Friday, August 6, 2010

Home Sweet Home

I am so sorry guys for not updatingig soo long! It has been over a month. Things have been so crazy!



I guess I can start things off by saying I am back home in the US and it feels so weird. I felt so at home in Sweden and coming back home reminded me that I was on an amazing adventure but it had to end sometime. The first morning I woke up in my own bed it felt like my exchange year was a beautiful dream and I was so sad to wake up from it. Everything is the same here so it feels like I really did go to sleep and have this amazing dream. But as I swiped the sleep from my eyes I realized that it had been a year since I last woke up in my own house with my own parents there to greet me. Now that I am moved into my room again I can almost forget at times that I left, but there are traces of Sweden everywhere I look. The memoirs I have in my room, on the walls, the great friends I have made and a language that I never would have dreamed of learning. I am so grateful to have had this experience and I feel like now that I am soon to start school it is time to join the real world again, see people that I have known since 2nd grade. Exchange was a great adventure that most teenagers don't get the chance to do and I have a view of the world that most of the people at my school don't have.



For the last few weeks of my exchange I was on a Euro Tour. I am not going to describe it in full detail because it would take hours just to write up. All I will say is that those 17 days were the best in my life and I dont know if anything will ever top that. The reason is because of the friends I made on the tour, anyone can do a Euro Tour but not everyone has the amazing friends that exchange students become. I know people from all over the world, the closest person to me would be a 5ish hour drive. I bonded with these people like you would never believe. We became a family, everyone on the tour in near and dear in my heart and I can only hope to see them all again. =) If you would like to see what I did on the tour, go on to my facebook and I have all the pictures up. They say a picture is worth a thousand words!



Today, a new exchange student is coming to live with my family and I. Nini from Germany. I am very excited for her to come because I think it will keep me involved in exchange, I didn't want to come home and just be done with exchange students. Exchange students just have such a great bond with one another and make such great friends. =)



I am hoping that I will continue this blog but I just dont know if I will be able to find time to write. If I do continue, this will be the last post in english. Since I need to practice my swedish I figure this will be a really great way to do that. So for all of you out there that are just beginning your exchange, good luck! I really hope that you have a great year and just remember that this is your year and it is up to you to make it amazing! If you ever need any advice from a rebound don't hesitate to ask me, =) I would love to hear how other exchanges are going!



Kram, Haley

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Euro Tour schedule

So here is my schedule for my whole trip...

July 1st- Malmö, Sweden to Berlin, Germany
July 2nd- Berlin, Germany
July 3rd- Berlin, Germany to Cracow, Poland
July 4th- Cracow, Poland
July 5th- Cracow, Poland to Prauge, Czech Republic
July 6th- Prauge, Czech Rebublic
July 7th- Prauge, Czech Rebublic to Salzburg, Austria, to Zell Am See, Austria
July 8th- Zell Am See, Austria
July 9th- Zell Am See, Austria to Lido di Jesolo, Italy
July 10th- Lido di Jesolo, Italy
July 11th- Venice, Italy
July 12th- Lido di Jesolo, Italy to Chambery, France
July 13th- Chambery, France to Paris, France
July 14th- Paris, France
July 15th- Paris, France
July 16th- Paris, France to Brussels, Belgium to Hagen, Germany
July 17th- Hagen, Germany to Malmö, Sweden

So that is my exciting adventure for then next couple weeks!!! =)

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

A Midsommar Nights Dream...

So a week has passed since my last post... you know what happened?!

MIDSOMMAR! =)

Midsommar is a huge thing in Sweden, it is almost as important and celebrated as Christmas. So if you dont know anything about it, the basic principle is that it is a celebration of the longest day of the year. We put up a midsommar pole and dance around it. As much as this pole may look like a christian symbol, it isn't! Haha it is actually very funny and innappropriate for small children to dance around. Google it! =)

I spent my Midsommar out with Michaels family, they have a huge party every year. So I was there early to help out and set everything up for the party. When the party started at 4 we ate a meal, one of 3 haha, then we decorated the pole with tree branches and flowers. I also made a head thing, look on my facebook at the picture of me with flowers on my head and someone tell me what that is called in english haha, I can't think of it for the life of me! Then we set up the pole and danced around it singing songs and having fun. When we were done with the pole we were split into teams and we played fun games. My team won!! =)

We got very lucky this year because we had beautiful weather, apparently it usually rains on Midsommar. After the games was food and music then grilling! Yumm.. We also had fireworks at midnight. =) The it got dark a bit after 11 and then it started getting light again at about 2, those are just estimates though. I finally went to bed at 3ish, I was tired but I was actually one of the earliest to go to sleep. Some of the people stayed up until 7.30, and by that time the sun was shining brightly.

