Updat since november

Ok I figure it's about time to update everyone on what I've been doing so far, so here we go. I suppose I'll just take it chronologically with everything that I can remember since my last journal. 

So, starting from where I left off in November... That next weekend my friend Miranda from Canada who lives about 2 hours away came to Uppsala for the weekend and we hung out with Iliyas from France and also my Swedish friend Anton. (I do actually have Swedish friends, I guess I just don't write about them much...) We had a lot of fun and enjoyed the snow. I almost forgot about the snow actually, it seems like it was so long ago... We got about a foot of snow, maybe even more, it was amazing! So we had a lot of fun playing in the snow during the weekend. 

The snow was so much fun while it lasted. During the week we went to Sunnerstabacken, a hill (or kind of like a basin) right near my house and åkte pulka (I'm not really sure what that's called in English, I suppose going on a sled). It was a lot of fun; I went with Anton, Gen from Australia and Amanda, my host sister. We had two "sleds;" one round one and one that could hold two people so we took turns going down the hill. I went again the next day with Gen and Iliyas and we had just as much fun as before. We threw snowballs at each other, wrestled in snow and buried Iliyas in the snow. 

Unfortunately the magic of the snow was short lived because it melted that Thursday, well not entirely, but pretty much most of it, and it was all just slippery slush that was really annoying to walk on. So I had another boring week at school, nothing notable happened, the fun started again on the weekend. Rotary organized a weekend in Stockholm for us with all the exchange students in the three districts in our area (so we all already know each other because we went to language camp together). It was fun, we went to the Vasa Museum (even though I've already been there with my host mom) and to Skansen which is like this big park/zoo/cultural fair in the middle of Stockholm. We stayed in a hostel on Saturday night which was surprisingly nice and actually really cool. On Saturday night we had our oldies from the Southern Hemisphere talk about how their years had been and it was just so sad because they would be going home in less than a month, so they were all crying; it was very emotional for all of us. So on Sunday we went home which was sad because it the last time that we would see some of our oldies. On the train ride back to Uppsala we had to sit on the floor because some insensitive Swedish people's luggage needed seats more than we did. That's why they invented luggage racks on the trains, people!! 

The next weekend Miranda came again with Emmanuel from France, who both live in the same town (Eskilstuna) and we hung out during the weekend which was a lot of fun. We had the whole Uppsala crew (Anna, Gen, Iliyas and I) plus our two friends from E-tuna (our nickname for their town) together which was really cool, we hung out for like the whole weekend. 

The next week there was nothing too notable that occurred except on Wednesday where I watched Iliyas play innebandy (indoor bandy, which is a sport kind of like hockey but on foot; it is usually played on ice, but innebandy is inside and on foot) which was really funny because it was students against teachers, and all the students were dressed in Lucia clothes (more on that a little later). I also had my final exam in Physics A on Thursday which was really stressful; I studied really hard for it, which was a lot of work because I had to try to learn in like one week what the rest of the class had learned in a year (Physics A stretches over year one and into half of year 2, which I think is really stupid...). I didn't have to take it but I wanted to at least give it a shot. I failed; I got 7 points and you needed at least 12 to pass, but that's ok, I didn't really expect to pass anyway. 

The real high point of the week was the Luciatåg in school on Friday. Every 13th of December is Lucia in Sweden which celebrates Sankta Lucia (Saint Lucia) from Italy (still have no idea why they have a holiday to honor an Italian saint in Sweden...). It was a concert in school where we dressed up in traditional clothes, which consisted of a long white robe and held candles while singing about seven songs in Swedish in front of the whole school. It was mortifying, but I think I did pretty well; we had been practicing for about a month. I still didn't know all the words to all of the songs; it's really hard to memorize songs in your non-native language, but I was able to cheat a little and hide the lyrics to a few songs in my candle, because it had like a plate around it on the bottom to catch the wax. I also forgot to mention that I saw one Lucia performance before this in Domkyrkan (the enormous church in the middle of Uppsala) on Thursday. On Saturday I went to yet another Lucia performance in the concert hall, which was really nice, but I have to say that after that I was thoroughly Lucia'ed out. 

The next day Iliyas and I went by train to Upplands Väsby to have lunch with the other exchange students from our district at our District chairperson's house (our version of Al) which was huge and out a little in the countryside. She is so unbelievably nice and we love her so much. We had lunch and talked a little about upcoming events later in the year, like going to the Ice Hotel and skiing in Åre and she showed us her scrapbook from when she went on exchange to America. 

The next week was relatively uneventful until Thursday where a bunch of the clubs and societies put on a performance called Kul i Jul, which means like Fun in Christmas, it was pretty funny even though it was a little hard to understand at some points. The next day there was another assembly for avslutningen which is like the end of the term and the start of the jullov, or Christmas holiday. That was pretty boring as it was just a bunch of teachers and administrators talking about boring stuff... The real fun started after that where my class had planned to play Lasertag, which was really cool. We played two rounds and I did really horribly on the first round, but actually quite well on the second round. 

The next day (Saturday) we left for Gotland (big island off the coast of Sweden) again where we would spend Christmas. It was mostly uneventful there, which I kind of expected, until Christmas, which is celebrated on the 24th here. After dinner we had a visit from tomten (Santa Claus) who came into the house and gave us some presents, it was a shame that my host aunt missed him; she was out buying the newspaper when he came, it was strange though because they had a similar body type... After tomten left, we all opened the rest of our presents which was really nice, I feel so attached to my host family, I don't want to leave them. We came home from Gotland on the next Sunday. 

The next week was really cool, I did a lot of stuff. On Monday, Emmanuel came from Eskilstuna again to hang out. On Tuesday, Anna, Gen, Emmanuel and I went ice skating on a lake outside of Uppsala with Gen's host family, which was unbelievably fun. When you skate on a lake, you use long skates, which are about one foot in length, which I think makes it easier to skate with. We spent a couple of hours on the ice and then went back home. 

The next day Anna, Gen and I went to Eskilstuna because we were going to celebrate New Years at Miranda's house. We took a really crazy route to get there involving two busses and a train, but it was a lot of fun. We spent the night at Miranda's and made pizza and cake and also built a fire outside, which kept us warm because it was freezing. We went home the next day. 

On Saturday Anna and Gen had a combined goodbye party because they would be leaving in less than a week. It was fun and not as sad as I expected it to be. 

The next day we went ice skating again with my host family on a lake right near my house. We skated for about 3 Swedish miles, or about 30 kilometers, it was tiring but really cool, and the long ice skates make it easier because it's less work. 

Next week on Tuesday we went ice skating again with Iliyas which was really cool, and I really am loving all this ice skating and I'm going to miss it so much when spring comes, I'm not sure if there are any indoor rinks nearby... 

