Hallååå Vinter!- oj. I guess it's spring already! Välkommen Vår:]

Alright... I think it's time I suck it up and buckle down... and update my blog.. (I started this blog post a long time ago and never finished it... so it's a little lengthier than I intended.. haha. enjoy!)

I'm going to try to sum up the past few months.. I really can't believe it's been that long; time is flying too quickly!  I've been promising pictures for the past two posts, so I thought I would just start with them this time and go from there.

I was able to spend this past Halloween in Stockholm with Riley!- the foreign exchange student from California who lives in Stockholm (I can't remember if I've mentioned him already..)  We had a great time walking around the city the Saturday night before Halloween.  We ended up at this medieval-themed, underground bar.  This rock-bag pipe band was playing; crazy good stuff. That was pretty cool. haha (and smelly... a bunch of people dancing in weird costumes in small rooms underground doesn't... flow very well..)  But that was a good way to start höstlov :] or for you English speakers, fall break :] haha

The next morning, I made it to the Skavsta airport in Nyköping (about an hour and a half from Stockholm) to catch my flight to Germany!  Actually, I made it to the airport an hour earlier than I should have; day-light savings really threw me off that day.  But we've all had to spend hours of our lives waiting for planes... -Just another experience for me I suppose.
I arrived at the Bremen airport in GeRmAnY early afternoon, right on time.. and I can't hardly express how great it was to get a big hug from one of my best friends.  Being so surrounded by unfamiliar things for nearly 6 months really throws you off when you get next to somebody you're so familiar with.  Brendon and his host family picked me up from the airport and then drove back to his home in Ganderkesee, where I would be spending the next 7 days. As is so common here in Europe, Brendon and I went on a bike ride soon after getting to his house.  He showed me around the town, where he plays soccer, his school.. It was so neat being able to experience Brendon's new life and then comparing it to mine here in Sweden.  All that week I went to school with Brendon, at least just for the easy classes like English and art and math- which wasn't terribly easy haha.. German school is remarkably more strict than Swedish schools, I think.  I asked Brendon and his friends if they ever called teachers by their first names, and I got one of those, "Are you crazy??" looks.  Brendon had mentioned he had gone out to a pub with his class mates and teacher once or twice, but then I compare that to having been to a couple of my current teachers' houses for dinner or fika. It's just different.  (for the folks back home, I'm not sure if I've described "fika".... it's very important to know, and very Swedish.  All the time people and friends in the US say, "Hey, want to go grab some coffee?" or.. "Let's go chill at Starbucks," well, that's a fika.  You just sit and talk, have coffee or tea and maybe a baked delight.  Everyday, you've got to have some sort of fika. Swedes love their coffee.. :] haha)

Wednesday of that week, Brendon and I went for a haircut!  I was more than ready to get some kind of sweet European hair-do.. and especially at German prices... Converted to dollars, a hair cut in Sweden costs about $100. Whaaaaat?? I know, right.  So I paid a decent 17.10 euros for the German trim :]

(here's a pic from the "after trim" shots.. sorry about the blurriness?)

Right after that, we met up with our other Kansan buddyyyy Sara! Had some delightfully delish Turkish food.  I'm sorry to say it's been long enough since I had the food to remember what it's called :-/  Oh well,.. That was a fun night. 

Friday night was rather exceptional as well.  I went to a PRE-wedding dinner. (The wedding was held the next weekend..). At this dinner, all the guests bring porcelain gifts.  Upon arrival, THEY SMASH THE GIFTS ON THE GROUND.  So crazy. haha.. Then the bride and groom -to-be have to sweep up the mess together. Pretty interesting tradition..

Så söt :D  (cute) haha...... and of course.. you have to find out who wears the pants in the relationship, so at midnight, the pants of the groom are burned... Crazy Germans!

