Friday October 16th was the gymnasiet fest(G-fest which translates to high school dance but is so much more fun!) All that day at school, the cafeteria was decorated for Halloween, there were displays and costume competitions and everyone was excited. After school, Anna had a bunch of friends over for the pre-party. There were about 8 girls and Stephano and Jarryd. We had alot of fun playing Swedish music really loudly and dancing. At about 11:30, we made our way to the G-fest which was in town, not in the school gym. When I came through the door, I was handed something in a colourful little package and I got 2 before they told me what they were; condoms. The dance was a lot of fun, everyone was dancing mosh pit style around the DJ so it didn't matter if you knew how to dance or not. There were crazy lights, a bar upstairs, some people in Halloween costumes but most just wearing black. It was quite the party and there's one every month! ************ The next day, it was the Youth Blues and Jazz Festival so my band, Blaspopperna, played some songs. It was our first performance and I was a bit nervous but it went well. The rest of the evening we listened to some really good music. Just about everyone from my music class was there and a lot of the bands playing had classmate of mine in them. ************** I've been baking, or trying to, it's hard converting cups to deci liters and the ingredients taste different and 175C seems to be a good temperature for the oven. I tried chocolate chip cookies but I can't find chocolate chips so they are chocolate chunk cookies in stead. They turned out harder than I would have liked but people still liked them. I made Halloween Hoot Owl cookies and my family found them to be very unusual but very good. *************** In the mail I got Halloween decorations; window stickers, scary sound effects and feather masks. The house has never been so decorated for fall before. I also got a package of Halloween candy from home. I was thrilled to bits! Now I can sit on the couch watching tv and eating candy like I would be doing this time of year at home. My parents also sent some mustard and maple syrup. Now I can eat pancakes the way they are meant to be eaten; for breakfast with real maple syrup. The food I miss the most from home was mustard because sausages and hot dogs are common here but I don't like their mustard because it is too sweet for me. Now I can really enjoy them! *************** I've been making a few presentations this month because that's what I like to do. I talked in one of the English classes and it was like an interview; the kids asked me questions about Canada and the way I live. The teacher made an example of me to show the class that swearing in English is bad. Can you imagine a teacher saying "Fuck yes!" to one of your innocent comments?! I was shocked! I ave a presentation to a different English class and this time I was given the hour to show a power point and talk about whatever I wanted to. So I talked about Canada in general and a little about my life there and answered questions. It was fun, I could have talked longer but they wanted to go to lunch. The next day, jarryd and I went to an elementary school to talk to the grade 5 and 6 about Australia and Canada. We had 45 minutes and jarryd had to stop me after a half an hour so he could have time to make his presentation. It was fun and the classes want us to come back when they have come up with more questions for us. The strangest question I got was; are Canadians scared of the dark? Apparently that came from the show; How I Met Your Mother. I think I should watch it. **************** It's interesting, while I'm away, I'm learning more about Canada and what it means to be Canadian. Did you know that Canada eats the most macaroni and cheese in the world? I knew Canada is the second largest country in the world but being in Europe makes me start to realise just how huge it is. It is interesting to learn what other people think of Canadians. Most Swedes think we all say aboot instead of about. That's because they learn about Canada from American tv shows. I never really thought about what Americans think about us before. Some days I can think of a lot of differences between Canadians and Americans and some days I can't think of any. *************** Friday October the 23rd, Hakan came back from Shanghai after being away for over a week and he brought back 4 times more lugage than he left with. We helped him unpack and he had brought presents for us, it was like an early Christmas! Anna and I each got to choice a leather hand bag, a cashmire scarf, a komono, and a jacket! It was so exciting and I was so pleased that I didn't know what to say! *************** The next day, Anna went to the school to take a big