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.
