First Day of Language Camp Post Train Ride (Aug 5)

After packing our bags into Leif's car, the Rotarian in charge of the camp, we headed to MAX for lunch, MAX is an excellent Swedish burger joint. I however, had already eaten a sandwich on the train, so I decided to try their specialty fries. They were decent by specialty fry standards but have nothing on the burgers there. I would compare the quality to Culver.

Afterwards, we took a stroll into the shopping center of town for the first time to see what we could do and to wait on the other students to arrive because we did not all take the same transport. We ended up finding plenty to entertain ourselves for the time we spent there. We, of course being exchange students, took lots of photos, so I will let them do most of the talking for how we spent the day. Another thing to not is as you will see there are lots of dragons in the photos this is because Sundvall's animal is a dragon and the city is supposed to be protected by one. Another thing worth mentioning is this was when I had a spontaneous best friendship happen with one of the other students, Alica, from Belgium. 

 Eventually, all the students arrived, and we were carpooled back by multiple Rotarians to the hotel where we would be staying. Once there, we were settled into our rooms and spent our first dinner together as a group and family.

 Language lessons would not start until the next day, so we all decided to go exploring. On the trip, we had loads of fun and found many interesting things. I, for example, found this very strange car and caught a couple of frogs. (Yes I know very Hoosier) Something else that was quite strange for us was that there were slugs EVERYWHERE! Most of the girls did not appreciate this very much because they found the slugs revolting. Eventually, we all went to bed because we knew Swedish lessons in the morning would be hard.

Ride to Language Camp (Aug 5)

After getting only a few hours of sleep, because I made the decision to pack at 1 in the morning. I woke up and packed my suitcase into the car so we could head to the train station. When we arrived at the train station, I had to use the restroom again for some reason. This wouldn't have been a problem until I remembered that you have to pay to use the restrooms in some public places. This resulted in me being very confused to why the bathroom attendant was screaming at me in Swedish. Eventually, I figured it out and paid my 10SEK so I could use the restroom and move on to the platform where my train was. Once at the platform, I met with another American Ethan, from Wyoming, and another American, Bradley from Arkansas. This was because before we booked our tickets we all made sure to chose the same train and area on the train, so we would be together. This resulted with me being seated next to Ethan, Mannon (From France), and Sofia (From Colorado).

Ethan and I

View From the Train

Eventually, the train stopped, and we had to switch to a bus to finish our journey because of construction on the train tracks. The bus took us to Sundsvall train station to where we waited for Rotarian to pick us up.

Bus Ride

No one paying attention when I took a photo. (This was a reoccurring theme)

Meeting The Oldies (Aug 4)

On the Friday before language camp (4th of August) I finally got to meet some of the oldies who have been here for 6 months already. Of course as every exchange adventure nothing went to plan. The original plan was to meet Merida and Niamh at Stockholm Central Station at 11:00. This wasn't a big deal I left my house at 10:00 so I could meet them at 11:00. Unbeknownst to me along my trip to central their train got delayed and wouldn't arrive until 12:30. At this point, I still didn't have a cellphone, so I didn't know this. Once the clock in central in the station reached 12:25 I started back to the subway so I could go home because I figured something had gone wrong. (Perfect timing I know right!) When I got home I found out what happened and I headed back to central so we could meet up still. This ended up being a great decision because I had so much fun with the two of them. The agenda included going to an art museum, my first time at MAX (the Swedish fast food burger place), exploring old town among other things.

I ended up not getting home until 12:30a.m. the next day and I thought I was going to be in big trouble, but when I got home my host dad didn't seem phased at all. Then I remembered that it is part of Swedish culture for kids to have lots of freedom and be able to stay out late. Still I goy my own punishment because I had not packed for language camp which my train left for that morning and I had to leave the house by 7:00a.m.

Mall Of Scandinavia/ Seeing More of Stockholm than Planned

My Very Tasty Indian Lunch

The day after that I went to the Mall of Scandinavia with host brother and dad for lunch. We ate at an Indian restaurant that was very good. Afterwards, my host dad and brother left to go home. I decided to stay so I could explore the Mall of Scandinavia. I end up finding some interesting things like an "American" clothing store. The store sold clothes you could buy in the U.S. at Goodwill at very inflated prices. Like a tee shirt would be $50. I'm guessing from the prices and the clothes that the store is a popular hipster clothing store. I also snapped a couple of photos of the fountain piece in the Mall and found one of the three areas for soccer here in Stockholm.

"American" Clothes Store

Centerpiece fountain of the mall

When I decided to go home was when the trouble started. I had come home from the mall before with host brother and thought I could make it back by myself. I was wrong and right at the same time. I was able to make it back, but it took longer than expected. The started off hard enough because I didn't have a map or phone to look one up. I THOUGHT I had remembered the right, but that was the not the case. I ended up on the wrong train when the bus stopped. I then had to spend the next hour trying how to get back to my house. Eventually, I figured it out, but not before all the "information" people told me all different ways to get back. I eventually decided on MY original route which consisted of taking a train from the station I was at to the suburb of Spånga. Once there I took a train to Vällingby. From Vällingby I thought I took the right bus, but once again that was not the case. I ended up having to get off the bus when it turned at ICA when I needed to go straight. At this point, I decided I was just going to walk the rest of the way and walked around about mile home. 

Soccer Area

Exploring Nature/ A Viking Fort

On the second of July, my host father and I went hiking to an old Viking fort that was made during the iron age. The fort is quite a hike to get to, but worth the journey, because the view from it is amazing. I also tried Blood Pudding for the first time. It tastes really good as long as you don't think about what it is made of.

The view from the top of the fort

The walls of the fort are made out of large rocks like this

Found a large tree on the hike to the fort.
My wingspan isn't even half the circumference.

Blood Pudding and Bacon

Lack of Posts

I'm sorry to anyone who has been checking my blog every day for the lack of content. I thought I had posts automatically setup to post, but for some reason they did not. I have been at language camp for the past week, and there has not been enough time to write any posts today I head home at 17:52 and arrive at like 21:00 back in Stockholm. I will try to make up for lost post tomorrow, but no promises because I have a very busy schedule that includes, but is not limited to: host sister's going away party, taking host sister to airport, moving families, touring my school, and starting school.

Hopefully, this won't be my last for very long adjo Gavin.