SICK! SICK! SICK!

I spent all of last week just being sick! By Friday I felt really terrible, had had no voice for 3 days and was hacking up a storm so I finally went to see the doctor. After a 1 hour wait, I saw a nurse who told me to come back and see a doctor (I thought I was there to see a doctor already, go figure!) So back I came, 5 hrs later so see a doctor this time. After a 2 hour wait (no exageration), I finally saw the doctor who gave me anitbiotics (yuck)! The moral of the story is to not get sick in foreign countries - it's always a bad idea (and it's very expensive... I spent $185 just to see the doctor!)
Wednesday I did my Rotary presentation (in English as my Swedish isn't yet quite at an acceptable level... cough cough). If I'd had a voice, I'm sure it would have gone a little better!! LOL I think that the people in my club might sort of know who I am now which is nice - so at least I accomplished that and it was my first opportunity to wear the spiffy red Rotary blazer!

Saturday was the Rotary district conference. I had to leave my house at 6:15 a.m. to meet up with my Rotary president in town. That's the earliest I've gotten up on a Saturday yet! Irja, my president, drove Steele, Rachel, and I to Stockholm where the conference was happening. Upon arriving at the hotel, the exchange students congregated around the food as usual and quite probably scared everyone else away! (We're a pretty scary group of foreigners after all)! After mingling for a bit, the conference started which meant it was time to sleep, draw things, take silly pictures, or write notes to pass back and forth to the other exchange students from our seats in the very back row! JK we paid attention to EVERY word of course! (It was in Swedish).

Later on, some of the Rotarians took us into the city to see Gamla Stan (the old town). It was very nice, except for the rain! We went into the palace which was interesting because I hadn't seen it before.

Here's Mitch (Aus.), touching one of the un-touchable cannons. What you can't see in the picture is the guard running towards him to tell him to not touch the cannons! And last but not least is one of the palace guards in his snazzy winter outfit. Unlike the guards in England, the ones in Stockholm actually make eye contact and on Saturday I saw one of them casually chatting to a tourist as if nothing was strange about it at all!

I completely forgot before now to have my address on the site so here it is for anyone who needs it:

Claire Peacock

Dalavägen 7

63239 Eskilstuna, Sweden