Claire in SVERIGE 2006 - 2007

India!

2008-01-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

Since my last post, I've returned home from my year abroad in Sweden, started working, and gone back to highschool.
This week I finally graduated : ) It was a very good feeling to finally be done and on to new and exciting adventures.

I should probably rename my blog "claireinindia"as next Monday Tiffany, Fredrick and I are embarking on a two month adventure in and around Rajpur, India. We'll be living at the Moravian Institute and helping with daily activities at the school. Wish us good luck : )

It's a wedding!, Midsummer

2007-06-24T13:02:00.000-06:00

After recovering from Studenten (which took a few days), the girls and I nstarted planning a bachelorette party for Hanna, a girl in our class who got married this Saturday. We threw a traditional Swedish bachelorette party for her. The day started off with us waking her up at 8 a.m. by pouring water over her head after we'd sneaked into her apartment then blindfolding and kidnapping her after which we drove to Sofie's house for breakfast and a challenge game for Hanna!

To start off the morning, Hanna had to eat lemons to get her first clue which told her to go swimming (fully clothed) in the lake where her next clue was floating a little ways out in the water. AFter a chilly morning dip, Hanna, newly crowned, went off to climb a tree, eat candy string with no hands, and blow up balloons until they popped with the clue inside.

The girls then proceeded to get Hanna ready for a day in town (which meant bright pink and turquoise eyeshadow, pink cheeks, a tutu, a crown complete with veil, and a "soon to be married, come and take me" shirt)!

We spent the afternoon having a picnic in the park, watching a strip tease (well not really, a friend showed off some moves as a joke!), and making Hanna walk through town and do crazy things (including walking around in a toilet paper wedding dress which we dressed her in while we were in the main square).

We finished off the day with dinner at the Chinese restaurant and then a night out in our crazy outfits. It was a great day!

On Monday, Jill (Canada), and Sarah (Australia) came to visit from Gothenburg. They stayed at my place out in the country. We went into Stockholm during the day one day, and went canoing at the lake by my place out to an island where we suntanned with all the exchangers the second day before a night of dancing.

Friday was Midsummer, the biggest Swedish holiday next to Christmas. During midsummer, a huge pole with flowers is raised and everyone dances around.

The girls all have flower crowns and many people actually wear the traditional Swedish clothing. The exchange students and my Swedish friends all joined in the festivities and danced/hopped around the pole with all the kids while singing the small frog song! haha After that we were off to a barbecue at Malin's house before I hopped on the train to Nykvarn where I spent the night at a midsummer party. At midsummer, EVERYONE is out and partying. A lot of people set up party tents and have everyone they know over to celebrate. I had a great night and was walking around wrapped in a Swedish flag : )

Saturday afternoon, Hanna got Married to her fiance in a really beautiful ceremony at a church out in the country. All the girls were there to celebrate with her. There were more than a few tears shed at the wedding. It was a special day.

PROM, CAMPING, & STUDENTEN!!!!!

2007-06-11T10:45:00.000-06:00

This past week has been the most wonderful and memorable week of my year away. I won't soon be forgetting my Swedish graduation. The festivities all began Sunday evening with the student prom at Sundbyholm Castle which is a castle near Eskilstuna over-looking the beach. It was the perfect location. Everyone arrived in classic cars (a tradition) and got out onto the red carpet.

To begin, we all shared a glass of champagne outside in the 28 degree weather. AS Carlos left for Mexico the next morning, it was my last chance to say goodbye which was quite difficult. Later, we went inside for a formal dinner and dance. Emily was my date which was fun (*especially because in Sweden, it's not common for girls to go without male dates hehe)!

On Monday morning, I left to go camping with my class. We were away for 2 nights and 3 days in Hallstahammar which is about 40 minutes outside Eskilstuna. We rented 3 cabins for the class and spent our days laying in the 25 - 30 degree sun, swimming and eating! It was really fun to have one last gathering with the class together and everyone got a lot closer.

Friday, the class met up again in town to drive to Strangnas (about 20 minutes away) and decorate our student truck for the graduation on Saturday. In Sweden, the graduates have a tradition of decorating the backs of huge trucks with banners, birch tree branches, balloons, and whatever else they can think of, then adding huge speakers and turning them into moving parties! (a tradition which I think we should import!) We had a great time Friday afternoon, and after ice cream and fika, we headed home for an early night.

Saturday was the big day. It started off with a champagne breakfast at 6:30 am in a park. Everyone brought bottles of champagne and strawberries and relaxed in the park in our pj's. It was wonderful.

After that we were home to change into our white dresses (/ suits for the guys) then back to school for a a gathering outside in the sun where we ate fruit and sandwiches, drank punch, and wrote inside each other's student hats (the white sailor hats which all graduates proudly wear for studenten).

Next, my class was off to lunch in the old town with all of the students and one of our teachers. After lunch we took a class photo which I can have sent to Canada fortunately!! After that, we all went into our respective classrooms for one last talk with our mentor and to receive our marks (I only got marks in French and art but I was still happy : ))

Next all the graduates went into the theater for a scholarship ceremony, some music, and speeches. It was actually very sentimental and I was a bit sad.

Another tradition in Sweden is that the graduates aren't allowed to put on their hats until the principal puts on his/her own. We finally got to put ours on at the end of the ceremony in the theater, then there was a mad dash for the windows to the courtyard outside where hundreds of families and friends were waiting with silly signs covered in baby pictures. Everyone leaned their heads out the windows and searched frantically for their families while a marching band played outside. At last we sang the graduation song, and then we could run out (which proved difficult with hundreds of students trying to be the first out of one door)!

Finally outside, I found my host family, Rachel's host family, and my exchange friends all crowded around my big sign. They all had silly things tied to blue and yellow ribbon which they hung around my neck - yet another tradition!! : ) I ended up with stuffed animals, flowers, blow up toes, and beaded things. It was really fun!

After that, everyone marched through town behind the band to the park where our student trucks were waiting to pick us up. My class all met up on the truck then pulled out and started the party!!! : )

We danced and sprayed champagne and yelled and had a wonderful time in general. the whole town was out to watch and cheer for the graduates as we drove around.

After about an hour of screaming and jumping, we headed back to the park to meet our families for our receptions. Most students have all their relatives come for a big reception in their homes. It's a huge deal! For me, my host family, Rachel's host family, and all the exchangers came for a picnic at Sundbyholm castle. It was perfect to be outside as it was about 28 degrees and sunny. We ate and chatted then drove back into town to get ready for our evening excursions.

Everyone went to private parties first, then off to our Studentskiva (graduation party) which was a combined party for the 3 high schools in town. The club was packed to the limits with white dressed people dancing in their hats and singing the Student song over and over and over : )

At the end of our wild day and night, we all walked to a big park and sat down with our friends and tried to not let the night be over. It was a truly amazing experience and I am so happy to have been able to have had it. I won't ever be forgetting my Swedish graduation! It was one of the happiest days of my life : )

2007-05-31T10:32:00.000-06:00

Last Thursday, I paid a visit to Gothenburg on the West coast of Sweden. I started my trip off with a visit to the theater to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie with some of the oldies.

After that, I was off to Ljungskile, a little town an hour North of Gothenburg where my friend Jill (Canada) lives on a golf course. I spent a few days with Jill so naturally, being on a golf course and all, we decided to practice our golf swings (or get a golf swing in the first place in my case)!

On Saturday, Jill and I headed back into the city to meet the other exchangers at a flee market where they'd set up a booth to sell some things before they started packing for home.
This picture is of some extreme Swedish fashion which we witnessed at the flee market hehe.

After a successful day of selling, and a few kebabs later, I took the bus to Karin's house. Karin's a Swedish girl who was on exchange to Canada last year. As it was mother's day on Sunday, we decided to back cookies and cake for her mom.