So that was my midsommar adventure, the pictures explain it a lot better that I can type it haha. Now I am about to take a leave of absence because tomorrow I leave to go on EUROTOUR!!! I will be gone 18 days and i am going to have an amazing time! =) So I will not be able to get on the computer for a while, I might be able to check a little email, but chances are I wont have much time to be on the computer.

So farewell for now!! See you guys in a few weeks! =) =)


Kram, Haley

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Holy bejeezes!

I have only one month left!!! I literally can not wrap my mind around this concept. It had always seemed like I had all the time in the world to be here and enjoy myself with all my friends and family but I am almost DONE!

I dont even have the whole month in Sweden. 17 days of it will be spent on Eurotour. So really I have a little less than 2 weeks left in Sweden. My mind is spinning haha.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

PLANS...

Btw... I forgot to add that I have decided to continur this blog when I get home, but... wait for it........

IN SWEDISH!

So all of you who are in New Mexico reading this back home, that wont be so fun for you haha. Men.. alla i Sverige kan läsa om hur det är för mig när jag åker hem! Also all of the people that are about to go out on their exchange can practice their swedish a bit. =)

I wont update as often as I have this year, mostly because I wont be doing so much exciting stuff. When I write in here, I can talk about how it is for me adjusting to my old life again and the differences I notice between Sweden and the USA. I will also be able to practice my swedish and that is a huge plus!

SO... soon after I gte home you can look for a re-done blog! I will completly transform it to a swedish blog. =) Make-Over!!

Kram, Haley

I can hear the bells....

So this past Saturday was the royal wedding! I actually sat don and watched it like a good little exchange student. Haha it was actually really interesting to watch, you could tell that they were very in love. Daniel (New prince of sweden) even cried a little! They are a cute couple. =)

So this past week I have had summer break! Yay! I haven't done much, hung out with my host sister and stuff. I think during summer break people should take it easy. =) Especially when I have a crazy trip coming up on the horizon. The weather was pretty nice up until friday, I have been out sunbathing and even..... yes..... swimming! In the crazy freezing lake. I am not kidding! My heart felt like it stopped for a secong there. On Friday, I went to Linköping with Lisa (Youtube video up! Lalalanddreamer21) we went and saw Sex and the City 2, it was very funny! I really liked it =) Today me and my host parents did some touristy stuff in a city about and hour from hear. It was nice, it was like a little mini vacation.

This whole next week I am the only one in my family that is not working haha, so I will just be chilling and hanging out with friends. Hopefully the weather holds up. =) Friday is Midsommar, a HUGE swedish holiday. I will post more about it once I learn more about it haha. It will definitly be a new experience!

Kram, Haley

Monday, June 14, 2010

Graduation!!

Vi har tagit studenten
för vi har tagit studenten
Vi har tagit studenten!!!
Fy fan vad vi är BRA!!!

Haha just a little tune to say that I have graduated!! I haven't written in a while because I wanted to get all of the graduation stuff into one blog and grad lasts about a week here so here it goes....

At the beginning of the week was a carnival, it was more of a parade than a carnival I guess but it was definitly funny! All of the graduating classes chose a theme and dressed up for it then had a parade of all of them. There were so many great costumes and it was all very funny to watch. At the end, three of the classes won a money prize. My class (Well not my class technically but the grade above us) came in second place, they were dressed up as nuts! haha. That night I was over at Lisas and we had a Harry Potter marathon, the weird thing was that we saw it get dark and we also saw it get light! It gets dark here at aroung 11ish and then it started getting light at like 3 and by 4 it was completly light outside! Monday there was a race on the river, the classes had to build their own floats and then they raced. I felt pretty bad for them actually because it was really cold and kind of rainy. The whole week was pretty bad weather actually. =(

On Saturday was graduation!!! I got up and went to school at 9 and the ceremony started at 10. I was there earlier because I am in the choir and we got to perform. So the whole gradution was some singing and lots of talking about the future. There were no diplomas like back home and we werent allowed to put on out hats till the very end. Michael and I had to go up on stage and get introduced, he just said stuff about what we were doing and why exchange was such a great thing. I translated to Michael as the principal was talking and everyone thought that was pretty funny. =) After the ceremony all of the classes went into a room with their teachers and the teachers talked, gave out grades, and said goodbye, it was pretty emotional. At 12 we all raced out of the school and then went and found our families. Parents make posters with a baby picture on it so they can be found in the crowd, it was a really fun thing to see! Then after everyone said hi to their families we all piled into the float and drove around town with the music blasted and we were screaming and dancing. It was a blast!! After all of that I went around to houses with my host family for a few grad parties which are pretty much like back home I would say.

It was a very cool experience and really great that my school let me graduate, a lot of exchange students dont get to do that here. So now I am on summer break and I have 2 and a half weeks before Euro Tour to spend with my friends here! Now hopefully the weather gets nice again so I actually want to go outside haha.

Kram, Haley