Hej då Sverige

The time has come again where I have my life packed up into a bag and I am on my way to catch a plane. The time has come again where I have said my goodbyes and I have cried my heart out more than once. The time has come again to leave home.

But this time it is all so much harder.

I am packing my new life up into the same suitcase and going off to catch a plane to a place I know and my old life. I have said my goodbyes to people I don’t know when I will see again, if I will ever see them again. I have cried more tears than ever before. I have said goodbye to the city that took me in and let me make it my home even though it was only for a year.

So as I say goodbye to Sweden after 10 amazing, life changing, crazy, up and down months I know that this place will always be my second home. That I have my second family here and always a place to stay. And as much as goodbyes are hard, a new adventure has to start and that one starts back in New Zealand.

To everyone who I have met on this crazy year, thank you for making my year unforgettable and the best year of my life. You have all been such an important part of my year and without you all this year would not have been anything as it has been, amazing! I will miss you all and I hope to see you all again one day.  

So Sweden this is goodbye for now but not forever, as I will be back before too long but for now I wish you all the luck in the world Sweden and I will miss you with all my heart.  

The Summer House

It is quite common in Sweden for each Swedish family to have their own summer house. Summer houses our out of the city and in the country side or by the sea on an island in an archipelago that lines the coast of Sweden. My family has their summer in Stockholm’s archipelago on an island called Arbodaö.

Their summer house is a very Swedish house in the fact that is paint copper red, which is the traditional colour for houses in Sweden to be painted. The summer house is also very old. It doesn’t have a bathroom inside but lucky it does have electricity! But the best thing about the house is that it is right by the sea! Although the sea is so cold that you can hardly swim in it for more than five minutes, the view is amazing!

The summer house

Over a time called Midsummer we went to the summer house. Midsummer is a national holiday and is also the longest day of the year and is celebrated by eating a big lunch with the family and dancing! We spent the day chilling around the summer house, gardening and such, then had a really nice family lunch with Swedish food like meatballs and sill!

Going to the summer house is really nice a part from the fact that I am so bad when it comes to getting in and out of the boat to get there! But spending time with my host family is worth trying to get in and out of the silly little boat!    

Finland!

 
So back in New Zealand I had to go to extra maths classes after school to be able to pass year 11 maths. There I met a friend, in which we ended up talking more than studying the maths itself. Once the exam was over I never did maths again and I didn’t stay in touch with my friend. About six months went by and in that time I applied for an AFS exchange. It also happened that my maths friend, Edene, had also done the same thing. We met at the first ever AFS meeting we had and thought each other looked familiar and as we went round the circle introducing ourselves, we both clicked, maths.


This time around we stayed in contact with each other, by seeing each other at monthly AFS meetings, AFS camps and fundraising for our trips away. Plus there was also the fact that we were going to neighbouring countries, Sweden and Finland. We have also stayed in contact over our year away and we had planned that we would visit each other. Due to Edene having host family complications it all got a bit difficult for Edene to visit me in Sweden but I went off and took a trip to Finland!



On Monday the 10^th I woke up at 5.30am and got taken to the airport bus, bus stop by my host dad. I got on the bus that took me to the airport, checked in, found the only Starbucks in Stockholm and jumped on my plane to Helsinki, Finland!



I was met at the airport by Edene and then we talked nonstop all the way into Helsinki city! I chucked my bag in one of the lockers at the train station and we met up with some of Edene’s friends. The friends we meet up with were exchange students, other AFSers, and the thing with other exchange students is that you are friends right away. It is almost like an unwritten exchange student rule, met another exchange student you are friends. It just seems to work that way. So that day we walked around Helsinki and saw these two magnificent churches, one even had real gold on it! After that we went to a really good pizza and pasta place to have lunch, then we went a walked around the beautiful Helsinki before catching the train to Edene’s house.



One of the Churches in Helsinki

The next day we woke up to rain. No one really likes waking up to rain but what makes it even worse is when the plan is to go to the beach that day and when it is raining going to the beach is not the nicest thing in the world. So we flagged the beach and went to the movies instead. Now when it comes to Edene and I picking a movie, we went for a movie we knew nothing about but we liked the actor in it! It ended up being a really weird film. As it was still raining we meet up with some of Edene’s friends and sat in a cosy coffee shop, talking about our year and everything to do with it!

On Wednesday it was raining yet again but that did not change our plans of going to Helsinki’s Sea fortress. Edene and I got the boat out to the sea fortress all geared up in stylish wet weather gear! The sea fortress in such a cool place. People actually live there as well which would make for a cool place to live. The sea fortress has many old buildings and has an amazing view of both Helsinki and the Baltic Sea. We walked around the sea fortress for a while but with the rain and the sky threating thunder storms we decided we had seen enough and went back to the boat along with many other soaked though people. Of course when we got back to Helsinki the rain had stopped. We again met up with some of Edene’s friends to go and see a free concert in a park. For this I was very thankful it had stopped raining!  The concert was all in Finnish so I got nothing and then the rain started again so Edene and I gave up and went home.

