Home Sweet Home

Well and that was that, now the year has past, and I am home.
I do apologize to everyone for not updating this like i should have, but I hope you got the jist of what was going on with me over in Sweden.

I am happy to be home, of course it was hard to leave, but I am slowly but surely finding myself in my life again.

I miss everyone in Sweden dearly, just as I did to all my friends and family in Canada when I was there. I am looking forward to seeing everyone again and hope that everyone had a good year as well...

It flew by so fast, but I did so much in that year it's incredible.

I would just like to thank everyone for their support, and comments, and just being there throughout the year, I never felt alone with my family and friends in Canada by my side.

HEJ DA SVERIGE!

JAG SAKNAR DIG!

Cheers,

Rachelle

2007 student ball

It was our ball on Thursday the 31st of May!
It was at a castle!! It was an amazing evening, better than i could have ever expected!

Month of May

Highlights of May: Going to Gothenburg with Rotary. We went to the volvo factory then to MAMMAMIA!!! In Swedish on that note hehe. I will add photos of it! It was great. It's been a super busy month with school and everything- finishing up the school year. On Friday I was the escort of an Australian friend to his Graduation Ball. It was very nice. It was in an old castle and very formal. It's great cause I get to wear my Ball dress 2 times now here in Sweden! Our ball is this coming Thursday!


Challenge of May: Though this is a lame challenge... trying to plan out the trip of my Mom and I going to Venice and Paris was kind of difficult because there are so many great places in Italy and it's hard to choose just one. But i luckily got it all figured out and from the 12th of June until the 21st we are travelling to Paris, France and Venice, Italy!

Looking Forward To: The Studenten! Our Graduation. We all wear funny sailor hats and white dresses and run through the town. This also includes the arrival of my dear mother on the 6th of June.

Not looking forward to: School ending because it just means that my exchange year is also coming to an enddd!!! But at the same time it's going to be awesome because it signifies the start of SUMMER!

Third and Final Host Family

My new room!


Hello everyone!
On April 18th I moved into my third host family, Family Fejne.
They are the family I travelled to Switzerland with in the winter so I knew them a little bit already. Everything is going really great and I'm finally done settling in.
I have a host sister who just turned 13 and a host brother who is an exchange student in Pheonix, USA, for the year. He's coming home the 7th of June.
My mom is coming here to Sweden in exactly a month today! I'm really excited about it! We will hopefully travel to France and Italy as well!
My graduation of Swedish Gymnasium is on the 8th of June as well so everyone here in Sweden is preparing for that.
Today it was 20+ and I fell asleep in the sun and got really sunburnt!
It's so beautiful in Helsingborg right now. I'm dreading leaving but looking forward to seeing beautiful Canada once again.

Last weekend I visited the capital of Sweden, Stockholm. It was really cold compareds to down here in the south of Sweden. It was unexpectadly cold to me so I was kind of grumpy for the trip. But we celebrated the Kings 61st birthday so I had the oppourtunity to see him and the Royal family. (after waiting 3 hours in the shade freezing my limbs off)

I also got to see the hall where they have the Nobel prize banquet and dance.

We also celebrated Valborg on the last day of April at Skansen with a big bonfire. That warmed me up a little.
The trip was with the other exchange students from Skåne.

One of the coolest things in Stockholm was the Vasa Museum which is a museum holding a salvaged ship (taken up 50 years ago) that set sail in 1628.
It was very exhilarating to see such an old ship put together.

Well I'll keep you updated on how the graduation goes and the rest of sunny may! I'm on my homerun now to homecoming!
Hope everything is well whereever you are all in the world!
Cheers,
Rachelle

A typical European Spring day!

The clocks were turned forward last night and it's the beautiful start to the spring season.
It's about 18 today and the sun is shining. In the forest the flowers are blooming and within a couple of weeks our tree outfront will start to get it's leaves!
Today has been one of the days where I feel most as though I've made myself a life here.
Everday day life still has the same significance as before, but it's starting to feel as I am a part of everyday life in Sweden.
Today particularly lived out the European dream I had before I came here.
I am making dinner for my host family this evening and I had to go buy some groceries, so I grabbed a paper bag, took my bike, bought some groceries and flowers...
Road my bike humbly home, Sat in the sun room and relaxed.
Now I will do some baking and cooking and just plain enjoying the day.
Tonight We are going to see 'The King of Scotland' with my host mom and older host sister.

