so a note: sorry everyone, i have been really busy lately and i havent had much time to sit down and write out blog posts. and now that i am at the camp i have even less time to do so. At the camp we have all day activities so by the time we get back i am too tired to write. i am sorry for this.
umm also i added post for the 19th and 20th...idk if you seen those. i am posting in date order, not order ive wrote them so those two might have gone unnoticed, they are under the one saying happy birthday to my dad.
Also, at the camp we are keeping a jounal on facebook (unfortuantly people not members of the facebook group are unable to see it)all the participents are assigned a day to write a journal entry for that day. so ive decided that it would probably be easiest if i just use what my fellow campmates have writen. and i will add in some of my own thoughts.
thanks for following my blog and im sorry i havent updated lately.miss you all!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!
Dear Daddy,
Happy Birthday to you! happy birthday to you! happy birthday dear daddy happy birthday to you!!!
PS. you might want to turn up the volume on your computer when you listen to this since its not that loud and hopefully it works
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
7/20/10
Today was another adventure day.
After breakfast we went to Kosta Boda which is a glass making factory right next to outlet stores. The area is known as the kingdom of glass because there are a lot of glass factories and glass stores in the area. I got to watch a guy hand make a plate. The end result was really really pretty! At first I thought he was making a vase because it looked like a ball and also at first it didn’t look colorful, just a reddish orange color. But slowly the guy was able to transform it into a beautiful and colorful plate. It was amazing and I took lots of pictures.
After he finished I went into the store next door to look for a martini glass for my mom...it was kinda hard because there was a handful to choose from. It wasn’t like there was only one style. There were plain normal ones, there were ones with snowflake on them and plenty others. I compared prices and looks and styles and ended up picking one that had blue on it cause i like blue. and the guy convinced me that i need to get one for myself and i tried to explain to him that i cant drink alcohol yet and plus i have one that i got from HRC for my 16th bday and that one has memories...he didnt understand and i ended up buying 2 martini glasses. When I paid for them I tried to see how much it would cost to ship them home but I could have bought 1 and a half more martini glasses with the amount it was to ship. So I guess I’ll have to carry them home myself. I packed them really good in a box and bubble wrap so im hoping they will survive. There is a clothing outlet nearby so I did some shopping for a bit. I got some gifts and I almost bought Jay D some socks that had the swedish flag on them but then I realized the shape the flag was in is a bit inappropriate so im glad I noticed that before I bought them. While buying one of my gifts, I had a whole conversation in swedish with the cashier. It was short and she did most of the talking but i understood her and was able to simply answer, im kinda proud of myself :)
After, we went to a gallery of more artsy (rather then useful products like plates and martini glasses) glass products. There was a lot of things I found that I thought were really cute and I wanted to buy them all. But those things were expensive! There was this one cat one that was SO cute but it cost like 48 dollars in american money. And like I said before, this was an artsy, not useful product store so it’s not like I would have any use for it cept as a dust collector. I did the second best thing though; I took pictures of all of the things I wanted so technically I have them with out having to pay :)
Then i went to a moose farm. Supposedly there are 22 mooses? Moosi? Meese? I have no clue what the plural of moose would be haha! Anyways there are 22 mooses but we only saw 4. it was a hot day so they were all probably hiding in the shade. Even though we didn’t see many mooses, it was fun. Maybe not worth 50 swedish kronors (like $7) but it was still fun. Then of course we ended up in a gift shop and I bought tons of souvenirs…but of course useful stuff.
Then on the way home we bought pizza since everyone was too tired to make anything. I don’t think ive mentioned it yet but here in sweden, everyone gets their own pizza and its like a medium size pizza! It’s a lot of food and so far I haven’t been able to finish it the 2 times so far we went out and got pizza. Luckily their dog likes pizza…or any other food we have for dinner and don’t finish.
It was definitely a long day but fun!
After breakfast we went to Kosta Boda which is a glass making factory right next to outlet stores. The area is known as the kingdom of glass because there are a lot of glass factories and glass stores in the area. I got to watch a guy hand make a plate. The end result was really really pretty! At first I thought he was making a vase because it looked like a ball and also at first it didn’t look colorful, just a reddish orange color. But slowly the guy was able to transform it into a beautiful and colorful plate. It was amazing and I took lots of pictures.
After he finished I went into the store next door to look for a martini glass for my mom...it was kinda hard because there was a handful to choose from. It wasn’t like there was only one style. There were plain normal ones, there were ones with snowflake on them and plenty others. I compared prices and looks and styles and ended up picking one that had blue on it cause i like blue. and the guy convinced me that i need to get one for myself and i tried to explain to him that i cant drink alcohol yet and plus i have one that i got from HRC for my 16th bday and that one has memories...he didnt understand and i ended up buying 2 martini glasses. When I paid for them I tried to see how much it would cost to ship them home but I could have bought 1 and a half more martini glasses with the amount it was to ship. So I guess I’ll have to carry them home myself. I packed them really good in a box and bubble wrap so im hoping they will survive. There is a clothing outlet nearby so I did some shopping for a bit. I got some gifts and I almost bought Jay D some socks that had the swedish flag on them but then I realized the shape the flag was in is a bit inappropriate so im glad I noticed that before I bought them. While buying one of my gifts, I had a whole conversation in swedish with the cashier. It was short and she did most of the talking but i understood her and was able to simply answer, im kinda proud of myself :)
After, we went to a gallery of more artsy (rather then useful products like plates and martini glasses) glass products. There was a lot of things I found that I thought were really cute and I wanted to buy them all. But those things were expensive! There was this one cat one that was SO cute but it cost like 48 dollars in american money. And like I said before, this was an artsy, not useful product store so it’s not like I would have any use for it cept as a dust collector. I did the second best thing though; I took pictures of all of the things I wanted so technically I have them with out having to pay :)
Then i went to a moose farm. Supposedly there are 22 mooses? Moosi? Meese? I have no clue what the plural of moose would be haha! Anyways there are 22 mooses but we only saw 4. it was a hot day so they were all probably hiding in the shade. Even though we didn’t see many mooses, it was fun. Maybe not worth 50 swedish kronors (like $7) but it was still fun. Then of course we ended up in a gift shop and I bought tons of souvenirs…but of course useful stuff.
Then on the way home we bought pizza since everyone was too tired to make anything. I don’t think ive mentioned it yet but here in sweden, everyone gets their own pizza and its like a medium size pizza! It’s a lot of food and so far I haven’t been able to finish it the 2 times so far we went out and got pizza. Luckily their dog likes pizza…or any other food we have for dinner and don’t finish.
It was definitely a long day but fun!
Monday, July 19, 2010
7/19/10
When I first came, I immediately noticed a soccer field complete with soccer goal nearby so today I went to kick a ball around. Because you know, I have to keep my skills up! Vivian came too. She has never played soccer before today so I was teaching her some of the basic skills. It was pretty fun. It was hot also so after a while we got tired and just laid in the grass. We just watched the clouds and I let Vivian listen to some of my music on my iPod and I heard some of her music. Hers were all in Chinese of course but they sounded nice.