Edene and I at the sea fortress

On Thursday we had decided that we would have a day just around home until it was time to go to Edene’s AFS meeting. It also happened to be the only sunny day I had in Finland! So we sat outside and tried to tan our pale winter skin while listening to New Zealand radio and finding the accents so funny and wondered how we are going to get used to them again when we get home! We then made pikelets, from a kiwi recipe. That night we went off to Edene’s monthly AFS meeting. This was the last meeting of the year as AFS Finland leaves the week before I do. There were a lot of goodbyes and it made going home very real for everyone in the room.

Friday, my last day in Finland. It was raining again. was that really a surprise?! Again we went into Helsinki for the day. We again also met up with Edene’s friends who were great to hang out with! We walked around the city for one last time and sat in yet more coffee shops, with endless conversation! And before I knew it, it was time for me to catch my bus to the airport to fly home.

I think any goodbyes are hard even if you will see the person in a few weeks. But say goodbye to Edene was hard because it was the first goodbye I said in my year. Now with a week to go the goodbyes are just waiting for me with every person I meet.

Kayaking

Stockholm city is made up of many islands and these islands carry on out to make up Stockholm’s archipelago. The archipelago is where lots of people who live in Stockholm city have their summer house. It is also a wonderful place to go kayaking around and last Sunday that is exactly what I did with my host dad and host sister.

Early on Sunday morning I was woken quite suddenly by a huge roll of thunder and all I thought was that this is not a good way to start off a day out kayaking. But the thunder and lighting and buckets of rain all went away so we set out to go kayaking at 8 in the morning!

When we got on the water it was lovely and sunny, shorts and t-shirt weather, so we set off to go visit a few islands and have a generally nice sunny day. As we got to the first island we all heard a distant roll of thunder. It was distant so it didn’t really bother us and it was still warm and sunny so all was well and we walked around this island which was really nice and cute apart from the dead birds there. As we were getting back into our kayaks is when I fell out of mine. I was so close to being in when the kayak flipped me out! It was all fine, I was a bit wet but that is ok! Late on I was told that there were eels in the place where I fell out, which was positive!

After getting the water out of my kayak and I was back in it without re-tipping out, we set of to the next island to stop and have lunch. It was while having our lunch that the thunder started coming closer and the sky was becoming very dramatic. But we were like it is fine, so we went for a walk around this island which again was nice apart from the dead birds!

By the time we got back in our kayaks the thunder was really close and we could see lightening so we cut our trip short and headed back to the car. About half way back to the car it started bucketing down with rain and the thunder was right on top of us. So we paddled back and we paddled back fast!

As soon as we got to shore we got out of our kayaks and carried then, full of stuff, up to the car. When we were carrying the first kayak up there was a huge bolt of lightning right above us followed about 30 seconds after by a big loud roll of thunder. We all jumped and I am surprised I did not drop the kayak it was so loud.

As we walked down to get the next kayak it started hailing along with the thunder and lighting and we almost ran the kayak back to the car! We unloaded the kayaks as the hail got bigger and bigger in size until we had to hide under a tree to get away from it as it hurt too much to be out in it. We got the kayaks up on the car, tided them down and went and got into dry clothes, then hoped in the car and drove home!

I must say that I do prefer kayaking in the sunshine, I can now tick kayaking in a thunder and lightning storm off the bucket list!           

Studenten!!

Studenten or Graduation is one of the biggest traditions in Sweden for a High School student! The whole year leads up to it, and the early you start celebrating it the better!! But the real day is the one everyone is looking forward to! On this day you start the day with a Champagne breakfast with your class, followed by going to school for a talk with your mentor, then lunch with the whole school after which a whole school assembly, then you go and wave to your friends and family before running out of school to meet a giant baby picture of yourself held by your family, then you run back inside to change and then jump on to a truck with your class and start spraying beer all over each other and drive around the city after which you go home a have a shower to get rid of the beer smell before going off to graduation parties, after that it is off to club with your friends to dance the night away! And all off this is done in a white dress for girls and a suit and tie for boys and a white hat, which looks like a sailor’s hat, for both girls and boys!

 

So here is how my day went….!

 

It all started with a 5.30am waking up call! I was staying at my friends Kyra’s house and we had stayed up making graduation presents for our friends so the 5.30am alarm was not the nicest sound in the world. We got up and started getting ready for the big day ahead. Put on the white dresses, put on our faces, tried to make our hair look alright under our hats, put on the heels and we were on our way to our champagne breakfast with our class!

At the champagne breakfast we all sat outside eating a spot of breakfast and drinking our fair share of champagne! We also started with signing the inside of each other’s hats. Hats were going from person to person and you always hat to ask whose hat you had in your hand! At one point two guys ended up with almost everyone’s hats to sign!

When it was time to go to school we all headed out together yelling chants and signing songs so that everyone knew we were coming and that we were graduating! It made for a hilarious walk to school! When we got to school we met our mentor and she told us the days plans in between our chants and songs!

