Author: Gian Reinardy

My friend Ellen and I at a amazing all vegetarian restaurant in downtown Goteborg called Andrum. The food was to die for and buffet style so for about 70 kr you get as much food as you can pile on your plate! I defiantly plan on returning in the very near future.

Close up picture of my plate. Not really sure what everything was, but it sure was tasty.

Me, Annaliese, and Ellen

Annaliese and I going out for a night on the town in downtown Goteborg.

Quick picture of us at a disco tech we found! It was a super fun night filled with great music, lots of dancing, and meeting new people.

After out fun night out we went for a nice walk through town in the morning. We came across this beautiful lake and decided to take a few pics.

Hello again everyone! I am back from my weekend getaway – healthy as a clam still! My host family all appear to be getting better as well, so hopefully I am in the clear now.

I had a super fun weekend with my friends in Goteborg as you can see. Next time I am having everyone come to Varberg which should be loads of fun. I am really starting to love the cities in Sweden. Goteborg for its amazing shopping, great food, stunning buildings, interesting museums, fun night life, and just overall busy big city feel all while still feeling totally safe. Even when walking around late last night I never once felt unsafe. Everyone there is so nice and police are everywhere to make sure nothing bad happens. The lack of cars is also nice because there is no need to worry about drunk driving or any of that. Varberg has a completely different feel then Goteborg with its cobble stone streets, cute boutiques, bike paths, breathtaking fortress, and beautiful view of the sea. It gives a much more relaxing, quaint feel – like living in a permanent vacation almost.

I got back to Varberg in the afternoon today, went for a quick run, and now Bea and are going to do a little cooking. We plan to make “Energy Balls” which consist of blended dried fruits and nuts and a quinoa salad for dinner. Not much planned for the rest of the week. It is officially Spring here I have decided. The weather forecast for the next 10 days is about 6C with light showers. Hopefully this means we will have a early and long summer here in Sweden!

Swedish Word of the Day: Slut – (Sl-oot) This is another one of those tricky Swedish Words that you think may be the same in English, but really means something completely different. In this case the word slut in Swedish actually just means “The End”.

It has been a super lazy Friday here in Varberg. The whole family (except me – knock on wood) has been battling a cold for about a week now. We slept in late, had some breakfast, Mats and I attempted to go to the gym (we lasted 10 minutes), I trudged to the library, and Bea and I did some grocery shopping. At 1 we all gathered around the TV to watch the men’s Semi-finals of Sweden vs. Finland. After a shaky start, Sweden prevailed and came out with a win! Now it is up to USA to get revenge on Canada and come out with a W, so then it would be a Sweden vs. USA final.

To celebrate we decided to make some homemade pizzas for dinner. Super fun and nice because then everyone can put what they want on their pizza. I will post pictures below to show what we all had.

Tomorrow I am head in to Goteborg (again I know) to spend the rest of my weekend at Annaliese’s house in hopes of avoiding the cold that seems to have been plaguing our house. I need all of my strength for Monday when I finally get to start my new class!

My master piece – Olive Oil for a bas with spinach, mushrooms, broccoli, red onion, red pepper, and cherry tomatoes, topped with fresh garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and basil. YUM.

Mei Mei and her Pizza – sorry to Olivia who ate her pizza so fast I did not get a picture!

Bea’s Pizza

Mats Pizza

Swedish Word of the Day: sjuk – adjective (Ha-woo-K) that means “sick” Really hoping that I do not get sjuk!

I’m back! After 5 glorious days of vacation from my semester long vacation, it feels good to be back in Varberg – in one piece too much to my parents relief.

The weather was suburb, just about 0C and sunny. We stayed in a cute little red cabin up on a mountain about 5km from the ski resort which was called “Ski Sunne”. I normally snowboard, but decided to give skiing a try this time around. I had a lot of fun and thankfully no bad falls. All in all I would say it was a huge success.

Each day we woke up around 8 and had breakfast. Which consisited of porridge, hard bread and cheese, and lots of coffee. Then it was off to the ski hill! We skied for a few hours then all meet at the bottom of the hill to grill up some hotdogs (Me and Bea had veggie dogs which were still very tasty). They had 3 very nice fire pits surrounded by picnic tables for all the hungry skiers to use. Literally everyone had korv och bröd (Hotdogs) it is the typical food to eat for lunch when skiing here in Sweden. After quickly devouring lunch, it was off for a few more hours of skiing. By 4 everyone was thoroughly exhausted, so we all piled in the car and headed back to the cabin for some much needed relaxation.

