Den Sista Tolv Dagar i Sverige!

Hello All!

I am writing to you from my home in Canada, how weird is that? I began my journey home last Friday. I had to take a taxi from Åre in Sweden to the airport in Trondheim, Norway bright and early Friday morning as my host mom hit a moose the day before and totalled the vehicle. I will say, taking a taxi all alone leaving from exchange was kind of hard, I cried the whole two hours and I felt really awkward but its whatever, nothing you can really do. After I struggled with checking in all my bags, and talking my way out of a $450 overweight/extra luggage fee (how good am I?) I took my first flight to Amsterdam. Once in Amsterdam, I had 4 hours to kill. I went and ate, and then randomly ran into one of my exchange student friends who is Canadian but was living in Stockholm this year, MacKenzie. We had no idea that we would both be in Amsterdam on the same day so that was a complete coincidence, but kind of nice to talk to someone who is dealing with the exact same thing you are.

MacKenzie and I in Amsterdam!

Last selfie in Sweden..

I then flew from Amsterdam to Toronto where I had barely any time and I went to the wrong terminal, got stuck in massive elevator lines, and it took a long time to get my bags and go through customs, so by the time I finally got to the right terminal where I had to re check my bags in again, my flight was already boarding and I hadn’t even made it to security. So the nice girl at the counter was so worried for me she got me an escort right to the front of security and again I escaped the luggage fees. You are only supposed to have one checked bag of 23 kg and I had one bag that was 40 kg and my second bag was 33 kg, I think I did pretty well there ;). I arrived to Thunder-Bay at 12:00 am local time and was greeted at the airport by my parents, it was definitely one of those moments that words can’t really describe. It really hadn’t felt like a whole year since I said goodbye to them there.

We stayed at a hotel that night since it was so late, and then drove four hours home the next day. But before I talk about what it is like being home again, I want to share a little bit about my last 12 days in Sweden, so from after my birthday until I left. The day after my birthday and for another two days after I just basically died at home. Recovering from eurotour was tough, and I was sick on top of that too. The most sleep I had received in the whole month prior was 4 hours in one night. I spent a few days in Åre, picked up some last minute souvenirs to take home, and did a little wandering.

Then my lovely Moa and first host family came home from their 3 week vacation on Gotland! I had missed her so much, because I never got a chance to see her before I left for eurotour. On Sunday (two weeks ago now) I went with her to see her horse, and then we went to her little cousins first birthday party.I had met a lot of her family already, but it was nice to meet a few more new faces!

It was a really nice afternoon in the sun because apparently Sweden is having the warmest summer in over 100 years or something crazy like that. In the Norrland region of Sweden where I was living it was apparently the warmest location in all of Europe, really crazy. That evening we went out to a place called Fäviken where Moa and their medieval team were practice riding their horses for an upcoming medieval tournament. We ordered pizza and had a picnic in the middle of a field with a gorgeous view of the mountains in the setting sun, seriously nothing better.

On Monday I went in to Moa’s house and we just chilled there for a little while. We then had an idea to go buy some food “fika” and go to the beach. We spent a few hours there, and the water was so so warm, never thought I would say swimming in Swedish lakes was warm and fun because the first time I did it, it was so cold like maybe only +8 in the water.

On Tuesday I basically should have received the best host sister award because I woke up at 5 am, so I could catch the train at 6:20 am after walking 3 kilometers to the train station so that I could go to Östersund with Moa as she had an appointment. After her appointment we went and had fika, one of my last in Sweden which was super sad 😦 and then we did a little shopping before I went home.

I took a nap and then went back to Moa where we took her horse for an evening swim. It was so much fun until the horse stepped right on top of my bare foot.. yep it’s STILL sore and really ugly coloured but oh well.

On Wednesday my friend Ellen came over and we just caught up on life and talked for a really long time. She has been going to school and working in Östersund all year so we never really got to see each other a lot. After talking practically all afternoon we decided to drive to Åre and get some ice cream at a little cafe called Grädda. We sat outside in the +30 heat and our ice cream was literally melting the second we stepped out of the door. But sitting outside, eating ice cream, with the view of the mountains was absolutely amazing. Ellen drove me home around 5, and then I had dinner at home, packed a little more and then Markus came over for a little visit and to say goodbye. Markus was one of my first friends in Sweden, so it was kind of tough to say goodbye to him, but I hope some day we will meet again!

THURSDAY! Thursday was my last day in Sweden, so I really was under pressure to finish my packing in the morning, and then in the afternoon I went over to my first host family’s home. We chilled out on the deck in the sun, and we all went to a place called Tossön for dinner with the rest of all the medieval horse riders and some special riders who had come all the way from the Ukraine. They could not speak any English at all so it was hard to communicate with them individually but they had a translator for the group. The dinner was smoked moose meat, potato salad, and vegetables with a delicious strawberry cake (jordgubbstårta) for dessert, so Swedish. We then took an evening swim, and I was forced to say goodbye. First was my little host sister Alma, and she told me she would call the police on me if I left Sweden, how sweet is she. That goodbye was not easy, Alma really is my little sister, and I love her to pieces. I know that it wont be long until I see her again! Next was my first host mom Maria, this goodbye sucked. I lived with her for the first 7 months of my exchange, and became really close to her, there were many tears by this point, she was hugging me and Moa and told me she loves me as her own daughter. Moa and Mikael drove me home and along the way we picked up Kajsa. They stayed with me for about an hour, and then I had to say goodbye to the three of them. Saying goodbye to Moa was the absolute worst thing I had to do that day, she is my sister from another mister and I have spent so much time and created so many memories with her in the year that I was in Sweden. We have already planned for me to go back and for her to come here in Canada! I miss everyone SO SO much already. And as I told you already Friday morning I was airport bound really early after a quick breakfast and saying goodbye to my third host family.

I also took quite a lot of beautiful sunset pictures in my last few days in Sweden, I would just like to share a few so you can see how spectacular it is.

What can I say? Swedish sunsets never disappoint. I guess I can tell you a little about after exchange life and what I have been up to since I got home. I came home to a surprise from two of my best friends Nora and Brooke, and then I went and surprised all of my other friends at a party they weren’t expecting me to go to. I have been catching up with a lot of friends and going for coffee, some long weekend camping and fun stuff.  Then I started working again, I work like every day it feels like but the money will be nice when I go back to Sweden. Speaking of Sweden, I miss it SO MUCH. I feel like no one here understands, and they all think I am crazy for wanting to go back. I am literally living in two completely different worlds now. But honestly, Sweden feels more like home now than Canada (sorry, eh.) I miss the people, the food, the language, I miss hearing and speaking that beautiful language every single day. Do you know how boring English seems now? I miss my friends, and my families more than I ever missed anyone back in Canada while I was away, because I knew I would see all of them again and that it would only be one year, I have no idea when or if I will see everyone back in Sweden but I hope it is soon! I miss the lifestyle, the mountains, absolutely everything that we sometimes take for granted. But I think you get the point, because I could go on for ever and ever. Sweden is where I belong, and I will be back.

Until then,

xx Jessie

18 Årsdagen!

Jag lovade mig själv att jag skulle skriva ett inlägg på svenska innan jag lämnade Sverige, så nu kör vi! För typ en vecka sen fyllde jag år! Nu är jag 18 års, och inte en lilla tjej längre, även om Albin fortfarande säger att jag är. Eurotour slutade i Malmö den 12 juli, så jag sovade på hotellet natten innan min födelsedag. Jag firade den natten med alla mina utbytesstudent vänner.Bästa minnet var när jag hoppade på hotellsängen medan de alla sjöng för mig! På min faktiska födelsedag, jag var tvungen att göra det svåraste någonsin. Jag var tvungen att säga hej då till 66 av mina bästa vänner från hela världen. Många kommer att åka hem, eller har redan åkt hem till sina hemländer, och några har fortfarande ett halvår kvar i Sverige. Vi är en familj, och säger hej då till varje person som var så svårt. Jag kommer aldrig att glömma någon och jag kan inte vänta med att besöka dem över hela världen.

