I Have Moved

As always, time is moving rather quickly. I am currently living with my third host family, as I wait for my second host family to return from their vacation in Thailand. I moved nearly one and a half weeks ago. I miss my first host family, being familiar with the house, and roaming around the village of Grönahög. I had a routine there, but I am finding the change can also be wonderful.

So far my third host family has been wonderful. My first host family had no children living at home while I was staying there, and my host dad spend more than half the time away, so it was normally just me, a fellow exchange student and a host mom. It was an enjoyable first period, but I didn’t always feel I was immersed in Swedish the entire time and I lived in a village with limited bussing. I am not allowed to drive, and my host mom had a busy work schedule, so at times when I had no activities and she was at work, it was difficult to meet exchange students who are concentrated mostly in the Göteborg region, or even friends from school. I didn’t feel isolated, and the village was filled with lovely people, but at times I wished for a greater ability to access my city, see people, or go on an excursion. Still, it was a positive time. I had time to learn Swedish, read, and be introspective about who I am and what it is I want to get out of this experience I was introduced to many nice friends. But, now, I am ready to move forward and I am excited.  I have a greater understanding of Swedish culture and language now, and I believe these host family switches are a good transition point and provide the right structure for the rest of my exchange.

My third host family consists of a host mom and host dad. We live in the countryside, but it takes less time to reach town (about ten kilometers, as opposed to nearly 20 and my previous place), and there are substantial number of busses and more access to transportation. We live in an old farmhouse that was built by my host mother’s family. My Dutch friend Maria lives in the nearby village, and I live just a bit outside that. My host dad runs a small farm and business from home that employs a few people. I have two host brothers Rasmus and Simon, who don’t live at home, and two host sisters, Fanny (17) and Alva (14). Being in a setting with two parents and children at home is nice. My Swedish isn’t great, but I am able to understand a great deal and now I also get a chance to work on speaking more.

In the last days, I have enjoyed becoming familiar with a new family and started school after being on break.  I have done quite a bit of baking, and enjoyed many fika breaks. I helped bake kladdkaka muffins with my host sister Alva. Later a friend of Fanny’s came over, and we baked two types of bread. One of them has graham flour and the other has anise.  While those were rising, we baked two other kakor. One of them translated to farmer cookies and is basically a simple short bread cookie with almonds, and we baked some bars with a chocolate and coffee glaze and with coconut sprinkled on top. I have also gone to see the third Ängladgård film, which was filmed in my region of Sweden, and is well-known in Sweden.

My host dad and Fanny are very good in English, but there is a general rule that we only speak Swedish, unless we need to clarify something. When my host dad begins speaking English, Fanny will remind him. For the last few days, Fanny has been tutoring me in vocabulary using a game she has with different words. She is not afraid to correct me. I feel I understood quite a bit of Swedish before I came, but being immersed more fully has been excellent. I think my host dad and real dad would get along wonderfully. My host dad has a similar personality to my real dad. He is very curious about language and everything in general, and we have talked about some of the idiosyncrasies of both English and Swedish languages. We have also talked about where I come from and he was interested in seeing my house on Google Earth.  My third host mom and younger host sister have also been welcoming.

I have enjoyed being here, sitting down for meals, and in the evenings, watching TV with the family, four cats, and a dog. The atmosphere here reminds me of home. I feel comfortable here, and while I will be moving again soon, I will be back around April. My second family is fabulous as well. I will be in town, which also offers some advantages. I feel grateful to have three different, but equally wonderful host families.