Monday, March 29, 2010

Springtime!

So now that it it almost April it is definitly officially springtime! You can not imagine my happiness after this crazy long winter. Even though it is the end of March, we still have some snow on the ground but it is dissappearing fast! On friday, we had beautiful weather, 16 degrees celcius. I was so happy but then i looked at the weather for back home. Anywhere from 16 to 24 degrees! Crazy jealous! But we will get there soon enough.

This past weekend I had some fun. I spent the night at the Åsens because we were planning on going to one of Amalias hockey games but the game got cancelled so instead on saturday we went into Linköping. Amalia and I did some shopping. I bought some shorts. Haha I know this seems a little pre-mature but I wanted some, maybe owning shorts will make it get warmer faster... or maybe not haha. Then I met up with my exchange student friends. We went to Evans house and made muffins then went back into town for dinner. We wanted some kind of asian food but ended up with kebab haha. Then we walked back to Evans house and watched Mulan! Awesome! Haha then it was time to go home, so we went to the train station and when I got back to Tranås i walked to the Åsens and spent the night there. All in all, lots of walking that day haha.

Then Sunday was spent at home relaxing and pretty much doing nothing!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Youtube

Hej hej! So I decided that instead of writing a blog this week, I would do a youtube video so you can go onto youtube and search my username to get to my chanel.

My username is lalalanddreamer21

Go look! =)

Kram, Haley

Friday, March 19, 2010

Grövelsjön/ Åre

So as most of you know, I have been on vacation for the past two weeks and that is the reason for leaving my blog untouched for such a long time! There is so much to tell about the last few weeks so I am going to take it in cronological (spelling?) order.

The first week started off with a 10 hour drive through Norway to Grövelsjön. Boring and tiring so when we got there it was dark and we were exhausted. We got all settled into our cute little cabin. (Hjorten was the name) BTW On this trip was My host mom and dad, host brother, Michael and I. The next day we pretty much just tryed to get the feel of the cross country skiis. Not going to lie, I was pretty darn lousy haha. By the end of the day I did feel a bit better on the skiis though. The whole week was pretty much going through the same thing every day, we got up and ate lunch then went out to ski for a couple of hours then came back and chilled. On wednesday, we went downhill but I was on the bunny hill all day because I had no idea what I was doing! Also on wednesday, we went to a huge buffet. They had every type of meat and fish imaginable. Moose, elk, pig, cow, you name it. I was pretty adventurous and tryed most everything, even the raw fish but I did stay away from the moose heart. No thank you haha. Most days we would go anywhere from 5-10 kilometers so were were always pretty wiped out when we got back. I had a very good time, even though by the end I could barely lift my arms because they were so sore!

On Saturday, we had to get up at 3.45 in the morning! We had to drive 3 hours to a train station in Norway to catch a train to Trondheim, Norway. It was about a two hour train so it was still pretty much breakfast time when we got there. It was a very randon and funny day. Apparently the day we happen to be in that city is some huge event that happens every year. All the shops were having sales and there was free stuff everywhere. We found free Jesus waffles in the street, haha not kidding. A church set up a stand and they were making waffles and giving out juice to everyone. When they found out that we were foreigners, they asked for a picture! Very funny. There was a market and lots of crowds. There was also a few people dressed up in pink bunny suits giving out easter eggs, unfortunatly I did not manage to get a picture of them! Michael and i found an advertisement in the street where you just grabbed in and got free chips haha. Like I said, it was a very random day. Then we took a train to Åre and met up with Rod and his family. We were there a day earlier than everyone else so we just hung out at Rods house.