Anyways All is perfectly well, things are dying down now a little with travel and such, even though they will soon start back up again next week as it is the Påsklov(easter holiday).
Next weekend I am to meet Marie-Louise in Copenhagen!

I think I have accomplished what it is to be an exchange student. Integrating to life, school, friends, and family... and rotary of course... and the language.
Hope to hear from you all, my email is: rachellelacharite@hotmail.com
if you want to contact me!
lots of love,
rachelle

Branäs Branäs Branäs

With my Idrott Klass(my gym class) and some other people from the c level gym class we took off 1000 kilometers north of where I live to go skiing in Branäs(in varmland)

The hill was small (only 500 meters) but it was really cozy and cute and great to practice on. The snow and weather was great and it was fun to meet new people!

I was trying out some jumps and realized that I'm not cut out for that really haha...

We stayed in a hostle type thing and we made our meals in a shared kitchen and just hung out at night. It was a relaxing ski trip, only 3 nights but it was super super fun!!!

My last ski adventure of the year, so I have to wait till the 2007 2008 season in Kanada.

The green drink is green *juice* not beer on St. Patricks day heheh^^^

London, England

I went on a class trip(my english class) to London, UK.

It was a really fun trip, really fast paced and tiresome(like the city of london itself)

We stayed in a youth hostle that was in Picadilly circus so it was a perfect location. We were there for 3 nights and 4 days and saw pretty much everything possible in the alotted time. Changing of the guards, British Museum(so cool), The Tate modern, Big ben! Everything. It was really expensive there for everything, but we ate well nonetheless and explored quite a bit. The 2 markets, camden and portobello road were fun to meander and check out all of the bargains and concept clothes and shoes.

PaRIS with my daddy!

Switzerland

On Friday Feb. 16 I took off with my soon to be third host family- The Fejnes and my exchange student friend, Chloe Curtis (canadienne) to Verbier Switzerland...

4 countries- 1 auto bahn and 16 hours later we arrived in the cute ski village.

We snowboarded for 6 days and I attempted to SKI(which i've never done before) one day... and it was a disaster.. I had a very bad false confidence and thought I would just naturally be good.

On the way home we managed to hit 5 countries and spent a day in France and a night in Germany! L'alsace france was absolutely gorgeous... and we had a france virgin.. chloe with us so it was great for her to see.

Now I'm back from this 'sport holiday' and im leaving for London on Saturday!
Here are the photos from Switzerland!

Vänersborg

Feb. 2- 4 in Vänersborg visiting my dear friend, Erik Molinder!

4,5 hours away is Vänersborg! A small town of 36 000 that lies on the biggest lake of Sweden, Vänern.

Home of Agnes Idol and Johan (Idol Runner up)

and of Erik and his super cool dog, Sumo!!!!

How do you measure, measure a year?

I have my official arrival time home:

WEDNESDAY, JULY THE TWENTY FIFTH, TWO THOUSAND AND SEVEN at EIGHTEEN FIFTY THREE.

Wed. July 25, 2007 @ 6:53 pm!!!!

SEE YOU THEN!!!!

photos of my new home

Sun Room

Dining room + My room






ENOUGH LUGGAGE RACHELLE????? HOW AM I GOING TO GET HOME?

and then she moved...

And it snowed...
and rachelle got glasses(her third host-dad is an optomitrist and owns an eyeglasses shop:D)
And she made cupcakes with her new host-sister, Ebba(11 years old)

She also has a new host sister, Anna, who is 15 and goes to her school.
They get on really well and have some of the same friends which is great. Anna is going on Rotary exchange next year as well!
She's been living here for 2 weeks now. It's a 10 minutes bike ride from school, 5 minute walk to town and right by a forest perfect for running in.
Her host dad, Axel, is a mechanical engineer and is in China right now. His wife, Christina, my host mother is a 'Nutritionist' and does several different things dealing with the subject of nutrition.
http://www.christinaleijonhufvud.net/
is her host mom's website and her daily updated blog is:
http://www.foodhealthandunderstanding.blogspot.com/

Rachelle is very happy here in Tågaborg, Helsingborg.
School is going good and she's starting Swedish courses every Tuesday and Thursday evenings- hopefully they will help her.

