Sverige 2010

As the end draws nearer..

2010-12-08T16:50:00.000+01:00

Just a brief update of what I've been doing lately, turning 19, school, playing in the snow, building snowmen, walking outside in -22, buying more 'Swedish' clothing, fika, taking photos, going to see Harry Potter, visiting exchange students (on both coasts), checking out Liseberg at Christmas, going to Trollhättan, going to an ice hockey game, continuing to improve with my Swedish, and my final Rotary presentation about my year... And getting philosophical about my year!

Time keeps passing in the blink of an eye, I don't know how all of a sudden, there's one month left. Departure date keeps drawing nearer and nearer and while I'm definitely excited to get home and see everyone again, the reality of it is, I will no longer be an exchange student. I will have been an exchange student. No longer in a foreign place becoming home, a strange language becoming familiar, a group of people in the same boat from all of over the place becoming best friends.. The year of an exchange student is incredible, everything is an adventure, as soon as you think that everything is normal, there's another trip, another weekend, another day at school, realizing that you are in fact 17000km away from home, and that this is still all NEW.
All of the adventures from this year have been amazing, and all though the year is almost over, I hope the adventures don't end, I think my year as an exchange student has begun to prepare me for life, university next year, and everything else that's going to come afterwards.

The thing I think I'm going to miss about this country is how incredibly beautiful it is! Especially with all of the snow.

Alex

District conference and other stuff.

2010-11-04T23:00:00.000+01:00

Life here is really settled, I've got a routine with mostly school, gym, Swedish lessons, fika and movies. It's pretty good really. With my final quarterly report done and dusted for Rotary in New Zealand, and the date for my final presentation for Rotary here in Sweden it's really hitting me how soon my departure date is which is incredibly scary. Don't get me wrong, it will be great to see everyone again, but this home and family feels like mine, it's getting harder and harder to remember what it's like living at home.

So amongst the normality of my Swedish life there are the Rotary weekends! This past weekend was the District Conference for district 2410 which has some of Sweden and also includes Latvia. We got to go down to Öland bright and early on Saturday morning to the hotel where the conference was held. After dropping our stuff off the exchange students headed off for our first activity, GOLF. We were all thinking, what the heck are Rotary doing making us go play golf! But after an hour or so of hitting some balls on the driving range and a bit of putting I think we all had a great time. Then was back to the hotel to organize our presentation for the rotarians later in the afternoon; which after a bit of stressing actually went really well. Some of the boys started out by singing a Swedish song, followed by a skit showing our expectations of Sweden including, tall blonde people who party all the time. Then we showed a bit of what school is like, with people walking in late, eating, txting, leaving when they want and casually a bit of music too. We also did one of the midsommar dances. I think the rotarians were pretty impressed and certainly got a laugh out of it. Then was back to our accomodation (some cabins at a campground whilst the rotarians got a hotel!) to get ready for the dinner. So with us all donning our blazers we headed back to the hotel for the formal dinner for the weekend.

At the medieval chapel on Öland

After a long night we got taken back to the hotel at around 10am and our choices of activities were either swimming at the hotel, or just sitting and chatting. But one of the girls, Mariah knew someone who wanted to go and explore a little bit so myself, Mariah (from Canada) and Ally (from USA) headed off to see some of the tourist spots on Öland. Including, a ruin from a Medieval chapel from the 12th century, an old village, and the royals old palace. So we adventured for a few hours before getting lunch at the hotel with everyone, and then it was back to Linköping after yet another great rotary weekend.

Some one notable event since the District Conference have been that at school for the week before Halloween we had people dressing up, scaring people, giving out candy, costume competition, just to name a little bit. So for a country that doesn't really do anything for Halloween (e.g. no trick-or-treating) it was pretty cool!

Leaving Göteborg

Church in Aalborg

So the past week has been Höst Lov (Autumn Holiday), so my host mum decided to take me and my host brother down to Aalborg, Denmark for a few days to see her mum, and her sister, amongst other things. After almost not being able to go after having managed to catch the fever that my little host niece and nephew had we headed to Göteborg to catch the ferry to Fredrikshavn on Monday. Tuesday I spent chilling in town with my host brother Nikolaj and then we met up with his friend Søren who was on exchange with Nikolaj in Mexico and then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with him. Wednesday was relaxed, did a bit of shopping, and then had dinner with my host mums sister and her husband which was really nice! Then we just came back today.

It's crazy to think that it's now November, so I unbelievably have two months left here in Sweden. Which I'm definitely going to make the most of, and hopefully it's going to start snowing soon so I can enjoy that as much as I can before heading back into Summer in NZ :P

Well that's it from an almost nineteen year old (?!)

Love Alex.

a necessary update.

2010-10-03T20:23:00.001+02:00

I really would like to know why the closer you are to something time seems to pass by faster and faster? And also, please tell me how it's October already?

So going back to just over 3 weeks ago, I was packing to go on a holiday, not just any holiday, I was going to meet my parents at Stockholm airport. That was probably the strangest feeling I've had in a long time! Amongst the excitement is the anxiety of seeing some people that you love, but haven't seen in person for around 8 months. After my most anxious train ride of the year so far, I picked up my exhausted parents from the airport and was finally able to impress people of my knowledge of how stuff works in Sweden!
Our trip was a hectic two weeks of seeing the sites of Scandinavia, visiting our old exchange students we've hosted and family in London, but really fun! We started in Stockholm for 3 days, seeing Gamla Stan, the Vasa Museum, Skansen, doing a boat tour and we managed to fit in a little bit of shopping of course.
Then we flew over to Finland for dinner to visit Anu who lived with us in 2007 when she was in NZ on exchange, to see a little bit of her town Tampere and to have dinner with her and her mum.

Next up was my town (Linköping) for 3 days to show the parents where I've been living so far this year! I took them to Gamla Linköping, the Cathedral, Tannfors Slussar, my school, and pretty much tried to show them as much of what life is like here as I could. We also had dinner with my current and previous host families.

Then was down to Copenhagen for 2 days to see some more of the Scandinavian sites including another boat tour, climbing up the tower in the town hall, and just in general walking the streets.
Next up on our trip was Brussels to visit Lucie our exchange student from 2006. We looked around the centre of town, seeing the town hall (and the rest of the main square), the old stock exchange building, the cathedral and of course, Manneken Pis. Not to mention eating a nice lunch with traditional food and the best food they have to offer; WAFFLES.
Lastly came London to visit my cousin Michelle and her family. In our 3 days we managed to include trips to St. Pauls, the Museum of London, the London Eye, visiting some of Mum's old work colleagues, and a 3 year old's birthday party!
Sadly my two weeks with Mum and Dad had to leave, saying goodbye at Heathrow with them flying off to Canada and then me heading back 'home' to Sweden.

Me and Crystal at the zoo

A week later and it was time to finally meet all the newbies! We had an exchange students weekend in Norrköping to get to know each other and plan our performance/presentation for the district conference at the end of the month. Not only did we do that but we got to go to Kolmården (the zoo!) and to the visualization centre which basically has a massive dome theatre and we got to watch this 3D film about 'sea monsters' from before the Jurassic period, which although sounds lame, was actually pretty cool. It was great to meet up with all the new exchange students in my district and am definitely looking forward to hanging out with them some more over the next few months.

Much love from Sweden,
Alex <3

more time passes

2010-09-06T14:15:00.000+02:00

I feel like time is flying now. Every week or so I take a look back and go, what the heck, it feels like I arrived here only a month or so ago (except the language skills haha), but it's been 7 and a half months. I'm now trying to get my head around the fact that in 5 days time I will getting on a train to Arlanda airport in Stockholm to pick up my parents to spend 2 weeks together. At the beginning of the year when I was thinking, wow it's going to be ages until my parents come, I didn't realise how incredibly quick time would pass.

With school having started again, I'm now into a regular pattern again, with school, the gym, homework, struggling my way through the Swedish language and a good amount of movie watching with my host family. For my individual choice subject at school I get to do fashion, so it's great having a super chilled class on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons!

Me and Mona my old host mum, cray-fishing

Last Friday after school my old host family took myself, David, Maud, Theresa and Theresa's friend Kajsa out to a lake north of Norrköping to do some cray-fishing! The evening was so much fun. Once we got out there, we had a snack, then went out in the boats to drop the cages. After a casual exploration of a random island, we headed back to have some hanburgers and just chill until it got dark enough for us to go out and pick up the cages again. We managed to get about 90-100 all up, but the crayfish aren't what you think, they are only about 10cm long max, so they're super small. But so good!
Saturday was super chilled, and I hung out with David and Maud. We went to Inception, which was incredibly good! Anyone who hasn't seen it yet totally needs to go and see it.