School started on Thursday which was not very fun, but I guess all good things must eventually come to an end... It was just a regular boring day at school until the afternoon where Iliyas and I met Anna and gave her emotional support because she had to say goodbye to her classmates. We then went home after that 

The next day was a day of great sadness because it was the day that Anna and Gen were going home to Australia. My host dad gave Iliyas and I a ride to the airport so we could say goodbye to them. It was really sad and there was a lot of crying. After they left we went home and just spent the rest of the day together and didn't go to school. 

The next week was just same old boringness until Thursday which was my birthday. My class sang Happy Birthday in Swedish to me when I came in (all 4 verses of "Ja, må han leva!") and they all signed a picture of me and hung it on my locker (which is like a tradition at my school for birthdays). It was really nice of them and made me really happy. 

So that pretty much sums up everything I've done thus far. I'm going to change host families in about two weeks which is a little sad but will be ok because I know the family really well (Iliyas and I are trading families) and our newbie from Australia is coming in less than a week so we're going to try our hardest to make him feel at home. 

Until next time, 

Hej då!

Pictures of the snow!!!

Here are the pictures from the weekend: HERE

Here are the pictures from Monday night: HERE

a smart car buried in snow, so cute!!!

Day 120

What a crazy morning!

I abused the snooze on my phone (I use it as an alarm clock) and wound up getting up at 9:13, and my bus left at 9:23, so I somehow managed to get dressed and ready in about 8 minutes and run to the bus stop, without slipping, falling or dying in about a minute and a half. So I got there and waited for bus 20 to come. I waited. And waited. And waited.

It was after 9:38 and the bus still hadn't come. 

Finally bus 18 came so I had to run across the street and down the road a little bit to get to the other side's bus stop (because it's not directly on the other side of the street). I also managaed to not slip and die. So I got on the bus, and managed to slip by without scanning my card to pay (because I left my school card at school and the other card has money on it, but I don't want to spend it for no reason) and then we were off. The bus skidded a lot and another bus (the really late bus 20 that we passed at 9:44) hit the back part of our bus (it was an articulated, aka "bendy-bus") with one of it's mirrors and it made a really loud sound at impact. The bus was skidding a lot and went slowly so I was really late. But luckily my friends Ida and Emelie who live in Södra Gottsunda (where Iliyas lives) where also on my bus, so we were all late together and they were able to explain why we were so late. The teacher wasn't mad though, Åslög is really nice, (that's her name) and they usually dont care anyway.

School was a normal day, I was happy in Chemistry because I got Anton to explain this new thing we were learning to me and I understood it which made me feel all good inside. 

After school Anton and Iliyas came to my house so we could train our jumpstyle and get better. It's fun and great exercise; we want to perform in Stockholm next weekend for our next Rotary gathering there. (but you'll hear about that later)

So then they left and I ate dinner and had desert with the family, Anna (host sister, 26, lives/works in Stockholm) was over for dinner and is spending the night. And that's about it for today.

Day 119

We got up really early to get to Rotary and met Iliyas on the bus and then finally made it into town where he had to walk through what felt like (to me) a blizzard, but it was still really cool because it was snow!!

The meeting was kinda boring, as expected, but you can't beat free food. We spent almost an hour in the hotel lobby after it was over, just sitting in front of the fire, because Gen didn't have any classes today and Iliyas' and my classes didn't start until 10:15. So we moved into this coffee shop and just sat there for a while until we had to go. I had Chemistry lab and then I headed back into town to Storken (a fika place) to meet Gen who had been waiting and Anton followed along. We chilled and talked for a really long time and then Iliyas came a little later and we hung out for a while before heading to my house. Anton left and we got to my house and then went again to play in the snow! We must have been out for about 4 hours on the hill at Sunnerstabacken just sledding and building a little hump to get some air time as we were jumping over, it hurt when we landed...

We then went back inside and dried off and warmed up. We hung out for a while and then they went home.

Day 118

We woke up at like 12-ish again (Anton also stayed over) and had breakfast and blah blah blah. Iliyas came over and we hung out for a while and then I took Miranda to the train station while Iliyas stayed at my house working on the compilation video of us dancing. He went home a while later. It snowed all day and it just kept piling up!!

Gen sent me an sms asking if I wanted to play in the snow so I tole her to come to my house because there's this big hill close by. So she came and then we all went (with Amanda too) to Sunnerstaåsen/Sunnerstabacken which is this big slope where a lot of people were sledding. We spent a couple of hours sledding down and playing in the snow; we had such a great time. We then went home and ate and then Anton went home. Gen and I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and she slept over because she was going to Rotary in the morning (to my club, because she had been invited)

Day 117

Miranda stayed at my house and we woke up at around 12-ish and then ate and stuff. I got a phone call from Katarina at 8:00 (while I was still sleeping and only semi-conscious) telling me to look outside the window. I reluctantly sat up and looked out to see... About a foot of SNOW!!! I was so excited and happy, but too physically and mentally tired to do anything so I wound up going back to sleep until around 12 and then proceeded to go out and play in it and stuff. 

We decided that it would be nice to go into town so I could give her the tour of the main sights and it would be even better because everything was covered in snow. So we went into town and met my Swedish friend Anton and saw all the cool sights like Domkyrkan, Slottet and Botaniska. We played a lot in Botaniska while waiting for Iliyas to come and join us, then after a while when it got dark (at like 3:00!) we went back to my house. We cooked tacos ourselves (because nobody was home, they were in Göteborg looking at this special school) and then practiced more jumpstyle dancing. We then got a brilliant idea to go back into town and record ourselves doing the jumpstyle in all the lit places around Uppsala. So we went into town and recorded ourselves (Iliyas, Miranda and I; Anton filmed) jumpstyle-ing in Stora Torget, outside Carolina Rediviva, inside the "blue tunnel" thing, and on the sidewalk near Slottet (the castle). We got some stares and even a bunch of complements from onlookers. We went home, but had to take bus 7, because the wait for either 18 or 20 was too long, so we had to get off at Martallsvägen and walk to Iliyas' house. On the way we found this cool tunnel with graffiti in it so we recorded more jumpstyle in the tunnel, which turned out looking awesome. We then walked to Gottsundavägen to take the shortcut to Iliyas' house and then stayed for about 10 minutes before we headed for the Granelidsvägen bus stop to catch the last bus 18 home. We got to the stop at exactly the time that it was supposed to leave, and waited, but it didn't come so we thought we missed it. After about 10 minutes we realized that we would have to walk home, but it wouldn't be too bad because Iliyas had done it both nights before. (just for fun, because he wanted to and it was too snowy for the bike) So we started walking, which was pretty cool because it was in the snow, and just when we were about halfway between Granelidsvägen and Slånvägen and the bus comes rolling by, 15 minutes late. We tried running to the Slånvägen stop but it was no use and it kept going so we had to walk all the way home. It wasn't so bad, I was mostly talking the whole way there, mostly about the snow, although they were kinda quiet, I guess because she's from Canada and he's Swedish so snow is exciting but not nearly as big a deal to them as it is to me. So we finally got home and then went to sleep.