Friday she is going to see Erik Molinder in Vänersborg! Then... in 2 weekends I am off to Verbier, Switzerland with my 3rd host family.

Rachelle is now running another blog, just started today, of pictures... one thousand pictures for one word...
www.droweno.blogspot.com

She hopes everyone is doing great wherever they are in the world.
Saturday was her official 6 months mark. Wow! Time is flying like she knew it would!

Leave a comment, She's still working on updating christmas ect.
much love,
rachelle in first person

Stay tuned for...

1) Christmas at Family Roos
2) New Years (visit from my dad!)
3) Trip to Paris with my Dad and Natalie
4) Move to New Host Family, Family Leijonhufvud.

Everything is going great for me but as you can imagine I have been super busy!
School has gotten a lot better in the past while and I'm so happy to be living in town.

Can't wait to hear your comments on my posts.

Big hugs to the Rotary Klubb of Calgary East!!!!

Puss och Kramar,

Rachelle

I will explain later

I dont have the time or energy to write what this was all about right now, but i thought i should share it with my faithful blog readers,
lets just say it was the celebration of the first school semester ending.
I hate bishop mcnally,
I love sweden.

Swedish Christmas

http://www.nordicway.com/search/Sweden/Sweden_Christmas%20traditions.htm

See you soon!

I miss you!!!!
My Dad and I are going to see the eiffel tower on January 2nd!
I am so excited for him to come, he'll be here on the 29th of December!!!!
Hipphipphooray!

Christmas Craft Party

this is artistic christmas victor.

i was so tired in this picture i couldnt even smile

Sara, my swedish equivalent of my Sara Hughes at home,
had a little christmas craft party get together last night (Wednesday night).
She made homemade ginger bread dough and we cut them out (me and anna made a women factory- the stove- and made feminist gingerbread women haha) and we could make these pretty orange decorations and christmas cards and picture frames and these things called snowballs (cream, white chocolate, butter and coconut rolled in icing sugar) and make snow flakes to hang in our windows. We also had glögg (warm wine) and we had to dress up christmas-y (wearing xmas decorations) Sara and I wore red shirts and christmas bulb earings and christmas socks.
It was Sara and I, Örs(my good friend) and his brazilian Girlfriend who came here to visit him for 3 months, Jessica, Victor and his little girlfriend thing, Anna aka. Boranna, then another Anna and her boyfriend whom I've met before but I can't remember his name.
our women factory haha.

i made this =D

Hippy

On Sunday morning Jan and I drove Christel to Båstad to go bowling then we went to their summer house to water flowers ect. and then we went to watch a cute little christmas horse show of some little kids but one of the girls is taking care of Hippy (Isabella's-my host sister's Horse) for the year so we were watching her.
Here are some pictures of that. These are my host parents, Jan and Christel and my host doggy, Remi!

St. Lucia Day- December 13th 2006

These are Luciabulles- A sweet bun made with Saffron and cardamon, they're super delicious and fun to make. I made them with my host-dad last Saturday.


Lucia Bulles are a traditional christmas time bread here in Sweden even though they're often made throughout the year.
They are made around St. Lucia time which is the 13th of December.

Saint Lucia Day

'This Swedish festival of lights helps to brighten up the long winter nights in December. It celebrates the life of a real saint, Lucia, who was known for her kindness and love.'
Sancta Lucia was a saint because of her kindness and her love. She was an Italian Christian who lived in Sicily in the 4th century. Some people believe she once visited Sweden. December 13th is also her feast day.
The way she became a saint was that a man who loved her and Lucia didn't like him, Lucia's mother asked her to marry the man but she refused so the man heard about this and he said he would burn her. But Lucia prayed to God to have the power to survive the fire. Because of her kindness to others her wish was granted. The man tried to burn her but she had the power to withstand fire so the man got a sword and stuck it into Lucia's throat. Still Lucia survived for three more hours speaking beautifal words.
-----------------------------------------
Saint Lucia Song- I sang this in Domstens Choir

The night goes with weighty step round yard and (stove i.e. house, hearth?) round earth. The sun's departure leaves the woods brooding. There in our dark house, appears with lighted candles Saint Lucia, Saint Lucia.
The night goes great and mute. Now one hears its wings in every silent room murmuring as if from wings. Look at our threshold. There she stands white-clad with lights in her hair Saint Lucia, Saint Lucia
The darkness shall soon depart from the earth's valleys thus she speaks a wonderful word to us. The day shall rise anew from the rosy sky. Saint Lucia, Saint Lucia.

