First Day In Sweden

After being picked up from the airport, we drove home, and the drive was very quick. This is because it is July and most Swedes take their long vacation at this time. The city is empty now because of this. I also went shopping for the first time at a Swedish supermarket. Swedish supermarkets are different. First, they aren't organized at all like American supermarkets. I would compare them to like a store like Ollies, an overstock store in Fort Wayne, where a bunch of stuff is just thrown in a very small building and isn't sorted very well. Also, there are no isles its more like a maze. Anyone who's been to IKEA knows what I'm talking about. It was also very interesting because my host never does the shopping and he was the one doing it. 

I also had my first Fika. Fika is a very Swedish tradition and it's kind of hard to explain. Fika can be really anything. When you Fika you have like a snack in between breakfast and lunch, lunch and dinner, or after dinner, but it doesn't have to be at those times. It is a social event where you normally drink coffee, but isn't limited to, and have a snack like a sandwich or sweet treat. I had a Chokladboll which used to be called negroballs. This name has obiosly fell out of use for obious reasons. 

After biting into it I realized we have the same thing in the U.S. just in a different form. It was a nobake cookie in ball form. Before dinnr I went on a run with my host brother and realized next time I needed to bring my camera.

Plane Rides

Today is Friday, and I left Wednesday, so I figured I should start writing blogs now before I forget what has all happened. My first flight left Fort Wayne fairly early. When I got to the airport, I was greeted by Bubbles. My flight from Fort Wayne to Atlanta was fair uneventful, but I did get upgraded to first class for free because there were seats open and I was in the same section. When I was there, I met a guy who worked for Zimmer-Biomet, this is where my cousin works, so that was cool. Also, our flight attendant was a daughter of an immigrant from Laos. She spoke Thai, which was cool because she noticed my Thai flag on my jacket from Crepe.

When I arrived in Atlanta, I quickly realized I never wanted to go there again. Atlanta to me seemed like a mess. The layout is confusing, and the signs are only semi-useful. When I was eventually able to find my flight (they didn't have it posted on any of the boards the whole time I was there) I realized it was on the opposite side of the airport. Once there they had to check my passport because I was flying internationally. Afterward, we were delayed thirty minutes because of the plane arriving late. The rest of the flight of uneventful.

When arriving in JFK it started off the best I took a short tram ride to my gate and had plenty of time, so I went to get water because I had forgotten to pack any. Five dollars for a small water welcome to supply and demand folks. I then boarded the plane without problems. Delta had overbooked the flight, so they were begging people to take a different flight. I wish I would have... This lead to the first problem we were all ready to go and then someone decided to give up their seat. That meant we had to spend forty-five minutes waiting for them to unload that person's bags. This would not have been bad, but it was very hot on the plane because of the outside temperature and the fact that we had a full plane. To make matters worse, the window had been left open in my row so it was already hotter and they didn't turn the AC on. We also weren't allowed to get up because we were going to leave soon. After we had got on the runway, I thought we were all clear!

We weren't!!!

We spent another hour and a half waiting on the runway with the same hot conditions as mentioned before. This time, it wasn't our planes fault, but someone on another plane had had a heart attack, and they had to bring an ambulance on the runway to take them to the hospital. This caused a backlog of like twenty-five planes ready to take off. Also, because of them halting air traffic, all the planes ready to land had to wait. This meant all of them had to land after the ordeal before we could take off because of fuel reasons. When we finally took off, I thought I was all clear... Nope! I had a kid behind me who thought he was a kangaroo and wolf for the whole flight. AKA he cried and kicked my seat the whole eight-hour flight...

When I finally arrived in Stockholm, it was about an hour late, and I was greeted by my host dad and brother. My host sister and mom weren't there because my host sister had been very sick and was not cleared to fly. However, we think she will be better by today, and they will fly back soon.

PS If you see photos circulating the internet of me don't be surprised because a lot of people asked for photos of me or tried to take photos of me without me noticing. (I noticed) This is obviously because they had never seen such a beautiful person and had nothing to do with my Rotary Jacket. ;)

PPS I now have a Delta Flight pin because the flight attendant liked my jacket so much that he gave me one.

Random Stuff before I Leave

One of the things I was never told is how stressful packing is. Think about it! You have to pack all you clothes for one year in a 50lbs check bag; 26lbs carry on, and one person item. On top of that, you also have to pack all your gifts. Not to mention you also have to leave enough room in those bags to bring back all your stuff that you buy there. I feel especially pressured because I want to fit in clothes wise in Sweden. This is very hard because the Swedes are known to be some of the most fashionable people in the world. On top of being fashionable, you also have to stay warm, and winter clothes tend to be "slightly" heavier than clothes for hot weather. Right now I am trying to cut down on my weight of my clothes because I am at around 40lbs. of just clothes. That is not including my two new pairs of jeans, kaiki pants, and underwear (I know it doesn't way much, but still).

