Week 2...

As week two came to a close two days ago I feel the need to update, since I havent updated at all this week. Lots of new experiences, and lots of interesting things happened this week. I learned a lot of things as well!


I started my Swedish class this week. I had a lot of fun, and learned some new things. Class was interesting. It was a huge diverse group of people from all over the world, in a small room, all learning Swedish. I was the youngest person in the room, as well as the one who has been here for the shortest amount of time. Everyone else in the class had been here since at least December, most of them for close to a year. A lot of them knew Swedish, but not a ton, just enough to get by. So when the teacher made jokes in Swedish, they understood. However, the jokes were lost on me. I had no understanding of them at all, other than hand gestures. I understood most of what she taught us, even though she taught in Swedish. It was a bit confusing at first. We were allowed to ask questions in English, which really helped. I think I would have had a LOT of problems if I had not been allowed to speak English at all. The class was extremely diverse! We had someone from the following countries: Spain, France, Lithuania, Hungary, New Zealand, England, Iceland, Iran, Uzbekistan, The United States, and Germany, Kosovo, and Iraq. Its a lot of fun to be in class though. Yesterday, we learned how to say the days of the week, (Måndag, Tisdag, Onsdag, Torsdag,  Fredag, Lördag, Söndag), the months of the year, (Januari, Februari, Mars, April, Maj, Juni, Juli, Augusti, September, Oktober, November, December). I also learned that I speak Swenglish,

When I tried saying the months of the year, my months came out as a combination of Swedish/English. It was a big mess. I got better though by the end of the night. We learned how to count, and learned that we can say HUGE numbers, because its actually really easy to form numbers! I actually had two days of class this week, and on the second day it got easier, because I actually understood more. we learned a lot of new things, but at the same time used the old things to help introduce the new stuff. I like learning.


Just because I feel like I should post what goes through my head at times, I think I should mention that I have a hard time with not knowing the language already. In my mind, I want to know it perfectly, I want to be able to speak it with people. I do not want to rely on English. I don't like not knowing Swedish. In my head it makes me feel like the stupid American. Although Anton, and everyone else here says that no one will mind if I talk in English. I don't like it. I have this concept in my head that everyone will judge me if I speak English, and while everyone denies it, I still can't let the thought go. I am trying more and more though, and the more I go to class, and learn, it gets easier for me to attempt to let it go. It is not easy though. I think until I know enough Swedish to get by, to have a conversation without having to use English that thought will still be in my head. My classes were on Monday and Wednesday.


Monday before class I signed up for a library card here! I figured that I am going to be here for a while, having some good books to read would not be a bad idea. The library here is HUGE. Its amazing. I could have stayed there all day and not seen everything... well maybe thats an exaggeration, but I certainly would be happy to stay there all day! Its a beautiful building. I thought it was a bit confusing to find things at first, but after I got over my fears and asked, I managed to find some good books. As I finish them, I think I will talk about them on here!


Moving on from that, Tuesday we went to see a movie. We went to see "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." It was a fantastic movie, that I thoroughly enjoyed. For those of you who don't know the movie, is based on a book, that was originally written in Swedish, and is set in Sweden. Its a very interesting movie, because if you haven't read the book, then you really are hanging on until the last minute to find out what is going to happen. Its not a very obvious conclusion. I read the book this summer, and thought the movie was fantastic, and that it stuck to the plot of the book very well. The only thing that I did not like about the movie was that Daniel Craig did not have a Swedish accent. All the other characters did though. Overall I was very happy. I noticed a lot of things that were very very Swedish. and I was very excited that I could pick up on them. I am so glad that I went to see it while I am here! I thought about going to see it back home, but I honestly am happier that I saw it here, because it allowed me to recognize things in the movie.


I went to class on Wednesday, and then just relaxed on Thursday. Friday was when the real adventure of the week began. Friday we went back to Växjö. This weekend was culture night! I was so excited, and am SO glad that we went! First off, it is always lovely to be in Växjö with Anton's family. They are amazing people, always friendly, and kind, and always having some good food to eat!