Days 114 to 116

More days at school, nothing to be too excited about...

On Wednesday I went with my class on a studiebesök (study-visit) to kliniskmikrobiologilabbet (the clinical microbiology lab) for, you guessed it, Mikrobiologi (Microbiology). They grew tons of bacteria there and also performed lots of tests for different sicknesses. This would be "the lab" that the doctor sends those samples to. They showed us around the lab and then showed us a really boring powerpoint. After that we went back to school.

Friday was exciting. Math was cancelled (it's usually 2 hours on Friday) so I got out early (because I decided to skip PE) and had some free time so I went to a friend's house (a Swedish Friend haha) and hung out for a while. I then got a call from Iliyas asking if I wanted to go to the gym; this was an opportunity upon which I quickly jumped because he never wants to go to the gym. And that is some shit up with which I will not put! (stole that from Scary Movie 4...) So he got there way before I did because I was nowhere near buses 20 or 3, so I had to walk a great distance to get back into town. By the time I got to the gym, he decided that he was leaving in 10 minutes... Grrrrrr. So needless to say, I didn't get much of a workout. I went home and chilled for a little while and then got back on lovely bus 111 (that's the fastest, most direct one into town, but it doesn't stop in useful places in town, like if I'm trying to get to school) to the train station. I met my Canadian friend, Miranda, who lives in Eskilstuna and had come to visit me for the weekend. So we started off my walking around the town to see these lights that had been set up all around the town in various spots, it was really cool. After that we went back to my house and it was snowing, actually pretty hard. There was a thin (but still bigger than anything I have seen) covering of snow on the ground and I made my first Swedish snowball, whom I named Fred, and then threw it at Miranda and we had a snowball fight with the little snow that existed. Iliyas came to my house and the three of us hung out. We decided to learn this dance from Holland, known as jumpstyle, that looks really cool, so we practiced it like all night and stayed up until about 3:00... Nobody was home so we didn't have to worry about making too much noise but it is best to do it with shoes and since you NEVER wear shoes in the house here, we went outside in the snow to dance... It was really cool!

Day 113

Today was just an average day at school, nothing exciting happened.
I went to sleep at 7:30 last night because I was just so tired and I think the darkness at 3:00 thing is getting to me... I woke up after 8:00 so I got a full 12 hours so that was nice.

On the way to school it rained which sucked...

But during the day, the rain tuned into SNOW!!!
It snowed lightly for like 2 hours but then it stopped and turned back into rain.

The ground was too warm so it mostly either melted or mixed with the rain to make this slushy stuff that was really slippery.

I got home and I feel like going to sleep again, but it's only 5:22... I guess I should wait... Maybe I'll go to the gym again.



Also, another notice, I finally sent in another Rotary journal, so if you'd like to see, it's at ryeflorida.org under the "Outbounds 2008" section. If you've been reading here though, there's really no point, because it's mostly just a summary.

Day 112

Today I had to get up early to go to my Rotary club; this is the second week in a row that I have gone. Gen was invited by one of my club's members that was visiting her club, so she was there too and we watched a little presentation about one of the Rotarians who is a conductor. He also sang. It was scary.

After that we walked over to Polishuset (the Police building) and met Katarina and she gave us a tour of the crime lab. It was really cool; we got to see fingerprinting, handwriting analysis (that's what Katarina does), shoe print analysis, IT and photography. We also got to see the place where they take the mugshots and Gen and I both took pictures with the sign. It's funny, though, because they have a chair that you sit on, you dont stand like in the US.

After that, at about 10:00 I had to run to school to take a Biology test on Genetics. It was pretty hard and that's what I expected. The teacher told me (just like last time) that I didn't have to take the test, but I said (unlike last time) that I wanted to try. That made her happy so I took it. I don't know if I passed, but it doesn't matter anyway and I like trying even if I fail. I may have forgotten to mention that I passed that Mikrobiologi test that I took (without even knowing that we had one that day). I got 5 points out of like 25 or something, but for some strange reason that still counts as a "G." (the lowest possible passing grade) The grading system is: IG-not passing, G-pass, VG-pass with distinction, and MVG-pass very special distinction. (MVG is the best)
Needless to say I always get MVG's in Enlglish!! But we'll have to see about Biology...

Day 111

Sunday.

We woke up at about 11:00 to find that it was SNOWING!!!
I was so excited and went outside to play in it and eat some. The ground was too warm so it mostly melted as soon as it hit the ground but it was still very exciting. Katarina drove them to the train station and they went home. I spent the rest of the day working on some homework and catching up on my online stuff. Later that night I went to the gym with Iliyas.

Day 110

Today was the party! It was a lot of fun. Anna and I spent the morning preparing for the party and then at around 4 I went to her house to be made up. She straightened my hair and put shadows around my eyes, and I went into town like this to the train station to pick up the others who had just arrive. And yes, I did get many strange looks from the people on the bus.
So I picked everyone up and we rode the bus to Anna's house, unfortunately bus 111 doesn't run that late on Saturdays so we had to take 20, which not only takes a longer time, but also stops a little further away from her house.

So we all arrived and the party started. The night was a lot of fun and consisted of eating, dressing everyone up and dancing. We also drank this cool Argentinian tea drink which was really good.

We finally got home at about 2:30; I had Abraham from Mexico and Michael from Michigan staying at my house.


Pictures are here.

Days 104-109

This whole week was just an average week at school; it was kinda busy because I had a lot of work for Math. I also have a Biology test on Monday, so that's a little stressful too. I also worked a lot on my online classes to get caught up. That's about it; this week was pretty low key filled with work and studying, that is until Friday...

We had been planning to have an exchange student Halloween party for a while and now it finally has come. So today, on Friday, after school, I went to Anna's house to help her set up a little bit and buy some things. Tomorrow the guests will arrive!

Day 103

Today was nice because I was able to sleep in and go in at 11:20 and then went to school of Physics and Math. After school I went to Iliyas' house for a while and then went home and then he wound up coming to my house and stayed for a while. And that's about it.

Day 102

I slept in and went into school at 10:00 and figured today would be a normal day.
It was mostly normal until at about 1:00 I found out that the whole class was going to Stockholm tonight to see Hamlet in the theater there and I didn't have a ticket. Luckily they had an extra so I was able to go. After school we all got on a bus headed for Stockholm and then when we got there we all split up and ate. I ate with some other friends in an attempt to branch out, and it surely paid off. I spoke only Swedish with them the whole time, which was nice because some of my other friends only want to speak English with me which pisses me off. We ate at this organic, all natural place in the train station and we all had noodles which were really good. After that we headed to the theater which was really old and really beautiful.