I promised myself that I would write at least one blog post in Swedish before I left Sweden, so here we go! A little more than one week ago, I celebrated my birthday! Now I am 18 years old, and no longer a little girl even though Albin still likes to tell me that I am. Eurotour finished July 12th in Malmö, so I slept at the hotel the night before my birthday. I celebrated that night with all of my exchange student friends. The best memory of the night was jumping on the hotel bed while my friends sang happy birthday to me! On my actual birthday, I had to do the hardest thing ever. I had to say goodbye to 66 of my best friends from all over the world. Many will go home, or have already gone home to their home countries, and some still have half a year left in Sweden. We are a family, and saying goodbye to every person was so extremely difficult. I will never forget any of them, and I cannot wait to visit them all over the world!

Efter att jag sa hej då till några av mina närmaste vänner Sabrina, Daniel och Patrick fick jag på en buss i Malmö och åkte till flygplatsen. Efter 4 timmars flygning senare var jag tillbaka i Östersund. I Östersund väntade jag två timmar för mina värdföräldrar som de också returnerad hem från semestern. Vi körde hem från flygplatsen och vi var tillbaka i Undersåker ca 20.00. Jag kom hem till den bästa födelsedag överraskning i hela världen! Albin var tänkt att lämna för semester på min födelsedag och det innebar att jag inte skulle ha en chans att se honom och säga hej då innan jag lämnar Sverige. Han hade sin mamma flytta sin semester en dag så att han kunde överraska mig och vara med mig på min 18-årsdag i Sverige. Vi åt middag, tårta, och en del champagne med mina värdföräldrar innan bara sitter och pratar för resten av natten. Det är bra att höra varandras sommarreseberättelser som han har också rest runt i Europa i 3 veckor och surfade i Frankrike. När solen började stiga igen vid 04:00, jag var tvungen att säga hej då till Albin som han lämnade tidigt för semester. Så gulligt av honom att stanna så sent med mig, men det hej då är det svåraste jag någonsin gjort i hela mitt liv. Hur kan man säga hej då till någon som gjort ditt år helt otroligt? Jag fick också en riktigt fantastisk födelsedag överraskning från mina riktiga föräldrar, de hjälper till att betala för mig att komma tillbaka till Sverige på vintern! Då kan jag besöka Albin, så här hej då var bara tillfälligt hoppas jag! Jag också hoppas verkligen att åka skidor när jag kommer tillbaka!

After I said goodbye to some of my closest friends Sabrina, Daniel and Patrick, I got on a bus in Malmö and went to the Airport. Four hours of flying later and I was back in Östersund. In Östersund I waited two hours for my host parents who were also returning from vacation. We drove back from the Airport and were back in Undersåker around 8 pm. I came home to the best birthday surprise in the whole world! Albin was supposed to leave for vacation that day meaning I would not have the chance to see him and say goodbye before I left Sweden. He had his mom move their vacation one day so that he could surprise me and be with me on my 18th birthday in Sweden! We had dinner, cake and some champagne with my host parents before we just sat and talked for the rest of the night. It is fun to hear each others summer travel stories since he has also been travelling around Europe for three weeks including surfing in France for one week! When the sun began to rise again at 4 am, I had to say goodbye to Albin as he left early for vacation. So sweet of him to stay so late with me, but that goodbye was the hardest I have ever done in my whole life. How can one say goodbye to someone who made your year totally awesome? I also received a really fantastic birthday surprise from my real parents, they are helping pay for my ticket to come back to Sweden in the winter! Then I can visit Albin again, so hopefully this goodbye was only temporary! I also am hoping to get some skiing in when I come back!

 

hej då Sabbi 😦

Champagne!

18 års dagen med världens bästa!

god morgon, 04.00 på morgonen

Även om min 18-årsdag var definitivt inte något jag någonsin hade föreställt mig, var det fortfarande fantastiskt! Mer sorgliga tider än lyckliga tider, men det är något jag vet att jag aldrig kommer att glömma. Jag kommer tillbaka till Kanada på bara två dagar! Min plan är att skriva om mina sista tolv dagarna i Sverige när jag är på flygplatsen!

Event though my 18th birthday was definitely not something I had ever imagined, it was still amazing! More sad times than happy times, but its something I know I will never forget. I’m going back to Canada in just two days! My plan is to write about my last twelve days in Sweden when I am at the airport!

Vi ses snart Kanada!

xox Jessie

Italien/Frankrike/Belgien/Nederländerna

Brace yourself, this post is going to be long!

We drove directly from Ljubljana, Slovenia to our hotel in Lido di Jesolo Italy where we would get to stay 3 nights! Lido di Jesolo is a beach resort about one hour outside of Venice known for it’s 15 km long beach. On the first day when we arrived all of us went and checked out the beach and went for a quick swim before dinner. The weather was great like +35! After dinner Sabrina and I walked the huge pedestrian street which is as long as the beach I swear full of different shops, restaurants and best of all GELATO! I fell in love with Italian Gelato and definitely gained some weight from eating it 2-3 times per day! We then met some other girls Abigail, McKenzie, Saj, Cherry and Mai and went ate pizza before heading back to the hotel for the night. The next day we were completely free to do whatever we wish. I spent the whole day at the beach in the +40 Italian sun, and got super duper extremely sunburnt, like my skin is still peeling 2 weeks later.. It was a lot of fun though, and some of my friends and I rented a paddle boat to take around the bay that had a waterslide on it too. Good times indeed. Some of the girls and I went and ate more pizza for lunch because when in Italy right? Directly followed by even more Gelato 😉 then it was back to the beach until dinner time! Daniel, Pablo and I went out for dinner together and watched a soccer match. I had lasagne this time and it was honestly the best Italian food I have eaten in my life. That night all of us went out together, so much fun and a lot of memories that I will never ever forget! The next day we had free time until 2:30 in the afternoon when we would go in to Venice! A lot of people went to the beach but I just stayed back at the hotel with Hannah and Gabbe because I was so sunburnt there was no way I could go back to the beach, so we went to a supermarket bought a ton of food and then pigged out like typical exchange students back at the hotel.

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Viva Italia!

15 km long beach

pizza for days

Gelato is the best ever

such a typical beach resort town

At 2:30 we were back on the bus and drove about 20 km to a dock where we would take a boat into Venice since no motor vehicles are allowed in the city! Once our boat docked in Venice we went straight away to take a gondola tour because when in Venice! Sabrina, Emmy, McKenzie, Abigail and I shared a gondola together and we had the most attractive guide ever.. like honestly. We cruised through venice, under the bridges and through the canals for about an hour, in the +43 heat before the humidity.. CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW FREAKING HOT IT WAS. But the gondola ride was definitely a highlight of the trip, I have always seen them and dreamed about doing it someday, and then that dream came true! After the tour we had a few hours free time in Venice, the girls and I roamed the narrow cobblestone streets just exploring, then to the big squares, a delicious Italian bakery, and lots of photo taking on bridges. By the time we had to meet the group again we were all exhausted mostly from the heat I think. But going back on the boat was the best ever! We had a different boat going back to the dock where our bus was, and it was a double decker boat we had all to ourselves, with speakers that we could play our own music through. 67 exchange students having a blast on a boat in Venice, the memories are amazing! And the captain of the boat came and asked Sabrina and I if we wanted to drive the boat, literally! How cool!? Although he was giving most of the directions in Italian and I had no idea what he was saying everyone survived! We got back to Lido rather late and then ate and then some of us went for a little late night swim at the beach! I absolutely love Italy, it is definitely everything it is hyped up to be!