all day test for getting in to University. Hakan and I went to Ljusdal, a town an hour away to see his sister participate in a fasion show. We then visited his mother and went to a restaurant. *************** October 24th to November 1st was the fall break, so I slept in a lot and was very lazy. Sunday the 25th, we went to a concert to remember Billy Holiday. We listened to some of her fun jazz songs. *************** Wednesday the 28th was a big party night for us 18 year olds because the bar had some special cheap drinks. Anna and I went to the pre-party at her friend Nico's house. It was full of people and I met a lot of new people and some I recognised from school. Then we all made our way to the bar and waited in line to get in because it was packed. Anna and I had a lot of fun on the dance floor because there was smoke and lots of cool lights. We left early(at 2am) because we had to get up and go to Stockholm the next day. :D ************* Stockholm: Oct. 29th to 31st. Anna, Marita and I drove there and had fun following the GPS to our hotel. Well I didn't have fun, I needed to pee and we had a tour of down town, passing the hotel several times and waiting behind a parked car wondering what the hold up was! That night, we got all dressed up and met Hakan who was just back from Brussels, in the Grand Hotel(fanciest hotel in Stockholm) for dinner. He was having a business meeting with 7 Taiwanese men who liked his energy business for their companies. We ate a Swedish smorgasbord with lots a delicious types of fish and many other fine meats and vegetables...oh and desserts! I ate way too much!! The men were very nice to talk to and they were very pleased and surprised to see women at a business meeting! ************** Friday, Anna and I had the day to ourselves in Stockholm because Marita and Hakan were looking at new kitchen appliances, so we went shopping. I bought gloves, a tuque and a shirt. Then I met up my friend Claire from New York and Marian from Mexico whom I haven't seen since language camp in August. It was good to see them again, we wondered around the old part of town and caught up with news. Claire joined Anna and I for supper which we had alone because Hakan and Marita went to their friend's 50th birthday. That night, while watching tv, I figured out how to braid my hair in something like an inverted french braid. It was a very exciting discovery! *************** Saturday, Halloween, on our way driving back home, we stop in Uppsala, a city an hour north of Stockholm, to visit a family friend. Bert and Ivonne and very nice people, and we had a delightful fika before continuing home. Before leaving Uppsala, we visited Sweden's church, which is comparitive to Notre Dame de Paris in it's size and grandeur. It is simply magnificent and full of history. I saw the grave of King Vasa, who united Sweden in the 1500s! I was incredible! ************* Back home, Anna, Marita, Jarryd and I went to a concert called Sirqus Alfon. It was crazy fun!! The group played music and acted like they were in a video game, having fun and doing all kinds of random stunts. We got 3D glasses and it looked really cool with all the smoke and lights and glowing stick man suits! You have to check out the youtube clip to get the idea of what I'm trying to describe. It was the craziest and coolest concert I have ever seen!! So that was my Halloween!
Speaking of Halloween, it's not officially celebrated here like it is back home. Kids just use it as an excuse to party and dress up but there's not trick-or-treating. The 31st is officially All Saints' Day, a day to remember and morn dead relatives. churches have special services where they read the names of those who died that year and light a candle for each of them. It is very beautiful and the cemeteries and all lit with hundreds of candles. Traditional Swedes are mad at Halloween for corrupting this special day with it's commercialism and parties. As for me, I had fun decorating the house for Halloween and having Jarryd over to carve a jack-o-lantern.*************** All is well here and congradulations for read this complete blog post!!
Early morning, Monday October 12th, I got picked up by Lars, the husband of a Rotarian, to go moose hunting. At 6:45am, we got to the hunting lodge in the middle of the forest and met the 10 other hunters on the team. By 7:30, the hunters were at their posts and Lars and I were in the forest with his dog Rocky. She had a GPS on her collar so we could keep track of her while she looked for moose. She started barking and we knew she had found one. It ran past us but was too far away to shoot, so Lars radioed the hunter posted nearby to tell him to get ready for it. There was a shoot but Rocky kept running so we got back in the car to check it out.
