axel

i would like to give a shout out to axel...
cool swede...
thanks for the warm welcome to sweden!
much love!

i love you julie wishau... so true hahahahah

It also had a calendar, this is good because the school calendar has a half naked man on the cover, advertisements for a sex quiz website, and birth control coupons. This is the School agenda that all student sin Skåne get, awful. Oh, I forgot the back cover says "Bull shit".


i love julie, and sweden..
thats a taste of the sexuality here. my school agenda

knooo
Helsingborg Dagblad
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Rachelle i Helsingborg, Swedenland - first month update

July 28th – Rachelle’s Departure
Thanks for everyone who was able to come say goodbye at the airport!

Airport Departure. 1100am
Though saying good-bye to everyone, including my friends family and rotary club was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do or face, it was a most pleasant experience having the support of everyone who came. I pretty much had a convoy when walking to my gate and it made my departure the best it could be. The way I looked at it was that there is no real way that I can say good-bye to everyone for a year, but I do say, so-long and I can’t wait to see you all when I arrive home again. And PS. Jeremiah I’m still MAD at you!

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Arrival 800am the next day
Similarly I would also like to say that I had a great greeting from some of my Host Family in Copenhagen, Denmark. The awkward walk out of the airport terminal was funny, not knowing what to expect, but what was waiting for me far exceeded anything I could have ever wished for. I hadn’t slept for more than 1 day so I have to say that I was definitely not at my best when meeting them and I barely remember the 2 hour car-ride home, but it was great to see the beautiful coast of Denmark and step foot onto Swedish land. I was greeted with those flowers from my host brother, Filip. For those of you who do not know, I am living in a part of Helsingborg, Sweden. The 7th biggest city in Sweden with approximately 110 000 inhabitants. I live in a small secluded very
nice area called,
Domsten. It has about 500 families living on it and it is right on the beach. It is very nice because it is so close to the big city (a 25 minute bus ride) and also very intimate and peaceful. I absolutely love living on the beach. Because of recent algae conditions it has not been very suitable to swim but we went a lot in the beginning of the month. The water is about 22 degrees. Where I live is one of the most travelled channels in the world so there are always interesting boats or cruise ships to be watching. We live 4 kilometres (20 minute ferry ride) across the ocean to Denmark, which means we are also very close to the rest of Europe. For those of you who know Marie-Louise, I live a 20 minute ferry ride and a 40 minute train ride away from her. I will get to visit her for her birthday on the weekend of the 21st of September. I am so excited to see her. It still blows my mind that I am living so close to these 2 different countries. Just the other day we took a trip to go eat dinner in Denmark, and I still can’t get over how crazy it is. I live in a region of Sweden called Skåne. They have a distinct Swedish accent and it includes most of southern Sweden. We live in a fairly central spot to be able to get to other areas of Sweden, for example a 50 minute train ride to Malmö. Helsingor is the city we are adjacent to in Denmark, it is know for having the Castle that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in.

The city itself is so beautiful. It has amazing architecture, beautiful houses, churches and buildings. The following are pictures from downtown Helsingborg. I am there everyday and I have to walk up the stairs where the tower is to go to school every morning, and down them every afternoon. I am very happy with where I live. There is everything you could need, with a small city atmosphere.

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Trip to Germany August 4th – 6th

I can now officially say I have visited 3 European countries. It continues to blow my mind though to consider that I went to 3 in one day. We drove from Sweden to Denmark to Germany, with our final destination Lubeck, Germany. Lubeck is the place that first started the manufacturing of Marzipan and is known for it’s fine wines. It’s an old beautiful city that I got to enjoy with the guidance of the man we were staying with, Andre, his wife, Kerstin, and by a guided boat tour of this city.
Andre is a co-worker and close friend of Jan, my host-dad, and he was having an annual bar-b-que that I was fortunate to attend. We arrived on Friday and got the chance to sight see then and on Saturday too. Saturday
evening was the bar-b-que party and Sunday was home time. Unfortunately I have had some problems adjusting to the time change here, so this weekend was probably filled with more sleeping than actually being awake. None the less I was still able to enjoy my trip to Germany. I believe my host family intends on going back sometime during my stay with them.

On the way home from Germany we stopped at a store called, Border Shop, and it is a 4 or 5 level store placed on the water of duty and tax free items as it is on the water. I have never in my life seen so much alcohol and for so cheap. My host father informed me that a lot of Swedes take day drives just to go to this Border Shop to stock up on alcohol because of 1) the selection and 2) the price. Alcohol in Sweden is very pricey, 10 dollar coronas at the bar, for example. But everything in Sweden is expensive compared to Canada, so it’s something I’m going to have to get used to.

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Swedish Wedding – August 13th

I wouldn’t say that the wedding we went to was a lot different than many weddings I’ve attended in Canada but there were some distinct differences as it was not a Christian wedding. The wedding was held in a small white church in the very south of Sweden in the country. Very short and sweet ceremony and then we went to town (Trelleborg) for the reception and dinner. The dinner was a very nice Swedish recipe, and I loved the potatoes. For those of you who know me, you will be shocked to know that I now love potatoes. Well not mashed ones, I hate mashed potatoes, but golden Swedish potatoes, boiled or baked are sooo good. I am such a fool for not liking them before. Anyways, the wedding food was great and it was an enjoyable evening.

