Two parties, an island and a day on the town

I must say, that Sweden is treating me very well. Every single person I meet is always very kind and willing to try and speak some english with me, for it is very rare that you find someone who doesn't at least know 'hello, how are you?' Which I suppose can be both a good and bad thing. Part of the point of coming to Sweden was to learn a foreign language (read: Swedish) and so as this big adventure gets further along, everyone may soon come to know me as 'That foreign kid who only speaks English' I believe that this is a personal problem and will very easily be resolved when I refuse to answer them in English......but, I'm getting a little ahead of myself as I can currently only understand English and a few Swedish words here and there.

Ok, well....I'm rambling maybe a little too much and I should get back on track as to what I've been doing over the last few days.

A bank account was successfully opened and a new SIM card for my cell phone was obtained. I have also got to know many of Rickard's friends who are very nice and extremely helpful in dealing with my lack-of-Swedish skills. We went to dinner at a potential host family's house who are very good friends with the Stigs and have a daughter Rickard's age and a son a few years younger than Oscar. With us at the dinner was the daughter's boyfriend (Arvid) and his mother, and another for sure host family who has two daughters one my age and another who is 14. The house was very nice and only a 10 minute bike ride from the Stig's home. After the dinner all the older kids met up with Rickard's other friends and went to a boy named Oscar's (not my host brother) house to play some Texas Hold 'Em. No one had any money on them, so we just used poker chips.

The next day we were to go to another dinner party, this time at Chloe's host family's house. We headed out there at about 3:30 in the afternoon where we sat around chatting and eating fruit and little sweets that reminded me an awful lot of brownies (but almost better in my opinion). We then took a short drive from their house to nearby beach where we changed into our swimsuits and jumped into the water, which was extremely refreshing and surprisingly warm. After a short swim we took the short drive back to Chloe's house and had a very nice dinner of grilled pork chops, swedish potato sallad (which I personally didn't care for too much; there was some strange spice that I wasn't too into) and spiced poatoes. If you havn't seen the trend yet, Swedes love potatoes!

Well, I was just going on and on about nothing and then we lost power, so I'm gonna cut right to the chase. We (along with 2 cousins visiting from Stockholm: Otto age 8 and Theodore age 12) went to a small island about 10 minutes by motor off the coast of Varberg called Skrivareklippan (I spelled it wrong on my pictures website....just a small warning, though I don't think any of you would really care, or notice for that matter). We left at about 11:00 in the morning for the island and arrived shortly there after. It was an absolutly beautiful day...I'd say the best we've had the whole time I've been here (which is only one week, but still). There was a small sandy beach to play on and after we splashed around for a while, Lena and Morten gave me a walking tour of the island (see pictures at right). There were a cluster of red houses on one end of the island (I took lots of pictures for you James) apparantly managed by the local canoing club or something....i'm not quite sure.

After we were done on Skrivareklippan we had a small snack and then took a short motor over a very small island nearby called Lilla Skrivareklippan where some friends of the Stigs were. Rickard's friend Johan was there with his family so after a short time on the island Rickard, Johan and I took Johan's small inflatable motor boat to the other harbor in Varberg to get an ice cream. We then returned to the island and it was almost time to leave (lunch was thrown in there at some point, but I can't really remember when, but for those who are curious: we had pasta boiled with sea water, topped with katchup and some sallad and ham. T'was simple, but very good). That night Rickard went to stay over night with some friends on Johan's boat and Oscar was off with the cousins, so it was just the 'rents and I for dinner, which was ok. Morten made pizza with tuna on it (sounds strange but it was actually really good, and aparantly very popular in Sweden). After a short walk with the dog (actually it took quite a while because there was a concert going on down in this area where they do things like that, and we walked through it and Lena kept running into people that she knew so we'd stop and talk and I'd stand there and smile and nod, pretending that I knew what was going on). Anyways, after the walk we headed over to Morten's parents house and met up with the cousins and their mom, Morten's sister. Also there was another cousin there who lives in Varberg and graduated Gymnasium (the type of school I'll be going to) last year. She was in Rent and is planning on continuing her acting career I believe.

Wow, this is getting really long and I still have two days to tell about.

So, on Monday Chloe (other exchange student) and I got together and just explored Varberg together. Nothing too exciting happened that's worth mentioning. She stayed for dinner and we watched 'Ensam Hemma Två' or Home Alone 2. Lena made Swedish meatballs for dinner and I have to say, that was probably the most delicious meal I have almost ever eaten. If we would've had mashed potatoes instead of boiled it would've been the meal to beat all, I'm telling you...So yeah, that was a very good day and meal.

Today (tuesday or 'tisdag'), we went to the school to figure out what my schedule is to be. I have decided to take the Science and Art track or line (whichever you'd like to call it) where the majority of my classes are going to be Chemistry, Physics, Math, Biology (with a short class in History and then English, Swedish and Swedish as a second language which is mainly just for exchange students and foreign kids) and then I get a choice between Dance, Theater, Painting and Sculpture, and Music. I'm going to choose the painting and sculpture. After that Chloe came over for a while and we went to luch at a place called Campino's Pizzaria...which. was. amazing. Doesn't beat American Dream of course, but still...it's very traditional Italian Pizza with a thin crust. YUMMM!!!

Sorry, I had to have a little freak out there.

So yeah, after Chloe left, Lena and I went to the bigger grocery store outside of Varberg which to me seemed very similar to Winco, maybe a little smaller. For dinner we had spaghetti, then Lena and I watched a British drama called Muder in Midsummer. Morten went to bed early because he has to get up at 4:45 to catch a train to Stockholm for a 2 day conference, so he'll be returning on Thursday.

That's all that's been going on these last couple of days, and I must warn you, don't get used to the length of these posts because they take up an awful lot of time to write and I'm not too sure how much time I'll have. Just a warning!

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