Things I will never forget.

Time, is such a weird thing. It can go by so slowly or it can pass so quickly you can hardly even keep up. I feel like I have been in Europe forever, but on the other hand it has passed so quickly I feel like I just barely got here. Some amazing things have happened in the past 3 1/2 months. 

On September 20th, I left my home, friends, and family to move to the beautiful country of Sweden. 

I came to live with Daniel and Elinor my aunt and uncle and their girls, and have gotten to know them better, they let me live in their home for my time here, and I am forever grateful to them for letting me have this experience. 

I attended a Swedish dance school, Folkuniversitetet and loved it. 

I made friendships that will last a lifetime. 

I have been able to experience different cultures, and have my mind opened to all sorts of possiblitys that never crossed my mind before. 

I am able to understand a little bit of Swedish. 

I got lost, and was wondering around at 1 in the morning while being followed by a drunk man. 

I took a trip to Italy in October and got to see my friend Alessandra Botta that I missed very much.  

I was able to see the beautiful city that she lives in, Bergamo.

I saw Juliets Balcony in Verona.

I climbed to the top of the Duomo Cathedral in Milan Italy. 

I walked around the beautiful city of Venice in the pouring rain. 

I have had so many fun times with my class exploring, freezing in the cold while watching them dance around a Christmas tree, Fika'ing', making up new words that are not in the English vocabulary, fun times on the weekends, and much much more... 

After 3 1/2 months of not seeing my family, they came, here to Sweden!

One day later, Kaya and I went to Italy. This time I got to see Bergamo, and Milan again, and experience a Italian Christmas.

The theme song of Italy, HERE.

We met up with our Mom in Paris France!

There we saw famous paintings like Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, and Water Lillies by Claude Monet. 

We explored the Palais Garnier, went inside Notre Dame, went to the Louvre, saw the Eiffel Tower, ate French Pastries, and stayed in a cute little hotel where we had French bread and cheese every morning. 

We are now back in SWEDEN where I will spend my last three days in Linköping Sweden, Celebrate New Years Eve with my friends tonight, enjoy time with family, make a few more memories with my friends before I leave, and get ready to take on a new year, 2011.

Christmas, Italy, France, and family.

 At this very moment in time I am sitting on a bed, in my hotel room with my family in Paris, France! Almost exactly one week ago my mom and sister arrived in Linköping, Sweden. The next day Kaya and I left to Bergamo Italy to experience a Italian Christmas! We had such a great time and seeing our friend Ale was so much fun!


Milan:

This morning Kaya and I got on a plane and flew to Paris, France and there we met our mom (who spent Christmas in Sweden) We are going to spend the next 4 days here. We saw a bit of Paris today, and I love it! It is such a beautiful city! I am so excited to see more the next couple of days. As of my diet over this Christmas break, lets just say I will have a lot of needed exercise and healthy eating when I get home, but I think it's worth it, I mean I'm only here for so long right? 

Paris:

Loving every second here.

My time here is getting closer and closer to ending. I finished my last day of school at Folkuniversitetet Friday. It was a really bitter sweet day. I actually started crying, I surprised myself, I didn't think it was possible to get so attached to a place and make such good friends in a short period of time. I feel like part of me belongs here in Sweden and when I leave I will leave a piece of me here. I will have to come back, actually, I am planning on coming back, and that will make my goodbye a lot easier to handle. I am grateful for every single experience that I have been through here, it has really helped me grow as a person. Even though I am leaving soon, I am having the time of my life, why not enjoy every second I am here right? I am so glad I came to such a great school and made such amazing friends. I know some of the friendships I have made will last a lifetime even though we will be almost half way across the world from each other. It just gives me an excuse to come back, and travel more :).
Tonight my sister and mom will be here in Sweden with me! I am so excited to see them, it seems sort of surreal that I will actually be able to talk to them in person, and give them a big hug :). On Wednesday me and my sister will head to Italy to spend Christmas with our friend Alessandra, after that we will meet up with my mom in Paris and spend a few days there, we will then come back to Sweden for a few more days, and then head back to the U.S. I still have many many more amazing experiences to come in this short amount of time, and I am so excited I will have a travel buddy going to Italy this time, and France.

A while back I mentioned I regret some things from the beginning of my trip here and I wished a could go back and redo it. My friend Linnea was telling me the other day that I shouldn't regret anything because If I did things differently It wouldn't be the way it is right now, and I am SO happy with the way my time here has turned out and the great friendships made. So she's right, I;m not going to regret anything that has happened during this trip, because everything has lead up to something great.

I will try to keep my blog updated until the day I leave! Until next time!

I was just thinking about last year compared to this year. A total turn around. All I have to say is, coming to Sweden was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I have grown in ways that I wouldn't be able to if I had never come. I will hold these experiences close to my heart for the rest of my life, I know I will never be able to forget this amazing experience. 

Random babbling

I don't really have anything important to talk out, so I will just type what's on my mind. First, I love Christmas here, well it's not Christmas yet, but I like the Christmas season here. The decorations are a lot more simple and not so many colors as they are at home, but I think they are so beautiful! Also, I wanted to make pumpkin pie for every one in my class to try because they have never tried it before! But they don't sell pumpkin here in Sweden, so I asked my mom if she would bring a can of pumpkin from the U.S. when she comes so we can make it! :) Hm.... It's still really cold, it gets dark at about 4 pm maybe a little earlier. Oh I only have one week of school left, ONE WEEK! Where has all the time gone? Time is a very weird thing. Anyways, tomorrow night, almost everyone in my class are getting together and we will have a fun time! I'm looking forward to it!