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The dock where the bus left us

Where we docked in Venice

Main Square

In the gondola!!

I told you we had the most attractive guide ever 😉

Italian bakeries and pastries.. doesn’t get much better

VENICE!

Canadians!

driving the boat like a boss

nothing better ❤

on the first boat!

From Italy we had a really long day of driving through the Italian and French Alps headed towards Paris! Of course driving all the way to Paris in one day from Italy would be insane, so we spent one night in Chambéry. Nothing too exciting happened in Chambéry, we had the nicest hotel of the whole tour, so my roomate Nicole and I just chilled for the night as it was pouring rain, we weren’t exactly in the city center and we had to leave extremely early the next morning. I have nothing  else really to say about that stop, so the next day we drove alllll day and finally reached Paris just at rush hour but luckily we didn’t have it too bad as some years the bus has had to wait up to 2 hours, I think we only had to wait 20 minutes maybe! We settled into the hotel, and then the whole group went out to a classic French dinner followed by just a quick stop at the Eiffel Tower as we went back every day after that too! It was a cold rainy evening and mostly everyone was watching a soccer game so Sabrina and I decided to go use the wifi at McDonalds as our hotel in Italy and in Paris both didn’t have wifi. Lame I know, but it was that or sit in a pub and watch soccer. The next day we had a 3 hour guided tour of Paris where we saw the Eiffel Tower again of course, the Louvre where the Mona Lisa is although we never went inside, The Arc de Triomphe, The army museum, The Notre Dame Cathedral and some other things that I can’t remember right at this moment. In the afternoon we had free time so Taine, Sabrina and I decided to walk and try to find some shopping, we didn’t ever find the shopping centre we wanted after walking for 4 hours in the pouring rain and we weren’t feeling adventurous enough to figure out the metro on our own. We had a group dinner again in the evening, followed by a fun night in at the hotel because no one wants to go out when it is freezing cold and pouring rain. I know some people slept, some watched movies, I chilled with a bunch of the guys, all in all it was still fun. The next and last day in Paris we had free time for the whole day so finally I got to sleep in! Sabrina and I decided to sleep until 10 and then we met Kate and Tanner and had lunch, and then decided to try and figure out the metro system. We were trying to get to the Eiffel Tower and got lost, so then we tried to get to the Notre Dame Cathedral, but we got off at the wrong stop and had to ask for help many many times. My limited French skills came in pretty handy here when trying to figure out the metro with 3 Americans who know no French at all! One thing I forgot to mention in the other posts, when us exchange students use the metro in other countries we think it is really fun to speak Swedish with each other instead of English because then no one understands what we are saying. See I knew Swedish would be useful someday ;)! We ended up going through the Luxembourg Gardens which was really neat, and then Kate and I lost Sabrina and Tanner. So I was with Kate the great for the whole afternoon. We went to the Cathedral and then to the famous love lock bridge. After wandering around for a little while we made our way back to the hotel to go out for dinner with everyone again. After our last dinner in Paris, most of us went to go see the Eiffel Tower at night! It was absolutely stunning, it’s just one of those moments that definitely take your breath away! Paris can be really scary at night so it was good that we had a big group with a lot of guys or else I probably wouldn’t have went, but I am so glad that I did! Something I will never ever forget!

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Captured this beauty on night one!

On our way into Paris!

Arc de triomphe

A little bit of a fail but still a good try!

CANADA EH

My frenchie 🙂

Benji became Canadian guys..

Macaroons because when in Paris..

Luxembourg Gardens

Luxembourg Gardens

Notre Dame Cathedral

Paris!

Foggy view over the city

Eiffel Tower at night!

All the girls got roses from Abraham!

Classic go pro Eiffel Tower selfie

on the bus headed towards the Eiffel Tower!

After we left Paris, we drove to Brussels in Belgium! This was my second time being in Brussels so everything we saw on our short guided tour I had seen already. And then the boys and I had waffles for lunch! Oh so good, tasted just as good if not better the second time! We then had like an hour or two to roam the city, so of course we all went chocolate shopping and did a little picture taking. I wish we could have stayed at least one night in Belgium, but I’m not complaining atleast I got to go back! I forgot how much I love that little country, the waffles, chocolate and fries make the trip worth it every time!

Waffles with the lads

Brussels!

Brussels Main Square

Tin tin

Manneken Pis

Waffles in Belgium round 2

Belgian Truffles

From Belgium we drove through the Netherlands and made a quick one hour stop there but the battery on my Camera died so that’s that. Onward from the Netherlands we drove to Bochum in southern Germany where we spent the last night of the tour! The Netherlands is such a flat, yet cute little country, someday I will need to do more exploring there. This means 4 countries in one day again! France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany! The last night in Germany was super sad because it was technically the last night that we had ALL together, I mean we had one final night in Malmö together but some people had already left. The night in Bochum included, performances by all of the exchange students, a lot of junk-food eating, tears, and flag signing, but it was so memorable I will never forget it. I will wrap this up here, and in my next and hopefully final post I will tell you about our goodbyes in Malmö and my 18th birthday! Sorry this was so long but I just felt I needed to cram everything into one post!

xx Jessie

Slovakien/Österrike/Slovenien

After we left Hungary we drove back through Slovakia again, but this time we stopped in the capital city Bratislava, not just in the mountains in the middle of nowhere. We didn’t stay overnight or anything in Slovakia, but we had a brief guided tour around the fairly small capital, followed by our own free time for lunch. I had lunch at a traditional Slovakian restaurant with 5 Aussies, it was super delicious! So we had a few hours in Slovakia which was kind of cool. We visited a castle, and saw a bridge that has a tower in the middle of it where there is also a restaurant in the tower? I’m not too sure how all of that works, but it was cool anyways. I don’t really have too much more to say about Slovakia since we weren’t there for too long, but Bratislava is a GORGEOUS little city, one that I don’t think the rest of the world really knows about.. but it’s definitely worth a visit! Also Slovakia is another one of those super cheap countries, but you cannot tell just by walking along the streets.

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Castle in Bratislava, Slovakia

Castle Entrance

The bridge with the tower thing..

Bratislava main square

After stopping in Slovakia we continued driving towards Austria but first we had to pass through a little part of Germany again. By the time we reached Austria at dinner time, we had passed through 4 countries in one day. Hungary, Slovakia, Germany and Austria. Not bad, but apparently the most our bus driver had done in one day was 9, that is totally insane! We were staying in a really small village called Piesendorf which was one hour north of the Austrian city Salzburg. The reason we stayed here was to be in the nature, and that we were. Completely surrounded by the alps, I have never been in such awe. It was nice to get away from the cities, and just chill in the nature. In fact as I may have mentioned before, Austria is one of my favourite, if not my absolute favourite place I have ever visited. The next day, (I have completely lost count of dates by now) we went hiking in the alps! There were two groups and you could choose which tour you wanted to do, one down in the valley, or one going way up in the alps. Hesitantly I took the one going up, I was feeling up for the challenge, and I mean when in the Alps right? It’s all about pushing yourself to do things you would never imagine yourself being able to do. The beginning of the tour going up wasn’t bad, in fact some of my friends and I were ahead of the tour guide, but once we got about 2/3’s of the way up, the terrain got insanely steep, and the altitude change nearly killed me. My head has never hurt as bad as it did then, but after a little adjusting I was good to go again. We stopped for lunch on top, and then started to make the way down where we had the option to meet the other group and go visit a gorge or go swimming in a freezing cold lake filled with water from the glaciers. I am not sure which was tougher going up or going down, you wouldn’t expect going down to be tough but when it is so steep you really need to make sure you don’t fall which I definitely did a few times (oops). I was exhausted so I just took it easy laying beside the lake. I got the most horrible sunburn of my life that day (well maybe it was worse in Italy) but when we started hiking in the morning it was only +6 and really cloudy, I guess the weather can change reallllly quickly. In total we hiked for about 7 hours and went 16 kilometres (8 up and 8 down) not too bad if you ask me!

