Året efter året

Hej!
 
Jag börjar med att skriva att detta känns som en svenskt inlägg, av någon märklig anledning, och därav kommer mina vänner på andra sidan jorden i usa få använda google translate om dom vill läsa, sorry about that!
 
Jag har ju inte precis skrivit speciellt mycket på bloggen den senaste tiden, eftersom mitt liv helt ärligt har vart helt ofantligt tråkigt. Sommaren började med att alla vänner i min gamla klass tog studenten, och det var självklart helt underbart, men det tog slut rätt fort och jag blev uttråkad väldigt snabbt. Min sommar var planerad så att jag skulle köra mitt eget race och egentligen bara jobba mig igenom lovet, med en kort paus på tio dagar för att åka till Japan med Lilla Kören. Den planeringen blev, tyvärr, verklighet så nu sitter jag här ensam med självvållad uttråkning och stör mig lite på min egen dumma planering. Jag tycker ändå att jag borde känna mig själv så pass väl vid det här laget att jag vet att jag inte kommer må bra av att bara jobba och vara ensam hela sommaren, men tydligen inte. Så nu, exakt 24 timmar efter hemkomsten från Japan med ena delen av familjen i skåne och den andra i skärgården, känner jag mig lite lätt deprimerad. Den känslan kan iof också komma ifrån att jag precis har kommit hem från tio helt underbara dagar i Japan med den bästa kören (aka familjen) någonsin.
 
En annan jobbig sak som jag måste få skriva av mig om är skolan. Det kanske inte låter så värst intressant, och det är det inte heller, vilket är anledningen till att jag måste få skriva av mig om just det.
Under mitt andra år på kungsholmens gymnasium gick ju min gamla klass i trean, och de fick uppleva allt som man ska göra under sitt sista år på gymnasiet. Problemet är att jag fick vara med på nästan alla dom sakerna också, allt ifrån skrivning i studentmössor till jobbiga gymnasiearbeten, och bara den allmäna känslan av att se ljuset i tunneln. Så på ett sätt lyckades jag lura min hjärna att jag nog också tog studenten, vilket gav med sig att det nu känns helt absurt att jag ska gå på kungsholmen i ett år till?! Alla mina kopisar tog ju studenten? Jag trodde ju att jag var klar med mina tre år? Eller?
 
Under de absolut första stadierna av planeringen av ett utbytesår får man höra att upplevelsen egentligen pågår i tre år, och inte bara i ett år som de flesta tror. Det första året planerar man. ALLT och ALLA måste vara fixade, beredda och redo på att man ska åka iväg. Den andra året är ett moln av lycka (iaf var det det för mig) då det äntligen hände, och under det tredje året måste man komma ner på jorden igen, och försöka anpassa sig till vekligheten. Många säger att jag har haft extremt mycket tur för jag hamnade i en värdfamilj som var helt underbar, och jag gled fram på en räkmacka, helt utan hinder, under hela min tid i usa och det är delvis sant. Däremot blir året vad man gör det till, och jag var mycket väl förberedd på allt, vilket resulterade i att jag kunde hantera alla situationer utan några som helst problem. Men ingen hade förberett mig på vad som väntade när jag kom hem igen. Jag hade ingen aning om att det skulle bli så jobbigt som det har varit. Tvåan är redan det tuffaste året på gymnasiet, och att samtidigt se sina bästa kompisar tackla det sista året blev jobbigare än jag trodde. Man skulle kunna säga att jag hade ett dröm-år i usa (för det hade jag) men jag tror också att jag tog mer stryk när jag kom hem än många andra gjorde. Det verkar som att de andra som åkte iväg samtidigt som mig hade lättare för att anpassa sig när de väl kom hem igen. På grund av detta har jag inte riktigt kännt mig som mig själv under årets gång, men jag börjar sakta men säker hitta tillbaka, och snart hoppas jag att allt är som vanligt igen för nu har det faktiskt gått mer än ett år sedan jag kom hem (vilket är helt sjukt). 
 
