Finally Took Some Pictures...

Today I had nothing to do, so I took a walk around the wooded area not far from Rosenborg. My plan was to go geocaching**, but I waited too long to go and it was getting dark. Instead, I just walked around and took a couple of pictures!

One of the many walking paths in the wood...I cant wait to go back when there is snow on the ground!

Random windmill

So many options! I was afraid I was going to get lost, but I had my geocaching GPS with me. One of the first days I got here, I programed the coordinates for Rosenborg just in case I wanted to go out exploring, I wouldn't get lost!

The place I went walking, had everything! There were a few playgrounds, a petting zoo, a place to rent ice skates, and a putt putt place! During the summer, this place will be neat! It almost made me miss my days working at putt putt.

This is Rosenborg, my house for the next 6 months! If you look really close, you can see a red arrow on the third floor. Thats my room :-)

More pictures will come eventually! I have been waiting for a blue sky, sunny day to go out and take pictures, but I have only seen one of those since I have been here. So, I am about to give up hope, waiting for one of those days.

As most people back home know, I suck at cooking. My cooking skills are practically non-existant. I have been eating a lot of bread, cereal, macaroni and cheese, and something similar to Ramon Noodles since I have been here. So last night, David from Spain and I were watching Americas Funniest Videos and we got to talking about milk shakes and a milk shake sounded so good. We decided it would be a good idea to go to McDonalds and get one. But I was also starving, so I decided to get food too. You all know how anti McDonalds I am, but OMG I have never been that excited for a cheeseburger before! I felt like I was at Texas Roadhouse or something. That's how excited I was. It's pretty bad if I consider McDonalds a good meal. :-P I have been told that I will be getting cooking lessons soon...maybe when I come back home I will be able to cook something other than purple macaroni and cheese and popcorn?

Hope everyone is loving the 12 inches of snow you just got and all of the school cancellations! Have fun!

**Click here for a description of geo caching if you want to learn more about it. It may sound kind of lame, but it really is a lot of fun!

Welcome Dinner and the Weekend

On Thursday, all of the new and old exchange students were invited to a welcome dinner. I guess you could call it a cultural experience. Two host students dressed in their traditional Swedish costumes that they wear during Midsommar festivities. All of the Swedish host students sang and danced to traditional songs as well. It was pretty funny to watch, espicially since we do not have anything like that in the US. Other countries sang traditional songs too, but thankfully the US didn't do anything! Here is a video of one of the songs the Swedes sang. Sorry its kind of dark!

After the welcome dinner, we went to Arena, the dancing place. It was so much fun! They play the most random music, but thats kinda what made it fun. They played everything from katy perry to dolly pardon to abba (of course). On Thursdays, students get in free, so we will probably be going there a lot!

Friday, we had a couple inches of snow, so we went sledding! There is a hill just outside of Rosenborg that is perfect for sledding! Back at Ball State, when we went sledding we used lunch trays. Here, I used a garbage bag and it worked just fine :-) Later in the day we went to Blue Moon for some free food, but we didnt stay very long. We tried to go bowling, but the place we went to was so massive (a whole 5 lanes) and all the lanes were filled, so we played pool for a while. Saturday afternoon we tried to go iceskating on a lake that is not far from here, but the ice was too thin. Maybe another day! I have never skated on a lake, when I go skating I usually hang on to the wall and scoot along. So when we actually do go skating, that could be interesting! Saturday night we went Nöjesfabriken, another dancing place. This place was pretty big. There are three different music rooms: dance/techno, rock, and a room where they played a lot of Swedish music. It also has a bowling alley (with more than five lanes!). It cost ten dollars to get in, and to be honest, it sucked. The music wasnt that great and the place was huge. If I never go back, I would probably be okay with that.

Sunday, I attempted to do my laundry. I have been here for two weeks and have been putting it off for as long as I could, but I finally had to do it last night. I had no clue how to work the washers, so I had my German friend come down and show me what to do. Not gonna lie, I kinda felt stupid asking for help with my laundry! The washers are the smallest things I have ever seen. I filled all three of them with clothes and probably over filled two of them. Once they were done, it was time to dry them. I put most of my clothes in the drying closet. This thing is awesome! I think we need one at home! You hang your clothes in this closet thing and then warm air circulates and dries them. I didnt put all of my clothes in that thing though. I put some in the dryer, left for about half an hour and came back hoping they were dry. Well one of two things happened. 1) the dryer doesnt work or 2) i cant work the dryer. When I came back, my clothes in the dryer were still wet like they just came out of the washer. So I messed with it for like 20 minutes trying to make it work and had no luck. I just gathered all of my wet clothes and brought them up to my room and was planning on putting them on my drying rack in the bathroom. Well when i was trying to set that up, i broke it off the wall. great. I had to rig something up so it would stay on the wall and so i could hang some clothes on it. I hope next time I do laundry, it goes a little smoother!