On Sunday, I went to see Mamma Mia with Karin and her family. It was awesome! I really enjoyed it especially because I understood almost everything!

Monday was my last day in Gothenburg and I spent it with the Aussie newbies. We started off with a good old Pizza Hut lunch which satisfied my craving for North American pizza : ). After that we did some shopping before I headed to the train station and started my trip back to Eskilstuna.

On Tuesday night, all the Rotary clubs in Eskilstuna out on a fund raising garden party at a 400 year old manor house out in the country. It was nice to see everyone having a good time. There was dancing, golf, dinner, an auction, and a fashion show. All-in-all it was a good night: )

Tonight, Carlos is coming over for a good-bye dinner at my house as he is leaving on Monday for Mexico. It will be one last night with tacos Swedish style (with cucumber and even bananas sometimes)!

2007-05-16T09:47:00.000-06:00

A couple of weekends ago, it was my friend Camilla's 19th birthday party. We all went over to her house and had dinner then played some games - a lemon eating contest, cracker eating and then whistling, eating licorice strings the fastest, etc. (a common Swedish birthday activity). I am sad to say that I lost! hehe

During the weekdays, I've haven't been too busy as most have my classes have finished now. The Swedish school system seems to be quite relaxed at the end of the year, especially for those who are in grade 12. I usually have 1-2 classes a day. I spend a lot of time taking fika with my friends, and going to the gym before I head back home to the countryside to spend the evenings with my host family.

Last weekend was the outbound weekend in Vasteras. It was nice to meet all the Swedish students that are going away this summer. They were a fun group although unfortunately Rotary hadn't planned anything for the foreigners except a visit to the recycling centre! It made the weekend quite long!

The highlight was definitely watching the Eurovision song contest which is really popular here. We ended up having about 20 people crammed into a little room, piled onto two couches. The atmosphere definitely added to the show! :)AT the end of the weekend, it was time to say goodbye to a few of the exchangers who are going home soon...

This Monday, all the exchange students had a fika with our school counselor to end the year. Everything is now coming to a close.

This weekend is a four day weekend which should be nice!

2007-05-08T10:16:00.000-06:00

I've been quite busy - as usual - lately. I've been spending a lot of time searching for my Studenten (a part of the grad ceremony) dress. Emily (Australia) and I decided to go to Stockholm two weekends ago in search of a dress. Unfortunately no luck yet!

Monday, the 30th of April, was a special holiday in Scandinavia, called Valborg. During Valborg people make huge fires to celebrate the coming of spring. I spent my Valborg with my Swedish friends at my friend Sofie's house on a lake. We had a barbecue, made a fire, and roasted marshmallows. I finally made use of the firecrackers my mom sent me for Christmas and introduced them to my Swedish friends. Naturally, we had to wear the paper crowns! Later on, we went into town to join in the festivities. It was a really fun holiday - definitely one we should import to Canada : )!

The weather here's been beautiful the past few weeks, so I've taken to running out in the country, down to the lake. It's absolutely perfect. I will miss having a lake nearby when I come home.

On Saturday night, my host parents took Sofie and I to a wonderful dinner and then to see an African dance performance in Vasteras as part of my birthday present. It was a really enjoyable night. I was ready to get up there on the stage and dance!

This weekend is the outbound weekend for the Swedish students leaving on exchange. all the inbounds will be there to help get them ready for their year away. I'm really looking forward to the weekend and I'll be sure to post some pictures after.

Mariefred, Uppsala, Strangnas, 18th birthday!

2007-04-26T02:06:00.000-06:00

These past couple of weeks have been busy, busy, busy! They kicked off with a trip to Mariefred where the World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child was taking place. Mariefred is a small town about 30 minutes west of Stockholm with a large castle called Gripsholm. The WCPRC is an organization which promotes the rights of the child all over the world. Every year they have a ceremony in Mariefred where 12 child jury members from all over the world, vote for the winner of the prize that year which goes to an individual who has shown outstanding work in the area of promoting children's rights. I stayed in Mariefred on and off for the 2 weeks thats the group was there. I can now say that I have friends from Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Vietnam, Western Sahara, and India, to name a few places.

Two weekends ago, I went to Uppsala (a university town north of Stockholm)where our rebounds (Swedish students who have returned from their exchanges), had planned a one night camp and rented cabins outside of the city. The weather was wonderful and we spent the whole time outside around the campfire singing.

The Monday after (April 16th), was my 18th birthday. The day started off with my hist family waking m up with the traditional Swedish birthday song at 6 am. After, I went off to school to visit my buddies. It was the same day as the big prize ceremony in Mariefred, so after lunch I headed back to Mariefred. The Queen of Sweden was at the ceremony, so I was lucky enough to get to see her. It was all in all a very good birthday gift!

This past Thursday, I went to Strangnas which is about a 25 minute drive east of where I live. The Rotary club of Strangnas hosted 6 exchange students for 2 nights.

We spent our time sightseeing and taking lots of fikas. WE got to visit the fire department and go up on the rescue truck which was a definite highlight.

Last weekend, I had a birthday dinner with all my friends. We had tacos which seems to be the traditional Swedish birthday party food, not pizza, like we would have in Canada.

This weekend, I'm heading into Stockholm to look for a Studenten (graduation) dress. Wish me luck!

Göteborg

2007-04-07T03:08:00.000-06:00

After, the trip to Åre, My host family went to Mexico for two weeks to visit their daughter, Lilith, who's an exchange student in Vera Cruz. I stayed with their friends who live on a farm close by. I had only one week back at school after Åre and before påsklöv (Easter break). Emily (our newbie from Australia), had her birthday, so we planned a party and all the exchangers got together, including some from out of town. Unfortunately, I was really sick, so after all the planning, I couldn't make it to the party.

Rachel and I decided it would be fun to take a trip over the break, rather than hanging around Eskilstuna, so on Tuesday we took a train to Göteborg to visit some of the exchange students there. We had a great time in Göteborg! It was nice to get the chance to see the people who we'd met at Are . This pic is of me and 2 of the Aussie newbies from Goteborg.
It was fun to be with a different group of exchangers and see what it's like for them to live on the opposite side of Sweden. Of course, we had to have a Subway day as well. Just like home : )

Åre Winter Camp 2007

2007-03-25T04:16:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday night, 4 of the exhangers took the train from Eskilstuna, to go to Åre, the biggest ski resort in Sweden! We met up with others in Stockholm and then continued on with the night train up North to Åre. TAhe next morning, everyone arrived at the train station in Åre and headed back to the hotel. It was the first time most of us had met as a lot of the peopdle are from different districts in Sweden. It doesn't take long for exchange students to meet everyone though - when we're in large groups, we're... very social i suppose you could say!

We went skiing everyday that we were in Åre. The weather was beautiful and runs awesome. We had ski school for 2 mornings.My class had 4 students and 6 instructors1 I actually learned a lot. We spent the whoel time working on off-pist skiing, and on jumps.

AFter a long day of skiing, we would go back to the hotel to take a sauna, hot tub, steambath, or a swim. one night, rotary took us to see a waterfall, and igloo, both of which were cool.

The first night, we went toboganning in the dark with garbage bags! Maybe not the best idea, but it worked surprisingly well, althoguh I think that the people at the hotel thought we were a bit different... : )!

Thursday afternoon, we jumped on the train home. It was really hard to leave as we had just made new friends and many fof them won't be on euro tour which is the next big group event and our time to say goodbye. The ski trip, marked the end of our exchanges. It's time to start the countdown to coming home. I think that most of us can say that we can't even imagine not being here, with eachother, in this new life that we've made over the past 8 months. We're now getting to the hard part.