We stopped on the road where it looked like Rocky would run across and waited. It was so exciting; Rocky's barks were getting louder and then we could hear something big coming through the forest. It appeared on the road, took 2 shots and was down-a big bull moose! Rocky ran around it pulling it's fur out. The other hunter had shot him in the leg. I helped Lars by holding the moose on his back while he split the stomach and took the guts out. It was fascinating to see the organs come out and I didn't feel sick, but he was heavy to hold on to. But 9:30, we were all back in the lodge having fika to celebrate the kills, an other hunter had shot a moose as well. They were the first kills of the season.
We went out again that morning, this time Lars and I were posted on a rock to wait for a moose to pass by, one did but we didn't get it. Then after lunch we went into the forest with Rocky again but she ran of on an old trail and didn't see an other moose. It was still a lot of fun walking through the forest with it's beautiful fall colours.
Back at the lodge, the hunters were getting out this motorized winch on treads so they can use it to drag the moose out of the forest. It was quite the contraption but it was having mechanical difficulties so I got a ride home with Johan before I could see it in action. It was the most exciting Thanks Giving I have every had!!
October 9-11 was my Rotary District's conference for 2009 which was held in Åre, Sweden's nicest ski resort. The conference was for all the clubs and people involved in the district to get together and dicuse the projects and plans for this year. It was also the first time that all the exchange students in the district would get together. It was very exciting, only thing is that no one informed us students what our role there was going to be, what activities we would be doing, who was in charge and where we would be staying. All we knew was that Rotary would provide for us and we brought enough clothes for hiking up a mountain, swimming and playing in 40 cm. of snow.
Friday morning, I woke up early and got picked up at 6:30am. There were 3 rotarians, Jarryd and I in the car so it was a pretty squishy ride, with the 3 of us in the back, for the 5 hours until we got there. We got to the Holiday Club skiing resort hotel, the biggest building in Åre, which doubles or triples its population in the skiing season. There we met Rod, the American student who is staying in Åre this year, and even though he has helped out setting up for this conference all morning, we still don't know what we are doing. A little later we are joined by Julieta from Argentina, Tua who went to the States and Matts who went to South Africa. The 6 of us join in on the Rotary lunch and listen to the very boring guest speaker. The afternoon we spend hanging out, exploring the resort and playing cards. A train arrives and Judith from Germany, Emma from New Zealand and Kate from Australia join us.
After supper, we are in charge of games; mini golf, simulated golf and bowling, to get the rotarians to play. Afterwards, we get driven to a hostel (finally we know where we will be staying!). A rotarian owns the place and opened it for us because it usually doesn't open until the skiing season. I found a sauna in the basement and that was our night's activity.
Saturday, we went back to the resort for breakfast then hung around till we were told what to do. This turn out to be doing some advertising for the Rotary exchange program, by wearing our jackets and handing out brochures to other guests at the resort. Rotary had other displays set up as well; one for fighting Polio, auction items, the shelter box project, clean water in Africa, and the disabled person's ski cart. This last one is particularly interesting because the Rotary club at Åre, sponsors this ski cart which give quadriplegics and paraplegics the equal opportunity to ski with no extra cost.
In the afternoon, we helped out with the auction, bringing things up on to the stage to be auctioned off. When that was over, we finally got to do a fun activity and we ran to the resort's swimming pool before anyone else could tell us to help out with something! It was really nice, different pools connected by water paths surrounded by plants and bridges. there was a pool outside, a water slide and Sauna World which had several saunas, hot and cold pools, a snow room and a freezing water well to jump into. It was alot of fun.