So this week it's back to school before heading off on a 2 week holiday with mum and dad. And really, I'm insanely excited for their visit! Not only to see them, but we're visiting our old exchange students Anu and Lucie and then my cousin Michelle and her family in London! So I'm definitely getting around some more of Europe. Really looking forward to it, and hopefully being able to show off some Swedish skills ;)

Lots of love,
Alex.

school times again.

2010-08-28T19:30:00.000+02:00

Erik Grönwall, Swedish Idol
winner from 2009

After just over two months of Summer holidays, it was time to head back to school. And really, I was pretty excited! Time to see everyone again, get re immersed in the language and all that jazz. The first week back was really chilled, only a few classes and mostly we got to take part in 'Nollning'. Having the privilege of being the oldest kids at school my class along with all the other 3rd grade classes got given a 1st grade class to help 'introduce' into the school life. And may I say, I really wish NZ had as awesome school traditions as Sweden has! With this class we got to make them play games, do stupid stuff and pretty much control them for the first week. This included taping them into pairs for a day, making them get on the ground whenever we blew a whistle, and run up and down 4 flights of stairs shouting. All of the classes had a tabloid sports type competition on the Wednesday and then a song competition on Friday, my class of nollers came third overall which was pretty sweet really!

On Friday Tash arrived from Gällivare to spend the weekend with me. Friday was the RixFm festival in my town. So we got to see a whole lot of pretty good Swedish musicians for free in one of the gardens in town. These musicians included my favourite Manboy singer ;) and the 2009 Swedish idol winner. It was a really sweet night chilling, listening to good music, and taking some sweet photos!
The rest of the weekend was just spent chilling and catching up, and also myself bailing off my bike whilst biking into town on the Saturday leaving my self crippled for the week ;)

After saying goodbye to Tash on Sunday I picked up the train tickets for my parents visit in two weeks! Pretty excited really, not only to see them, but to go travelling again, and also catch up with two exchange students that we've had staying with us at home and then my cousin and her family.

The next Monday I actually started back at school, with all of my classes etc. This semester I have really sweet classes, a good timetable and good teachers. And as the week went on I kinda discovered that my Swedish has really improved over Summer. I can keep up with most of my classes, and even do the work! Haha. Kinda think it may be useful to get up a decent work habit for university next year.
Wednesday I met the two newbies in my town, Theresa and Maud, from Germany and then France. It's fun having two new exchange students, taking the tally of students in Linköping up to 4! Pretty sweet really. Me and David (my fellow oldie, although he is younger than the other two!) took them out for fika, make sure they get introduced into the Swedish tradition well and truly early on in the year ;)

Me and Kiara, Euro tour.
(I've totally got no recent
photos of me for you)

I've been able to enjoy some more nice weather again today, and some shopping in town, and I'm realising I'm turning more and more Swedish every day with the clothing choices. Haha. Oh well, it's enjoyable, and to be honest, they have pretty sweet styles.

Well, that's the beginning of school over, two more weeks of exchange down and written onto this blog of mine. Only 19 weeks left of Scandinavian air. Now that's weird.

Love, Alex.

and so the summer continued..

2010-08-10T19:58:00.000+02:00

After an insane 17 days on Euro tour it was time to head back to Linköping and enjoy the rest of the Swedish summer. The day I got back Evan had his leaving party that night, so despite being ridiculously tired I went to that and then went home for an insanely awesome nights sleep. Then we headed out to the summer house for the week to enjoy the nice weather while it lasted.
Unfortunately, it didn't last too long so within a week I was back home and had the insane mission of packing up all of my stuff for the final move! So just over a week after being back in Sweden after the best experience of my life, I was off to begin another one with my final host family for the last 6 or so months of my exchange. And just in case you were thinking that all of my stuff may have decreased significantly in the last 3 and a half months since the last months, you certainly don't know me well enough! Haha, at this rate I'm going to be struggling to get back home! But I'm sure I will deal with that problem when I have too ;)

The weather has been fairly crap since I've moved, but I've managed to do a lot of chilling, reading, watching movies and the occasional work on my Swedish. The rest of my holidays have included missions out to IKEA with my host sister and her two young kids (secretly, IKEA is one of my favourite places in Sweden, and probably one of the things I'm going to miss when I get home :P). Going to a Lars Winnerbäck concert with my host parents. He's a Swedish musician who actually comes from my town, he's really good (: And then on Saturday along with almost the whole of my host family (all 9 of them :O including the two kids), we went on a 60km bike ride along the Göta Canal to a town called Borensberg.

I tend to spend my time entertaining myself with the 1 year old boy and 3 year old girl that are living at the house at the moment, my host sisters kids. Finding myself often jumping on the trampoline, playing Barbie, watching Pippy Longstockings or Disney movies and making Barbie castles. It's definitely a good way to keep entertained! Hahah.

Enjoying taking ridiculous photo's with Isabella my 3 year old host niece

Well, school's starting again next Monday after having just had 2 months of Summer holidays. I'm looking forward to the first week back, known to the Swede's as Nollning or orientation. Where each 3rd grade class get's a 1st grade class to kinda introduce to the school, play various pranks on, and all that sorta stuff! And then actually getting back into school for the second half of my year, maybe I will do some work this half of the year ;) Or maybe not.

Alex.

EURO TOUR!! this may just be the longest blog ever ;)

2010-08-04T17:51:00.001+02:00

1st July 2010 Malmö to Berlin
Alex D and I on the ferry
So the first day of Euro tour. 68 exchange students, from 9 different countries, along with 4 Rotary chaperones, 1 tour guide and 1 awesome bus driver set off from Malmö, headed for Berlin, Germany. We spent 9 hours in the bus; were in 3 different countries and there was a heck load of talking, if not shouting, going on. We were in the bus from Malmö to a small port in Denmark where we caught the ferry across to Germany, and then from there to Berlin. Apart from the general excitement of the first day of a 17 day Euro tour, there wasn’t much else that happened, except of course, being pulled over by German police just as we were heading into Berlin. After half an hour of sitting in the top level of the bus, looking down at the creepy cops, one of which was sitting in his van, behind curtains and randomly staring at us, until he noticed that we saw him too. Casual. Hahah. Eventually we got to our first accommodation for the tour, the Amstel Hostel. A pretty sweet youth hostel. But really, didn’t get me to have my hopes up for the rest of the tour if we were going to be staying in places like that the whole time! On the way to dinner we checked out some of the sights that Berlin had to offer, the parliament building, holocaust memorial, the TV tower and more. That night we went to a small restaurant close to the TV tower and ate a traditional German dinner, with Bratwurst and sauerkraut followed by some apple strudel for dessert. After dinner we just chilled at the hostel for the end of our first day of Euro tour.

2nd July 2010 Berlin
After signing the Berlin Wall
Time to be tourists. Our day started with a bus tour stopping off at famous points around the city. We started off visiting Checkpoint Charlie; the best known crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin at the time of the Berlin Wall. After time to check out all the information around the checkpoint we hopped back on the bus and headed onto our next stop; the Berlin Wall. It was amazing. The artwork that they’ve got there is fantastic, and it was so weird thinking that although not so much of it remains, this actually went through the whole of Berlin, separating it into East and West. We got time to check out the wall, and then of course, sign it! Hahah. So for the time being, my name’s on the Berlin Wall. After this we then headed to a museum and memorial site for those who died trying to cross the wall. Then, we got driven into the centre of town and then told that we had to be back at the hostel for dinner at 7pm. SWEET. Free time in Berlin. First thing, we did, lunch! And us being us, headed to KFC, for the first time in almost 6 months. Was pretty good, but not as good as it is at home! Hahah. A big group of us just stayed around the area they dropped us off in, checking out the local mall. Then we hit up an Irish pub to watch the soccer, Brazil vs Holland! Was a sweet game, watching with all the Brazilian exchange students, and with all the locals supporting Holland. Epic. After this we successfully navigated the German metro system back to the hostel. Then we had some dinner, schnitzel, haha, and then I chilled at the hostel to watch the Ghana vs Uruguay game. Berlin was ridiculously hot and humid, call for dehydration, not fun really! But all in all, a pretty nice city.