Once back at the cabin we would have a snack and then throw in a movie – too tired to do anything else. The movies we watched while up there were: Maria Antoinette, Challenging, Flickan som Lekte med Elden (Girl Who Played with Fire), and Anastasia. The cabin not only had 4 TVs, but also came with about 60 movies and 5 board games. Needless to say we had no problem entertaining ourselves while up there.

Dinner was probably one of my favorites parts of the day. Not only because I was usually so hungry by 630 I felt like I could eat the entire kitchen, but also because of Beas phenomenal cooking. For dinner we feasted on Lentil Stew, Broccoli Quiche, and Spaghetti Bolognese (meat free). Unfortunately, I only got to take a picture of the broccoli Quiche because we all devoured everything so fast.

Tomorrow I am off of school, so I plan on sleeping and relaxing the whole day. It is crazy how exhausted (and sore) you can get after a couple of days of skiing.

Monday I start with my new class, hopefully it goes well!

Had an AMAZING dinner with my friend Natalie tonight. We feasted on salmon, shrimp pasta with zucchini, and a nice salad. It was seriously heaven. I left feeling not only very happy, but also very very full!

Making friends has been interesting here in Sweden. Upon talking to the other exchange students we all have concluded that it is a lot harder than we thought it would be. This is for a few reasons, one of which being that in general Swedes are very closed off and shy people. They like their personal space and do not go out of their way to say hi to strangers. It took some getting used to not saying high/smiling to everyone on the street like we do in America. Another reason making friends is harder in Sweden is because the way the schooling works. In America we switch class 7 times a day with completely new people in each class. Here in Sweden you are with the same people the entire day. Once you have chosen your major you stay with the same class for all of secondary school; thus, making it rather difficult to meet new people. Especially in my case because I only had 5 people in my class.

While it has been hard, I have been meeting lots of new people. I just need to muster up my courage and go up and talk to them first. While this can be quite intimidating I have found that once I start talking to people they are so nice! They seem to be genuinely interested in me and very curious about what America is really like. Don’t let the closed off shy people fool you because underneath that Swedes are very nice, helpful, funny, caring, kind people. You just have to get the courage to start up a convo with one.

This is one thing that being an exchange student has really taught me – sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands. I could have chosen to take the easy way out, not going out of my way to meet people, drift through school staying in my comfort zone, but that was not what I wanted to do. I wanted to experience life as a Swedish teenager, go out, and make lifelong friends I will never forgot. After a week of silence from my classmates I decided to take matters into my own hands. I began going up to people, introducing myself, asking for help, anything to start a conversation. I am so glad I did this because I have made some great friends because of it. Now people say hi to me in the hallways and invite me to lunch – I am no longer just “the American girl”.

Learning how to take matters into our own hands is a really important life lesson. Growing up in a small town I am often handed everything on a silver platter. If something were to go wrong I always had mommy and daddy to help me out. Here, not so much. If I have a problem it is up to me to either deal with it, or fix it.

Okay enough of my rant, I need to go finish packing and get a good night of sleep because tomorrow I leave for skiing! Five glorious days up in beautiful Northern Sweden in a quaint cottage. Does it get any better than that?

Will write more next week! Hej då!

Swedish Word of the Day: “semester” – This is one of those words that you think would be the same as in English, but really the Swedes are just trying to trick you because it actually means “vacation”. Confusing right? It took me a while to realize this one, as I could not understand why my classmates were so excited about the up coming semester.

Valentines Day in Sweden

Valentines Day in America

Hallmark Holidays just aren’t the same here in Sweden. In fact, they are basically nonexistent. In America the stores live for holidays. It gives them the perfect opportunity to fill entire isles with festive merchandise that no one really needs, but manage to throw in their carts anyway. For Valentines day in America this normally means rows and rows of Teddy Bears, heart shaped chocolate boxes, and flowers.

Here in Sweden…not so much. I went on a mad search to nearly every store in town. From grocery stores, to drug stores, to clothing stores, the ONLY sign that a holiday is about to happen tomorrow was this measly display – which may I add is not even correct! First off, since when is green a Valentines day color? Carmel Apples as well?! Hate to break it to everyone, but fall ended months ago! And finally, to be quite honest, I am pretty sure the “teddy bears” are actually rabbits.

Although their lack of holiday spirit is a tad sad to me, it is also typically Sweden. They are such practical people here I simply cannot get over it. I admire their way of thinking, it once again is a great example of how over the top we can be in America. Living in America that is just the norm, we except there to be over 25 options of chocolate hearts, and roses covering the walls in stores. It has been refreshing to be able to take a break from all of the excess and has helped me realize the importance of living in moderation. That being said, if there are not chocolate bunnies available around Easter, we are going to have some serious issues.