2007-03-14T11:32:00.000-06:00

Last week, my parents came to visit me in Sweden. I hadn't seen them in over 7 months. They arrived Tuesday afternoon. We spent Tuesday looking seeing the sights in Eskilstuna.

Wednesday night, after getting lost on the way, we finally made it to the airport to fly to Kiruna, a small town in Lappland.

Thursday morning, we went to the world famous Ice Hotel, home of the Absolut ice bar.

We went cross-country skiing in the afternoon. We were driven to the top of a rise and then got to ski down (they took the work out of skiing for the tourists!)

We spent the rest of our day wandering through the ice hotel and church, and sauna-ing, and finished our evening off with a traditional Swedish meal (including cloudberries, wild boar, and reindeer meat).

We were lucky enough to be able to spend a night in an ice room. AT about 11 o'clock, we went into the warm house to get outfitted with our arctic sleeping bags.

Everyone slept in just their long underwear which created a few funny moments as people ran from the warm house in the long underwear and jumped into bed. If you left your regular clothes in the ice room, they would get really, really cold!

After surviving a night at minus 5 degrees, we had Swedish breakfast, a morning sauna, and finished with a dogsled ride to the airport.
The dogsled ride was by far the most amazing part of the trip! We sat in a traditional sled on reindeer furs for the 1.5 hr ride.
After our adventure above the Arctic circle, we flew back to Stockholm to spend a few days sightseeing.

To finish off their trip, my parents met the people in my life here. They flew back to England yesterday, on their way home to Canada.

Birthdays

2007-03-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

I continued my week of birthdays with my host mom's birthday on Wednesday. On Friday, it was Rachel's 17th birthday party, and Saturday was one of my Swedish friend's boyfriend's birthday.

You can see Zabina and her boyfriend singing charaoke in his pic. I thiknk we all took a turn at songstar. I managed to score.... the lowest! oops! hehe

On Friday, Zabina (one of my Swedish friends) and I decided to bake chocolate chip cookies, unfortunately they do not sell chocoalte chips in Sweden... uh oh!!! We improvised and ended up taking out a hammer and pounding chocolate bars into small pieces! It actually worked out really well and made for a fun time!

My parents are comoing on Tuesday to visit, and then I'm off to the ice hotel, up north, outside of Kiruna. It should be exciting!

SÄLEN

2007-02-25T06:25:00.000-07:00

This past week has been the sports holiday in Sweden. Everyone has a week off to do activities. I was lucky to have the chance to go to Sälen again with a friend's family for the whole week. We spent the week skiing, saua-ing, and just relaxing in general. It was a nice week.

I took ski school for 5 days which went really well, although I can't say that I'm a pro yet! It was below minus 20 degrees for 2 days, so that's why I look so silly in this picture! : ) Tomorrow morning, I'm back to school. I think it will be nice to get back to my life here.

Today was my younger host brother, Mattis' 13th birthday. Everyone woke up early to go upstairs to Mattis' room with a breakfast tray, and presents, while sing "Ja må du leva", the Swedish bitrhday song. Translated, "Yes, may you live". Everyone sings really loudly to wake up the birthday girl/boy and at the end of the song, finishes by shouting, "hurrah, hurrah, hurrah, hurrah". After singing, everyone sat around and ate warm scones (a birthday tradition in my host family), and watched Mattis open presents. My host mom's birthday is on Wednesday, and my dad's birthday was last week, so it's a birthday week for me!

New Host family, and Language Camp for the next generation

2007-02-10T03:56:00.000-07:00

I moved out to the country Monday night. I really love it here! The family's great, a lot more involved than my first family was, which is nice.

This is the outside of my house. It's painted the traditional Swedish red which is really common out in the countryside.

We have a barn and a small office building outside the house (but no animals!).

There's about 10-15 other houses in my small village and everyone know's eachother which is nice. In town, people rarely know their neighbours, which is a difference from Canada.

This is my room. It's really nice and cosy and has it's own fireplace : ).

It was language camp for the newbies this week, so naturally, us oldies felt it our duty to drop by and crash it! It's only fair! Here's a pic of all the oldies who could make it.

We went bowling with the newbies, to the zoo, swimming,

and to McDonald's for "all-you-can-eat" night, which I'm slightly regretting attending!
This weekend is a long weekend for my school so I'm going to spend lots of time hanging out with my friends, doing homework (yes, I actually DO occasionally do my homework), and spending time with my new family. Next week I have a Swedish preject, French project, and dance project due... so hopefully I'll get through them all! Miss you lots!
blogID=30128860&postID=8107479946834947394

2007-02-04T05:56:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, I'm leaving the HIldenborg family (Rachel's host family), to move to Stora Sundby, which is about a 40 minute drive from town. I have been staying with the Hildenborg's for the past month and it will be happy/sad to go. It has really been wonderful to stay here but it's exciting to finally have a family of my own.

Today's the first day of language camp for our newbies so I will probably go there a little later after I'm done baking banana bread with Phuoc, a friend from school, and Rachel. It should be a really great week because I'll be busy busy busy doing things at language camp and with getting settled in with my new host family.

When I was packing my things at Henric's last week, I had a package waiting for me from Lauren. Inside was a Christmas video with clips on it from my friends. Thank you so much to everyone who helped with the video. It was really great to watch and it made me miss you even more! : ) I hope all your diplomas went well.

xox Claire

SNOW!

2007-01-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

Finally it's winter - that means no more rain! : ) This past week has been cold, snowy, and sunny.

On Monday, Rachel and I did presentations on Canada and the U.S. for 4 junior high classes at the school where Rachel's host dad works.

Wednesday, I went toboganning with Emily, our newbie from Australia, and a few friends. In Eskilstuna, you can go toboganning at the ski hill, so that was quite an experience - extreme toboganning to say the least!

I spent this weekend just relaxing. We had a lot of plans, but in the end, just hung around which can be nice too.

Have a great week!

Stacy's 19th

2007-01-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I went to Stockholm for the first time in ages because it was Stacy's 19th birthday.
It was the first time that my group of exchangers had all gotten together since the oldies left, so it felt a bit strange at first but we still hasd a really nice day.

The theme of the party was "retro", so some people dressed up!

We spent the evening playing games, talking, and watching a movie. It FINALLY started to snow during dinner! : )

After we ate, we went outside to light some fireworks... which ended up attracting all the kids in the neighbourhood, which in turn brought on a huge snowball fight! It was intense! A full on snow war. That was probably the most enjoyable part of the night! : ) Hopefully the snow will stay so that we can go toboganning soon!

Skating and Skiing

2007-01-15T00:52:00.000-07:00

I finally planned a skating morning, the last weekend of school before school started. I've been attempting to have one for weeks.

Rachel, Marianne, Marcus, and I went. It was a great morning. Hopefully we'll do it again this weekend.

Steele went home to Australia Thursday morning. It was hard to say goodbye. Steele wazs the first person I met upon coming to Sweden, and my only friend during the first few weeks. Now that he's left, it means I'm now officially half way through as all my oldies have left. A scary thought!

Friday evening, I went for dinner at my next host family's house in the country. They live about 40 minutes from town in a cute little historical house. It was a really nice evening. I'm excited to go there in February! : )

Thursday night, Marcus and his dad invited me to go skiing in Sälen over the weekend. Sälen's a big ski resort about a 4 hour drive North from Eskilstuna, near the border with Norway. His family has a ski lodge there, which is where we stayed.

My ski skills improved a bit over the weekend which was good as I struggle! Marcus spent hours helping me out. After skiing we relaxed, and took a sauna : ) That's one of the best parts about living in Scandinavia! There's sauna's everywhere!

It was a great weekend, I'm looking forward to going back during the sports week in February!