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A little cloudy/foggy when we first started!

The view from my balcony!!

The alps are so beautiful..

Dan the man!

I DID IT!

The cows in the alps are probably the cutest ever

Paddy 🙂

The next morning we left Austria (I know it sucks how we don’t have much time in any of these places, but it is just so cool to be someplace new every few days!) and drove to Slovenia where we stopped in the Capital city Ljubljana for a short guided tour and lunch like we did in Slovakia. If I remember correctly, I think the guide said that Ljubljana is the smallest capital city in Europe. Kind of cool, but it is very beautiful (I know I say this about every city) but I think Slovenia may have won over Slovakia.. it’s a close call! 😉 We walked around the city and visited some markets and such before deciding to eat lunch at McDonalds.. not the first choice for sure especially when travelling around Europe, but atleast it’s fast, cheap and something nearly everyone can agree on. It was SO hot that day, that my sundae melted in literally 2 minutes. After a few hours in Slovenia, it was back on the bus and Italy bound! Someday I will have to come back here because just a few hours is not enough time, but at least I got to see some super cool things!

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Ljubljana Main Square

Notice the castle up on the hillside

So beautiful ❤

I would gladly return to all of these place if I had the chance, especially Austria! I could live there, literally ski in the winter, and hike in the summer.. that would be the best life ever.. who knows what the future could bring! 🙂 I only have a few countries left to write about so sorry if I am bombarding you with posts but I really just want to finish it up now! My lovely Moa comes home today from vacation, so I think I will be spending most of my time left with my crazy badass sister from another mister! I might try to cram Italy, France, Belgium and The Netherlands into the last Eurotour post, I’ll see how it goes.

xx Jessie

Polen/Ungern

Today was a rather rainy day with some thunderstorms, so I got a really good start on my packing and I figured why not write another post.  As I finished in the last post, after Berlin we drove to Krakow which is the second largest city in Poland! It took a full day of driving on June 28th, and when we finally arrived in Poland we checked into our hotel, and then went to a traditional Jewish dinner in the Jewish part of the city. To be quite honest I have no idea what they were feeding us, some type of meat stew or porridge? It was really strange and it wasn’t my favourite, but hey exchange is all about trying new things including food! Following the dinner, we were greeted to live Polish music, by an extreeeemely talented girl playing the clarinet, a man on the cello and a man playing the accordion. Seriously, hands down best live music I have ever heard.

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Live Polish Music

Jewish Dinner

Jewish District of Krakow, Poland

After the dinner some of my guy friends and I went and walked around Krakow for a bit and then met two Polish lawyers who spoke good English so they showed us around and then we just chilled in a park before taking a taxi back to the hotel. The next day it was super hot! I think the thermostat hit +35 before the humidity, it was rather disgusting. We started the day with a 2 hour walking/guided tour through Krakow, where we got to see most of the town as well as the famous castle. We were free for lunch so Sabrina, Emmy and I went and sat outside and ate in the heat. The best part about Poland, is since they are just kind of getting their feet back on the ground as well as several other Eastern European countries we visited, everything and I mean absolutely EVERYTHING there is really cheap! I ordered a huge lunch, and it cost less than $10 Canadian.

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After lunch we met the group again and drove 1.5 hours on the bus out to the former Auschwitz Concentration Camp. I hope that you all know what a concentration camp is so I am not going to go into much detail here, because honestly just thinking about this brings up a whole lot of emotions. Basically we had a guided tour of the Auschwitz concentration camp, and saw where millions of people were stripped of their identity, and were starved, or worked until their death, or were killed by lethal injections. It was horrifying to see, but I also think it is something everyone should see at least once in their life. To see the shoes, clothes, suitcases, toothbrushes, everything of people who went through this torture was extremely upsetting. I will leave it there. After being at Auschwitz we drove about twenty minutes to another part of the Auschwitz camp called Birkenau. We weren’t here for long because it was getting quite late, but here we were actually able to see the trains that brought the people here, it put it into much more of a real life perspective. Once we finished here it literally poured rain, like I have not seen a downpour so hard in my life, and we had to run a solid 1.5 km to the bus. There was no escaping the rain, you were going to be soaked either way. And then we had a lovely 1.5 hour bus ride back to our hotel with soaking wet, freezing exchange students.. can you imagine how lovely our bus smelt?

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“Work Makes You Free”

Auschwitz

Birkenau

After the super rain storm

We left Poland on the morning of June 30th headed towards Hungary! My final thoughts on Poland, was that it was a much better place to visit than I could have ever imagined. It’s historic, old and absolutely beautiful! And although they may be considered “poor” compared to other European countries, you can not really see it at all when walking the streets. I  hope I can go back someday 🙂 We stopped in the mountainside of Slovakia for lunch, but we also headed back to Slovakia a few days after, you can read that some other time ;). We ate dinner at the hotel as soon as we arrived, and then we had the whole night to do as we wish. Like 30 of us exchange students tried to figure out the metro and then ended up going to the middle of Budapest which is the capital of Hungary! There was a fifa match that night, I don’t remember who was playing so a lot of people were out watching that, we just walked around the city and since the metro closed really early we all took taxi’s back to the hotel. Hungary is also a super cheap country, so a 20-25 minute cab ride cost about $3 Canadian. The next morning was CANADA DAY! This is the first time I have spent Canada Day outside of Canada, and let me tell you it is really exciting! We had a city tour in the morning, and saw so many things that I can’t even remember it all, we went to the highest point in the city, a castle, saw the parliament, and the heroe’s square. All of us Canadians were dressed up and being all patriotic, and it was so cool to have so many people come and wish us a happy Canada Day and to also meet other Canadians in the city! In the afternoon we had free time, so McKenzie, Bronte, Abigail, Hannah, Mai, Emmy and I began by having an outdoor lunch in the beautiful warm sunshine. After we went to a famous market in the city, I don’t even know how to explain it, it is two floors and is huuuge! Literally everything is sold there, but I think the most popular is Hungarian Salami which is really good! After this we went to the largest shopping mall in Budapest. Literally the coolest thing happened here. I will try my best to explain it to you without you getting super confused. Okay so there is a Brazilian exchange student who lived in Sweden named Gabriel, he was on our trip with us and he has an identical twin brother who also was an exchange student this year, but in Hungary. He didn’t live in Budapest but came into the city so that he could visit his twin brother while we were there (super adorable right?!) While in the shopping mall Bronte and I swore we saw Gabriel walk right past us but didn’t stop to say hi or anything which is really weird and not like Gabbe at all. So we chased after him since we knew he had a twin, and once we caught him we were like “GABBE!?” and he turned around and it was Gabriel’s twin brother killing some time in the mall before going to meet his brother! It was so weird, and cool at the same time. So Bronte and I were able to trick some of the other exchange students into believing it was Gabriel when really it was his twin brother Angelo. He followed us back to our hotel since he didn’t really know where to go, but not after us girls had a mandatory Starbucks stop! We ate dinner again at the hotel, and then we had a really cool boat cruise in the evening through the city with the setting sun. After this, a small group of us walked around the city and took some photos before sitting in front of a big screen in a park and catching part of a soccer match. Final thoughts, Budapest was probably one of my favourite, if my not my favourite stop of the whole trip, probably tied with Austria. It is such a beautiful city, and I had a fantastic time there!