3rd July 2010
Berlin to Cracow
Kiara and I at dinner
So we had a ridiculously early wakeup call this morning, 6AM! Hating. But totally needed to get used to it, every travel day was 6AM. Not fun. So we headed off from Berlin, on a 600km journey to Cracow. The first half of the bus trip, nearly everyone spent sleeping. We stopped at a petrol station for some lunch, and man was it creepy. Haha. So many weird Polish truck drivers, giving us all dirty stares. Once we were back on the road we got to watch Schindler’s List, it was really good to get a background on what we were going to see the next day in Cracow. Once we got to our hotel, we got to chill for a bit before dinner. The hotel was SO NICE. Definitely my favourite of them all. We went into town for dinner at a Jewish restaurant, where we had a traditional meal accompanied by some traditional music. The music was kind of strange but also really good at the same time. Haha. We all had a relatively early night because the chaperones asked us to not go into town.

4th July 2010 Cracow
The four Alex's near the castle
We spent the morning on a bus tour of Cracow, going through the different areas of the town. Then we had a walking tour of the city as well, mainly focused on the old town, seeing the castle and things like that! We also got shown some of the areas where they shot Schindler’s List. The castle was one of the few things that didn’t get ruined by the German’s in World War 2 because they took control of it. The architecture around the castle was beautiful and amazing to see. The tour led us down from the castle towards the main town square, and the church. Here we got to see the bugle player, this was used as an alarm system for fires etc, now they have someone play the same tune on the hour every day, pretty much just for tourists. After that, we had free time for the middle of the day. Heather, Evan, Crystal and I went out exploring the city. Walking around the huge town square, finding another small castle, and then a HUGE shopping centre, with over 300 shops. It was so weird being back in a mall, after 6 months with a mall only having about 20 shops. In this time we also got to discover how cheap Poland is! So ridiculous. Then we all met up again, and then went out to Auschwitz. This was probably one of the most interesting and emotional experiences I have ever had. It’s something that I’m glad I’ve done, but I don’t want to go back there. After this we headed back to the hotel for dinner, and then had the evening to do what we pleased, a group of us just chilled in one of the rooms, listening to good old 90’s music and watching hilarious youtube videos. Another good day.

5th July 2010 Cracow to Prague
Again with the 6AM wake up. No fun. It was sad to be leaving the nice hotel, but super exciting to be hitting up Prague. So much sleeping was done on the bus. We just chilled for the day in the bus, only stopping to get lunch at a small restaurant along the way. Once we arrived at the hotel, which was not only big, was insanely huge, with over 1000 rooms, we all got to chill and explore until dinner at the hotel. At dinner, there was some traditional Czech dancing, which was really good, and all of the dancers were under 15. We weren’t allowed out, so everyone just had a chill evening at the hotel, chatting and having a sweet time.

6th July 2010 Prague
The kiwi's, Fuzz, Me, Stevie and Serena
In Prague we had a walking tour of the city, and we had a local tour guide who was really cute. Haha. She was young and super enthusiastic about things. At the beginning of the tour it was raining, and little did we know that this was just a little bit of what was to come later on. We started our tour at the old libraries and monastery, from here we could look out over the town. From here we walked down to the castle and the castle town, then through to the little town and old town. On our way we saw the large church which was beautiful. All of the architecture of Prague was amazing. It’s weird thinking that a lot of it was being built around the time that the Maori were first settling NZ. We saw the John Lennon Peace Wall which was made after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Another place for me to make my mark on (: We then passed a bridge, which newlywed couples put a lock on and throw away the key to symbolize their love. Just after this there was a wall, that had marks of the flooding in Prague, the most recent being 2002. Then we came to the Charles Bridge, the most famous bridge in Prague going over the Vltava River. Here was pretty much the end of our tour, not before we had time to check out the insane storm clouds coming towards us and keep walking as quickly as possible to find some cover. So yeah, whilst in Prague there was one insane thunder storm lasting about 20 minutes. We pretty much chilled under some cover waiting for the rain to ease off before getting taken to what would become our meeting place later on in the afternoon. So off we went to explore Prague for the rest of the afternoon. A group of us went off in search of the mall, and once found hunted out some lunch. That night we went out on a boat for dinner, so nice! The weather was beautiful, the food was good and the company even better, not to mention the excitement for the evening’s main event. So our chaperones being as awesome as they were, took us to the famous 5 story night club in Prague! And some of them even accompanied us for the night’s partying, which was pretty epic, and am pretty sure everyone had a mean night.

7th July 2010
Pragu
e to Zell Am See, via Salzburg
Sitting by the statue of Mozart in Salzburg
After what was a pretty big night, everyone was super quite on the bus ride, and slept for the first few hours. After a quick lunch stop at a restaurant for lunch we were back on the bus, and on the way to Salzburg, and the movie for this part of the journey, of course, the Sound of Music. Amazing. Hahah. Not to mention the fact that most people sung along. When we were about half way through the movie we arrived at our stop for the afternoon; the beautiful town of Salzburg, birthplace of Mozart and setting for the Sound of Music. So whilst in Salzburg, I saw Mozart’s birth house, got an amazing ice cream, and walked down by the Salzach River enjoying the amazing weather. After our quick stop here, we continued our drive down to Zell Am See, enjoying the beautiful scenery of the Alps the entire way. After the bus ride we had a pretty enjoyable dinner at the hotel and then just relaxed for the evening, trying to prepare for the next day’s HIKE!

8th July 2010 Zell Am See
So, the day for the hike had arrived! The hike was a mission to say the least, but the breathtaking views and hilarity of filming people singing the Sound of Music certainly made it easier. We walked for around 6/7 hours, and got to approximately 1600m above sea level. The weather was amazing, super sunny, and nicely warm. It wasn’t until we got back down to the town that we realised just how warm it really was! So we all just walked straight down to the lake and jumped in. Super refreshing. Then we headed to the pool area beside the lake that we had free passes to from the hike guides. We chilled, and soaked up the sun, relaxing on the water trampoline until it was time to head back to the hotel for our dinner. After dinner a small group of us decided to head back down to the lake where we went for a night swim which was really nice! Then I headed back up to the hotel, knackered as anything, and decided that as it was pretty much half way through, it might be a good idea to try and sort out all of my stuff that I had managed to accumulate already!

9th July 2010 Zell Am See to Lido Di Jesolo
Walking down to the water.
The beautiful scenery on the bus rides continued as we headed out of Austria and into Italy, ready to have a few days of relaxation on the beach. As we travelled we saw the thermometer on the bus slowly getting higher and higher.. So that when we stopped for lunch at a random petrol station it was 34 degrees! Slightly ridiculous. Then we got back on the road and arrived at our destination around 3pm.. Perfect time for everyone to just get settled and head to the beach! It was amazing to finally get to swim at a sandy beach with warm water! Nearly everyone spent a couple of hours down at the beach before heading back to the hotel for dinner; which was only about a 2 minute walk from the beach! After a really good dinner, the chaperones told us our curfew, and usually we were dreading what they would say and hoped that it would be decent, but that night, they decided they would be super nice to us (: We totally had an 8am curfew! So with that the chaperones left us to do whatever we wanted for the evening, not to mention the entire next day and following morning. It was so good to have freedom. So the evening consisted of chilling on the beach, hitting up some clubs with nearly all of the exchange students, eating some amazing pizza at ridiculous times, having an evening swim, getting in way too late, but still on curfew, and some consuming way too much alcohol. So much fun in one evening!

10th July 2010 Lido Di Jesolo
Chill times at the beach. Totally what was needed. I finally got to have a sleep in as well, so good! So I spent the day mostly at the beach, occasionally coming back up to the hotel pool for a bit. For the evening a small group of us went to a pretty nice restaurant on the main street and of course, everyone ordered pizza. Then we headed down to the beach to watch the Germany vs. Uruguay soccer game, for 3^rd place. The atmosphere was awesome, and the game was pretty entertaining too! Afterwards we went out onto one of the jetty’s and just had a pretty chill evening (:

11th July 2010 Lido Di Jesolo and Venice
Getting artsy in Venice
Enjoyed a sweet sleep in again, took my time getting ready for the day, and then went out with a few others to grab a slice of pizza and some ice cream for lunch! Oh what typical Italian tourists we are! :P So we all met up at the hotel after lunch, and saw the chaperones for the first time in a day and a half. Then we headed off to the ferry to go to Venice. After arriving in Venice, we were overwhelmed by the insane amount of tourists and insane heat! Then we got to go on a gondola ride (: It was really cool, we tried and failed to get our gondolier to sing! Hahah. But we made up for it by singing ourselves. Terribly, but oh well, it was still fun. The gondola’s was definitely an amazing way to see the city. I was amazed at how the city is still there after so many years of flooding for all the buildings on the canals! Afterwards we got some free time so we got to explore the city. In my opinion, Venice is indeed beautiful, but I think it’s extremely hyped up to be amazing but I don’t think it’s everything you expect. Behind the amazing architecture and beautiful churches, there are dirty alleyways, a whole lot of cheap tourist shops and people trying to get your money in any way possible. Despite this I still had an amazing time, and saw many famous sights, Piazza San Marco, the Rialto Bridge and Santa Maria della Salute (a basilica) just to name a few. After a few hours in Venice, we headed back to the ferry and got back to Lido. Once back a group of us headed out to a restaurant for dinner, and of course made sure it was one that had tv’s showing that world cup final! After a quick dinner we made it down to the beach to watch the rest of the soccer, before celebrating the Spanish victory.

