i was feeling pretty gross after having spent so much time on a train in the past 24 hours.. Where i was staying was in a town called Onsala, which is about an hour by bus and train out of gothenburg... i stayed with another exchange student called Bryce and his host family.. On the Saturday.. Me, Bryce, Tom, Stevie and Charlotte (other exchange students) all went to Liseberg the theme park in Gothenburg... it was the opening day.. which was pretty exciting.. we went on all of the rides.. and it was lots of fun! it wasn't as good as the theme parks on the Gold Coast in Australia.. but it was still lots of fun!

On the Sunday, in the afternoon i went to the ANZAC day ceremony in Gothenburg.. there were lots of other Australian exchange students there and a few New Zealand ones aswell... The reason they have a ANZAC ceremony in Gothenburg is because there are Australian and NZ soldiers buried there... After the ceremony, there was a reception and they served lots of australian foods, like vegemite sandwichs, anzac biscuits and sausage rolls!

I was meant to be taking the night bus home that night... and it was leaving at 11.3opm.. so we checked what times the bus left from where i was staying to get into the station.. and thought we had the times right... but apparently we didnt.. and i missed the bus taking me to the station.. and therefore the bus back to stockholm... so i ended up staying an extra night in Gothenburg and took the train home Monday.. oh and when we were walking to the bus station... a cat ran across the road.. and then like 5 or so seconds later another animal ran across after it chasing it... and it was a badger!! then the badger stopped in the middle of the road.. and seen us and then it started chasing us!.. we ran back a few metres.. then turned and chased it away.. it was really funny though.. i didn't even know they had badgers in sweden..

I had a great week.. and got to see and do so much.. and am now very tired and in need of lots of sleep!!!! :)

Tonight me and a few others are going to Clara's and we are going to watch the Rocky Horror Picture Show... which as some of you know, is my favourite movie :) so im looking forward to that... and then tomorrow is Valborg.. which im not entirely sure what it is.. but they celebrate it quite big in Uppsala, all i know is we are going to have a picnic and then stay the night at Angelina's so it should be fun :) but i will talk more about all of that probably next time i write....

Long train rides and bus rides ahead!

So... my flight to Kiruna got cancelled...... but....
i am still going... just now i am taking the train there!! which is a short 16 hour trip ;)
i leave from stockholm at 8.42pm tonight and then will arrive tomorrow afternoon sometime..
i am currently in the process of packing.. and am finding it extremely difficult! I have packed my backpack for the train though... complete with fully charged ipod, my knitting, a book, and some paper and pen incase i get keen and decide to write a letter or two.
We are also taking the train home.. so we will leave thursday sometime and get back friday morning... so i will arrive at stockholm station friday morning, have an hour or so waiting there.. and then get on my bus for a 7 hour trip to gothenburg.... gahhh i am going to be sick of trains and buses!!! but i spose i dont really mind... cos i am getting to travel around :)
yesterday i went to uppsala and met up with angelina.. we went and had sushi and then went to the cinemas..
i was a bit of a wuss with the sushi and had chicken instead of raw fish... but that looked and smelt disgusting.. so i was happy with my choice.. ;)
we saw alice and wonderland in 3D and that was really cool, i think i like any movie thats in 3D though!
anywho i should go and fully dedicate to this packing business..
anddd i wont be back till early next monday morning.. so bye for now!!!

o o oo o o oierfe eife e fa efa eef ae e e

First of all, i apologise for my lack of creativity when coming up with a title for this post.... and
I guess i should write blogs a bit more often... because when i went to log in to my account just now... i couldnt remember my password!

Last sunday afternoon i went to Clara's house to celebrate Angelina's 17th birthday.. that was lots of fun and there was about 8 of us there.. we ate a pancake cake.... it was pancake, layer of nutella, pancake, layer of nutella, pancake, layer of nutella..... and so on and so forth.. it was very yummy! and it was a really nice time there..

Today at school i did a presentation to the rest of my class about Australia and my life in Australia.. i think it went quite well... (by quite well, i mean nobody in the class fell asleep from boredom!) it was funny though, to see their reactions to different things that i told them about.