After a little bit of listening to music and watching the clouds, we got up to walk to Bastasjön Lake, the one we saw with Anders on Friday. It is way peaceful here! There was nobody else there; it was like we had the whole place to ourselves. When we were here on Friday, Anders showed us a path around the lake so we decided to walk it today, the sign said it was only 1.5 km. we got about a quarter of the way and came to a block and there was a sign but it was in Swedish so I have no clue what it said. So for all we know, the path was closed for some reason. So we turned around and headed towards the house.
On the way we saw a play ground so we stopped there for a long while and just chilled. We did some sliding on the slide and swinging on the swings and we talked about what our schools are like. Vivian went to an all girls high school (well our high school equivalent) and they have a huge public exam to get into high school and another one to get out of high school. She says it’s really tough. Also the government assigns where each student will go to high school. It was a very interesting conversation.
Nope, I didn’t do much today, just a lot of chilling, some soccer and a very short hike. It was a nice relaxing day!
After a little bit of listening to music and watching the clouds, we got up to walk to Bastasjön Lake, the one we saw with Anders on Friday. It is way peaceful here! There was nobody else there; it was like we had the whole place to ourselves. When we were here on Friday, Anders showed us a path around the lake so we decided to walk it today, the sign said it was only 1.5 km. we got about a quarter of the way and came to a block and there was a sign but it was in Swedish so I have no clue what it said. So for all we know, the path was closed for some reason. So we turned around and headed towards the house.
On the way we saw a play ground so we stopped there for a long while and just chilled. We did some sliding on the slide and swinging on the swings and we talked about what our schools are like. Vivian went to an all girls high school (well our high school equivalent) and they have a huge public exam to get into high school and another one to get out of high school. She says it’s really tough. Also the government assigns where each student will go to high school. It was a very interesting conversation.
Nope, I didn’t do much today, just a lot of chilling, some soccer and a very short hike. It was a nice relaxing day!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
7/18/10
I would consider today a pretty chill day. But I would still definitely consider it a memorable day!
After breakfast and playing with Tiger/ feeding him cheese, I decided to brush Zack, the dog, since its summer and I’ve noticed that he is shedding. His coat looked SO shinny and clean after I was done!
Then I had to get ready because we were going to a flea market in Ronneby at Brunnsparken, a park that a few years ago was voted “Sweden’s most beautiful park.”
i really need to learn some numbers bigger then 10 because 10 Swedish Kronors buys me nearly nothing, in fact it’s equal to about $1.40. Haha can’t get much with that! There were SO many people! It was like a huge garage sale. I ended up buying a CD of a Swedish artist, idk who she is but it only cost 5 kronors which is about 70 cents in US money. Her name is Robyn and I'm listening to her songs right now and I kinda like them. And she sings in English so at least I can understand her :)
Then before going home we stopped at the store to pick up materials to make ice cream. A few days ago Madeline mentioned that she had an ice cream maker so Vivian and I really wanted to make some. We made vanilla ice cream completely from scratch and it turned out good and tasty :) it was basically egg yokes, sugar, vanilla extract and cream. And we put it in an ice cream machine that stirred and froze it for us and it only took and hour! Making ice cream was really fun!
From the egg whites we made meringues yummy! That was just egg whites and sugar. The recipe Madeline was following told us to put in chocolate sauce so we put in some. Those took FOREVER to bake!! Like 2 hours! But Madeline said that’s because it was on low heat and basically the meringues had to dry out. They were tasty but I think next time I would like it with out the chocolate sauce because it made part of the meringue chewy like taffy. And I didn’t really like that so much.
I plan to make ice cream and meringues again during this trip for sure!
After breakfast and playing with Tiger/ feeding him cheese, I decided to brush Zack, the dog, since its summer and I’ve noticed that he is shedding. His coat looked SO shinny and clean after I was done!
Then I had to get ready because we were going to a flea market in Ronneby at Brunnsparken, a park that a few years ago was voted “Sweden’s most beautiful park.”
i really need to learn some numbers bigger then 10 because 10 Swedish Kronors buys me nearly nothing, in fact it’s equal to about $1.40. Haha can’t get much with that! There were SO many people! It was like a huge garage sale. I ended up buying a CD of a Swedish artist, idk who she is but it only cost 5 kronors which is about 70 cents in US money. Her name is Robyn and I'm listening to her songs right now and I kinda like them. And she sings in English so at least I can understand her :)
Then before going home we stopped at the store to pick up materials to make ice cream. A few days ago Madeline mentioned that she had an ice cream maker so Vivian and I really wanted to make some. We made vanilla ice cream completely from scratch and it turned out good and tasty :) it was basically egg yokes, sugar, vanilla extract and cream. And we put it in an ice cream machine that stirred and froze it for us and it only took and hour! Making ice cream was really fun!
From the egg whites we made meringues yummy! That was just egg whites and sugar. The recipe Madeline was following told us to put in chocolate sauce so we put in some. Those took FOREVER to bake!! Like 2 hours! But Madeline said that’s because it was on low heat and basically the meringues had to dry out. They were tasty but I think next time I would like it with out the chocolate sauce because it made part of the meringue chewy like taffy. And I didn’t really like that so much.
I plan to make ice cream and meringues again during this trip for sure!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
music and videos from the music festival on 7/17
i just got a new camera before i left for this trip so im just learning how to use it and all of what it is capable of. when reading reviews of this camera it repeatedly said that this is not the camera you should get if you want to take videos with it. i think this is mainly because it doesnt take HD quality video like a lot of the other cameras on the market. Either way i wasnt buying the camera for taking video. that said, i still think these are pretty darn good videos...i was expecting much worst. ANYWAYS...here are some examples of the music i heard at the Hasslö Music Festival on the 17th of july.
SINN FENN
Amanda Jenssen
Sinn Fenn
Ognob
note: i personally didnt like this groups' music style but thier head banging intrigued me lol! right after recording this video i went as far away as possible and called my parents. just to say hi and tell everyone i missed them and to see how everything at home is going and all that good stuff
Mary Jet
ENJOY! and i hope they all work!
SINN FENN
Amanda Jenssen
Sinn Fenn
Ognob
note: i personally didnt like this groups' music style but thier head banging intrigued me lol! right after recording this video i went as far away as possible and called my parents. just to say hi and tell everyone i missed them and to see how everything at home is going and all that good stuff
Mary Jet
ENJOY! and i hope they all work!
7/17/10
To describe today in 5 words: rainy, thunder, lighting, music, fun.
Woke up to thunder and hard, pounding rain outside my window. At first I was scared cuz there’s always that few seconds of confusion when I first wake up but when I realized it was just the rain, I relaxed. I just laid in my bed for a while just listening…rain hitting the roof is so relaxing and I love the rain, everything about it.
