Late last month, a very sleepy Sam got up at 2am to catch a train going 145km north of the Arctic Circle to Kiruna. Here, along with 35 other exchange students, she saw some pretty amazing things and had a whole lot of fun. On our first afternoon in Kiruna we went to the local ski hill. We took the chair lift up and then flew down the hill on these snow scooters! It was so much fun! I realised that I was not such a good driver as I kept on crashing into the sides of the course but it was such a fun thing to do with everyone. It was originally planned to see the Northern Lights on the first night but it was too cloudy so we had our fingers crossed for the next night. The second day consisted of visiting a Sami Church, an outdoor Sami museum, meeting the the reindeers and having a traditional Sami lunch. But guess what we were eating- reindeer! It did taste good but it was a bit sad to eat after just having such a nice time with them. After that we were fortunate enough to be able to visit the Ice Hotel! It was absolutely amazing, everything (the structure and everything inside) is made out of ice. Very cool! There are about 55 rooms and every year during summer the entire hotel melts and then they make it all over again. If you were wondering, when making the Ice Hotel they use enough snow to make 700 million snowballs! The perfect end to day came very late at night. At almost at midnight someone ran into our room and screamed "Northern Lights!" so we all jumped out of bed and ran outside in our pyjamas. Despite being freezing cold, I can't describe the beauty that we saw that night. Green, blue and purple lights danced across the sky and it was by far one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. I just felt so unbelievably happy to be able to experience such a wonder and to be surrounded by such amazing people from all over the world. On our third day in Kiruna we first went back to the Ice Hotel to look around again for a bit and then went on a snow mobile safari! Mid-way through our safari the snow mobiles supposedly "broke down" and then these dogs came running down the hill with dog sleds following them! Ah I was so happy! We then went dog sledding to a big open area and spent the rest of the day there sliding down massive snow hills on mats, ice fishing (sadly the only thing I caught was a cold) and sitting around the camp fire. We finished our big busy day with a fancy dinner and taught everyone a dance special to our country. Myself and the others from Australia showed everyone the Nutbush! Everyone joined in and it overall was such a fun night. I had such a good day and I didn't think it could get any better. But then, at about 10pm we decided to walk up to the ski hill again and guess what, we saw the Northern Lights again! On our fourth and final day in Kiruna we spent the morning in the largest underground iron ore mine in the world. The bus just kept on driving down lower and lower, it was really exciting! We were able to take a tour of the mine and it was really interesting to see, especially considering that they have to move the whole town to cater for the mine. I am so thankful that I was able to experience such amazing things with these people, it was some of the best days I've had in Sweden so far. Here's to many more adventures!
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It has been quite some time (a month!) since I last wrote on this blog, sorry about that. I will have to try to write on it some more, it makes me happy to be able to remember and share my experiences. In two days I will officially be in Sweden for two months and it so crazy to think how fast the time has gone. I've been up to quite a bit lately and I'm so excited to try and describe some of it! Although, I do find it hard to describe how it's all going in Sweden as I can't fit all the emotions and things I'm doing into a few understandable sentences but to sum everything up I can say that although sometimes it can be tough, I do really love it. I think one of the most exciting things I have tried is ice swimming! It was absolutely freezing (-15 outside and 0.5 in the water) but I'm so glad I did it. I do have to admit that I was pretty nervous and scared about it all so I feel quite proud of myself for doing it. It made me realise that I can do things if I really believe in myself and that I am a lot mentally stronger than I often think I am. In my month one video there is a clip of the ice swimming if you wanted to have a look. I have also been fortunate enough to watch a professional floorball game and the semi-final of Melodifestivalen live- the song contest in Sweden that decides who they put on Eurovision (speaking of Eurovision I am so excited to watch it, I can't wait to see who Australia's representative is!). I've also had a go at cross country skiing and ice skating, visited the ocean (which I do have to say looked a bit more like Antartica), had a Melodifestivalen/karaoke night with my school friends, visited Ikea, was involved playing the clarinet in my city's local folk music festival and explored a Sami village, the traditional reindeer herders of northern Sweden. I think that I will have to do a whole seperate post on the Swedish food and language, because there are many different stories just in that! To end this post I would like to share how grateful I am for these opportunities and for the people I get to share them with, it really makes my heart feel warm. Until next time, hej då! On Tuesday, it will officially be a month since I arrived in Sweden! Time really does fly! I have spent the month exploring my local city and surrounding areas, meeting lots of new people, trying delicious Swedish food, attending my new school and of course, trying my best to learn Swedish. Shortly after my arrival in Sweden was Australia Day! I was very excited to share with my new Swedish family and friends