12th July 2010 Lido Di Jesolo to Macon
Today was the longest bus ride ever! 11 hours. The day was spent movie watching, including Moulin Rouge and Marie Antoinette, occasionally stopping for food, and as per usual on the bus, an insane amount of sleep and then gossip. After finally arriving at our lovely hotel just casually by the motorway, we finally got some dinner, and the evening to relax, some more. Hahah. I spent the evening with Kiara, Tash and Emile chilling on chat roulette :P That certainly provided some great entertainment for the evening! The day was fairly boring and uneventful really, but one thing that was amazing, was the scenery! As we were going from Italy into France the small towns on the hills were beautiful.

13th July 2010 Macon to Paris!
Me and Evan at the Eiffel Tower
The ever awaited journey to Paris. The day started out well, with the French breakfast certainly being up to everyone’s ‘high’ standards, hahaha, but actually, it was so good, chocolate croissants! Nom nom nom. Movie for the day, Amelie. After a not so long day on the bus, we got into Paris at around 3:30pm and got some free time before dinner. A group of us went out to ‘explore’ the area we were staying in, which was in the outskirts of the town, relatively close to Mont Martre. Then for a nice dinner at the hotel before heading out on our first bus tour of the city! Driving up to the Arc De Triomphe, then heading down the Champs Elysees, towards to Eiffel Tower, up to the viewing platform, where we got 5 minutes for an insane amount of photos (: Then we were left to do as we pleased for the evening. A group of us headed over to Bastille to check out the free concert that was happening as it was Bastille Day the following day. So after the concert, we all thought we would hit up the metro, so that we could be good and get back by curfew! Little did we know, they thought it would be good to close the metro for half an hour because of the mass amounts of people around Bastille. Much panic, and about half an hour later, we managed to get ourselves onto the right train home, in time for curfew, and ready to explore Paris on our own tomorrow.

14th July 2010 Paris – Bastille Day
Me and Ian at the Arc De Triomphe
Paris on Bastille Day, pretty sweet to be honest. Got up at a reasonable time despite the fact we didn’t need to! But who wants to waste any time in Paris? We headed into town to see if we could catch some of the Bastille Day parade down the Champs Elysees. Upon arrival, we realised that thousands of others had had the same idea as us, so we decided to be sneaky and hit up the Eiffel Tower while everyone else was checking out the parade! As we walked over, we took the street closures as an opportunity to take photos standing in the middle of the street, and then photos with the good old Eiffel Tower in the background. One of the passing by policemen decided it would be fun to join in? Casual much. Le Tour Eiffel! (: Beautiful. And this time, I walked up too! SO MANY STAIRS, flippin insane, but totally worth it, we got rained on but enjoyed the view all the same. Next stop, Notre Dame. As we were in the metro though, the weather decided it would go from decidedly average to absolute crap! We sent Bryce out in search of some umbrellas, and he came back looking like we had just been for a swim. So we ran into the closest restaurant and decided that even if it was expensive we should just eat there anyway. After a lovely, although expensive lunch, we missioned it back out into the rain and into Notre Dame, and may I say it is the most touristy Cathedral ever, and it’s sad. They could at least have the shops outside! It was just as beautiful as I remembered though. The weather decided that it would be fun to clear up, so after a quick tourist shop visit we headed on to the Louvre. Didn’t make it inside but took plenty of photos outside. Then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for a nice dinner out. After dinner most people decided to head out for a drink, but me, Kiara and Ian decided it would be better to hit up the Arc De Triomphe, and then walk over to the Eiffel Tower so we could get good spots to see the Bastille Day fireworks! They were amazing. The fireworks lasted for half an hour! And we certainly made the right decision for our evening after hearing so many other people’s disasters for the evening.

15t
h July 2010
Paris

The Eiffel Tower jump photo!
The morning started off with a bus tour of the city. Beginning with the obligatory stop at the Eiffel Tower to get photos, including a video of me, Tash and Kiara doing the Hoedown Throwdown ;) A billion photos later we headed on through the town, towards the Luxembourg Gardens, the Roman Baths, Pantheon, the on to Notre Dame, past the Opera House and then we were dropped off outside Galleria La Fayette to have the afternoon to ourselves. Kiara, Emile and I decided to mission it to find somewhere nice for lunch, and we found an awesome Chinese restaurant down a side street. Then we decided to head off and explore the city. We headed to the Louvre, again to just take photos etc, we walked towards Place De La Concorde, passing the column that Napoleon erected at Place Vendome. We caught the metro towards Mont Martre to check out Sacre Coeur. After walking up an insane amount of steps we got another amazing view of Paris, and an amazing church. Then it was time to get ready for a lovely dinner out (: After dinner we spent the evening partying it up, partially at the hotel, and then under the Eiffel Tower. Amazing.

16th July 2010 Paris to Remschied (Germany) via Brussels
The Alex's at the final dinner
More bus time. More sleep on a bus. Definitely fell into a pattern (: We arrived in Brussels around lunch time and were left at the main square with the instructions, Mannekin Pis is to your left, and you have 2 hours. So we were left to admire the town hall, the King’s old castle, see the tiny thing that is Mannekin Pis, and of course, eat some waffles! We were in Belgium so of course, we had to! After the allocated two hours. We were back on the road, heading towards a small German town that was to be the last hotel of the tour. THE LAST NIGHT. So it was the last night of Euro tour. Pretty much couldn’t believe how quickly it came! We enjoyed a lovely last dinner at our hotel, accompanied by videos and photos of the tour. Then we had a little awards ceremony! Hahah. Much too funny! This was followed by a last night party with some ‘chips and cordial’ haha, no seriously :P People had flags to get each other to sign so we could have some memories and everyone had an enjoyable last night, accompanied with the usual macca’s run! Hahah, gotta love having a McDonalds next to the hotel!
The last views of Denmark,
and the rest of Europe

17th July 2010 Remschied to Malmö
And so it was over. The last day consisted of a whole lot of sleeping, a whole lot of disbelief that it was over! We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant in Germany, before making it to our ferry to get into Denmark, and then continued into Sweden. When we got back everyone finally realised that this was it. People were being picked up by host parents, or leaving on trains, and for the oldies, it was that we would see them, and they would see each other. Mostly everyone was just ridiculously upset that it was over.

Euro tour was the best 17 days of my life. Everyone became like family, with the bus being our home. We visited the most amazing cities around Europe, shared smiles, laughter and tears, and not to mention covered 5700km. I don’t think over such a short period of time a more ridiculous amount of personal jokes have been created! I will never forget, the epic jibbings, ‘in the butt’, fist pumping like a champ, ride sally ride, have you got some chocolate?! All of these things bring back so many memories. Rotary Europe Ramble Tour 2010 was AMAZING.

half way.

2010-07-19T00:40:00.000+02:00

so, it's now been approximately 6 months. halfway. time has flown. the last 17 days being no exception. euro tour was the BEST 17 days of my life. rotary exchange students in sweden. i love you. the summer holidays are flying by and i just thought that i would let you know that i'm still alive before i head off to the summer house again with my host family. the full updates from euro tour will be coming shortly, i dont really know when, but they will come.

over and out.
from a worn out. well travelled. exchange student, who is in need of a good sleep after 18 nights in hotel beds.
love alex. x

Midsommar i Sverige

2010-06-28T21:07:00.000+02:00

This weekend it was Midsommar, so in other words, the longest day in summer, and being Sweden, they have a holiday to celebrate it. On Thursday afternoon I headed out to the summer house with my host family to spend the weekend there. It’s so incredibly beautiful out here! I love it. It’s been sunny every day and I’ve been able to chill, tan, read and occasionally get into the water, which apparently is super warm for this time of year at around 18 degrees.

On Friday morning we joined the rest of the people who have summer houses out here in a Midsommar celebration at the local school, and yes, I did join in with the dancing around the random pole, along with all of my host family. So random, but kinda fun! It’s all about celebrating summer pretty much, and it’s quite enjoyable. This was followed by some fun games, like sack races etc. And, being Sweden there was a whole lot of raffles, and we won a moonbounce, che ya. Hahahah. On Friday night we went over to some family friends, Eva with her son Micke and daughter Helena, summer house about 5 minutes away on the boat and had dinner there.