I finally decided to get up and go down to breakfast (after like 30 or so minutes of just listening) We always eat breakfast outside on their little patio thing (which luckily has a roof) which I especially enjoyed today since I was close to the rain and the fresh air. Breakfast was the same, yogurt and cereal and some cheese on the side. Yummy.
Today we didn’t have any internet since we have to unplug everything when ever there is thunder and lighting. Which in all honesty, I was totally chill with. I had tons of fun, trying out new things with my new camera and trying to capture a picture for my 365 project to portray a rainy day. And of course plain relaxing and listening to the rain and all of us talking about the rain and all that good stuff.
Our plan for the afternoon was to go to a music festival so we were worried that it would be all rainy and stormy there. We had the radio on all morning to listen to the weather. Luckily it cleared up around 2.
At 5 we left to go to a Chinese restaurant. We went today because they were serving a buffet today. When we got there Madeline made me go up and look at the food to make sure there were other things besides rice that I could eat. I did a quick look and saw noodles and some vegetables and fried things that I could possibly eat. When I actually went up to pick out my food, I found that the noodles had some sort of meat in them and basically everything had some sort of meat in it. My plate consisted of (a whole bunch of) rice, fried eggplant, some other fried thing, broccoli & carrots that I picked out of one of the serving trays. The egg plant and other fried thing tasted icky…I don’t really like the taste of fried. The carrots and broccoli were ok but I couldn’t get a lot since they were mixed in with the other things in the serving tray. In fact I think I picked out all of the carrots in one of the serving trays, lol! The rice was really dry and kinda hard but I fixed that with putting tons of sauce on it. It filled me though so it’s all good.
After we drove to Hasslö for the music festival. I got to listen to some really nice Swedish rock music. My favorite groups I heard were Mary Jet, Sinn Fenn and Amanda Jenssen. One note: in Sweden they pronounce the letter J with a y sound. I loved Mary Jet’s lead singers’ hair…she had dreads and her music was nice too! Sinn Fenn seemed to be the crowd favorite. The lead singer grew up on Hasslö so he was a local. Their music was all in Swedish but it was really up beat and happy. Amanda Jenssen was the second place singer in a recent series of Swedish Idol (like American Idol) Vivian and I had front row view right at the stage. It was amazing!
Even though on some of the artists/songs I had no clue what they were saying since they sang in Swedish, I did like them! And I had lots of fun! We didn’t come back to the house till 12:30 in the morning.
Woke up to thunder and hard, pounding rain outside my window. At first I was scared cuz there’s always that few seconds of confusion when I first wake up but when I realized it was just the rain, I relaxed. I just laid in my bed for a while just listening…rain hitting the roof is so relaxing and I love the rain, everything about it.
I finally decided to get up and go down to breakfast (after like 30 or so minutes of just listening) We always eat breakfast outside on their little patio thing (which luckily has a roof) which I especially enjoyed today since I was close to the rain and the fresh air. Breakfast was the same, yogurt and cereal and some cheese on the side. Yummy.
Today we didn’t have any internet since we have to unplug everything when ever there is thunder and lighting. Which in all honesty, I was totally chill with. I had tons of fun, trying out new things with my new camera and trying to capture a picture for my 365 project to portray a rainy day. And of course plain relaxing and listening to the rain and all of us talking about the rain and all that good stuff.
Our plan for the afternoon was to go to a music festival so we were worried that it would be all rainy and stormy there. We had the radio on all morning to listen to the weather. Luckily it cleared up around 2.
At 5 we left to go to a Chinese restaurant. We went today because they were serving a buffet today. When we got there Madeline made me go up and look at the food to make sure there were other things besides rice that I could eat. I did a quick look and saw noodles and some vegetables and fried things that I could possibly eat. When I actually went up to pick out my food, I found that the noodles had some sort of meat in them and basically everything had some sort of meat in it. My plate consisted of (a whole bunch of) rice, fried eggplant, some other fried thing, broccoli & carrots that I picked out of one of the serving trays. The egg plant and other fried thing tasted icky…I don’t really like the taste of fried. The carrots and broccoli were ok but I couldn’t get a lot since they were mixed in with the other things in the serving tray. In fact I think I picked out all of the carrots in one of the serving trays, lol! The rice was really dry and kinda hard but I fixed that with putting tons of sauce on it. It filled me though so it’s all good.
After we drove to Hasslö for the music festival. I got to listen to some really nice Swedish rock music. My favorite groups I heard were Mary Jet, Sinn Fenn and Amanda Jenssen. One note: in Sweden they pronounce the letter J with a y sound. I loved Mary Jet’s lead singers’ hair…she had dreads and her music was nice too! Sinn Fenn seemed to be the crowd favorite. The lead singer grew up on Hasslö so he was a local. Their music was all in Swedish but it was really up beat and happy. Amanda Jenssen was the second place singer in a recent series of Swedish Idol (like American Idol) Vivian and I had front row view right at the stage. It was amazing!
Even though on some of the artists/songs I had no clue what they were saying since they sang in Swedish, I did like them! And I had lots of fun! We didn’t come back to the house till 12:30 in the morning.
Friday, July 16, 2010
pics from 7/16
a note: so appearently there a limit on how much pictures i can upload each month on flikr and somehow i already used it all up, with one day's worth of pics! so im gonna have to figure something else out...
until then:
grocery shopping like we do everyday lol
like ive mentioned before, they have to pay for thier bags here and also they have to bag thier own stuff.
walking the dog Zach :)
Just keep walking just keep walking *said in the style of Dory from the great movie Finding Nemo*
so much green!
the lake so peaceful and quiet
there are some random horses pened up here and idk where any owner is...
Zach just chilling and trying to cool down after our walk to the lake
ZACH!!! its a hot day aint it?
there is graffiti here too... :/
In sweden you cant buy alcholic beverages in normal grocery stores so they have special stores filled with all kinds of alcohol. kinda reminds me of a BevMo. anyways we had to pick up some wine for our surprise. dont worry it was mainly for Madeline only.
the hegehog that likes to chill in the yard and then gets freaked out when Zach runs to it and starts sniffing it and barking like a madman
Left to right:Annika, Adina, Stefani(Lucia), Rebecca and i never learned her name.
Them singing buitifully
Me dressed in Lucia clothing
me and Vivian joining in Lucia pictures
Swimming at 9:30 at night!!
From left to right: i forget her name, Annika, Rebecca, Adina, and me :)
until then:
grocery shopping like we do everyday lol
like ive mentioned before, they have to pay for thier bags here and also they have to bag thier own stuff.
walking the dog Zach :)
Just keep walking just keep walking *said in the style of Dory from the great movie Finding Nemo*
so much green!
the lake so peaceful and quiet
there are some random horses pened up here and idk where any owner is...
