Hello friends, loved ones, and whoever else may be reading this. Sorry it's been awhile. Normally I wouldn't have a very good excuse for my laziness but this time I have a pretty good reason. I'll start by saying the last couple weeks have been nothing less than interesting. After my last blog post, I got overwhelmed with homework. English homework. I have never had this hard of English homework before and I had never really had to work in my English classes before now. I was put in "Engelska C" English C, which is the hardest English class in the Swedish gymnasium. The only people in my class are the ones that actually want to be there, so that part is nice, but it's actually really hard. I'll spare you the details.
I spent the first couple of days of February getting sick again. Not fun. On Thursday the 3rd, my stomach pains got really bad to the point where it heart to take a breath because it made my stomach move, so we left at 11 at night to take my to the hospital. The doctors at the hospital then decided that it as my appendix and I was going to have surgery. So at 3 something Friday morning they wheeled me into surgery, but there was only one doctor on call and he got called into emergency surgery so I had to wait, and I didn't have my surgery until about 9 or so. After that it is kind of blurry, I remember it hurting and them giving me morphine. I was in the hospital til Sunday and then they finally let me go home. So since then I have been resting a lot and trying to regain my strength. Going through surgery without my mom there caused me great homesickness, but I am doing a lot better now. It was such a crazy thing to have to go through 6,000 miles away from home. But now I can joke that I will always have permanent memories of Sweden, my scar.
Other than that, not THAT much has been happening. Surgery is definately the "highlight" of the last couple of weeks. I'll blog more soon, but right now I'm tired.
Hi Amanda, my name is Ursula. I live in Colorado and I'm going to Sweden next year as an exchange student with AFS. Would you mind telling me more about what life is like there, especially school? It would mean so much to me. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHi Ursula! Life in Sweden depends a lot on your family and how you spend your time, I can't really sum up everything I can just tell about my own experience and it also depends on where you are living, if it is a small town or a big town. But really the first couple of weeks everything seems really great and fantastic, then after awhile everything becomes pretty normal and you get into a habit, and it just becomes normal everyday life, with a twist. They talk about that in culture trek actually. So do culture trek, it actually helps! In Sweden you will either be in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd year in the Swedish Gymnasium. It is a LOT like college with the way things are scheduled. Most likely you will be able to choose a program you want to be in, science, nature science, sports, there are 19 programs I think. So once you decide on a program all your classes are going to basically be around the program you choose. At my school personally they are really layed back. People in my class are always on there phones and computers, but don't expect that in every school. Like I said, it all depends on your school and where you live. I hope I helped some. If you have anymore questions or want me to clarify something just let me know! Also me and one of the other exchange students here answered some similar questions about Sweden if you want to check that out, I don't know if you have facebook, but if you do, here's the link http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/topic.php?uid=24932955872&topic=15134
ReplyDeleteit's on the ask an AFSer facebook page.
Feel free to contact me when ever you want if you ever are curious or need anything, even if it's while your abroad. Good luck in Sweden, it's a beautiful and amazing country, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Thanks for your advice!
ReplyDeleteI do want to ask you about the English classes, however. What do you do in them? Do you get to read novels or write creatively? My consular's getting on my butt about finding out and I can't find anything at all.
hey, your blog is absolutely amazing. I have gone back and read through all your posts. I really would like to go on student exchange with AFS to Sweden and i was just wondering what the application process was like?...Haha, you seem to be have an awesome time. Thanks in advance, Savannah.
ReplyDeleteUrsula, I am so so sorry, I didn't respond, I thouht I did, but it turns out I didn't! For my english class, it is all reasearch papers on various subjects. It's actually pretty boring, and sometimes you present things to the group, by my class is online, and we only meet once a month, so it will be differnt with your school most likely.
ReplyDeleteSavannah, thank you so so much for reading my blog! It means a lot to me! The application process is pretty straight forward, and it does take some time, but it's pretty easy. You'll have to fill out a lot of papers, get a check up from your doctor, and get your grades from your school, and some things they ask are pretty specific but it's all worth it, and unless you've murdered someone, they'll most likely accept you! :) Once again, thanks so much for reading my blog! If you have any more questions feel free to ask!