Slovakia! : )

2007-01-07T01:25:00.000-07:00

Amy had her going away party on Dec. 28th, the night before I left on my adventure to Slovakia. Now it means that I am an "oldie" (an exchanger who's been in the country for half a year).
We had a really nice evening until the crying began... and didn't stop. Amy had given everyone a picture of themself with her and a personal note on the back. I don't think there was a dry eye in the room after that. Unfortunately I ended up having to leave early because my train to the airport left at 5:20 the next morning. It was very hard to say goodbye. I have many more similar goodbyes coming up.

The next morning, I took the train to the airport outside of Stockholm and then flew to Prague, then to Zilina, Slovakia. Zilina's a small city of about 100 000 people, in the north of Slovakia. First I should mention why exactly I was in Slovakia.

A year ago, there was a Slovak exchange student in Edmonton who I became good friends with. As I had 2.5 weeks off from school for the holidays, I decided to go and visit Lubos and his family. It's not very often that those types of opportunities come up, so when Lubos said that it would be great to see eachother, I jumped at the chance to go for a week.

At the Zilina airport, I was picked up by Lubos, his dad, and Andrea, an exchange student from the U.S., staying at their home.
We jumped into an old Russian car and drove to the little village where Lubos lives outside Zilina.

The scenery in Slovakia is quite beautiful. There are mountains surrounding you on all sides and THERE WAS SNOW! (Sweden still has +5 to + 8 degrees weather). Unfortunately, that snow melted over the next few days, and then it rained, and rained, and rained... which completely wrecked our plans for going skiing.

After arriving, I met the rest of Lubos' family. They were very welcoming. I really enjoyed staying with them.
The next morning, we went to their cabin, up a mountain, somewhere in Slovakia : ). We had to walk for about an hour to get there. Between 10 and 15 of Lubos' friends were packed into the tiny cottage. They were very friendly, and I fit right in.

I found Slovak people to be very different from Swedes. Swedes are very reserved, yet most Slovaks are more outgoing and social. It took me the better part of the first day to adjust (the Sedish ways have been rubbing off on me)! I think I talked more in that week than in the past month in Sweden!

We spent the first night listening to guitar music, singing, dancing, and having a huge snowball fight.

The next morning, Lubos, Andrea, and I, made a huge snowman, complete with mustache and snow crown.

That evening was New Year's Eve. At 12 o'clock, everyone ran outside to witness a Slovak tradition - all the boys running around in the snow in their boxers.

Later, we watched fireworks, threw a few more snowballs, and then went to bed. Unfortunately for us, there were many more people than beds! hehe

The next morning, we trudged down the mountain, in the pouring rain. We were soaked through in minutes. All in all, it was an adventure!

We spent the last few days I was in Slovakia, wandering around town, and seeing the sights. Zilina is a pretty city, but there aer still many remnants leftover from the communist time. There are row after row of appartment buildings made from cement squares on the edge of the city. Many boarded up buildings can be found scattered around. Slovakia definitely has a different feel to it than Sweden, but I really liked it there.

One night we made 'North American' style pancakes with Canadian maple syrup. MMMMMmm! We were a little out of practice, but they turned out well all the same.

We hiked through a canyon one day for about 2 hrs. The landscape was really beautiful. This picture is of Andrea, Susan (Lubos' sister), and I.

We had to go up and down ladders, and over little bridges, which became quite difficult because of the ice, it was fun though.

We spent the last day at a spa. It was a very nice way to end the trip!

Thursday, they dropped me off at the airport to catch my flight back to Stockholm. It was very hard to say goodbye. Lubos' family are wonderful people. I was more than a little teary as I walked through the security gate.

Christmas

2006-12-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

I have now officially had my first Christmas away from home. Christmas in Sweden is very different and very similar to Christmas in Canada. The largest difference being that in Sweden, Christmas Eve is when the holiday is celebrated. Here, almost no one puts up Christmas lights, which makes it seem very dark out near Christmas, especially because there's no snow yet and the Sun goes down a little after 3 p.m.

My Christmas started out on Saturday night when I slept over at Henric's girlfriend's appartment. At 2 a.m., there was a special on T.V. about Candy Cane lane in Edmonton, so of course I HAD to watch it! : ) That was when it finally started to feel like Christmas. On Sunday morning, we (Henric, Therese - his girlfriend, Caroline - Therese's daughter, and I) woke up around 11 and had traditional Christmas rice porridge.

By 12:30, we were at Therese's parents' house to eat a Christmas smorgasbord of fish (raw), fish (cooked), more fish, hamk, meatballs, and potatoes. Note the lack of vegetables - I think Europeans have forgotten they exist! Swedish Christmas food is definitely an "experience"!

After opening a few presents, we watched the Donald Duck Christmas show on T.V. which has been a Swedish tradition for over 50 years.

Next, Henric and I were off for the drive back to Eskilstuna from Västerås (about 30 minutes) to pick up Emma and Oscar from their Mom's house.

We then continued on to Henric's parents' place for Christmas dinner and to open a few more gifts. After our evening there, we went back home to relax for an hour before heading on to Henric's sister's place. It was then that I finally got the chance to open my packages from home which was really nice. I really enjoyed reading the cards from home so thanks so much!

After a few hours at Henric's sister's, spent watching T.V. with the cousins, we went to midnight mass at Kloster Kyrka (a beautiful old church downtown). The service was a lot different from what I'm used to at hodme on Christmas Eve (and I don't just mean the language difference); yet, I still enjoyed going.

By 2 a.m. I was finally home and in bed. I have to say, it was definitely the most busy Christmas I've ever had!

Friday, I'm off to Slovakia to visit Lubos (for those of you who remember him).

Happy New Years everyone!

Rachel's, the IB L.A.R.P., Julkul, last day of school

2006-12-22T08:33:00.000-07:00

I have so much to write about today and unfortunately not so many pictures so accompy the writing. I've been a little lazy with my picture taking skills in the past week.

Last Friday, all the Eskilstuna exchangers, along with Julien (an honorary Eskilstuna exchanger), went to Rachel's for glögg (a warm, spiced, Christmas drink), pepparkakor (similar to gingerbread), and a movie night/sleepover type thing. It was the first time we've had a get-together at Rachel's which made it kinda fun : ) Unfortunately we had to wake-up the next morning at 7 to get to school for the IB L.A.R.P., a live-action, role playing game which the IB students organize every year to get CAS hours (which probably only my IB friends will understand).

Anyways, this year the exchange students at school were invited to join in. We had no idea what to expect, and it was a bit shocking at first I have to say. We walked into the theater at school (which we had the run of for the weekend), where people were lounging around dressed up as characters. Everyone had a mission for their character and we were divided into 2 sides - the scientists, and the mystics. After separating into our teams, everyone got clearance cards for different parts of the school. I being a student, couldn't go hardly anywhere! The game went from Saturday morning to Sunday morning. It was complete with sword battles in the hallways and deep conversations "in-character". Sadly, my character got killed off for aiding in the murder of the Chairman, so I was out of the game Saturday evening (well I wasn't too sad about that)! I have to say that I have never seen anything like that game. It was almost like a live video game. All the students got really into it and put a lot of effort into their characters.

Tuesday, was Julkul at school (Christmas fun). Everyone crowded into the theater to watch the show. There were mostly rock bands playing, but also some comedy acts and other things. It was really fun to see just how talented the kids at my school were. I remember trying to run a talent show at Shep, and how hard it had been to find people who wanted to participate. Here, that's apparently not a problem.

Wednesday was the last day before holidays assembly at school. Each grade had their own assembly. In mine, some amazing singers performed as well as the drama class performing some songs from Rent (in Swedish). It was really great, much better than our assemblies at home!

