Day 21

Today was a very interesting day as it was my first day of school. I awoke at the horrid hour of 6:45 or qvart i sju and then got ready for school. After a breakfast of yogurt and cereal (mixed together, because that's how they eat it here) I left the house at 7:30 or halv åtta and headed for the bus stop which was about a five minute walk away. I waited for the bus for a while and paid for my fare with a text message (its 5 kronor cheaper that way) and then got on the bus. At the next stop, Anna (from Australia) got on; this was no coincidence, it was carefully planned, and a few stops later, Iliyas (from France) got on and then we rode into town where we got of and walked in the rain for about ten minutes to school. As soon as we arrived Anna started saying hi to everyone and we felt all sad because we didn't know anyone yet... but then I saw a bunch of people that I knew and I started saying hej and then I felt better about myself. ^_^

We all gathered in the Aulan (like an auditorium) and then they gave a speech about what a great year it will be (of which I did not understand a single word) and then we headed to our respective classes. So we all met in a room and they said some words about the upcoming year and thankfully one of my friends, Viktor, translated for me and then we got calendars (planners/agendas) and then we left to go to our next class. (even though it was for a while) That's one thing very different about Swedish schools; there is a lot of free time in between classes. Then one of my teachers (Stina) pulled me aside and was nice enough to take me to the office to get punished for being a stupid American to get my meal card, bus card and locker key. The meal card is to ensure that non-students or former students or homeless people don't try to come and get a free meal and you scan it every time you go in, which is kinda cool. The bus card is for anybody that lives more than 6 kilometers away from school so they can ride the city bus for free (the city buses here are sooooooo nice and they're really big and green) twice a day (once to school and once back) or if you want you can ride the bike to school and then use the bus card to go into town later... And finally, the locker key; well it's not that exciting but the lockers here actually have keys instead of combination locks so that's cool.

After this I found my classmates hanging out in the hall so I stayed with them until my next class: English. It was actually a lot of fun because the teacher was American and spoke 100% English during the whole class; not a single word of Swedish. We practiced some tongue twisters, then we practiced say Shakespeare-era insults at each other (Thou are an onion-eyed serpent's egg!) and then we did a group exercise that involved telling a story, with each group member adding on from the last. Our group's story mysteriously paralleled the plot of the movie Speed, but that wasn't my fault, the guy who started the story made it about a bus with a bomb that explodes if the bus goes under 50...

After English we went to Chemistry and everyone warned me that the teacher was really mean and nasty, but when I met her, she seemed very nice, but maybe that's just because I'm an exchange student... Haha I actually like that she spoke very clearly and I could understand a little bit, but when she started using bigger words she lost me.

After this we had lunch which consisted of some kind of soup with bread and this nasty "pancakes" that were neither American nor Swedish style; they were square and mushy and rather disgusting... but everything else was good.

After lunch we had a "Language block", so I decided to go check out Spanish 2 to see if it was too easyt. They only offer Spanish 2 or 4 for my schedule, and I have already taken Spanish 2 back home, but I figured it might be nice to take a class where I actually know what's going on... There were only about 5 others in the classroom, but the teacher seemed nice enough and she could speak Swedish, English and Spanish, so it wasn't too hard to communicate with her. But after about 10 minutes she said we were done even though we hadn't learned anything, so we left and she gave us textbooks to take.

So I met up again with my friends and we had some time to fika, so we ate kanelbullar and drank coffee while we talked about stuff. People always keep asking me why I chose Sweden, and now every time someone asks me, I try to come up with a really crazy answer, like "I LOVE Abba" or something funny like that. It's a good way to break the ice anyway.
...dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen....

Moving along, we had physics, which was absolutely impossible to understand, and also absolutely impossible to stay awake during. So I basically stared at the floor and fell asleep with my eyes open.. Then finally the class was over and we headed to what I thought was Swedish class, but turned out to be Biology.

The room was really interesting, probably to a downright distracting point, because the side of the room where I was sitting had about 6 fish tanks of various sizes all filled with different types of fish and tons upon tons of algae. two of the tanks were really small and had only algae in them, I think this was so some type of study. The teacher passed out some information about a field experiment that we are going to conduct in a small town outside of Uppsala. We are going to spend one night there and conduct various experiments on the water and aquatic life there and since I'm not getting any grades and I can barely understand them, I'm just tagging along and getting closer to my classmates. This was the final class of the day, so after that I left and I was able to find my way home on the bus all by myself! And I also got to use my fancy new bus card, which was fun because you have to wave it in front of the machine and then hit a button, but mine wouldn't register, so I had to stand there for a while waving my card around like an idiot while people stared. Well it actually wasn't that bad... I got it after like three tries, so maybe I'm exaggerating...

So I arrived home and then remembered that I was having dinner at one of my Rotary contact person's house so I got ready and then she came to pick me up. Her son was leaving on exchange for Ireland this Saturday so she wanted me to meet him before I left. Dinner was nice and during the meal, vi pratade bara svenska (we spoke only Swedish), which really boosted my confidence level and made me more confident. For some reason it was easier to understand them than just about any other Swedish person I have met... maybe it was because we used a lot of "Swenglish," so I guess we didn't truly speak only Swedish.

So tomorrow is my second day of school, and it will probably be a little better than today because I wont be so tired, and hopefully I can try to understand a little more. And maybe I will actually try speaking Swedish with my friends, because I have to say, with some guilt, that it is way too easy to just let them speak English because they are so willing to practice speaking it. I'll have to insist: bara svenska! bara svenska! ingen engelska! After school tomorrow, my host family is taking me up a little north and we are going to see my host aunt perform in a play, and then we will go sailing if the weather permits, so I am greatly looking forward to this, so until next time,

Hej då!