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.