Getting back to Routine

As much as it was fun to have a week off and sightseeing around Sweden with my mom and my grandmas, it is nice to get back to routine (as much as I have one). I realized that last week with my mom and grandmas being here, I lost track of days, and as a result totally forgot about choir on Thursday. *ashamed look* So I'm going to have to make my apologies for that tomorrow. My laundry is also in a state, and I'm afraid I'm going to have to have another bout with the downstairs washers to see if I can improve on my last attempt. (Wrinkled clothes, here I come...)

But for the most part things have returned to normal, and I'm happy to be spending time with my host family again, and working on my studies, and preparing for the two tests I have this week (both of them essay ones, and both of them really glorified papers)

Magnus has asked me to come talk to his class next week on Thursday, and I'm quite excited, even if I have no clue what I'm going to say to them. He tells me that he wants me to go in with something to say as a starting point, and then they'll have questions to ask me. If any of you have ideas on what I should say, leave a note in the comments. I mean, how do you possibly represent the culture you've grown up with? Especially when I don't consider myself very typical, for good or ill. (mostly good, I'd think though).

I'm thinking my presentation will go something like this:
Hello, my name is Jennifer Crowley and I live in New York State. This is different from New York City. Yes, NYS and NYC are different things. I live near Albany, which is the capital of NYS. Why is Albany the capital yet not named after the state? Because having our capital in that Economic bustle would not be a good thing. On a good day I just am amazed that NYC even functions with all the people they have packed into it. Interesting fact: Albany, NY is one of three in the country. The other two are in Albany, Georgia (where they say the name the wrong way) and Albany, Oregon (where I don't know how they say it, because who goes there anyway?)

But seriously, what do you say when you're representing a country to Highschoolers? I'm afraid I'll have trouble just keeping their attention. The only thing I know for sure is I'm going to wear my American flag socks. And a white shirt. And bluejeans. And a red ribbon in my hair. Looking patriotic I can at least handle.

And that is an interesting thing. Americans wear their flag on their clotes all the time. The only time I've seen the Swedish flag being worn is on tourist clothing. I asked Magnus about it, and he says that you're normally seen as a nationalist if you wear the Swedish flag. And he said nationalist as if it was a bad thing, the same way as some of us say the word racist. Interesting. I must ask more about this.