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Budapest!

CANADA DAY!

probably one of my favourite pictures ❤

Heroes Square

We travel not to escape life, rather so life does not escape us

The Hungarian Parliament is absolutely gorgeous

Up next I will tell you about Slovakia, Austria and Slovenia!

xo Jessie

Danmark/Tyskland

I am going to try and break up the posts from my 3 week Europe tour, just so it doesn’t get too overwhelming for me as the writer and you as the audience!

I will start by sharing Denmark and Germany with you! So three weeks (I think?) ago on June 24th I left Northern Sweden, bound for the very south of the country. My host dad drove me to the train station here in Undersåker, where I took the train to Östersund, then a bus to the airport, a flight to Stockholm, a two hour stop over, another flight down to Malmö, and then another bus to a city nearby called Lund. In Lund I was met by a fellow Canadian exchange student Jinell who generously let me stay at her house for two nights. We had to take a small commuter train to her house, and we didn’t arrive until after midnight. The first thing I noticed about Southern Sweden is that it is FLAT as a pancake, coming from the mountains this was super weird, and also second thing IT GETS DARK THERE! I hadn’t slept in darkness at all in like 4 months, so this was fantastic!

The next day I was up fairly early to catch a train to Copenhagen, Denmark. For those who don’t know Malmö is very close to Copenhagen, it was only about 45-50 minutes on the train. The cool thing is there is a bridge the connects Sweden and Denmark, and believe it or not, part of the bridge is a tunnel under the ocean to allow big ships to still be able to pass and since the bridge is very close to the Copenhagen airport they could not build it any closer or it would be dangerous for the airplanes. I met my mom’s cousin Dorte and her daughter Mille at the Copenhagen Central Station around 10:30 and we started the day. I have never met any of my mom’s family living in Denmark so this was super cool that we were able to arrange for it to happen. We began by walking a bit in the city of Copenhagen, with the first stop at Amalienborg the Royal Palace, then lunch (I had a typical Danish Sandwich on Danish Rye Bread, aren’t you proud mom?) We then walked along the main shopping street named Strøget for a while. Dorte had to leave early to go to work, so she brought Mille and I to a boat tour and then left us. The boat tour was actually really cool and took around one hour, we saw a lot of things this way! The tour went through all of the canals of the city. Here we also saw the famous “Nyhavn” or New Harbour as it is translated to in English. After this Mille and I went and climbed the Round Tower which gave a fantastic view of the city! Up next we went to the Rosenborg Castle which is not the main castle of the royal family, but like a secondary castle and this is also where all of the crown jewels are kept under the ground. Lastly we went to Tivoli, however we just walked around instead of going on the rides, because the rides were very similar to the ones at the Swedish Gröna Lund which I went to just a few weeks ago. I took the train back to Sweden around 7 pm and Mille took a train to her home in Denmark. I’m so grateful I got to meet both Mille and Dorte and for all they did for me that day, they could both be tour guides!

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Mille and I in one of the main squares

Nyhavn

The ever so famous Little Mermaid

Rosenborg

Nyhavn

Tivoli

Amalienborg

Copenhagen Town Hall

View of Copenhagen

At the top of the Round Tower

Nyhavn

Up next, I woke up super early on the morning of Thursday June 26th, full of energy and good spirits! Jinell and I left her house around 6:15 am, and made our way into where all of the exchange students were to meet in Malmö to begin our 17 day Europe Tour! We met some other exchange students on our local commuter train together and then we all got lost trying to find this place but we eventually made it. Let me tell you hauling around a super heavy suitcase on cobblestone streets for over an hour is not fun but I survived. Around 9:00 all 67 exchange students, and 4 chaperones made our way on to the bus headed towards Berlin! First we drove through Denmark and had a little stop, and then we took a ferry from Denmark over to Germany. The ferry took around 2 and a half hours, and we had our lunch on board. The ferry had an amazing view. We were in Germany around 3:30 pm and then continued driving to Berlin, which we reached around dinner time.

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Ther first night in Berlin we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, weird thing to do when in Germany right? Germany was also playing the US in a world cup soccer match that night and they won, so of course Berlin being the capital went absolutely crazy. Some of my friends and I went to a street parade/party in downtown Berlin, it was definitely wild! Germans know what’s up when it comes to winning soccer matches.

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The next day we went to a museum on the stasi which once controlled Germany, following this we took a city bus tour where we got to go to the remaining East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall, the TV Tower, Checkpoint Charlie, the German Parliament, and some other cool places in the city. Sabrina, Madie, Hannah, Abigail and I took the metro to Alexanderplatz which is one of the largest if not the largest shopping centres in Berlin. We ate lunch there, and followed with a little shopping. We then took the metro to an outdoor Jewish memorial, this was really touching to visit. Following this we walked to the Brandenburg Gate and took a lot of pictures. Feeling rushed and pressed for time we took the metro back to the hotel where we got ready for our traditional German schnitzel dinner. The rest of the night we just spent chilling in Berlin. Good times enjoyed by all.

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Brandenburg Gate

East Side Gallery, Berlin Wall

Tv-Tower

TV-Tower

my best friend in the whole world ❤

German Schnitzel

Jewish Memorial

Checkpoint Charlie

Making my mark on the world

On the morning of Saturday June 28th we left Berlin and headed towards Poland, but you can read about that in the next post! I promise I will try to post a little more soon, but I am really busy as time is running out faster than I would like to think 😦

All the best,

Jessie

Midsommar

On June 20th we celebrated Midsommar here in Sweden! Since I have been gone travelling around Europe since then (those posts will come later, I promise) I am finally just getting around to writing about the midsommar holiday now.

Midsommar is pretty self explanatory I think. Mid is of course middle, and well sommar is summer. So this is the middle of the summer when the longest day of the year falls on. And yes it is light the whole night out, and has been since the end of April/beginning of May. However now you can notice it start to get a little darker around 2/3 am.

Just like every other holiday, Swedes celebrate on the “afton” or eve, Midsommar’s afton was the 20th, and Midsommar’s day was the 21st of June. On the Thursday (19th) my host parents took me down to a house they have in the mountains in a small village called Orsa. Here we would celebrate Midsommar. It was about a 5 hour drive, so typical me I slept most of the way. We arrived just before dinner and took it easy for the rest of the night.

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On Friday, or the eve of Midsommar, we began by going to watch a running/biking Marathon, then went home for lunch and a nap, and then we made the ever so famous “blomster krans” or flower crowns. I have seen these since before I even came to Sweden, and I always thought they were so cool, so this may have been my favourite part of Midsommar. With a little help from my host mom, I made my own and decorated my crown. You then wear the crowns to the evening Midsommar celebration. The evening celebration consists of a parade of people carrying the Midsommar pole (maypole) down the street to the location where it will be placed.

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Once the parade passes you, you join in with the parade and then once we reached the location we watched as like 30 men tried to lift the pole. After some difficulties, it was finally secured, and we were ready for the celebrations to begin! There is live music, but it is most popular for people young and old to dance around the pole. And also most typical to dance to a special song called små grodorna which translates to small frogs. You literally dance like frogs around the pole, holding hands with complete strangers which is something you would NEVER EVER expect a swede to do considering they can’t even sit beside each other on public transportation. We didn’t stay very long at the celebration because it was freezing cold, like only +6, and back at home in Åre it snowed on Midsommar. So much for a summer celebration right? Oh Sweden!