There are like 7-10 of us planning a trip to Lapland (which is in the arctic circle) I bought my plane tickets to night! I am so excited!! We will be leaving on Feb 25 and coming back March 1. I think that we are planning on doing a dog sled trip one day and possibly a Northern Lights snow mobile trip another night. Should be lots of fun!! Later tonight, I think I am also booking a trip to Tallin, Estonia. A lot of exchange students studying in Sweden go on this trip. You take a boat from Stockholm to Tallin and spend a few hours in Tallin and then ride the boat back. Its like a three day trip that will happen in the beginning of April.

Something I have noticed...a lot of places we go to have a coat check. For example, at Blue Moon we pay 20 SEK for them to hold our coats so we dont have to worry about them. In return they give you a ticket with a number on it. It could be bad if you lose this ticket because then I think you have to wait for everyone to leave before you can get your coat. They have this system at the dance places as well as the bowling alley/pool place. I thought it was so weird to have it there. Could you just imagine having that at Coopers?! Maybe this is normal for some people, but I have never done this before coming to Sweden!

10 Day Mark

Hej everyone! Sorry I haven't written sooner, the past few days have been pretty busy! I can't believe I have been here over a week now! It seems like forever since I left home, but my first week here went by so fast. Here is a little recap of the last 5 days! This past weekend was supposed to be a weekend of fun, but it didnt turn out so great. On friday, everyone went to Blue Moon. It cost 20 SEK ($2.50) to get in. There was a free snack buffet with the most random food on it. Before we went, we were told it was taco night. So my friend Sarah and I were expecting tacos. Apparently "taco night" has different meanings though! There was chips and salsa, which is what I ate. There was also some kind of meat, bread that tasted like black licerice, different kinds of salads like fruit salad and pasta salad (i think??). There was a band that played as well. They played all kinds of music from bon jovi to bob marley to pink floyd. They were funny! Blue Moon was a fun place to hang out and it was cheap entertainment! We will probably go back there again. On Saturday, all the internationals in Rosenborg got together for a lunch. There were maybe 15 of us. We had a pitch in and everyone brought something. I made cinnamon rice btw! We had soo much food! During the lunch, though, I started not feeling very well. So I came back when we were done eating and realized I looked pretty scary! My eyes were swollen and my bottom lip looked like someone hit me and I had a wicked headache. I took some benadryl, layed down for a nap, and hoped that I would feel better later. All of the exchange students had free tickets to get into Arena later that night, which is like a dance club place. After a few hours of sleeping I got up and tried to get ready, thinking if I moved around a little I would feel better. But when I was straightening my hair, my adaptor for my straightner started smoking!! It smelled so bad and I thought it was going to catch on fire! I freaked out and left the bathroom, but realized I had to go back in and unplug everything. All the while I started feeling worse. So it turned out that I had to miss a fun night and I slept instead!

On Monday we were interviewed for a newspaper. There were three American students and also three Americans who have now lived in Sweden for more than 20 and 30 years. We were asked about how we felt about Obama, what changes he will bring, and so on. It was actually a lot of fun! Here is a link to the article: http://nwt.se/karlstad/article452952.ece. Its obviously in Swedish, and I have really no idea what it says! But I am quoted in the last section of the article saying that our healthcare system needs fixed because it is crap! Other than that, I am not sure what it says! And speaking of Obama...yesturday I was able to watch the inauguration! There are three North Americans in my building (Sarah from Canada, Joel from Kansas, and me) So we all watched it together along with a girl from Germany. The station we were watching, actually sent reporters to cover the event, so when people werent giving speaches, we listened to the Swedish reporters talk about who knows what! I was really surprised that they sent people over. I thought that they may buy like CNNs coverage and play it, but it was pretty neat they covered it themselves.

Class started yesturday! Right now I just have one class (Swedish 1) and it meets on tuesdays and thursdays from 830-10. The class seems like it will be a fun class. Yesturday we learned some simple questions and phrases. The pronounciation will be the hardest part of the class I think! At the beginning of February I will be starting another class called Intercultural Communications. That class also meets on tuesdays and thursdays. It looks like I will be having a four day weekend every week! Ahh thats a lot of free time, maybe I will pick up a new hobby while I am here?

I finally have a clean kitchen!!! Last night a Swedish and a German girl and I cleaned the disgusting kitchen. It looks so nice now, but it was so gross cleaning out the refridgerators and dirty dishes. There was milk that has been expired since October and other food that expired in 2007! Now, you can probably imagine how our kitchen smelled :-(

Before And After

Before And After

Everyone who lives in Rosenborg seems to have a lot of spare time. It always seems that you can go into a kitchen and there will always be someone to talk to. The past two nights, we have met in the second floor kitchen and just talked for hours. Last night I didnt get to bed until after 230. One of my spanish friends was here last semester and he was trying to tell us new students about the experience we are going to have. He says that the life we live here, isnt real. Never again will we get to experience something like this. We are surrounded by the people we live with 24/7 and the people start to become your family. We are here for such a short period of time, but the bonds we make are so strong. And when we try to go back home and tell everyone about what we have experienced, no on will understand like we want them to. Just the people who we experienced it with will understand. So, in six months, when it is time for all of us to go home, I will let you know if this is how it really is!