We then had a song lunch which involved more chants, songs and hat signing! It also involved the teachers laughing at us a lot! At lunch us four exchange were told by the principle that he would be calling us all up on stage during the assembly!

After lunch we all picked up our chairs and went into the gym for a whole school assembly! But this wasn’t any old assembly, no this was also the Golden Pig Awards. The Golden Pig Awards was voted by the teachers and presented by the teachers and had so many different categories and everyone got behind the person or people that were in their class by yelling their name and if they won the person in the class won then the whole class would stand up and clap and shout! It was great fun! After the awards were finished the principle came up and talked about the future, how we had all done well and Tapas. Then it was time to be called up on stage! Now this was a point where we as exchange students failed in Swedish! He said for the exchanges students to come up on stage in Swedish and we just all sat there unsure if we had to go up or not now. Ended up that we were meant to go up then as the principle had to say it in English for us to understand! We got up on stage and the principle said how great it had been having us all at school, how we have added cultureness to the school and taught people English! He then gave us letter saying that we had been at school! After this everyone was given their grades and a certificate!

We then went up to the school balcony to wave to our friends and family and to try and find our baby picture! When I found mine I could not help but laugh! It was of a six year old me with no front teeth and looking very happy about it! My host family made sure that I would also be able to take my picture home with me as well! After standing on the balcony for a while waving and shouting some more we went down stairs and got ready to run out of school!

Running out of school was so much fun! If you are thinking that we don’t actually run out of school then you are wrong! We run and we run as fast as we can! We waited at the doors being held back by two teachers saying “get ready, get ready!” and then we hear the principle say our class and we RUN! The next step is to try and find my family again. Once I found them and my baby picture they gave me a soft toy cow to put round my neck and some roses to also put round my neck and some of my favourite Swedish sweets to also put around my neck! This happens for everyone who is running out. When they meet their family they get soft toys, flowers, all sorts of different things to put around their neck! After all of this I had to run back inside to get changed out of my white dress and into old clothes that I did not want to take home because it was beer truck time!

The beer truck is exactly what it sounds to be, a truck with a lot of beer! But this beer is not for the drinking. Oh no this beer is for shaking up and spraying over each other as the truck drives into the city with load music blaring and everyone on the back going crazy! Going on the beer truck has to be one of the most crazy, exciting, mental, best things I have done in this year. I mean how often to you get to ride around Stockholm city on the back of truck getting covered in beer? I mean how often do you do any of those things?! When the ride came to an end the driver opened the back doors of the truck to be greeted by a swell of beer and beer cans! For most of the ride I was up to my ankles in beer! The next step after getting off the truck was to get home and take a much needed shower! When I got home my clothes went in the bin and I washed my hair about 5 times over! The smell was really that bad!

After my long shower of trying to get out the smell, my family and I went to my host sister’s boyfriend’s graduation party, which I had to leave early to go out with my friends that night! So back in my white dress and hat I meet my friends and we danced the night away till 2am!

Overall this was the craziest day of my exchange but one of the very best! I could not have come up with a better way to finish school in Sweden! 

   Me with little me after running out of school!

Last Month

In a month today I will set foot in New Zealand for the first time in 10 and a half months.

There is this huge part of me which can’t wait to get on this plane home and be back in the place where I know how things work, where I know the language and where I feel at ease. But there is this equally huge part of me that never wants to get on that plane home and stay in this place where I have learnt how things work, where I have learnt the language and where I now feel at ease.

As much as I don’t want to go, I have to and I have this last month in which to make it the best last month knowing that I am going to come back more than once in my life! This last month will be full of spending time with the friends I have made for life, my amazing host family, with the beautiful Sweden and of course a bit of Finland!

It is strange feeling this divided about going home. I never expected this when I left New Zealand and only as I got to know Sweden did I realise that being divided is what was always going to happen!

With a full up last month, time is going to fly by so very fast but no matter I will always be left with two homes as far away from each other as possible!

Parents

For the first time in 9 months I will see my parents today. 

I have had this date in my calendar for many days and yet in my mind it has always been so far away but now it is so close. 

I am full of mixed emotions about seeing them again as I know I have changed and I don't know if they are expecting same old Annie that left them behind 9 months ago. When on the other hand I can not wait to see them because I miss them. 

There is the fact that mum is going to be hilarious with all her excitement that it will just make me laugh and dad will be calm as he always is to help balance it all out! 

I can't wait to show them my city, my second home. I can't wait for hugs I have wanted in the hard times of my year. I can't wait for conversation to just flow. And I can't wait for the chocolate they are bringing with them!  

All in all I am full of butterflies. Excited, nervous butterflies! 

Swedish Birthday

Sweden has many traditions, one being that when it is your birthday you get woken up in the morning by your family singing you the Swedish happy birthday song, Ja Må Hon Leva, (English: yes let her live), while they hold a candle in which you blow out when they are done singing!

So on the morning of the 22^nd of May (my birthday) I go woken up to my host family singing to me holding a candle! It is rather strange to wake up to singing but also rather fun! My host family also gave me some wonderfully Swedish gifts to me at this time as well, which was so lovely of them!

