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