Zach just chilling and trying to cool down after our walk to the lake ZACH!!! its a hot day aint it?
there is graffiti here too... :/
In sweden you cant buy alcholic beverages in normal grocery stores so they have special stores filled with all kinds of alcohol. kinda reminds me of a BevMo. anyways we had to pick up some wine for our surprise. dont worry it was mainly for Madeline only.
the hegehog that likes to chill in the yard and then gets freaked out when Zach runs to it and starts sniffing it and barking like a madman
Left to right:Annika, Adina, Stefani(Lucia), Rebecca and i never learned her name.
Them singing buitifully 
Me dressed in Lucia clothing
me and Vivian joining in Lucia pictures
Swimming at 9:30 at night!!
From left to right: i forget her name, Annika, Rebecca, Adina, and me :) 7/16/10
Ever since I first arrived, Madeline and Anders have been telling me and Vivian that they have a surprise for us on Friday, today. They created this big hype and wouldn’t tell us what they had planned for today. By Thursday, and part of this morning I started getting very annoyed with how they wouldn’t tell us anything. I mean I love surprises but you should leave it at that, a surprise. They kept telling us part of things like who they were going to invite and that they wish this one opera singer could have come but she already had plans. Like hinting at things but when one of us asked about it they would be like “nope, it’s a surprise” I guess its just me, I don’t like it when someone tells me part of something but wont tell me all of it and I would much rather they say nothing at all, idk.
Anyways, this morning, after breakfast, we went to the store to pick up food for later, for the surprise. I think ive said this before but we go grocery shopping every single day. Luckily I find it interesting still, looking at all the different products. Kinda off topic but not really, the swedish word for pineapples is “ananas”. I love saying it :) and I learned that from looking at the sign in the grocery store. Going to the grocery store is a great way to learn the names of products in swedish since I can see the product and make the connection between what it looks like, the english word and the swedish word. Also kinda related, the swedish word for sale is “rea” and the tax is included in the price of the products here so the price you see is the price you pay.
When we came back to the house we took the dog, Zack for a walk around the neighborhood with Anders. It was a nice way to see the area around their house. We ended up walking to a small lake near by called, I think, Bastasjön. It was really pretty and peaceful. Anders said that there is a path so we can walk around the lake. Vivian and I plan to do that sometime next week. While we were walking back Anders told us that they build their house and have been living in it for like 26 years. He said that to build a house in their neighborhood costs around 5 million swedish kronors. In American money that is like $678,030.75. I don’t have a good concept of money and how much it usually costs to build a house at home but that sounds kinda good. There are still empty lots in the neighborhood here but im not sure I’d like to live here cuz the price for everything else is so high. The swedish government does pay for college here so then mommy and daddy could have their house in the British Virgin Islands and their boat called “college fund” :P haha! The nature around the neighborhood here is really nice but I do really love my home and where its located and plus we have lots of nature around our home too.
Back at the house, we just chilled till 4 (when the surprise was supposed to start) but people ended up being late and we didn’t start till 6. Whatever happened to the swedish not believing in being “fashionably late”?
I bet youre wondering what the surprise is. Well, the surprise was a swim party with her Lucia girls. And they sang some songs for us. They are very good singers. Lucia is a thing they do in sweden around christmas time where a procession of 7 girls go around to old people homes and sing for them. I guess kinda like caroling but these girls have to audition for it and it’s a big honor to be chosen as Lucia or one of her “court” (sorry that’s probably not the best word but I cant think of any other) they are 17-20 years old and they were all really nice. They taught Vivian and I some more swedish words and helped us learn how to count to 10. The words for 2, 4 and 7 are really hard to pronounce!! And they thought it very funny when ever we tried to say them. Haha it was fun though. After their little show of singing for us, Madeline had Vivian and I dress up too in the Lucia clothes and we all took pictures together. (Vivian and I didn’t sing, thank goodness!)Then swimming! It was a short swim cuz everyone was tired but we all had fun.
Overall, I enjoyed our surprise and Im glad I got to meet some people my age. Im already friends with one of them on facebook :) haha! Now our friendship is official :P
Anyways, this morning, after breakfast, we went to the store to pick up food for later, for the surprise. I think ive said this before but we go grocery shopping every single day. Luckily I find it interesting still, looking at all the different products. Kinda off topic but not really, the swedish word for pineapples is “ananas”. I love saying it :) and I learned that from looking at the sign in the grocery store. Going to the grocery store is a great way to learn the names of products in swedish since I can see the product and make the connection between what it looks like, the english word and the swedish word. Also kinda related, the swedish word for sale is “rea” and the tax is included in the price of the products here so the price you see is the price you pay.
When we came back to the house we took the dog, Zack for a walk around the neighborhood with Anders. It was a nice way to see the area around their house. We ended up walking to a small lake near by called, I think, Bastasjön. It was really pretty and peaceful. Anders said that there is a path so we can walk around the lake. Vivian and I plan to do that sometime next week. While we were walking back Anders told us that they build their house and have been living in it for like 26 years. He said that to build a house in their neighborhood costs around 5 million swedish kronors. In American money that is like $678,030.75. I don’t have a good concept of money and how much it usually costs to build a house at home but that sounds kinda good. There are still empty lots in the neighborhood here but im not sure I’d like to live here cuz the price for everything else is so high. The swedish government does pay for college here so then mommy and daddy could have their house in the British Virgin Islands and their boat called “college fund” :P haha! The nature around the neighborhood here is really nice but I do really love my home and where its located and plus we have lots of nature around our home too.
Back at the house, we just chilled till 4 (when the surprise was supposed to start) but people ended up being late and we didn’t start till 6. Whatever happened to the swedish not believing in being “fashionably late”?
I bet youre wondering what the surprise is. Well, the surprise was a swim party with her Lucia girls. And they sang some songs for us. They are very good singers. Lucia is a thing they do in sweden around christmas time where a procession of 7 girls go around to old people homes and sing for them. I guess kinda like caroling but these girls have to audition for it and it’s a big honor to be chosen as Lucia or one of her “court” (sorry that’s probably not the best word but I cant think of any other) they are 17-20 years old and they were all really nice. They taught Vivian and I some more swedish words and helped us learn how to count to 10. The words for 2, 4 and 7 are really hard to pronounce!! And they thought it very funny when ever we tried to say them. Haha it was fun though. After their little show of singing for us, Madeline had Vivian and I dress up too in the Lucia clothes and we all took pictures together. (Vivian and I didn’t sing, thank goodness!)Then swimming! It was a short swim cuz everyone was tired but we all had fun.
Overall, I enjoyed our surprise and Im glad I got to meet some people my age. Im already friends with one of them on facebook :) haha! Now our friendship is official :P
Thursday, July 15, 2010
pics from Vivian and my adventure on the 15th
ok im gonna try something new...ive been taking lots of pic everyday and uploading them one at a time to blogger is a pain so flickr is gonna become my new best friend :) this is a slide show and i realize its kinda small but if you click on it it'll bring you to the flickr page where the pics are bigger and ive also put discriptions of the pictures. i hope this works! enjoy!
edit: if you cant see the pics maybe a link will work? let me know: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37034002@N03/sets/72157624418142039/
edit: if you cant see the pics maybe a link will work? let me know: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37034002@N03/sets/72157624418142039/
7/15/10
Today was another adventure. Vivian and I took the bus to Karlskrona, all by ourselves! It was pretty fun! And I felt very independent and proud of myself. :) and we didn’t even get lost, not even once.