I started knitting a scarf last week.. and i must say that i am rather impressed with my efforts so far! its quite long already and starting to really resemble a scarf! I will keep you posted on my rapid progress ;)
My host family also has a guitar here.. but it had broken strings.. but last week i restrung it and so i have been playing that alot lately.. which is lots of fun, because i had really missed playing music since i have been here..

On Monday i am meant to be flying to the very top of Sweden to a town called Kiruna.. this is for a rotary trip with other exchange students... however as you have probably heard... because of the stupid volcano in iceland, and all the stupid volcanic ash... all flights have been cancelled....
so i am not sure whether they will still be cancelled on monday or if it will be okay to fly by then.... i am really hoping that the ash all blows away! providing it does.... I will fly to Kiruna on Monday and be there till Thursday, when I will then fly home.. There are about 40 exchange students going.. and while we are there, we are having a tour of the ice hotel.. and also going on snow skooters.. i'm not too sure what else is happening..
for those of you who are interested or have nothing better to do right now....
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&tab=wl&q=kiruna
that is where Kiruna is!
So i will return home from there on Thursday afternoon sometime... then on Friday morning i am taking the bus to the second biggest city in Sweden, which is called Gothenburg...
and just cos i did it with Kiruna.. I'll do it for Gothenburg aswell..
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&tab=wl&q=gothenburg
It will take about 6 hours from Stockholm on the bus... I will be there until Sunday... I am staying at another exchange student's house who i met at Are. The reason I'm going to Gothenburg is because all of the Australian and New Zealand exchanges students were invited to an ANZAC day ceremony there on the Sunday... So that should be quite interesting.. Then Sunday night i will take the night bus back home! (which will be a nice uncomfortable and sleepless trip)
Then i guess its back to school for me!

I cant really think of anything else to right... except for my new favourite soft drink is fanta! :)
oh and the snow is pretty much completely gone!!! :)

Easter and stuff.

At the moment i have a week off of school for easter holidays. Easter in Sweden is a bit different to easter in Australia, lots of people and businesses decorate by putting up coloured feathers everywhere.. well not everywhere.. just like little feather tree type things.. its quite pretty really.. and also there is something to do with easter and easter witches here.. so i have seen a few houses with witches on broomes out the front of them.. and the easter bunny doesnt really exist here.. from what i gathered, it is an easter hen... which even though, technically makes a lot more sense than a rabbit with eggs... but it still doesnt seem quite right to me..
anywho the shifty, sly easter hen hid my egg downstairs in a cupboard... which i sniffed out and found.. now i bet all you australians are thinking.. yum a chocolate egg... but alas! this egg was not chocolate... it was made out of paper/plastic and had pictures on it of baby chickens and stuff.. but then inside it was filled with candy.. yum :)
I did see in some shops that they have some chocolate eggs for sale, but it was nothing compared to the amount of chocolate eggs you can buy in Australia... oh and theres no hot cruss buns here.. which doesnt really bother me, but i still always associate with easter..

On good friday Sanne, Naya and I went to a nature reserve type place nearby called Kungshamn-Morga (i only know the name.. cos the map for it is sitting next to me on my desk ;) ) we packed some sandwiches and a thermos full of tea.. and walked through the forest, then we reached the lake which is all frozen over still... and sat on the rocks near the water (ice) and ate our lunch. it was really pretty there.. and we walked out on the ice.. i started to walk out quite far, until i got to some dodgy ice.. which started to crack underneath me... so then, being the wuss i am i quickly ran back to land.
Then on saturday Sanne, Naya and I drove north of Uppsala and looked at some different art exhibitions.. one of them was her own.. it was quite fun and interesting.

Last night Mats took me to an ice hockey match in Uppsala... which i absolutely loved! it was really cool, all the crowd gets really into it and sings songs and claps all the time.. I have decided that i really like watching ice hockey.. which is weird cos i dont really enjoy watching sports that much.. but this was so fast and exciting to watch.. and they get rough and have lots of fights. which was cool! I think i found it so cool to watch, because i was so easily impressed by just the fact that they could ice skate so well! let alone play a game at the same time!
It was the Uppsala team playing some team from south of sweden.. i was going for the Uppsala team.. cos they had cooler uniforms and cos they were better.. they won 4 goals to 0.

