So I have lots of exciting news to share. It has been a while since I updated, I have been pretty busy. I have been trying to adjust to life here still, and sometimes that in itself has kept me busier than I would like. But not busy enough that I dont have time to blog a bit now.
I have been working hard studying Swedish so that soon I can jump up a level. I still have my goal of speaking with Anton's family in Swedish at Christmas. Hopefully I will be able to achieve that. I certainly am working hard, trying to use it as much as I can. I feel like sometimes it is harder than others. It becomes especially hard when I have to think on my feet. I did notice something a couple of weeks ago in class though that kind of amazed me. I have noticed that I am relying on translating in my head what people are saying less and less. We had an incredibly difficult lesson in class, and I only say that because we didn't really learn anything, we just talked. We talked and talked and talked, about many different things. It was incredibly effective for me to be able to practice the skill of thinking on my feet. It was nice. I noticed though, that normally I am thinking about what people are saying, but I have to think about what all the words mean in English. The other day I was able to just, communicate. Without thinking. Just listen and respond. It was a really nice feeling.
I have started getting ready to be done with my first set of Swedish courses. By that I mean that hopefully in January I will be finished with SFI (Swedish for immigrants) and move up to the next level. That would be fantastic for me. I also hope to be starting a math course then. I am working on getting everything taken care of so that I can be ready to go in January for all of that. I am hoping that everything works out. Even if it doesnt, I should have a lot easier of a time finding a job. My skills in Swedish are improving each day. I am really beginning to see the progress in myself. More and more I am able to communicate what I need in Swedish, and not in English.
I have had to call the Dr. several times in the last few weeks, because I have been attempting to get an appointment set for my surgery. I would have had this done in September, because it is normally done as an outpatient procedure by a normal Dr. but my phobia of needles/injections complicates things a lot. I have had to call many Dr.s offices, and try to stumble my way through Swedish to get them to understand the problem. I have noticed that the past few weeks though, I am able to say more and more of what I need in Swedish, and am relying a lot less on English. I think it helps that I have had to say so much of this over and over again though.
I am working really hard at making sure that I use Swedish whenever I can, so I am actually going to start writing a blog in Swedish. For those of you who follow this blog who speak Swedish, I will post a link to the new blog, I will attempt to update it every day if possible even if its just a few words about my day. That way I have an opportunity to write more in Swedish. Even if you don't speak Swedish, feel free to check out the blog, I will try to post a translation as well. It may not be the best blog ever, but I really feel like it will help. Of course in the process, I am going to be working on blogging on this blog more as well, because I have not been so great at that, and I apologize to those of you who enjoy reading this.
I actually have just discovered last month/the beginning of this month, the joys of pintrest. Through this, I have come across many great ideas for more than one aspect of my life. Although Anton and I love the food boxes, we have had to stop them until after Christmas. We both are just simply too busy at the moment to take on cooking a big meal each night. This would be where pintrest has come in, through pintrest, I noticed that there are TONS of websites that have TONS of great recipes for crock-pot/slow cooker meals. We have decided that for Christmas we are going to invest in a Crock-pot, so that if we are going to have a big day where neither of us are going to want to cook, we don't have to worry about it, I can just pop something in, before I go to school, and we can come home to a nice hot meal.
Another helpful thing that I have found on pintrest is the number of sites that are related to becoming more organized. I have NEVER been an organized person, and sometimes that has been a major problem in my life. I think that now, I need to take charge and start getting my life into order. So the week of the 14th through the 21st of December, I will be home alone, and that will be called "Operation organization" and when I am not in school, I will spend my days at home, making everything into an organized wonderful place to live. I am sick of not knowing where things are! I will be home alone during that week, because I still have school, but Anton was going to go home to spend some time with his family. While I wanted to go with him, I cant justify missing an entire week of Swedish classes for it. I really think that this will be for the best though, because this way, I can organize things exactly how I want, and will not be distracted.
Although, I cant say that I will be 100% undistracted, because I will have a little distraction machine running around the house. Next Friday we are getting a dog! We are so excited! We have already bought her a bed, and have started to plan activities to do with her. This is Anton's first time owning a dog. I have been around dogs, most of my life. In fact even if I didn't own a dog, I am fairly certain that I have always had at least one dog in my life. I think I am a bit overprotective this time around, because I really want to spoil her. (Her name is Molly) She already has a princess pink bed, and I will be working on knitting her a blanket, and a sweater as soon as I get done with my current project. I also bought her little boots, because I dont want her feet to get cold in the winter, and we are going to buy her a jacket shortly after she gets here. I think that having a dog will do other positive things in our life, besides provide us with entertainment, and something to look after. Having a dog means that we will have to leave the house every couple of hours, to make sure that she doesn't pee or poo on the floor. As it is now, we tend to be home-bodies, and only leave when we have to. Having a dog will also help with our organization, because we will need to keep the house clean and tidy or she will wind up getting into things, and we cant afford to have her doing that.
Overall everything has been going well in my life, its just taken some time to adjust. Now that I am getting settled in, and more comfortable with the language, I am beginning to blossom. Things are getting a lot better, and easier. I am so proud of how far I have come since my first trip here. Its hard to believe that I have only been home for not even 2 out of the last 11 months. Time has flown by, and I for one am excited to see what my future holds. Hopefully I will get a chance to get some pictures in this next week that I can upload onto here. We are having a party in class for thanksgiving, because I dont have anyone here to celebrate with yet, and I really felt kind of sad that I wasnt going to be spending it with family. Each of my classmates is bringing a dish from their homeland. This way we can all try new foods, and spend time together being thankful for friends, and family near and far. I have made quite a few friends since I started SFI and it will be lovely to share this holiday with them, because I consider them to kind of be like a second family here to me. Although we all have not known each other that long, we all spend 5 days a week together, and we are all going through some of the same struggles with the language, and adjusting. I am so glad that I have had such a supportive group of people in my class.
Other than all of that we have not been up to much here, other than having friends over to visit. We have had my friend Fia over a few times to visit and play some games. (We have invested in some board games) Its been a lot of fun, and its always nice to spend time with friends. I am so glad that I have made so many great friends here. I still miss my friends and family from home, so those of you who read this, please dont think that I have forgotten about you. Sometimes my life is just so crazy here, and I just dont have a lot of time to respond properly, or to send you a message, You are and will be on my mind this holiday season. I miss each and every one of you. I am hoping to be able to skype more with people before the holidays, so that I can have a chance to say hello to everyone "face-to-face".
I cant wait to get started with all my projects, and for our dog to be here. I am going to stop blogging now, and get started setting up my Swedish blog. I will post on here later with a link once I have it set up. But for now, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, in case I dont get a chance to properly blog before then. I will try to update more frequently in the future.
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