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.

Day 39

The highlight of today was going mushroom picking again in a forest somewhere outside of Uppsala. It was a lot of fun and we even had a little fika in the middle of the woods. Later in the afternoon, I went with Iliyas to the "beach" which is really just a nature reservation by a lake. It's also attached to a farm and there were some cows which I tried to pet, but they were too scared and ran away. After that we went back home and then I ate dinner and later went to sleep.

Day 38

Today was pretty fun. I met up with Iliyas and Gen from Australia who just moved into our town. (she moved from Enköping and has been here for 7 months) We met in the center of the town; Iliyas and I rode our bikes (in the light rain) and met her at Max. We walked around for a little while and then had fika at a really nice cafe that had giant Kanelbulle and then walked around some more. We went to Videohuset and rented The Omen and bought some godis. (candy)We then ate at Max, but then Iliyas had to head home so we left and headed back home. Gen came to my house and we hung out and talked for a while then ate dinner and then Iliyas came back and we watched the movie, which was really good. (even though I've already seen it) Then everybody went home and then I went to sleep.

Days 33 through 37

This week was so much fun, that it's going to be hard to condense it into only a short post, but here we go.

Monday morning we took the bus into town and managed to find the school with no problems and we met up with everybody else and then started our first Swedish class. The classes were really easy, as I had expected, but I had figured they would get better. The classes ran from 8:30 until 3:30 with lunch at a Rotary club and two fika breaks in between. Each day we ate at a different Rotary club, but they were all at the same hotel, which I found to be a little funny. The food was ok, but not really that great. Each time we had to all stand up and give our Rotary greeting: Hej, jag heter Michael och jag kommer från USA. We would then head back to the school for more lessons. Unfortunately, they did not really get any better, because there were a lot of people who had absolutely no prior knowledge about Swedish, so the classes had to move at a glacial pace, which was rather annoying for Iliyas, Hamza from France, Miranda from Canada and I, because we were already past this level. But it was still so much fun being together with everyone and hanging out in Eskilstuna, which I actually later found out is one of the most dangerous places in Sweden to be in late at night... But oh well... I'm alive and I survived even after we were chased by some crazy guy through town who was looking for two guys with drugs that were going to stab his girl friend and needed to use one of our phones. Oh yeah, and that other guy that was asking what hotel we were staying at, and we just pretended that we didn't speak English and that we were all from France. We got on the bus after that... That was Thursday night, after we had eaten at McDonald's because a Rotary is the manager so we could order however much food we wanted so everyone just pigged out. So after a week of fun, we finally all said goodbye and split up to our various cities. We all have each other's business cards, cell phone numbers and pins however. My blazer has so many pins on it now.


Pictures of this week (including the Viking Weekend) can be found here.

Days 31&32

It's been a while, but I've been pretty busy and have been away for a week.
Today, we were heading to Västerås for the Viking Weekend and I had slept at Iliyas' house because his host dad was going to drive us there. We picked up Anna as well, even after he drove past her house, ignoring my observation of "I think that's her house," and then sent Iliyas to knock on some random persons' door, only to have Anna appear out of the house 4 doors down. Good thing the people weren't too pissy because we woke them up at 7:30 on a Saturday morning. After a rather fast, swerving, scary ride, we arrived in Västerås and were dropped off at some camp site in the middle of nowhere (as in, not anywhere near the city center) and we began to meet all the other exchange students. It was a lot of fun to meet so many new people; there were a ton of Aussies, a couple Kiwis (New Zealanders), Frenchies, Mexicans, Canadians, Americans, and one Italian girl, German girl and Japanese guy. There were also a bunch of Swedish students that had been to various countries last year. We did various viking activites such as rowing a big viking boat, ax-throwing, and archery. We slept in these giant tents and it was really really cold and very uncomfortable but actually quite fun. We had 15 people piled into the tent so we were all on top of each other, but it was really cozy and warm. The only problem was that the area was infested with mosquitoes and although I did not suffer a single bite, many other people got bitten a lot, especially Iliyas; we counted 25 bites.

We spent the next day just talking and getting to know each other, because there were almost 20 new people, about 10 "oldies" (Australians and New Zealanders) and a couple rebounds. We also worked on a presentation that we will have to do during our district conference in a month. At around noon, we all started heading to the train station in Västerås to head to language camp in Eskilstuna. The train ride was pretty nice because the trains were very modern and incredibly smooth; seriously, you could not feel any bumps on the tracks. We arrived in Västerås and then walked to the nearby Best Western hotel where we met with our new host families for the week. I was paired with Abraham from Mexico, which was good because I got to practice a little bit of Spanish. We met with our host dad here and he took us back to his house which was very nice and not too far from the city center.

pictures coming soon.