Today Naya and I rode bikes out to some horse stables which are a couple kilometres out of town. There is a little fat, stubborn shetland pony there that Naya looks after.. so we cleaned out its stall and then groomed him and took him for a walk.. then we fed the other horses. It was quite fun and cool to be at a farm again.. even if it was a lot greener and prettier than what i am used to seeing.

The beginning of that paragraph i think i said quite casually.. "Today Naya and i rode bikes..." however i am a little embarassed to say.. that i haven't ridden a bike for at least 2 years.. the last time being in year 10 when we did our outdoor ed bike camp... so it was quite an exciting moment riding a bike again.. and i must admit i felt like i did when i was little and got my trainer wheels off for the first time.... a little shaky! I have never been that good at riding bikes.. i suck at steering, especially if its sharply.. but i am pleased to say that i didnt fall off at all today.

This afternoon i felt like baking something.. so i thought i would make some choc chip biscuits... so i went to the supermarket to buy some chocolate chips.... and they dont have them here! i looked over the entire shop.. but no luck.. i ended up buying cooking chocolate and cutting it up..

so im not sure whether its all of sweden that doesnt have chocolate chips or just ICA Kniven, whatever it is i think they should invest in some!

oh and the biscuits turned out good....and the mixture was amazing ;) - a little too amazing.. i still feel sick from it!

Waffles and Ice Racing.

Last week on Thursday.. it was 'Waffle Day' in Sweden.. I don't really know why or how waffle day originated... but i googled it and it came up with this:
National Waffle Day is a holiday that originated in Sweden. It is called 'Vaffeldagen' in Swedish. The holiday coincides with the Feast of the Annunciation, a religious event. In addition, 'Waffle day' on March 25 has always been considered the start of spring - especially in Sweden. It became a custom for swedish families to celebrate the two events by making waffles on this day.
To 'celebrate' Waffle Day I went to Angelina's house (a girl in my class) and a few other classmates came aswell Lovisa, Philip and Axel.
We made and ate lots of waffles with jam and cream.. it was lots of fun and i felt sick from eating so many waffles :) Then we played a swedish board game.... well i kind of watched the others play it.. it was a word game, so knowledge of the swedish language is helpful. knowledge which i am currently lacking..


On Saturday Mats and I went into Uppsala to watch the 'Ice racing'.. it was motorbikes which had big spikey wheels racing on ice.. it was quite cool to watch!
Although i enjoyed watching the actual racing... i enjoyed looking at all the different people there almost as much... ...since i have been in Sweden i have seen minimal 'ferals'.. but now however after spending an afternoon at the Ice Racing, i can safely say that i have seen an abundance of ferals.. There were so many drunk people which was quite funny aswell, next to where we were standing there were a few guys who were really drunk and got in a fight with these other people.. which was really funny to watch.
There were around 5,800 people there.. and i think i was one of the 50 females that were there! seemed to be very much a middle aged men type of event..
There were some cool crashes though, which got me excited! And i was happy that the guy who has won the last five years in a row or something stupid, and who was winning all of the races... got beaten in the final race! and ended up coming second :)

Åre

sorry for taking a while to write another blog..

So.. last week as you are probably aware i went on a rotary camp... which was amazing!

I left last Saturday evening on the night train which left stockholm at 11.50pm.. there was 5 other exchange students on this train aswell.. so we all switched seats around and sat with each other.. and were the annoying, rowdy, teenagers that talked loudly while the rest of the train was trying to sleep. The trip took about 12 hours, we had at least 2 hours worth of delays though, so that was a bit annoying.. and we were all very ready to get off the train by the time we reached Järpen... When we arrived at where we were staying.. most of the other exchange students were already there.. out of them all, i only knew a couple before this week and that was from my language camp in Eskilstuna the second week i was here. So it was cool having so many new people to meet. That afternoon we all went into the town of Åre which was about 20kms away from where we were staying... we then got a tour around the small town by some old guy who has lived there a long time.. Then we went to this indoor swimming place, which was really cool, it had lots of different pools and spas and a water slide... it also had a 'sauna world' which was really cool.. before this year i think i had only ever been in a sauna once, and i almost died cos i thought it was so hot and hard to breathe.. but now i really like them and dont feel like i am going to die.. which is nice :)