It has been snowing here! yay! we probably got about 4 inches of snow, but now most of it is melting. There is a little day care place right beside Rosenborg and for the past three days all of the kids have been sledding on this hill just outside of my window. One day they were all wearing helmets! Everytime I came in and out of my building they would say Hej! (which sounds like hey in english). They are so cute!

Oh I almost forgot the "something I have noticed" part. I think I will have this section in all of my posts. A section dedicated to things that I notice in Sweden, that are different that back home. People in Sweden always take off their shoes when they go in someone's house. Yeah, some people do that in the States, but not nearly as often as they do here. I almost think everyone does this! One day Ida, my host student, came into my room. I just walked right in with my shoes on. She looked at me kind of confused.

Ida: Are you not taking your shoes off?!

Me: Um no.

Ida: oo ok, well i wont either!

A few days passed and I seen Ida again. Ida: I have been wondering this a lot! So do you just have all of your shoes lined by your bed? When you wake up in the morning you put your shoes on and are ready for the day.

Me: haha no! I leave my shoes at the door. It just makes more sense. (and it really does. my floors wont get as dirty fast haha)

Ida: o thats good. im glad you realize this and it only took you 20 years to learn! haha

FYI: Here is my address in Sweden.

Brittanie Middleton

Oldevigsgatan 1/67

652 30 Karlstad

Sweden

Pea Soup and Pancake Thursday

Yesturday for lunch, this is what I ate: pea soup and pancakes. Supposedly it is Swedish tradition that on Thursdays most restaurants serve this meal. Although it is a really weird combination, it was surprisingly good! Yesturday was also our last day of orientation! One of the lectures we had to listen to was about cheating and plagiarism. It was over an hour long, listening about what happens to you when you cheat, how to properly cite other peoples work, etc. I felt like I was in english class or something!

Here is a video of my room! Its kind of dark and I dont know how to make it look the normal way, instead of sideways, but I guess you can bend your head a little to watch! So in my bathroom, you might see that I have a shower and a toilet, but there is nothing that separates them. I have a drain on my floor, so the water goes there and the shower curtain stops most of it from making my bathroom too messy.

And here is my o so wonderful kitchen! Notice the dirty dishes on the left counter and the empty cartons and cans on the right. By the table you can bags of garbage. But the garbage is all sorted so I havent thrown it away, because I don't really know where sorted garbage goes! Other than the kitchen needing to be cleaned, its a nice room! The microwave was confusing to work at first. It has two knobs, one for temperature (i think?) and the other for how long you want something to cook. Then there is a buttton on the wall that you have to push to make it work, which took me a couple of minutes to figure out.

I have noticed that the Swedes try to be very efficient. In many places (banks, electronic stores, some offices, ect) they have this system where you take a number and have to wait for it to come up on the screen and then it is your turn. Yesturday, my host student, canadian friend, and I went to the accomodation office. There was only one other person in the office and they were talking to the accomodation lady. We had to pull a number though, we couldnt just stand in line.

There are 6 American students here this semester and we got an email from a news paper reporter saying she wants to meet with us on Monday. She wants to interview us about Obama being inaugurated! That should be fun :-) Maybe, I will be in a Swedish newspaper? haha

Jag är i Sverige!