We woke up at 8 and ate breakfast then got all our stuff together so we could catch the 9:43 bus to Centrum (what Karlskrona is called on all the street signs)
Oh, last night Vivian and I looked up and made a list of all the things we want to see in the city and we are planning to split everything in to multiple days. A few days ago we stopped at the tourist center and got maps and pamphlets.
Anyways the bus stop is a short walk from the house so we got to it in plenty of time, plus the bus was 4 mins late (not a big deal to me but to Vivian it was sort of) then we got across to the bus driver that we are both 17 so we could pay the youth fee instead of the adult fee of 20 kronors. (Vivian is 21 but she can definitely still pass as 17 or 18)
Once in the city, we made our way to the Great Square which I would say is the main square of the city. There we saw the Fredrik Church, the Water Castle, and the Church of the Holy Trinity (aka the German Church).
The Fredrik Church was named after King Fredrik I. it resembles a roman Basilica and it’s façade was most likely inspired by the Santa Trinita dei Monti church in Rome. Inside it looked pretty but it doesn’t even come close to the churches I saw in Italy. Though, it did have a pretty organ.
The Water Tower was eh. Now it has been turned into some type of museum with artifacts from other places, so we didn’t go in. Before, it was a water tower that supplied water to the city in the 19th century. It sorta looks like a castle, hence the name.
The Church of the Holy Trinity is also known as the German Church since it was for all the Germans that moved to the city. It has a rotunda that was inspired by Italian architecture. Right now it wasn’t much to look at outside because they are in the process of restoring it. But inside when I walked to the center and looked up, into the rotunda, it looked really cool…it had an eye catching pattern. Also inside they were showing a 10 min video of the history of the city which Vivian watched.
Then we walked pass (and took pics of) the Admiralty Clock Tower and the Batallion af Trolle. I think they both have a pretty orange color when the sun shines on them. Then we went to the Admiralty Church. That is where my host parents go to church. It’s shaped like a Greek cross and it is a barn red color. Inside it is blue and it has a navy theme because it is a church for the Swedish navy people and their families.
In front of the church is a statue of “old Rosenbom” he is a sailor from the 1700’s and he was poor and had lots of children that he needed to feed so one night he went out begging and he forgot to raise his hat to some rich guy so (I think if I remember right) the rich guy didn’t give him money and then the next day Rosenbom was found frozen to death. So the rich guy felt really bad so he built a statue that was designed so you have to lift his hat yourself in order to put money in.
There is also a sculpture of a storybook character named Nils coming out of a book. The story is, one night Nils came out of the book and also old Rosenbom came alive and some guy was chasing Nils all over Sweden and Nils was flying on a goose (I think) and he landed in Karlskrona and old Rosenbom hid Nils in his hat. Haha I don’t think that made sense…I need to ask someone to explain the story to me again.
After all that, we looked for the Aurora Bastion but I think it was inside the naval base and people are not allowed to go in unless they are on a tour. So we decided to go get lunch. Vivian didn’t bring a lot of money on the trip so she didn’t want to go to a restaurant or pay a lot for lunch. We ended up going to a grocery store and picked up some potato salad from the deli section. So do you know how in some delis in stores there is food that is packaged and priced according to weight? Well yeah the package I picked out only cost 12.50 Swedish Kronors which is like less then 2 US dollars. :) But they charged for forks, 5 Kronors (around $0.75 US) so we walked down to the local McDonalds and tried to find free forks there but all we could find were coffee stirrers. So we used those, lol! Boy, am I cheap! But my motto for this trip is “doing ordinary things in different ways” so using coffee stirrers as a fork was definitely different! But either way, the potato salad was really good and it filled me up. And that’s what really matters. After lunch I convinced Vivian to get ice cream so we ended up getting ice cream. I got one cup full of triple chocolate for 25 Swedish Kronors (I think somewhere around $3) oh man was it yummy!
After, we decided to go walk to a neighborhood called Björkholmen. This was where all the ship yard workers lived in the 1700’s. Their building materials mostly consisted of stolen wood and such from the ship yard where they worked. So the houses are really short. They remind me of troll houses. And the houses here are SO colorful! I love it!
We then found our way back to the main area of the city and just walked around and looked in some shops before taking the bus back home. It was a super fun day!
We woke up at 8 and ate breakfast then got all our stuff together so we could catch the 9:43 bus to Centrum (what Karlskrona is called on all the street signs)
Oh, last night Vivian and I looked up and made a list of all the things we want to see in the city and we are planning to split everything in to multiple days. A few days ago we stopped at the tourist center and got maps and pamphlets.
Anyways the bus stop is a short walk from the house so we got to it in plenty of time, plus the bus was 4 mins late (not a big deal to me but to Vivian it was sort of) then we got across to the bus driver that we are both 17 so we could pay the youth fee instead of the adult fee of 20 kronors. (Vivian is 21 but she can definitely still pass as 17 or 18)
Once in the city, we made our way to the Great Square which I would say is the main square of the city. There we saw the Fredrik Church, the Water Castle, and the Church of the Holy Trinity (aka the German Church).
The Fredrik Church was named after King Fredrik I. it resembles a roman Basilica and it’s façade was most likely inspired by the Santa Trinita dei Monti church in Rome. Inside it looked pretty but it doesn’t even come close to the churches I saw in Italy. Though, it did have a pretty organ.
The Water Tower was eh. Now it has been turned into some type of museum with artifacts from other places, so we didn’t go in. Before, it was a water tower that supplied water to the city in the 19th century. It sorta looks like a castle, hence the name.
The Church of the Holy Trinity is also known as the German Church since it was for all the Germans that moved to the city. It has a rotunda that was inspired by Italian architecture. Right now it wasn’t much to look at outside because they are in the process of restoring it. But inside when I walked to the center and looked up, into the rotunda, it looked really cool…it had an eye catching pattern. Also inside they were showing a 10 min video of the history of the city which Vivian watched.
Then we walked pass (and took pics of) the Admiralty Clock Tower and the Batallion af Trolle. I think they both have a pretty orange color when the sun shines on them. Then we went to the Admiralty Church. That is where my host parents go to church. It’s shaped like a Greek cross and it is a barn red color. Inside it is blue and it has a navy theme because it is a church for the Swedish navy people and their families.