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We spent the rest of the weekend, just relaxing, visiting a lot of my host mom’s friends and family, eating a lot of food, and a little bit of sight seeing. We drove back up north on Monday, and I had one day to wash all of my clothes and pack as I was off on my eurotour on Tuesday. I was quite pressed for time but it all worked out 🙂

I think that Midsommar was one of my favourite Swedish traditions/holidays just because it is so different from anything you would find in North America and it is so old. Also to sum up my views of Midsommar, it is a lot of food, A LOT and I mean A LOOOT of alcohol, friends, family and good times. Such a super relaxing weekend enjoyed by all!

I tried to keep this one short, but look soon to find some posts about my eurotour!

Not long now Canada!

xx Jessie

Stockholm/One Direction

I told myself that I would not blog tonight, yet here I am sitting in front of my laptop blogging, that must be dedication or something..

Anyways, I am going to really try to keep this post short, a quick update on everything from Studenten until now!

11 Days ago we took studenten, and you can read all about that in my previous blog post, but the weekend following I just took it super easy. I caught a nasty cold, my host parents were out of town for the weekend, so it was the perfect opportunity to catch up on some rest. A lot of rainy days, movie watching, laying in bed, tea drinking was what was on the agenda.

I stayed at Moa’s house on some of the nights and on one night we stayed out here at my apartment, it was super cozy. Last Monday (one week ago from today) I said goodbye to my friend Sofie who is from Trondheim, Norway but lived in Sweden to study. Her dad came to pick her up and bring her home to Norway as she began working for the summer the day after. Although I felt like we could have spent more time together this year, I am so glad I got to know such a beautiful girl with a humongous heart, she would do anything for anyone, and I know someday we will catch up again in either Norway, Sweden or perhaps even Canada! On Monday night Albin came over here for a few hours, he signed my flag and we just chilled. Super relaxing.

On Tuesday I went to Åre for a few hours, I don’t really know why, mainly because I told myself I wasn’t going to sit inside on a day that actually had nice weather. Tuesday evening I went for a 3 hour walk with Ida. My legs were dead by the time I finally returned home, it was crazy but I enjoyed it. I swear we could be sisters we have so much in common and it always a ton of laughs when I am with her. She also gives the greatest advice. We decided to take a quick dip in the river down in the village, HUGE mistake. If we were lucky the water was maybe around 10 degrees? And I was already sick so that made it worse, but it was still fun!

On Wednesday I headed down into the village to Ida’s new house that her mom just bought two weeks ago. Everything inside this house needs to be painted white first, so we spent a few hours painting. I learned that I have never developed good painting skills over the years, Ida had to fix basically everything I did.. talk about embarrassing. Also I am not sure if I got more paint on the walls or on myself, literally covered from head to toe (stepped completely in the paint tray). It was still a fun afternoon! On Wednesday night my host parents had all of the neighbours over for a big summer barbecue dinner. It was really nice, but hard to follow 10 different conversations in super fast Swedish but I managed. I hung out with Julia for a little while after, we just talked and it was nice to take it easy for one night.

On Thursday I went to school to say goodbye to my Swedish class and my fantastic Swedish teacher Eva (seriously, she is the sweetest, most caring teacher you will ever find)! I had one last lunch at the school, and then went over to Ida’s house to say goodbye to her. I seriously still can’t believe that would be the last time I would ever see her. She went down to the Swedish island called Öland to work for the summer. Ida was my first friend in Sweden, and most definitely one of my closest friends. I can call her in the middle of the night and I know she will always be there to help me. I can’t wait to catch up with her in the future, we both have exciting adventures ahead of us! On Thursday night I went over to Albin’s and then we took a really long hike up a mountain, and he demonstrated his biology knowledge for me. Seriously that boy knows so much stuff, HOW?! From the names of plants, to which ones are poisonous, which types of environments they grow best in.. my mind was blown. The best part about living in Northern Sweden is we get the midnight sun, so you can be out all night in the daylight, sometimes it is fantastic, but not when you are trying to sleep! I had to say goodbye to Albin on Thursday night but just for one month, if all goes as planned we should both be home on my last week and a bit in Sweden, or we better be! I came home rather late Thursday night, and then had to pack to leave for Stockholm at 8:00 on Friday morning!

I went to Moa’s house, and then a friend of her parents picked us up and drove us down to Stockholm. We arrived in Stockholm around 5:00 on Friday night after being caught in brutal rush hour traffic. We were met by Moa’s godfather Roland and his wife Titti, who generously opened their house to us for the weekend. They live in the suburbs of Stockholm so we went out there and then went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner, and then to the supermarket to buy snacks and food for breakfast. We then spent the evening watching funny One Direction video’s on youtube. The whole purpose of the trip to Stockholm was becaaaaaaaause we went to the One Direction concert on Saturday night! I will get to that in a moment. We slept in a little on Saturday morning, and then went to Täby Centrum (the biggest shopping center in Sweden) for a few hours, and then headed back to the house to eat lunch, and get ready for the concert! Around 3:30 we headed to the bus station because it would be much easier to take the bus to Friends Arena where the concert was instead of trying to find parking. We then thought we got in the right line for our gate, only to wait 45 minutes and find out we were in the wrong line. After getting in the right line, having our bags checked, etc. we made it into the arena. We had standing tickets on the floor towards the end of the stage, it wasn’t bad but I don’t know if I would buy standing tickets again. It can be difficult to see when you are short, and it’s a lot of people pushing but still we were really close, like maybe 10 metres tops away from One Direction. 5 Seconds of Summer opened, and then came the popular British boy band greeted by a sold-out crowd of 60,000 screaming teenage girls, seriously I have never been in such a loud environment. I lost my voice that night, but it was totally worth it. After buying tshirts and getting on a bus that actually had space we probably got home around midnight. I will never ever forget that night, such a good time!

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We were so dead tired that we slept until noon on Sunday, and then took the train in to Stockholm and went to Tivoli’s Gröna Lund amusement park around 3. This amusement park is probably comparable to Canada’s Wonderland or perhaps bigger. Also when we were waiting in the ticket line some guy came up and sold me an extra ride bracelet for half the price of what they originally cost, score for me! We didn’t do all of the rides partly because we thought they were open until 11 but they were only open until 8 on Sundays and it is like a 20-30 minute wait at every ride, but we did some fun rollercoasters, the one that takes you way up and drops really fast, one that gave a really cool view of stockholm, and some other small fun ones. We ate dinner at a mexican place inside the park, and the whole atmosphere just felt super cozy. They also have many live outdoor concerts here in the summer, so for example tonight ZZ top was playing there.

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After the park closed, Moa and I took the tram into Gamla Stan (old town). I asked her if we could go here and sit in a cute little cafe or something because Gamla Stan is my all time favourite place in Stockholm. We found a cafe that we both agreed on, I had a snickers cake and a handmade lemonade, she had raspberry daim cheesecake and a tea. It was nice to just take it easy and relax and talk. We then walked around and took some pictures as this trip would be my last time in Stockholm before I head home to Canada, super weird to think that! After an hour or so we made our way back to the train to go home. It’s good that I know the trains, subways, and trams in Stockholm and I think I blew Moa away, running to catch them, and knowing the right directions is super important, I think she learnt that from me! 😉

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We wrapped up the trip this morning and headed off to the airport around 8:30, first took the subway to the bus station and then took a flight bus, a lot of running through rush hours passengers with big suitcases and such is always fun and perhaps a little stressful. But Moa told me today she thinks travelling with me is fun, so who knows what trips we will end up on together in the future! Our flight landed in Östersund around 12:40, and then we were home in the afternoon. I am extremely exhausted, so I will spend all day tomorrow sleeping. Then to repack on Wednesday to go down to the summer house on Thursday for midsommar this weekend. In one week I will be flying down to Copenhagen to meet my cousins, and then our eurotour will begin for 3 weeks! After eurotour it will only be 12 days before I am back in Canada, ahh don’t remind me! But I am thinking I will be back in Sweden sometime next March-April, I have already made promises I need to keep so we’ll see what happens!