a taste of what Australia is proud of. The day began at school where I shared Tim Tams (a big hit!), Vegemite (not so much of a hit) and classic Australian music with my friends. Another part of my plan for the day was to make ANZAC biscuits for my host family however, my first problem was thrown at me as soon as I looked down at the recipe. "1 cup of flour". That doesn't sound like a problem does it? Oh let me tell you, in Sweden you do not measure by cups, you only measure by grams. Ah I can fix that I thought, I'll just convert it to grams! I used my trusty friend Google to double check how many grams were in a cup and yep, it said 340 grams. No problem I thought, 340 grams of flour, check! After the flour and sugar went in and I was about to add a 'cup' of coconut I thought to myself, gosh this is an awful amount of ingredients I'm putting in, I'm sure at home I never use this much! I then decided to check with Goggle and sure enough, Google proved not to be so trustworthy as 1 cup only equals 340 grams if you're talking about liquids- it's only 128 grams for flour! Ahhhhhh what have I done! It also didn't help that we were on the verge of running out of coconut and oats, I ended up only adding about 60 grams of both of them and then to add to all of that it turns out that golden syrup doesn't exist in Sweden! It was turning into a recipe for disaster! After realising my big measuring mistakes, I was very confused to how much butter, water and baking soda I should be adding considering how crazy and out of balance my other measurements were, so I ended up taking a random guess and just hoping for the best. At that point just imagine white, porridge like blobs that had texture of glue. How was I going to serve this mess to everyone saying that it was an Aussie favourite? Luckily after them being in the oven for almost an hour (I know an HOUR), they turned a slightly less ghost white and kind of tasted a little less like rubbery porridge so onto the serving plate they went. "Mmmmmm yum" my host family said. "What's in these? I'll have to get the recipe off you!" Ahhh well, to get a biscuit tasting as special as these ones do, all you have to do is not follow the recipe! It's foolproof! Aside from planning on how to improve my ANZAC biscuit making, I have also been fortunate enough to spend my time trying real ice skating with my classmates, walking on frozen lakes, eating delicious Swedish food (homemade Swedish meatballs, cinnamon buns and Swedish chocolate are soooo good) and having lots of fun at dinner parties with family and friends. To top it all off, I was lucky enough to spend a week at an introduction to Swedish language and culture camp with the other exchange students that had also come to Sweden in January. I had the best time at this camp, I met some amazing people and made some friendships that I know will last a lifetime. At the camp we were fortunate enough have daily Swedish lessons, a visit to a spa and sauna overlooking a frozen lake, a trip to a Swedish rubbish and recycling plant, a trip out to the movies and countless treks to the local supermarket, ICA, to stock up on Swedish chocolate. I'm so grateful for Rotary to make experiences like this possible, I had such an amazing time and made lifelong friendships. So, as you can see my first month in Sweden has been jam-packed and I've loved every second of it. I've learnt so much, experienced some amazing things and made friendships that will last forever. Until next time, hej då! I think it's safe to say that in the space of a week I have felt almost every emotion known to man. Happiness, sadness, wonder; in this one week I have felt them all. Some might be wondering, why? Well, on Friday the 20th of January 2017 I left Sydney for a one year Rotary Youth Exchange in Sweden, a place that seemed so completely different it could have been on another planet.
I'm not going to sugar coat it, saying goodbye was hard. However, I think what pushed me through those departure gates was knowing that there was going to be a loving Swedish family on the other side awaiting me with open arms. After counting down from 150 days and spending countless hours on the internet googling my Swedish town, it was amazing to think that my dreams were going to become a reality very soon. If I take you through those 30 hours getting from Sydney to Sweden it went a bit like this: crying, unimaginable excitement, constant talking with the 30 other exchange students on the plane, being as tired as you could ever possibly imagine, eating, some more eating, being in complete awe as we flew over the lights of Russia, sleeping, a quick dash to a connecting flight (which I almost missed), absolute wonder flying through a sunrise in Copenhagen and finally a quick squeal when I saw Swedish snow! I can't begin to explain the emotions of relief and excitement when at the airport, I saw my host family for the first time. After months and months of messaging and saying "I'm so excited to meet you" it was an amazing feeling seeing all those messages come into reality. Some people say that love at first sight doesn't exist. Well I can't say that I have much of an experienced love life however love at first sight certainly does exist. I can't think of any other words to describe my short time in Sweden but jag älskar Sverige! While walking through my Swedish town and talking to my host family and friends, gratitude, wonder, awe and sheer love have flooded through me. Gratitude for both my families and my Rotary district for trusting and giving me the opportunity to experience such beauty and awe in how beautiful (and cold!) our world and the people in it are. For those who say love at first sight doesn't exist, I've fallen in love with Sweden. |
About meFollow me on my 12 month Rotary Youth Exchange adventures from Sydney to Sweden.
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