Thursday, March 3, 2011

Currently in Åre!

Hey guys!

I've mentioned this before but one really nice thing about Sweden is how many breaks they have in the year! (Fall break, Christmas break, Sport break, Spring break, Easter break, and of course Summer break!) At the moment I'm on Sport break (Sportlov in Swedish) This is the break where almost all swedes go skiing! At the beginning of my exchange year I made plans with a classmate in my music class to go to Åre! Åre is the place to ski if you want to go skiing in Sweden. I had heard about it so I jumped at the chance when my friend Fedde told me they were going and I was invited. So I have had these plans for a while now and have been so excited!
I skiied once in a place called Romme and I thought I was pretty good for a beginnger but oh my.... I had no idea.

Åre is extremely difficult. Take into account that when I got here I had only skiied once before and this is the biggest mountain to ski on in Sweden! The first day I face planted into a side of a mountain and ended up with a very bloody, painful, large nose. Haha I laughed it off while sliding down the side of the mountain. The week is coming to an end and now I'm a lot better at skiing. Feddes mom is a ski teacher so that's a super plus. I now can stay incontrol and I can actually start to have fun while skiing. At the beginnging I was just trying not to fall. Other than the challenge of skiing I've been having a lot of fun with Fedde and his family. We're staying in a part of Åre called tegefjäll. They rented this really cozy cabin and Norea (feddes cousin), Fedde, and me already have inside jokes about the overly chill owner of the cabin who rented it out to us. Haha (tell ya later) Oh and I just deleted my facebook! Feels great! I need to focus more on my exchange and not facebook! Sadly I bet it will be back in a few weeks or so. we will see what happens! I don't have my camera cord to show you tons of pictures from Åre but fedde did take one of me on the mountain so I will leave you with this!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Long time no see!

I know, I know.

I haven't updated in forever but I'm not too fond of blogspot. I recently found out that people actually still follow this blog though, so I should take that as a sign to keep on with it. Purely because this is my only serious blog about my exchange where I show you what I'm really doing and talk about the culture and such. I have however made two new videos since my last update so if you haven't seen them here:

Matilda Birthday Video
Sweden video blog #6

I'm going to make a new video blog soon about what a day in my school here is like. I know that is something I would want to see if I was watching someone in another country and I think it will be a lot of fun!
A lot has happened since I last updated, first off, I changed host families! I've been with this new family for about 2 weeks now and we already get along really well. They are super chill and I can tell I'm going to really like them even more. I bought a gym card for a month (they got ride of their 3 month membership thing which SUCKKKSSS) Which ends this Friday. It sucks sometimes because when I want to buy a membership or something I need for the rest of my stay they have long contracts for a year or more and I'm not going to be here that long! So it would be a waste of money to buy a year membership so I just have to buy a bunch of month ones. My Birthday is Friday! I'm so excited 13 of my best friends are coming over and having dinner. I'm making tacos and for dessert I'm putting out 4 huge marabous and these swedish treats called "chocolate balls" They seem normal but they are different than you think I will show pictures after friday. I really can't think of anything else right now. School is going great, I start 3rd period soon which means ALL new classes ): I'm going to miss all my classes now because I've gotten so used to the teachers and students. I also went to Uppsala last weekend and visited a friend. It was a lot of fun because Uppsala is my favorite city in Sweden it's so cozy and adorable. Anyway.... I will update more but now I'm going to Vasby to have dinner with fedde and his mom so we can talk about our ski trip to Åre on Sportlov! So excited!

Hej då!