Saturday night, my last night in Germany, we celebrated Brendon's birthday, which had been on Tuesday.  It was almost a going away party for me too haha; it was sad only being able to hang out with those new friends for a couple days. I hope to visit Brendon/Germany again some time this year.  I was also so thankful to meet Brendon's host family.  Dagmar (his host mom) is just super mom.  I loved cooking with her :)  And the family was just happy to have me there, which made it so easy to feel at home.

Two days after my return home, the next Tuesday, was my birthday! Unfortunately, my host mom was out of town for work. But! Ernie surprised me with a typical Swedish early morning birthday wake up call- entering my room singing the Swedish birthday song and carrying a tray for breakfast in bed. If you're interested in seeing a not so pretty video of my birthday breakfast, click on this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr5vmVq7jyE . haha. It was awesome, especially considering I didn't think anything would happen for my birthday. To make it even better, it snowed on my birthday- the first snow of the year. (holy cow that was such a long time ago... I can't hardly say how many snows we've had snowfall since then.)

Late November my school, along with another and the city's chamber orchestra, had the much anticipated SkRiKa concert! It was a blast... and definitely went incredibly well :]  Here's a little shot of the general atmosphere.-->


Early December, I took the opportunity to go to Liverpool, England with my school choir.  We sang in the fourth largest cathedral in the world! The Liverpool Cathedral. It was spectacular.

We performed a Lucia procession, we being about 35 students, and one girl plays the "Lucia," leads the procession and wears a crown of candles. Pretty intense.  (This feels like it was so long ago!.. now that I'm finally writing about it..)

We spent four or five days in Liverpool.. shopping and seeing the central part of the city mostly, but we also visited the Beatles museum.  That was a fun experience. I might post a couple more pictures when I get home later today...- This is me being productive at school.. haha.


December passed with lots of singing in school.. Christmas came, and I'll just say this year wasn't the best. But I look forward to next year when I can be with my family and friends again:]  New Year's Eve was crazy fun. At midnight I danced in the middle of the street with a bunch of friends from school as fireworks went off all around us.  So that night kind of made up for the lack of a great Christmas haha.

I'm changing my approach on this blog post. Instead of attempting to update you on the last five months in one post (though I've already made it through two), I'll really try to dedicate some time every day- or every other day to telling you about my day and adding a bit from the past months.

so to wrap up this novel, here's a bit from the past couple days- the OfFicIal begining of SPRING wooo:]  I like to think I've become efficiantly fluent in Swedish. Yesterday we took a test in my "Nutid Konst" klass (translated 'present time art') and yes, I am able to write responses in Swedish. However I didn't spend an exceptional time studying for the test, so we'll see how that goes. After school, having a lack of anything to do, I got on the bus to head home (by the way I have a new home- finally!! - or should I say TWO new homes. That explanation will come later haha..).  At the next stop, low and behold- the moment I had been looking forward to for the past nearly two months, Gabe got on the same bus to head home (we now live in the same area of the city- called Adolsberg). Why that is such an event to me, I don't know.. I just thought it was funny. But. Glad to see each other, Gabe came to my house with me and we baked banana bread from my grandma's fantastic recipe! I've already baked banana bread once this week, and my family loves it. :]  how rewarding:] After that whole cooking extravaganza, I went to soccer practice which I have three times a week now, and last Sunday I played in my first legitimate match. You only play if the coach invites you, so it felt so good knowing my training is paying off.. haha. Today has just been easy. After my Rotary meeting- which was held at a car dealership to see the release of the new Toyota Lexus- I walked around the city window shopping, and met up with Gabe and Marcus (my current host brother who is the same age and super cool.. haha). We walked around the city for nearly four hours and then went to a little concert at the Kulturskolan where kids from school were performing songs they had written. It was a fantastic ending to a nice sunny day:]  Even though that wasn't actually the end! but telling you the last bit of my day would involve a bit more explaining of my life, so I'll save that for tomorrow! haha. 

We'll talk again soon, I promise :]

At Last!

