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!