Cold. Windy. Dark.

Love.

I got a new camera! Of course this picture is all blurry and out of focus for a reason, because it's artsy and cool DUH. I'm so glad I have a camera again so I can keep documenting my journey(BUTTT blogspot makes any picture you upload look really bad and small). So a lot has happened since I've really blogged last, well one thing is I'm staying the entire year in Sweden! I have been thinking about this since the day I got here, it would be impossible for me to stay just a semester and get the experience I want. I need to stay here for a year because this is the best decision I've ever made and I would feel like I was quitting if I left at semester. Since I am staying the whole year I had to pick more classes so I will also be taking: Business English, Swedish C (Yeah I know it's crazy but they said it's good for me to listen to the swedish not actually try in the class hahaha), Basic art class, DNA-Technique, psychology (YES, IN SWEDISH), and I think that's all the new ones or atleast all the ones I can remember! A lot of exchange students choose to take all fun classes but I really wanted to get the experience of being a swedish teenager taking what they would usually take. Also it's good because I meet a lot more people in these classes that some have to take to graduate. If I were to just take fun classes I would probably not be with that many people. ANDD anyway I'm in the music program so I have 10 hours of "fun" every week ahhaa. Basically all is good, I love everything here WOO! I'm going to a yfu fika with all the exchange students in the Stockholm area today. We have to have a presentation in Swedish so should be fun!

Swedish.

A guy in my Geography class said something yesterday that made me so happy and realize I actually am good at Swedish. We were all talking about my swedish skillzzz and they kept saying how good my Swedish is for me being here for 2 months and being an American (haha) and I was like nooooo noooooo nooooo I should be better blahblahblah. THEN he goes "Well you're better in Swedish than we are in Spanish and we have been learning it for 5 years!" and I was like he was so right.

I think the secret with learning a language fluently is actually being immersed in the language everyday of every hour. You just CAN'T learn a language in a classroom setting no matter how long or how hard you work. Usually the class will translate everything into your native language. SO WRONG, you need to associate the word with the object not the english word. When you were a baby you didn't learn your native language by your parents translating everything did you? NOOO, they pointed at something and said "TREE" So yeah, I'm trying and this is pretty hard but I'm going to be fluent in Swedish by the end of the year!

Gamla Uppsala & The domkyrka!

On Sunday I went to Uppsala with my host family to see one of my host sisters play a Volleyball game. We had a bunch of free time before so we went to Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala) and The Domkryka! I have wanted to do both for a very long time, so this was very awesome for me. Mainly because I read into a lot of Swedish history before I came so I knew what everything was and it was so cool to actually see it all in person. Here are some pictures of my day (:

I'm so happy here

So it's 9 in the morning here, one of my awesome friends Matilda is asleep beside me, and I'm just thinking about how happy I am. I don't know how to explain it, type it, or video blog it (haha). I've never been this happy, I feel like I belong here. I actually want to hang out with my friends here every day and never be in the house. I actually want to go to school. Exchange was the best decision I ever made. I just wanted to update and tell you I'm simply happy.

First Video blog!

Click here!

So I´m on a school computer in Sweden and I can get on facebook! They don´t block anything it´s fantastic! So everyone on break just comes in here and gets on facebook and plays games. Another reason why Sweden is awesome.

Running, Marabou, and girl night!

So yesterday I went running and I didn't stop the whole way. I ran from my house, all around the Edsviken trail, AND BACK. I have never done that. I just didn't need to stop like I usually do. I guess it's because of how healthy I'm eating, I have no idea but it was awesome. Even though I'm eating really healthy here I eat too much Marabou. For those of you that don't know Marabou is basically the best chocolate in the world. I'm being dead serious. Since it's Swedish it's EVERYWHERE. You get addicted and there are so many flavors! I don't know if I have gained weight or lost weight they don't have a scale here so I'm lost lol. Last night Astrid and me decided not to go out like we usually do and we just had a good old girl night. Movies, boy talk, and junk food. It was nice to just relax and not have to dress up or anything. Tilda and Astrid are already like my sisters it's really nice because I have never had sisters and I actually like it! Astrid and me borrow each others clothes and Tilda is SO funny. I will have a post later on about all the hilarious stuff Tilda does everyday. Well that's it for now, I'm going to go Fika with YFU. It's like a Stockholm gathering with all the exchange students and their families.

Hej då!