The play lasted for 3 hours. It was well done but very hard for me to understand because they spoke very fast "Shakespearean" Swedish. I could still figure out what was going on based on prior knowledge of the story and the fact that they were acting. It was a fairly modern adaptation but it was a little while. I thought it was well done, however.
After the show, it was pretty late and I took the train home, despite the cheaper but slower bus, because I had to catch the last bus 18 home so I wouldn't be stranded at the train station. When we arrived however, I found out that I wouldn't have to take the bus because a friend was nice enough to take me home because I live near her and she was taking two other of my classmates home also. So I finally got home around 12:16 and then went right to sleep. Luckily I had a sleep in the next morning and didn't have to go in until 11:20.

Day 101

YAY OBAMA!!!!!!!!


Today had a great start when I found out that Obama won the election, I was really happy about it.
Today, Anna, Iliyas, Gen and I were going with Anna's counselor to Ekeby Gymnasiet to visit the school and get a tour. The school is unlike most other schools which are considered "theoretical schools" this one is a "practical school" with real world training. They have programs for things like cooking and florist-ing and we got to see the kitchens and the flower-arranging rooms which were really cool. After the tour we ate at the school's restaurant, which is run by the students (and it was great because we didn't have to pay) and then Anna's counsellor came back and picked us up and dropped us off in town and then we spent a little time in town before all going home. We wanted to do something together but we were all too tired and lazy. So I went home and then started talking to more people online again. Going to the gym now!

Day 100

Has it been 100 days already?? (well actually maybe not, because I think I might have messed up the day count somewhere along the way, but oh well)

Today was not that special, it was a little bit of a long day today, I started at 10 and finished at 3. I was going to hang out with Gen after school but then I canceled and went home because I had a lot of work that I needed to do. I wound up not getting any work done and spent the entire night (about 6 hours) talking to a bunch of people online. Everybody just decided yesterday that it would be a good day to start talking to me... I felt loved, but it prevented me from getting any work done. I wound up staying up pretty late, but not late enough to see the election results so I went to sleep waiting for morning to come.

Day 99

Today was just an average day at school. I decided to take my bike to school today, despite the 5(41) degree weather, I wanted to be healthy. It wasn't all that bad. I got to school at 10:15 and had a little over two hours of biology and then finished at 12:35. I ate lunch at school because it's free and they had köttbullar (meatballs) and they were very good. (good school food is hard to come by here) After that it was about 1 and I went into town and met Gen, because I hadn't seen her in about two weeks and we sat in a kebab place and talked and caught up for almost two hours and then Iliyas came and joined us. We then moved to Storken and had fika (I just love their giant kanelbullar) and then we went home and I have been spending the rest of the day working on my online classes (well not really, I've been trying to learn C++, but I'm going to work on my History class now)

Another sleep in tomorrow... just like always.... when do I not have sleep ins??

Days 90-98: Gotland

There is much to say about höst lovet på Gotland. (the vacation on Gotland) I had a fun time, but the week was a weird combination of feelings. Let's start from the beginning...

We left on Saturday afternoon and drove for about 2 hours south east to a town who's name has escaped me and then boarded the ferry. After about three hours we arrived on Gotland and it was around 11:30 at night. Since we had taken two cars but had only brought one on the ferry, we had to take two trips so Katarina, Per and Amanda drove to the house which is about 7 kilometers away from Visby (the main city in Gotland) and we stayed with mormor (Katarina's mother aka grandma) and explored the city for a little while. There was not much to see at night but it was still pretty cool. After about 25 minutes Per came back and took us to their house.

They had just finished building the house and had also just finished putting all the finishing touches on it recently, so it beautiful and all brand-new feeling. Little did we know that a flaw in the house's design would be it's ultimate downfall... Amanda, Anna, Iliyas and I all slept in one room, which was pretty cool because it had like a little loft in it which housed other beds so we were all comfortable. 

The next day is when the fun started. It rained all day, so we were trapped inside, which didn't seem like it would be so bad until we found out that Amanda had mens (pms). We learned that she turns into something of a firemonster when it hits, so she was constantly driving us crazy. Now this is why we felt that the house's design was flawed: there were really only two rooms in the house; our room and the kitchen-dining room-living room Room. So there was really no escape from each other. Cabin fever definitely had set in, because Anna, Iliyas and I all got along fine, but we were being constantly tormented by the firemonster.

It got better though, because by Thursday she started getting better and she apologized for being, well, a firemonster. 

During the whole time we mostly spent our time indoors, and the two times that we did make it into Visby, it was either really cool and very very windy or cold and raining. The weather was not very nice. It also didn't help when we found out that it was snowing in Ekilstuna on Thursday night and then it started snowing in Uppsala on Friday.

On Saturday morning (today) we woke up at 6:00 (>_<) and then got ready to head back home. We did get one nice surprise; there was heavy frost outside so the grass was all frozen and white and there was frost on the car. It was about -5C out which was pretty cool, but it didn't feel all that cold. After the 3 hour ferry ride (on the floor in a corridor because all the tables and seats were taken) we got back to mainland Sweden and then headed home.

I was delighted to see that there was still some "snow" left. I use the term lightly because it used to be snow, but snow it's just a thin little layer of slush. But it's still snow, and I was excited!!

So the vacation is over and it's back to school tomorrow, good thing I have a sleep-in tomorrow!

Days 81-89

I have been very behind on this, but here I go, trying to wrap up the last nine days.

Let's see what I can remember.

Last Saturday we had a district conference with all of the Rotarians in the area and all of the exchange students in our district came to Uppsala. We all had to sing songs in front of the Rotarians that represented our country so the guy from Michigan and I sang "The 50 States That Rhyme." After the conference we hung out in town for a while which was a lot of fun.

On Sunday night, Iliyas' family invited me to go bowling with them, so I obliged and actually won the first round and came in second during the second round, by about 10 points.

School this week was not too exciting. I slept in every morning until 10 except on Wednesday, so that was nice and today my Math class and PE were cancelled so I got to go home pretty early.

Yesterday I was invited to go to a "Tea Society" meeting at school at like 7:00. It was supposed to be a "Waffle Orgy" which Iliyas and I thought meant that they would be eating waffles, but they wound up just talking and then failing at making waffles. They then proceeded to take their shirts off, draw circles around their nipples and then rub cooking oil on each other. Then someone made chocolate pudding and every ate some and then one guy smeared it on himself and another licked it off. It was rather traumatizing, I must say. There is just something about Swedish people; when they get together, they always want to take their clothes off, whether it's in the sauna (aka bastu) or just at a tea party/"waffle orgy."

Tonight was a party celebrating Per's 60th birthday, so there were a lot of drunk Swedes at my house. Luckily they didn't all get naked as many Swedes like to do when they get together... We watched this Australian movie about suicide and secret love in high school with Anna, Iliyas, Amanda and a couple of the neighbors that were our age. It was a very weird film.
Well that's all for now.

