SWEDEN (Friday-Saturday-Sunday)

FRIDAY
We went to a different school today. An elementary school finally! I actually really enjoyed my time there even though the students hadn't learned English yet. They did know some from tv and video games. After school, I did my final shopping in Orebro. We all met back at Ralph's school to discuss leaving in the morning for Stockholm and how things went through the week. I got to go to the musical West Side Story with my 'mom'. I couldn't understand anything, but know the basic storyline. Once that was over, we went home. It was late and I had to get my things packed up, since we were leaving early in the morning.


SATURDAY
We took a bus to Stockholm. I had my first subway ride on the way to the Hostel to put our bags away. We were told to for sure go to the Vasa museum while we were there, so that was the first thing we did. We went downtown, I guess, from there to shop around. Had a pretty lazy night to gear up for the L-O-N-G day of flying home.






















SUNDAY
This was such a long day for me. I knew when I got up that something was off and I was going to be sick. I thought maybe if I got sick that would be the end of it; unfortunately that wasn't the case. I got sick so many times throughout the day and flying didn't help that. We flew out of Stockholm to Paris. There was tons of security to go through at Paris. Many people in our group got frisked and their bags checked. I luckily missed out on all that fun. We had a couple hours to wait before our flight, so I just got out my pillow and blanket and took a nap. From Paris we took a huge, double-decker plane to New York. I watched a couple movies and played games to pass the time. Once we landed in New York, we rushed to get to our gate because we were told we may not make it in time. We made it with almost 30 minutes before our flight left. No one had seats for this flight. We worked really hard to get as many of us home as we could. Sadly, that was only 5 out of our group of 12. I was literally the last one on the flight, and even got bumped to first class! Too bad I was feeling crappy!! We made it back to KCI with a short (hour and a half) delay after boarding. I had already called Dad and Beth to say I made it on the plane so see you soon. The pilot must have taken some good short cuts because we still made it at the original landing time. I was so glad to finally be home, especially after feeling so bad all day.

No rest for me really since we got home around 12 AM and had to be up at 8 for a full day of classes. It was a great trip overall. I can't wait for another chance to go somewhere else!

SWEDEN (Tuesday-Wedensday-Thursday)

TUESDAY
For breakfast, we had the usual (bread & butter, yogurt with berries, HOT tea) but with FRESH orange juice. I don't do any kind of juice so I was nervous about having to drink it. It was surprisingly really, really good! We visited our first of 3 schools then. We went to several classes. In my first class, I learned that nearly every student (roughly around age 13-14 years old) had been out of the country. Orebro is a very well off community is what the teacher told us. Traveling outside the country for them though would be like me traveling to California or New York. School is soo much different there; some for the better and some much worse. Another unfortunate even happens now. I'm quite embarrassed by this!! I went to the toalett, as they call them, (which are not separated by gender) but can't get out of the stall. They are full doors, so no climbing out. I do have my cell phone, but who would I call! I am really scared that I may be stuck in here for quite a while. I have no better choice than to just knock on the door hoping someone will help. Keep in mind they all know English, but speak Swedish of course so I can't understand anything! Finally a boy says in English "are you lost"; I respond "just open the door". He then says "oh you speak English" because he had probably been talking to me in Swedish but I couldn't understand. I kind of chuckle and thank the boy, but walk out quickly totally embarrassed. It is quite funny now, but was a little scary to me then. After school. I went directly to the store and got my card back! We had leisure time to walk around town and shop. Later that afternoon I met with Helga to do an interview. Part of the classwork I had to do was write a paper on someone with a different culture than me. (Apparently my paper was really good because my teacher wants to share it with the chair of the department, the international office person, and others that will take the class!) Then we went to the mall on the outside of town. That was fun! We went with a couple guys from one of the schools, so they were able to tell us what everything said.


WEDNESDAY
We went back to the same school as yesterday. We got to visit different classes from yesterday. It was quite interesting. That afternoon we had a silly meeting at city hall. It was very pointless. Afterwards, we went to IKEA and some other places outside of town by the mall. That was quite an experience. We had to walk on the highway (they drive crazy fast) and jump a huge snow drift to get to a sidewalk. When I got 'home' I had a sweet cake I think she called it (basically like a gingerbread cookie). They were good, although I don't usually like gingerbread. I think it was just a taste of home when things weren't going as good as we expected, I guess.


THURSDAY
Spent the day at Ralph's school. We learned about their special education program. It was very interesting how that works. Ralph showed us the museum in his school.Some are wanting to take it out to use the space, but they are fortunate to have something like that in their school. That night, I went bowling with a couple girls from my group and Helga and a couple of her friends. I bowled a 161!! Pretty sure that is a personal record! That night at 'home' we had some amazing cake type thing. It was the best thing ever! The consistency was like uncooked brownie with powdered sugar on top.

SWEDEN (Saturday-Sunday-Monday)

I meant to have this done WAY before now, but this thing called school got in the way!!

We left on Saturday the 13th and arrived on Sunday, so those 2 days are blurred together. It was my first time flying, but I wasn't too nervous really. I had been warned to chew gum and do all these things to prevent a bad experience.We left from KCI and flew to Minneapolis. Everything had been pleasant up until this point. My group didn't have seats on any of our flights. We go up to the counter and they tell us to wait; they will call our name. The plane starts boarding and we still don't have seats, so I freaked out a little bit, but I made it on with no problem. It was time for the LONG (9 hours) flight. From Minneapolis we flew to Amsterdam. I got to watch movies and listen to music on the cool personal screens, so that helped pass a little time. Once in Amsterdam, we freshen up a bit before the flight to Stockholm. We took a train to Orebro. We arrived in Orebro a little after 10 PM so we all met our families and went 'home'.







MONDAY
Everyone met at Ralph's (he is the guy that coordinated it on their end) school to then head to the university. We learned a lot about their travel abroad opportunities. Toured the beautiful campus (as seen in the picture). We had some time after being there before our evening activity to explore town. This is when I had my first bad experience! I tried to use my debit card at a store but it didn't work, so I used my cash. I apparently didn't get my card back! AHH!! I realize it as we are walking away, but we were headed to get something to eat. I sat down and pull everything out of my bag to double check. Yes, it was gone. By the time I get back to the shop, it was closed. Crap, what was I going to do! We had plans for the next day, so I couldn't go back first thing in the morning. Thankfully, my 'mom' Margareta took care of that for me and I was able to stop by the store the next afternoon to get it back. YAY! Anyways, that night we got to tour the castle. It was awesome! there is so much history in it (not that I payed that close attention because I was too busy taking pictures). We went back to Ralph's school after this to discuss each others plans for Tuesday and the rest of the week. We were even able to use laptops (I was having some withdrawals by this point HAHA--not that I didn't have enough to keep me busy!)