After the assembly, everyone went back to their homerooms. In mine, we read a Christmas story and ate more pepparkakor (they're going to be the death of me)!
Later, some of the girls in my class went back to Sophie's for her birthday gathering, and a Christmas gift exchange.

Sunday (Christmas Eve) is Christmas here so I will be celebrating it with my host family. We will be at my host dad's girlfriend's place Saturday night, and Sunday morning, then we will go back to Eskilstuna to go to Henric's (my host dad) parents house, then we will go to his sister's, and then finally to midnight mass to end the night. It sounds busy busy busy to me, so hopefully it will be good. : )

Merry Christmas to everyone, I hope you have a wonderful holiday. I miss you all so much!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox - Claire
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Santa Lucia Day

2006-12-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

December 13, was Santa Lucia day. In the morning, all the classes went into the auditorium which had been decorated for Christmas and listened to the Lucia concert. Students from the school, both boys and girls, dressed in white robes and carried candles. They filed into the room in a procession, first the boys, then the girls. There were people singing all around us as some were on the stage, some on the sides, and some on the balcony above. It was beautiful! I think that it's my favourite Swedish tradition so far. The concert went on for about 40 minutes and then we were back to class as usual.
This weekend is the big Lucia concert in Stockholm, so if I have the time, I would like to see it! For anyone who's interested, here's some more info on Santa Lucia day on how and why it's celebrated in Sweden.
http://www.internet-at-work.com/hos_mcgrane/holidays/nora.html

Marianne's Birthday and Stockholm at Christmas

2006-12-10T13:56:00.000-07:00

Friday night was Marianne's (France) 16th birthday. A group of us went over to her house and had a nice dinner and then hung out and danced the rest of the night.
It was really nice because I hadn't seen a few of the other exchange students in a month or so!

Saturday morning, all the exchange students got up bright and early to go into Stockholm for a Rotary planned day of activities. We started by going to the Cosmonova (Imax) to see a Swedish movie about Mars. After that everybody
went for lunch at McDonald's and ordered lots and lots o food (exchange students like free food)!

The highlight of the day was going skating downtown at an outdoor rink (which they have to specially make because there's no snow yet and it's still quite warm out). It was really fun to go skating with a group of people who had never been before(although I have to admit that I struggled a bit in the beginning as I've never used hockey skates before, which was a bit embarassing because the Canadian's are supposed to be pro skaters)! Everyone spent at least a few laps going around with the 2 Japanese girls which as really nice - by the end they were getting quite good actually!

FRANKRIKE (France)!

2006-12-08T03:25:00.000-07:00

Last week, I went to France with my French class at school. There were 8 students and 2 teachers on the trip. We left Friday morning and drove the 1.5 hrs to the tiny airport where we took our RYAN AIR flight ... for anyone who's not aware, RYAN AIR is probably the cheapest way to travel and well - you can tell!!! We couldn't even take water on the planes because of their rules, so instead we had to buy it onboard. After this trip, I have learned to pack like a European - my suitcase only weighed 9 kg!

Once arriving in France, and successfully finding our way to the hotel (after only a few wrong turns), we went up to our rooms. You know you're in France when there's smoking everywhere, including the hotel rooms!! The hotel was actually quite alright and the view from our bedroom window was wonderful! After settling in, we went out for our first dinner at about 7 p.m. which is unheard of in France as everyone goes out to eat at 9 at the earliest. We were lucky that our hotel was right in the Latin Quarter which is where the young people usually are.

This is how people park in France - the same cars were there everyday, so we assumed they couldn't move their cars! Little shops and cafe's were open until at least midnight so we got to stroll around after dinner most days or go and sit in a lounge and people watch. France is definitely different from Sweden! In Sweden, almost all the stores close at about 5 p.m.

Starting the first night, all our discussions were a mix of English, Swedish, and French which got quite confusing at times! I can now understand quite a lot of Swedish, even if I can't speak very much.

From the first morning onwards, we woke up to breakfast in bed, with fresh croissants and baguettes which we ate while watching the countdown of French music on t.v. (my personal favourite song everyday being the one with french rap performed by gangsta's in ski goggles!! lol). It was the most enetertaining anyways : )

The first morning, we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower. The view from the top was amazing, even despite the almost 2 hr wait!
Later we visited Les Champs Elysees (the huge shoppiong boulevard).
It was really nice because when we arrived it was just getting dark and the entire 2 km stretch was lit up with Christmas lights.

During the week, we visited:

Notre Dame Cathedrale,
Le Moulin Rouge,
Le Place de Tertre, Sacre Coeur,
L'Arc de Triomphe,
Les Halles (a huge shopping centre where we spent the whole day as our entire group was girls who love to shop)! - it was at Les Halles that I had my 1st Starbucks in 4 months mmmm : ) and my 1st European haircut - not in the picture, I'll have to take another one and put it up later (I now have bangs)!,
Le Louvre, and Le Centre Pompidou.

On the last night, 4 of the students and one teacher went to see "Le Roi Soleil", a very popular, french musical that is new this year. The show has become so famous in France that the music is played on the radio and the artists/actors are celebrities. It was absolutely AMAZING! There was acrobatics, dancing of all types, singing, and acting. I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Paris in the next few months. I have to say that it was my favourite part of the week!

Wednesday evening we arrived back in Sweden. As we walked from the baggage claim through to the exit, we started to hear singing. When we got out of the hallway there was a group of girls singing, all dressed up for St. Lucia day which is on December 13th. They were serving pepparkakor (really thin ginger snaps), and Glogg (a Christmas drink in Sweden). It was a really nice thing to come back to!

2006-11-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

I want to start by apologizing profusely for having not written in 3 weeks. I finally have my camera back now! : )

Finland:

2 weeks ago, 2 Rotary counsellors took 13 exchange students on a 2 night cruise which stopped in Finland for one day. The trip started off with a THREE hour bus ride from Eskilstuna to the ferry terminal in Stockholm... we (Steele, Marianne, Rachel, and I) thought that taking the bus directly to the terminal would have been faster than the one hr train ride into the city... unfortunately we were wrong!

When we finally reached the ferry, we met up with the other exchangers and headed onto the boat where we found our cabins conveniently located right above the car deck... We had 4 people bunking in each room. As you can see from the photo, there weren't any windows so it felt a little tight to say the least but we had fun with it!

The boat had a bunch of restaurnts and 2 dancing clubs and some stores where we spent all our time. The best part of the first evening by far was dancing in the club aimed at the older clientele. We were the youngest people in the room by at least 40 years! hehe but it was a great night and we danced for a good 2 hours : )

Upon arriving in Helsinki the next morning, 4 of us took a bus tour and left the rest to wander town. This picture is of the Royal Palace in Helsinki. It's definitely a very reserved looking building. No one would have knwon it was the palace if the tour guide hadn't pointed it out! I'm really happy I went on the tour because I got to see a lot more of the city than the others, and as we only had one day, it was important to cram everything in. The next 2 pictures are from the underground church which is literally a church made from tunnelling into a rocky hill. It was a truly beautiful building! After the bus tour, Grace, Rachel, Julien, and I joined some of the others and did some shopping and more touring around. Unfortunately we soon learned that tourists don't usually pick Helsinki as a top destination, and there weren't any souvenir stores... such a shame... Anyways, onto the rest of the trip. We spent the rest of the day wandering around Helsinki. It was really interesting to see how different Finns are from Swedes. You could tell just from their appearance; less make-up, less blonde hair, less extremely fashionable people!

This picture is of the group of exchangers who went on the trip. 3 Aussie boys decided to sleep in... so they aren't there!