That day at school I didn’t get sung to like we do back home which was kinda nice but I did learn the Waltz which was a bit different and not something I do every birthday! I also learned that being 19 does not make me a better dancer than when I was 18!

I went out for fika (coffee and cake) with a couple of my friends after school before going home for a family dinner!

Overall my first birthday away from New Zealand was a lot of fun!

Crown of flower from my host grandmother for my birthday!

 

A Walk in the South of Stockholm

The other day I went for a walk with my host family in the south part of Stockholm city. I got to see the city from a different point of view and see new parts of the city! It really is a beautiful city that I have fallen in love with!

We started off our little day trip by catching the underground train to the south part of Stockholm city and then started of our walk. It is amazing how much history this one city has. Every street has some story, something worth remembering, a story worth retelling over and over again and worth being heard all these times!

We walked along the water front while my host dad told us some of the history of the different things we saw along the way. One of things was an old prison. It is no longer a prison but now a hostel and is really quite cool! A really neat place to stay I am sure. We then walked up cute little streets that Stockholm is so full of, up rocks to see a beautiful view of the city and then on another walkway by the water to wear we got to the best place to have a picture of the whole city from! After I had taken a ridiculous amount of photos and gazed out over this amazing city with a renewed realisation of just how beautiful this place really is, we moved on to Gamla Stan or in English, Old Town. This place stays true to its name. It is very old, in fat it is the oldest place in Stockholm and is older than New Zealand by a long shot! In winter Gamla Stan was like a place taken right out of fairy tale, covered in snow and Christmas lights, how a white Christmas had always looked in my mind. But in summer it takes on a new type of beauty. The sun shining down over these narrow, cobble stoned streets, casting shadows all over, flowers of all colours in pots outside all of the shops and people everywhere from all over the world. I love this place and all its oldness!

We then started on our way to the centre of the city and as we walked past the castle we noticed a lot of people standing around waiting for something. So of course we joined in the waiting around fun! It ended up with being the change of the castle guard. This was a really cool thing to see and a case of simply being in the right place at the right time. There was a full blown marching band who put on one hell of a good show as far as marching band shows go! There was also a fair bit of yelling on one man’s behalf and a lot of marching for all involved! It was a really cool thing to get to see and I am really happy I got to see it before I left!

After the changing of the guard we walked to a place in the middle of Stockholm city called Kungsträdgården. In winter this is where the outdoor ice skating rink is, but in spring for a whole one week it is where the blossom trees are and boy are they amazing! Along with nearly all of Stockholm we were there to look at these amazing trees that lined this amazing park!

After that it was time for an ice cream and then to catch the underground back home!

 

Swedish

I wish I could write this and say that I was fluent in Swedish and that I was only ever talking Swedish to everyone and that I have forgotten English because of it. I wish that was the case.
I have learnt so many things on this exchange, just one of those things has not been how to speak Swedish.
Today I had a speaking Swedish test with one of the scariest teachers I have ever in counted in both New Zealand and in Sweden. Now first up I am not very good at speaking Swedish and when you add this teacher to the mix, well let’s just say that my Swedish goes out the window! So this was all going to be a very interesting! I went badly.
What is one of the most frustrating things about Swedish is that I can understand for the most part what everyone is saying but when it comes to actual words coming from my mouth I get insanely stuck and very scared that what I am planning on saying or how I am say it is going to be all wrong and I get all wimpy and chicken out! I know that it is stupid and I really should be more confident in speaking and making a right idiot out of myself as half the time I am never going to be seeing these people ever again but some part of my brain doesn’t seem to work like that. It runs away, rather than go `yes I am here and look I will now speak Swedish to you!´

I guess I thought it would be easier than it has been for me to learn this language. It is my first second language and now I am wishing I had taken French back when I stated high school! Oh well at least I am giving this a try!

Also I think it would help if the Swedes weren’t better at English than me in the first place!!

Fun. and Two Door Cinema Club

Again I am going to concerts! I can’t help it, when I live in a big city and they come here!

First was to see Fun. This concert was of course held at the place where you can have the most fun, Stockholm’s theme park! I was unsure about how I would like these guys when they perform live as I really like their stuff on CD but had no idea how they would put that across to a live performance. But in the end these guys were so great! They were having a ball on stage, dancing around and enjoying their own music just as much as everyone else in the crowd was! I was fully surprised by how amazing they were live and it was not what I was excepting which made it even more of a good time!!

(This is really hard to write without using the word fun!)

Fun. on stage!

The next concert I went to was Two Door Cinema Club! I brought the tickets for this concert in November 2012 and had been waiting to go ever since then! But my god was it worth the wait! First up they make great music, second they sound amazing live and thirdly they are Irish! The concert was just like a big dance party and was just incredible!! Also again I was in the second row and in the middle! It was so amazing! I think that these guys live is almost better than them on their cd! They just got so into it and it sounded so wonderful!

Two Door Cinema Club

All in all I am a sucker for live music!

