Well, I suppose technically it has been one month and a day now because I choose to be lazy yesterday, but you get the point. I have officially been living away from my friends, family, country, everything I knew for 32 days. That is the longest (by far) I have ever gone without seeing my family.
I am not going to lie, I do miss them. However, not in the severe-homesickness kind of way. More in the I am thinking about them because I love them, but I know that I will see them again soon enough. They are not gone, I am not dead, this is merely a period of separation which I think in the long run will have been a really good experience for both me and my parents. I cannot imagine how hard it was for them to trust me enough and let me go halfway across the world on my own and live there for 6 months. Everyday I am here I am so grateful that they did though.
Most days have been great! (Aside from the beginning week when I had terrible jetlag) I found the transition not to be as hard as others have said. This is partly because of my amazing host family and partly because I choose Sweden for the very reason that it was somewhat similar to American culture. They are not like Spain who is up all night and eats at 9pm and not like China where the language is so different I surely would’ve had a heart attack my first day of school. I purposely picked a country that could speak good English for the most part and had a similar culture. That being said there are still MANY things abut Sweden that are very different from America which is good and makes me still feel like I am getting a real cultural experience.
Making friends has been interesting. As I have stated before I was placed in a small class (only 5 other kids) in a major (psychology) I knew nothing about. In Sweden you stay with the same kids in your class from the first day of secondary school, until the day you graduate. Also, you spend your whole day with them, so if you do not like the people in your class you are in for a long 3 years. I did like my classmates a lot, but we just did not click which happens sometimes. I wanted a major more involving health and fitness with a bigger class so I have more opportunities to meet people. I am fortunate enough to have a great and understanding principal so on Friday I am meeting with here to talk about changing my major to RT! These are the rescue people – ie firefighters, police, ambulance paramedics ect. I am really excited and hope it works out! These classes are much bigger (about 30 people) and seem way more interesting to me. So fingers crossed!
I often get asked what it is I miss the most, besides family and friends of course. Honestly, I do not miss much and what I do miss are things that cannot be sent in the mail for the most part. Maybe because I have only been here a month I have not had time to develop extreme longings or materialistic items yet. Anyway here is a small list of random things I miss from America:
For now that is all I can think of, not too bad. The weather here has been great, all of the snow is gone. I went for a nice run outside yesterday in about 40 degree weather. Sorry to taunt all of you stuck inside all day. I am super excited for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics tomorrow, except I bet they will broadcast it in Swedish so I will be somewhat lost, still I be it will be super cool. For now I am standing strong and rooting for all the USA athletes, we will see how long that lasts. The Swedes tend to be very good at their winter sports – they are especially good in my favorite, hockey.
Here are some random pictures I have not had a chance to post:
Swedish Word of the Day: “Trött” – adjective and means tired. Jag är mycket trött is and extremely common phrase used by teenagers and means – I am very tired. This was one of the first phrases I learn that and Jag är mycket hungrig. (I am very hungry)