It's a start.

Okay, I decided after already being in Sweden for almost 3 months that I would start blogging about my experiences. I guess it is always nice to share, and it will maybe help me remember some of the great times I have had and will have while I am here.

I will start out by saying my Swedish is awful! I am trying to find new ways to improve it, I think I partly wanted to start blogging so I would have a place to write a word of the day or something. Maybe I should just write a few statements in Swedish instead, because my reading and listening are not the issues, it's my speaking that I have absolutely no grasp of!

A little about my year so far, I am living in Stockholm, on an island in the inner city call Djurgården, which translates to animal garden. I live in a very nice area, on the island, which is maybe 2 km long, there are 2 museums, an amusement park, restaurants, a place called Skansen that is part zoo part old fashion recreation of houses and life back in the day. Also, I live right next to a small palace, called Rosendals Slott. Just up the road there is a beautiful garden called Rosendals Trägård (trägård means garden but if directly translated it's tree garden). I live in an area with a lot of big houses, my house is not one of those really big houses but it is absolutely beautiful, the house used to be part of the palace, maids chambers or the kitchen, something like that. My host mom is really great and she is very welcoming, I have felt at home since I arrived.

I attend gymnasium (high school) at Östra Real, which I can never pronounce correctly I don't know why. The school is really big and very old and my locker is on the forth floor, while most of my classes are on the second floor. It's quite the workout. I have made great friends at school, they accepted me immediately, I am very lucky to have them!

I also spend a lot of time with the other rotary foreign exchange students, we usually hang out once a week, it's nice to have people who are going through the exchange together. I am one of the oldest exchange students in Stockholm, there is only one kid who is older than me. One girl, Marian from Mexico, is only 15 years old I don't know how she does it, at 15 I certainly wasn't ready for an experience like this, I'm sure she will grow a lot from this year though.

It is strange how similar the culture here is to that of home, I feel like I am home here because it is just so similar. The one big difference is that I am living in a city and not a town like Elmira, there is more shopping here, obviously, and more places to hang out, like coffee shops. I think the atmosphere of the café's are different here, not enough to really know it but still different. Also there is a night life here, I have gone out dancing with my friends 3 times now, each time to a different club. It's a lot of fun, and definitely nice to be 18 here, otherwise I wouldn't get to go out like that.

Well, I think that catches me up for now, I will do my best to keep in touch.