On the way back to Stockhom, the boat was mostly full of Finns. We ended up making friends with a whole group of them and by the end of the night, we were known as "The Canadians". Finns are actually much more friendly in general than Swedes (or at least that was my impression on the boat). Normally in Sweden it would be very out-of-place to talk to someone you havn't been introduced to, yet the Finnish people were coming up and saying "hi" the entire evening! Other than that, we spent the evening dancing, joking around, meeting people, and just having fun in general. It was a wonderful trip!

Back home again:

Last week I was sick again : ( and had to go to the doctor's and to the emergency room. I can't say it was a good experience to see a Swedish emergency room, but now I can say I've been there! (for almost 7 HOURS). I am now better so no worries : )

This weekend I went and saw the new James Bond and just kinda lazed around. I had to get rested up for Friday when I leave for France with my French class!!! YAY : )

I had sewing class today which was very exciting (because it's been cancelled the last 4 weeks in a row)! I'm making a snazzy vest which hopefully will turn out well : ) It's nice to have fun classes like that where I don't have to sit and just watch/listen to what the others are doing because I can't do the classwork/homework in Swedish yet.

A girl from Australia (who worked at a camp near Canmore for 4 months this summer and now is touring Europe) is here this week. She's a friend of a Swedish girl who went on exchange. Her name is Claire too which I think is pretty cool. Hopefully I'll get some time to show her around before Friday!

That's all for today! I'll write another entry when I'm back from France next week. Hej då (bye)

2006-11-20T23:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry I havn't written about Finland yet, I forgot my camera with one of the other exchange students so I will pick it up in Stockholm sometime soon I hope and then I'll write an entry!

A trip to Borlänge

2006-11-08T12:25:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went to Borlänge which is a town considered to be in the North of Sweden (although, really it's kinda in the middle). There was lots and lots of snow there which was awesome.

This picture is of my friend's cabin. It's very typical Swedish with the red paint and blue door.

I made my first Swedish snowman and had my first Swedish snowball fight! WOOHOO!

All in all, it was a great weekend packed with fika, shopping, and playing in the snow- in the dark because it gets dark at about 4:45 right now and in december it will be dark just past 3 (which is extreme, even by Canadian standards)

This week, I'm back to school, and back to going to the gym most nights, but next week I'm taking the boat to Finland with 10 of the other exchange students, and a couple of Rotary counsellors from Stockholm! : ) Wish me bon voyage!

HALLOWEEN!

2006-11-01T04:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry for having not written in so long! I've been very busy the past few weeks!
This week was very exciting because it was HALLOWEEN (and autumn break at school)! Also one of the exchangers who was in Eskilstuna last year, came back to visit (Bryan from France), which meant SAUNA time! The first pics are from Saturday night when everyone went over to Bryan's old host family's house and had some sauna time and Rachel and I had some "gangsta' " photo taking time!

You may notice that I am wearing a swimsuit - for anyone's who's curious, no that is not the new fashion in Sweden! I just happened to be in the sauna when everyone decided it was picture taking time.

On Monday, Amy, Steele, Rachel, and Bryan came over to my place to carve pumpkins and then decorate for my halloween party the next night. You can see the end products in the picture (I am quite proud!) Mine had a moustache which was quite special...

Finally on Tuesday it was my PARTY which I had been planning for 2 months! My host dad helped out a lot by setting up his dj stereo equipment and cleaning his tools from the garage / newly named party area. The end product included jackolanterns, orange mini lights, dj lights that moved to the music, fake spiderwebs, and many more decorations everywhere!

About 15 exchangers came along with about 20 Swedes (but no randoms, only people I knew) over the course of the night so it was a blast!

We danced, bobbed for apples, and went running outside because it started snowing for the first time here! Overall it was a huge success! (the only bad part was that I had to spend all of Wednesday cleaning - but hey it was worth it!)
Happy Halloween everyone! Hope y'all had fun!

SICK! SICK! SICK!

2006-10-23T01:57:00.000-06:00

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

2006-10-16T02:03:00.000-06:00

I found out this week that my French class will be going to France in November for a week!!! : ) I'm really excited about it! WE should be getting all the details Wednesday and then booking the tickets at the end of the week! YAY!!
Here's a few pics of Eskilstuna this week, it was sunny for the first time in days so I took the opportunity to snap a few photos.

Friday was Grace's (Can.) birthday so most of the exchangers went to Stockholm to visit and say happy birthday. Marianne, Carlos, and I couldn't go so we decided to get together in Eskilstuna instead. We ended up spending the entire afternoon baking kanelbullar (cinnamon buns) at Marianne's with a lot of help from Maria, her host mom.
After our afternoon of baking (and eating), we went home to get ready for a high school disco. It was fun night (people were actually there, unlike at high school dances in Edmonton)!.

Saturday I slept in late, watched some One Tree Hill episides I'd downloaded, and then went to Stockholm to visit Theo, a Swedish friend I knew from Canada. It was a really nice, relaxing day!

I finally got around to downloading the new episodes of Grey's Anatomy last week, which means that this week Rachel and I will be spending a lot of time watching it!!! I'm sooo excited!

Wednesday at my Rotary lunch, I will be doing part of my Canada presentation and also talking about what I've been doing here the past few months. I think it will be a really great opportunity for the Rotarians in my club to learn who I am! Wish me luck!

Next weekend is the Rotary district conference, so all the exchangers will be meeting up in Stockholm again to attend the conference and see some of the tourist sites, which will be nice because I havn't gone to many tourist places in Stockholm yet (which means more photos!)

2006-10-10T11:07:00.000-06:00

Last week was a pretty typical week again. I spent a lot of time just lazing around and hanging out with friends. On Friday we had another pancake lunch, this time at my place! We got Henric (my host dad) to teach us how to make pro swedish pancakes (they're almost like crepes)!

The one exciting thing that's been going on is finding out about STUDENTEN (the Swedish graduation). Everyone wears white hats and the girls wear white dresses to match. They have a lot of Studenten clothes to buy (ie hoodies, sweats, t-shirts) but they all say "student 2007" on them which just looks silly in English (which is why I didn't buy any studenten wear)!

Below are a few pictures of my class. Note all the blonde hair!

And last but not least are my new TIGER jeans which are exciting because it's a very popular swedish brand and I'm all about being Swedish! hehe. To all my friends at home, please don't disown me because i wear tapered jeans here! LOL

One last very important detail to mention, SUBWAY is opening in Eskilstuna WOOHOO! (which means no more having to go to Stockholm for our subway fix) : )

Miss u all!!!

2006-10-02T12:24:00.000-06:00

This past week has been pretty typical, just school, movie nights, and hanging around with Swedes. The pictures are of me at the gym (as usual) and Swedish class which we go to 2x every week.

I do have some exciting news (well exciting for me), I will be going to France with my French class!!! I don't know all the details dyet, but I think it will be really fun : ) There's 6 girls in the class (including 2 exchange students, so it's not very big, and will be a nice group to travel with. Unfortunately, I will ahve to pay for the trip, unlike the Swedes who get it paid for by the government! (typical Swedish style)!

Random Swedish fact for the week: Swedish students get PAID to go to school every month. If they go to a certian number of classes they get about $100 from the government. I wish we had that in Canada! Now that would be motivation to go to class : )

The campfire and Disney night

2006-09-24T10:43:00.000-06:00

This past week has been pretty typical - school everyday, going to the gym with the girls almost every evening, and hanging around. Friday night, Carlos invited all the Eskistuna crew to his house in the countryside (where I will be moving to sometime after Chirstmas). His host parents are great so I'm looking forward to going there (well except for the 45 minutes bus ride into town each day!)

It was finally a warm day (well not Canadian warm, but a good 15 degrees : ) ) so we decided to go down to the lake which is about a 1 minute drive from his house. We spent the evening cooking hambugers, hanging by the fire, playing twister, and eating cinnamon buns (which we are all addicted to)!

