Week #2, First week of class

First day of class photo, of course! With Chelsea.
Snow outside my bedroom window today.


Hey everyone, so it's snowing again, to add to the almost knee-height snow we have already. Quite exciting. Everyone has been raving about how cool it is to use IKEA bags to sled with, so I think I'm going to buy one today and try it out later on. :) The snow is expected to last until next Monday, wahoo! Of course, this means the sun won't be out until after Monday... but I suppose that's the way they roll here in Stockholm.

I had my first class this week, "Sweden: Society and Culture." As this may sound like an interesting, contemporary class, it was more of a history lecture. Which, by the way, I did learn a bit of the historical side of the Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden of course). When I signed up for the course, this was not what I was expecting... but it'll do for the 5 weeks I have it. Thankfully, we do not have an exam at the end of the class. :) We do, however, have to read a Scandinavian novel (he gave us about 100 topics to choose from... all in Swedish). The only title I recognized was "Pippi Longstocking"... has anyone read it?

I love the challenge of talking to people from other countries... I have had some difficulty talking to the French people, but we just end up laughing about the language barrier and pronunciation and such. It's neat to watch people find the words in their head, or ask a friend of their native country, "how to say in English...?" So cool. One of my new friends Chelsea, from North Carolina, and I were talking to a couple of the French girls the other day, and they were asking us how do you say something in English... it was something grammatical, and we were stumped. I feel as though we are already losing the ability to put the words together correctly, haha.

Chelsea and I found the Hard Rock Cafe yesterday afternoon, that was so exciting! We're slowly learning how to get around using the train and the metro.

So I'm really looking forward to two things on Friday... Cass, my middle sister, is having her baby #2. I am ready to find out if it's a boy or a girl, so I can buy cute things for "it" to wear! :) I also have a party to attend Friday night, which thankfully will only be about 1pm at home..so maybe Cass won't have the baby by then. The party is at the university, and all the exchange students and their mentors will be there. So looking forward to it. :)

Anywho, I'll keep you posted and I'll have to upload a pic of the baby once he/she arrives!

Love,

Jillian