Saturday consisted of, sitting and relaxing, and not doing a heck of a lot! But was still enjoyable. Eva and Helena came over for dinner, and then we went on a little boat tour out to a small island for dessert, so random, but awesome.

Sunday was pretty much exactly the same as Saturday, but even better weather, and more reading was done.

Now, I’ve just gotten home, and I’m getting ready to head down to Malmö on Wednesday for .... EURO TOUR. I’m so excited! I’m sure it’s going to be amazing and if the weather stays like this it’s going to be even better.

Signing out for the next 3 weeks or so,

Lots of love,

Alex. (and don't think that I've stopped taking self timer jump shots.. and yes, I will continue this throughout Europe)

Sommartider hej hej sommartider!

2010-06-21T17:47:00.000+02:00

So schools out, summer's here (kind of), am definitely looking forward to the two months that I've got ahead of me!
On Wednesday, myself, David, Evan, Frida, Saga, Daniel and Fanny went out for dinner at one of the many many Pizza restaurants in town. Then we came back to my host family's house to watch a movie on the amazing big screen ;) (Mum and Dad, can we get one pleeeeeeeease!) Whilst looking through the dvd collection at my host family's place, we found the parent trap! Definitely was a great choice in movie I'm thinking. Hahaah.
Thursday night was Kathi's leaving dinner. She just had a small dinner at her host family's house for a few of the people from school. It was a really nice evening, very relaxed with enjoyable company (:
School wrapped up on Friday with the studenten. Graduation is so much more exciting here! On the last day, everyone arrives at school relatively dressed up, and the 3rd graders (7th formers) have these awesome graduation hats. (Which I totally want to get even though I'm not going to be graduation).
All around school the 3rd grades had whistles/horns etc, and pretty much just partied up! Whenever someone of another grade would walk past them they would shout "Var är mössorna?!" which means, where are the caps? After the final assembly, I went out for lunch at Ming Palace, was the first time I've had Chinese food since leaving NZ, oh how I've missed it!!! Then we went outside to watch the 3rd grades come past in their trucks. When they finish school, they go on a tour of town on the backs of trucks, pretty much just having a massive party! So awesome. It was a very enjoyable last day of school for the semester.

The last week has been pretty sweet. Very relaxed. I've spent a heck of a lot of time enjoying the sunshine and warmth. Also enjoying the fact that I'm finally no longer sick. One thing I've also been doing... Is watching the Soccer world cup! Loving the fact that the All Whites are playing so amazingly! Definitely a proud kiwi even half way around the world. The best part of it all, is that I don't have to get up at ridiculous times in the morning to watch the games! They're at convenient viewing times (:

My host mum decided that on Wednesday, while we picked up my host sister from Falköping, it would be a good idea to go on a canoeing trip in the afternoon! Flippin best idea ever, I had such a great day. After a afternoon of canoeing which included a picnic lunch, and then fika later on. On the drive back home we went to a ruin that's next to the E4 just past Jonköping. It was so beautiful, with a view over the coast down towards the town Gränna and over Lake Vättern.

Me and David in the car on the way to Falköping

The view from the ruin beside the E4.

Thursday was another visit to Norrköping for a day with the exchange students! We went to a lake in Åby which was really close to one of the exchange students houses. Was such a beautiful day and it was so nice to get to catch up with all of the exchange students again before Euro tour because I hadn't seen most of them for around 2 months.

Åby, while I was waiting for the bus back to town... Around 8:30pm, yeah the sun's still shining.

This weekend was the Crown Princess's wedding in Stockholm! So my host family decided to take me up with them to Stockholm to be there, and to be a tourist for the weekend. The weekend mostly consisted with walking around Stockholm, and me taking a couple of hundred photos. Not to mention watching the royal wedding on TV, and then seeing the newlyweds go past in a horse drawn carriage! It was so cute, even if the whole thing was insanely overdone.

On Sunday, we visited Drottningholm, where the royal palace is. This is actually where the King and Queen live. After a morning there, we then trekked through the Gamla Stan, and then visited a photography exhibition, which was incredibly awesome.

Not only did I have the best time in Stockholm. It was followed by an amazing result by the All Whites drawing 1-1 with Italy at the world cup. And then followed by the realization that I left New Zealand 5 months ago now. It's weird, but amazing. I'm loving every minute here in Sweden at the moment, and know that I've got even more awesome times coming up, with Midsommar this weekend and then next week... EURO TOUR.. needless to say, I'm incredibly excited!

Love, Alex.

school? haha. nah, i'm an exchange student.

2010-06-08T21:33:00.000+02:00

So the last few weeks have pretty much contained zero school, a lot of tv, and a lack of sleep. As school wraps up I seem to have to attend less and less school. It's pretty sweet really one lesson a day, maybe two. The weather's warming up, and there's been blue skies for the last week. I could FINALLY begin to work on my tan again ;) and don't worry, it's coming back slowly.
On the 28th of May I participated in the Blodomloppet, which is a charity 5km run. I did it along with my host family and David, from Australia.

Me and David enjoying the Friskis & Svettis aerobics warm up! Hahah.

Other events from the last few days include watching the 3rd grades Studenten Ball, which is totally amazing. As a part of their graduation they take part in an amazing ball, insanely good dancing, the girls are in such gorgeous dresses, even more impressive than our ball dresses at home. Apparently they work for months on the dances. I kind of can't explain the awesomeness of it all, hahah, sorry folks.

This Saturday the host family and I went out to a lake about half an hour from home for a canoeing afternoon and picnic dinner on a small island (: It was great! We were also joined by two Sri Lankan's who work with my host mum who were really nice.

Then on Sunday, it was Sweden's national day. So while my host mum was out of town visiting my host sister who goes to town in Falköping, my host dad, other host sister and host brothers headed to gamla (old) Linköping, to see the celebrations. They included, a parade and some random young children singing. Haha. I didn't really understand, but it was still enjoyable all the same. Then we enjoyed a great lunch in the sun at the restaurant. Followed by a trip to Tornby, (kinda like Botany Downs, but on a much smaller scale), so that my host sister could get a laptop for her exchange!

I'm pretty much over my sickness now. Slowly making my way back to normal sleeping patterns, and doing a little bit more than watching tv all day! Haha. I went to an aerobics class tonight, was great ;) Definitely know some people at home who would love these classes as much as I do!

I only have two classes this week and haven't had one of them yet. So have had a super relaxing two days. Which has been great. I'm definitely looking forward to summer holidays starting on Friday, and then only 3 weeks until Euro tour! I seriously can't wait..

Over and out,

Alex.

PS, I also think I'm slowly becoming a little bit more Swedish, and the language is coming along a little bit. Lots of work to do though!

Oh yeah, another point. Sweden is ridiculously close to the North pole, so the sun stays up for ages! It's kinda annoying when trying to sleep but great when you're out at night (:

This was taken at 10:30pm!

here comes the sun..

2010-05-23T19:24:00.000+02:00

So the sun is finally coming to this crazy place called Sweden! And it's beautiful. This week has been great. 22 degrees most days. Shorts, t-shirts and jandals. I LOVE IT. It's great that I've only had to cope with 4 months of being cold..
Oh yeah, so I've been gone for 4 months now. What the heck?! Yeah. So a third of my exchange is done now and it's weird. But cool.

So since last blog, I've been doing much of the same, school, swedish, gym, eating, watching tv, and then repeat. It's so nice now that it's warm. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved the snow. But to be honest I think this is much more of my scene. Last night I went to a BBQ at a girl from my class's house. It was sweet. Very chilled and I had a great night. Not to mention the fact that I captured some great videos of them. Haha. http://www.youtube.com/user/AlexandraInSweden

Me and Kathi, the German exchange student in my class

Today has been extremely chilled. Watching some movies. Sleep. Now am settled in to watch some of the French Open! Getting ready for my last 3 weeks of school before summer! So keen. It's unbelievable.

Anyway, that's about it from me.
Love always.
Alex. x

long weekends. the life of an exchange student.

2010-05-18T19:18:00.002+02:00

So life is good. I miss home. But I can deal with it. This place is beautiful. It's kinda hard to believe sometimes that I'm half way around the world from everything I know. And that everyday I'm listening to a different language that's slowly becoming familiar.

We had a 4 day weekend this weekend and I went out to the summer house with my host family. It's great. Their summer house has just been redone so after we arrived we had to move in the furniture and stuff so that we could actually live there! The weather was kinda crappy but I still had enjoyable time with my host parents and host brother. Saturday the weather cleared up and I actually got to expose the skin to the sun after almost 4 months (!) of jeans, jackets and snow.