Det är dags för mig att släppa usa-bubblan som jag har befunnit mig i så länge nu, och inse att jag faktiskt har ett liv i Sverige och ett år kvar på kungsholmen, vilket också kommer bli vad jag gör det till. Därför ska jag försöka göra det till det bästa sista året någonsin!
 
Nu ska jag sluta klaga och återgå till mitt glada jag, som är väldigt mycket roligare att umgås med än mitt deprimerade jag! För sommaren är inte slut än så jag kommer behöva fortsätta spendera väldigt mycket mer tid ensam innan skolan börjar, och då vill jag försöka vara glad! Om inte annat träffar jag alla underbara Lilla-människor igen om tre veckor då det första repet kommer ta plats! 
 
Puss och kram på er alla!
 
Extremt poetisk bild på mina, Siri och Niklas fötter, två av de få personer jag faktiskt har träffat i sommar

Long time

Hi! It has been a very long time now since i wrote something on here. I have so much to do in school all the time, so i never really have time to write anymore. But this weekend, i only have a few things to do for school, and my parents are gone, so i am all alone. This somehow got me thinking of Kansas, and how much i miss you all. I can't even begin to describe how much i miss you. My eighteenth birthday is this monday, and i'm so sad you all wont be here with me. 
You are so far away! But i promise i will visit you next summer or sometime this spring! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I know I probably uploaded all of these pictures once before, but they are worth uploading again.
I LOVE YOU

1 year ago

So on this day, exactly one year ago, i was on my way to America for the biggest adventure of my life. I had no idea what to expect, and i had no idea that i was about to experience the best year of my life so far. I just want to say thank you to everyone who made it so wonderful, and especially to my lovely american family, cause you guys are the best. I miss and love you all so much, and i hope you will come visit me soon. 
 
Now that the summer is coming to an end (i start school on the 21st) i thought i would show you some pictures of what i have been doing! And its about time i show you around my house, so that you can see where i live. Therefore, i recorded a video that you can see at the bottom of this post!
 
Me and my dad have been bying stuff to put in my room in his house, and i painted this dresser all by myself, it took a few days to finish (and i have a weird shadow on my face..)
 
The sky is so pretty over here in the summer
 
Me, my mom and my stepdad made home made chipotle for dinner one time, and it was soooo good
 
I have gone shopping with my very good-looking mother
 
I have goofed around with my friends.. hehe
 
I have gone on a five-day trip around Stockholm´s archipelago with my friend and her family. We just cruise around with their boat for a few days. Its an annual thing that we do every summer. 
 
We usually read a lot during this trip. 
 
They also have the cutest little dog called `Texas` who is with us on the boat. 
 
Stockholm is very pretty during the summer
 
 
 
We decided to wake up early and watch the sunrise one morning, and it was beautiful. (the sun in sweden stays up for a long time during the summer, so we had to wake up around 4 am to watch it)
 
I hade some crazy eyes that early in the morning...
 
My friend Johanna, who´s on the right, also went away this year as a foreign exchange student, she stayed in Wisconsin. 
 
This is me brushing my teeth..
 
When i got home, my parents gave me the best gift ever. It´s my blog in book-form! They printed out my blog and made 4 little books, so now i can always remember my year! (fyi, i started crying when i got this). 
 
Me and my friend were bored so we decided to make a cake.. i have no idea why, but it was delicious. 
 
I have cuddled a lot with my cat, she is so adorable
 
Here is the video where i show you around my house!
 

Sorry

Hi! And sorry i have been so bad at writing lately. I always get lazy at updating my blog during the summer, since I have so many other things to do.

I flew home from Gotland a little earlier to hang out with my dad for a few days. And I have also been practicing driving a lot lately so that I can get my drivers license as soon as I turn 18.

Here are some random pictures from the last few days

Out biking!

Haha i saw this car today when i was out driving, lol 

Pretty Gotland-sky 

Rainbow!