I made it to Sweden! The last few days have been really busy, so its hard to know where to even begin! So I am going to just break down the past couple of days into sections.
Trip to Sweden
My flights over were pretty uneventful which is just fine with me. I lucked out because on 2 of my 3 flights no one sat with me so i had the seats to myself. I flew from Indianapolis to Philly to Manchester England to Oslo and then took a 3 hour bus trip to Karlstad. FYI: the manchester airport is by far the most dirty and creepy airport I have ever been to. I was trying to find the bathroom at one point. I got directions and had to go down a narrow stair well to the bathroom. No one was around and it was kind of dimly lit. I felt like I was in a scary movie! I opened the bathroom, but there werent any lights on and I couldnt find the switch, o but of course when i looked down, the switch was level to my knees. Ah such a logical place for a light switch!
Host Students
Karlstad University has a program set up so international students get host students to help them them get settled in. In my group we have two Swedish girls (Anna Stina and Ida) who are hosts to me, Sarah from Canada, and Kathrin from Germany. They are so nice and have been so so helpful! They met us Sunday night at Rosenborg (our corridor) after we arrived and helped get our luggage up to our rooms and to make sure we have everything we need in our kitchen (like plates and glasses, which we have 0 of btw, but that should be changing). On Monday, they showed us around town, helped us get bus passes, and they are letting us use their old cell phones so we don't have to buy one while we are here! That was a nice surprise :-) If I didn't have them, I would be completely lost and confused! So to Anna Stina and Ida: Tack saa mycket! You girls are great!
Rosenborg
I live in a building named Rosenborg. My room is actually quite nice. I have a bed, 2 desks, 2 chairs, and cabinets/shelves plus my own bathroom and shower. There are two kitchens on my floor and less than 20 people. The kitchen I have to use is disgusting. But after talking to other international students, most everyone else has a gross kitchen no matter what place they are staying in. I dont understand how mine is so dirty though. I havent seen anyone in my kitchen. The only way it can be this way is if the students from last semester just left all of their garbage and dirty dishes with cleaning it up. In my kitchen there is also a dinner table and a living room type of deal. There is a couch and a tv (which btw plays american shows. i have been watching the hills from like 4 seasons ago and Americas funniest videos). My building is three floors. I live on the third floor. On the ground floor there is a ping pong room, a laundry room (i think it may have been the first laundry room ever built from the looks of it) i have no idea how to work the washers/dryers and all the directions are in swedish. Should be interesting! In the laundry room there is also this drying closet thing. Apparently, you hang your clothes in this thing and it dries them? im not really sure. We also have a sauna. I havent looked at it yet though. Rosenborg is kind of like Laffollotte (one of the really old dorms at BSU). Its really old and kind of ran down. I think after we leave they are tearing Roseborg down this summer.
Karlstad University
The university is about a 25 mintute bus ride from where I live, but the ride is not bad at all. We have had orientation the last couple of days. Tuesday was a very long day listening to lecture after lecture of information about the school. We also went on a little tour of the school (and btw, their tours are not like BSU. The didnt walk backwords and talk at the same time.) The different buildings do not have names like Braken Library or Cooper Science. Instead they are numbered: hus 1, hus 2, etc. The university has a very modern look to it. I heard that in one building there is a classroom that is shaped like a big egg. You can see the Egg shape from outside of the classroom, but once inside it is just like a normal classroom. I will take pics of it soon so you can see. The way they schedule classes is different too. For example, right now I have no clue what time/date/or building my classes will be in. And i just found out today that one of my classes has been cancelled so I have figure out what I want to replace that class with.
Karlstad - The City
Karlstad is a neat little city. I can walk to the city center in about 20 minutes or take the bus and be there in like five or ten minutes. The city center is called Stora Torget. There are lots of shops and banks and those sorts of things around it. Today, we had tours of the city and also played a scavenger hunt type game. Basically it was for us to go out on our own and try to figure out where things are. Most of the sidewalks and walking areas are brick and have a cobblestone look to them! The city is surrounded by water and the houses are very cute. They look like old wooden farm houses, but are painted and look new and nice. Something that will take getting used to, is crossing the road. It's not becuase they drive on the opposite of the street (which they dont, they drive like we do). Here people have the right a way to walk at all corners or where there is the white lined walk way. They just walk out in the road and the cars stop for them! It is hard for me to do that. I sometimes catch myself stopping and waiting until there are no cars until I cross the street. Heck if you walked out like that in the US, you would get ran over!
The People
There are lots of exchange students from Germany, The Netherlands, Finland, and about 6 from the US. The past few days I have met soo many people and heard many names that I cant even say, let alone remember. Its funny when I meet people and they ask for my name. I say Brittanie, and they are like oo ok like Britney Spears. I have heard that quite a few times now. And when they ask what state I am from, I of course say Indiana knowing that most people probably have no idea where that is. But there have been two people who say they have a "connection" to Indiana. One girl's mom was an exchange student in Indiana when she was young and another girl had an aunt who lived in Indianapolis. Last night, all the exchange students went to a place called The Bunker in english. It is a place for students, ran by students and I guess a lot of people call it their second living room. It was a pretty neat place, kind of felt like a house. There were lots of couches for everyone to sit. Getting to the Bunker was a problem though. Sarah (from Canada) and I left Rosenborg and took a 25 minute bus ride and from there we were lost for about 35 minutes until we finally found it.

Sorry this was so long and probably pretty boring. I havent taken any pictures yet, but for the next post, I promise there will be some! I should probably get to bed now. I am still jet lagged. I fall asleep for like 2 hours and then I am awake for 4 hours and then try to fall back asleep :( Another thing that is difficult to adjust to is the darkness. It gets dark about 330 or 4. It makes me so tired! O and the weather here is about like home. Well I guess not so much now that you guys have snow! I left home and then it snows and I come to Sweden right after theirs melted! I hope everyone at BSU is have a great first week of school! :-)