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.
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..
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 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 :]