Valborg

Valborg is held on the eve of the first of May. Valborg is a huge bomb fire held in the middle of a park in every area of Sweden, or where people live! The reason why there is a bomb fire is to scare away predators from grazing animals. This is not need in the city but in the country side that is why! Everyone in the area shows up to the bomb fire and wait around talking until it is lit by around 10 people with fire on sticks around the huge pile of wood and then the wood goes up in flames!!! Fireworks are set off and the fire keeps on burning!   

The Big Pile of Wood

 

The Big Pile of Wood on Fire!

 

Feeling Confused

I miss New Zealand but I love Sweden. I miss home but I don't want to leave. I miss things I know but I love the unknown. I miss only English but I have grown to love Swedish. I miss my family but I have one here. I miss the ease of life in New Zealand but I love the challenge of life in Sweden. I miss driving my car but I love catching trains everywhere. I miss the clothes I left behind but I love my new style. I miss my friends but my new friends are amazing. I miss my own bed but this one is mine too. I miss bated little old Christchurch but I love beautiful Stockholm. I miss everyone getting behind the rugby but ice hockey is the sport here. I miss school uniform but I could never go back to it. I miss never feeling underdressed but I like dressing up is now part of everyday. I miss speaking slang and everyone getting it but I have taught people some kiwi. I miss the old me but I love who I have become.  

Imagine Dragons

Monday the 15^th of April 2013 is a day I will not forget! One of the best days I have had while being on my exchange! Well the day was nothing overly special, I went to school then went for a run, but the night was amazing as the night was filled with the wonderful music of Imagine Dragons!!

I went to the concert with two friends from school, Iris and Kyra, and one of the other kiwis in Stockholm, Hannah.

We wanted to get to the concert early but we had one small problem. We didn’t actually know where it as! We knew it could be in one of two places so of course we went to the one that it wasn’t in. we missed the front of the line but were not too far back so it was ok! Once we got in we asked to keep our tickets and checked in our coats and went through to the concert hall!

I think where this concert was held is the oddest place to ever hold a concert! It was in a building that also had a swimming pool and a library. It is a bit of an odd mix if you ask me!

We were quite close to the front when we got in, around six or seven rows back, but we were very keen to get to the front row or as close as we could get! We knew it would come to push and shove as soon as the music started playing! And just that happened as soon as the opening band came on, who were not the really my cup of tea. When the opening band finished and left the stage the roadies came on to sort out the stage and the crowd was in full on pushing mode! My friends and I managed to make our way to the second row in the middle! This was the best the most amazing place to be and I really could not have asked for a better place! Amazing! But when they came on stage this is when the real AMAZING starts!

They were so good! All of the songs sounded just as they do on the album and the crowed was amazing singing along and everything and oh it was just so so GOOD!! Every song the whole crowed got into and sung along! I had no voice by the end of that night! I think the best song they played was Radioactive. I tried to video it but that did not work in any way, shape or form! The whole groud was so into the song as it has the best beat to mosh to!

When the concert ended my friends and I made friends with the merchandise guy (who was from Scotland) and he told us where we would find the band to meet them!!

I met the bass player the drummer and the guitar player! Sadly I didn’t get to meet the lead guy as I had to catch my train home!!

Seeing these guys live was just amazing and they are so talented it was a wonderful night!

The lead singer

Student Party

As I am year 3 of Swedish high school (the last year) I am able to graduate in June. The thing is though, with Sweden you don’t wait until June to start celebrating the fact that you are graduating high school. You start now! 

Student parties are held with your class. When you start Swedish high school (when you are 16) you chose a class and you stay in that class until you graduate. So you get pretty close with your class! My party was held with my class as well as another class in the same program!

Each different party has a different theme. Mine was Supernatural, which is quite a hard theme to dress up to if you don’t want to be superman or a vampire, so naturally I went as Dumbo. Dressing up as Dumbo and then getting on a train to get to the club was rather interesting and I got quite a lot of odd looks but it was ok because my friend was dressed up as a robot with blue hair!

The night starts off with a dinner with both the classes and parents if you wanted to invite them. We had our main meal and chatted away! After the main meal it was time to get given what we are in the class! This is decided with the whole class before the dinner and you find out on the night! What you are is written on a paper plate.  I got “Klassens Hobbit” or “Class Hobbit”. The reason for this was because I am from New Zealand and when they think of me they think of Green New Zealand in Lord of the Rings and of Frodo! Once you get your plate you wear it all night! It is quite funny seeing everyone wearing paper plates around all night! After that we had desert and then the party really started!!

The tables where cleared away and the club was restored to its usual dancing, parting self and friends all started to arrive! Then it was time to dance the night away till a nice time of three in the morning!

It was such a fun night and something that sure doesn’t happen back in New Zealand. The differences when it comes to school things is crazy. A class party in a club would not be a happening thing in New Zealand so having that experience is amazing! I am really looking forward to graduation now! It should be a fun day!

Copenhagen

We drove to Copenhagen. With a car. To another country. WE DROVE!!!

