so it's now been a month since I left NZ. In that time I've been in 3 countries, used 3 currency's, visited 4 Swedish towns, spoken parts of 2 languages and had an awesome time.
First up was the Los Angeles stop over with 34 other Kiwi exchange students. It was a great time bonding, getting to know each other and a great way to separate leaving our family's at home and arriving in our new ones. We visited Venice Beach, Disneyland, Universal Studios, Hollywood Boulevard, the Westchester Rotary Club and Ralph's, the supermarket across the road from the hotel.
After 3 days in LA it was time to embark on the next part of the journey, saying goodbye to the one's staying in the States and Canada; and continuing on the insane flights with the others going to Europe. After a 10 hour flight, we arrived in Frankfurt and all got our first views of the snow that would become our 'best friend'. Groups of people started to go through security to their connecting flights then we said goodbye to our awesome chaperone's and then began the 6 hour wait till the beginning of my exchange!
A short flight from Frankfurt to Stockholm, a long wait to collect my bags, and a wander through customs (that didn't actually exist!) later I met my host councillor Margareta, host mum Doris and host brother Tomas. The drive to what would become my home town on Linköping consisted of an amazement of what looked like very similar scenery to the North Island roads travelled many times with the family except for one small thing. Everything was covered in snow! ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING! That amazement still happens everyday. No grass, just white, everywhere.
My first few weeks here have consisted of jet lag, rotary meetings and events, starting school, language camp, making friends, walking around the centre of Linköping and much more.
The first week here in Sweden consisted of, sleep, going to my first Rotary meeting, sleep, having a look around the town, sleep, starting school at Folkungaskolan and a little bit more sleep! Then came the first district 2410 exchange student meeting in Norrköping, where we got to play a little bit of Curling and then enjoy dinner together. The exchange students who had been here for 6 months already welcomed us 'newbies' with open arms and it was a great afternoon!
The second week I spent in Sweden was spent with around 30 exchange students, recently arrived in Sweden, 3 of us New Zealanders, 2 Argentinians and then the rest were all Australians. We were attending a language/orientation camp in Vimmerby, the town where Astrid Lindgren, the author of Pippy Longstockings grew up. We stayed at Folkhögskola which is like an adult education school that also had accommodation buildings attached. The week there was spent getting to know the exchange students, and learning little bits and pieces about the Swedish culture, history, sports and language. Here is where I began my obsession with Knäckebröd, which when translated into English means crisp bread. But it's much much better than it sounds.
I've spent the last 2 weeks here in Linköping going to school, and then returning home again to watch the Olympics! Or OS as they are known here. It's been nice having a country to support that actually does well! But I've also been cheering for the few Kiwi's in the bunch. School here has some similarities to home, but also many differences. I'm currently taking, Psychology, History, Swedish, Geography, Civics, Maths, and my personal favourite, English. The lessons are much longer than at home ranging in time from 1 hour to 1 hour 40 minutes; and when that's all in a foreign language it's a bit hard to keep up! Lunch time is probably one of my favourite differences here, we get to go to a cafeteria and eat hot cooked lunches everyday, and it's free which makes it that much better. Many of the students complain about the food, but really, it's actually pretty decent.
I spent last weekend visiting some of the exchange students in Norrköping. Here we went to a Basketball game! It was a game in the Baltic league, the Norrköping Dolphins vs. Tallinna, a team from Estonia, and the Dolphins won 89-75! The crowd was about as big as at the Harbour Heat games back home, so not too much atmosphere. But it was still great to experience something that's been a part of my life in NZ over here in Sweden. I then spent all of Saturday out and about and did plenty of shopping! Trying to fill in the gaps of my 'wardrobe' here, and I think it was quite a successful day.
This week I have Sport Lov, which is a week's holiday from school. My host mum had originally planned for a weekend trip down to the holiday home in Mölle, but there has been a huge amount of snow the last few days so we had to cancel. So I will be spending most of the week relaxing and trying to learn a little bit more Swedish!
Much love from Linköping,
Alex.
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