An Adventure

In less than two months I will be leaving Minnesota and I will be flying to Sweden. I will meet a new family, prepare to attend a new high school, and meet new friends. I will be living in a village outside the town of Ulricehamn. Ulricehamn is in southwestern Sweden, about an hour from the western coast, and below where Sweden connects to Norway. The population is around 9,000. According to my host mother, I will be attending a secondary school of around 900 students. I am excited, nervous, and trying to learn Swedish as best I can. With high school complete, I have been feeling nostalgic lately. I find myself paging through old yearbooks, looking at old cards I received, and looking through old books that I enjoyed. Yet, I also feel hopeful. While I have enjoyed high school and my childhood, I am ready to try something new. This is an exciting time.

I have always been curious about other languages and cultures. I have enjoyed learning Spanish since elementary school, but I’ve always wished I could learn other languages. In ninth grade I remember first being aware of people going on a youth exchange. At the beginning of the eleventh grade I seriously looked into the Rotary Youth Exchange Program. At times I feel like I limited myself on what I could do based on what I thought was expected of me or what I expected of myself. I realized there was no reason why I would not be able to spend a year abroad. After that, the process to becoming an exchange student was fairly straightforward. The application was tedious, but I worked on it in the summer as I was working on college applications. Between the interviews and helpful orientation sessions my Rotary district put on, the year before my exchange has moved quickly. Sometimes it almost seems unreal.

I have a great deal to do before I leave for Sweden. I have been taking a beginning online Swedish course through the University of Minnesota and I would like to finish before I leave. I have been in contact with my host family who seem very nice. My host sister will be on exchange in the United States. My other host siblings are in their twenties and no longer live at home. My host mom is an accountant at a hospital in a larger city outside my town and my host dad owns a factory in Romania that produces knitted goods. My Swedish family is proficient in English, but I have been trying to add a bit more Swedish to my e-mails each time. I would like to learn as much Swedish as I can before and during my exchange.

I am very excited for my year long adventure. I am very thankful to Rotary for helping me travel to Sweden!

Tack,
Martha