less than a month to go.

Less than a month, and I will be in Sweden. Its crazy to think about, because I've never been so far away from home. I'm way more excited than nervous. I'm not going to lie, I think the most nervewracking thing about my trip, will be going through customs, when coming into Denmark, and when coming home to the United States. 

Plans have changed already, since my best friends have to be in school again the day that I leave, they will not be coming with me to the airport, nor will they be able to come to breakfast with me. I did however request that we get dinner the night before. That way I don't miss out on time with them completely. I really am hoping that in the week before I leave I will be able to spend time with all my friends, as well as family. I don't want to miss time with anyone before I leave. I will be gone for three whole months, and I want to make sure that I spend time with everyone, as well as get their addresses, so that I can send packages, and letters while I am there.

I also have already asked Anton if while I am out exploring during the day, if I can borrow his fancy camera.... My camera is not nearly as nice. It works for what I paid for it, but I do like his camera a lot more. I am so excited to be able to go out, and take pictures of all the things that are different. I am pretty sure that you will see some pictures of things that you won't expect to see. I already know that I am going to take a picture of his toilet. Swedish toilets are different than American ones. Anton says they aren't too different, but they are still different enough to warrant a picture. I plan on taking lots of pictures of food too! That is going to be something you should expect to see lots of pictures of.

This week, during my absence from blogging, I discovered a site, called drungli. (www.drungli.com) Now you might be wondering why that's worth mentioning.... Because this site is going to allow me to travel to places that I was not expecting to be able to travel to. This site finds you the cheapest one way flights to different places in Europe. Granted its a one way flight, but that means that you can either fly to somewhere else cheap too, or a flight home will be relatively cheap compared to a round trip. I found a flight to Gdansk Poland, for 9 SEK, Which, is the equivalent of $1.30 USD Thats crazy! Now, Anton says that Poland is not that interesting, but I want to see it for myself. So I think a trip to Poland is very possible. We found a trip to London, from Copenhagen (which would mean a train ride) for $25 USD, now granted once you add in the train cost its about $40 USD, but overall for a one way ticket that is not bad. So London is also a possibility. I'm pretty excited about that! I also am trying to convince him to go to Barcelona, because I found a relatively cheap ticket to there from Copenhagen. There is a ticket however from Malmo, to Budapest Hungary, for close to $20 USD, which would not require us to take a train to the airport... I really think that going to Hungary is a possibility for travel as well. Although Once you are in Europe you really have an open door to a lot of places.  Its going to be so nice to be able to see the world, I now know that I have the opportunity to go to a lot of places in the three months that I am there. Which is even more exciting. 

For now this is all that I really have to write about. I wish that I had more, but I don't want to bore anyone, and I need to get back to working on Swedish, as well as getting things in order in my room, so that I can figure out what is going with me, and what is not. I won't be on much this weekend either, because I will be spending time with family. I hope that Monday I should be able to blog another post about something interesting that I found out about Sweden, or my trip. I'm going to be reading a travel book this weekend, maybe I will find somewhere else that I want to write about. 

31 days.

There are only 31 days until I leave. I'm getting anxious. I'm brushing up on Swedish. As well as, going through my wardrobe to find what I am taking, and what I'm not. I'm constantly making sure that my passport in a safe place. I'm so excited, and nervous. I'm not nervous because I think the trip will be a disaster. Just nervous because I'm about to take a huge jump, from being a young woman in North-west Ohio, to being a young woman in Sweden.

Which, in reality isn't a HUGE jump, but for me it is! Its been my dream to travel for years, and now its finally happening. I've always worried that I am going to make a bad impression, like many other Americans, by not knowing how to speak the language, or offending someone without knowing it, by doing something, that is common here in America, that is not so common, or polite there. Although Anton says that its not going to happen, that I will be alright. I just am  a bit worried. I am more excited for the trip than worried though. I love the idea that I am going to finally be a world traveler, that I've finally got a start to my dream of seeing the world.

I am excited to be able to get there, and report to everyone what I find, what is different from home, whats the same as back home, just everything! I think it will be interesting for me to be there for three months, because its not like I will be there for just two weeks, (average vacation length) I'll be there for a lot longer! I think that is to my advantage though. I think it will help me get used to things, and learn more things about the culture, that if I was only there for two weeks I wouldn't have had the chance to!

I am excited to prove to everyone, here as well as there in Sweden, that I can make it living in another culture. I want to have a very good grasp of the language before I leave to come home, so I will be using Swedish as much as possible while there. My goal is to come back, nearly fluent...(Which I doubt will happen) but I can hope! I've been working on Swedish during the days here, I have a book that has basic words and phrases. I also have a few other books, that I reference from time to time, to attempt to learn about sentence structure because it might be useful to know. Knowing all the basic phrases is going to be a good start though!

