feelings.....

I guess I knew the time would come when I would have to come home. I also knew that it would not be easy to say goodbye. I guess I just thought it would be easier for me to deal with, because I know that I will be back. I guess it just doesn't seem soon enough.

I knew that coming here, I would love it. I love the environment. I love the people. I love the language. I just love everything. Life here is very different from life back home, and I am not so sure that I am ready to come back. I like life here. Although right now life is a bit easy here because I dont have a job, if I would have been able to get one, I would have done it. I like working.

Working here is nice, because you at least get paid a fair wage. I would get paid more here to do the same sort of job (cashier) than I did back home. Substantially more. The average cashier here makes close to 2,000 USD a month after taxes are taken out. That's WAY more than the average cashier in America. It would be lovely to be making that kind of money. Granted, things are a bit more expensive here, but its worth it in the long run, because you get so much out of your tax money. I personally love their education system here. I also love their health care system. I don't suppose that many people would agree with me, but I think that for such a small country it works. Plus, with less people you have less people to take advantage of the system. I think that is one thing that I will love more when I am able to be a working Swedish resident.

I love how relaxed things are here. I have never really felt rushed, or stressed. At least I have never felt rushed or stressed like I have back home. I like the way of life here. I like the attitude that most people here have. I like everything.

 At first I definitely felt unsure if I was ever going to be able to adjust. Especially to the way that people shop for groceries here. And to operating at a lower volume.... because I definitely have learned that I am much louder than the average Swede.

But after being here for 4 months now, I can definitely say that I can adjust, and have adjusted, and I think I like the way they do things here better. I like walking to the store, or if its raining taking the bus. I now know that I can get used to it, although some days I do hate it. I can deal.

I think that since I have been here I have learned so much, and expanded my view on things so much. I also think that I really am meant to live here, rather than back in the U.S. I think that going back is going to be a big adjustment to me, because I am so used to the way things are here, and how much I like things here.

I've come to realize also that,  I don't think I will be able to eat certain basic foods (bread, and yogurt) when I get home, because after tasting them here it won't be the same. I think in general I have become a food snob since I have been here. Because I have cooked so many good meals, with great ingredients. I hope that I will be able to keep that up when I get home as well.

I dont really have much else to say. I just am a big ball of emotions, because I am not particularly ready to come back, but I am so excited to get home as well, to share my experience with everyone. I will have plenty more to talk about after this weekend I am sure.  I will be sure to try to post it as soon as I can, so that its posted before I leave, since next week is my last week here.

Sorry for blabbering on about how I feel, but I think that its kind of appropriate given that my time here is almost up, and I am kind of emotional about it, because I am conflicted about how I feel about coming home. Now that its all out, I feel better. That's all that I have for tonight. I will post possibly on Sunday or Monday, about this weekend.

Museum time!

We went to a museum this week, well last weekend now, but that doesnt matter. What matters is that I had a wonderful time. We went to the science museum here in Malmö. Its awesome. Its divided into sections, and that is pretty helpful. Otherwise it would seem like a giant mess. The first section that we went to was what I am going to call the airplanes section. Basically it covers the history of flight, from the Swedish point of view. It was actually really interesting, because they had an actual old military plane, as well as its engine on display. but they also had models of all the different types of planes produced here in Sweden. It was just cool to see all the different types of planes, and to know that they all came from Sweden was also pretty cool. After that section we headed upstairs to the section where we spent most of our time, the kids museum. I understand that sounds like a silly thing to do, seeing as I am now 20 years old, and Anton is 22, BUT it definitely was an amazing experience! It was so much fun. For those of you who are familiar with it, this part of the museum was a lot like COSI. It was great. There was so much to do, so many things to play with! It was just a great time all  around! I didnt get a lot of pictures from this part, because it was mostly about interacting with the things around you, so its a bit tough to get a picture that tells the story. I guess its just something that you have to experience yourself. If you ever come to Malmö I highly recommend visiting this museum. I think I am just going to finish describing the rest of the museum, and then put the pictures at the end. That seems like the appropriate thing to do, since I have already described most of it. So the last rooms we went into were also really neat, we walked back downstairs, and into a room that had trains, and bicycles. There was also an upstairs section that had a bunch of taxidermied figures, and plenty of educational videos about atoms. It was really fun, and I learned a lot, and it was just overall an amazing experience. We went upstairs first, then worked our way back down, then we found the highlight of that room. it gave you access to get onto the submarine... I dont have a picture of it, but I promise that I will go back next week and take a picture. I was planning on going back next week anyways, because this was only half the museum, and then there is also a castle. So dont worry, my trip might be ending, but there is still TONS of fun in the next week.