Hope everyone has a good day!

Eat some chocolate hearts for me tomorrow,

-Hannah

Swedish Word of the Day: “Alla hjärtans dag” – Valentines day! Literally it means All hearts day.

Today instead of going to school I went to Goteborg to meet up with some other exchange students. It was a really good day for many reasons – I got free pizza, went to a rainforest, saw a candy wonderland, and perhaps best of all, I finally feel as though I have conquered Sweden’s public transportation system once and for all.

Side Note: Sorry I forgot to tell everyone that Cooking with Hannah Tuesday, was moved to Friday due to my Aikido lesson. Stay tuned!

Sorry for the terrible lighting, but this is at the pizzeria with the other exchange students. you can see just how big the pizzas are!

I got the “Afrikana” It has Bananas, Pinapple, Peanuts, and is topped with a curry sauce. Weird combination, I know, but it was honestly SO good! I really recommend everyone at home give it a try if they can. Normally it has ham on it as well, but I got it without.

Me with the other exchange students standing outside the Museum. From left to right Ana (Germany), Annaliese (Australia). Arttu (Finland). Me (America)

After Pizza we went to a really cool Science museum in Gothenburg. It was a lot like discovery world except it had a rainforest in the middle of it. Complete with real monkeys and toucans.

Me with my New friend Annaliese from Australia.

Biggest candy store in Gothenburg. I was stunned even as an American where we are known to have the biggest most unhealthy things imaginable. The amount of candy this store had was out of this world. Anywhere from toffee to chocolate nut clusters, to sour candies. You name it they had it.

More candy, it was never ending.

This is the gum I keep complaining about! All the gum here is like this – in small reseal able bags. They think we are crazy in America for having ours in boxes.

Swedish Word of the Day: godis – candies! Which I saw tons of today, but used my self control and did not have a single piece. I was still waddling pretty good after my giant pizza indulgence and decided to save the godis for another day.

Hej Hej!

By now I have pretty much gotten used to the Swedish lifestyle and how things work around here. That being said, this also means it is time to get off my lazy butt and start doing things again! While I must admit it was nice taking my time adjusting the first month, it is now time for me to start really trying to start and become a normal busy Swedish teenager! It is also really important as an exchange student to stay busy I think to avoid depression, homesickness, and all of that bad stuff so I am very motivated.

Next Tuesday I will be trying out a self defense class! I forgot the exact name of what type of self defense it is, some Asian name. The class is for young adults so hopefully there will be some other kids my age. The good thing about this class is that it is more doing than speaking so my terrible Swedish should not hinder me too much. I am also looking into a painting class that would be once a week. I have never been a very good artist, but I thought might as well give it a shot. My options here are pretty limited as Sweden is not like America where we have all of these extra curricular activities.

Volunteering is another things that is basically non-existant in Sweden. Seriously, when I started asking around for ideas on where to volunteer people looked at me like I was crazy. Luckily my host mom is helping me and we spoke with the local soccer teams and they said they would be more than happy to have me help out with some of the younger kids practices.

Another exciting thing that happened today was I changed majors! I went from being in psychology (something I know very little about and quite honestly is next to impossible for me to understand in Swedish) to the RT program. Now I will have gym 3 times a week, take a health class, and best of all the class has a whooping 32 kids! This is a huge step up from the 5 kids I have in mine right now.

This new schedule is a great because it gives me the time to go to Göteborg on Mondays and Wednesdays to take a Swedish class to help me learn Swedish. After talking to other exchange students they say that taking a class really helps a ton with learning the language. In the house now Bea has taken to speaking to me in almost all Swedish. This, while frustrating at times, has proven to be helping a lot.

After talking to the principal today she also suggested that maybe it would be a good idea for me to put together a slide show about myself and then present it to all of the classes in the school. This would really help to clear up some of the stereotypes we as Americans have (I am getting really tired of being asked if I am a cheerleader) and give me a cool opportunity to tell everyone a little bit more about my life in America compared to my life in Sweden.

All in all I am happy with how things are going. I really hope that these classes are fun and I enjoy my new classes. I will keep you all updated on how things go.

For now, I just got back from lunch. We went to Namaste today, an Indian restaurant in town. I got the vegetarian curry. The highlight would have to be the “Nan” bread. So good! I have a short English class soon, then I am done for the day. Tonight we are having dinner with Mor Mor then watching the Opening Ceremony.