Here we have the campfire and Carlos dancing in the smoke - gotta love Mexicans!
This is a lovely mosquito infested chip... not sure why exactly we took photos, but it seemed important at the time!
And this is what we like to call "extreme spooning"! Always good for a laugh! Exchange students love posing for stupid pictures!

Saturday morning we all woke up early to take the train to Stockholm. The fun part of this trip was that if we wanted to go to Stacy's house to hang out, we had to dress up in silly costumes to meet at T- Centralen (the main subway station where we seem to spend a lot of time!) Swedes are very reserved people usually, so seeing a bunch of people dressed up in the middle of public was quite a show! One guy even took "candid" pictures of us until we went over and said we'd take photos with his son! The best part of the day was definately wandering around dressed up like a tiger. I even had a tail! : )

All in all life is great now! I'm having a blast!

School, another birthday, and "Wiking CAMP"

2006-09-17T08:41:00.000-06:00

WIKING CAMP! (Sept. 16 - 17)
I spent the past 2 days at a Rotary camp with the newbies, oldies (people who came in January), and a few of the swedish returnies! We met at a golf course near Västerås (a city about 30 minutes drive from Eskistuna) Saturday morning at 10 a.m. After waiting for a good hour for all the exchangers to arrive (we're all on foreign time : )) we had a fika because any get-together is nothing without fika!

We then spent a few hours laying around preparing some very ... interesting skits which no one but us could possibly understand! I don't think the Rotarians really had any idea what was going on for most of it! (i.e. I'm a wiking, do you want to follow me?, it's going to be wery wery funny!, J(Y)ELLOWWWW!!, Ulaf my man, will you dance with me?, being all alone on the bus, etc...)

After walking a km to the viking camp, we were introduced to our 2 professional viking leaders! (Yes that is correct, they're professional vikings, they even have viking families who came to visit later on well exept for our friend from Stockholm with the yellow zipper jeans!!!)

Here we have me and Rodrigo (an oldie from Brasil).
There's me practicing my pro archery skills (unfortunately I didn't practice enough... I was the only one on the team to NOT hit the target even once... OOPS!)

After archery we had some intense double-sided axe throwing (which was more than a little scary believe me!)

Next we headed to the Viking boat where my amazing rowing skills came in handy! Note the very attractive orange life vests! Exchange students at their best! (Marianne-France, Grace-Canada)

This is the super-cool viking boat hehe!
This is Pete cutting my head off with the Viking sword.... a scary moment...

After our evening of viking games, we headed back to our Viking cabin where 30 exchange students / former exchangers froze to death for the rest of the night while watching some extreme candle shaping, listening to music, and drinking juice! It was a really fun weekend all in all!

Above is a picture of me at Sara's birthday party Friday night (Sara's a Swede in my class). The others in the picture are mostly all in my class aswell. It was a really fun, silly night of playing games and just hanging out : ) It was just what I needed after a long week of working hard at school hehe! On the bad side this week, all the exchange students were asked to leave photgraphy class this week to make room for students who actually need the credit... go figure lol! On the bright side, we found a Swedish teacher for the exchangers, and I'm now taking dance class at school! Sadly all the other options are still full which means I have to sit through hour upon hour of lessons in Swedish without ever being able to participate (it sounds relaxing but after a day or so it becomes the most boring thing in the world!)

Thanks everyone for taking a few minutes to read my blog. I hope you enjoy hearing about my adventures in Sweden! I want to specifically say thanks to the Gateway club for being such a great club and really supporting me!

School, pancakes, and a birthday!

2006-09-09T16:26:00.000-06:00

This past week was my first full week of school. I started off the week thinking I wouldn't have any options (as all the classes were full, and everyone had picked their options last week when I was at language camp). By the end of the week, I found myself an art class and a photography class (if I'm allowed to stay .... there's too many students so I'll have to wait and see). Because my advanced dance class got cancelled, I went to an English class with a friend on Wednesday. The teacher was really ahppy to have a native speaker so now I'll be going to that class most weeks aswell. My favourite class right now is French. Marianne (France) and I just showed up at a French class on Thursday afternoon, and ended up finding a class with only 5 people which is at my level : ) I'm very happy about that!!!! Both Marianne and I have been going to all the French classes now and presenting our countries, and well for me, adding in anything I can remember about "la belle province" (Quebec). All in all it's been a good week, especially because I've made some really great friends at school.

Here's 2 pics taken from our pancake lunch. Rachel, Steele, Amy, Carlos, and I all went to Steele's house and made some Swedish style pancakes which were sooo good mmmmm!! Swedish pancakes are really thin and you eat them with jam usually (although we brought along some maple syrup for the North Americans and golden syrup for the Aussies). I have to say I like eating them the Swedish way better : )
Last Saturday Henric, Therese, Oskar, and I went to Sweden's largest oudoor market which is abotu a 2 hour drive from Eskilstuna. Unfortunately I was sick and it was raining for a lot of the time, but it still was really cool to see what a Swedish market is like (for anyone who's curious, it's the same as any other market but in true Swedish fashion, it costs about 25% more than a market in any other country would!)

Yesterday was Julien's (Canada) birthday. He lives in Stockholm so everyone who could took the train over for the weekend (or the day in the case of Marianne and I). We spent the day doing what exchangers do best, wandering around aimlessly and going for fika : ) It was really nice to be able to see everyone from language camp again so I'm really happy I went!

That's all for this week, I'll try to take more pics next week!! I love reading comments so feel free to say hi!!!

LANGUAGE CAMP WOOHOO!!!

2006-09-02T10:29:00.000-06:00

Language camp kicked off last Sunday night when all 15 of the exchange students in my part of Sweden (the areas surrounding Stockholm, and Stockholm) met for the first time at a hotel in Eskilstuna. There are 4 Canadians in my area! We have another Grace from Canada (for anyone who understands that : )) ! There are 12 girls and 3 boys in my group (so it's not exactly even), but our oldies (the students who arrived in January) came, so that evened things out a bit! Fumi from Japan stayed at my house for the week which was cool. She had only just arrived in Sweden 2 days before (because of visa problems) - so she really was a newbie!

The picture above is from Friday when we all went to the zoo before everyone went back to their host houses.

We spent everyday in class until 3:30 (with many fika breaks of course, and Rotary lunches), and then we'd have an activity in the evening. Everyday at the Rotary lunch, we'd ahve to introduce ourselves in Swedish and say where we were from and what we liked. It was probably one of the funniest parts of the week as everyone turned it into a joke. (i.e. Hej jag heter Claire, jag kommer fran Kanada, och jag tycker om McDonalds - Hi I'm Claire from Canada, and I like McDonalds). Most of the guys would say that they like swedish girls - let me tell you, the Rotarians loved that hehe! On Friday, we sang "frere jacques" in 5 languages to end it all. It was fabulous! HAHAH

Here is a picture of Marianne and I cutting Pete's hair because haircuts in Sweden are really expensive! (and most exchange students are broke the whole year so it doesn't work out too well). Neither of us had ever cut hair before so I think we did a pretty good job considering!

Here's me and Marianne again during class one day (we had many photo shoot breaks during the day!)
Here we have Rachel (USA), me, Julien (Canada - Van. island), and Grace (Canada - Ont.) We were having dinner before an intense evening of bowling (which I happened to fail at miserably)! This is Marianne, Rachel, and I on Wednesday night at our barbeque... enough said...

And last we have Grace, Rachel, Stacy (Canada - B.C.), Melissa (USA), Ally (Alaska), and Carlos (Mexico). This was from Wednesday night aswell.

Malmö

2006-08-26T05:10:00.000-06:00

Thursday morning, Henric and I left for Malmö as Henric had a meeting there. It's about a 6 hour drive from Eskilstuna. To Swedes 6 hours in an insane distance to drive so everyone was shocked that I wasn't flying there which I found pretty funny considering that we'll drive to Vancouver from Edmonton!