I feel like it would be good for me to post on here some of the phrases that I will be using the most often. Even if only for myself, to see if I was right about what phrases would be important. As of right now the phrases that I think are important, are just based on what I think. I could be completely wrong. I think it will be interesting to see if the phrases that I think will be common for me, will really be that common, or if I will find that I use other phrases more.

So I suppose I should start with the basics and work my way to the tougher phrases.

Hej  - Hello/ Hi
Hej då  - Good bye
Hur mår du?   - How are you?


I guess those are the basic phrases, besides the responses to "How are you" But I know those, and can put those up here later if I feel like it. I guess for this post, I've bored everyone enough, maybe I'll get around to posting another thing tomorrow, maybe I wont, but for now you have this post to read... but not to fear, I've got ideas stirring for my next post already!

Interview

So after thinking for a bit about what this post should be about, I decided that questioning Anton about his experiences could turn out interesting. He has been here to the United States twice, and I think that he has gotten a pretty good grasp as to what life is like here, at least in North-west Ohio. Interviewing him, as to what he thinks are some of the main differences should be at least a bit eye-opening.


Katie: What was the biggest differences that you noticed in the way that we celebrate Christmas here in the U.S.?

Anton: My family has always had one single event where everyone gets together. Which is different from what I saw last  year where there was several different dinners on different days with different parts of the family. The food was also very different. There was lots of casseroles that I had a hard time dealing with, they were just so filling. In Sweden there is a lot more focus on meatballs, sausages, ham and potatoes. Of course there's also "julmust" to drink, a traditional swedish christmas beverage. I have also never gone to church during christmas, something that is much more common to do over in the U.S. than here. Sweden is a very secular country so going to church in general is less common.


Katie: What differences did you notice in the weather during your two weeks here last winter, from your weather during that time of year back home?

Anton: Sweden is normally a lot colder and a lot snowier. Especially if you live in the northern parts where most of my family lives. Just the other day they had about 20 inches of snow in 24 hours. So I'm definitely used to cold and snow, the weather in Ohio was fairly mild in comparison.


Katie: What was the most annoying thing about Christmas here?

Anton: I know a lot of the american readers will disagree with me on this, but I have to say the christmas decorations. Comparing it to what I'm used to it feels way overdone, people just put up so much more stuff on their houses over there. In my experience, if someone does that in Sweden they end up being the laughing stock of the neighborhood because it  is seen as tacky and tasteless.  The swedish word "lagom" comes to mind in this situation. It has no direct equivalent in English, but its meaning is basically "just right, not too much and not too little". It reflects the swedish stereotype of modesty and lack of desire to attract attention.


Katie: You came here for two months over the summer, what was the biggest difference that you noticed in the weather?

Anton: The humidity! Oh dear, the humidity. Compared to what I'm used to, it feels like walking around in a rain forest. Step outside for ten minutes and your feel like you just took a shower with your clothes on. At least in Sweden the heat is dry, so you can escape to the shadow if it gets too hot. Definitely prefer the weather back home.


Katie: You spent some days at home while I was at work, I assume that you watched some television, What are some of the differences that you noticed?

Anton: There are so many reruns and marathons! You do have a bigger selection of channels and programs than back in Sweden, but I was amazed to see so many channels showing a single show for an entire day. Back home, an episode of a show is usually shown twice, once when it's first aired and then a second time the same week as a rerun. After that you're forced to watch it online or wait until they show the whole season again which could take years, if it even gets shown again. This makes us value our TV time a bit more I think, if we care about a show we make sure to catch it or record it, and when it's done we can move on to doing other things. In the US it's so easy to just get stuck watching TV because there's always something on, always something you enjoy, even if you've seen it already. There's also a much higher number of reality shows over there. They do exist in Sweden too, but the number people who are willing to completely throw away their private life seem to be bigger in the U.S.


Katie: What are some of the biggest differences that you noticed, during your trip here over the summer?

Anton: Here's a short list of things that are different: Everything over there is either a) covered in cheese or syrup or b) deep fried. Everything is bigger. Through most my life I've been able to walk to most places I need to go in 20 minutes, even now when I live in the third biggest city in Sweden. In the US you'd be looking at a 20 minute drive instead, and that's just in relatively small city like Toledo. Your banking system is atrocious. For starters, you still use checks, something that we stopped with a long time ago. Sending money to others is a pain regardless of how far away the recipient is. In Sweden we can go online and send money to anyone's bank account and they will recieve it instantly (if they use the same bank as you) or within a few days.

That's all the questions both of our brains could handle for now, if I think of anymore later, I will post them. I also want to encourage you, as the readers, if you have any questions about his trips here, or once I get to Sweden, my trip, that you would like answered, to post them on here, I check for comments quite often, and will ask him if necessary, and be sure to post the answers for you!

