Highlight From My First Week

31 July

For anyone who has ever traveled out of their time zones, they will know what I’m talking about when I say, “jetlag is a jerk.” On my second day in Sweden,I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and tried to fall back asleep for about an hour before giving up and looking at my phone. The only upside to being awake at that hour was that it was about 5:30pm back home so I was able to update a few of my friends on how my travels went. Once everyone else was awake, we ate a breakfast of toast and smoothies then drove to Malmö. Malmö is the third biggest city in Sweden and is only about a twenty minute drive away from Svedala, where I live. Once we got to Malmö, I was able to get my visa and Swedish cell number. For lunch we had kabobs because I had never had one before and ate in the Pildammsparken park.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and from what I’ve heard from almost every Swede I’ve met so far, those sunny days had been rare and cooler than usual for Swedish summertime. After lunch, Ebba my oldest host sister invited me on a bike ride so I could see the route that I would be taking to school every day once school started. I was still more zombie than human as I had yet to recover from jetlag, so we decided to take the moped instead. Ebba had never actually driven it before, so she took it on a test run to make sure it was safe. Almost immediately she wiped out when she forgot which way to turn the handle to make it stop and instead zoomed across the yard and fell off as she tried to stop. After some laughing, we got on and drove to the school. We drove around town and she also showed me the train station and the main street of Svedala. Once we got home, Ebba asked me to go on a run with her. I was reluctant because I hadn’t gone on a run in about a month but Ebba assured me that we would be going at a slow pace. We ran in the sun for about a hour and it was one of the most relaxing runs I had ever been on. As we ran we talked about our love for acting and compared plays and musicals that we had been in. We ran past fields, horses, and through the woods until we ran a full loop and arrived home again.

For dinner that night, we had spaghetti. I was slightly perplexed when I saw that they use ketchup on their spaghetti here. That is something that I have never experienced in the US so it was weird. After dinner, Mattias drove Sofia and I to the coast to go swimming. The water was cold but not freezing so we had fun. When we got home, I took a shower and went straight to bed.

2 August

I woke up at a much more reasonable time then the previous day. Ebba had a whole day planned for Amanda and I so we quickly departed after breakfast. First, Ebba drove us to a large park called Torup. We walked around and found an obstacle course for children; Amanda ran on logs, jumped over puddles, and climbed rope towers until she reached the finish. We then walked around the castle previously owned by royalty and around the deer habitat. Amanda was very excited to point out all of the Bambies that she saw. We then drove to a swimming lake about twenty minutes away. We stayed for about four hours, sunbathing, and swimming. At one point, Amanda dragged me over to a tower over the water to jump. I generally don't like heights, and I especially dislike jumping from heights, but when you have a seven year old girl staring at you expectantly, there is nothing to do but jump. So I jumped and crashed into the water only to be followed a few moments later by Amanda hurling her tiny body off of the board into the water next to me.

When we got home I realized that I hadn't worn any sunscreen. Coming from Alaska, I don’t have much experience with sun and almost zero tolerance to it so I was in quite a bit of pain. I’d say the day was worth the pain, but that sunburn really hurt.

4 August

This day was relaxing. After a dinner of tacos, Ebba, Cecilia, and I all went to a Swedish Musical. The set was built in a barn so it had a unique, personal feel to it. Everyone crowded onto the benches and watched as smoke covered the stage and the actors came on stage. It was amazing and I was captivated. I didn't actually understand anything because the entirety of the show was in Swedish, but I could figure out the main story line. When things got particularly confusing, Ebba would lean over and whisper what was happening. The play is called “Bad People” when translated into English and is about two orphaned girls who lived in Malmö during the second world war. The music was beautiful and enchanting, and I was able to focus on the acting and singing more than the words, which really gave me a new experience. When the show was over, I was surprised to see the audience start clapping in rhythm while the cast was bowing. Apparently, when that happens, the audience wants an encore. Things like that are what I have loved discovering while being here.

5 August

I was finally able to meet the other exchange students from and around my district. At two, my entire host family piled into the car and drove to Lund for the welcome party for all of the Rotary inbounds. We all introduced ourselves while waiting for the activities to begin. The evening started off with everyone being split into groups and then following pieces of paper with questions on them around a lake, while answering the questions. I felt a little ashamed because I knew almost none of the questions about the US. We then did yard games with our teams, which included, throwing a boot over your back, mini golf, passing an orange with only the use of your chin and so on. After we went inside for dinner. After what seemed like two hours of speeches and introductions, we were able to eat. During dinner all of the exchange students sat together and everyone else sat at other tables. We chatted and compared first day stories and what we found the strangest about Sweden so far. We all agreed that putting banana on pizza is outrageous, but I think we were all secretly hoping to be able to try it. My family left shortly after and when we were saying our goodbyes, we all raved about how excited we were to see each other again at language camp.

6 August

I had been wanting to see the more of Malmö ever since I arrived and on Sunday I got my chance. Ebba, her boyfriend Morten, Sofia and I all drove to Malmö to see the LGBT pride parade. It was a new and exhilarating experience. I saw more love, happiness, and rainbows than I thought possible to fit in just one parade. After the parade, we went to one of Malmös malls, Triangeln. After shopping and exploring we decided to call it a day and head home. I still had the upbeat songs from the parade stuck in my head as I wrote about my first day in Sweden.

7 August

In Sweden, it is crucial to be able to navigate the train systems. I had only been on a train once before and I don’t really remember anything from that trip besides my brother poking my side every time he saw anything that resembled a Transformer and telling me to “watch very closely,” so you could say my experience is limited. We decided that I would be a great idea for Sofia to take me to the beach in the neighboring town of Trelleborg. We enjoyed the sun, sand, icecream, everything except the water which was colder than even I could handle. When we got home I once again realized that I had burned. Bad. I actually wore sunscreen this time, just not enough. I would once again have to deal with only being able to raising my arms to shoulder level whenever I wanted to anything.

9 August

On my last day before I left for language camp, I was able to attend one of the summer concerts at the Pildammsparken park. I went with Ebba and her grandparents. As we watched the performance, we enjoyed coffee and pastries. Afterwards, I went home and packed for a week in Ädelfors, where I would be learning Swedish with all of the other exchange students from the southern half of Sweden.