Hej då Sverige!

Well, this is it! I am leaving Sweden tomorrow morning. I cannot believe that my time here is already over. I still don't think it has actually hit me yet, maybe its better that way. For any one thinking about studying abroad, DO IT! This has been one of the best experiences of my life. I was able to meet so many great people and see/do so many things that I would have never been able to do if I didn't study abroad. I just cant believe how fast my time went. I remember the weeks leading up to when I left the states..I was an emotional wreck. I seriously thought I was making a really bad decision to study abroad. Yeah, I knew it would be a great experience and that I would regret it if I didn't do it, but I wasnt sure I was strong engough to do it. Afterall, I was the kid who couldnt even spend the night with my friends because I got home sick! How on earth was I going to manage being away for 5-6 months?! I remember the day I left the states, the drive to the airport was extremely terrible. I was with my family and best friends and I never wanted the ride to end. I didnt want to get to the airport because then I would have to say goodbye to them...However, all of the anxiety and nervous feelings I felt, totally werent worth it. I got to Karlstad and was instantly surrounded by a new family: my rosenborg family. I was placed in a house full of international students. One of the first nights in Karlstad, I was talking with a mix of exchange students from last semester and some from the new semester. The old exchange students said that living in Rosenborg is something special. We live with each other 24/7. We are only here for a short time but the bonds we make are so strong. Your friends become your family. Little did I know, but that is exactly what happened. To my rosenborg family: Thanks for everything. You guys were a HUGE part of my study abroad experience. If it werent for you, Im not sure what kind of experience I would have had. We had so many great times that none of us will forget. You guys are great! Thanks for the memories, thanks for the laughs, and most importantly thanks for being great friends! :-)

With that being said, this will be my last post. I will finish it like I started. My first post was written exactly two weeks before I came to Sweden and this post marks 2 weeks until I go home. Thanks to those who have been reading my blog! I have really enjoyed writing it and I hope you got a little taste of what I was able to experience. UNFORGETTABLE!

Ancient History and the Traveling Pants

My second night in Sweden, my Canadian friend Sarah and I were talking about how we both really wanted to go to Greece. Finally 5 months later, it happened. We spent a week in Greece: 3 days in Athens and 3 days in Santorini. It was amazing :-)

We left Karlstad in the middle of the night to take a bus to Stockholm. From there we flew to Budapest Hungary and then finally onto Athens. Lots of traveling, but it was worth it! We saw all of the sights that we wanted to see while we were there. Obviously we stopped at Acropolis and the Parthenon (the picture at the top). It was crazy to see buildings and temples that I have only read about. I remember in 7th grade art class we had to draw the Parthenon and to finally see it in real life was unbelievable! It was fairly large and so impressive to think about how people in the 5th century BC were able build something like that.

The Temple of Olympian Zeus. This picture was taken from the Acropolis. In the 6th century BC construction started on this temple and was finished some 650 years later!

Panathinaiko Stadium. The place where the first Summer Olympic games took place in 1896 and used again for a couple of events in the 2004 games. It is completely built of white marble. Sadly we werent allowed to go in the stadium :-(

From Athens to we took an 8 hours ferry ride to Santorini. The ferry ride wasnt the best. Apparently when you buy economy class tickets on the ferry that means you get to sit at a cafeteria table (think Mcdonalds or Taco Bell) for 8 hours. Not so comfortable. The first half of the ferry ride we were surrounded my old greek people who were extremely loud. We got a bit tired of that so we went to try some new seats. We ended up finding much nicer seats to sit in for the rest of the time on the boat. I dont think we were allowed to sit there though!

Santorini was beautiful! My favorite movie is the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants; ever since seeing those movies I have wanted to go see the island! The first day we were there we took a boat ride that lasted the whole day. We made several stops. We climbed on a volcano, stopped at Thirassia (an island of 300 inhabitants) and some people swam in a hot spring.Behind the cruise ship is the volcano that we climbed on.

Another day we went to the towns of Fira and Oia. Fira is the capital of Sanorini. The picture above is Oia at sunset.

This is the town were the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie was shot (this is the house from the movie). Oia was such a cute place! Lots of white houses and orthodox churches with accents of blue. We stayed in Oia to watch the sunset and disappear behind the other isalnds. AMAZING!

To see more pictures from our trip, click here!