Expectations.

Instead of  writing about each of the places that I'm hoping to visit during my first week in Sweden, (Don't worry, I'll write about that another day) I decided to take time to post about my expectations of Sweden, and this trip as a whole. From the trip from my house to the airport, to the trip from the airport back home, the following is what I expect to happen, encounter, and learn during my three month vacation.

I expect Sweden to be calmer than Toledo. I don't expect it to be as calm as a field of flowers, but I also don't expect to see customers jumping through a drive through window of a McDonalds because they can't get chicken nuggets in the morning. I don't expect to hear about people getting shot, or their houses burned down, or huge car accidents on a regular basis while I am there.  I'm not saying that these things won't happen, because I'm not ignorant. I'm sure that things like those mentioned above do happen (with the exception of the person in the drive through), but I've got a hunch, that things like those don't happen as often as they do here. I also have a feeling that theft is a lot less common, that people don't steal from others cars, (that may be due to the fact that there aren't as many cars in Sweden as there are here.) or home, or off their person. I feel that things in Sweden will be a lot more peaceful. It won't be as busy. People won't be in as much of a rush as Toledoans, as Americans in general, at least that is how I envision it.

I suppose I should mention that I envision Sweden as much prettier than Toledo. Although, I think just the fact that Sweden has so much more history has something to do with it being prettier. If Toledo was as old as Sweden, I could see it being prettier. It would be stupid of me to say that I think Sweden is more beautiful, without showing some pictures for comparison. Although I am going to take the best photos of both places, so I guess it will make Toledo look a bit nicer than it actually is to live here.
So here are some pictures of Sweden:

And now for some pictures of Toledo:

Granted all these pictures are not the only things in Toledo, nor are the pictures all there are in Sweden. I just tried to get a good mix. Although if you google Toledo Ohio, the majority of the pictures are of Downtown Toledo. Which is understandable. I wish I could have found some of the rest of the city. Maybe at some point I will post pictures of my favorite places in Toledo, and compare it to my favorite places in Sweden...(Once I've been there and had more experiences there) I always seem to post "Maybe... I'll post"  I'm sorry if that bores anyone, its just a way for me to remember my ideas for things to post, and think about later!  

I expect that when I get there, people will be friendlier, and more welcoming. Not to say that I believe that all people here are unfriendly, but I do think that Swedes will be friendlier to an American girl, than Americans to a Swede. I think this, due to the fact that in Sweden, children start learning English at a young age. It's required. After you get to high school, and pass your required English classes, which is the two first years, you are not required to take any more English. You also have the opportunity to take another foreign language in high school, which some people take advantage of. I think that, the fact that they are learning about other languages and other cultures when they are younger, makes them more open to other people, as they get older. Here in America, taking a foreign language is not necessarily required, (although advised). Although we are the melting pot of the world, I don't necessarily believe that we are all that open to other cultures. I think because we are not all necessarily exposed to them at a young age, when we are vulnerable to learning the most, that it is more difficult for us to be ok with differences, as we get older. I personally have seen experience with this when I took Spanish class, my freshman and sophomore years of high school. The majority of the kids could care less about learning about a different culture, as well as they didn't want to take the time to improve their skills in the language. I felt that many of the kids in my class, just took it, so they could get into college. Which I think is a sad fact. If we were to force another language at a young age (Which would never be allowed, because too many people would complain) I think we would be more open to other cultures. Anton is always saying that most Swedes don't expect me to speak Swedish, and like to speak English. In my experience here I've never felt that welcoming of another culture. Most of the attitudes that I've seen are those that say "Speak English, perfectly, or I don't want you here" Granted that is not everyone. But it is a chunk of people. I'm excited to see if Anton is correct, about the attitude difference.

I guess my last expectation would be just the atmosphere in general. I know that his hometown was once named Europe's greenest city. When Anton was here, he looked at me funny when I threw away dead batteries. He said that they recycle them over there. So I think that will be completely different for me, because back home its not something that I commonly do (although I should). I also think that it will be different having to walk places, and not depending on a car. I'm so dependent on my car to go everywhere. Getting anywhere without a car is inconvenient. Our public transportation system here is less than reliable, and everything is on such a large scale, that walking would almost be impossible unless you live close to your destination, or want to leave hours beforehand, and chance walking through a bad neighborhood or two.  

So as far as expectations go, these are about the only things that I can think of at the moment. Of course as I come up with more, in the weeks before my trip, I will try to remember and update them. I'm not sure what I am going to write about in my next blog, I hope it will be interesting, and I hope this blog post hasn't completely bored you! I'll post more later today maybe, since I have been absent for almost 5 days, I think I need to catch up some!