This is my host family and I outside of the reception.

Language Camp August 7-11

Our District chairperson, Birgitta, had organized an orientation/language camp for all the inbound exchange students. It was practically a crash course in the Swedish language which I don’t remember anything from, but the week was enjoyable. We got to do some touristy things and see Helsingborg so it was nice. Pictured below is some of the other exchange students.

They are all American with the exception of me of course and the girl leaning in the front, Chloe, from Terrace, BC.
We got to eat out at some fine restaurants (restaurants are SOO expensive here compared to Canada and the service is not so good)

Keeping Busy…

It was easier to have things to do when my host sister, Isabella, was still here, but I have still found myself very occupied and have a lot of plans until the end of October. But while she was here we did a lot of fun things and activities to occupy time and have fun. On my first week here I went with some of Isabella’s good friends, Rikard and Daniel, (Rikard says hi by the way, he wanted me to write about him in this lol) to play squash. Though I am no squash pro it was still so much fun and some good bonding time with some locals.

We have also been out to some friend’s houses to watch movies. Swimming, a couple parties (I was invited to my first Swedish party last SaturdayJ) and to a club called Tivoli, which is the hot spot for most people my age here. It’s a really cool club with three different rooms that play different music in each and it’s just a great atmosphere.

My host family and I have done a few things as well, like going fresh vegetable shopping and we spend a lot of time going for walks with my host dog, Remi. We live right by a large natural forest so it’s lovely to walk in there. One thing I have noticed about most Swedes is their love of animals. Most are treated very well and taken for walks SEVERAL times a day which is kind of different to the treatment of most animals in Calgary. I’m not inferring dogs are treated bad in Calgary at all, but it just seems that the Swedes I have met are extremely animal orientated people. Anyways, enough of my observations.

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School- Started Thursday August 18th

This is my school's courtyard.

School, school, school. Though the school systems here and in Canada, are soooo totally different, school is still school. I am enrolled in quite a few classes but I still have a fairly relaxed schedule . I’m taking a lot of Swedish, which is good. My Swedish is slowly but surely improving hehe! But it’s only been a month so I’m not really worried.

My house- Lärkstigen 10, 255 91 Helsingborg Sweden

I live in a pretty typical Swedish home. It’s very well decorated and cute. It’s very big for a Swedish home (Swedish homes are very small compared to North American homes). For the first 3 weeks I inhabited the computer room, which kind of turned into a battle zone as I was living out of 2 suitcases. Now I am living in Isabella’s room, a very nice room, 2 x the size of mine at home, and its very comfortable. I enjoy having my own desk and area to relax in. My host-mom, Christel, is very much into gardening and making gardening things and the exterior of my home is quite beautiful. She has been in plenty of magazines featuring my house and her gardening skills. I guess you could say she’s like the Martha Stewart of the Swedish world. Well here are some pictures of my house.

These are all pictures of my house, from magazines and that I took. The picture of the girl in the red cardigan is my host sister Isabella at a beach in town. For those of you who know me pretty well, I am happy to say that I am so very happy I live in a household that has 2 VW cars. The suv is a beaut. Leather seats, navigation, 6 cd changer. A nice way to travel in.

My house has been featured in several magazines for it's beautiful garden and my host mom is pretty famous... she's like the marth stewart of the swedish world hehe.

Isabella’s Departure

The Friday before the departure of Isabella we had a going away party for her. It was a lot of fun, and I think she had fun so I was happy. We decided it would be lit by candle-light so it ended up just looking so beautiful with candles everywhere. She left on the 21st of August. She is staying in Davis, California, and from what we have heard she is doing very well! She lives in a home with a pool and a hot tub and she’s staying with another exchange student from Germany. I’m so very happy for her. Here are some pictures from her going away party.

Malmo Festival 2006-08-27
Going to the Malmö festival was just a journey in itself. It was the other Canadian exchange student and I, and we were on our first train-ride of our lives. We got the lady beside us to take pictures we were so excited. I am so amazed of the efficiency of the train systems in Europe. It’s crazy to think I was in Malmö in 50 minutes. Upon our arrival we were greeted by Julie Wishau, an exchange student from America and we went to her house. Her host family was kind enough to feed us and then we rode our bikes for about 45 minutes to the Festival. When we got there we thought we’d try deep fried bananas, cause they seemed like quite a hit (we waited in line for 20 minutes) but I didn’t like them at all. They tasted like French fries and bananas mixed together. Gah. Anyways after that we waited for like 3 hours to watch The Sounds. A Swedish band who is pretty popular in Canada as well and it was a blast. They were sooo good live and Chloe and I really enjoyed ourselves.

OUR FIRST TRAIN RIDE! yay for canadians on the train....

Trip to the Biking Island of Ven
August 28th
Just a 20 minute Ferry ride off the coast of Sweden lies a beautiful Island, where astrologer Ticho something or other looked at the stars or something like that. All I know was it was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen and it was sooo lovely to ride our bikes for the whole day and look at the gorgeous scenery, old Swedish homes and eat our lunch on the beach. The forestry is beautiful, and the typical simplicity was astounding. Only bikers are invited to the island, though you still may bring vehicules, the most pleasant way to see it is bike. It is not a large island, and you could probably bike around it in 15 minutes if you were on a mission, but we took our time and enjoyed the amazing weather god sent for us that day.