Next week is höst lovet, or fall vacation, so I have the week off and I'm going to Gotland (an island in the Baltic Sea) with my family and Anna and Iliyas are also coming too. So we are leaving tomorrow night so it should be a lot of fun.

Day 80

Today was just another average day at school, kinda boring, but not too bad. I was able to sleep in until 10, so that was nice. After school I helped Anna pick out boots that she was going to buy. (well I actually didn't pick them, she just wanted my opinion. Well I don't know if she even wanted it, but she just wanted me to tell her to buy them I guess) And after that I went to Iliyas' house and ate dinner there and then I went home and now I'm going to sleep and I know that this sentence has way to many and's in it. :)

Day 79

I had a very late start today (1:20) and so I had hoped that I would be able to play the piano during the morning but Per was home when I woke up so I couldn't. Well I could, but I don't like an audience when I'm trying to learn something new because I have to keep playing it over and over again until I get it right and I'm sure that anyone listening would get really annoyed. So I wound up sleeping pretty late and then left for school a little early so I would have time to mail a post card. Then I went to school for my two classes, Biology and Physics. I like Biology because we were talking about genetics and I actually understood several of the questions on this sheet she gave us, and I was able to write answers without any help! Yay me!! Physics was a little bit of a different story, we were studying electrical forces. I understood the notes on the board and the sample problems he did, but when we actually did the work in the book, everyone was having a hard time understanding. After that I met Anna and we ate a salad at our favorite salad place in town and then hung out for a couple of hours and then I went home and played the piano (Finally!!) because nobody was home. I finally learned the second part to When You're Gone and I can play up until after "Can you see how much I need you right now?" I spent the rest of the night on the computer, talking to my dad and studying a little bit.

Also, I would like to wish a Happy Birthday to Maria! Grattis på födelsedagen!!

Day 78

Today was a normal day at school, blah blah blah.... boring


After school was just as boring, I spent almost the whole night just watching clips from madTV on youtube. I just didn't feel like working on online homework, especially after spending so much time on it yesterday.

Day 77

I got to sleep in this morning and I didn't have to be in school until around 10:00. I caught the bus and met with Emelie and Ida, two of my classmates who live a couples stops after me, and we talked. Right as we were pulling up to our stop, Emelie got a call and we found out that our Biology Lab class was canceled and so was our regular Biology class which meant that I had no lessons today. I wound up going to school anyway and hung out with them and some other friends and waited for the cafeteria to open and then I ate and then went home. I spent the entire afternoon from around 12:00 until like 5:00 working on English and History work. I feel like I'm always playing catch up. I hate how my English class thinks it's a history class. I also told my teacher off in an assignment, because we had to write our own Declaration of Independance (told you it thinks it's a history class!) but instead of declaring independance, we had to declare freedom from something else that was bothering us so I declared independance from online classes. We had to include a list of grievances like in the real one, so I did just that. It made me feel good after doing it, I finally really got to speak my mind and tell the teacher about how I think the curriculum is medicre and the assignments are uninventive, stale and have little or no educational value whatsoever.
Oh yeah, I went there.

Day 76

In the morning they both left and then I was bored. The weather was really nice out and I really didn't want to just sit inside so I meet Iliyas in town. We hung out for a while and then met Gen, who was with her best friend from Enköping, the town she used to live in before she moved to Uppsala. We hung out with then for a while and then we all went home and I ate dinner with Iliyas' family and then we went to my house and watched a movie. I really reccomend watching Amelie, even if it's in French, because it's really good; really wierd, but really entertaining.

Day 75

Today we all (Iliyas, Gen and I) went to Anna's counselor's house to hang out and study. We wound up not studying at all and just watched A Shot At Love with Tila Tequila because they were running a marathon. We went shopping for food and made our own lunch which consisted of a GIANT peice of bread (like a foot long and 1/3 foot wide) , smelly but really tasty French cheese and french fries. We wound up buying a 2.5 kilo bad of fries, because it was only one crown more than a 1 kilo bag, so we figured why not. (that's 5.5 pounds of fries, Americans) So then we watched more tv and then later her counselor came home and soon after that we left for my house. (not because we don't like her counselor or anything, we just wanted to go there) We just hung out and talked and stuff for almost the whole night and then went to sleep. Gen and Anna stayed over, but Iliyas went home.

Day 74

Today I had a test in math. Now everyone must think, "Oh math is easy because there's no language involved." WRONG!!! It's really hard if maybe you don't understand the directions, or if the test is comprised of about 30% word problems. I was able to make out the meaning of a few of them, but then I wasn't sure what to do with the numbers. I guess it doesn't really matter because I'm not getting grades here but still I wish I could have done better. There's always next time, I guess. My teacher was babbling on a couple of weeks ago about how math is so international, but I wonder, if it's so international, why do I have to bring a DICTIONARY to math class?

After school I went and hung out with Anna, who helped me feel a little better after the confidence-shattering test.

Day 73

Today was just another average day at school, sorry to disappoint, nothing really special.

Day 72

Another sleep in today!!! But this time it was until 1:20!! I actually was planning on waking up at a reasonable hour and then working on some online homework and stuff, but that plan sort of failed when I woke up at 11:00. That pretty much gave me time to take a shower, eat breakfast and get dressed and ready and then catch the 12:23 bus #20 to town to get to school. I then got to school and sat through Biologi and learned about genetics (well I actually kind of already knew the stuff) and then went to Kemi and wrote post cards to my friends while the teacher was babbling about something that I didn't really care about... I did take notes though, so it's not like I didn't care completely, I just wouldn't have really gotten any more information from listening to her talk. Anyway... After school I met with Gen in town and we ate at Max, which I swear is going to be the last time for a while, and I'm definitely going to the gym tomorrow. I finally got home kinda later than I had hoped because I was planning on working on some more of my online stuff. I got home and then ate a little of the dinner they had saved for me (it was like a quice/pie sort of thing with ham and cheese and it was really good) and then Katarina came home from the gym and we talked for a long time (in Swedish) about my day and what I did yesterday and random things, and it was really nice. Then I went upstairs determined to work on my homework and I finally started working and realized that there is no way that I can complete this assignment and then spent a lot of time contemplating and thinking about how I can either get out of doing it, just not doing, getting a zero and moving on, or even dropping the course and seeing if I can pass my English class here off as "English III" back home. I finally came up with a solution, and please everyone don't think differently of me because of this, because this assignment has really been eating away at my sould for an entire week now. I have been losing sleep and been constantly streesed so I finally just got a friend to complete it for me so I can get this incredible weight off of my shoulders and stop the wrinkles and gray hairs from prematurely forming because of this one assignment. In case you haven't noticed, yes this does have to do with my furied rants about how much I hate poetry. The assignment is horrible and after I turn it in I plan to have a long talk with my teacher about it and how it should be removed to prevent further suffering. Anyway that's all for tonight, I need to get to sleep because I don't have a sleep in tomorrow. There is nothing to be learned or gained from being forced to write a poem in response to a dead woman's poem that the never intended to be published in the first place.