Driving from Tvååker to Copenhagen takes about three hours. So we set off in the morning to go to the place that I first wanted to go on an exchange to, Denmark! We drove down to Malmö, the city where the Denmark/Sweden bridge tunnel starts or finishes but for me it started in Malmö! A bridge goes from Sweden to a manmade island and then it goes to a tunnel to get to Denmark! While in actual fact Denmark starts on the bridge as there is a sign saying Denmark inside the European Union flag. Where the tunnel comes out is only about a ten minute drive from the centre of Copenhagen!

We parked the car, checked into our hotel and then went to find a place to sit and eat our packed lunch. The spot we found was a park bench beside a frozen river. This place also happened to be very common place to go running and walking as there was a constant stream of people going past. A fair few gave us a bit of a strange look for sitting there have tea and sandwiches, but I mean what are you meant to do with a park bench if not sit on it to eat sandwiches and drink tea!  

After we had finished lunch we started out on the town! Copenhagen is different to Stockholm. Yes there are many similar things, but the feel of the two cities is very different. Copenhagen is so much more laid back. The city feels bigger as it has large walk ways and no roads in the centre of the city as there are in Stockholm. Copenhagen has a more summery feel to it. Whether that was because it was sunny the whole time or the fact that people were sitting outside drinking beer and eating ice cream, I don’t know! There also so many buskers out playing all sorts of music everywhere in the centre city! Copenhagen also has some really cool buildings and like Sweden they have mixed old with new really well!

We wandered around Copenhagen looking in shop windows (as no shops were open on Easter Monday) for a while. We then went to the Copenhagen Guinness World Record Museum. This place is really cool and full of amazing things! So people can do strange things and be crazy tall and eat metal! The museum also had things that we could try out, you know just in case we could break a world record! You never know! But sadly none of us broke any world records but it was fun all the same!  After going to the Museum when went to see the statue of “Den Lille Havsfrun” or in English “The Little Mermaid”. This statue is the one thing you have to see in Copenhagen and if you haven’t you haven’t been. Well that is what I was told anyway! There were lots of people there getting their pictures taken and all that! Busy wee spot!

While we were walking to see “The Little Mermaid” we walked down Nyhavn. This is the street in Copenhagen that you see in pictures everywhere about Copenhagen. The street full of different coloured buildings, many of bars and lots of people! It felt as though I had stepped into a guide books photo page! It was amazing to be there and walk down a street I had only seen in pictures!  

The next step on our trip was to eat a Danish pastry in Denmark. This was a very important thing to do! We walked back the way we had come to find a very tasty looking bakery we had seen before. Once found it was time to indulge in some rather tasty Danish pastries! Life goal complete!

The next day we started the day by going to a Lego shop. Something one has to do when going to Denmark the birth place of Lego! After that we went to a part of the city called Christiania, also known as Freetown Christiania. It is a very interesting place. Once a military site it is now been taken over, a wee while ago, by all sorts of people. It is also a place that sells a lot of weed as there were signs everywhere about not taking pictures as buying and selling weed is still illegal! This is a place that is not anywhere else in the world. Only Denmark!

After going to this very interesting place we hit the road to drive up to Helsingør. This is a place north of Copenhagen in which you can catch a boat to Helsingborg in Sweden! On the way up to Helsingør we stopped at a modern art museum called Louisiana. This was one of the biggest art galleries I have ever seen with some amazing art in it! We spent a good 2 hours in there wondering around looking at all of the amazing works! So wonderful!

We carried on up till Helsingør where we had lunch which was another very Danish thing “Pølsevogen” or a giant red sausage in bread. After this we caught the boat, which took 20 mins and then we were back in Sweden!

Down South

Time for a road trip! A trip all the way down to the bottom of Sweden!

So as it was Easter break and my host mum’s family live in the south of Sweden in the town she group up in they thought it would be nice to see them and for me to see a bit more of Sweden! So we packed up the car on Friday and started off the road trip down to the south. We were headed for my host mum’s town, Tvååker, on the west coast of Sweden! On the way there we stopped at a cute wee summer town called Gränna. Gränna is the home of a lolly called Polkagris which is a type of rock lolly. Well in actual fact it is candy cane just without the cane bit. So it’s a straight candy cane that is thicker! We went for a wonder around the town and had to buy some Polkagris to make it a real visit to Gränna! We had lunch and got on our way again. As we drove further south the landscape changed rather dramatically. Around Stockholm the landscape is Christmas trees left, right and centre but as we drove down the country the Christmas trees got fewer and the rolling hills started. The south of Sweden is known for its farming as it has less trees, less snow and good soil! We came to Tvååker where we went to my host mum’s mother’s house where we were staying. That night we had a dinner with the family. New place, plus new people, plus Swedish is a lot to take in and it doesn’t help that they speak in a different dialect of Swedish! I was so tried and had a wonderful headache that when I fell into bed I was out!

