On Monday, I had a very ordinary day at school. My first class was Kultur och Idéhistoria, this subject is kind of like Humanities. I can tell that this class will be very difficult for me. However, I have a very kind and understanding teacher so that is helpful. My Swedish class is very difficult and there is a lot of work, but I think that I will pick up the language from all of the work we do in class. Swedish class here is the equivalent of English class in the United States. We read a lot of books and poetry and it is really a literature focused curriculum. Samhällskunskap is also a difficult subject. We are learning a lot about current events in the world, and there are many discussions in class. For dinner we had korv stroganoff and I thought it was really good!
Tuesday was an interesting day at school. In my Film & TV class, we watched an Italian movie called Cinema Paradiso. We watched the movie in Italian with Swedish subtitles, so I really didn't understand the film. However, I did understand bits and pieces of the movie, so that was good. Cinema Paradiso has an incredible soundtrack. There was blood pudding for lunch at school, and I wasn't brave enough to try that, so I just ate salad instead. After lunch I had a break from 12:50 to 14:50, when my English class started. My English class was canceled because the teacher was sick, so that was nice because if I had had my English class, school would've lasted until 16:15. My school day finished much earlier than I thought it would, but instead of going home early, I stayed at school for 2 hours and chatted with three of my classmates. My classmates are really nice and I think I am starting to make some friends at school, which is great. When I finally did leave school, I stopped at the gym and worked out and then I made my way home. Having a gym membership is great because I am getting in better shape, staying healthy, and it's a good way to work off the stress of being in a foreign country and learning a new language.
Wednesday we had school photos. I had no idea what to wear for my photo, so I woke up 2 hours before I had to leave for school so I could decide what to wear and get ready for the day. I woke up without an alarm clock, too. Lately, I have been waking up around 7:00 am without an alarm clock. I think my body has a biological clock that just wants me to wake up at that time. Waking up at 7:00 am is really nice because it means that I am awake to have breakfast with my host family and I get to spend some time with them. We have oatmeal for breakfast every morning, I eat mine with lingonberry jam and I usually have a slice of toast with some peanut butter as well as a glass of milk. So, back to school photos, I settled on my sleeveless denim shirt and some black leggings and white converse. I haven't seen how my individual school photo turned out, but our class photo is hysterical. After school photos, I walked to the city center with a friend from school named Cecilia so I wouldn't get lost. I met up with the two other Rotary exchange students in Uppsala (Sierra & Annalise) and we went shopping at H&M and had fika at a café/bakery. After I hung out with Annalise & Sierra, I met my Rotary counselor for fika. We had a great conversation about my first week at school, and it's nice to have someone to talk to about everything in Sweden, even though I haven't had any problems so far.
Thursday is quickly becoming one of my favorite days of the week. This is because, every Thursday, my first class starts at 11:30 so I get to sleep in. I ran into Sierra and Annalise on the bus, which was quite coincidental. They were going out to lunch and I was just on my way to school for the day. They live closer to their school than I do to mine, so they bike to school, I was very suprised to see them on the same bus as me. I discovered that there is an ICA grocery store about a block away from my school so I went shopping there and bought ICA Basic cookies and Ramlösa mineral water with my friends from school, Frida and Cecilia. After school, I met Sara at Stora Torget (The big square in the city center). We went shopping and got ice cream together. It started raining while we were eating our ice cream, so we went inside the Uppsala Cathedral. This church is absolutely stunning inside and out and although I had been inside once before, it was really cool to see it again. Bengt-Ove made this delicious vegetable/beef stew for dinner and it was wonderful.
Friday was an average day at school. And as per usual, I didn't understand any of my classes. After school, I went home and cleaned my room and vacuumed the upstairs of the house because I had invited Annalise and Sierra over for Fredagsmys and a sleep over. Friday was also my day to cook dinner. Sierra and Annalise arrived in time to help me finish making spaghetti carbonara. We had fun cooking together and listening to various Swedish pop music ( thank you, Spotify & Ulrika). We watched Shrek 4 with my whole host family which was really interesting to watch in Swedish. After that, we watched George of the Jungle, Mamma Mia, and Mulan. We started watching Mulan around 4:00 am and we all fell asleep during that movie. We woke up around 9:30 am and we ate breakfast and watched the half of Mulan that we had slept through. I had fun getting to know the other exchange students better and Fredagsmys is definitely one of my favorite things about Sweden.
Saturday was the day that marked my arrival in Sweden one month ago. It's hard to believe that I've already been here for a month. Sometimes it feels like forever and that I've always lived in Sweden and other times it feels like my first day and I don't understand anything that's going on around me. Usually it's a mix of both. I have my daily routine down, but as I am still learning the language each day presents it's own challenges. Ulrika took Axel and me on a tour of the castle. That was so awesome. We got to go inside the castle and it was like stepping back in time hundreds of years ago. We saw many old portraits of Swedish royals including Gustav Vasa. After we toured the castle, we went to a farmer's market and bought surströmming for the upcoming party. This coming Thursday, Ulrika has invited all of the Uppsala Rotary exchange students, their host families, and Rotary counselors over for a fish party. I read the Real Estate section of the newspaper with Ulrika after dinner and I had so much fun looking at all the unique houses. Although I was very tired, Saturday was a great day and it was nice to celebrate my first month in Sweden by doing so many interesting activities in one day.
Sunday was the first day of September. I can't believe that September is here already, time is whizzing by. I took the bus into the city today, but since it was the weekend, I couldn't use my school bus card. I tried to pay with my debit card when I got on the bus, but the bus driver just looked at my and said " You are beautiful", and he motioned for me to find a seat on the bus and not pay. He spoke English with a very heavy accent, so I didn't understand him the first time, so he actually repeated what he said about 5 times, what a bus ride. I met Louise at the bus stop and we went on a lovely walk to her mom's house. We chatted for the whole afternoon and then she walked with me to the Studenternas IP where I watched an American football game with Simon and his friends. There were probably 1,000 people in the audience which was quite surprising because the sport is not very popular outside of America. Uppsala's team unfortunately lost by a large margin. Despite the loss, I had a lot of fun at the game and it's very interesting to watch American football with Swedish commentary. On the bus ride home, I also got to ride for free because they are in the process of changing Uppsala's bus system, so I couldn't use the credit card machine. Two free bus rides in one day was pretty sweet. I had hot dogs with ketchup and mustard for dinner. Sunday marked the end of yet another busy week in Sweden. I am loving it here, and I can't believe the first month is over already.
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