Day 71

I had a sleep-in today, which was nice and I got to school at around 10:00 only to find out that my Mikrobiologi class was canceled and that I had an hour and a half to wait. So I called Anna to see what she was up to and then we hung out and went to this outdoor market thing near the "Nuclear Power Plant" aka the concert hall. (see "Day 3") After that I returned to school and had so much fun learning about stuff and blah blah blah. After school I met up with Gen who had just gotten back from a trip through Europe with her dad who had come to visit her. We hung out around town for a while and then came back to my house and watched movies with Amanda. Tomorrow I don't have to be in school until 1:20, so maybe I can actually wake up semi-early and work on some assignments! ...or not...

Day 70

I had to get up early this morning. (well not that early, I guess I'm getting too used to sov morgnar and sleeping in) After a physics lab and a chemistry lab I had biology and then school was over at 12:35 so I ate lunch and then met up with Frenchie and we went and mailed some things. (I do not want to devulge any more details so as to not ruin surprises...) After that we went to Anna's house and hung out there for the whole afternoon and part of the night and I learned how to do a couple types of ballroom dancing with Anna which was really fun and funny.

Now I'm going to go to sleep pretty early so that I will be able to use some of the time tomorrow morning before school to work on this stupid English assignment. I HATE POETRY!!!!!! I hope that this doesn't change anyone's opionion of me, but I feel it is absolutely pointless to make young people suffer while studying it. It's bad enough trying understand the "hidden messages" and symbolism that nobody really cares about, but it's even worse when you are forced to write your own poetry. There is nothing that is learned or gained from this, there is no educational value whatsoever and I think that FLVS' curriculum is mediocre and downright horrible. They should not be trying to teach American History during an English class; I'm already suffering enough working for an actualy American History class, which I also absolutely hate. It is also way behind for an 11th grade level class, because the reading list includes 4 books that I read in EIGHTH grade English. And despite the fact that the previous sentence was a run on sentence (right before I posted it I just realized it wasn't, but I still would like to leave this here for dramatic effect) and I started this sentence with "and," I still have to say that I am DAMN good at English, (please excuse that colloquial phrase) even though I tend to overuse parentheses and ellipses (they are the "..." for those of you who didn't know) and I belive that the current ways of thinking in English "education" are an absolute atrocity. (excuse the run on and To think if I had actually spent all this time working instead of ranting, I might already be done with it, eller hur? I guess I'm not too bad at Swedish either... Well anyway, I certainly hope Anne Bradstreet is enjoying eternity burning in hell. :)

Can you find the subliminal message?

Day 69

I slept really late (until like 12:30) and then stayed at Frenchie's house until around 4 and then headed home to eat an early dinner. I've spent the rest of the day at home just catching up on my online classes and talking to my mommy on skype. ^_^

Day 68

It may have been a little confusing to understand my last post in terms of time, because I kept shifting tenses. So to explain; today, Saturday, is the day of Ewa's birthday and I spent last night at their house after the misunderstanding that was described in the previous post.
So I slept late like always and then we spent the rest of the day watching anime and movies and then at around 5 I went home to get a change of clothes and stuff because I was planning on spending the night again because the party would be over at around 1, and I knew I wouldn't feel like riding home that late because I'm lazy.
I came back at 6:30 and then we headed to Skarholmen, the yacht club, for the party. The party was nice, it was a little boring because it was mostly just a bunch of old people getting drunk and dancing to the live band. During dinner, which was an Italian buffet, there were frequent pauses to drop everything and start singing. They has distributed sheets with the lyrics to all these songs. There were at least 8 or 9 of these outbreaks of singing; it was quite funny, actually. Frenchie and I spent pretty much the whole time just talking because there was nothing else to do and then finally at around 2, we headed home and then went to sleep.

Day 67

I had a sleep in morning today, so it was pretty nice. School was the same as always and after I went to Frenchie's house and wound up spending the night after misunderstanding the time we were leaving tomorrow. They said half past six, but they didn't whether it was in the morning or night, but I assumed that since they offered for me to sleep over, it must have been in the morning because that would be easier if I could just leave with them. But alas, it was at night, so there was no point in staying over, but it didn't really matter anyway... They have a really nice house in Södra Gottsunda. (not to be confused with regular Gottsunda, which is supposed to be a scary place at night)
The reason for this confusion was because tomorrow is Ewa's (the w is pronounced like a v: Eva) 50th Birthday, and "0" birthdays are a big deal here. Ewa is Frenchie's host mom and is my future host mom when we swap families after Christmas.

Day 66

School day, same old, same old.

Day 65

Today was pretty cool, besides the 3 hour Mikrobiologi class. We were experimenting with bacteria including E. coli, and I was the only one that seemed to think that it might be dangerous. I also was the only one to notice the the butane cans we were using were designed for camping and were filled with propane and had a warning on them: When burned, propane releases chemicals known to the state of California to cause birth defects, cancer and other reproductive harm. DO NOT USE INDOORS" As we were using about 8 of them simultaneously. And when I told people to take a look, they just thought it was kind of funny and so did the teacher. So much for having kids...

After mikrobiologi, we had lunch, but today was vegetarian's world day, so the food was rather nasty, so a group of us (my Swedish friends!!!) went to Subway to eat. There's no such thing as $5 footlongs, here, it's like $30000000 6", but luckily we had bogo coupons so it wasn't too bad. We ate out by the river in the same spot that I sat just a few days ago, but today it was rainy and very cold and icky out. After we ate we went back to school and had two more classes and then we were finished.

After school I went to Forex to exchange the cash I brought here because it hit an all time high today (which I though was strange considering the whole crisis thing) The rate was about 6.93 kronor for one dollar which is better than the 6.38 when I got here. The actual rate their (for buying) was 6.74, but that's still better than before so I exchange $450 and got around 3000 kronor. The rate for selling dollars was 6.99 meaning that it costs about 7 kronor to buy on dollar. The exchange rate made me happy all day.
After that I went home and changed and then headed for the gym where I met Iliyas and Anna. We spent a long time there, mostly talking and laughing, and then we went home and now I'm going to sleep.

Day 64

Today was just an average Tuesday; slept in and went to school at 10. The morning was very exciting because when I woke up it was 2 degrees Celsius (35 F) and the grass was frozen!!! I was so exciting and took a picture, but it just looks like regular dew, you can tell that it's frozen...