Ha en bra dag! (Have a good day)

-Hannah

Swedish Word of the Day: Promenera – verb To go on a stroll basically, or take a leisurely walk which I have been doing a lot since arriving here. I am pretty sure that “promenade” in English means the same thing, but I am not sure. If it does it surely is not as commonly used as it is in Sweden.

Well, I suppose technically it has been one month and a day now because I choose to be lazy yesterday, but you get the point. I have officially been living away from my friends, family, country, everything I knew for 32 days. That is the longest (by far) I have ever gone without seeing my family.

I am not going to lie, I do miss them. However, not in the severe-homesickness kind of way. More in the I am thinking about them because I love them, but I know that I will see them again soon enough. They are not gone, I am not dead, this is merely a period of separation which I think in the long run will have been a really good experience for both me and my parents. I cannot imagine how hard it was for them to trust me enough and let me go halfway across the world on my own and live there for 6 months. Everyday I am here I am so grateful that they did though.

Most days have been great! (Aside from the beginning week when I had terrible jetlag) I found the transition not to be as hard as others have said. This is partly because of my amazing host family and partly because I choose Sweden for the very reason that it was somewhat similar to American culture. They are not like Spain who is up all night and eats at 9pm and not like China where the language is so different I surely would’ve had a heart attack my first day of school. I purposely picked a country that could speak good English for the most part and had a similar culture. That being said there are still MANY things abut Sweden that are very different from America which is good and makes me still feel like I am getting a real cultural experience.

Making friends has been interesting. As I have stated before I was placed in a small class (only 5 other kids) in a major (psychology) I knew nothing about. In Sweden you stay with the same kids in your class from the first day of secondary school, until the day you graduate. Also, you spend your whole day with them, so if you do not like the people in your class you are in for a long 3 years. I did like my classmates a lot, but we just did not click which happens sometimes. I wanted a major more involving health and fitness with a bigger class so I have more opportunities to meet people. I am fortunate enough to have a great and understanding principal so on Friday I am meeting with here to talk about changing my major to RT! These are the rescue people – ie firefighters, police, ambulance paramedics ect. I am really excited and hope it works out! These classes are much bigger (about 30 people) and seem way more interesting to me. So fingers crossed!

I often get asked what it is I miss the most, besides family and friends of course. Honestly, I do not miss much and what I do miss are things that cannot be sent in the mail for the most part. Maybe because I have only been here a month I have not had time to develop extreme longings or materialistic items yet. Anyway here is a small list of random things I miss from America:

• PEANUT BUTTER – First and for most I miss peanut butter more than anything. The good Trader Joes kinda that are unsalted and only have 1 ingredient, the pb and co cinnamon swirl, the honey bee. I miss it all so much I dream about it at night – no joke. Here if you want peanut butter you have to drive 15 miles and settle for creamy Skippy. Filled with all the nasty preservatives and is $10 for a jar no bigger than your fist. It is quite funny actually because after reading my other exchange students blogs and talking to them peanut butter is without a doubt the number one thing that we all have in common when it comes to missing things from home.
• Soft Gum – Here the gum is super hard and only sold in plastic bags. No clue why, but when I tried to explain to people that in America we kept our gum in boxes you should have seen the looks I got.
• My Kerig Coffee Maker – While Swedes do love their coffee they tend to be very old fashion abut how they make it, no Kerigs here.
• Being able to actually read a Menu – Here I eat out at least once a day because of the school lunches, so reading a menu is a rather important task for me. I have gotten a lot better, but still often have to ask a friend for help. The food words can be so confusing too. For example, the word lök which I was convinced meant salmon because at the Art Museum we sell bagel and lox  so I just assumed it meant the same thing, I mean close enough right? Well nope, lök actually means onion. Blomkål means cauliflower, annas means pineapple, vitlök means garlic (why that does not mean white onion I couldn’t tell you), but you see my point. Food words in Sweden are very different, thus making ordering a daily fight.
• My bed – I think that this sis something all travelers miss. Whether it be just a short weakened vacation or year long trip, everyone always misses sleeping in their own bed.

For now that is all I can think of, not too bad. The weather here has been great, all of the snow is gone. I went for a nice run outside yesterday in about 40 degree weather. Sorry to taunt all of you stuck inside all day. I am super excited for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics tomorrow, except I bet they will broadcast it in Swedish so I will be somewhat lost, still I be it will be super cool. For now I am standing strong and rooting for all the USA athletes, we will see how long that lasts. The Swedes tend to be very good at their winter sports – they are especially good in my favorite, hockey.

Here are some random pictures I have not had a chance to post:

Sledding a few days ago when we actually had snow.

Pretty shot from one of my morning walks.

Lucy the family dog.

