 It still seems like just a few days ago I was in the Orlando
airport losing my boarding passes three times in the security line (that’s a
15-minute time span, thank goodness for random acts of kindness) and waving
goodbye to my parents… But no, in two days I’ll have been here a month, in this
wonderful country called we call Sweden. It doesn’t seem like that long, and I
dare not think of my exchange as 1/11th over – I haven’t even started school
yet, so of course I have a long, long time left here.
I flew alone to Detroit, during which I was next to a
screaming child. When I finally got to the Detroit airport, I walked 50
gates and met up with Michelle, so I thought “Oh yay! I won’t be alone on my
flight!”, but, I was. There were several other exchange students on that
flight as well, and they were all seated in the back of the plane, and my
seat was toward the front; so I spent the 7-hour flight to Amsterdam trying
to explain to random people around me that I couldn’t go have drinks when we
landed and waiting for this hellish flight to end. We arrived, finally, all
of us exchange students, passed through customs, and found our gate, only to
wait an hour or so for boarding to begin. The flight from Amsterdam to
Stockholm was the longest, or so it seemed; all the while thinking, “This is
it,” no music on my ipod seemed to accurately fit my mood or thoughts, so
instead I listened to the Swedish being spoken around me hoping the next
time I was on this plane again, I would understand what everyone was saying.
We landed at Arlanda Airport, Stockholm around 4:30 local
time, and eventually located baggage claim (where I waited a very, very long
time for my bags to appear). Walking out of baggage claim, there was a giant
crowd around the exit, and Eva, my host mom, walked right up to me and said
“Finally!” My family was there, smiling (except my host brother, but he
hates life, or something), and even though I was jet-lagged and felt gross
from not showering in so long, I had never been more excited to be
somewhere. I waved goodbye to the other inbounds because they all had
connecting flights to catch, and walked out to the car where Eva explained
that Steffe (my host father) brought his car as well, because they expected
me to have so much luggage, but I ended up having the least out of all the
other exchange students. I really wish I’d packed more; things are so
expensive here!
We arrived 20 or so minutes later at my new home, which
resided on the top of an apartment building on Lidingö, East Stockholm.
After a quick shower and tour, we headed out to dinner at a restaurant
called Foresta, which overlooks the water and the bridge that connects
Lidingö to the rest of Stockholm. It was here that I realized, yes, people
really do use forks and knives for everything. Even fries.
We were about to go on a tour of the island, but I was
about to pass out as it was, so we decided to pass on that for the time
being. Before I went to sleep for 14 hours though, I managed to give Peter
what I thought was a cool gift from Florida: an alligator head. It’s got
sharp teeth, it looks menacing, he’s a 15-year-old guy - that sounds like an
OK gift, right? Well, apparently not. He screamed, said “No” several times
in English and Swedish, batted it out of my hand, ran away, and hasn’t
spoken to me since except to tell me when it’s time for dinner. Oops. I gave
him chocolate and he said it was okay, but, he still doesn’t speak to me.
Aside from that though, I really love my host family; they’re very helpful
when they teach me Swedish and help me get used to everything here – and
they’re very easy to talk to – well, Eva and Steffe, anyway.
When I eventually woke up, we went exploring in Stockholm
– and to Gamla Stan, which is the old Stockholm (literally “Old Town”); this
country is so beautiful, the buildings, the nature, the weather – though
everyone here complains about the weather, I love it. There’s an ancient law
here that says you can go anywhere you want, even if someone owns that piece
of land, and set up camp, go fishing, whatever you want, as long as you’re
respectful of the land – we’ve taken advantage of this when we were at the
summer cottage in Svartsö; we headed out on the boat and found an island to
have a picnic, it was quite amazing.
The food. Oh my god. I can’t even begin… Everything I’ve
eaten so far has been a wonderful experience J
Hahaha, everything from raw slices of fish with potatoes and sauce to
mushrooms on toast to butter-and-cheese sandwiches, up until the salt candy,
has been amazing. Salt candy is exactly what it sounds like, it’s salty, and
it’s candy, and it’s disgusting, but at least I tried it. The other candy,
however, is being stockpiled in my mini fridge (bahahaha), because it’s the
only way to keep Peter from eating it. Coffee: everyone drinks it. It’s very
strong. In Sweden we have “fika”, which is like a coffee break, and almost
everyone has a fika everyday, to just drink coffee and some sort of pastry
and relax.. It’s lovely. And I can honestly say I’ve had more coffee in this
past month than I have in the past year. I’m actually on my third cup today
as I write this (granted, it’s 1/3 milk and has a cube or two of sugar).
A few days after I arrived, I expressed an interest in the
other Scandinavian countries. Two days later we went to Finland
J Helsinki (Helsingfors as we call it) is
nice, but Stockholm is better. Eva pointed out how all Finnish signs are
also translated into Swedish, which was nice, but didn’t really help me at
all. Apparently there’s a rivalry or something between the Swedes and the
Finns, because the entire time on the boat ride there, whenever a Finn
walked by, Steffe would say “Look.. At the elusive Finnish giant!” all the
Finnish people we saw were very tall, so it was kind of funny. And anytime a
Finn spoke to me, as soon as they found out I lived in Sweden, they were
like “Oh, I have to go..” Hahahaah >.<
I understand what Glenn said in her journal last year
about Swedes being open about things. Especially being naked. Sauna was an
interesting experience, and people really will change in front of you or
walk around in their underwear without giving it a second thought. But it’s
okay, because all Swedes are incredibly attractive, haha.
The months leading up to an exchange, you find and talk to
every other exchange student going to the same country as you at least once.
All us inbounds around Stockholm have already met up: once in Stockholm and
once in Uppsala, most of us are American but Rosie is from Canada. And of
course we’re all going to see each other again at the language camp next
week ^_^
Yesterday I went to school (Gångsätra Gymnasium) to set up
my scheme for school; I’m in the Social Science program and have a class
that doesn’t translate into English (something like… How different cultures
affect your personality; basically, it’s like a class for exchange
students!). As far as I can tell, Swedish high school is a lot like college;
each day is different and you can actually sleep in (I start at 10 on
Tuesdays =] )
I love everything so far, everything is still so new and
exciting; it’s like being a child again, and I hope this feeling never goes
away.
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