Like I said, we got to see and do a lot on our trip! It was definitely quite the adventure trying to navigate around Athens and Santorini. We never got completely lost, just did a lot of back tracking. When we left the port of Athens and tried to get to the airport it was crazy. There was a sea of taxi drivers at the port and down the street. Every five feet we took we were asked if we wanted a taxi. Of course we didnt. Long story short, after we found out we couldnt take the metro to where we needed to go we had to wait for a bus. While waiting, a taxi driver pulled up and told us we were in the wrong spot for the bus. We were so confused of what he was saying. Finally he pulled away. I guess he was trying to get the attention of the bus driver (of the bus we should have been on). Then he put it in reverse and came back down the road and started yelling at us. "The bus! The bus! I tried to get its attention. Come! Come! Get in! I take you to the bus!" [sarah and i completely confused at this point. not wanting to get in the crazy taxi drivers car] "Come! I take you to the bus! No pay! No Pay! Get in! I take you to next stop." Still confused we get in the cab. He takes off like a maniac, chasing the bus. Weaving in and out of traffic. Then into the opposite lane of traffic trying to get to the bus. Finally we get close to the bus (as we are still driving down the road) the taxi driver starts yelling in Greek at the bus driver. In the middle of the road and traffic, the bus and our taxi stops. The taxi driver yells "Go! Go! Go! get the bus!!! he stopped!" Thankfully we made it to the bus, but it was a crazy adventure!

Now I am back in Karlstad and only have a few days left. I am leaving for good in four days (Wednesday). I dont think it has really hit me yet that I will be leaving and not coming back. I need to start packing soon, but that will be a mess of its own. I have NO clue how I am going to pack all of my stuff back up into 2 suitcases!

Vättern Runt

Last weekend, about 30 people, mostly exchange students but also a few swedes, went on a 3 day lake adventure around Sweden's second largest lake: Lake Vättern. I actually was not planning on going on this trip, however the night before they were leaving, I got a phone call from a girl asking if I wanted to take her spot. I am sooo glad she called and that I was able to go! It was the perfect "Let's see Sweden" trip. There were 4 8 passenger vans that were driven. We drove two hours to get to the lake and we got to see so much! The host students planned the trip, so all we had to do was sit back and enjoy. No worrying about how to get from point to point because we were chaufered around! They would drive us to a place we should see, let us explore for a bit, and then repeat! In the end, we saw many different castle ruins, churches, explored several towns, watched candy be made, went canoeing, hiking, barbequed, ect. It was a great time getting to explore a new part of sweden with great friends! We got to do a lot! Click here if you want to see pictures from my trip :-)

So, as I am typing this post, I should actually be studying. However, that isn't going so well (obviously!). The weather has been amazing!!! and that makes it even harder to concentrate on what I should be doing. I have my last exam, Swedish, on Wednesday and then I am done with classes at Karlstads Universitet! Crazy how fast it went!

Also, a note on when I will be coming home...I was originally planning on coming home July 31, but unfortunately some plans fell through and some visitors aren't going to be able to make it to Sweden. There is no point in me staying that long if they aren't coming and especially since most of my Rosenborg family is moving out at the end of June. No worries though, I still have a couple of trips planned. As of now, and as long as everything goes ok with the airline, I should be coming home July 7. (I have already ran into problems with them once. I was wanting to come home June 23, but they were going to make me pay an extra $900. um, no thanks!) So, after Wednesday I am done with classes, so I will just be able to hang out and enjoy a Swedish summer. I will also be heading to Greece June 12-19. My Canadian friend Sarah and I will be going to Athens and to Satorini. Once we get back, friends start leaving to go home :-( At that point I will also be leaving Sweden and heading to Norway once more before I leave.

Norway!

A few days ago I got back from a wonderful week in Norway. It is probably one of my favorite places ever! This trip I stayed in Stavanger for a few days with Eliann. We were able to go to Preikestolen one day. It was absolutely amazing! Preikestolen is a massive cliff that stands 604 meters high above the fjord that is down below. In order to get to the top, you have to climb (and climb and climb). Supposedly it is supposed to take two hours to get to the top and two hours to get back down, but I am pretty sure it didnt take us that long. The climb to the top was a bit difficult for me, but completely worth it! The water running down the mountain was so clean that we were able to drink it as it flowed down the rocks and from the streams. The water was very cold and very fresh! When we got to the top, we took a break and just took in all that we were seeing. We also had lunch on top of Preikestolen. Eliann brought a disposable grill with us and we cooked hot dogs and relaxed.

Lunch time: Eliann, Corey, and his friend Joe. If you want to see more pictures of our trip to Preikestolen click here!

After a few days in Stavanger, Eliann and I went to her home town which lies in Karmøy, a small island connected to the main land. It was so nice to be able to see all of her family again!! They are great people who are soo welcoming! They feel like my own family, so it was good to have a sense of family again since I haven't seen mine since January.