Today was probably one of the most opposite kind of days you could have.  I woke up early.. not early enough.. to go to school.. had Ernie drive me to school because I was late.. So I didn't have my bike all day. Mistake numbero uno.  Biking is really the only convenient way to get around this city.  I had an early morning practice for the  acapella Super Mario group I am in for school.  Yes, I'll be singing the be be bep ba ba bep bop du va wuahh and whatcha callits in front of hundreds of people for the SkRiKa concert November 26.  (You're probably thinking, "Cool, but what the heck are you talking about?  Don't worry, I'll explain myself.)  After class, which ended at 9.45, I found out that I didn't have another class until 1.30.  Perfect day to leave my bike at home, right?  For about two and a half hours I read Jane Eyre, migrating from the cafeteria to the library and such.  I have to read the novel for my Swedish class, and I plan to give a presentation about it--- in Swedish!  Yes, I am learning the language.  haha Sometimes it's not terribly obvious, but I understand things and I'm getting enough help on it that I think I can pull of the presentation.  It would simply be a perk if the other kids could understand me..

After my Spanish class at 1.30, I walked to my cooking class at Virginska skolan, which was only about a 15 min. walk.  If I hadn't mentioned before, Spanish is no easy task.. I can hardly speak a sentence without throwing in a Swedish word.  My mind gets spastic juggling the now three languages.. Exciting.  Cooking is still probably one of my favorite classes. ever.  You'd have to meet my teacher, Tommy, to understand what I'm saying, but the class is hectic, stressful, hilarious, and so delicious.  I've never made such delicious food in my life.. or tasted as much flavor.  The best part is that I'm taking my new recipes home!  My specialty is this refreshing Tomato and Red Onion Sallad.  I've also got a couple desserts memorized, Apple Mush (my own name for it) and Chocolate Mousse- always a crowd pleaser :D haha.  Back to my day! So after class I raced back to school, on foot :[, to pick up...... !!!!! MY CELLO.  That's right folks.  After approximately 2 months and 13 days of waiting, I've got a cello, thank you very much/partially to my school.  I'll be honest, after half an hour of attempting to tune the thing, one huge crack down the front, and yearS old strings, it's not the prettiest thing you've ever heard.  It doesn't help that I haven't played in five months either..  A lesson I have officially realized though my cello extravaganzas (I say realized because I've already learned this lesson, just never took it seriously).. is that if you want something, you just have to do it yourself. You can't keep waiting on peoples' promises; you just have to march right down to the place and ask for the thing.  (I finally just went to the music school my teachers had been trying to contact forever just to get a lousy bow, and I got one as soon as I got there. hmph.)  SO. I finally have a cello and a bow, and I can start playing in the community orchestra Tuesday nights! hoorah. :]

Generally, school is great. I'm hanging out with my class mates more each week :D  And I'm actually staying busy with preparing presentations, working on Swedish, and reading "classics". After I finish Jane Eyre, I'm on to 1984, which is technically a modern classic, but my English teacher is a little off sometimes... most of the time.  I'm probably the only kid in the class that has a slight bit of respect for her :-/  NOW.. my explanation of SkRiKa, if you haven't forgotten already :P... I'm in my school's choir, (which I have officially found out that I am going to Liverpool with!! We had auditions a couple weeks ago!).. but then I'm in another choir that is just made up of the kids in my music class.  At the end of November, we perform a concert, teaming up with another gymnasium school, and the famous chamber orchestra of the city performs as well.  SkRiKa stands for "Skolans Risbeska and Karolinska".. kind of haha. I'm not sure how you spell Risbeska, but that is the other school we team up with for the concert (Karolinska is my school).  You could call the other school our "rival" school.  At the very end of the year, there is a competition called "Krampen" (translated: The Cramp).. which just is a bunch of physical challenges in different areas/sports.  That will be exciting. :]  Back to the music.. haha. So for SkRiKa, I'm singing in a bunch of songs as a big choir part, and then I'm one of the 13 or 14 people who perform Super Maria acapella! It's going to be great. Hopefully I can get a recording of it to share with you guys :]

I need to catch some sleep for now.  Maybe I'll get around to loading pictures this time! It'll also help me remember all the things I've done for the past month.. haha.