Above is pumpkin pie, although mine probably won't look nearly as good as that. I also told my mom that she should bring easy cheese, just because it is so weird and gross, I thought it would be fun to see their faces when they tried it... haha But my mom thought it would ruin their view of the U.S. ha. What do you think?

Christmas is coming!

I love the Christmas Season! Yesterday Linnea and I went to a Christmas dance concert that almost everyone in our class was in, (the concert was for the dance classes they take outside of school). It was really good! I ate way to many jultomten candys. (Santa Claus candy's, Linnea taught me the word for Santa yesterday, but now I'm not sure if I'm remembering it right...) Anyways... lights are everywhere in the city and I think they are so beautiful! Here are some of them:

I am really looking forward to Christmas this year, Kaya (my sister) and my Mom are coming in a little less than two weeks to visit! While they are here Kaya and I will be spending Christmas in Italy with our friend Alessandra, after Italy, Kaya and I will fly to Paris France and meet my mom there and spend a few days in Paris! We will then fly back to Sweden and be here for a little less than a week (and for New Years!) Then on January 5th we will fly back to the U.S.A. but I will be going home on a different plane than them. So I guess they will be flying back together and I will be flying alone once again. I am trying to focus on them coming which will be really fun, and trying not to think about leaving Sweden. Until next time! Hejdå!

Swedish School!

School here is different from the U.S. in so many ways, so I will just start out by explaining my weekly schedule:

Monday:
Religion
Jazzdans (Jazz Dance)
Lunch
Idrott (P.E.)
nk (Natural Science)

Tuesday:
ma A (Math)
Modern dans (Modern Dance)
Estet (Art, we have it every other week, so when we don't have this, we can do whatever during this time)
Engelska (English)

Wednesday: 
Svenska (Swedish)
Improvisation/ Komposition (Improvisation/ Composition)
Lunch
Klassråd  (First a meeting with a 'mentor' to know upcoming dates etc. and then a meeting with the class).
Rytmik med dans (Rhythms with dance).
Dansstuga (time to work on what ever choreography project we have at the time)

Thursday:
Klassisk Balett (Classical Ballet)
so (Social Studies)
Lunch
ma A (Math)
Kultur/ide (Different cultures around the world)

Friday:
Engelska (English)
Modern dans ((Modern Dance)
Lunch
Reptid (another time when we can work on choreography projects)

We use five different buildings in the city for school:
1. The picture above is the main building for school (Flokuniversitetet) In this building we have all our classroom type classes like math, science, culture etc. This is the building that has all the computers that we use often for assignments.
2. The dance studio which is across the street from the main building, this is the building were we spend most of our time, (because I'm in the dance program). The building has 5 different studios in it, it is very nice to have a actual studio to dance in!
3. We eat lunch in a different building, it is in the upstairs part of a bar/ restaurant. Lunch here is free (because the government pays for it). Lunch consists of knäckebröd (hard bread), milk or water, a salad bar, and usually a choice of soup, fruit and bread, or pasta, or the main dish (which is usually potatoes and meat). The lunch here is way better than the lunches in the U.S. and a lot more healthy. Also no one brings their own lunches.
4. For P.E. we have in in the city recreation center or the city pool. It is really nice because we have so many more options of things to do, it's actually pretty fun!
5. Our art class is in a different building across the street where they teach all sorts off different types of classes.

The school that I am going to there are 3 grades. I am in grade one. For them it was optional to go back to school. Last year (it would be after our Sophmore year) they are finished with school. They have the option of whether they want to be done or not. If they want to continue going to school they have to decide what they want to do, (every school has a different focus) mine is a dance school (but you already knew that). Everyone had to audition to get into Folkuniversitetet. I think this is very nice, because everyone wants to be at school. There are no discipline problems and that's probably why they don't need to have any rules. Also another thing that is very different here is students get paid every month is they are going to school, the government gives them about $200 every month for just going to school. I wish we got that in the U.S.! School is a lot more casual here, you call teachers by their first name, and like I said before it's no big deal if you swear in school, their is no dress code, no detentions, you can use your phones, get up and leave the classroom when you want, they don't block anything on the computers... It is a really nice change. I never really realized how strict high schools in the U.S. are until I came here, I think it will be really hard to go back to school in the U.S. Also, teachers don't really teach here, (well the dance teachers do) but they other teachers usually put us into a group give us a project to work on, and then we are on our own to work on it and figure who does what and then we present it/ turn it in. Teachers don't give out tests either. Math class is a little different than the other classes, we study the chapter on our own and can do the problems but we never have homework to turn in. Then, we take the test on the chapter and start studying again. It is really nice to see other ways of learning and realizing that their isn't just one good way. Oh! also my school is super small their are only about 150 students. I stay with the same class all day everyday, and there is only 12 or 13 of us I think. I think it is a lot of fun because I can get to know everyone in my class so much better than I would if it was like schools in the U.S. So over all I love school here! I only have 10 more school days left here, it is crazy how fast it has gone by. I am not ready for it to be over, but I can't stop time so I will just enjoy what I have left! :)

Bloggin' in school.

I'm blogging in school... That's right. They don't block anything on the school computers. It's so great here!

This is the view out of one of the windows in school. It's so pretty! 

It's COLD

I understood some Swedish today in school. Not that much, but a few things here and there. You have no idea how exciting that is for me, very! It is so COLD. It was -23°C this morning. I dread going outside, and it sort of hurts to breath because it is so cold. The weather people have been saying this winter is going to be the coldest it has been in Sweden in 1,000 years. I really hope that is not true..... That is all for now! Hejdå!