While we were in Karmøy, the Norwegians celebrated May 17th, which is their national day. It is a very traditional day. Norwegian flags are able to be seen EVERYWHERE and many people where their national costumes (or bunad as they call it).

Eliann and her nephew Edvin on May 17th
Judith (Eliann's sister) and her son Morgan

The schools usually have some activity going on to entertain people and they also serve lunch along with lots of cake :-) After we had lunch and visited with some people we went to watch a parade. It was a fun day to be able to experience! To see more pictures from May 17th and other pictures from my time in Norway, click here!

There's More Than Corn in...Karlstad?

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I was just waiting for something good to write about. Although this post may not fall under the "something good" category, I just had to share this with you! A while back, my Uncle Paul sent me a package. Inside was some food, pictures, and hat. A hat?? Yep, that was my reaction when I was reading the outside of the package. The hat ended up being a joke. It's actually a corn hat. It is a huge foam hat that looks like an ear of corn. The pictures that he sent, was everyone from my family posing and wearing that hat. Probably the funniest package I have ever recieved!

So, a couple of us took the corn hat around Karlstad and had a lot of fun putting it on random statues and such! If you want to check out all of the pictures we took, just click here!

Other than the corn hat, the past week has been pretty great! Corey and his friend came to Karlstad on Friday. (for those who don't know, Corey is a friend from home. He was studying in Kenya and now is traveling around Europe). We have had a lot of fun hanging out the past couple of days! We have been catching up on lost time and reminiscing about past times growing up together and our friends that we miss dearly! I took them on a tour of the big city of Karlstad, took corn hat pictures, biked to the university, and just hung out!

As I am typing up this blog, I sit in Eliann's living room in Norway! Corey, his friend, and I got here yesturday. They will leave Friday, but I am staying until next tuesday/wednesday. It's great to be back in Norway and get to see Eliann and her family! I am also here for May 17 - Norway's national holiday. In about a week or so, I will have an update about whats going on in Norway!

Färjestad Hockey Celebration

So this post is about a week late, but I am just getting the video that I wanted to show you all! Last week, Karlstad's hockey team, FBK, won the Swedish championship! Last Thursday there was a celebration in the town square for the hockey team. There were so many people there! It was a fun atmosphere; there was swedish hockey songs being sang, and of course none of us exchange students knew the words, so we were just making our own words up as we went! Here is a video that my French friend made, she did a really good job! You can kind of get the effect of what was going on :-) [warning: I apologize for my awkwardness in this video in advance. However, this is my life, full of awkwardness, now its just caught on tape.]

Easter was pretty uneventful. There were a few exchange students that had family or friends visiting, or they were out traveling around...The weather has been amazing!!!!! I cant believe I am actually saying that Sweden has had good weather, but its true! High 50s with blue sky and sun! However, there seems to be some kind of sickness (head cold maybe?) floating around Rosenborg, so sadly, I couldn't enjoy the outdoors like I would have liked to :(

Cruise to Tallinn

From Sunday until Tuesday, I went on a student cruise to Tallinn, Estonia. It was craziness! Think about 1500 college students being together on a boat. This is only waiting for chaos! It definitely was not my type of thing, but it was soooo much fun people watching! As I am typing, I am still laughing at the craziness...

Here is how the 3 day schedule looked:

Sunday:

11:30am: leave university by bus

5:45pm: leave port in Stockholm
Monday:

10 am: arrive to Tallinn

5:45pm: leave Tallinn

Tuesday:

10 am: arrive in Stockholm, take bus back to Karlstad

The few hours that we were able to spend in tallinn, were nice. Although the waeather was cold and grey, the city was really neat! It was very "European" with the cobblestone roads and ancient buildings. Not gonna lie, I felt a bit like I was in a Disney World village or something like that. It didn't seem real, the things that I was seeing. With the cobblestone roads, the buildings with so much history to them, a fort like wall running through part of the city, it was very intersting! Below are some pictures of the city.
I love the castle like look, with the fortress wall to the right

There were several of the little carts with wooden wheels around. Behind it, to the right, was either a bunch of people selling flowers or gloves (there was two different areas like this)

Cobblestone and narrow streets everywhere!

Ok, so this wasn't much of a post, but at least you can see a little bit of Tallinn! A new post should be up within the next couple of days. Karlstads Hockey team, FBK, won the the Swedish championship last night. Today there was a big celebration in the town square. Pictures and videos of that will be up soon!