It's kinda weird being here and not having the busy schedule that I've lived at home for the last, uh, 18 years. There's endless amounts of spare time, and not much to be able to do to be busy. But I guess that's one of the challenges of being an exchange student, finding things to occupy your time. For me, I've been reading, making video's, going to the gym, sorting through my computer files (haha, nerd life), and occasionally trying to learn Swedish!

So, another week's down.. On Thursday it will have been 4 months since I left home. 1/3 down. It's weird. It's like each day passes slowly, but then all of a sudden you think, oh wow it's been a week since then, and then it's been a month.

Bye again for now,
Alex. xox

PS Mum and Dad, I've stopped biting my nails :O Haha. I hope you appreciate it :)

En bra vecka - A good week.

2010-05-12T21:33:00.000+02:00

On Sunday my host family took me to a nature reserve, called Svartåmynnigen, for a bit of fika. It's a place popular with bird watchers during the Spring. Was really nice to get out and about within Linköping and see a little bit more of what the town has to offer.

The week was fairly uneventful, just living the regular Swedish life, going to school and gym, with the occasional baking spree and fika inbetween. A continuing cold is still hanging around which sucks but you know, you grab a cup of tea and get on with it!

On Friday night my host mum took me and my host brother out for dinner. The restaurant we went to was called 'Kniv & Gaffel' or 'Knife & Fork'. Where I got to eat some good old New Zealand lamb! So good. Definitely been missing it. Then we had a good old movie night and watched Angels and Demons. Pretty good, but no where near as good as the book. As always.

Saturday meant my first trip to Göteborg, and hopefully not the last. My host mum, host brother and I left Linköping at around 9:30 to begin the trip across the country, with the temperature being a wonderful..... 2 degrees! What the heck Sweden? I thought this was Spring! After an hour or so we made a stop in a town called Gränna, to pick up some Polkagris which is hard candy. SO GOOD! In this small town of around 2,500 (I think) there were Polkagirs shops every 2 or 3 stores. So ridiculous. But it is what makes the town so whatever, Im good with that! Haha.
We carried on to Göteborg, arriving around 1 when we picked up my host dad from the airport after he had been in Austria for work. Lunch time. Then came a quick trip to an art exhibition called :And There Was Light. An exhibition on Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Rafael. I got to see the recently discovered Da Vinci painting! Pretty sweet really. Along with a whole lot of other original works by the 3 artists and also several copies, including a full size copy of Micheangelo's "David".
Then we picked up my host sister from the train station, and headed to the hotel. Then went off to my host dads sisters house to meet the family! It was his sister's husbands 50th birthday celebration and I'm glad that I got to join them. The night was to consist of a boat cruise around the Göteborg harbour and out into the archipelago and an awesome seafood dinner on board.

Oh the joys of seafood ;) me and my host sister, Anna.

It was absolutely beautiful, and the dinner was awesome. The weather even managed to clear up and warm up a bit for us. We managed to get a beautiful sunset and I also managed to get some sweet photos in there.

The beautiful sunset featuring the Swedish flag. LOVE IT

So the last few days have been spent doing the usual, school, Swedish lessons, chilling and watching movies. Particularly today as I've gotten sick, again, which sucks. Tomorrow is the start of a four day weekend which I'm looking forward to spending with the host family, hopefully heading out to the summer house for a few days.

Missing you all,

love Alex.

En vecka som låtsas vara svenska - Another week pretending to be Swedish

2010-05-01T20:28:00.000+02:00

The weekend after Kiruna, I started to feel sick, just like half of the others from my room in the hostel we stayed at. So I spent the majority of the week not feeling the best. Even having to take a day off from school to recover more. Not fun. It's weird being sick in another country! You don't have your favourite foods, drinks or medicines that you always take or eat when you're sick. So that took up the majority of my thoughts etc for the week.

Tuesday morning's Rotary meeting this week meant one thing... PRESENTATION TIME! Everything went splendidly (: Got the projector and computer set up fine, had an enjoyable breakfast, remembered my speech, showed the beauty's of NZ and even managed to answer the majority of their questions! Except for one, haha. So I had previously been told here that they don't get New Zealand wine, so when the topic of our exports came up, I said 'well our wine industry is quite big, but apparently not in Sweden' to which most of the Rotarians were like, uh nope, you can actually find plenty of NZ wines in the System Bolaget (alcohol shop).. Haha, being shown up about my own country... Love it. But hey, I am a Rotary student, NO DRINKING.

Friday here in Sweden was something exciting! It's another one of their strange holidays or celebrations. This one was called Valborg, celebrating the arrival of Spring and the beginning of May. On the night of the last night of April, it is tradition to light massive bonfires! I went down to one of the big public celebrations in Linköping with my host parents. There I met up with Evan and David the two other Rotary students in my town and a Swedish friend Frida. We watched the lighting of the fire and also a fireworks display! It was really awesome, and yeah, I am slightly obsessed with fires. Haha. Really exciting to watch.

The bonfire at Tannefors slussar - Linköping

Today, I went with my host family out to the summer house for the day. They have been getting it renovated so wanted to check out how everything was going. The house is only about an hour and a half from our house and located on a small island just off the mainland, connected by a bridge and is really close to the water. It was gorgeous! I cant wait to spend some of summer out there with them, and hopefully some more time before then too.

Well, that's about it for the week. Nothing super exciting this week sorry.
Lots of love, Alex.

Kiruna madness.

2010-04-28T18:53:00.000+02:00

So another week over, another trip away, another two cities, another country and even more new friends. Not to mention being above the Arctic circle? The Kiruna camp is one organized by the tourism programme of one of the schools in Kiruna and they 3 day adventure for us to see the best parts of the city and its surroundings! Kiruna is a town founded off an Iron Ore mine in the north of Sweden.

After having to make some last minute travel changes thanks to the volcano in Iceland I set off on a 20 hour train journey to Kiruna. Myself, David, Crystal, Stevie and Megan all arrived a day before everyone else. So had a night to ourselves in the hostel, and what did we choose to do?! Go out, explore and generally make dicks out of ourselves by making videos and taking photos. Definitely a great night.

The group of us from the first night.

Monday morning meant the arrival of the rest of the Rotary students. Having checked up on the information we got from the organizers of the camp, meeting at 10am at the train station, we were surprised when at 9am we get a knock on the door from one of the teachers saying that we were going to the train station now. Funnily enough we were all just chilling in our PJs thinking we had around an hour left. So anyway, we got ready and headed down to the train station to meet the majority of the students arriving via train. It was great to see everyone that I hadn't seen since Åre and some even since Vimmerby, and then to see all the new faces of those I hadn't met yet. We got taken on a short tour of the town by some members of the tourism programme at the school then up to the school for lunch. Then was some chilling, chatting and settling in before a quick trip to the ice hotel! So Kiruna have this ice hotel, that you can actually go and stay in?! For the "small" price of 3000SEK for one night at the cheapest.. We saw a quick presentation about the ice and where its from etc, then got to see the factory where a lot of the ice products are produced and kept, then got to see the ice hotel itself! Very very cool I must say.

Getting artsy in one of the rooms in the Ice Hotel

Me, Alex (Australia), Jonatan (Kiruna) and Tash (Australia) in the Ice Hotel

The next day in Kiruna started bright and early, literally.. 5:30am wake up call, and the sun was certainly shining already. We made our way down to the school for breakfast at 6am ready to get onto the bus to go to ..... NORWAY! Yeah, that's right.. I got to venture into my third Scandinavian country. The bus trip was long, but beautiful. Snow covered mountains and lakes, seriously, can life get any better? We eventually made it to Narvik, Norway, the closest port to Kiruna, used to ship out the Iron Ore. When we were in Narvik we got the opportunity to explore the town, and what were we to do with our time? Jumping photos of course!

Rachel (Australia), Me, Tom (Australia), Julia (Canada) and Brandon (USA)

After 2 or so hours in Narvik, we headed back to Kiruna on the bus, and on the way stopped at one of the many ski slopes for a quick fika before continuing back to the hostel. That night we had a dinner cooked for us by the restaurant programme at the school, also the students of Sami (Lappland) background dressed up in traditional dress for us. The dinner was amazing, reindeer stew, actually tasted great! The students from the tourism programme sung us the national anthem of Sweden and then it was up to us to do something for them. So in our country groups we took turns singing our national anthems, however, some of the Swedish girls remembered the Kiwis performance of the Haka last year, and of course that was requested, Stevie and I tried our best, but it definitely wasn't very impressive!

