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

Strömstad

Hey

Well I have just spent a week in Strömstad, on the Bohuslan coast half an hour south of Norway. It was a lovely week with surprisingly great weather, over 30 degrees some days which is amazing for sweden, I was told to expect a week long summer of about 20 degrees really so it has been great. Not too much to report just a week at the bach really, popped into norway for half an hour but didnt see too much. However I was there long enough to listen to some norweigans speak and although I could understand perfectly I must say that they speak very strangley! The rhythm and pitch is funny. I like swedish better. Here are a bunch of photos, in a reasonable order..

Norway pics

Sweden pics again

European Ramble Tour

Well I have just had a crazy 18 days with 76 other exchange students from Ecuador, South Africa, France, America, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, New Zealand, Mexico, 4 chaperones, a very smiley tour guide and a funny bus driver, driving all over europe. I was exhausted at the end of it!

Germany

Day 1 of Eurotour, I left home at 7am and drove to Malmö to for meeting at 8.30am. After an hour of being told of the rules etc we hit the road on a double deckor bus. i sat with Alana on the first day and we had a very funny lunch on the ferry crossing from Denmark to germany with Natalie and Max. After driving further once we were in Germany, we arrived in Berlin, settled into the hotel and then went out for our german dinner. Afterwards had a little free time to have a look around the night lit Berlin, but only enough time for a little walk. Then it was back to the hotel and to bed.
Day 2 we had a sightseeing tour and went to Checkpoint Charlie, which was from when Berlin was divided where one would cross from east to west or vice versa. It had a really interesting museum detailing how people would sneak over the border, telling the tales of some very brave souls. We also went to the Berlin wall of course! It was really strange though, the whole wall is just covered in paintings and graffiti, which of course everybody added to and as the last girls were leaving their mark the police came and told them off! Despite the thousands of other names scribbled all over the wall they were still told to stop! We couldn't believe it. We saw some other old impressive buildings before some free tim to shop etc. Had a really yummy lunch from a little german bakery type place with pastries etc. That evening after dinner we had a few games outside, ice breaker activities I guess, which were quite fun, we had a danceing competition etc. then just chilled out with everybody afterwards..

Berlin by night

the wall


julz rulz, leaving my mark on the wall
Poland

Day 3 we drove to Poland, ate out having a jewish dinner, then back to the hotel where we had a bit of fun. Day 4, explored cracow on foot with a tour guide, it was quite interesting, saw the only senegal in the city etc Then in the afternoon it was to Auschwitz, which was an unreal experiance. It still seemed so difficult to believe that everything we have read in the textbooks at school about the concentration camps actually happened despite walking through gas chambers, seeing the piles of shoes etc. It was very sombering, and really difficult to describe.

the traffic jam we caused as we tried to get the bus into a narrow driveway!

Prague

I was very impressed with prague, we began day 6 with a walking tour of the city starting in the old part seeing the palace etc. I thought it was a really pretty city and was amazed when looking out over the city from up near the palace. Had free time in the arvo and wandered through the shopping area, it was quite funny on the way to lunch one guy who worked at a souvenir shop called out to us as we walked past exscuse me you dropped something, confused I looked back but there was nothing on the ground so we looked back at him and he said my heart. Well we just cracked up with laughter and kept walking, it was very funny and then later we heard that this had also happened to several people. The tactics of getting tourists into shops! That night we all got dressed up at had a nice dinner on a boat cruise which was a really nice way to see a little more prague, really pretty from the water.

Brianna and Frans
Alex, Alana and I
Brittany, Amp, Jacquelyn and Sarah
from boat
Hotel view, we were out from the city though

Austria

We drove to Zell am See from Prague and stopped for an hour on the way at Salzburg, home of Mozart and the location where the sound of music was filmed. I had a really nice hour there walking with Nick, Laura, Kate and Steven up a little hill where we got a great view of the city, and of course sung the songs from the movie at the top and walking down, then it was back on the bus to continue on to Zell am See only about an hour further from Salzburg but up in the alps. It was a really pretty view from the hotel. There is the cleanest lake in Europe with the mountains surrounding it so you can imagine how nice it was sitting on the balcony at the end of the day. Day 8 we hiked up the mountain, took awhile! But was well worth it, just a beautiful day, so hot, but just everywhere you looked it looked so great. Afterwards we went for a well deserved swim in the lake which was a lovely temperature and really nice. AFter dinner a few went out around the little town and others, including me chilled out on the balcony looking out at everything at the hotel. Was a really good day.