So after a boring day of school I went to Iliyas' house and we finally finished watching Death Note and then we went to the gym and then I went home and now I'm going to sleep.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAITLIN!!! GRATTIS PÅ FÖDELSEDAGEN!!!

Day 63

Today was interesting.
I went into school at 10:15 and went to my biologi class. I knew they were having a test but I figured I should still show up, so I went in. The teacher then said, "Oj, Michael, du behöver inte att vara här" (you don't have to be here) so I didn't have to take the test (well I knew that I wouldn't have had to) and then I just left and tried to figure out what I would do for the next hour and 40 minutes until my next class. So I found out what everybody was doing (gotta love mobiles aka cell phones) and then a little while later I met Gen and we had lunch at Max. After a while we met with Anna and then a little after that Iliyas showed up and then Amanda so we all hung out for a while. I went home around 4 and then had dinner about an hour and a half later and then I went to Iliyas' house because he wanted to show me a new song he was learning on the piano (which I then picked up in like 10 minutes which made him a little mad) and then at aroun 7:30 we went to Gen's house to meet her dad who had come in from Australia. We stayed until about 9:40 and then rushed home and I got home a little late... Oops..

Day 62

Today was not too interesting. I spent the morning and part of the afternoon catching up on my online classes, which was good because I really needed to.

At around 3 or 4:00, Iliyas came over and then Gen and then eventually Anna and we baked cookies with Amanda and then watched TV for a while and then everyone went home and I worked on some more English and History.

And that's it for today

Days 52-61

It's been 10 days since my last blog post, but I've been pretty busy.

Over the last weekend I went to Stockholm again with Iliyas' family and we basically just walked around and went into a bunch of the tourist shops in Gamla Stan and ate at this really good Kebab and Felafel place.

Over the next week, I had sovmorgonar (sleep-in mornings) every day due to scheduling and classes being cancelled. I hung out a lot with Anna, Gen and Iliyas.

On Thursday and Friday we had no school; it's supposed to be a "study day" so I spent the time hanging out with Anna, Gen and Iliyas some more and we've watched a lot of movies, so it's been fun.

Pictures can be found here
On Thursday night, I was riding my bike with Iliyas to his house from the gym and I was suddenly violently attacked by a pole and was flung to the ground. I luckily did not hit my head (I wasn't wearing a helmet) but I was unlucky in the fact that I landed on the hard, unforgiving bike path instead of the nice soft grass next to it. Luckily I was wearing a leather jacket, jeans and leather gloves or my left arm would be very torn up. I escaped this vicious attack with only minor injuries; a swollen, bruised foot; a scraped (only a little bit) knee and a bruised hip bone. I was able to ride the rest of the way to his house but I wasn't really able to walk properly until today. It all happened because we were riding downhill and we picked up speed and went around a turning hill which then opened up into a big field shrouded in mist, which caught my attention, so I looked to the right and when I looked back... POLE!!
Gen was nice enough to wrap up my foot for me the next day when I got home which was nice, it did help, but that night I woke up in the middle of the night and it hurt so much that I had to rip the bandaging off, and then the pain vanished... weird

So tonight (Saturday) we watched Step Brothers, which had to be one of the dumbest movies I had ever seen. I had lost all trust in Will Ferell after Talladega Nights, but gained a little back after Blades of Glory, but alas, I do not trust his movies to be funny anymore. We actually stopped watching it after an hour because it was so bad.

So that's it for now, I'll try to keep posting consistantly, but I've been really busy with hanging out with friends and working on my online classes. (which I hate!)

Pictures can be found here

Day 51

Today was one of my long days of school: 8:30-4:30. But I had this huge 3 hour break in the middle because I'm not taking another language (a lot of people aren't either) and Chemistry was cancelled, so I had nothing to do. A friend invited me to his house to pass the time because he lives really close, but then Anna grabbed me and dragged my with her class as they went on a little history tour of Uppsala and talked about some stuff that I didn't understand. It was fun though and a good way to kill time.

After I got back we went to the library to kill more time but then I was really hungry so I went to eat, and the lunch was so good! It was salmon fillet and I have to say that it was the best food I've had at school so far. After that I rejoined Anna in the library and we chilled for a while and then I had to go to physics.

I hate physics. Mostly because I can't understand anything and my teacher frightens me. He's rather strange looking and has more hair in his oddly-shaped beard-mustache-sideburn-chin-face thing than he had on his head even though he's not really that old. The classroom we have Fysik in is connected to some other room which I guess is like a lab or something, and he would keep going in there constantly for a while and then come out and then go in like 7 minutes later. Nobody knows why he does it, but we think he's hiding or something...

After school Iliyas and I met and went to the English Bookstore to wait for Anna to finish school. We were both reading this really funny (because it's mostly true) book called "The Xenophobe's Guide to Sweden." It was just so funny and full of typically Swedish things that we could relate to. After a while Anna showed up and we went to Subway to eat and then she left to go to some Advanced Swedish lessons.

Iliyas and I then went back home to get our bikes and then went to Friskis och Svettis, the gym, to work out, because my host family was nice enough to get me a membership. And yes, I know the name is very funny, it is the source of countless jokes, like "let's get frisky and sweaty" or "shall we go frisk and sweat now?" The name alone provides endless entertainment.

We stayed pretty late, until past 9 and then headed back to my house where we had fika and then Iliyas went home and then I went to sleep.

Day 50

Today was pretty amazing because my first class (Mikrobiologi lab) was cancelled so that enormous three hour space left me a lot of time to sleep. I actually wound up waking up around 9:30 and I wasn't able to fall back asleep, so I got up and decided to practice the piano some more. I had already learned how to play the opening part to When You're Gone by Avril Lavigne  and I wanted to learn the rest of it. I didn't need to be in school until 1:20 today so I spent the entire morning playing the piano. I learned how to play the next part of when you're gone (up to the part right before she actually sings "When you're gone") and I also learned how to play Take A Bow by Rihanna and My Immortal by Evanescence. I felt so proud of myself, but then I had to catch the bus. I actually got to school just a little bit late, because I missed the bus I should have taken because I was too busy playing the piano. I almost forgot to tell my method:youtube. I learned how to play the songs by watching tutorials on youtube and just memorizing the songs.

School only lasted for two hours and then Iliyas and I met up with Gen and we hung out around town for a little while, ate at Max (again) and then walked to her house, because she took her bike to school but we took the bus, so we just walked alongside her. Her house isn't too far away, about a 25 minute walk.

We spent a while at her house playing the piano, because I was dying to play and to show everyone my new skills, and at about 8:00 we left and headed for my house. On foot. It's rather far if you're on foot. We took a detour through Södra Gottsunda so Iliyas could get his bike and then we continued on to my house. They rode their bikes there and I waited 12 minutes for the bus because I had only used my card once today, so I still had another free ride. I still beat them... 

So we got to my house and then we had fika again and then I gave Gen a bunch of music on her iPod and then it was getting late so everybody went home and then I went to sleep.