There was a sauna there that was 80 degrees.. and there were a fair few of us all in there for ages.. a few people had been running outside and jumping in the snow after having been in the sauna for a while... so i decided that sounded like a pretty cool idea, and have wanted to do it for a while now... so i went with a few others out of the sauna.. then we jumped in a swimming pool that you can swim outside of the building in.. and then from there you can get out..

so we did that and got out of the pool into the freezing cold and then ran to the snow and dived into it and rolled around and pretty much just got really really cold... i however, managed to dive into the only part of snow that had big rocks underneath... and ended up with bruises all over my shins and a cut on my knee (luckily my entire body was numb and i couldnt feel it)
anyway, once we were covered in snow, we then made the 'what seems like forever' walk/run (so you dont slip) back to the pool... jumping into the pool was the nicest feeling.. it was good to feel my body temperature go back to normal.. it was a lot of fun though and a really cool experience.

Then Monday we had our first day of Skiing/Snowboarding! Most people skied but there were about 10 or so people snowboarding, myself one of them.. we had ski school for two hours.. and because everyone was kind of at different skill levels we all went with different instructors... somehow i ended up having an instructor all to myself, which was really cool. She was really nice and helped me a lot.. then after lunch i met up with others and went with them. That night we did some different team building type things in small groups, which was fun.. but they were all outside and by the end of them i was well and truly frozen. Each day we had to be ready by 8.30 to all go on the bus, which took us to Are, then we would leave there each day at around 4.30.. so by the end of each day i was quite tired.. we could have breaks whenever we wanted.. but most the time was spent snowboarding.. one of the coolest things at big ski places in sweden is they have this tent, where you can get free yoghurt and muesli and free milk or chocolate milk.. it was only a small bowl/glass.. but it was super cool and we went there as much as possible..

I also improved at going on the lifts a lot this week! which was good.. cos i used them alot... although it did take me 7 attempts to get on one of the T-bar lifts at one time.. and one of those times it hit me in the head and knocked my goggles off.. but by the seventh time.. i made it on safe and sound :)

they also had gondola lifts to get right up to the top of the mountain.. which were really cool and nice and warm and cosy inside. I went right to the top of the mountain a few times.. and each time it was really really foggy! you could hardly see a few metres in front of you.. it was quite scary.. and we just went down really really slowly.

On the second day of snowboarding.. the zipper on ski pants broke... which proved to be incredibaly inconvenient.. i was pulling them up the whole day.. and then when we were at the top of the mountain.. my gloves went all frozen and retarded and i couldnt get my hands in them anymore.. so i was trying to pull my pants up the whole time and my hands were freezing cos there was no way i could get my hands in my gloves (they were frozen into some weird shape) and i could hardly see a thing! all i wanted to do was get to the bottom, and go have some free yoghurt and muesli! Then when we went down another run, by the time we got to the bottom.. my pants were around my knees.. i would have been embarassed.. but by that stage i really didnt care about it anymore.. and i had tights on underneath, so it wasnt that bad ;)

the rest of the week, i borrowed some pants from another girl who had some spares.

On the wednesday afternoon we went to visit a waterfall which was nearby.. it was so amazing! it was covered in snow and ice.. and then there was all this water just gushing through holes in the ice! it was definately the coolest waterfall i have ever seen ( i havent seen that many waterfalls) we then kept walking and we seen a house made out of ice.. which was also really cool! it had lots of different rooms and was quite big... they make a new one each year, which i think would be really annoying having all that hard work melt each year..

Then the final night we had a 3 course rotary dinner at the place we were staying.. this was quite fun, we all wore our blazers and exchanged pins.. during the dinner we all had to do a presentation... each country had to speak about a different country for five or so minutes.. in swedish..

so for example.. all the Australians had to speak about Mexico, the Americans had to speak about Australia.. and so on.. with all the different countries.. it was quite funny.