God natt ;]

Rotary Adventures :]

Hello my curious friends, haha

I have finally begun meeting the other foreign exchange students in Swedish.  Two weeks ago, Sept. 5-10, I went to Eskilstuna, about 40 min train ride from Örebro, for a Rotary language camp.  Two districts attended this specific camp, District 2370 and 2340-the district I am in.  There were 18 "newbies" total.  Throughout the week the 18 of us got to meet and hang out with a couple of the "oldies", or students who have been here for over six months.  All of the oldies we met were from Australia except for a girl who is from New Zealand, and another who is from South Africa.

Gabe and I had our first train experience riding to Eskilstuna.  We met the rest of the group at a Best Western hotel in town.  The group was separated into pairs and each pair stayed with a host family for the week.  I stayed with a girl from Colorado, Alexa Posner, in one of the nicest families ever.  So throughout the week, during Swedish lessons from 8.30am to 3.30pm and after school activities, Gabe and I made a lot of new friends.  Sixish hours a day for five days means a lot of Swedish to take in.  It was hectic, but it really helped.. when I manage to remember the things we learned.  I like to think I can hold up at least part of a conversation in Swedish; it only gets better everyday :]  Overall, the camp was extraordinarily fun.  Foreign exchange students are probably the easiest people in the world to get along with because we're all in the same boat.  Needless to say, I was ecstatic to visit a few friends in Stockholm this past weekend.

A few of the oldies planned a trip to Gröna Lund, the amusement park in Stockholm.  Gabe and I rode a train to Stockholm central Friday afternoon and met Riley and Yusuke!  Riley is from California, and Yusuke from Japan.  They both live in Stockholm, or just outside of it, and go to the same school.  Gabe and I stayed at Riley's house for the weekend, which was one of the coolest houses I've ever seen, and Saturday night three more kids stayed at the house.  It was crazy.  I really got to see Sweden's oceanside for the first time, completely beautiful :D, and STOCKHOLM.  I can't hardly describe how or why, but I've fallen utterly in love  with Stockholm. It's a beautiful city, right off the ocean, always busy and things to do, and the night atmosphere is so alive.  I have all the intent in the world to live in Stockholm for a bit later in my life.  Saturday, our group of twelveish students ventured to Gröna Lund.  Despite the freezing breeze and constant downpour, we had loads of fun.  - We rode all the rides at least once and that was enough; short time but completely worth the 400 krowns or so spent to get in...

In between my Rotary friend adventures, school gets better everyday.  I'm becoming better friends with my class. I started my music theory, arranging and composing, and audio engineering classes, as well as guitar lessons.  Without a cello to play at the school, I'm active with singing and learning guitar- more with singing than guitar... haha. However I'm in love with everything that's happening in my life. I'm in Sweden! It's now or never, really.  So I'm taking advantage of anything and every opportunity to make a fool of myself or have the time of my life.  They go hand in hand most of the time.

I'll add pictures soon.  För nu, hej då. :]

Musik :D

Hallå! I figured it's been long enough since my last post... I should probably reveal some recent events.

Since my last post, I have experienced my first round of 18 holes (in golf), gone to my first Swedish party/ies, had my bike stolen, started practicing with a fotboll team, and started school! Everything is really starting to get exciting.