Wednesday was another great day in Kiruna. In the morning we got to go on snowmobile tour through the bushes onto what I think was a lake for some fun in games. We got taken behind snowmobiles in old wooden sleighs lined with.... Reindeer skins.. Yeah, that's right. Reindeer! The scenery was beautiful, and pretty unbelievable really. Once we had arrived at our location we got out and played some games. Simple, but so much fun! We played bump, and it was great, so much entertainment provided from the ice and snow. Then we split into groups for some mini competitions, one of which included doing relays wearing beer goggles! After an hour or so we headed back to the school for lunch, and on the way back it was incredibly interesting! We ended up heading into a small snowstorm and a few times whilst going up hills we got stuck, had to jump out and push. So much entertainment in a short period of time. LOVED IT! In the afternoon we went in small groups to different classes at the school to talk to them about our home countries. My group had David and Crystal from Australia and Caroline and Pamela from Brazil. So as we were telling the class about our own country we also got to learn about the other countries that were in our group. That nights dinner was a Swedish favourite... Tacos. Seriously, I think they are obsessed! But don't think I'm complaining here, it's amazing! Haha. Then came the random games, chilling and chats. Some of which included, a scavenger hunt and sardines throughout the school and mafia.

Thursday meant the end of our awesome time in Kiruna, and that was super sad! Saying goodbye to all of the awesome Swede's we had met and also all of the exchange students again, unsure if I will be seeing all of them again. Luckily for me, Stockholm airport was open for a brief few hours so that we could fly back. Then once in Stockholm myself and David took 2 buses, one into town, and then one back to Linköping. Even though we weren't in Stockholm for long I loved it, and can't wait to get back there and explore. On the bus on the way back home, I spent my time putting together a video of Kiruna! Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzxfZI_0bUc

Kiruna was definitely an experience of a lifetime and I loved just being able to get to be a tourist. I met so many more awesome people this week and made some great friends. This experience is just getting better and better, 3 months down, around 9 to go. LOVING IT

Signing out for another week,

Alex.

Påsk lov - one week, three countries, five new cities..

2010-04-14T18:12:00.002+02:00

The last week was one of much travel and little rest! Very hectic, but also very enjoyable.

The week started on Thursday, finishing up school doing a presentation on New Zealand to a class of 18/19 year olds, they seemed pretty interested really, and enjoyed the few short videos I showed them, including the Beached Whale, and the Mitre 10 DIY advertisements from home. Then I got picked up by my host mum to start our 4 and a half hour drive down to the summer house in Mölle, in the south of Sweden for Easter, or Påsk. I got to see the changing scenery driving down the E4, through Småland into Skåne, slowly getting to see more and more spring; a lot of the scenery in this part of the country was pretty similar to driving through the Waikato back home..

Enjoying some of the sunshine in Skåne!

Easter weekend was spent in the summer house with my host mum and brother, then my elder host brother who lives with his girlfriend in Lund. It was so nice to see the ocean again, even though it was no where near warm enough for a swim. During my 5 days in Mölle I got to explore the harbour-side town that is obviously a big tourist attraction in the summer. Also during our time there, there was something called the Konstrundan which was where a lot of the local artists opened their homes to let people in to see their work and to sell it. We went around to a few of the artists homes and all of their work was really beautiful! Another thing that I got to see whilst in Mölle was, Kullaberg. Kullaberg is one of the oldest lighthouses in Sweden. The day that we went to Kullaberg was beautiful weather! So we took a little fika on the rocks and enjoyed the sun while it lasted.

The lighthouse at Kullaberg

On the Tuesday after Easter my host mum, host brother and I headed out on a day trip to DENMARK! One of my favourite things about being in Europe definitely has to be the fact that everything is so close! So we headed off to Helsingborg at around 9, once there we caught the ferry over to Helsingör. We spent the morning walking through the town, and of course for me, taking plenty of photos! Then we caught the train down to Copenhagen. First opinion of Copenhagen = awesome! We just spent the day walking through the streets, down past all of the shops, and the beautiful old building that were everywhere. We walked down from the train station to the harbour where I got to see the new theatre which was beautiful. However I didn't get to see the Mermaid statue, because apparently it's currently in China? I don't really know why, but oh well! I will hopefully be making another trip back to Copenhagen within the next few months and it might be there by then. Copenhagen was so beautiful, just walking through the streets with the sun shining, and a little bit of warmth in the air.

The next day, I caught the bus back from Helsingborg to Linköping because my host mum had to go to Belfast for a conference. I spent the next day getting ready for my trip to Germany and then moving family's! I don't quite know how I accumulated the amount of things that I did, but we will see how things go in the next few months!

GERMANY! So yeah, I went to Germany this weekend for a Water Polo training camp! So much fun. There were 12 of us girls plus the two coaches, and we spend 3 days in Krefeld, in West Germany, training, playing games, being tourists and having a great time hanging out (: We got to fly on the goodness of Ryan Air, now that was definitely an experience. No assigned seats, no checked in luggage, no space, no food or beverages (for free that is). After a taxi, 2 trains and a bus, we finally made it to the accommodation, which was like a small backpackers/hostel located just outside the pool. And our first task.... Break into one of the girls bags because she lost the keys to the locks! Hahah. Definitely an interesting task at 11pm. But we succeeded. Saturday we started with an hour and a half of training, an exploration into the town, lunch, then a training match against the local junior team, dinner, SLEEP! The next two days were similar but we didn't head into the town.

After I got home from Germany it was time to begin the mission that was, packing up my stuff. I've now moved host family's to my second family for the year.. And surprisingly I haven't really gained all THAT much stuff from when I left, although that's not hard.. Considering that I had a 46kg bag allowance.. Plus three carry on bags, which is generally helpful :) I've moved closer into town so can now bike to school instead of catching a bus for 30 minutes! Don't expect me to biking when I get home though.

All of my stuff! (And this is only 2 more bags than I managed to travel with!)

Love always,

Alex.

Just another week.

2010-03-30T16:33:00.000+02:00

This week brought up my 2 months in Sweden! In some ways time has gone extremely slow whilst adjusting to the freezing weather and all of the other things that come along with being an exchange student. But in many others, time has been flying, spending numerous days out with the exchange students, catching up with what's been happening, planning future hang outs and generally just going on some awesome adventures!

The temperatures been warming up slowly, and the snow melting too! So now I'm experiencing a winter more like home. Cold (but no where near as cold as it has been!), wet and occasionally windy with the odd burst of sunshine! So it feels like spring might actually make it up to this part of the world.

School is getting easier, I'm starting to pick up on some of the words used in the classes so can pick my way through some of the work sheets and guess what's going on. English is still as chilled as ever, however, the teacher has realised that she can use me as a resource for her class. So I spend a lot of the lessons reading out vocabulary lists from the texts they are using, or trying to explain things to whoever I may be sitting next to in the lesson. Maths is also pretty sweet at the moment, doing about the equivalent of year 10/11 geometry, so I can actually do something! Haha, I feel extremely successful in my Swedish when I'm sitting in maths.

Tuesday this week was the 25th of March, and in Sweden, that means... WAFFLE DAY! It's a celebration of the fact that it's nine months until Christmas. Apparently in Swedish, "Our Lady" reffering to Mary and "Waffle Day" sound extremely similar. So it's become tradition to eat waffles on the 25th of March.. Watch out New Zealand, Waffle Day is coming 25 March 2011!

The week went by pretty quickly and then came another extreme hang out session with the exchange students. Involving, 6 exchange students, 1 "ambassadorial scholar" and 1 Swede, some Disney, Spotify, awesome blueberry and chocolate chip muffins, 1 day and a heck of a lot of fun. Was definitely a great day!

The 6 exchange students on one of the sculptures in Linköping

Then Sunday included a visit to the Easter markets at Gamla Linköping, or Old Linköping. There people had set up heaps of small stalls selling random bits and pieces that occasionally had to do with Easter, but generally not. Then a visit to some flea markets with my host mum with as she said "mycket skit".

Easter is coming up, and it will be interesting to see all these random traditions that the Swede's tend to have. I'm definitely looking forward to Påsk (Easter) and the week of holidays that comes with it.

Signing out for another week,
love Alex.

Awesomeness in Åre!

2010-03-23T19:13:00.000+01:00

So I've just spent the week in a town in the north of Sweden called Åre at the Rotary Winter Camp! Definitely one of the best times I've had so far on exchange.