Our (the Australian's) presentation was the worst out of everyones.. as we have all only been here 2 months, aswell as the people from argentina and new zealand.. however all the students from other countries have been here for 8 months.. so there swedish sounded alot better than ours.

We also all got given bright orange shirts saying 'Winter Camp Are' which was pretty cool and makes a comfy pyjamas top. Seeing this was the last night of camp everyone was pretty happy and was talking lots and listening to music and dancing and everyone signed each others t'shirts.

Me and three of the Americans were the last ones up and we were just sitting in the lounge area talking and listening to music... then we decided that we just wouldnt go to bed at all.. so we attempted an all nighter.... and we almost nearly made it. I think we ended up falling asleep at around 5.30am.. and we had to get up at 7.00 for breakfast.. so technically we were first there for breakfast seeing we never realy left the room.. that morning i drank coffee.. and i dont even like coffee..

then we had a final day of snowboarding.. and then that night people started heading back home on the night trains! it was quite sad saying goodbye to everyone.. as everyone had such a fun week and got to know each other quite well.

I can't really think of anything else to write.. but if you are still reading this, you are probably almost falling asleep from boredom anyway ;) so now is a good time for me to stop writing :)

oh and i have lots of photos from my week on facebook, if you want to have a look :)

SUN

The sun has come out a few times this week! which is sooooo nice.. and i hadn't realised how much i had missed it..
but i think the swedes have missed it more than i have ;)
At school one day this week, the sun was out.. and it was around 3 degrees outside.. so we went for a walk outside (without our jackets!!).. it was funny though.. because alot of the boys were already outside, just standing there in the sun.. with only tshirts on... i thought it was quite funny.. by the way everyone was acting, you would have thought it was a nice 25 degree day outside.. but no, it was 3 degrees!!
oh and something.. which kind of freaked me out happened this week!... i was laying in bed.. and i heard a buzzing noise in my bedroom.. then it stopped.. and i heard it again in a different part of the room... so i turned on the light and.. there.. was... a FLY! i didn't even think flies existed in Sweden.. but it was flying around my room and when it landed.. i had a closer look and it was definately a fly! i thought i was crazy for a moment though.. and that i somehow must have bought a fly with me from Australia... anyway once i had worked out what the buzzing was... i turned the light off and went back to bed.. and then tried to fall asleep to the relaxing noise of a dying fly.. which strangely reminded me of being back home.
And another thing! the other night i was watching t.v and i found that Hannah Montana was about to start... so i got quite excited! (for those that know me well, will know that i enjoy an episode or seven of hannah montana) so i sat down ready to watch it with my cup of tea... and then it started.. and Miley started speaking Swedish! and then so did Lily! and Billy-ray! it was horrible... they had swedish voiceovers! after about 5 minutes of watching in dissapointment i switched the channel over to Scrubs.. which didnt disapppoint.
I'm pretty happy that the snow is starting to melt.. its exciting to be able to see a little bit more of the footpath each day.. and the other day i seen some very dead grass atempting to poke through the snow.. which was exciting!
Although, i hope there is lots of snow in Åre next week.. because that is where i will be! I take the night train from stockholm at 11.50pm saturday night (tomorrow night) and then arrive the next morning at 7.54am! There will be a few other exchange students on the same train, so that should be good. There will be 40 exchange students on the camp and they will be from all different countries, i know a few people that are going already.. but most of the people i will have not met before.. We will be there till thursday and will be having ski school each morning then the rest of the day to go down different runs.. I have chosen to do snowboarding.. but some people will be skiing aswell.. It should be a really fun week..
so tomorrow i will wash and pack my clothes! i hate packing though.. i never know what i will need.. and i always end up taking way to much.. and then i am always the one with the ridiculously oversized bag.. and then i struggle to carry it!
Anyway i will write some more when i get back at the end of the week!! and hopefully i will still have working limbs and no injuries!

........

To be honest, i really don't feel like writing anything just at the moment... but i feel lazy if i don't and now that i have been writing quite regularly.. i should probably keep up the momentum!