Friday night we also went to visit one of Anton's friend Linn. She and her family are lovely. We sat and talked for almost three hours, about anything and everything. She has the cutest cat in the world. We munched on the most delicious gingerbread cupcakes while we were there. I had a great time, and made a new  friend! It was awesome!


Saturday was the best part of the weekend! It was culture night! There was just SO much to do! They had things going on ALL day. It was wonderful. I wound up attending a choir concert, a fashion show, a fire show, and then having "fika" which roughly translates to a coffee break. We were going to watch an African drum group perform, but the building was full. So then we went to watch another band perform somewhere else, but again the building was full. We wound up staying in this building to have fika. I had a danish and hot chocolate. It was delicious.

This was my danish, along with two what seemed to be cake balls, one for Anton and one for his brother Isak. They were delicious.

This was the hot chocolate. I have never seen hot chocolate like this, the chocolate is in a chunk on the stick, and you mix it yourself. Its super fun, and super tasty.

I should start at the beginning of the day I suppose though, we went out shopping in the morning in some of the local shops. I've decided that my mother was right, that I should have bought some long underwear. No matter how uncomfortable it is to wear it under pants, it keeps me a lot warmer. Through this trip, i have discovered that my hands and feet stay warm, and my arms and legs get cold. It is odd. but The long underwear have helped. After torturing Anton by taking him into clothing shops, we went into a shop that was more his style, a movie store! He wound up getting 26 discs worth of movies and television shows, 9 movies, and 1 season each of 3 television series. After we went shopping we came home, and decided what to do later that day, there were hundreds of events going on at all different times for culture night! 


We decided that we were going to go to a choir show first. Sadly, I did not have my camera with me for this, nor did I write down what songs they sang. It was a 6 woman choir. Their voices were so wonderfully blended, it was amazing. I was in awe. It made me miss singing. After seeing this choir sing, I've decided that I am going to try to find a choir here in Malmö to sing with. I miss singing with other people. I should also mention that Anton's father used to play guitar, and was gracious enough to let me borrow his old guitar while I am here in Malmö, so I am going to be learning to play guitar while I am here! I am super excited!


The next thing we went to was a fashion show! I had so much fun. It was a fashion show of designers who had moved from Sweden to the United States. It very cool to see all the designs. The fashion show was interesting as well partly because even though they had some technical difficulties with the music, the models kept going.  I thought it was a wonderful show, especially because there were no outfits that were over the top, and while I enjoy looking at clothes like that, its also nice to see clothes that are practical. Its nice to see clothes that you can actually see yourself wearing! 

All the girls in the show were dancers. I should also mention that Anton did not go to the fashion show. He had enough girl time, when he went shopping with his mom and I earlier in the day. He went to a video game tournament while his mom and I were at the fashion show. We had to leave the fashion show a bit early, and it was very good timing on our part, because just as we were passing the place that Anton was in, he was walking out the door. We pretty much ran into each other. The road that we met up on, was filled with art. Glass sculptures to be specific. It was awesome. 

After meeting up with Anton, we walked the rest of the way to the fire show. It was a lot of fun. I got some pictures, but I also got a few videos... In the videos though, you can hear me talking about how I didn't wear a hat... which was a mistake, I should have. and how earlier in the fire show someone shoved fire down their pants. 

Then after the fire show we went to the radio station where Anton's dad works. Its a very nice building, and we sat in there and warmed up while we waited for him to finish up his work. Now I should mention that his work did something for culture night, in my experiences here, he does not usually work on a Saturday night.


After that we just went home, and watched a movie, and then went to sleep. Sunday we just had a sort of lazy Sunday, we spent the day playing Mario Kart and watching The Big Bang Theory, which is a geeky television series that Anton bought the first season of on Saturday. After eating a delicious dinner, it was time to come home. We got on the train and managed to get home by about 10:45. 


I feel like I should also include yesterday in this post, since nothing super interesting happened, other than I walked two miles in around 30 mins, and was not worn out. I'm getting more in shape and I'm getting excited! I had class last night too, that was a lot of fun. It always is though. Anton and I also discussed last night our future trips, and it seems as though we are going to go to Berlin, and Paris. Those were the two cities that we decided that we must go see before I leave.  


That is pretty much all that is new right now, I will write more as life gets more interesting.