The week started with catching my first ever night train from Linköping to a town just south of Åre called Järpen which was where we were to be situated for the week. After what was supposed to be 9 hours of sitting in a train turned into 11 hours in small beds I arrived in Järpen with the other exchange students from my town to be picked up by a few of the local Rotary members to be taken to our accommodation.

Sunday consisted of a few familiar faces from Language camp in Vimmerby but mostly a whole lot of new names and faces to remember. But as it turns out, being an exchange student severely improves your ability to remember names quickly! Who would have thought? After nearly everyone arrived it was time to embark on a tour of Åre and a trip to the pools at the 'Holiday Club'. After a quick lunch we got our things together and got taken by bus into Åre. One of the Åre Rotary Club members gave us a talk as we went throughout the town and told us of the towns history and how it became one of the largest tourism towns in Sweden with its Skiing in the Winter and the creation of BMX tracks on the slopes in the Summer. We continued walking and got to see the local church, which was tiny, old and of course beautiful. Then we headed on down to the Holiday Club which was HUGE! It was a hotel that had a bar, restaurant, spa, pools and last but not least SAUNA WORLD!! Where the saunas ranged from a comfortable 45 degrees to a not so comfortable 85 degrees! And it also happened to include an ice room at -10 degrees. After a few hours enjoying the pools and saunas we headed back to the hostel for dinner and more getting to know each other!

Sunday night included some activities thought up by our awesome chaperones. We were split up into 4 groups to complete 4 different team building activities. The first was that we were given a battery and some steel wool and had to use it to burn a thin piece of rope tied between two sticks. The next was to cross the "river" with 7 pieces of wood, and each piece had to have someone on it at all times and you couldn't touch the ground. Next involved some blindfolds, a long rope and a little bit of cheating. We had to all wear blindfolds, hold the rope and try to make a square. Lastly there was a rope tied over 1.5m above the ground which the entire team needed to get over without touching it and our only help was a plank of wood? Yeah, we totally conquered that!

After a good nights sleep came the 6:30am wake up call for breakfast and then time to get to the beautiful slopes of Åre! Once we arrived we all had to rent our gear which took awhile with there being 40 of us. We all got ourselves sorted, the skiers into the most uncomfortable boots ever and the snowboarders into their more comfortable ones, then met our ski instructors who would be with us for the day. We then got split into groups based on ability and confidence; and as I'd only been once before and that was the previous Saturday I was in the beginner's group, who were headed to the kids slope. My instructor for the morning was Elin who was super nice and seemed to certainly know her stuff! After an hour or so my legs decided that they didn't like the boots, so I took an early lunch after successfully having learnt how to stop! After a good lunch break with all the students we headed back out into our groups for some more lessons and skiing. I got a new instructor for the afternoon, Oskar. We adventured back out onto the kids slope to try and practice some turning, which took ages for me to get the hang of! I seemed to either like going super slow, or way too fast for me to control, definitely provided some amusement.

Taking a break from skiing provided a great photo opportunity!

After a great day on the slopes had by all we headed back to the hostel to hang out some more, sauna, play some pool and then have a feed. Then we were given our assignments! On Wednesday night the local Rotary club, Åre, were going to be coming to the hostel for dinner, and the 'speaker' was going to be all of us! Each country was given the task of finding out about a foreign country and doing a sort presentation about it to everyone. Not only that, but, it had to be in Swedish! Me and my fellow Kiwi Fayez got the task of presenting the USA. So of course we started right away? Yeah.. Maybe not. Procrastination is the key! Hahah.

Tuesday was pretty similar to Monday, get up, breakfast, catch the bus to the slopes, a morning of ski school, lunch time, an afternoon of skiing. After that though is where things changed! We were taken on the bus to some ice caves! Definitely an awesome experience. We walked next to a semi frozen river, which had a waterfall! There were massive ice chutes where there was a lot of ice that had been slowly starting to melt away letting the water begin to flow through them again. We continued walking down towards the caves, which is where things got a bit interesting. My version of 'good shoes' as suggested by our chaperones that morning were my ugg boots, because that's all that I had brought with me. So I had some troubles going down one of the hills to the caves, I had fallen over a few times so just decided that I would slide down! Much more fun I think! Once down to the caves we got to see an awesome man made ice house, and several other rooms, that included many seats, a 'fire' place, a bar and there was also a chapel. After checking out the awesome ice sculptures we headed back to the hostel for some more hanging out, planning some of our speeches for Rotary and of course some eating!

The ice chapel.

Wednesday was the day we were going to go up to the top of the slopes! Sitting at 1274m above sea level. For me, this meant doing a blue slope for the first time to get to the gondola, and funnily enough, I was pretty terrified! The first half went really well, I just took my time with some of the other beginner girls and it was pretty enjoyable. Then came one nasty as hill! Not only was it ridiculously steep, it also happened to be really icy! But I made it down eventually, and off to the top we went. Once we were there, we couldn't particularly see all that much, but still, it was awesome to say that we got there. For the way back down, we took the gondola to half way and then used some of the blue transport tracks to make our way back to the base to meet up with everyone else for some lunch. The afternoon passed with some more successful green slope skiing, getting more and more confident each time! Then it was back to the hostel for a rushed getting ready, donning of the blazer, and preparation of a speech for Rotary!

We made it to the gondola! (L-R; Alina USA, Sarah Australia, Me, Jessica Australia)

The Rotary members started arriving at around 6:30pm while most of us were still trying to translate our speeches into Swedish, some of them even helped! But eventually we were all sorted, and grabbed our seats for what would turn out to be a great evening! A great mushroom soup for starters followed by Moose! Yeah, kind of strange, but actually really delicious. Then came the first half of the speeches. USA started us off presenting Australia, followed by Australia presenting Mexico, Argentina presenting Japan, Mexico presenting New Zealand! and Japan presenting France. Then came dessert, an awesome Kladdkaka (Chocolate fudge cake) with cream, so good! Followed up with the rest of the presentations, South Africa presenting Canada, France presenting Argentina, Canada presenting Germany, Germany presenting South Africa and last but not least, NZ presenting USA! I think we definitely did a good job, when our presentation included a singing of all the states, and the declaration of independence! The rest of the evening included a banner and t-shirt presentation, badge and business card swapping and a whole lot of hanging out. Most of us stayed up pretty late, just chilling, listening to music and making the most of our last night together!

Thursday was time for more skiing (: Or if you were saw, time to explore the town for the day! I decided to tough it out and make the most of the awesome slopes and keep pushing on. After a couple more runs down the green I decided to mission it onto the blue! Mission successful! Definitely super hard, but also really fun at the same time. The soreness kicked in after my go on the blue run, so I decided that I would bus into town with some of the others for a quick exploration after lunch. We had a quick look around, got an Åre pin for the blazer and picked up a Max burger to go. Then it was back to the slopes to get our bus back to the hostel for last minute packing, dinner and then goodbyes.

I definitely had an amazing week in Åre and will never forget! I may have come out with several bumps and bruises but it was well worth it. Rotary definitely hooked us up with a great time and all of the new faces from Sunday were now new friends who I hope to catch up with during the rest of my stay here in Sweden. And by the way, now that I'm such a pro skier, I'm expecting all of you back home to take me skiing with you when I get back in 2011! Hahah. Please note that I'm actually not kidding, and will be coming along whether you like it or not!

Lots of love,

Alex.

Sport Lov

2010-02-28T12:31:00.000+01:00

So another week down, my first month in Sweden is officially over! Now that, is scary!

This week was Sport Lov, or Sports Holidays. I don't really know why it's called sports holidays, but oh well. It meant a week off from school!

Over the first weekend it was originally planned that I would go away with my host family to their holiday home down in Mölle. But because of the ridiculous amount of snow that fell on Friday and Saturday (Around half a meter!) the trip was cancelled. So instead, I have spent the week chilling in Linköping. Spending time with friends; and in general, just relaxing.

On Tuesday, myself and David (from Australia) decided to make dinner for his host family, who are to be my second family. Now that was interesting. Both of us were craving a good lasagne, but both of us had never made it.. It turned out pretty well! Tasted pretty good. But there just happened to be over double the amount that we actually needed. But I think that turned into a pretty nice breakfast the next day for David?

Then the next day I spend with a German friend from school. We baked and then made dinner for her host family. We decided on a "traditional" Kiwi dinner.. Well maybe not so traditional, but at least typical! Mince pie, mashed potatoes, and some vege's. So Dad's cooking and him telling me to pay attention actually paid off at some stage! :P

I've spent the rest of the week just relaxing, seeing friends, going shopping, going for fika and every now and then trying to pick up some more Swedish.

Hej då for the time being

Alex

Month One!

2010-02-20T13:25:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone,

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.