School has been the biggest thing on my mind.  I am going to Karolinska skolan, which is known for its arts program.  The first day of school, I was truly overwhelmed by the other students at the school.  In the US, when people tried to have their own style, they usually ended up looking oddly similar to everybody else striving for individuality.  At Karo, people seriously succeed in achieving individuality.  However, I've really come to love that aspect.  Everybody is so accepting of absolutely everything.  I think I lucked out, being in the third year.  Everyone in my class (ES3A) is completely comfortable with who they are, and so they're really easy to talk to and get to know.  The kids are full out willing to translate everything for me and help me out with any schedule questions.  There's always someone I can talk to.  It's just neat how nice and relaxed the students are.
The classes I'm taking are Swedish, English, Religion (learning about different religions around the world), and my "specialty" course is Musik.  I considered specializing in art, but I think the music class offers more opportunities for someone who's only here a short time.  My electives are Spanish 6, lovely, and a cooking class I take at Gabe's school.  Next semester, that block period will be art, taken at another school.  It's interesting because the school system in Örebro is so connected.  Students can truly take whatever class they want.  If it's not at their school, they can take it at a different school.  The schedules are created to allow opportunities like that; it's really more similar to a college-type schedule, rather than a high school-type set up.

My music class is what I'm most excited for.  It's about a four hour long period, all specialty classes are, and during the class time, you can take Music Theory, Audio engineering education, and Arranging and Composing.  I'm going to start out taking all three, and if it gets to be too much, I'll just drop one or two, simple as that.  Also, my school doesn't have a cello or cello teacher, but they can hook me up with the local music school: finding a cello teacher to give me private lessons, and hopefully playing in the city's orchestra.  Lastly, I have the opportunity to sing in the school's choir, which meets Friday mornings before school.  This year, the choir is going to take about 40 students to LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND to perform a Luciadagen  celebration.  (Saint Lucia Day)  So I know that this year is going to be so great :]

This weekend I made a new friend! Linn received a scholarship from her school to come to Örebro to practice with the best woman's club team in the city, KIF.  I also practiced with the team, thanks to my Rotary counselor.  Being the loners on the team, I asked Linn about why she was there and what she was doing this weekend and such.  She lives in Lycksele, which is about a 10 hour train ride north from Örebro.  She was just staying in a hotel here by herself.  So Saturday night, we went and saw Toy Story 3, an adorable movie, and took a fika :] For spending so little time together, I thought we became pretty good friends.  Today, we met up for a fika again, feasting on the first mint chocolate chip ice cream I've seen so far, and then met up later to watch the A team girls for KIF play.  At 7.30 Linn had to get on her train back home.  Hopefully we'll get to see each other again someday. haha. It was a cool experience- being able to really meet someone from a different part of Sweden.  It was odd knowing more about Örebro than she did.

Friday night I got to see Elin again :D We met up at her friend Krystina's house.  I got to meet a lot of people that night. :] It was just fun to hang out.










That's about it for now.... Adios:]

Fashion Days?

God kväll mina vänner! (Good evening my friends ;) ) 

Just to catch up on my recent events, two days ago, Anita and I met Ernie and his employee at a place called Montanas Restaurang, or as Gabe's host dad calls it "The Dirty Table Cloth", for lunch.  I've been anxious to try some Swedish pizza, so Anita suggested I get a pizza and she'd get one for herself.  (Okay, I think to myself, individual serving sizes.)  I order a Hawaii and we sit down. When the food is brought out, I find a large pizza-looking thing in front of me with the most peculiar purple/pink slivers of ham topped with out-of-the-can pineapple.  I had one slice of the thing and was content.  Anita suggested that we "forget" my boxed leftovers.. I guess every meal can't be as divine as I've experienced.  

Afterwards, Anita took me to an Indian store I've been anxious to see.  If you've ever been to It's A Beautiful Day in Westport, KC, this store was nothing like the place.  Sadly, Indiska was another fashion store that simply sold clothes made in India.  However I found some delightful clothing in the 1/2 off section.  Thus the beginning of my European clothing transformation.  

Yesterday, once again Anita and I met Ernie and his employee at another- higher quality- restaurant.  I'm not sure the name of it, but it was a buffet in the middle of the "best maintained garden in Sweden." Yes, it truly did receive an award for that, which makes sense because I thoroughly appreciated the beauty of it all.

With a view of the garden, here is Anita, Ernie, and Ernie's employee/co worker Kalle (whose real name is Karl, which I thought was humorous..).

And here Ernie is messing with the camera. However I did think that the table decoration in front of my face was cool- curly grass...

