Sometimes in life you have to make choices.

I made the choice to move to Sweden. I made it knowing that it would not be an easy adjustment. I was aware of all the things that could happen, and still chose to move here. I do not regret my decision for one minute.

I have learned so much about myself during these last almost 11 months. It feels so crazy to say that I moved here almost 11 months ago. It doesn't seem possible. I sometimes feel like time has gone too fast. Sometimes I forget to enjoy myself. I make the choice to focus on the negative things, instead of focusing on how amazing this last year has been for me.

Up early in the morning? What better time to blog?

I've been sitting at the desk for a while, wondering what to blog about. I sometimes wonder if what I think and feel are interesting to everyone, or if they are just some sort of side post that people will casually glance at while looking through for blogs with pictures. I think that I am going to take the time to blog about everything that I have been going through, because being an immigrant is not nearly as easy as I might make it seem sometimes. My life has its ups and downs just like everyone's. I think that its about time that I write about this. I feel like there are some things that I need to get out, even if just for my own record to look back on.

I will start with this: My journey has been long, and sometimes it has been really tough, BUT I do NOT regret it for a moment. I absolutely love Sweden, and am thankful for all the opportunities that I have been given by being here. It has been an absolutely amazing experience. I have met so many great friends, and learned so many new things. I think that moving here is the best decision that I could have ever made for myself. I have improved in nearly every way possible since I moved here, and I am so proud of everything that I have accomplished. I am so glad that you all, the readers, find my blog enjoyable, and I hope that this post doesn't deter you from following me in the future.

This post is going to get kind of personal, so unless you want to read more about my struggles here in Sweden, I suggest skipping this post.

And now we are in present time!

Now that I have given you a quick update to all the things that happened in my life, its time to begin talking about the present. Well, the nearly present. Yesterday I ran in my first 10K race. My goal was just to finish, as I really just wanted to do this for my health. I learned a lot of things from this race. The biggest things that I learned is what I am going to talk about in this blog.

The first thing that I learned is you do NOT need to be there 3 hours beforehand. Being there an hour and a half is a good amount of time. Even if you have to pick up your number...

Continuation of new things...

After christmas came all the "terrible" weather. I added quotations because I honestly think it wasn't nearly as bad as if we lived up North. Although  at the time, I sure complained like I thought it was the worst weather in the world. Some days it reminded me of Ohio, because it would snow, and then it would be sunny the next day. But overall it was just REALLY REALLY REALLY cold. I don't recommend coming here in the winter, especially after Christmas, unless you have a good coat and boots. Although I can say when its not blowing as much, watching the snow fall on the frozen sea, or seeing the little Christmas village in the big square in the city, or even just walking around, is one of the most peaceful, and beautiful things I have ever done/seen.

When the weather started getting nicer again, in March two things happened. I both switched to a new swedish class, and joined another school. I switched to an evening Swedish for immigrants course because i needed to start at this new school. What this new school did for me was amazing! My swedish skills improved beyond belief. (Although everyone there was already super impressed with how fast i had already picked up the language.) after about a month of going to both schools i finally took my final Swedish for immigrants test. I found out two days after that i had passed! I was still continuing in the other course though. This course was through the employment office. Essentially i went to a course that is made to motivate you to study further. I am already planning on studying to become a teacher here anyways, so it was just a good way for me to practice my Swedish skills.

Every day i was in the course from 9 in the morning until 1 in the afternoon. Some days were more frustrating than others. For the most part though, i was able to keep up. I really enjoyed my time in the course and made lots of new friends. 

During the course we learned all different subjects from math to even english. It was a bit interesting because they focused on british english. While i can understand british english, they have different phrases and expressions that i couldnt translate, and when we talked about school the positions and systems are very different. It was fun for me to be able to share my opinions and my experiences from home during English time. Everyone here is very good at english, even if they are a bit shy to speak it around me. I was very impressed. 

In april to big things happened in our lives, the first being Anton losing his job. This was not something we were expecting, but in his field unfortunately its not something uncommon. I really think he has handled it very well, and we have managed to live very well even without me having a job. (Although i have a job now,) We have managed to make ends meet and are not worried about the future. In august Anton is hopefully going back to school into a three year program on game developnment. Its a good field to go into at the moment because there are a lot of jobs for people who can make games and apps. I am really excited to see where our future takes us. It will be cool when i can finally study and we can talk to each other about school, and the new things we are learning. 

The second thing that happened in April that was a big deal was...

Lots and lots of news.

 So its been many months since the last time I updated, and I know that I said that I would be more diligent about updating often, but then life happened. Lots of things have changed, and lots of things have happened at once. And somehow I managed to make it through without blogging.

First things first, I have fully embraced the Swedish culture, and I think that was the best thing that I could have done. That started way back in December, I joined in a Luciatåget. (Lucia Train) for those of you who dont know what that is, here is a link. That basically explains the whole tradition of Lucia. That happens every year on the 13th of December. Unfortunately, or fortunately in my case (Since I wound up being in a wheelchair due to a surgery with complications on my toes during the majority of Lucia rehearsals, and was still in it on performance day.), this was a competition Luciatåg, which meant that the public could vote on who would be Lucia. I did not win, but that was completely alright, because by being in the train itself, I accomplished my goal of embracing the culture, and making new friends. I made one friend who is now one of my closest friends here in Sweden. She is just absolutely fantastic, and has been such a huge help to me adjusting to the culture here. You can see my entry video here. In this video I basically explain in Swedish why I want to be Lucia. Here is a video of one of the rehearsals. And here are some pictures:

Me and one of my best friends here in Sweden.

During the time right before my surgery Anton and I adopted a dog.