This brings me to my next topic which will either make you laugh or cringe. As I mentioned above the Swedes are considered very stylish. So natural I had to buy some nice jeans. Well, the jeans I bought aren't American style jeans like boot cut. No, they are European style or for you who don't know SKINNY JEANS! These two pairs of jeans are the first two pairs of full blow skinny jeans that I have ever owned. If I'm going to be 100% honest, they aren't that bad. That's because the pairs I bought are stretchy like they have spandex or something like it built in. This allows a greater range of motion than my work jeans and they are more comfortable! To commemorate this, I sent my host sister a snapchat saying, "I am a true Swede now!" She replied, "How so?" To which I said, "I have skinny jeans now!" After she laughed her Swedish butt off she told me, "Yes, you are a true Swede now!"

While on the topic of my host family I have another quick story. For those who you who don't know they have been in Alaska for quite a while. Well, they will be returning two days before I arrive in Stockholm. For this reason, my host dad, Magnus, told me it's okay if I suffer from jet lag. That is because it will give us a chance to all bond. We'll be all suffering it together after I arrive.

P.S. I relearned my first lesson about foreign exchange students and teenagers in general. Take what they say with a grain of salt. How so? Because there is no straight pride. :P

Things Happen Fast and at the Strangest Times

This last Friday I got my wisdom teeth out early in the morning. Well upon returning home I wasn't in the best state. My face and mouth were swollen, I was drugged up, and could barely be described as coherent. For the whole week up to this point, I had been checking my email diligently waiting for my approval paper saying I could travel to Sweden to get my visa. It still hadn't come, and I was starting to grow concerned. That changed very quickly. Apparently, government agencies just know how to call you at the worst possible times. It must be their mediocre superpowers. Well, they certainly used it because as soon as my mom rolled into the garage, my sister came running out with the phone and said the embassy was on the phone and wanted to talk to ME! Luckily my mom was to the rescue and saw to what the embassy needed. Apparently, my insurance form had been misplaced, and they needed a new one. If we could provide it to them quickly, I could have a visa decision within the hour.

Well about an hour and a half later I got an email saying I was approved for travel to Sweden. I then typed out an email as fast as I could with my drugged up state to the travel agency saying I had the form and forwarded it to them. They proceed to book flights for me and I had an itinerary with two hours that was approved. I will be flying out of my first airport early Wednesday morning and will arrive in Stockholm at 6:50 a.m. (Swedish Time) tentatively. Very tragically, according to an oldie (Australian exchange students who go January to January and have been in the country for six months already. Hence the have oldie), I will be arrive one day too late. One day too late for what you may ask. One day too late to miss the ending of Stockholm straight pride. Yes, that's not a typo STRAIGHT PRIDE, not gay pride.

Calvin College Part 1 of ? Pin Exchange

This last weekend was Calvin College and there is too much information to be put in one blog post. For that reason, I will be blogging about it for a while. This is also partially to help me keep up with my new quota of 3 posts a week.

One of the highlights for the outbounds is the pin exchange. That is because it allows us to have a chance to start filling up our jackets and that I did. I went from pretty bare jacket to a now heavy jacket. A tip I would like to recommend to outbounds bring all of you pins because you will need them. (For you who don't know the pins represent more than just a fun thing to put on blazers. They are a metaphor for the exchange of ideas, cultures, and friendship between the students.)

All the pins I received at Cavin College

Before

After My jacket was so much heavy that it could no longer hang and my mom had to hold it.

Catchup AGAIN!

It is starting to become evident to me that this whole blogging twice a week thing is going to be harder than I thought. :/ To be fair however this was a holiday weekend, and I was very busy, so I cut myself some slack.

Saturday was a pretty lazy day for me at the start. I spent most of the day working on one of Mike's "amazing" project. However at the end of the day, we went up to my Aunt's lake cottage for some good food and fireworks. I did have a photo of one of many plates of food, but it got deleted mysteriously. I do still have a photo of the sunset, so food for your eyes and not your stomach.

Sunday was much busier. My (half) sister who lives hours away came to visit with two of my nieces. Sadly however the older of the two got sick on the way up, so most of their time up here was spent waiting for a doctor. When they finally saw a doctor she had some contagious disease. This meant she couldn't see us. However, the baby did get to make an appearance. I was happy to see her because I hadn't met her in real life yet and wanted to before I left. We ended the day by launch some fireworks off after they had left of course (didn't want to scare the baby).

Monday slowed down a bit, but not much. For lunch, I went back up to my Aunt's house for another party. This time, we had ribs among other things. After that, my dad and I went to practice parallel parking. (I need to work on this considering the time span left until my tentative departure date.) When were done with that we moved on to assembling my dad's new and bulky Milwaukee Toolbox. It was a heavy job for weak and skinny me, but we got it done.

That's all that I need to catch up on.... Adjo!!!