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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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!
Swedish Experiences 