On sunday, everyone started arriving. There were people that I knew from my language camp wayyyy back in august and new people that I had never met before. When everyone was finally there, (There was at least 40 of us) we went and took a tour of the town. Then we went to the waterpark! It isn't really a waterpark it is more of saunas and pools, but there was a slide! This place was amazing! There was a sauna world complete with saunas, fog rooms, ice baths and a snow room. Then there was the pool section with the waterslide, hot tubs, pools and even an outdoor pool where you could go and swim in the blizzard. We jumped out and played in the snow in our bathing suits haha. The next day wa sout first day of skiing, it took forever to rent out stuff for 40 people but we got there eventually. The people who really didn't know what they were doing (me =) got instructors and they taught us how to ski. During the week I got good enough to make it down a blue slope and still have fun. Haha. Not very impressive but I'm pretty proud of myself! The whole day was spent with our teachers. After lunch, my ski buddy and I got a really awesome teacher and he took us skiing off the track and jumping and fun stuff like that. That day we got back and relaxed since we were all pretty tired. It pretty much went the same every day, ski, lunch, ski, hotel. I did get to the top of the mountain but we couldn't see anything when we got up there it was so crazy foggy! Still fun though, everyones hair was turning white because it was so cold up there! On wednesday, we had to do a rotary presentation in swedish haha, that was interesting to hear how everyones swedish is going. Yesterday, I skied till lunch then we turned in out skiis so we cound go in and explore the town. We walked around a little and got some touristy stuff. We came back and had dinner then I had to go catch a train. There were about 13 exchange students on my train so it wasn't too boring. We watched movies and played blackjack, basically we were the loud foreigners that everyone gets annoyed with haha. We encountered an interesting person on the train to say the least haha, so some of us avoided her and went into the cafe for a couple hours. I did not sleep well haha, it is hard to sleep on a train! I was freezing and uncomfertable! This morning we got to Linköping at about 5.30. Then Michael and I had to wait for our train so the others just decided to wait the half hour with us, then we all said goodbye till next time.

When Michael and I got off the train in Tranås, we noticed a dramatic difference in our little town... It's SPRING!! The long winter is finally over and it is warming up and getting lighter. You an not imagine how happy I am that it is about 6 degrees celcius out. The snow has dramatically decreased and it is only a matter of time before it is gone! =) I've had a good swedish winter but I think it is time to move on now... Ready for the sun!

Kram, Haley

P.S Plently of pictures up on facebook soon.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Spännande!!

I am so excited for these next two weeks! I wont be on the computer much, so I definitly won't have time to write a blog till I get back. I will tell you guys all about my trip and there will be pictures on y facebook page!

This week was nice and relaxed, since I knew I had a two week break after this week. The 3rd grade at my school was putting on preformances in their groups. So my program in school is the fine arts program and in that program we all chose our "major" There is dance, theatre and music. So everyone made a show for their groups. It was very fun to watch and everyone is so talented in this program! The dance people had to made all of their own choerography, (spelled wrong I know haha) their show was about 45 miunutes. Then there was theatre and their show was a little hard to understand for me, haha, but great all the same. I really enjoyed the music performance since that is the program I go into in my grade. They played a bunch of songs for over an hour. . Every grade in the music program has a big project. 1st grade is a musical, 2nd Salongerna, and 3rd is this, it is called tour.

So that was pretty much all that happened this week! Haha

See you in 2 weeks! =)
Haley

Monday, March 1, 2010

Mars! (Not the planet!! =)

So now that it is March, (Mars in Swedish) I realized how fast time has gone. Months go by so fast and I only have a little less than 5 of them left. March is going to be gone really fast because next week, I am going to Grövelsjön with my family and then Åre with rotary.

I will be leaving on Saturday and we will drive 10 hours to Grövelsjön and then we will be spending that week cross country skiing. Then on the next saturday, we (Michael and I) will board a train to Åre for the rotary ski trip. I wont we skiing though, I decided to try snowboarding. We will get back early friday morning after spendind the night on the train.

This past week was a pretty normal week. On thursday, I had my rotary speech, it is nice to finally have it over with! I basically just did a powerpoint on New Mexico and my family and friends. It was in swedish and english haha. Michael also did his speech, but he got to speak english obviously. On friday I was at the stables working in the cafe, saturday and sunday were spent relaxing and staying at home. Reading also, I read the notebook and it was soo good. I still really like the movie version though.

If any of you dont know, I have a youtube and I have been putting up videos in between blogs. I also have been putting up random videos of what happens during the day with my friends. My friend Lisa and I had thought that it would be fun if we cound do some swedish language cideos, to get you guys talking swedish! Then when I come back, we can talk to each other in swedish! That would be awesome haha. Anyways, if you just type in lalalanddreamer21 into youtube you will get to all of my videos. Go and check them out! =)

Kram, Haley