America

Haha me and my step dad realized that we both kind of represent the US at the beach. The funny thing is that i forgot all of my other swimsuits, so this is the only one i have! 
Oh well, gotta represent the most awesome country, right ;)
 
 
 
 

Gotland - and sick of traveling

This morning we left my grandpa´s house in Skåne to go to Tomas´s dad´s house on Gotland. We had to drive a couple of hours, and then we also had to take a big ferry over to the island, cause that´s how you get to Gotland. It has been a long day of traveling, but now we are finally here. And i have to say, honestly, that i am so sick of traveling right now! I usually LOVE to travel, but right now i just feel like going home. I have no idea whats wrong with me but i guess i have been traveling and moving around too much lately so now my body is telling me to go home. We´ll see if i can make it till the 22nd, when we are supposed to go back home, or if i have to fly home by myself before that...
Another thing that is weird is that i am still kind of jet lagged. I can never fall asleep at night and i am ALWAYS tired. It is sooo annoying! It feels like my brain wants to go out and do stuff, cause im bored, but my body is always tired, and tells me to go to sleep. Im so confused.. and its driving me crazy! Oh well, i hope it goes away soon.
 
This is the last dinner we had in Skåne. They have the BEST salmon over there! It is so freaking delicious! When you (my american family) visit me in sweden you have to try this salmon, cause you will be mind blown. 
 
My cat is not normal at all... I mean look at her! Cats dont just lay like that, but mine does hahah. (btw she was sleeping)
 
This was when we were on the ferry earlier today. I like sitting by the window
 
It is very boring riding the ferry since you have no internet connection out there, what so ever
 

Warm weather?

Kansas ruined me haha, i cant swim over here in Sweden anymore, its too cold!! I guess i just have to get used to it again.
I am planning on swimming when we go to Gotland, but i think i will skip the swimming part for now. 
 
This is my uncle Anders! 
 
And my kitty cat Molly
 
And this is a random picture of a field..
 
 

Skåne - Gotland

Yesterday (saturday morning) my family packed our bags and started our drive towards Skåne. Skåne is the southernmost point in Sweden, and it is also where my grandfather (my mothers father) lives! We go there every year during our summer vacation for a couple of days. My grandpas house is pretty small but it has a pool and it is also located very close to the beach! I love spending time here, if the weather allowes it of course. 
After a few days in Skåne, we always continue our vacation at Tomas´s fathers farm on Gotland (one of Swedens two Islands). We leave to go to Gotland on the 12th so we have a few days here in Skåne before we leave. 
 
It was really cold in the water today when we went to the beach haha.
 

First week in Sweden

Okay, i really dont know where to start cause this whole week since i came home has been so crazy. I have met a lot of people and i have done a lot of things! I'm just going to uplode some pictures and then wright about what happened under the pictures!
 
So this is just a picture on my school, because i passed it on my way to the mall and i thought it would be fun for you to see what it looks like!
 
What happened that same day was that i had to take my cat to the vet. I left her there in the morning and they had to put her to sleep. So when i picked her up in the afternoon, the vet told me that she was high! I almost died of laughter cause she actually looked high, she was drooling and she was totally out of it! In this picture above, we had just brought her home, and she had no idea what was going on! I felt bad when i was laughing at her, but i could not control myself! She was pretty much high that whole day so she couldnt go outside, but it got better after a while. 
 
So my friend Siri and i had been talking abuot how fun it would be to visit all of the places we used to visit a lot when we were kids! I have known her my whole life so we basically grew up together (it was actually her dad that got me into singing). So we decided to bike around "Ekerö", which is the island where we both grew up, and visit all of these places. For the most part, we went so see special places in the woods, because thats where we played when we were kids! It was so nostalgic to see everything again! 
Me and my friends used to pretend we had houses in the woods, so the rock i am sitting on in this picture used to be my "bed" in my "house" haha. 
 
This is just another place where we spent a ot of time when we were kids
 
In this picture you can se a big mansion (castle) that is located in the woods, we used to go here a lot to play, and you can also have lunch in the mansion. 
 
This is a great place to ski during winter, but it is pretty small so i havent been here for a long time.
 
