How Time Flies

When one has been away from home for five months, one does begin to wonder what one has done with one's time? How has one whittled away one's time so nonchalantly when one has been given a year in such an exotic country as Sweden? Can it be that the year has atrophied by five months without one being particularly appreciative of all there is to experience in this new and titillating country?
     No. I, together with my French friend, have had a fairly full five months of fun, flowing freely from that fountain of fantastic fun that is found in Sweden. And now, after all that, I find myself almost at the eve of my Eurotour. This tour will run for eighteen days and cover about eight countries, in a bus full of sixty-five (approx.) exchange students and five (also approx.) Rotary chaperons. Hopefully the trip will be a success, but this relie on how much sleep one can acquire during the nights. Two and a half weeks travelling with sixty-five teenagers is traditionally not a situation which is conducive to a good nights sleep. However one will do one's best and it will be a special time in any case. The countries which I am particularly looking forward to are Austria and Italy, but mainly Italy. I know not from whence my fondness for Italy comes, but still I find myself interested in it the most.
     Other things that have happened are the Studenten parties, Morgan and Fanny coming to visit, proper summer weather arriving, and myself changing host families.

Start of Summer

It has now been a little over four months since I arrived in Sweden, and the country has changed considerably. The white and grey hues of winter have been replaced with bright green. The clouds and snow removed, and in their place are sun (at least for a greater proportion of the time) and grass. This change is most welcome and has brought with it opportunities to do more things, to see more sides of the dodecahedron that is Sweden.
     An example of which is the trip I did to Hudiksvall to go kayaking. This was a rotary event and there was not so many people participating in the trip, so it was no party. However a fairly pleasant time was had by all, and the kayaking in itself was a nice thing to do. We kayaked in the Gulf of Bothnia, the section of ocean between Sweden and Finland, and the seas were perfect for us. The weather was great for both the days which was lucky because the day before was heavy rain.
     But enough about what I have been doing. Some people have asked me, "What do you think about Sweden?" and I am yet to give them a good, proper, truthful and succinct answer. Those who know me may have noticed what little propensity I have for verbosity, and thus my standard answer is usually something along the lines of "it's pretty good".
     But now I must take a minute to think about Sweden and my experiences of it, and to think about whether or not it deserves a better or worse adjective than "good".
     In my experience it is rare to meet a person in Sweden who is not nice. One point must be awarded to Sweden here, and also kudos to the Swedes for the food. I like it. Another good thing about Sweden is the relaxed attitude. Holidays happen everyone second week and school is more liberal. Emphasis is put on the activities one does, such as sport or music, rather than on your school marks. Again, much kudos.
     However, all of these things are good, but not great. People are pleasant, but shy. The food is good, but is may suffer if compared to great food (e.g. Italian). Holidays all the time can cause one to suffer from laziness. Add this all up, the end outcome is "pretty good".
     Now that I have thought about it the most accurate description I can give about what I think about Sweden is the aforementioned adjective.
     Perhaps by the end of my year away I will think differently. I know that at the end I will be happy to be in Australia again, because there it will be summer, whereas here it will be negative twenty or more (probably). Also I have found that it is difficult to feel completely comfortable.The nuances of the culture will elude me for some time and I find I need to have a fair understanding of everything going on around me (the language, the culture, the physical environment) in order to be truly at ease.
     I will be changing host families next week. I will be moving to my second most family in Sweden. I hope it is not like starting my exchange year all over again like some of the other exchanges say. I suppose I will have to wait and see.
   
To end, here are some photographs from my travels.

More Sweden

For Easter my host family took me to the wintry island of Gotland. The unpredictable Swedish weather had become cold and snowy soon before our arrival there. This weather mattered not for us as we travelled to my host father's parent's summer house to partake in the Easter festivities. The first night we were there corresponded with Good Friday or Long Friday as the Swedes call it, and so we ate a large amount of fish prepared in special Swedish ways by the grandparents. I enjoyed the food but it was difficult for me to partake in the conversion, as it was nonstop Swedish. At this point into my exchange I am speaking only very little Swedish but I am understanding quite a bit. I can understand most questions asked to me, but I answer in English.

