Day 16

Running a little behind, but here we go:

Today stared off like many others, but quickly elevated to a level of excitement that was not extremely high, but still rather acceptable. I rode my bike into the city (distance which I now know is about 8.2 kilometers) to my school, Katedralskolan in the city center. I met Katarina outside of the school and we went inside. It had a little bit of a funny smell and was dark and a little creepy with nobody in it, but I think it will be better once school actually starts. I think the smell came from the new flooring they were installing on one side of the building. We met with a lady, whose name has escaped me, (just like everybody else's) who discussed my classes and the program that I would be placed in. In Swedish gymnasium, (upper high school, grades 10-12) one chooses a program (kind of like a major) that corresponds with their desired field of study. As I currently do not know what my intended field of study will be, I had no idea of which program I should go into, but we've decided that the best program for me would be the NV2-Biotek program, which is mostly science, including Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Micro Biology. I met with my physics teacher also, but again I try to remember his name, but to no avail. He gave me the physics textbook that we will be using, which is good because now I can try to translate or at least look up the subjects in English that we will begin to study now.
I also found out that there was no room left in the Japanese class, but I'm ok with that because it is supposedly late in the afternoons and I dont want to stay later than I have to, and it will be difficult enough learning Swedish (and probably Spanish) along with Japanese; especially trying to learn Japanese in Swedish. This brings me to another point: I will probably also take a Spanish class here , which is good because I can continue my Spanish when I get home. the only problem is, for this year, they only have Spanish 2 or Spanish 4, and as I've already completed Spanish 2 in the States, I don't think I would want to repeat it, but on the other hand, I don't know if I can handle Spanish 4, as this would be skipping an entire year. And again, the whole "learning a foreign language in another foreign language" thing might make it difficult as well. If I take Spanish 2, then there's a good chance that it's all things that I already know, but it might also help me learn some Swedish in reverse. (If I already know the Spanish word they are teaching , but I don't know it in Swedish, I will successfully be learning Swedish in Spanish class)
I also found out about several other classes that I am allowed to drop from my schedule because they are stupid. Just kidding, actually because I'm an utbytestudent aka exchange student, and that makes me special. I'm probably going to drop web design, because I kinda already know it, and doing so would let me go into school late on Tuesdays, because it's the first class of the day, and let my leave early on Thursdays, because it's the last class of the day. I also think I'm going to drop music, as I don't play an instrument and I have more important things than music...
I also have one (well actually two) periods where I can choose a class to take and there are several choices but the ones that I think I can actually handle are Photography and Film. Photography seems like a nice easy class, and Film seems like it might be fun, but a little difficult because it involves watching movies and then having serious discussions about them. (and I was never good at picking up the subtle nuances that make a film a "masterpeices" while at the same time costing millions of dollars just for a single two second shot that nobody will even remember except the freaks that go to Sundance) Wow, that was a little rant there, anyway....
I can also take Psychology, and actually learn something (Anna Cullen!!!) but that might be too difficult and I don't really want to repeat, and I don't think I would be able to survive in Swedish Law.
I have a little bit of time before school starts on Thursday (yeah, Thursday, not Monday!) to make my choices for the classes and see how everything works out.

After the meeting we went to the supermarket and bought a few things, and it was a lot of fun, as it was my first time in a Swedish supermarket. We bought some ice cream and then waited for Iliyas (if you don't know who that is, then maybe you should pay more attention to my previous posts!!) (I also realized that explaining who he is would take about two words, while this whole parenthesized rant took 38) to arrive at the school, because Katarina was going to go in with him to his meeting, because his host parents don't love him were working and his Rotary contact-person/counselor is negligent on vacation. So I waited outside a different office while they met with Sven (see I actually remembered one name!) and then we went home. I was too lazy to haul my fat ass back home on the bike (there are a lot of hills on Daghammarskjöldsvägen and its very tiring) I went home in the car with Katarina and then we ate dinner and then we watched Rush Hour 2. Katarina went to bed then, but I stayed up and watched CSI and then Taxi (with Queen Latifah) and then I went to sleep.