Me and Siri used to be scouts when we were little, and this is actually the place where we would meet once a week! We were "water scouts" so we would sail a lot. 
 
This was only two days ago when we picked up my friend at the airport! She had satyed in wisconsin a year with AFS and it was really nice to finally meet her!
 
Omg, this was probably the biggest surprise ever.. So my friend Lotta told me last week that i couldnt have anything planned this thursday evening. I was super confused but i just kind of went with it and i tried not to ask to many questions. So this thursday morning i got a text saying that i should be standing at a the bus stop in "slussen" (which is a place in Stockholm city) at 7.30 pm. I dont really like surprises so i was super nervous. But my parents gave me a ride to slussen with the boat, and then i waited there for a while. Then, all of a sudden my friend shows up on her scooter, and tells me to hop on. I got a helmet and i blindfold so i had no idea where we were going! After we had stopped we walked a little bit, and i was still blindfolded (and suuuuper confused i might add). Then, Lotta told me to take off the blidfold and when i did, all of my friends jumped out from behind a bush and came running towards me! 
It was an awesome suprise party, and i was sooooo happy to see all of them again! And if you all my swedish friends) are reading this, then thank you so much!! I love you all!!
 
 
 
This was just a summary of the last week, and i hope it wast too confusing! I didnt even tell you about half of the things that have happened, cause like i said, this has truly been a crazy week. (and i also want to say that i was jet lagged this whole time, so that probably added to the craziness!)
 

Bad

Yeah, I've been terrible at updating my blog lately, but this first week back in Sweden has been super busy! I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow! And happy 4th of July!!


yesterday

Hello!
 
Yesterday, me and my friend Lotta went into town to have lunch. Instead of taking the train which I would normally do, we took her scooter (which is both faster and more fun). We went to a street market that they have in town every sunday during the summer, and then we bought crepes for lunch! We had a great time eating lunch by the water, and its nice to catch up since i havent talked to her in almost a year. 
After that, she gave me a ride home and i hung out with my dad for a couple of hours. Later that night my whole family came over to celebrate that i am back in Sweden!
My cousins little daughter is so adorably cute, and she got very attached to the teddy bear i got from Hailey and Jamie before i left :)
We also had an awesome "swedish flag" cake that my mom had fixed!
 
Before everyone came, Tomas helped me put up some shelves above my bed, so now i have a little "Rose Hill" wall :) I also have a little painting of the US on the other wall that my mom got for me!
 
My lovely friend Lotta
 
Delicious crepe
 
My cousins cute little daughter and tommy hammie :)
 
Swedish cake woop woop
 
My awesome wall
 
 
And here is just a pic of my kitty...

Unpack...

So, today i finally got the strength to unpack my suitcase! It has been laying there on my floor for a while now, and i thought that it was time. But first i hade to clean out my closet, cause i had so many clothes that i didnt want anymore. And i also had 4 boxed full of stuff that i had to unpack. 
My mom and i started this morning and finished an hour ago, so it took a while!
It felt awesome to get rid of those 4 gigantic boxes that were standing in my room, taking up all the space. 
 
My closet looks like this after cleaning it out, but i still have a lot of clothes in there. 
 
I miss Kansas
 
Jet lag update: I am still super tired in the mornings, and i can never fall asleep at night. But yesterday i did manage to fall asleep around 2 and 10 this morning, my alarm went off. Its slowly getting better..
 

Jet lag

I seriously don't think I have ever been this jet lagged in my entire ilfe. I hate flying east cause the jet lag is so messed up, and it's hard to adjust to it.
You would think that I was super tired on wednesday afternoon cause i had been traveling, but my brain was still in the american timezone so I wasn't tired at all. I ended up falling asleep at 4am and waking up at 3.30pm that same day. And the same thing happened thursday afternoon (yesterday), i really could not fall asleep. So I decided that the best thing to do to turn this jet lag around was to stay up all night, so i did. Right now it´s 5.20am, friday morning and i am actually kind of tired, so i hope i will be able to fall asleep tonight when i go to bed.
 