I don't have to much new stuff to say... but on Monday.. we didn't have to go to school.. so me and 9 other girls who are in my class (and who are all lovely!) took the train to Stockholm :)
It was such a nice day, minus the weather... which was quite 'un'nice, it was snowing lots and because the previous few days had been quite warm, there were puddles everywhere... which made me realise that i think it is time i bought some new shoes! i only bought one pair of winter boots with me, because of the 20kg weight limit.. and they are getting quite old... and apparently quite holey.
i had wet socks all day, which was just brilliant..
haha i didnt really mind though.. i was just happy to be in stockholm :)

We spent the day looking in different shops.. and they were some really cool ones.. much cooler than the shops in Adelaide (not that i dont like the shops in Adelaide :) ) we went to a pizza place for lunch and all had our own pizza...
and i felt a bit silly.. when we got served our pizza's i said.. 'woah, where do i start' (i was a bit overwhelmed and the pizza hadnt been cut) and one of the girls said.. 'in the middle somewhere'..
so having heard that.. and being in sweden (where they do many things very differently) i thought.... okay i must just use my knife and fork and cut out bits from the middle... bit weird, but okay.. :P
so i was eating away at my pizza making a nice hole in the middle... (it looked like a donut) and then i looked over at everyone else and they were cutting there pizza into pieces and eating it... how you would normally eat a pizza. Then they all saw how i had been eating my pizza, and seemed to find it quite humorous... which looking back.. i guess it kinda was.. haha

We also had a look around Gamla Stan which is the old city centre of Stockholm.. it was really cool and the buildings are all so old and pretty looking.. i didn't take any photos of anything this day though, because the weather was so crappy and i was a bit lazy i guess.
Anyway it was a great day in Stockholm, with great company :)

Other than that i have just been going to school this past week... Yesterday (saturday) it was so nice and sunny, so Me and Sanne took the dogs for a walk and then sat in the snow drinking some weird hot drink stuff.. it was nice to see the sun again! Then Sanne's second oldest daughter Karen and her Boyfriend came here.. They have spent the past two months in New Zealand travelling and only just got back yesterday... so it was really good to meet them and hear about their trip..
Then today we found out that Sanne's eldest daughter, Marit gave birth to twins late last night.. so that is really exciting! She had two boys, and I'm not sure what they are named yet..
This afternoon Sanne, Naya and I went for a drive about 30kms away to some very small town that has some big shop, that is apparently quite good... so we drove there.... only to realise that it doesn't open on Sunday's... So then we went to some other shops on the outskirts of Uppsala and bought some baby clothes for the twins :)

This week I just have school all week.. but then on Saturday night i am taking the night train with Jess, another exchange student to Järpen ready for a week of snowboarding/skiing at Åre.. (which is a really big ski resort). It is a rotary trip.. so there will be 40 of us exchange students there.. I'm already getting really excited about it!

Oh and Happy Birthday Rhani! its not the 8th here in Sweden yet.. but it is in Australia :)

I patted a reindeer.

Hello again!

I am back from a little town called Rörbäcksnäs where i have spent the past week with my host family. We stayed in a cabin/small house which is in the forest on the lake (which of course was frozen over). It was really cute and very cosy inside.. and it had lots of little swedish things inside and there were several little swedish flags around the place.

We left Knivsta last Sunday and picked up Loella in Västerås along the way. From there it was about a 6 hour drive. It was nice and cosy in the car with Mats, Sanne, Naya, Loella and I and the two dogs Sally and Selmer. Normally people wouldn't particularly enjoy a six hour car drive and would find it boring.. but i really enjoyed it! Not only because of the amazing scenery we were driving through, but also because i never have long car trips anymore! everything is so close, and buses and trains can get you pretty much anywhere you want to go, so there is not really any need for many car trips.. and if there is they are rarely over half an hour.

We got to the cabin at about 6.00pm sunday and it was a very refreshing -24 degrees outside. because all of the snow hadnt been cleared away, we couldnt get the car up the track to the cabin.. so we had to park the car down the bottom and carry up all our bags. (Mats cleared the snow away the next day). Once we had put all our stuff inside and made our beds and stuff.. Sanne, Naya and I took the dogs for a walk around the lake.. (please remember, that i said it is minus 24 degrees!!) It was soooo cold, but i was wearing warm clothes and Sanne gave me and Naya these really warm hats to wear.. They were from China and they were made out of dog fur... i tried not to think about that too much and just focused on how warm it was keeping my head.

