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
Swedish Experiences 