In front of the church is a statue of “old Rosenbom” he is a sailor from the 1700’s and he was poor and had lots of children that he needed to feed so one night he went out begging and he forgot to raise his hat to some rich guy so (I think if I remember right) the rich guy didn’t give him money and then the next day Rosenbom was found frozen to death. So the rich guy felt really bad so he built a statue that was designed so you have to lift his hat yourself in order to put money in.
There is also a sculpture of a storybook character named Nils coming out of a book. The story is, one night Nils came out of the book and also old Rosenbom came alive and some guy was chasing Nils all over Sweden and Nils was flying on a goose (I think) and he landed in Karlskrona and old Rosenbom hid Nils in his hat. Haha I don’t think that made sense…I need to ask someone to explain the story to me again.
After all that, we looked for the Aurora Bastion but I think it was inside the naval base and people are not allowed to go in unless they are on a tour. So we decided to go get lunch. Vivian didn’t bring a lot of money on the trip so she didn’t want to go to a restaurant or pay a lot for lunch. We ended up going to a grocery store and picked up some potato salad from the deli section. So do you know how in some delis in stores there is food that is packaged and priced according to weight? Well yeah the package I picked out only cost 12.50 Swedish Kronors which is like less then 2 US dollars. :) But they charged for forks, 5 Kronors (around $0.75 US) so we walked down to the local McDonalds and tried to find free forks there but all we could find were coffee stirrers. So we used those, lol! Boy, am I cheap! But my motto for this trip is “doing ordinary things in different ways” so using coffee stirrers as a fork was definitely different! But either way, the potato salad was really good and it filled me up. And that’s what really matters. After lunch I convinced Vivian to get ice cream so we ended up getting ice cream. I got one cup full of triple chocolate for 25 Swedish Kronors (I think somewhere around $3) oh man was it yummy!
After, we decided to go walk to a neighborhood called Björkholmen. This was where all the ship yard workers lived in the 1700’s. Their building materials mostly consisted of stolen wood and such from the ship yard where they worked. So the houses are really short. They remind me of troll houses. And the houses here are SO colorful! I love it!
We then found our way back to the main area of the city and just walked around and looked in some shops before taking the bus back home. It was a super fun day!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
More pictures!!
Gas is very expensive here! 12.48 Swedish Kronors = 1.70 US Dollars and that is for 1 liter. to make one gallon you need 3.7854 liters so its about $6.45 US Dollars a gallon here!!...if i did the math right...
this is a pretty sunset from the backyard. this was taken at 9:47 pm. as ive said before, the days are long here
a direction post in the city, Karlskrona but appearently someone turned the pole so the arrows arent in exactly the right direction.
Me, Vivian and Madeline (my host mom) over looking karlskrona.
I made a new friend named tiger and he LOVES cheese. and i eat cheese every morning so we are best of friends now!
me playing with Tiger...he makes me really miss my cat, Zelda!
7/14/10
Today was an adventure…well more of a Swedish history day. If there was an AP Swedish History test I’d get an 3 (if I didn’t have to write the essays in Swedish, haha)
After my normal breakfast of cereal in yogurt and some cheese, we went to Karlskrona. Today it was Victoria’s (the Crown Princess of Sweden) 33rd birthday. So they had a 21 gun salute in honor. At exactly noon it started and we watched.
Then we drove to the rock carvings in Torhumn. They were really cool. They were made during the late Bronze Age in Sweden which is during 1200-500 BC!! Wow! Really old! There were depictions of horses and people and the sun and boats. And they were painted in a red color but on the sign it said that was done recently so that people can see the carvings better.
Then we drove a bit to a place on the water but I don’t know what it is called. We were planning to eat lunch there but we didn’t because they don’t accept credit cards there. So we drove to Kristianopel, Sweden and ate there. I ate a waffle and it came with ice cream :) it was very very yummy!
During the 17th century, Kristianopel was the eastern most part of Denmark. And then of course there was a treaty and Kristianopel, as well as the area around it, became part of Sweden. It’s pretty, and apparently lots of people sail there for a day or 2 from areas near by. I saw boats with flags from Denmark, France and Norway.
After a bit we drove to Brömsebro, Sweden where the, I'm guessing its called, The Brömsebro treaty was signed. In Brömsebro there is like an island and on one side the danish were and the other the swedish. and in the middle, representatives from each side plus some french guy (I guess you can call him a middle man or something) signed the peace treaty. And it gave Sweden: Blekinge providence (where I am living) and I think 2 other providences.
After all that fun and very interesting history lesson/ exploration, we stopped by at the grocery store (like we do everyday) to buy more yogert and some other things.
I learned a lot today. Some other, non- history related things. One, Swedish people eat everything with forks and knives. And two, you have to pay for the bags in a grocery store, they are about twenty cents each.
Yup yup that was my day!
After my normal breakfast of cereal in yogurt and some cheese, we went to Karlskrona. Today it was Victoria’s (the Crown Princess of Sweden) 33rd birthday. So they had a 21 gun salute in honor. At exactly noon it started and we watched.
Then we drove to the rock carvings in Torhumn. They were really cool. They were made during the late Bronze Age in Sweden which is during 1200-500 BC!! Wow! Really old! There were depictions of horses and people and the sun and boats. And they were painted in a red color but on the sign it said that was done recently so that people can see the carvings better.
Then we drove a bit to a place on the water but I don’t know what it is called. We were planning to eat lunch there but we didn’t because they don’t accept credit cards there. So we drove to Kristianopel, Sweden and ate there. I ate a waffle and it came with ice cream :) it was very very yummy!
During the 17th century, Kristianopel was the eastern most part of Denmark. And then of course there was a treaty and Kristianopel, as well as the area around it, became part of Sweden. It’s pretty, and apparently lots of people sail there for a day or 2 from areas near by. I saw boats with flags from Denmark, France and Norway.
After a bit we drove to Brömsebro, Sweden where the, I'm guessing its called, The Brömsebro treaty was signed. In Brömsebro there is like an island and on one side the danish were and the other the swedish. and in the middle, representatives from each side plus some french guy (I guess you can call him a middle man or something) signed the peace treaty. And it gave Sweden: Blekinge providence (where I am living) and I think 2 other providences.
After all that fun and very interesting history lesson/ exploration, we stopped by at the grocery store (like we do everyday) to buy more yogert and some other things.
I learned a lot today. Some other, non- history related things. One, Swedish people eat everything with forks and knives. And two, you have to pay for the bags in a grocery store, they are about twenty cents each.
Yup yup that was my day!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
7/13/10
Ok so, just like at home, the weatherman is wrong. There were no thunderstorms at all today. It didn’t even rain except for literally a few drops late in the day. So it was still hot!
I learned how to take the bus to the city center. That’s really good, now I won’t be stuck in a house all day. It cost 12 Swedish kronors which is $1.62 one way so $3.25 roundtrip. The ride is 35 mins.
I also learned that I will not get to go to Stockholm, the capital city. I'm pretty bummed about that but I guess it’s more the reason to have to come back some day, right? According to my host parents it is too far and too expensive from where I am living. Oh well!
