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!!!

Laptop Saves the day

So today I am supposed to put out another blog post and I wasn't going to have anything to post. That was until my LAPTOP ARRIVED! The best part about it, other than it being super powerful and great, is that my very generous aunt bought it for me. This really helped me out because without her buying it for me I wouldn't have been able to make enough money by working to be able to purchase a laptop and a camera. 

Something I guess is also worth mentioning is that yesterday I went to the dentist for the last time before I left and I went to my last orthodontist appointment today! :)

Adjo

ACT and SAT

If you're going on exchange before you graduate, I would highly recommend taking the SAT and ACT before you leave. This is because the tests are important to getting accepted into colleges. Even if you don't do well on these tests it will give you an idea of how you stand and what you may or may not want to study. Also, if you don't take them before you leave you will have the thought of them looming over your head. This is because if you are a Sophmore, like me, you will be missing you Junior year when you would normally need to take them. This leaves the first testing date for you to take them or one try. You can only take them on the first date available because of the deadlines set by colleges for when your scores need sent in.

Being Lazy is NOT A Virtue

So I haven't posted in a while, and I don't have a good reason. I guess I could make the point that I have been working and tired after I get off, but not really. Now it's time to play catchup. *rolls eyes Ok, first quite a while ago I received another package from my host counselor a.k.a. The best one. In it, I received a beautiful postcard and a map of Taby with different things labeled on it such as my Host Family #2's house, my counselor's house, and my school.

The Post Card

The Map of Taby

Next, my exchange student from Japan, Gaku, left on June 5. The day before my birthday and a Swedish Holiday.

Third, my visa has been complete and is now in the mail. I only made one error on it the first time, and it was that the insurance start date didn't start till after I arrived.

Fourth, I have started working this summer in order to make money for exchange, so most night I come home hot, tired, and dirty.

Fifth (man I really have been a lazy blogger) I have gotten the information on the first extra excursion in Sweden. The trip takes over a four-day span and includes but not limited to hiking, fishing, swimming in a mountain lake (brrrrrr), a sauna (probably to warm up after the cold swim), and camping in a tent one night and a cabin another. The cost of the camp is around 1600 SEK, which sounds like a lot, but converts to around just under $200 USD.

Sixth (am I about done yet?) my second host family, the Malmstroms contacted me. Each of their children has been exchange students which is pretty cool.

Oscar who will be the only one living in the house out of the siblings is currently on exchange to Cambridge in New Zealand (not to be confused with Zeelyn like auto correct likes too), Sara went Texas, and Emma went to Melbourne, Australia.

Finally, I have been informed by an unknown source (Cough* Mike Cough*) that I am supposed to be providing my lovely readers with two blog posts a week at this point, so I will have to find more random stuff to blog about. This probably won't be too hard for a little while considering I probably forgot to put some stuff in this catch-up post, so stayed tuned.