Laura, myself, Jacquelyn and Sarah
sunbathing at the top

Ella, Jacquelyn, Sarah, myself and Alex

Jacquelyn me and adele
very high, near top
with kate
sarah, jacquelyn me and kate

climbing up the steep part

A very fancy sign for mcdonalds on the street which had mozarts house where he was born.

Salzburg


Italy

Well we stayed in a little town with a beautiful beach just a ferry ride away from Venice, so was still quite the tourist town but so lovely. Had a free day there which was spent at the beach, in the shops and having a nice lunch of pasta. Had such a lovely day then the next day was spent in venice, starting with a gondala ride through the city which i really enjoyed, a nice way to check out the city. The rest of the day was free time wandering through venice, I didnt really enjoy venice so much as it was such a hot day and there were just so many people you couldnt hold out your arms so it was quite overwhelming. However it was a really pretty city, although I think i would enjoy italy in lesser tourist towns.

with sarah at lunch

eating pizza in italy

with sarah
Jacquelyn and I
yum yum yum
3 girlies

in Venice
Masks of Venice
Busy tourist filled street
eating our ice cream/ gelato, yes italy has the best ice cream
on ferry to venice

our gondola driver

venice



the bottom of the door had rotted away


France

Well our first night in France was in the ghetto of Lyon so didnt get up to much that evening up arrival, just chilled out on the lawn with a rugby ball. It took two days driving from Italy to get to Paris, so the next morning it was back on the bus to get to Paris. Our first evening there we went to a French caberet after dinner, which was very entertaining, i am sure all the boys enjoyed it. The next day we drove around the city- i am never driving myself if the city of paris, the traffic was insane- at saw things like l'arc de triomphe, the famous shopping street filled with shops of famous designers, on our way to the eiffel tower. Standing at the top of that was amazing, it was the place that had the most impact, in the sense of wow I am really here the little kiwi from the other side of the world. The tower really was very impressive, especially the next day when we returned at night. Lit up was even better. Paris was lots of fun and I really enjoyed it however it was very frustrating every time I tried to speak french, after my studying it the way through college, all I could think was how to say what I wanted to say in swedish! It was very frustrating.

supplies for the bus trip
drinking my nutella snack pack thing

moulin rouge

view from tower

the kiwis
armed guards at the bottom of the tower
me at the top

Belgium

Well we stopped in Brussels on our way to Antwerp and had several hours there where Ella and I had our waffle and ice cream before going chocolate shop hopping where we scored lots of free samples, it was lots of fun. I really liked Belgium, it was a shame we didnt have much time there but it was all very cute and quaint in the streets. We saw the famous statue of the little boy peeing, but that wasnt very exciting! This little statue on this little corner, strange how its on all the postcards etc had a nice evening relaxed with friends at the hotel and the next day we began our journey back to sweden. We had two days driving home, the night in the middle we stayed over in Hagen in Germany and had an all night party in a conference room where we had our silly prizes from the trip and dressed up etc and it was all very fun, a nice way to end the trip.

And that was Eurotour! I had such a wonderful time, made so many new friends and saw a lot of europe in the time that we had. I think that Lido de Jesolo, the small town we stayed in in Italy, Austria, Prague and Paris where my favourites. And Belgium! haha well I guess I enjoyed most the cities fairly evenly then!

Next its to the bach near the norweigan border for a week and then I have two weeks in spain. So please remember this when it takes me awhile to reply to your emails this time guys! I wasnt going to waste any of my time on eurotour on the computer, and I am not sure what internet I will have in spain, so just remember that if I fail to reply fast enough for you!

puss och kram,

xx