Day 49

Today was just an average day of school, nothing really special to report.

Day 48

Nothing much to report here, I went to the wrong Biology lab class, but it was ok because it was still my class just not my "group." For Biology and Chemistry labs, our class splits into two groups, so I went with the early one because I was there at 8:30, because nobody told me that our group didn't start until 10:00. After that I had a lot of free time because we had regular Biology next, but not for a while. So I hung out with a different group of people then I had been before, because I figured it would be good to branch out, and it surely was. We talked a lot about the US and the differences between it and Sweden and it was really good to make some more closer friends.

After school I met up with Gen (from Australia) and we went for fika at a place called Storken in the middle of Stora Torget (the main sqaure). While I was eating my favorite giant kannelbulle we noticed that a lot of people were speaking English around us, especially this big group of people sitting behind us. So after listening to them for a while, we decided that there were at least two Australians, two Americans, one Irish person, and someone that we thought might be from eastern Europe. After a while we figured we had to go talk to them so we gathered up the courage and finally went and introduced ourselves. We found out that our new friends were studying at the university, and that we were right about their nationalities, except for the eastern European girl, who turned out to be Greek. Unfortunately, right after we started talking to them they had to leave, but I'm sure we'll see them again because they told us they always hang out there.

Day 47

Today we spent the morning preparing the house for the winter and pulling the small boat out of the water and flipping it over. We also finished cutting the grass and by 2:00 we were on the way home. Soon we were back in Uppsala and I spent some time at Iliyas' house and then went home.

Day 46

Today was a lot of fun, we spent a lot of time cutting the grass at the house with a ride on mower and then we took a boat (with oars) across the lake to a little stream. We followed it up and discovered an abandoned saw mill that the stream was cascading over in a little waterfall. It was really cool.

Later, after showering and getting ready, we headed over to a party at the house of some friends of Iliyas' host parents. We mostly spent the night eating, watching the adults get progressively more and more drunk and playing video games, because there were a couple of other people our age there.

We went home at around 3:00 AM and then went to sleep.

Day 45

Today was Friday, which is always exciting, but today was even more excited because I left for Hudiksvall with Iliyas' family for the weekend. If you've never heard of Hudiksvall, well, I don't really blame you, but it's located about half way between Uppsala and Sundsvall. Still not helping? It's in the very south part of Norrland. Well it's about a 2.5 hour drive away.

I got out of school early. (I got to skip PE, yes!!) and got home and finished packing up some crap. I then played the piano for a little while, because I've been teaching myself to play the opening part to When You're Gone by Avril Lavigne. At a little after 5, familjen Svensk (literal translation: the Swedish family, yes their last name is Svensk, which means "Swedish" in Swedish) came and picked me up and we were off. After a while we arrived at their summer house which was on a lake in some forest in the middle of nowhere, but it was very quaint and really nice. By the time we arrived there it was pretty late so we went to sleep not too long after arriving. That's all for today.

Day 44

Today was just another average Thursday: the longest day of the week for me. Not because it's the day before Friday, but because it actually is the longest school day, as I get out at around 4:30. That's really about all I have to say about today... That is all

Day 42

Today was another average day at school, except for the having only 2 classes and having a three hour break in between them. During the two hours of Mikrobiologi we looked at bacteria colonies that had been grown from samples taken from different areas, such as the air or the door handles. We then had to present our findings so I got up and reported to the class about the air, "Luften är jätte disgusting och dirty." (the air is very disgusting and dirty) Everybody laughed, not at me, with me. After that I had my three hour break, in which at some point I would be eating lunch, but I decided to wait for Anna and Iliyas to finish their classes and then we went together. For lunch the main course was blood pudding, which sounded and looked absolutely disgusting, so we passed and had this macaroni casserole thing instead and some potatoes. After that Iliyas left because he had a class, so Anna and I went into the IB "house" which is this building next to the school where the IB students hang out and study, but Anna knew the code to get in. So we hung out there for a while and then I went to Biologi for an hour and then came back and a while after that we left to go into town to fika. After fika(ing) for over an hour, we met up with Amanda and then went and ate (again) and then met Gen at Max and watched her eat, and then I left and went home because they were all going to a choir rehearsal. So then I came home and was talking to a few people online and then Iliyas came over because we were bored and then we played some video games for a while and then he left and now I'm going to sleep.

Day 41

Today I had a sleep-in because my first class wasn't until 10:00. So I left the house at around 9:30, which is cutting it a little close, (because I was taking my bike) but I figured I would be fine. That was until I hit Dag Hammarskjölds väg (the long road that leads right into the city) and discovered, much to my horror, that there were 300000000 mph winds blowing against me, which caused major delays, so I arrived at school at about 10:14. I then realized that I left my schema (schedule) at home so I had no idea which class I was supposed to be in or which room, so I just sat around and waited until it was over and then rejoined my class. Oh well, it was just Mikrobiologi (do I need to translate that?) and they were just doing some bacteria thing that I wouldn't have understood anyway... 

I realized that I will not be able to survive in Spanish 4 (in Swedish) so I'm going to try to transfer back down to either Spanish 3 or Spanish 2.

 After school today I went with Gen back to Iliyas' house and we watched more movies; Twisted (which was really good) and Sahara. (which I've already seen) It was a lot of fun and we had a good time. I had to ride my bike home in the scary darkness again... But it's not really that bad, at least its mostly downhill. 

Day 40

Today was a normal school day, but it was nice because I actually understood some of the things we were talking about in Biology. School ended at 12:30 today and then I had lunch (which wasn't very good) and then met Gen (from Australia) in town and we hung out for a while before meeting Anna and then after that Iliyas. We all hung out around town for a little while and then decided our plans for the evening; go to the gym together and then go to Iliyas' house and watch another horror movie. So I rode my bike home with Gen and then got ready to go to the gym. Katarina had booked a session with a personal trainer for me, which was very nice. It was actually a lot of fun and we want to make "Gym Mondays" a recurring event. Any caloric burning was probably nullified however when we ate at Max earlier in the day on top of me eating school lunch, and then we had ice cream and chips at Iliyas' house while we watched the movie. The movie was An American Haunting which was actually pretty good and I really liked it because it was one that I actually haven't already seen. It was pretty scary and really good, I would recommend it. Then I rode home alone, in the dark, at 11:10 at night through the scary parts of Vårdsätra. Well they are not scary like Eskilstuna at night, there's just these two parts that are just a big open field with trees all around, almost like a big clearing. There's lights on the road, so everything else is shadowy and creepy; it certainly doesn't help if you had just watched a horror movie... haha Anyway it's getting late now and I have to go to sleep, it's nice, however, because I can sleep in a little because school doesn't start until 10:00. Maybe I'll take the bike again, I could try to work off today's calories.