So besides going to Karlskrona for a few hours and learning how to use the bus, I pretty much hang here all day. Sofie and Jonas came over for a bit to swim. I didn’t swim cuz it’s SO hot in the sun! Sofie is pretty cool, she’s 23 or 24.
After dinner we started talking about how education is set up in each country (Sweden, Hong Kong, USA) in Sweden the student gets 2000 Swedish kronors or something like that each month! Wow its cuz they have high taxes. Somehow we started talking about religion. I know, probably a bad idea. They have a very different view then I do. It was interesting. I’ve never met someone with such strong views that are opposite of mine. Don’t worry, I was VERY careful with choosing my words cuz I have more control over the English language then they do. So I made sure I said exactly what I wanted and didn’t “put words in their mouths”. And I tried not to shoot down their beliefs since I try to respect others beliefs. I got a very different view, that’s for sure!
I learned how to take the bus to the city center. That’s really good, now I won’t be stuck in a house all day. It cost 12 Swedish kronors which is $1.62 one way so $3.25 roundtrip. The ride is 35 mins.
I also learned that I will not get to go to Stockholm, the capital city. I'm pretty bummed about that but I guess it’s more the reason to have to come back some day, right? According to my host parents it is too far and too expensive from where I am living. Oh well!
So besides going to Karlskrona for a few hours and learning how to use the bus, I pretty much hang here all day. Sofie and Jonas came over for a bit to swim. I didn’t swim cuz it’s SO hot in the sun! Sofie is pretty cool, she’s 23 or 24.
After dinner we started talking about how education is set up in each country (Sweden, Hong Kong, USA) in Sweden the student gets 2000 Swedish kronors or something like that each month! Wow its cuz they have high taxes. Somehow we started talking about religion. I know, probably a bad idea. They have a very different view then I do. It was interesting. I’ve never met someone with such strong views that are opposite of mine. Don’t worry, I was VERY careful with choosing my words cuz I have more control over the English language then they do. So I made sure I said exactly what I wanted and didn’t “put words in their mouths”. And I tried not to shoot down their beliefs since I try to respect others beliefs. I got a very different view, that’s for sure!
pictures :)
here's some pictures so far...more to come later :)
i love this cheese here! this is basically the majority of what im eating...i snack on it throughout the day
my housemate, Vivian she is 21 and she is from hong kong. she is really nice and she is pretty good at english
the bathroom...they have a blue toilet there is only one other toilet in the house and this is is the only shower so i guess if this house was located in United States this would be the master bath. but appearently it is very comon to only have 1 shower and 2 toilets in the whole house in a typical swedish home
the clock says 4:40 look how bright it is! oh, i forgot to say its 4:40 IN THE MORNING!!!
i love this cheese here! this is basically the majority of what im eating...i snack on it throughout the day
my housemate, Vivian she is 21 and she is from hong kong. she is really nice and she is pretty good at english
the bathroom...they have a blue toilet there is only one other toilet in the house and this is is the only shower so i guess if this house was located in United States this would be the master bath. but appearently it is very comon to only have 1 shower and 2 toilets in the whole house in a typical swedish home the clock says 4:40 look how bright it is! oh, i forgot to say its 4:40 IN THE MORNING!!! so to fix that we got a window shade :)
the view from my room
my room
the grocery store...its huge!
the roundabouts here are really simple, daddy i think you'd be pro at them, if you can handle the italian ones, you can for sure handle swedish ones :)
lots of farmland/ fields of green around here!
the view from my room
my room
the grocery store...its huge!
the roundabouts here are really simple, daddy i think you'd be pro at them, if you can handle the italian ones, you can for sure handle swedish ones :)
lots of farmland/ fields of green around here!Monday, July 12, 2010
Day 4
Dang that sun is a pain in the butt! Wakes me up at 4:30 in the stupid dang morning being all bright and hot. I really got to get used to this and quick or else I won’t get much sleep. The sun sets around 10 at night here and rises super early, its crazy!
And it’s so dang hot here! Its 90 degrees, plus or minus 2 degrees. Wow! When I think of Sweden, I think of cold and snow. Well that idea was dead wrong! It is hot! And way hotter then at home! Luckily they have a pool here :) so today we spent a lot of time in the pool. And I met some of Anders and Madeleine’s children and grandchildren. Umm I met Johan and Sofie (2 out of 3 of their children) and Theo, Alva, and Jonas (3 out of 5 of their grandchildren) their grandchildren are SO cute!
Since it was too hot to go into Karlskrona earlier in the day we went down in the car to look around and to pick up some pizza at around 5pm. It looks pretty nice from what I’ve seen so far. But I don’t think I get to go tomorrow because according to the weatherman, there are supposed to be class 1 thunderstorms. So I guess we can’t be outside or have anything plugged in. I wonder how tomorrow will be…stuck in a house without power. No I'm not complaining about not having internet or anything but I forgot to bring playing cards so I just wonder what I will do. It sure will be interesting.
And it’s so dang hot here! Its 90 degrees, plus or minus 2 degrees. Wow! When I think of Sweden, I think of cold and snow. Well that idea was dead wrong! It is hot! And way hotter then at home! Luckily they have a pool here :) so today we spent a lot of time in the pool. And I met some of Anders and Madeleine’s children and grandchildren. Umm I met Johan and Sofie (2 out of 3 of their children) and Theo, Alva, and Jonas (3 out of 5 of their grandchildren) their grandchildren are SO cute!
Since it was too hot to go into Karlskrona earlier in the day we went down in the car to look around and to pick up some pizza at around 5pm. It looks pretty nice from what I’ve seen so far. But I don’t think I get to go tomorrow because according to the weatherman, there are supposed to be class 1 thunderstorms. So I guess we can’t be outside or have anything plugged in. I wonder how tomorrow will be…stuck in a house without power. No I'm not complaining about not having internet or anything but I forgot to bring playing cards so I just wonder what I will do. It sure will be interesting.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
day 3
I slept well :) I wake up around 6:30 when I heard Madeline and Anders moving about because they had to pick up Vivian at the airport. I learned that she goes by Vivian, not Wan Yan. I fell back asleep until 9:30. for breakfast I ate yogurt with frosted flakes in it and orange juice. The yogurt here comes in a cartoon like milk does. And instead of putting milk in their cereal, they use yogurt. I kinda like it. I finally was able to take a shower. It was kinda like a half shower/ half bath because it was in a bath tub with a handheld shower head. But it sure did feel good! After I relaxed and took some pictures of Loota, the dog. I think that’s his name… Loota was scared of the camera and would bark when he saw the camera. Then Vivian and Anders and Madeline came back from the airport. Vivian is 21 years old and she is from Hong Kong. She’s alright at English. Soon after, we left to Karlskrona. The landscape is very green. Lots of farms and fields. And at some points, trees. On the way we stopped by at Dan and Monica’s house. They are the directors of the South Nature camp that I will attend in 3 weeks time. After chilling there for a little while and eating some glass (ice cream) we were off again, but not before we stopped at the store to pick up some food for the next week. Finally we arrived at Anders and Madeline’s home. It is very nice, 2 stories. Vivian and I each have our own rooms on the second floor. We all settled in and just chilled in their backyard eating cheese w/ bread and watched the Spain vs. Netherlands game of the world cup before going to bed. I think I'm gonna like it here. :)
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
Day 1- traveling
Today I felt like I was jumping off a cliff into the unknown. Very scary! But in the end it all worked; I had safe and successful but also very boring flights.
