Language Camp och Skolan

I have been in Sweden for a month. That seems strange to me. I can remember my first day, my flights, and my anticipation.  As time progresses, I feel more and more comfortable every day.  I still have a great deal of anticipation for the year, but the number of unknowns has diminished. I feel very comfortable with my host family. I have also grown to love my home and my little village of Grönahög. The village is quite small, but it is very beautiful and relaxing. A ten minute walk leads me to a swimming pond and a cross country trail. It takes twenty minutes by bus ride or car ride to get to Ulricehamn, where I attend school and where my Rotary club is. An hour and a half drive brings me to Göteborg, the second largest city in city on the western coast and a forty minute drive brings me to Jönköping, which is located on Lake Vättern. My village has a sock store and a few buildings, but it is mostly homes. There are a few little streets with houses, but most of the homes are surrounded by open-space and are on hills. I will be living here until I switch host families in January. I have really appreciated the simplicity of lakes, hills, meadows, trees, and the neighbor cows grazing on the grasses. I don’t feel isolated because there is rarely a day when I don’t leave the village. 

Between the 15^th and 20^th of August, I attended language camp with around 30 other students from Rotary districts 2360 and 2380. It was at a folk school (folkskola) in Fristad. I am in district 2360, which is the district extending all the way to Göteborg. Ulricehamn is right on the border of the two districts. I like where I live because I have proximity to the west coast, but I have also been able to visit places like Jönköping. I thought we would be learning Swedish several hours each day for the week, but it turns out we had a full day of Swedish the first day, and a half day the second day. After that, we met some university exchange students who were studying in Sweden, ate crayfish (kräftor), had a barbecue, we went golfing, which was surprisingly more fun than I anticipated, and we visited the city of Borås. I came home with some more Swedish materials and lessons and they are helpful, but in some ways I wish we had learned a bit more Swedish. I met some wonderful people who I will see throughout the year. I left camp exhausted but happy to have met some great people.

Last Monday I started school. I was a bit anxious but not exactly nervous. I had already met twice with my Rotary officer Jörgen who happens to also be my choir and orchestra instructor. My school has tracks. Instead of students taking a certain number of required courses, students specialize and take fewer courses in some areas, and more in other areas. The schedules also change everyday, and the classes may occur only two or three times a week, and at different times and rooms depending on the day, so it is a bit confusing. The administration decided since I didn’t need any sort of credit that I would be in the aesthetic track, which consists of music, theater, and art. I chose art because I always wanted to do art in high school and never had the time in my schedule. They decided the second year students were a good class, but that I should be able to be a third year student as well, since that is the last year of gymnasium and there are many activities to partake in.  I also decided to do math class, and they put me in a high math since I did calculus in high school.  The people in the aesthetic track don’t need as much math, so the fact that I am with second years, third years, and math with people from the science and math track, means my schedule is incredibly messed up. Normally, people stay with the people in their particular track for every class, except perhaps one or two optional electives. There are about 25 people in the second year aesthetic track, and 25 in the third year. I on the other hand, see the second year students on Monday and Tuesday, a bit on Wednesday, and then during most of Thursday and Friday I am with third year students. I like that I am able to meet more people this way.

The first few days of school were a bit stressful, but by Wednesday I knew a few people, and by Friday I recognized even more people and I felt more relaxed. My class schedule is still not in order; on my electronic schedule it says I am in seven math classes. I have so far gone to natural science with the second years, culture and history, social studies, art class which I have several times a week since that is my point of focus, photography, and digital media class where I am currently learning how to use Photoshop. I am also supposed to go to math, but my schedule has many conflicting things, and by Monday hopefully they will straighten out. I also go to language lessons where I work on pronunciation and comprehension with a teacher, and another teacher offered to provide some materials and guidance for learning Swedish whenever I have open spots in my schedule. I am also trying to add more Swedish lessons to my schedule. I am motivated to learn the language so everyday I write words that I hear in class or students say, and in the evenings I look up the words and review them. That is helpful. 


The aesthetic track puts on a musical every year, and it is open to all of the third years in the track. They invited Naomi and me to join, and I started yesterday. It is two or three hours every Thursday and Friday until the spring. I have never considered myself a theater type, but it was actually quite fun and the people are wonderful. We don’t know what the performance will be, but practices will be much more intense later on.

I feel pretty good about school, besides the lack of organization that seemed apparent when I first entered as an exchange student. Fortunately my teachers, especially Jörgen, my Rotary counselor and teacher have made up for that. Part of the deal is that my school is going paperless and the school seems preoccupied with handing out laptops and figuring out the computer system. There are times when I am bored, but luckily most of my classes aren’t simply lectures so I can participate. The teachers have been helpful and have been explaining a few instructions in English. Soon I think I will be able to not need those, but right now it is helpful.

I am now relaxing after the first week of school. My new friend Rebecca is coming over on Sunday and she promised to teach Naomi and me to make kanelbullar (cinnamon rolls).  Next weekend, my Rotary district is bringing us sailing in Uddevalla which is near the western coast, and three days later, the class of second year students in the aesthetic track is going to Denmark to see Louisiana, a famous art museum. The weekend after that I may be going to Liseberg, an amusement park in Göteborg. My experience in Sweden is becoming more wonderful the longer I am here.