End of Summer, New School Year

Hey hey,

Well It has been quite a while since my last blog and I have been so busy! I have enjoyed 2 weeks in the sunny spot of Alicante in Spain with my first host family. We left our house at 3am one morning to drive to Copenhagen airport to be there at 5am in time for our flight. I became very brown with temperatures reaching 40 on one day. The beach was incredible, it was only on the last day as we left at 7am that I actually saw what it really looked like as it is just jam packed with people through the day. It was incredible, you were just as close to those around you as you were with! And the nudity of larger sized woman, oh it was gross. One day we went to the Salt Lakes, the natural habitat of flamingoes, It was very cool seeing all these flamingoes. The lakes are pink and just about 100% salt concrentrated. It was incredible, the floor was just salt instead of sand and you can only float on the water, its too hard to swim. I have never been in anything like it before. And of course we layed on the beach went to the markets and swam in the pool.

Well once home from Spain I had a couple of days to pack my things and move to the city into Helsingborg to my second host family. I have now been here exactly two weeks. It is a very nice house with only 4 floors, although the fourth really is just a bedroom and bathroom for the eldest son. In this family there is the father Axel and mother Christina with Calle 19, Anna 17 and Ebba 12. It is great living in town as it is far easier getting to school, no more 6am starts for a lesson at 8.30! and it makes it easier to meet friends in town. I am also really enjoying having the older company at home as opposed to the little kids running around in gantofta. So the new family is going very well.

I have also started at a new school. My old school didnt work out very well and I am very happy here. I have only had one week at school so far but almost every day have I hung out with people from class after school. They are all asking me to join them with various things, so are a far more welcoming bunch then the old lot, which I am very appreciative about at this point in my exchange. Of course at times it is hard not to get frustrated about the fact that this change has come about so late in my exchange however maybe my swedish skills now and various other factors are helping me a lot more now starting school then to the start of my exchange. But it is a very positive change and I am very happy at this point in my exchange.

It was my first host mother's birthday and so I took her to see Mama Mia at the movies. IT was so much fun watching it together and we went at about 6.30 which meant that the cinema was pretty much filled up with the grandparents who I would assume would be the people who appreciated the songs of Mama Mia most in the world being swedish and all, and so it was fun watching with them as they all clapped and cheered after the songs, and sung at the end etc. good times :D

Yesterday I had a day cycling around Ven, an island between Denmark and Sweden ( under swedish control) with all the new exchange students in my district. It was nice getting to meet all the 'newbies' with their strong accents, all very interesting and does, along with school and the new family, mark the second half of the year, despite the fact that I am well over half way!

There are only 4 months or so left of this year and I am trying to stay as busy as possible, meeting up with everybody and making the most of the exchange. I have a trip lined up in a couple of weeks, going with Alana to England to stay with Helen and Aiden in London and then on to Birmingham to stay with Alana's parents who recently moved over and then to my cousin Darren's wedding at the end of the trip. I am very excited to see Helen and Aiden and also London and England.

All things are going very well and am feeling on top of the world :D
Hope everyone at home is as well and happy as me
xx