I had to wake up super early, around 4:45 am in order to get to the airport by 6:30 am. Checked in then tried to delay my going through security so I could spend more time with my parents. The plan was to eat breakfast together but there wasn’t anything to eat outside of security so we just chilled inside a bookstore. Hugging my parents goodbye was a bittersweet moment, on one hand I wouldn’t see them for 5 weeks but on the other I was off on an adventure.
My flight to GA was boring. I tried to sleep some. In the back of each seat, everyone had their own TV but it cost $6 per movie so I said “no way!” for a short while I took out my Scandinavian travel guide and studied it. Overall, it was very uneventful.
When I landed I called my dad to reassure him I was still alive and set off to find my next gate, get food for lunch and to buy more food in case I wouldn’t like the dinner on the plane. For a very short second I got lost finding the gate. I landed in concourse B and I need to be in concourse E. But then I found what my friend Alex called the people mover and I was all good! Thanks Alex! My next mission was to find food which was really easy; there was so much to choose from. Then I called my dad once more to tell him my flight was boarding and got inline to get on the plane.
When the gate guy scanned my ticket, something flashed and he told me to wait at the desk. This worried me a lot. I thought I wouldn’t be let on the flight for some reason. But I didn’t need to worry, they only wanted to change my seat. I don’t know why but its all good because I ended up having a free seat next to me! :)
Got comfortable and soon we were off. Once we were in the air they served us drinks and dinner. The choices were chicken or pasta. I ended up getting pasta but I just picked at it since I wasn’t hungry yet. On this flight we didn’t have personal TVs so I didn’t watch anything. Oh and I think my iPod broke because I was listening and I couldn’t change the volume and also it was playing out loud and not through my headphones. I got a few rude looks from that, pretty embarrassing! But they had a whole 9 hours to forget about it so hopefully they did.
I love the feeling of being in a state where time isn’t known. For the whole time I didn’t know what time it was. I just slept when tired and ate when hungry.
I had to wake up super early, around 4:45 am in order to get to the airport by 6:30 am. Checked in then tried to delay my going through security so I could spend more time with my parents. The plan was to eat breakfast together but there wasn’t anything to eat outside of security so we just chilled inside a bookstore. Hugging my parents goodbye was a bittersweet moment, on one hand I wouldn’t see them for 5 weeks but on the other I was off on an adventure.
My flight to GA was boring. I tried to sleep some. In the back of each seat, everyone had their own TV but it cost $6 per movie so I said “no way!” for a short while I took out my Scandinavian travel guide and studied it. Overall, it was very uneventful.
When I landed I called my dad to reassure him I was still alive and set off to find my next gate, get food for lunch and to buy more food in case I wouldn’t like the dinner on the plane. For a very short second I got lost finding the gate. I landed in concourse B and I need to be in concourse E. But then I found what my friend Alex called the people mover and I was all good! Thanks Alex! My next mission was to find food which was really easy; there was so much to choose from. Then I called my dad once more to tell him my flight was boarding and got inline to get on the plane.
When the gate guy scanned my ticket, something flashed and he told me to wait at the desk. This worried me a lot. I thought I wouldn’t be let on the flight for some reason. But I didn’t need to worry, they only wanted to change my seat. I don’t know why but its all good because I ended up having a free seat next to me! :)
Got comfortable and soon we were off. Once we were in the air they served us drinks and dinner. The choices were chicken or pasta. I ended up getting pasta but I just picked at it since I wasn’t hungry yet. On this flight we didn’t have personal TVs so I didn’t watch anything. Oh and I think my iPod broke because I was listening and I couldn’t change the volume and also it was playing out loud and not through my headphones. I got a few rude looks from that, pretty embarrassing! But they had a whole 9 hours to forget about it so hopefully they did.
I love the feeling of being in a state where time isn’t known. For the whole time I didn’t know what time it was. I just slept when tired and ate when hungry.
dear Haley, this picture is for you. It is Haleyville…I think in Alabama.
I checked this like a million times
my lunch and dinner. I know I know, McDonalds, very bad but I was craving French fries and that was the only place selling some. So yeah also I got cheese pizza, plan pasta, bean and cheese burrito and a soda. I was all set! :)
airplane food that I didn’t really eat.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
AH!!! im leaving in less then 13 hours!!
Sweden here i come!!! im am so excited! you cant even comprehend. i hope my family is nice. they probably will be. i hope none of my flights are delayed and everything goes smoothly. ive been praying to the plane and weather gods that everything is well and ive done nothing to displease them so...good, hopefully.
I cant believe im gonna do this! 5 whole weeks away from home! and i wont even be remotly close to home if anything goes wrong. but i can do this! im almost 18, in fact im gonna turn 18 while in sweden. wow! im old!
i will especially miss my cat, well no, not only my cat. of course i will miss my parentals and brother. and the rest of my family and friends!
Dear Jay D.,
please dont destroy my room, i am still coming back. sorry but its only for 5 weeks. its not like im going off to college. please and thank you. love you bye bye i'll miss you!
-Deanna
Dear Mommy and Daddy,
aww, your little baby is growing up! when i come back be prepared to find me covered in peircings and tattoos. and my hair dyed neon green. just kidding...maybe... i will definetly miss you both, dont worry!
love,
Deanna
I cant believe im gonna do this! 5 whole weeks away from home! and i wont even be remotly close to home if anything goes wrong. but i can do this! im almost 18, in fact im gonna turn 18 while in sweden. wow! im old!
i will especially miss my cat, well no, not only my cat. of course i will miss my parentals and brother. and the rest of my family and friends!
Dear Jay D.,
please dont destroy my room, i am still coming back. sorry but its only for 5 weeks. its not like im going off to college. please and thank you. love you bye bye i'll miss you!
-Deanna
Dear Mommy and Daddy,
aww, your little baby is growing up! when i come back be prepared to find me covered in peircings and tattoos. and my hair dyed neon green. just kidding...maybe... i will definetly miss you both, dont worry!
love,
Deanna
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
packing
fun stuff! this packing stuff. some people feel packing is a chore but i actually like it...means im gong somewhere exciting! yay! i cant wait!
PS. the Mac & cheese is for when, appearently i have to cook or bake something American, thus Mac n' cheese :)
PS. the Mac & cheese is for when, appearently i have to cook or bake something American, thus Mac n' cheese :)
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