Bored to death after staying up all night
 

Home is wherever your heart is

And just like that, i'm back in Sweden again.
 
The trip was long and uncomfortable but i made it! We started our trip by taking a bus from Wichita to Houston, and it took forever! We left Wichita around 6 pm monday and arrived in Houston (at an hotel) at 4 am, tuesday morning, wich means we were on the bus for 10 freakin' hours. When we arrived we got inside the hotel (or if it was some kind of camp, i dont really know) and inside there was this really big room with exactly five beds and then a bunch of tables and chairs. Everybody obviously wanted to sleep after the bus ride so some people shared the beds and the rest just took a blanket and slept on the floor. More buses kept arriving and i think there were about 200 students in there at one point. Some students left kind of early to take a bus to the airport where they would get to the plane, but me and my other swedish friends had to wait until 4 pm for the bus to take us to the airport (keep in mind we got there at 4 am) because our flight didnt leave until 8 pm. I was bored to death for 12 hours, but i did skype with Jamie the last hour which made it a lot better, and then efter a lot of waiting we finally went to the airport. We got on the plane that would take us to London, and the flight was only about 8 hours so it wasn't too terrible. When we got to London we had some problems cause my friend acidentally left her camera on the plane, but we made it and then we only had a 2 hour flight back to Stockholm.  
 
When i arrived at the airport in Sweden it was the weirdest thing. Me and my friends (who had been speaking english up until now, even though we are all swedish) started speaking swedish and it felt super weird. We got our bags and then it was time to meet up with our families! I have to be honest, I was suuuuper nervous! 
When i got out of the gate, my whole family stood there waiting for me along with my two best friends! They gave me the biggest hugs ever and they also had balloons and flowers, all in blue and yellow!
In the car on the way home it felt really weird, kind of like I was dreaming. 
Now, when i stepped into my room for the very first time it felt sooo tiny!! It still feels like my whole house got smaller during the time i was gone!
I met my little kitty cat that i have missed so much, but i honestl dont think she rememberes me, and after that we had dinner. My lovely godmother came over too, and she stayed for dinner. She told me i had gotten taller so i guess i'm gonna have to measure myself tomorrow to see if that is true or not. 
The whole evening i was super confused but happy at the same time. I couldnt believe i was actually home, cause in one way it felt like i was just talking to them on skype from my home in Kansas. But it was definitely awesome to see them all again cause i have missed them!!
 
Now it is 2 am over here and i can not sleep. I'm just not tiered, so i decided to read all the letters i got from my family in Kansas before i left. All of the letters made me cry so bad i actually had to take a break and breathe when i was reading them! For all of you Kansas people out there: I miss you soooo much! I'm now going to be living with constant home sickness, so i'll have to visit very soon! I love you all, especially my wondelful family and close friends!
 
Ps. My mom actually put a zebra patterned bedding on my bed to replicate my bed in Kansas! I think i will sleep like a baby once i get tired!
 
I had this around my neck the whole trip home, to make sure i got to the right place at the right time
 
This is the room in which I was bored to death for 12 hours
 
I was super happy and super sad at the same time when i finally arrived in Sweden, the weirdest feeling ever
 
 
My lovely friends Lotta and Siri were there as well
 
When we got home, this was hanging outside my window! :)
 
And this is what my room looks like, its a total mess.. I have to start unpacking both my boxes and my suitcase, and i also have to clean out my closet
 

London calling

At the airport in London folks!


Om

Min profilbild

Elice Lindholm Nobinder

Hej alla där ute! Som ni kanske har förstått är jag en utbytesstudent i USA, Kansas just nu, och jag kommer vara här i ett år! Den här bloggen är lite som min dagbok där jag skriver om allt roligt (och tråkigt) som händer. På så sätt kan mina vänner och min familj läsa om allt jag upplever, men andra människor som är intresserade kan även se hur det är att vara utbytesstudent. Jag svarar gärna på frågor och ni kan nå mig på [email protected]

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