Anita decided to take of the advantage of the marvelous weather by walking home, while I chose to bike to Ernie's work and around town after being dropped off back home.  It was the first time I really biked around the city on my own, so that was a thrilling aspect, and yes, I did get lost trying to find Ernie's work, but all the more fun, right?  Ernie is a photographer and started his own photography studio/company (Spectrovision!), and he has Karl and one other guy working for him.  After taking a tour of the quaint studio, Ernie decided to take photos of me.  He dolled me up with his little make-up kit, and the shoot began! I don't think I've ever had quite as much fun being photographed as I did then.  Just so you have a proper idea, here's Ernie:

Haha. But shoot, he knows his digital photography.  He could edit photos more than I thought possible.  For example, he showed me a picture of a girl whose eye's were particularly... misaligned. The next photo showed a flawless girl with perfectly aligned eyes. The pictures he took of me were taken after biking through sprinkling rain and sweating for half an hour, and I was even kind of delighted by the result. It was fun :]

Later on, Gabe and I made plans to go to the women's soccer game, being held at the stadium two minutes from my house... Unfortunately the sky decided to vomit out all the rain it could muster, so we chose to stay home for a bit.  We talked about my newly formed opinion of September 11, 2001.  I'm not going to get too into it because, let's face it, there's nothing that can be done now and whatever I find/believe by myself isn't going to matter to any of you.  Ernie is, probably safe to say, obsessed with the event, and he's got me convinced that it truly was all a conspiracy.  But I don't have any other information to give, I'm just commenting... Anywho, the rain slowed down a bit and Gabe and I went biking around close to where I live.  Eating ice cream from a gas station, attempting to visit Svampen (the big mushroom water tower here... it was closed), and riding out in the rain turned out to be quite a time. Overall.. Fun day. :]

Today I woke up in time to eat breakfast, take a shower, and meet Gabe for pizza at 1.  Round two for Swedish pizza.. you could say.  We ended up walking around shopping for two hours before even finding a pizza place, but it was worth it.  While at a store called Carlings, we started talking with a girl, working there, who had traveled abroad in Canada when she was in high school.  She was the most enthusiastic Swede I think I'm ever going to meet.  Minna-Linn was here name, and she said that Swedes are just naturally shy, and when we go to school, we should expect to have a tough time making friends at first.  It has to be us that get them to talk back.  She had a lot of interesting insights, and was also so enthusiastic to hang out with us, meaning Facebook names were definitely exchanged.  

When Gabe and I finally found a pizza place, it turned out to be not as tasty as I'd hoped.   (Final opinion of Swedish pizza: no bueno.)  After eating dinner with Gabe's family, we built up the motivation to run the 5k path close to their house.  Andreas (Gabe's host dad), Gabe, and I ran probably the fastest 5k of my life. Not really, but I'll just say I felt great after running that.  My intentions are to prove Rotary wrong: I will not gain weight while I'm here. How's that for motivation!

(We passed a guy performing with a banjo on the way home; he was really good! Other than that, I know nothing about him, haha.)

All in all, another good day.  I hope the weather continues with the sunshine.  :] 

For now, Vi ses! (See you later :])

Alice in Wonderland.// 8-8-10

Hej :] If you haven't seen the new Alice in Wonderland, I highly suggest you do.  It felt easy, in an odd way, to relate to Alice and her [creative] adventure.  She needed to get away from her high society life, and I decided I needed a break from Kansas. A lot of people say the movie is trippy. I disagree.. I thought it more enthrallingly entertaining.. I'm inspired.

Yesterday I was so grateful to be able to go to my first Swedish pro fotboll game (aka soccer :]).  Gabe and his family invited me. The game was Örebro SK vs. Malmö FF, a huge game because Örebro is third in the country and Malmö is second.  Sadly, we lost three nil.  But it was an experience.  Apparently a record was broken as 10,875 people attended the game.  This guy was a statue outside the stadium; I thought it was picture worthy:

 Gabe, Hanna, and me at the game. haha :]

Today I went running on the much-spoken-of nature trails.  There is a 3km path and a 10km path I believe, and after missing the signs for the 3km path, I found myself running for an eternity on the 10km path.  I think I'll try to get better directions next time..  Tonight I had my first taste of the vegetarian dish Falafel.  It reminded me of an extremely distorted and odd tasting Chipotle burrito, but that could just be because of the foil.

