Cubb

Never did get to working on the proposal. Instead, I worked on my Swedish some more and then crashed into bed.

Yesterday and the day before I was in the Archipelago. I took lots of pictures, which I might upload later on when I send out my first “Jen in Sweden” letter. The island we stayed at was beautiful, and it was really neat to get to know a bunch of the group. It seems like we’re already separating into cliques, some of which intersect. There’s those that smoke and those that don’t among the girls. Then there’s the boys that are willing to throw themselves into stuff- they nicknamed themselves the “Band of Brothers.” The rest of the boys are rather reserved.

I learned a game called cubb, which I think might end up being the highlight of my week. What happens is there’s six short blocks on each side of the playing field, and in the middle there’s a King. Two teams line up on either side and take turns trying to knock the blocks down by underhand throwing six batons at the blocks to try and get them to fall over. When you’ve gotten all of your other sides blocks over, you go for the king in the middle. Much like pool, if you knock over the king before the end, you loose. There’s various other rules that make the game more amusing and complicated, but still, that’s the gist of it.

We had a lot of fun playing the game, quite possibly because there was nothing else to do on the island except light a fire when it got dark, go swimming in the freezing cold water, go walking around the island (which was rather small), or play cards. There’s only so much walking around the island you can do, and the water was only for the brave or brazen souls, so the rest of us contented ourselves during the daylight hours with cubb and cards.

I got to know a lot of people, the names of which mostly escape me now, but I figure I have a week to cement the names. I’ve found some girls that are a bit more outgoing, and aren’t smokers, who seem nice and are willing to include me in on things. I find that between getting to know all the people on the trip, and not being able to speak Swedish, I’ve gotten quite a bit quieter in the past days. I’m hoping as my mastery of the language gets better and as I meet and know the people in the group better, I can feel comfortable to be myself. But I’m still in the stage where I’m quiet hesitant and am more content to listen and ask questions than to tell my own stories.

It hasn’t quite hit me yet that I’m in Sweden. Yes, people speak a different language around me, but because I don’t understand it, I tend to tune it out. Well, except for the music. 50% of the music is either in English or another language other than Swedish… and 50% is Swedish. I get quite excited when an English song comes on, because I know at least the chorus to most of them.

I found out that Gabriel, or Gabe (Gah-beh, emphasis on the second syllable) as he likes to be called, sings in a choir. I’m hoping I can join up with a choir here, and sit in the back happily singing and being mostly anonymous. I feel like that would be something consistent I could get involved in, though there are other opportunities that I want to take advantage of also. Apparently there’s a planning committee for the Nobel Prize after party that the college take turns helping plan.

On another note, I did something stupid. I had my rain jacket and sweatshirt with me when I went to the islands, but I forgot to switch them to the other bags when I briefly stopped back at the apartment before going to here. I didn’t notice it last night, but it’s chilly today and I’m regretting not having any coat with me. I don’t even really have a long sleeve shirt.

I’ll finish later. Anita and I are taking a short walk now outside.

First Day in Sweden

So today was my first day in Sweden. Already I’ve learned some important phrases.

Talk- thank you.

God morgon- good morning

God dag- good day

God middag- good afternoon

God afton- good evening

God natt- good night

My host family seems nice. Chill. The apartment is decorated in a very modern, simplistic manner. It feels spacious even though it is rather cramped, still, there are four bedrooms, a bath tub, a shower, two toilets and three sinks. There’s a small kitchen and a dining/sitting room.

I haven’t figured out the money system yet. I exchanged my money, but I still don’t know what to do with it… I figure that will come with time. Right now I’m looking out over the city of Stockholm, and there is a hot air balloon floating over the horizon. I’ll have to get some pictures of the skyline uploaded.

Right now I’m struck by similarities and differences. The plants Anita and Magnus (my home stay mother and father, though I’m not sure if they are married and I’m not brave enough to ask… yet) have in the apartment are similar to the ones in our house, they have a Christmas cactus, a peace lilly, a tree that I often see in people’s houses back home and other cactuses. They drive on the same side of the road, Samuel listens to English-speaking music which is similar to the music we listen to.

However, the roads are paved in a red type of tar- the edges outside of the lines are the normal type of tar. I wonder if it is a type of paint. The subway is much cleaner. Tonight for dinner we had Tai-esque food, similar to the food I’ve seen some of my really liberal families eat. They use tofu. I don’t know if it is because any of them are vegetarian, or just because.

I feel exhausted. I slept for most of my journey, still, I’m several hours short of my normal amount that I sleep. I’m trying to stay up at least until nine, which is 45 minutes from now. I have to get up around seven.

Tomorrow and the next day I’m going to the archipelago to one of the islands and staying there overnight with the program. Then when I come back I turn right around and go visit some family of Magnus. It’ll be interesting… I’ll be surprised if I’m not falling over after that. I’ll have to make up some flashcards to practice while I’m gone. I really really really want to make an effort to learn as much Swedish as possible, especially before classes start. At least then I’ll have some type of grounding to base everything on. Pratice, pratice, do it again… over and over until you get it!

I mean, what else do I have to do with my time?

Oh yeah, work on my proposal. *rolls eyes* Well, I’ll get to that. Right now I need to talk to Magnus about where I’m going to meet him on Friday to go visit his family.