That night we had a very fancy supper that went from 7pm to 11:30pm. There was a champain starter (we got bright turquoise coloured spite), a smoked salmon and salad appetizer, reindeer entree, ice cream then tea/coffee. There were guest speakers and presentations between each course and at one point all of us exchange students went on stage and Jarryd said thanks you for having us here and Emma sang the New Zealand National Anthem (she is very good). After dessert, a Swedish singer came and performed for us and we had our own little dance party in the back of the room. That night half of us went to bed while Jarryd, Rod, Kate and I stayed up late talking and hanging out in the sauna. I went to bed at quarter to 5 and was up all packed and ready to go by 9 the next morning.
Sunday, we hung out at the resort until we all had to leave. After lunch, Jarryd and I were back in the car heading home. It was a fantastic weekend even though there was no snow or mountain hiking!
So I went back to school on Wednesday and I gave a presentation about the Rotary exchange program with the other exchange students, Jarryd, Stephano and Jacob, a Swede who went to New Zealand and came back. We set up a power point projector and showed some pictures and web sites. We wore our Rotary jackets, handed out brochures and talked to students passing by. 2 newspaper reporters came by and took some pictures and notes about what we were doing and on Saturday, there was a picture of Jarryd and I in the newspaper!
Thursday I got rid of my cold enough to play at Blaspopperna. Friday I went to a church youth group meeting at a Pentecostal church. It was a small group of nice people and we discussed the different ways to pray to God. It was very different from the youth group meetings I'm used to but it was still fun.
Saturday was a relaxing day, the most interesting thing we did was wash all the sheets and linen in the house then flatten it in the pressing machine. This machine has a big roller in it that wraps the sheets around it and they come out flat, with no heat or steam.
Sunday, I went to church, a Lutheran church this time. It was a more interesting servive than the lat tome I went there which was 2 weeks previous, because they christened a baby and children were involved in the service; the singing and story time. Afterwards, we had fika and I made some new acquaintances, one of them was the young lady who played the piano in the church, Karin. Later, I met her again at the Big Band concert that night. She's the singer in the black dress. I went to the concert the string bass player, Anders, who I met at a Rotary meeting. We left at 3pm to get to Soderham, a town 45min. south of Hudiksvall, and set up for the concert and have time for a practice. They are very good!! And the concert was all Glenn Miller's music so I recognised some of the songs and I really like jazz!! I tried recording some songs but the sound quality on my camera doesn't do them justice, you have to be there to really appreciate their music. It was a good time!
I can't believe how luck I was! I got to go to Stockholm with Marita to see Glada Hudik teatern's musical, Elvis!! Marita is friends with the theater group's administrative coordinator, Ewa, who got us two VIP tickets to the Monday night's show! So on Monday, I went to school for my piano lesson, Swedish class and lunch then caught the 1pm train. Marita got on the train at Gavle and together we arrived in Stockholm and checked into our hotel. Marita had a business meeting the next day so her company payed for the hotel. After a quick supper, we caught the bus to Stockholm's Cirkus, where Elvis was playing. We met up with Ewa and found our seats in the 6th row with other VIP guests! The play was fantastic!! It was about Elvis as a young man before he became famous, trying to fit in at school, keep his girlfriend and make his first recording. There was a lot of joke and funny parts that I missed because it was in Swedish but I could appreciate the acting and the music. They had a live band accompanying the singers and the trumpet player was amazing. I was very impressed with the play, especially since some of the actors have the mentality of 4 year olds, it was very professionally done! Toralf, playing Elvis, acted all cool and relaxed on stage, Teresia sang beautifully, the dancing girls were very talented in a variety of different dancing styles and the actor of "Joe the man", head of the Memphis Mafia, is an incredible actor even though he rarely speaks in his real life. We got a backstage pass with all the other VIPs, after the show, so I could compliment all the actors myself. When Toralf saw me, he stumbled over his words trying to decide which language to speak in. Finally he got a message out that he was sad that I wasn't his girlfriend. I said he was a good actor and it was a great show. Luckily, there were enough people there wanting to talk to him that i was able to slip away. I also met Teresia and she was ecstatic to see me, she missed since the last time we met at the book release party 2 week previous. It was great to see her so happy and excited after a successful performance. She is planning on recording her own album and I think it's a fantastic idea, she's so talented.