The next day we went into the nearby town, which is a lot bigger than Tvååker which is only small, to look around and see the sights! This town is called Varberg and is right by the sea! It is a wonderful town that was on that day full of people as there was an Easter market on. We looked around and went to see the fortress by the sea. From the fortress there was a wonderful view right out over the ocean! What made it even better was that the sun was sitting happily up in the sky! That night we went out for Easter dinner at a friend’s house. Easter in Sweden is celebrated a lot more than it is in New Zealand for example Easter dinner. Easter dinner is very much like Sweden’s Christmas dinner but just with more egg involved! Another thing that Sweden does for Easter is put pink, yellow and orange feathers on dead trees. I don’t know why they do it and nor do many know why either! Also Easter eggs are not made out of chocolate but out of cardboard with lollies inside!

Pig Day! My host mum’s brother owns a pig farm and wanted me to see these pigs, so we all dressed up like we came from the late 80’s/early 90’s (old clothes cause pigs smell) and set out to the pigs!! At this pig farm there are over 2000 pigs. They weigh 35kgs when they come to the farm and 110kgs when they leave to go get made into bacon! (I know this only because I was tested on it the whole time I was there!!)

After seeing the pigs, we all went back and had a showers to get the piggy smell away and then went out to see a really beautiful harbour town called Träslövsläge. This place is again a summer place that has many of boats and summer houses and also many things that are ‘famous’ for that area! We would go by something and everything that was pointed out was famous!

The next day we headed to Copenhagen! We DROVE there!! To another country. WE DROVE!!! But I am going to write another blog just for Copenhagen as I think it deserves its own one!

When we came home from Copenhagen we had one more night at Mormor’s (grandmother in Swedish) house and then we were heading back up to Stockholm. Staying at Mormor’s house made me miss my own Gan (grandmother in Rea family) and hugs from her and sitting and talking to her and staying at her house and also her cooking!

We packed up the car for the last time and got on the road! We went up the coast to Göteborg (Gothenburg in English). My host parents wanted to show me Göteborg so we went exploring for three hours before going home! Göteborg is the biggest city in Sweden after Stockholm and has a very different feel to it than Stockholm does. It is more open than Stockholm and has a more relaxed feel to it, although not as relaxed as Copenhagen! In Göteborg we went to the top of one of the highest buildings to take a look at the whole city. The city has a harbour in its centre and is

right on the sea. From above it looks quite small but then again most things do look small from a height. We walked around and went to a food market and then a fish market. Whole fish with their eyes still in look so scary and like they are watching you! In Göteborg they have the coolest trams! They are white and light blue and go around the whole city

After Göteborg we drove home. Having seen all of the trees once coming down, Karin and I thought we could watch a movie on the way back so we watched Beauty and the Beast. I have no idea how I watched that as a kid and not be scared!

Here is a map of the south of Sweden with most of the places I have mentioned here in case you have no idea where I am talking about!

 

 

Changing Family

Two weeks ago I changed host family.

When you live with another family feeling comfortable with the family is your number one priority. When you are not comfortable it is a lot harder for everything to go smoothly. Well nothing really goes smoothly.

Sadly I had been getting increasingly uncomfortable in my host family and was lucky enough to have another family happy to take me in.

My host family’s situation had also changed which made it harder for me to feel part of the family and comfortable.

Having the situation change around me was hard and it was a hard decision to change families but I think it was the right decision for all involved.

Leaving my first family was hard as I had spent 7 months with them but I plan to stay in contact with them.    

I have moved in with my friend’s family. I made this friend while in New Zealand, while she had been on her exchange, and I am lucky that took me in!  

I am now a lot happier than I have been recently and I know that my last three months here will be amazing!

England!!

England, England, England! Why do you have to be so wonderful and make me fall in love with you after only four days there?!

Over four days I traveled to England, Brighton and London, with my English class at school. These were the craziest four days of my life. We didn’t stop. We didn’t have time to stop and when we got to our beds I think everyone was asleep in minutes.

So it all starts at 3.00am in the morning on the 21stof march. First step, getting to the airport! For me getting to the airport takes about 5mins max by car. Here though it takes over an hour to get there, so the wakeup call was at 3 in the morning! I had stayed at a friend’s house that night as her dad was taking her plus me and two others to the airport. It took three alarms to get us all up in time! Then it was off to the airport for us!!

Nothing very interesting happened on the plane. Mind you nothing much ever happens on planes!

We landed in London’s Gatwick airport at around 9 in the morning England time (England is one hour behind Sweden). We got our bags and once again I was happy for my pink spotted suitcase, so easy to see and no other bags quite like it! Once out of the airport we caught a train down to Brighton!!

Brighton is lovely, but very much a summer city and it wasn’t quite summer when I was there. Well actually it wasn’t like summer at all because funnily enough it rained (England just living up to its reputation I suppose), but still a wonderful place!

