After Exchange

Rafting the Niobrara River
So this is my life now... long night Skype dates with my best friends from all over the world!
Voyage~ A long journey involving travel by sea or in space.

Europa Resa

“Even though we've changed and we're all finding our own place in the world, we all know that when the tears fall or the smile spreads across our face, we'll come to each other because no matter where this crazy world takes us, nothing will ever change so much to the point where we're not all still friends.” ♥

This quote truly explains my 18 day adventure across, and the picture above, just tops it off.

Those 3 people there are my best friends... yes 18 days is enough time for a person to become truly connected...

Now that I am home, and have been home for almost 2 weeks now... my life contains working.. and late night skype calls!

So my Europe tour started in Malmö Sweden went on to Denmark, then to Germany, where we went to Berlin, then to Cracow Poland- then Prague Czech Republic- then to Salzburg (Mozarts home Town) and Zell am See in Austria- then to Lido De Jesolo and Venice in Italy,- the To Chambery and Paris France- then to Brussels Belgium- and then one last stop in Germany, because we made our way back to Sweden.

I have to say my favorite place in Europe was Paris! Such a beautiful city!

This was in Venice, our way of transportation for the day!! Amazing!!! The only bad thing was the heat!! I felt the urge to jump of the gondola into the water!

Prague- Czech Republic!! What happens in Prague stays in Prague!!!

And Germany... this was after we walked a good 2 hours to find this part of the Berlin Wall.. just to write our names on it!!

Totally worth it! I can now say my name is on the Berlin wall!!! :D

Over-all that was the best 18 days of my life... and the best year of my life!!

So many memories that I will never forget... life long friends!! I love you all! Thanks for such a great trip!!

Snart Slut

Almost Over!

So my exchange year is almost over!! I only have about 3 weeks left in which I will be spending traveling around Europe! Berlin, Germany- Cracow, Poland- Prague, Czech Republic- Salzburg & Zell Am See, in Austria- Lido Di Jesolo & Venice in Italy- Chambéry & Paris, France- Brussels, Belgium- and then once last stop through Germany! I am actually leaving today, in a few hours, and I thought before I leave might as well update you on my busy week!!

So this picture above is from Midsommar, and holiday in Sweden when we celebrate the midnight sun, (which is really cool.. but makes you tired after a while, because then the sun rises also very EARLY in the morning!) But it makes up for the very DARK winter season!

So we all make crowns of flowers, and danced around a midsommar pole! It was really cool to experience such a celebration over the sun! We spent the week at my family's summer cottage, which is right on the beach! So that was nice!

This was someone's midsommar pole, it was actually the most traditional midsommar pole that we found!
Also, my friend Maud came down to visit me, she is from France! This is a picture outside out summer cottage, my host sister Mikaela found a jelly fish!
It seems so crazy for me, so just be living abroad... there is so many things that I will treasure from this year! Surprisingly, still after almost 1 year living in Sweden I find things that BLOW MY MIND! Like the fact that I can just go outside walk around the beach, and find a jelly fish from the Ocean!

Lately people have been asking me things like

1. Will I miss sweden? And if so what will I miss most?

2. Am I excited to go home?

&

3. What are my plans for the future?

So here are your answers..

1. DUH! I will miss Sweden... so so so much! I feel totally like this is my home now... Mostly I will miss my host family, who have been so great to me this year, I am so glad that my rotary club put me where I am... which brings me to my rotary club.. who have also been a family to me this year, they have been so welcoming even from the very beginning! And my sponsor person Peter, is probably the nicest man I have ever met! I will never forget him! With out him, I don't think this year would have been as fabulous as it really was! So Tack så mycket Peter!

Also I think I will miss the ocean, and the 15 minute ferry ride to Helsingør Denmark... with always and AMAZING VIEW!

2. I am not super excited to go home.. only because I love it so much here... but I do miss my family a lot, so I am excited to be able to see them again!

3. I am so glad I got to go on this exchange, one of the reasons I wanted to do it, was because I had no idea what my future plans where, but now I am absolutely sure, that I want to work with languages, and I want a job that will allow me to travel A LOT!

When I get home, I think I will start learning other languages, but also keep studying Swedish!

I think everyone should get the opportunity to live overseas, and if you ever decide yes, and exchange is for me, I HIGHLY recommend do go with Rotary, it is such a great program! It was honestly an experience I would never trade anything for!

Grattis på Födelsedag!!!