On the way home from Malmö we stopped in this cute little town with a beautiful castle complete with a moat, right on Vattern (a HUUUGEEE lake).

Below (and above) is a pic from the Malmö festivalen which is a big outdoor festival with free concerts and street performers. We spent the evening wandering around the festival which was fun.
Here you have the bridge to Copenhagen. It only takes about 15 minutes to drive accross but you have to pay : (whereas if you take the ferry it's free (about a 25 minute ferry ride I think).

One last thing to note - I FOUND ALL 3 SUBWAYS IN MALMO IN UNDER 10 MINUTES! IMPRESSIVE EH?

All in all it was a great trip!

Last night Rachel, Amy, Marianne, and Steele came over to my place for a movie night which was great! This morning when we woke up (juyst the girls for clarification hehe), Rachel and I decided to make some North American pancakes... unfortunately we suck at making pancakes! They were terrible! I don't know how it's possible to wreck pancakes but we managed hehe! Next time we're going to use a mix in true Canadian style!

2006-08-20T04:23:00.000-06:00

Saturday night there was a festival in Eskilstuna so in true exchnage student style, we all went! When the festival prooved boring, we headed to the bowling alley for some disco bowling and finished up our night with McDonald's where we learned that Mexicans have interesting tastes when it comes to ketchup and Big Macs! (and yes he did eat all the ketchup in those containers!)

Another important thing to note: WE FOUND SUBWAY IN STOCKHOLM (so of course we ate there, and it tasted just like home!)

MMMM Big Macs Carlos style...

The best part of the festival!
Here's Steele, Marianne, and Carlos at thhe bowling alley after a strenuous hour of playing.

Yesterdy was my first day of school! It was very different from Canadian schools. The first thing the teacher did was put his cell number on the board so that people could text him whenever they needed to! How starnge is that. Also, in Sweden everyone calls the teacher by their first name. All the other students were really nice and I'm excited to make some new Swedish friends because I already have plenty of foreign friends (who I love to death)!

August 15 - August 17

2006-08-18T04:15:00.000-06:00

This past week I've been spending my time hanging out with the other exchangers mostly. We've been out for "fikas" (snacks at the coffee shop), went to see a movie, had a dinner together with all our host parents, and all travelled to Stockholm together yesterday. My group of "newbies" is Rachel from the U.S., Carlos from Mexico, Marianne from France, and I, but there's other exchangers here in Eskilstuna as well who are from Australia and they arrived in January.

The pic above is of some of the group in Stockholm yesterday including a couple cof the "oldies" from Australia who live in Stockholm, and the one below is of Marianne, Amy (from Australia- she lives in Eskilstuna aswell), and I riding one of the Dalarna horses which are famous in Sweden.

Here you can see the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace in Gamla Stan (the old city). It is about a 45 minute long ceremony with horses and music and a lot of marching! (much more impressive than the changing of the guard in Britain!)

This pic is of the Royal Palace in Stockhom although the Royal Family actually lives outside the city at a different residence.

Gripsholm

2006-08-14T06:35:00.000-06:00

On Sunday, I met with another new exchanger - Marianne, from France (the girl in the striped shirt in the front). My host family along with Rachel's and Marianne's, took us to Gripsholm (not sure if it's speeled right...) Anyways, it's a large castle about 30 minutes away from Eskilstuna. Except for the rain it was a great day! It's always fun to meet other foreigners because we all seem to just click!

2006-08-11T04:18:00.000-06:00

So I finally got to Stockholm for the first time on Thusday! It was a great day. We drove the hour into the city and then spent the day shopping (my favourite thing : )). I'll be going and doing the touristy things in Stockholm another day which will be really fun aswell.

This is "banana pizza" which is a favourite of Swedes. It actually soooo good! Rachel ( an american exchange student) and I saw it on the menu and were shocked! (so of course we had to order it to see for ourselves).

This is "pizza salad" which apparently is served EVERYWHERE (but anyone who's not Swedish has never heard of it haha)

This is Rachel (the American exchanger from Kansas) and I shopping in downtown Stockholm.

For anyone who was wondering, yes I did make some chocolate chip cookies.... but no, they were not amazing! Unfortunately in Sweden not all the ingredients exist (so that meant we improvised a bit / a lot)!

LISEBERG

2006-08-08T14:09:00.000-06:00

These are just a few pics of us at the amusement park. One's from the log ride, and the other from the rollercoaster! The last few days I have been spending time with my host family and going into town for a "fika" at the cafes. I'll try and get some more pics up soon!

Göteborg

2006-08-06T10:27:00.000-06:00

Yesterday my host family took me to Götoeborg! It was a great trip (although involved getting up at 5:30 for the 4.5 hr car ride there... which I promptly slept through...). We started out at the aquarium / zoo and then shopped downtown for a bit before hitting the main attraction of the day - LISEBERG! (the amusement park). Later in the evening I had my first Swedish Chinese food (which isn't quite the same but close enough : )) After our long day we drove back and got home to Eskilstuna at about 4 am!

'The Rollercoaster' (the world's biggest wooden rollercoaster). Yes, I did go on it of course : ) and it was soo much fun!

This is just a sign I saw while walking through downtown Göteborg.

The skyline of the city (notice how there aren't any really tall buildings)

This is Caroline and I outside the amusement park.

Today I plan on making peanut butter cookies (with our newly purchased mini-jar of skippy) or chocolate chip cookies. It'll be my first baking attempt in Sweden so wish me luck!

2006-08-04T10:34:00.000-06:00

So this is my house.

And my backyard.

Here's my first McDonalds in Sweden. Surprisingly it was different. They toast the buns for the hamburgers... who would have known!

And last but not least is my room (unfortunately it's a bit messy!)

Stugan (the cabin)

2006-08-03T10:43:00.000-06:00

This is S:T Eskils Gymnasium (which will be my school when it starts in a few weeks)

And this is a huge rock carving from 1000 A.D. (they have them all over Sweden)
The girl and boy are Emma and Oskar, my host brother and sister (taken at the cabin) showing some sibling love : )
And last but not least is Therese's cabin which is beautiful. There's no electricity or running water so it's rustic to say the least. I tried my first pickled herring last night there and it was... different. Not bad, but definately not good! It's an experience!

First Impressions

2006-08-02T04:22:00.000-06:00

At the airport...

Looking hot in my tapered sweats and trademark Rotary blazer (yes I did actually wear it in the airports along the way... sadly I didn't see any other exchangers, or at least none who were wearing them). Caitlin will be happy to know that I ditched my tapered sweats for jeans in Munich!

So now I'm finally here. It's a lot the same, and a lot different from home. The roads are all curvy like in England but the scenery is almost the same as at home (with less farm fields of course). My host family seems great! Oskar is really shy, but I talked for hours with Emma and Henric last night before attempting to unpack a few things (it's going to take me at least a few days). I had to re-learn how to make the bed today : ) ... something I never thought I'd have to learn again. They use a quilt just like us, but they fold over the edges so it's like you're tucked in, and then another blanket goes on top of it all. I was quite impressed lol.

2 days left

2006-07-29T12:20:00.000-06:00

These pics are from my last week in Canada which was spent out at "the cabin" and back at home packing : ( (only because Lauren decided that packing the night before might not be such a good idea)

Aww the towel dresses... oh so attractive, I'm going to miss them!

Thanks Maura and Lauren for making this last week a great one! I will miss you so much when I'm in Sweden. Don't forget about your green (hopefully soon to be orange) friend! To everyone: PLEASE EMAIL ME when I'm gone or leave a comment on my blog! I would love to hear from you all!