      The next few days were spent travelling around the island, enjoying the scenery and the history of the island whilst trying my best to stay warm. We saw the cliffs and rock formations of the shoreline, the boat-shaped graves of the Vikings and the churches and church ruins of the town of Visby. On the Wednesday after Easter we caught a flight back to Stockholm and drove back from there to Falun. Since then life has been ebbing along, with the days broken by school and small events. I had a dinner with the Inner Wheel ladies on this most recent Monday and I played the piano for a jazz group from a nearby school in a gig which they had at a local restaurant. I had been playing for them for a small while and, although I am not a jazz pianist I did my best for them. The night went well and I think everyone was happy with how they did, and I got a free hamburger for my part so I was also happy with the evening.

      And this is about as much as needs to be said. For the next couple of months my life should be pretty stationary, and I enjoy these quiet periods. I will give my talk to Rotary soon perhaps as it seems something is stirring for that and I will travel to Uppsala for a few days away soon.

Early Springtime

After a little over two months into my exchange I feel well settled into my new lifestyle here in Sweden. Although the language isn't quite there yet for my general comfortableness has increased from the start when I was a bit unsure of pretty much everything everyday, now I can go about my daily business happily. The early springtime has helped me to feel optimistic but I am in no doubt that my host family is responsible for my quick assimilation. I have to say that they are the nicest family your ever likely to meet.

How did they help me? Just by being nice, letting me do my own thing most of the time and inviting me out to various events around town. Each night my host family and I have dinner together. This helps immensely with getting to know them, through a simple thing like dinner table discussion.

What has been going on recently. I have been on a ski trip to Åre for a week with forty other exchanges. A hectic week was had by all I'd say. I personally had a great time snowboarding for four days straight, and the opportunity to meet the other exchanges was nice. Soon I will be going on another trip with rotary the finish off the month of March, in which we will be travelling for twenty hours by train to the freezing town of Kiruna, Sweden's most northern settlement. Whilst there we will be visiting the ice hotel as a main attraction.

Another small thing I did was the go ice fishing on a frozen lake in a small village called Vika, south of my town. This opportunity was afforded to me by a rotary member I know only as Stieg. He began fishing at five-thirty in the morning, and when I arrived at eight, he had caught one large pike. He inviting me to go fishing with him during my first rotary meeting in Falun. My new host club has got many activities lined up for me so I am sure in the coming months I will have plenty of new experiences.

Normal life here is school and home. I have been lucky to have had a friend and helper from the very start of my exchange, a french guy called Thibault. He is also on exchange with rotary and he has been in Sweden since August and thus can give me advice on what to do and how the systems operate. Also he is a good guy and it helps to have a friend around.

In the top photograph is the shores of the lake I was Ice fishing on. The sun came out after a while and made everything look like springtime should. On the right is a picture of my new mate Stieg and the grand fish he caught.

First Month in Sweden

I arrived in Sweden on the 22nd of January. It is now the 22nd of February, thus making it my one month arrival anniversary.

And so I have finally got around to writing something about Sweden. To begin with, upon arrival at the airport in Arlanda I noticed that Sweden had a distinct deficit of degrees, some thirty-five degree difference to the pleasantly warm thirty degrees in Sydney. Also, the snow covering the ground reinforced the alien nature of the new country to me.

The snow covering the ground not only signified the different climate of Sweden, but also made the landscape look beautiful. Ordinary fields look really special when buried under a light five inches of snow. Those were my thoughts on the car ride to my new home.

I arrived at the Ahlström's home in Falun at ten on the morning of the twenty-second. Met the family, all very nice people, and moved my stuff into my new room. From this room I traveled to and from school for the next two weeks, familiarising myself with the routine and system of the town and school I am now living in.

My impressions of Sweden are as yet not fully formed. When changing lifestyles the mind is often bombarded with information which can be tiresome. I have been surviving well but because of my tiredness I have not yet had enough motivation to think about what I have learnt from and about Sweden. Perhaps by the end of my stay I will know.

The above image is of the view from my window and the building is a large church, one of two large scale churches in Falun.