So this week has been my 'birthday week' and my friend Kristen (from Canada who is living as an exchange student in the upper part of Sweden) has shlepped all the way down to skåne to see me!!! :) So these pictures show a little bit of what we have been doing this week!! The one above was when we visited Copenhagen Denmark, it was really nice to be able to just walk all around the city taking pictures of the nice buildings!

This picture is right outside of a town in Denmark which was suggested to use that we see before we leave Europe... and it defiantly was something that I won't forget, no matter how hard I try. Christiania is a 'free' town, where you have no cost of living, or building rent... pretty much poverty central, it was actually kind of sad to see, but it made me very grateful for what I have back home.

It was mostly an artsy town, that had very much graffiti, and very 'hippie like.' Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures in this town, so this is right before entering.
Monday: I had yet another Rotary meeting, except this time I WAS THE SPEAKER... and I gave a speech about my life, and my year as an exchange student... oh did I mention that I gave this entire 35 minute speech all in Swedish!! ( A language that I have only been studying for about 11 months!!

And then my birthday!!!! :) My host parents surprised me by inviting my Rotary contact person, and his wife, whom are 2 of my favorite people that I have met in Sweden to far! Peter, and his wife Ana, are actually going to visit me in Paxton Nebraska in October! I am so excited that I have met them, and even more excited that they want to see my life in USA! I just want to say it was one birthday I will NEVER forget!
Yes... this is how my night ended! FULL MOON OH YEAH!! This full moon, and every other full moon, reminds me of my dad and our night bike rides, which I am looking forward to coming home too, in about 1 month... yes 1 month only I have left... I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!! I think they time has really gone TOO fast, I would love to stay longer... but then YOU ALL WOULD JUST GET POSTS ABOUT EUROPE! I will be continuing to blog about all of my other adventures, starting with my European tour which begins in 1 WEEK!!!!! Germany- Poland- Czech Republic- Austria- Italy- France- and Belgium!!

Fast rides!

So this is what I got picked up in today for my Rotary meeting... WOW! A ferrari!

When he told me I was going to be picked up in a ferrari, I didn't think much of it... but this car was FAST!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love being an exchange student??

A little bit more?

So this is another picture from the Ice Hotel, these are the cups that they use at the bar... yes made of ice!! You can only drink hard alcohol in them, or else the ice will melt! And no I did not buy an almost 30 US dollar drink! Crazy prices... but it is the Ice Hotel!!

Another view from the entrance of the Ice Hotel!

25 hour train rides really get to you... after the first like 2 hours!!!

This is another (very athletic ) town we visited, called Abisko, very popular national park for skiing and in the summer, hiking of even biking! I think I will for sure go back there!!
This is just a small map of how far up in Sweden we actually went!! haha.. yea very long trip!!

A trip above the Arctic Circle!

So last week I got back from a week long trip to a small Village called Kiruna, in Sweden. It is about 100 Km above the Arctic Circle, and is known for the famous Ice Hotel. Which is from the picture above. From where I live in Sweden, (Helsingborg) it took us 24 hours by train to get to Kiruna! What a trip!! So the first day we arrived we went straight to the Ice Hotel, and that night I was so tired from the long trip that I went straight to bed....but not before I got a beautiful view of the Aurora Borealis (The Northern Lights) This entire trip, was one that I will defiantly never forget, Kiruna was one of my favorite places I have been to in Sweden. It was such a great trip, with many long lasting memories and some awesome friends I made during that week, from all over the world! I am so thankful that Rotary let us go on this trip, and let us have the opportunity to meet all the other exchange students around Sweden!

So Kiruna is known for the mining for iron, and we actually got to go 700 meters down into one of these mins, it was quite scary actually, but lots of cool information! This is a picture in front of one of the machines.

The other things we got to do on the trip besides what I mentioned above is... we actually went out on a frozen lake (that was so frozen deep, you could drive a train across it!) we split into groups, and learned to start a fire on snow, we got to drive snowmobiles, and we did some team races! We also went sledding, and a tour of the town of Kiruna, before we had to say our goodbyes!

This is another awesome picture from the Ice Hotel, it was amazing to see how much detail was put into every different room!

This was on of the days that all of us exchange students (may I mention this is only half of the group, there was about 60 of us exchange students this week) went to a small town called Narvik, in NORWAY! I have to say, that Norway has some amazing nature, and beautiful mountains. It is defiantly a place I will want to come back to in the future!

The Lappland gates in Norway. Just another great view!!!