Presentations

Part of being here on exchange is about being an ambassador for Canada and telling the Swedes a little bit about Canada so I have been giving presentations to English classes and a French class about Canada and to history classes about WWI and WWII and to Rotary clubs. I started at the end of October having one or two presentations every 2 weeks but now that it's getting close to Christmas, the teachers want me to present before the new year so I have had 2 or 3 presentations a week. But that's ok because I like giving presentations and have been seeking out classes and Rotary clubs to give presentations to. **********On December 3rd, I gave a presentation to the Thursday Rotary Club about an introduction about me and Canada. It was the first presentation I gave all in Swedish!! It was about 20 minutes long and I talked mainly about me and my hobbies and where I live and I had lots of pictures and I talked very slowly. But the main thing is that it was all in Swedish and everyone thought I sounded very cute with my beginner's Swedish! ***********Since November, I have been giving WWI and WWII presentations to the middle school down the street, to share what I learned during the Vimy Foundation Scholarship that I won in 2008. It was a very interesting challenge because Swedish grade 8 and 9 students learn about the wars from a very neutral and detached angle because Sweden wasn't involved in the wars. They don't know anything about Canadian history, they aren't fluent in English and so I had to use simple words and explanations to express my passion for the subject and make them understand my Canadian point of view without being too patriotic because to keep their interest I had to try to explain the big picture of how the wars changed the world whether your country was involved or not. So giving these presentations to Canadians is easier but giving them to Swedes is more interesting. ************December 7th, I had two presentations to give but previously that day at school, I was working on my power points and left my USB stick in the computer so when I got to my Rotary Club, I didn't have my presentation! Luckily, Hakan had a car and drove me home because I knew the computer room would be locked at school. I ran in the house and grabbed my computer and an other stick and in the car I was able to make a copy of my presentations. We got back to the club in time to give my WWI presentation there, then 2 hours later I was able to give a WWII presentation to the middle school. Now I carry both USB sticks with me everywhere in my purse just in case. ************That "just in case" happened on December 17th, even though it was a Thurseday, it was the last day of school before the Christmas break because Friday was an optional school day. I had just walked in the door and was going up the stairs when my cell phone rang; it was Tommy and history teacher at the middle school and he was wondering when I was coming. I said "right away", turned around, put my boots back on and was at the school in two minutes! I had completely forgotten about this presentation but because I had my purse, I was all ready! ************I got a 150 poppies that my parents mailed me from the Canadian Legions to talk about Remembrance Day with. I've given all but a few a way now during my WWI presentations and at school for Remembrance Day. It's been quite popular because Sweden doesn't have a Remembrance Day and it's a pretty flower.

Jarryd's birthday

Tuesday December 1st is Jarryd's birthday and he had invited Anna, Stefano, me and some close friends over to watch a movie and have a nice low-key birthday, but his host family had other plans... When he came home from school he found several relatives and family friends had come over to throw him a surprise party! Anna and I joined the party later and I tried glögg(mulled wine with nuts and raisins drunk at Christmas time) and smörgås torta(sandwich cake, a Swedish specialty) for the first time. They both taste really good! We sat, chatted, sang, ate cake, played with a relative's golden retriever, watched TV, played with Jarryd's 3 year old host brother and had ping pong tournaments. Even though he didn't ask for anything, I gave him a chain mail necklace that I made using copper rings in the inverted round mail pattern. It matched his red hair! It was a good party and now Jarryd is 17!!

Sunsvall

On the last weekend in November, Jarryd, Stefano and I went to Sunsvall(the city on hour north of Hudiksvall) to get together with some other exchange kids. There were 11 of us; Rachael, Jarryd, Jack, Lucy from Australia, Corrine, Meg, Georgie, and Emma from New Zealand, Stefano from Brazil, Morgane from France and me from Canada. I'm writing down their names so I remember them because it was probably the last time I will see them all in the same place, for most of them are from the southern hemisphere and will be going home in December or January. We tried not the think of it as our last get together and just concentrated on having a good time! :D ******** Friday night, we met at MacDonald's, since I got to Sweden, I have sworn not to eat at MacDonald's so I was happy that I had eaten supper before hand. Then we rented a movie(Harry Potter) and went to Rachael's house to watch it. Over night, Lucy, Georgie, Emma and I stayed at a Rotarian's house. Maria is a very nice lady who is a priest and gets a nice, big, old house from the church/government. She is super generous and easy-going and has a 9 year old daughter and husband and on Sunday which was the first day of advent, the whole house was completely transformed with Christmas decorations! *********Saturday, we went shopping, did laser tag, go carting, bull riding and out to a nice restaurant for supper. Laser tag was a lot of fun; we all got Star Wars names I was Darth Vader. We ran around in a big room with lots of walls, passages, little rooms, crazy lights and music. I kept on getting shot so I found a button that turns on strobe lights and danced across the floor in plain view-I lost!! Go carting was even more fun because I won!! The goal was to make as many laps of the course as we could in 7 minutes so I floored it! I was passing people by getting on the inside of corners, skidding around them and pushing them into the wall. My max speed was 32Km/hr and the only one to beat that was Stefano with 34km/hr. I was nick-named The Crazy Canadian after that!! What a rush!!:D Bull riding was fun too, it was an electric on and most of us fell off after 16 seconds but Rachael and I hung on for 18 seconds! ********Sunday was the first Sunday of advent and that's a big thing in Sweden. It's when everything gets decorated with candles and lights and everything red and Christmas shopping starts. There was a Christmas market with many stands selling crafts, decorations, food, candy, toys, presents and balloons. We were having so much fun there that Jarryd and I missed our bus home at 1pm and the next one didn't come until 6pm so we suddenly had more tome to hang out with the others. ********Saying good bye wasn't as hard as you would think it would be. Being exchange students, we learn to live in the moment, have fun with the people you're with now, make the best of your situation and it's never good bye, it's see you later! :D