Here are some pictures of some of the other VIPs I met. During the intermission, we were invited for a snack and a drink with Per, the organiser and leader of the theater group. And I met Barbra who the Royal Governor of the aria and lives in a castle!
It was a fantastic night! Tuesday morning, Marita left for her meeting so I was left to wonder around Stockholm until I caught my train at 12:30. It was very nice to just walk around at leisure in the big beautiful city. I bought some clothes then caught my train home with no problem.
Friday October 16th was the gymnasiet fest(G-fest which translates to high school dance but is so much more fun!) All that day at school, the cafeteria was decorated for Halloween, there were displays and costume competitions and everyone was excited. After school, Anna had a bunch of friends over for the pre-party. There were about 8 girls and Stephano and Jarryd. We had alot of fun playing Swedish music really loudly and dancing. At about 11:30, we made our way to the G-fest which was in town, not in the school gym. When I came through the door, I was handed something in a colourful little package and I got 2 before they told me what they were; condoms. The dance was a lot of fun, everyone was dancing mosh pit style around the DJ so it didn't matter if you knew how to dance or not. There were crazy lights, a bar upstairs, some people in Halloween costumes but most just wearing black. It was quite the party and there's one every month! ************ The next day, it was the Youth Blues and Jazz Festival so my band, Blaspopperna, played some songs. It was our first performance and I was a bit nervous but it went well. The rest of the evening we listened to some really good music. Just about everyone from my music class was there and a lot of the bands playing had classmate of mine in them. ************** I've been baking, or trying to, it's hard converting cups to deci liters and the ingredients taste different and 175C seems to be a good temperature for the oven. I tried chocolate chip cookies but I can't find chocolate chips so they are chocolate chunk cookies in stead. They turned out harder than I would have liked but people still liked them. I made Halloween Hoot Owl cookies and my family found them to be very unusual but very good. *************** In the mail I got Halloween decorations; window stickers, scary sound effects and feather masks. The house has never been so decorated for fall before. I also got a package of Halloween candy from home. I was thrilled to bits! Now I can sit on the couch watching tv and eating candy like I would be doing this time of year at home. My parents also sent some mustard and maple syrup. Now I can eat pancakes the way they are meant to be eaten; for breakfast with real maple syrup. The food I miss the most from home was mustard because sausages and hot dogs are common here but I don't like their mustard because it is too sweet for me. Now I can really enjoy them! *************** I've been making a few presentations this month because that's what I like to do. I talked in one of the English classes and it was like an interview; the kids asked me questions about Canada and the way I live. The teacher made an example of me to show the class that swearing in English is bad. Can you imagine a teacher saying "Fuck yes!" to one of your innocent comments?! I was shocked! I ave a presentation to a different English class and this time I was given the hour to show a power point and talk about whatever I wanted to. So I talked about Canada in general and a little about my life there and answered questions. It was fun, I could have talked longer but they wanted to go to lunch. The next day, jarryd and I went to an elementary school to talk to the grade 5 and 6 about Australia and Canada. We had 45 minutes and jarryd had to stop me after a half an hour so he could have time to make his presentation. It was fun and the classes want us to come back when they have come up with more questions for us. The strangest question I got was; are Canadians scared of the dark? Apparently that came from the show; How I Met Your Mother. I think I should watch it. **************** It's interesting, while I'm away, I'm learning more about Canada and what it means to be Canadian. Did you know that Canada eats the most macaroni and cheese in the world? I knew Canada is the second largest country in the world but being in Europe makes me start to realise just how huge it is. It is interesting to learn what other people think of Canadians. Most Swedes think we all say aboot instead of about. That's because they learn about Canada from American tv shows. I never really thought about what Americans think about us before. Some