I will try to get a little post in on Midsommar before my big Europe trip begins!

xx

Jessie

Studenten!

Hej allihopa!

Yesterday was Studenten (graduation) and this whole past week there has been activities leading up to the big day, so I will give you a full update since the last blog post and I hope to leave nothing out since I have been so busy!

I’ll begin with last weekend, as I think I mentioned before, it was a long weekend (I’m not really sure why) but we got last Thursday and Friday off! On Thursday my host family had the kayak premier of the season. It was fantastic weather which resulted in my first sunburn of the season too! We went to Ottsjö with some neighbours and friends, paddled around the lake a bit in the morning, stopped on a beach and made lunch over a fire then paddled the rest of the lake in the afternoon. I forgot how much work it was and my arms definitely were killing me for a few days after, but it was so fun and the view was spectacular as you will soon see!

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Up next my host family took me back to Trondheim in Norway last Friday. We left around half past 8 in the morning, and arrived around lunch! I’m not too sure why we went, but it was a fun little overnight trip, with a lot of fika-ing, a trip to the spa, a beautfiul dinner out, some sight seeing and some shopping. I just love love love being in that country so it was all totally cool with me. The best part of the trip was the giant buffet breakfast at our hotel, literally never seen a hotel brekafast like this, where they literally have anything and everything you could ever want, cutting fresh fruit, making waffles right in front of you. It was SO good, I may or may not have had 4 courses hahahaha! I don’t really have much else to say about that trip other than its scary to think the next time I will be back in Trondheim will be in a month and twenty days catching my flight home to Canada!

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We came home Saturday evening around 9 and I just took it easy for the rest of the night. On Sunday morning Moa came out to my house for a visit, the weather forecast didn’t look too promising so I had no idea what we were going to do, but it ended up being SO hot, so I took her on a trail hike to Albin’s house. There is a really nice trail from my place to his, and I enjoy going on it with the dog or for a run, and then I can visit him at the same time, so I figured why not take Moa. We chilled at Albin’s for a little while then kept hiking with him (this is usually what I do on some evenings). We then walked all the way back home and Moa got so sunburnt I felt really bad for her. Then there was not much time for me to get ready for the first studtenten fest of the week. This was a party organized by some graduating students at a local restuarant and the theme was to dress as something that began as the first letter of your first name. Do you know how hard it is to dress as something that begins with J?! I ended up being a Jaguar because my host dad had pants for it and I had a shirt so it worked out good, and then on the way we picked up Albin who was dressed as an agent. After the dinner we ended up going to an apartment dance party followed by everyone hanging out in a park, all in all a great start to a great week!

On Monday we went to our very last english lesson, for me this was super sad because english was my favourite lesson, not because it’s my native language but it was like the only class that ALL of my friends were in together! Then on Monday night we had a 50’s themed party at the school, with a really good dinner, ice cream cake for dessert and then a 50’s dance. I forgot to bring my camera here but one of the teacher’s took pictures, I hope I can find them somewhere because it was a lot of fun!

On Tuesday night one of my classmates Felix decided we should have one final class barbecue together before we took studenten! Again awesome weather so I thought it would be fine without a jacket and just a tshirt but I was wrong the temperature dropped a lot at night so I ended up going home early because I was freezing. But yeah we sat outside and grilled hotdogs and played soccer and everyone signed my flag. A fun night to say goodbye to amazing people who have helped make this year so much fun! I will miss each and every one of you!

Wednesday was my first day that I had nothing really to do, went and wrote my last Swedish test and then just prepared for Studenten which was yesterday! I also took a quick trip into the city to fix my white dress so it wouldn’t be see through haha! Then I also helped my host mom prepare some of the food for my party that night, nothing too exciting but it was my first night at home in soo long and it felt really nice because I had been so exhausted!

THE BIG DAY: STUDENTEN 2014

Before I fully realised it I awoke at 5:30 am bright eyed and bushy tailed (not really, but I can pretend) after a not so good sleep (2 hours tops, I was a little stressed) and began to prepare for the big day! I met all of my classmates at the kommunparken at 8:00 for a champagne breakfast, followed by breakfast and a mingle at the school at 9:00 with our teachers. Just before 10:00 we headed up to the Arena where the ceremony would take place. The cermony included two of my extremely talented classmates singing, some award giving and then every student is presented with a rose around their neck, their name is called as well as where they come from. It honestly felt so good to hear my name and then “Canada” followed briefly after. I really don’t think I was deserving enough to take studenten because I definitely didn’t work as hard as anyone else for it, but still the opportunity was amazing. I remember in the autumn when I started school and my friends told me about studenten and I thought it was really lame and a waste of money and I didn’t want to do it, but they pushed me to and I am so glad and thankful for that, it was one of the best days of my life! In Sweden everyone specially orders their own white hat that you can design yourself, it is an old old tradition to have these hats and I thought they would look so ugly, but when everyone is wearing them they are really cool! The girls all have white dresses, and the boys a suit. After we finished the ceremony, the students went back inside the school and the parents, friends and family gathered outside where we would be greeted after we “ran out”. This was so much fun to see everyone so excited as we ran out of school for the very last time, and then to be cheered on by everyone who has helped you get to where you are today. The tradition is that your family holds up a big sign that says your name, your class, the date of your graduation and includes a picture from when you were a baby. And then you are given roses, stuffed animals, champagne, all sorts of things around your neck from your friends and family. After this I took some pictures with my friends and then saw that my host dad would be driving me home in his old volvo from the 1960’s super cool! Once home I had about 20 minutes to catch my breath a little before all of the guests started to arrive for my party, all of my host families, some rotarians, friends, neighbours all came and I was truly overwhelmed. People who I had never met just one year ago, who care so much for me now. I was absolutely speechless, and I received so many nice gifts, that I am so very thankful for! My party included a buffet, a bbq, followed by coffee and cake and some picture taking with Moa! I think it wrapped up around 4 ish and then I went over to Julia’s party for a little while. Then I had to come back home, change out of my dress and get ready to go to Östersund for the evening to party! Everyone and I mean everyone from my school doesn’t matter which grade took the train around 7:30 into the city, it was crazy like a party train with like more than one hundred students partying on it! Once in the city we went and chilled in a park for a while, walked around a bit, waiting for the huge one to start at the city hall. They block off the whole street infront of the city hall so the students can party there! Apparently Östersund is the only place in Sweden that does this so it was super cool. Over 2000 students I heard were there to party which I totally believe, it was insane and then there is also a live concert at the same time! I don’t even know how to begin explaining it other than it was probably the best night of my entire life! I am so mad because I forgot my camera at home but I got some not so good photos on my phone. I “slept” at my host mom’s goddaughter’s house Linnea but I didn’t really sleep like maybe one or two hours or something even though I was completely dead tired, but I knew I had to be up to catch the train home at 07:30. I was home one hour later, showered, tried to sleep another hour or so before I caught the bus into Järpen as today is Sweden’s national day. I am staying with my first host family this weekend as my current host family is out of town, and they were performing a horse knights/amasons show today so I went to that. It was really fun and cool to see even though I could barely keep my eyes open. We came back to their house around 5 and then they went out for dinner but there was no way I could go, I like died on their sofa and just woke up about an hour or so ago.