When we got to Brighton we walked to our hotel, which was right in front of the Brighton pier and the rather stony beach, and then got given an hour for lunch! So being a Kiwi and not having had fish and chips in quite some time I went straight for the fish and chip shop! (So very healthy of me!) My friends had never really had fish and chips before so I was also keen to show them this wonderful meal! Personally I prefer New Zealand’s fish and chips than Brighton’s but it was still nice to have them! We got back to the hotel and meet our teacher who was about to take us for a walk around Brighton! We started off by going on the pier and looking at all the arcade games and the rides (the rides were sadly not open as it wasn’t summer time.) We then went to The Lanes. The Lanes are a bunch of little streets (Lanes) that have cute wee shops in them. These shops are great for window shopping but not so good for the wallet if you plan to real shop! We then walked on to center of town, where the shopping was a bit easier on the wallet! After that we had free time! So for almost all of us I think that meant Primark! For those who do not know what Primark is, it is the cheapest clothes shop in England and it is wonderful and like heaven for those who love to shop! Me being one of those ‘love to shop’ people this was amazing but also rather dangerous I had to get anything I brought first back to Sweden but then back to New Zealand, which is where it becomes a bit more uhoh! But I shopped all the same! J That night we went back to the hotel to turn in early as it had been a long day and LONDON was the next day!!

If you are planning on going to England please give yourself more than one day in London! One day is not enough!

See when you only have one day in London you have to run around it! And that is what we did, we ran and ran our way around London! First we caught the train up to London’s Victoria station and then the underground to the British Museum. The British Museum is HUGE, you need over a day to see everything in there and to soak it all in, but with that in mind our teachers gave us 1 hour and 30 mins to see all we could! So let the running begin! Out of everything in that museum I saw two exhibits, the mummy’s and some of the ancient Greek exhibits and that is it! And by the time I had seen those it was time to go on a site seeing tour of some of London’s sites. So back on the underground we went and then we got off at when Big Ben lives! It is strange seeing thing in real life when you have seen them only in pictures before! From Big Ben we went on to Westminster Abbey. This is the place where the royal wedding happened and all sorts so it was really cool to see! It really is a beautiful place and I am really happy I got to see it! Plus it is so old!! Like three times as old as New Zealand! Then on to St James Park which had some crazy squirrels who liked to climb on people! This only made my love for squirrels grow! They are so cute!!

Then it was time for Buckingham Palace itself!! The Palace in rather large, it looks bigger in real life than it does in the pictures. I think one of the most disappointing things about Buckingham Palace was that the guards were in grey blue coats and not in their signature red coats. Not too happy about that one! After the palace we got shown half the way to Piccadilly Circus and then given three hours free time to go where ever we wanted but we just couldn’t miss the train back to Brighton! We all spread out many having planned out their shopping map! For me though it was up to Piccadilly Circus! This place was so crowded with people and the bright lights were shinning down and it was so amazing yet it felt strange as I was in London, the place I had wanted to visit for so long! After Piccadilly Circus it was on to London shopping! First stop, a toy store! But not just any toy store, it was Hamleys! Hamleys is pretty much the biggest toy shop I have been to in my life and it was so wonderful! Any toy you have ever imagined is probably in that shop! And no I didn’t leave that shop empty handed, I now have an English guard teddy bear! Then we just explored Oxford Street and Regent Street along with hundreds of others. One thing I learned about London is that it is big! Really big!!

That day in London was one of the most exciting days I have ever had but also one of the most tiring days I have ever had! But I have fallen for London and its British charm!   

The next day we were back in Brighton. We went to see The Royal Pavilion. This place is where a prince, then made king, lived in from around 1787 until he was made a king. And this palace is, well, different. When you look at the outside it looks almost Indian inspired but as soon as you walk in it is like you have stepped into the heart of Asia! This Prince really went all out on his palace! After going around The Pavilion we all met outside to be given a challenge by our teachers! The challenge was to go find a place in the Brighton area. So we were given a bus ticket and a place and got give five hours to get there come back and write about it! My group was given Portslade Railway station. This is not the most exciting railway station of life but one train did go past when we were there! Exciting stuff I know! Others were given football stadiums, but we got the train station! On a plus side we got to ride a double decker bus to get there and back! Double decker buses always put a positive spin on the world!

That night we had a buffet dinner with everyone on the trip which was a lot of fun! We were given the curfew of midnight so we went out to see what there was to do! In Brighton there is a big wheel where you can see the whole city! We went to see how much it cost because we thought it would be cool to go on it at night. This guy came and asked us if we wanted to go on, we asked how much it would be, he said five pounds each if we were 16. All of a sudden we were very much 16 again! It was really cool to see Brighton from the top of this wheel at night as it was all lit up!                                       

Our last day was spent in Brighton and we were given free time from when we got up until 4 in the afternoon! This is where the main amount of shopping was down! But also the playing of arcade games for an hour before shopping on the Brighton Pier! When we got to the hotel everyone was repacking their suitcases to put in all of the new things and it was quite a funny sight! We then walked up to the train station and caught the train to the airport. Our time in England was coming to a close. We landed in Stockholm at 11.30pm and I finally got a stamp in my passport saying that I have been in Sweden!

All in all those four crazy days in England were some of the funniest days I have had! And although my mind went back into full on English it was all worth it! I am so happy I was given this opportunity!                  

                                                             Friends and me in Brighton