Here is a video of my school 'Santa Lucia Celebration'
You can't really see the people singing very well but their singing was really beautiful.


On Tuesday (the 12th) it was a tradition for all school children to go to their teachers house in the evening and sing Lucia songs while waiting for the 'arrival' of Lucia. That tradition over the years transformed and in the past few years Lucia has been considered to be a night to party and stay up the whole night and go to school the next day.
Because of tragic accidents that were happening because of young people drinking and stuff, the government in Sweden decided that they would sponsor other things that could go on all night that youth would participate in- so for the last few years movie theatres in cities are encouraged to have a lucia evening where they show feature films all night.
SOOO that's what I did. You pay 200:- crowns (32 can) to watch movies from 11:30 at night until 8:30 in the morning. They gave us 'free' popcorn and drinks, lucia bulles, hamburgers and more drinks and we watched 3 movies that are debuting this Friday in Sweden, The Prestige(sooo good), The Holiday (helloooo Jude Law... *drool*) and Deja Vu (I was falling asleep in that one haha)

So Last night was the first time I have slept since Monday evening!!! But it was really fun to celebrate 'Lucia's Arrival'.

Though Xmas is here, Winter isnt

Somebody please explain to me why the grass is still green in Sweden on December 7th?

Where's the snow????

I had my rotary presentation on Thursday.
It went pretty well except for my humiliating rendition of, Oh CANADA!

but otherwise I had tons of people there to *support* me including fellow exchange students, teachers, host families, friends and my whole rotary club and some of their spouses.

I did the beginning part in semi Swedish and continued mostly in English.
After that we went to the H-IF game (Helsingborg's local soccer team) and they won 1-0. Chloe and I met a really nice fellow(not) at the hot dog stand who kind of hated me for asking for a 'korv med bröd'.

Anyways it was a cool night, and thats a picture of us Helsingborg exchange students with the district chairperson of exchange, Birgitta.

Julen är här!

Julen är här means:

The christmas are here.

aka: CHRISTMAS is here.

yay... finally the *oh so anticipated* christmas season has arrived in Scandanavia. It commenced here in Helsingborg on Sunday with the lighting of the town christmas tree (to your left) and everyone saying awww ooo wowww prettty... and eating glögg and pepperkakor(gingerbread... go to ikea and try 'Annas' if you would like to know what I eat like 10 of everyday.

It was really nice. We had a 'fika' (got coffee and hotchocolate) and it was really beautiful. It's so funny cause it's pretty cold here, no snow, but the grass is STILL green. Everyones saying this is the warmest "winter" they've seen in ages... but I figure, if it's gonna be cold there might as well have snow.

The whole town is lit up very nicely now which is a relief because getting off school at 3:40 it's already dark and it's so dull to walk to a dead lit city. But now it's not, and I am happy and really excited for christmas. It seems really nice and cozy here. Very picturesque. All swedes have these little light things in their window. Something to do with lent and tradition. My host mom couldn't exactly explain but I will take a picture cause i have one in my window. Other than that and some white lights here and there, and stars they put over their simple lights in their houses, thats pretty much the extent of christmas decoration. They enjoy simple wreaths and candle holders. Make simple hard cookies and just enjoy the cold holiday season. It's so cute and even better than I expected a Swedish Christmas to be. Of course it doesn't give me tingles like the season at home as I am without family and friends and pets and my traditions, but it will definately do.

So anyways today (Wednesday) Chloe and I had a day on the town... Stephany being our photographer, and we uhhh ahem *promoted our Canadian pride*??? hehe. Well it involved big buildings and a Canadian flag. Also this hay horses(GAH i can't remember the name right now but I'll update that when I put up the picture of the window things)

Anyways here's some pictures from that.

I am also taking part in *Domstens Kör* Domsten's Choir... I don't know how I got suckered into it. But it's really cool to learn funny Swedish Christmas songs... Or translated ones like I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus is : Jag visade momma kysser tomte.

Please note the zoomed in picture of Chloe Curtis, my fellow Canadian ABHAHAHAHA... what are you doing my dear? gah.