We also made a rhubarb pie, with ingredients fresh from Ernie's garden.  (Ernie, or rather Arne, is my host mother's sambo. A sambo is most similar to 'significant other' in English- a significant other that you live with.) The pie was absolutely delectable, as is most all of the food I've had since I've been in Sweden.

(Mr. and Mrs. Rippel, I think you would have been proud of the pie :].. It made me think of you!)

I think that's all I've got for now.. God natt :]

August 6, 2010

Hello! This is my first blogging experience, so I'm rather excited.  I'll start with my first impressions of Sweden as written in my little black moleskin notebook..

"I arrived yesterday, approximately 2 in the afternoon.  We (the other Swedish youth exchange kids) flew in from Frankfort through the clouds, and the first thing I saw was so many trees!  I distinctly remember first seeing this tiny dotted-outline road winding through the forest.  Sweden is just a beautiful country, simply put.  The air is fresh- so much more crisp than Kansas.  Driving on the high way is much more enjoyable, but of course, that could just be because everything is new to me, or different.  The woods, which surround everything, remind me of those in the Twilight series... pathetic reference, but that's just what I think of every time I see them.  I'm excited to go running or biking on the paths through the woods.  

**** (a couple days later..)

Unfortunately, it has rained nearly everyday since I've arrived, but there has been enough sunshine to allow us to go biking through the city.  I love it- biking. I think it is much better than being in a car all the time- as is the case in America.  However it is slightly frightening on occasion.  I am still figuring out which streets I should ride on the pavement and which streets I should ride on the sidewalk.  And I've been thinking, increasingly so, that most everything here is accomplished smarter (or maybe just more efficiently?) than in the US.  Maybe I'm just used to Americans having less common sense than people here.  For example, the streets are arranged so one HAS to be a careful driving, or else risk the chance of nailing one of the many bikers or pedestrians.  Also, rather than having countless intersections and obnoxious red lights, there are just round abouts- you simply yield to the passing car.  Or if there are stop lights, there is a warning yellow for red AND green.  When you're biking, as is commonly done everywhere around the city, it's nice to know when the light is about to turn green so you can prepare to begin riding again.  Maybe I'm being overly-winded on the topic.  But it's interesting.  I think it's nice having not having some kind of sign every ten feet." 

Alright, now moving on to more entertaining events, I have pictures! I have the joy of riding by Örebro´s famous castle everyday to get to school, so here's a cute picture Anita took of me in front of it. (I just realized I haven't said anything about my family.  But I think I will include that in another post.)

So far, my host family and I have gone to the movie theatre (We saw Knight and Day, which was very entertaining, and no, it wasn't in Swedish; it was in English with Swedish subtitles.), we have played more golf than I had ever expected, visited Karlslund (pronounced Karshloond), Wadköping, several beautiful summer houses, and today I had the joy of going to Gustavsvik- Scandinavia's largest water park.  Karlslund is a countryside destination consisting of a beautiful manor, several gardens, and large horse stable.  

It is common for wedding receptions to be held here.  Very pretty.

Wadköping is an area where several building built in old Örebro have been relocated.  It's a place where you can "experience" the old days- with a blacksmith shop and also galleries with old and new artwork.

Here is a not so cute picture of me outside of Gustavsvik.  I went with Gabriel- the other boy exchanging in Örebro from the US.  I'll just say this place is awesome.  There were a couple rides here that would never be allowed in the US, aka they would be too dangerous, thus the extreme thrill.  :]

Sorry about the length of this post, but now I have caught up the events of my first week in Sweden.  

Hej då :-D