On Monday morning when i got up, it was minus 28 degrees outside! as that was too cold to be out snowboarding we didnt go out till after lunch. Me and Naya did walk to the ICA (type of swedish supermarket, that is everywhere.... not pronounced I C A though..... it is said 'eeka') which is about 1 kilometre away and bought some food for the week.

After lunch Mats took me and Naya to Hundfjället which is about 20kms away from Rörbäcksnäs. Naya and I spent the afternoon Snowboarding.. Sanne stayed back at the cabin with Loella because, she started to get a nasty cough and it wasn't good for her to be out in the cold. Mats just watched us and helped Naya as she has only tried it once before. It was sooo much fun to go snowboarding again.. and i hadn't forgotten how to do it, which was good.

Each day Mats took Naya and I back there.. and we snowboarded everyday except for Friday, which is when we went home. The mountain there is pretty cool, and i enjoyed going down all the different runs.. there was one, which has all these models of trolls and creatures and things like that... so as your skiing/boarding down the run you are going past all these creepy little troll things.. and some of them talk and say things... it was pretty cute though.. i liked looking at them all... except because of them there were always lots of people on this run and it is very narrow.. and i'm not that great at steering... so that was a bit annoying..

It was funny, everytime i got off the lifts at the top of a run and would sit in the snow and do up my binding on my snowboard, i would look around and think.... 'wow im actually in sweden!' i didnt even try to think that.. but everytime!! i did.. it was weird.. and there have been lots of... 'wow im in sweden moments'.

Also all over the mountain they have little wooden hut things with a woodfire in them and seats.. so people would sit in there to get warm or to cook food on the fire which i thought was really cool.. we packed sandwiches and hot chocolate or soup each day.. so we would sit in one of these by the fire and i would eat my vegemite sandwich :)

Each day driving back to the cabin was the most amazing views! all you could see for miles was mountains, covered in forests, it looked soooo pretty when the sun was setting!!

Loella and Sanne ended up spending everyday in the cabin, because Loella got really sick with a bad cough. One night at 3am Sanne and Mats had to call the ambulance because loella couldn't breathe properly, so they met the ambulance somewhere and they gave Loella some medicine which helped.. She had Croupe or Croop or however you spell it.

Loella was really cute and quite a character.. it was funny because she doesnt speak english and i dont speak swedish, but we still played lots of games together.. one night she was teaching me how to do ballet and so we were dancing and jumping around the cabin.. and then she was teaching me the name for the colours brown, yellow and red by using the dried fruit from her muesli.

One morning it was minus 30 degrees, which is the coldest that i have been in since i have been here in Sweden... so i went outside in my pyjamas and stood in the cold for about 20 seconds.. just so i can say i have been in -30 degrees :)

Oh and because where we were staying is very close to the Norwegian border.. we drove over to Norway one afternoon.. so i have now also been to Norway!! :)

And there were two reindeer at the mountain and i patted one of them.. but the other one (the one in the photo) was really grumpy and not nice, but it looked cooler, cos it had antler things..

Overall i had a really nice week and it was really nice staying in a cabin surrounded by snow and lots and lots of trees. It was soo warm and cosy inside with a wood fire which was really nice to come home too after having been snowboarding in the cold each day :)

Today it has been quite warm! it was about 2 degrees i think, which is the warmest it has been in a long time.. i got quite excited... but when it is warm everything looks all gross, cos the snow melts a bit and there is lots of water and the roads are all gross and the snow is all brown...

The other day i was in deep thought, as to why it hadnt rained here yet.... seeing that it is winter! and that is generally a good time for it to rain... then i realised, that i am an idiot and that of course it isnt going to rain.. because it is soo cold.. and thats why it snows!!! it took me a long time to work that out!! anywayyy this afternoon when i stepped outside.. i noticed that i was getting wet, and that it wasnt from snow!. i wouldnt exactly class it as raining though.. it was barely spitting.. but.. i was relieved to finally see a bit of water falling from the sky.