days I can think of a lot of differences between Canadians and Americans and some days I can't think of any. *************** Friday October the 23rd, Hakan came back from Shanghai after being away for over a week and he brought back 4 times more lugage than he left with. We helped him unpack and he had brought presents for us, it was like an early Christmas! Anna and I each got to choice a leather hand bag, a cashmire scarf, a komono, and a jacket! It was so exciting and I was so pleased that I didn't know what to say! *************** The next day, Anna went to the school to take a big all day test for getting in to University. Hakan and I went to Ljusdal, a town an hour away to see his sister participate in a fasion show. We then visited his mother and went to a restaurant. *************** October 24th to November 1st was the fall break, so I slept in a lot and was very lazy. Sunday the 25th, we went to a concert to remember Billy Holiday. We listened to some of her fun jazz songs. *************** Wednesday the 28th was a big party night for us 18 year olds because the bar had some special cheap drinks. Anna and I went to the pre-party at her friend Nico's house. It was full of people and I met a lot of new people and some I recognised from school. Then we all made our way to the bar and waited in line to get in because it was packed. Anna and I had a lot of fun on the dance floor because there was smoke and lots of cool lights. We left early(at 2am) because we had to get up and go to Stockholm the next day. :D ************* Stockholm: Oct. 29th to 31st. Anna, Marita and I drove there and had fun following the GPS to our hotel. Well I didn't have fun, I needed to pee and we had a tour of down town, passing the hotel several times and waiting behind a parked car wondering what the hold up was! That night, we got all dressed up and met Hakan who was just back from Brussels, in the Grand Hotel(fanciest hotel in Stockholm) for dinner. He was having a business meeting with 7 Taiwanese men who liked his energy business for their companies. We ate a Swedish smorgasbord with lots a delicious types of fish and many other fine meats and vegetables...oh and desserts! I ate way too much!! The men were very nice to talk to and they were very pleased and surprised to see women at a business meeting! ************** Friday, Anna and I had the day to ourselves in Stockholm because Marita and Hakan were looking at new kitchen appliances, so we went shopping. I bought gloves, a tuque and a shirt. Then I met up my friend Claire from New York and Marian from Mexico whom I haven't seen since language camp in August. It was good to see them again, we wondered around the old part of town and caught up with news. Claire joined Anna and I for supper which we had alone because Hakan and Marita went to their friend's 50th birthday. That night, while watching tv, I figured out how to braid my hair in something like an inverted french braid. It was a very exciting discovery! *************** Saturday, Halloween, on our way driving back home, we stop in Uppsala, a city an hour north of Stockholm, to visit a family friend. Bert and Ivonne and very nice people, and we had a delightful fika before continuing home. Before leaving Uppsala, we visited Sweden's church, which is comparitive to Notre Dame de Paris in it's size and grandeur. It is simply magnificent and full of history. I saw the grave of King Vasa, who united Sweden in the 1500s! I was incredible! ************* Back home, Anna, Marita, Jarryd and I went to a concert called Sirqus Alfon. It was crazy fun!! The group played music and acted like they were in a video game, having fun and doing all kinds of random stunts. We got 3D glasses and it looked really cool with all the smoke and lights and glowing stick man suits! You have to check out the youtube clip to get the idea of what I'm trying to describe. It was the craziest and coolest concert I have ever seen!! So that was my Halloween!
Speaking of Halloween, it's not officially celebrated here like it is back home. Kids just use it as an excuse to party and dress up but there's not trick-or-treating. The 31st is officially All Saints' Day, a day to remember and morn dead relatives. churches have special services where they read the names of those who died that year and light a candle for each of them. It is very beautiful and the cemeteries and all lit with hundreds of candles. Traditional Swedes are mad at Halloween for corrupting this special day with it's commercialism and parties. As for me, I had fun decorating the house for Halloween and having Jarryd over to carve a jack-o-lantern.*************** All is well here and congradulations for read this complete blog post!!