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Ceremony

Ida, Tove and I

My amazing host parents!

Henning!

Ida, Henning and I!

Emma!

Albin, and look its actually a real smile!

Julia!

Tove!

Sofia, I and Tove!

Evelina!

Sofia!

Markus!

Party selfies!

I will wrap this up here for now, I am free from school now and time is flying WAY TOO FAST! Right now I don’t ever want to leave Sweden, but I will be back super soon I hope! I don’t know what I will do this coming week, just chill a bit, and then I am off to Stockholm on Friday to see One Direction with Moa! I also have decided in this past week to take another year off.. It wasn’t an easy decision but I still don’t realllly know what I want to do or where I want to go or be, I mean ultimately I would love to move back to Sweden, so we’ll see. For now I put university on hold for another year, after all I still am only 17! It will be nice to work a bit and save some money and then maybe I can return to Sweden for a visit and some skiing after Christmas or something!

I hope you enjoyed, but I am completely exhausted beyone belief, so I am off to bed!

xo Jessie!

Slutet av maj, snart juni!

Hello!

I feel like I haven’t been blogging in forever even though it’s only been like 3 weeks or something? So forgive me for that please, I have been quite busy as you will read shortly!

The last time I blogged was the end of the ski season and even though it wasn’t too long ago it feels like forever, so much has been happening! I moved to my third and final host family last weekend, I also live in a new village called Undersåker which is half way between Åre and Järpen. I have two host parents Suzan and Göran, they have no children so I am like an only child. They are super nice and I really couldn’t be happier. They live in the “country” so it kind of feels a lot like home and I now take the bus to school too. ALSO saving the best part for last, they have built me my own studio apartment which is so extremely nice, I truly am one lucky girl. It’s in a separate building from their actual house, and its decorated really nicely, there is no bathroom or anything but just having my own space is perfect.

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last night living in Järpen 😦

new apartment!

view from my front windows!

my host dad is actually the sweetest..

DREAM WALK IN CLOSET

This past week my class (SA3) took a trip to Trondheim, Norway for two days! Although it was an education school trip, it was still really fun and it was one of the last things we will get to do together as a class before studenten, a little sad I know. We went super early on Wednesday morning with the train, and arrived to a super warm and sunny Norwegian coast just before lunch. It was so hot, like +28 and we had to backpack for the whole day, literally.. I backpacked a solid 20 kilometres but it was totally worth it, Norway just simply amazes me every time I go there. We walked around the city, talked about some monuments, the Norwegian society, schools, etc. We also all bought soft ice cream which made the heat a bit more bearable! I went out for dinner with Ida to the popular American restaurant “TGI Friday’s”, it was super good! I also realized just how expensive it is in Norway.. literally $7 Canadian for a soft ice cream cone, and more than $10 for a coke that I ordered at dinner, seriously crazy! Wednesday night included my whole class going out to this bar/restaurant on the harbour for a cozy night of talking and such, always fun. On Thursday we were up bright and early to eat breakfast and then take the bus to the University in Trondheim, followed by lunch on campus and an afternoon of free time in the city which mostly included sitting in this super cute all organic cafe which was also surprisingly good! I think I arrived home around 8 on Thursday night, then Ida came over for a little while, followed by Julia, followed by the guy who came to hook up the wi-fi in my apartment, lots of visitors!

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I know a Canadian flag when I see one, especially in Norway!

a little spray paint art

love this city so much!

summertime = tons of boats!

Return home Thursday night, slept through my first class on Friday, repacked by backpack to leave on the train Sundsvall after school and ran 1 km in 3 mins to catch the bus to school! I was quite impressed with myself! Not much exciting at school on Friday, everyone is trying to finish up the remaining assignments in their courses, but we did have mösspåtgning happen on Friday. Mösspåtagning is basically like a pre-graduation celebration, where everyone brings their graduation hats to the park and you sing the graduation song a few times, do a little chanting and cheering, some champagne spraying and then finish it off by placing the hat on your head. Not really too sure of the purpose, but it was a little fun thing before graduation (studenten) in a week and a half (crept up fast, I know!) After that finished I went back to school, grabbed my bag and caught the train to Sundsvall. Three hours later the train arrived on the Swedish coastal city of Sundsvall where I was greeted by Jenny who exchanged to Whitby, Canada last year. She invited me to come visit her a month or so ago and we finally found a weekend that worked for both of us. She just got her drivers license which is also super cool. So she drove us back to her house which is in the suburbs of the city, where her family greeted us with a lovely barbecued dinner on the back porch. Her mom Ann-Kristin, her dad Lars, sister Johanna and brother Jonas were all super nice and sweet to me which made the stay really enjoyable. After dinner on Friday we went and got some ice-cream, then went to the Northern Mountain of the city where we climbed 112 steps to look over the city and a gorgeous orange glow in the sky. Ah, words or pictures can’t even describe how breath-taking it was. Saturday morning we were up bright and early and another gorgeous day it was, +25 and sunny. We began with a walk through the town, with old buildings built all from stone because the original wooden buildings all burnt down. We then took a fika at Wayne’s Coffee, and then a drive out to an island called Alnö, where we made a stop at one of the many beaches, this one named Bänkåsviken. Seriously so, so beautiful I can’t believe it really. After this we headed back into the city, over to Ikea. That’s right, my first Ikea experience ever, in the country it was founded in, really couldn’t be better. I will begin by saying Ikea is HUGE, make sure you have a fully charged cellphone when you go there, take a map, and follow the arrows on the floor, the chances of you getting lost are 99.9%. But it was really neat to look at all of the furniture and displays, and dreaming big for someday when I have my own house. We ate typical Swedish meatballs at Ikea for dinner, then went over to the big shopping mall where I did a little shopping for summer. We went home for a few hours and made the Swedish chokladbollar dessert, and then went for a little night drive around midnight. Today we slept in a little longer, and just hung around the mall for a few hours before my train went home at 2 this afternoon. I did a lot more shopping today, I have to buy all new clothes since I have lost so much weight, it is actually so annoying. Made it to the train 3 mins before it left (close time or what?) and arrived home to lots of rain around 5:30. It’s mother’s day in Sweden today so we had a really big dinner and dessert with my farmor (father’s mother) and host mom. It was super cozy.

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the sunset though >>

Sundsvall and the sea!

Old Church in the city

main square

harbour front

beach on the island!

Jessie goes to Ikea for the first time 2014

I love Swedish meatballs

Back to school tomorrow, we have a three day week this week, and to be honest I really have no clue why, but I am not complaining. Heading back to Norway again on Friday with my host family for two days, should be fun! Studenten (Graduation is next week), off to Stockholm in two weeks with Moa for the One Direction concert, then heading to Mora/Orsa (a little north of Stockholm) with my host family for Midsommar, then down to Malmö/Copenhagen for a few days and then our eurotour starts! Not long now until I will be on my way back to Canada. I have been thinking about it a lot lately, wishing I could just stop time, right here, right now. Everything is so perfect and it is all going to change again much sooner than I would like. But here’s to enjoying my last little bit of time on this wonderful adventure! I will try my best to post after graduation here! It’s a really special event and I can’t wait for you all to see my dress! 🙂

Also sorry if this blog is all over the place and doesn’t really make sense, I’m going on a limited amount of sleep and am off to bed as we speak!

godnatt!

Jessie