Swedish Word of the Day: “Trött” – adjective and means tired. Jag är mycket trött is and extremely common phrase used by teenagers and means – I am very tired. This was one of the first phrases I learn that and Jag är mycket hungrig. (I am very hungry)

Monday. Everyone’s favorite day of the week. Ha – good one. Personally I especially despise my Mondays in Sweden because I have 5 classes instead of my usual 3 in school. (I can see my friends back in America rolling their eyes at this as they proceed to go on their 7 class period days) Anyway, this Monday morning was particularly dreary. It had rained all night, so the snow has now turned to slush and the air reeked of the weird after smell that comes with rain.

School was boring and essentially empty because the RT guys are gone. That makes the school population go from 150 to 80 kids. I am pretty sure at Bay we have classes with more than 80 kids in them. To make matters even worse, all of my classes were work days. In English I have to write a paper about the movie “The Help” and talk about how segregation is still prevalent in today’s society. Then next week we are having a seminar about it – I actually am really looking forward to that because then my classmates will be forced to speak in English so I will actually be able to understand them!

That being said my Swedish IS getting better. My host mom says she is really proud of my progress. Each day I can understand more and more and am beginning to form basic sentences. My pronunciation is absolutely terrible though, some of the words are so hard to say! Like something as simple as spoon which is (sked). In English you would pronounce it like Sk-ed, but in Swedish it should like Sh-we-ed with a gurgle sound using the back of your throat. My conclusion with Swedish is that the grammar structure is for the most part simple, but the pronunciation of words is….extremely difficult to say the least. Bea and I keep saying we need to talk using more Swedish at home so I am thinking maybe 3 times a week we will have “Swedish Only Days” where we only speak in Swedish. After all the more I try and speak it the better I will get.

In other news, vegetarian life is going very well. I am really enjoying refraining from meat and my body is responding very well to it I think. I have more energy, less bloating, and have stopped stuffing myself at lunch and feeling sick after. Last night we had a mushroom risotto that was to die for. With it Bea served chicken for the kids and Mats while me and her enjoyed some fried cheese. We have this a lot in replacement of meat and it is super good and full of protein. In America I had it at the farmers market in Madison, so I think you can find it in grocery stores over there – I highly recommend trying it!

I finally also go my first letter from the states yesterday! Within my first week I sent out 6 letters, but sadly only one has appeared to have gone through. Hopefully, you all will get them eventually.

Looking into the future here is what my up coming months look like:

February – 2 more weeks of school then on February 18 the fam and I are heading up north for some skiing! We are staying at a little cabin and spending 5 days up there, I am super excited! Bea and I have been busy planning our meals for the week.

March – Only one week of school then I get to “Pratikplats” (job practice) for 3 weeks! Still have not heard back/decided on what jobs I am going to do, but will let you guys know as soon as I decide.

April – On the 4-6 I get to go on a trip with 25 other exchange students to Stockholm for the weekend!

May – No big events, but there will most likely be a lot of parties and events going on because of graduation coming up. My class will be taking a field trip to Gothenburg to attend a gay pride festival which should be fun. And as if I do not have enough days of in school, I also get the last week in May off.

June – Last month in Sweden! Hopefully the weather will be nice and I will get to enjoy some relaxing time on the beach. The town I live in is one of the most popular resort towns in Sweden and in the summer the tourists flood in from all of the world. I leave on the 22nd for my Euro Trip which I will spend a little over 3 weeks traveling all over Europe on a bus with 30 other kids my age. Then finally in mid July Hannah comes home!

As you can see the time will really fly by, I cannot believe it is February already!

Tomorrow is another Cooking with Hannah Tuesday, I think you guys will really enjoy what I am making! Hint: it even has mangos in it so you know it must be good.

I hope everyone has a good day!

-Hannah

Swedish Word of the Day: smörgås – noun Means “sandwich” The word smorgasbord actually originated in Sweden and is used to describe a big buffet or arrangement of food, just like in English.

I have had so much fun taking pictures of everything in Sweden and on the weekends I am normally pretty busy and find it hard to find time to do a blog post, so I have come up with a perfect solution – a Picture Diary! I think that this will be a really fun and easy way to show everyone what I have been up to all day and give more insight to typical everyday Swedish lifestyle. I will try to do this more often if you guys like it, but for now enjoy!

Frukost (breakfast) – Yogurt, my homemade muesli, and a banana. This is basically what I eat every single morning, with lemon juice and a cup of coffee (Not pictured).

Olivia and Mei-Mei, enjoying their toast.

This is an example of what my host family eats for breakfast. You can see butter, mayo, salami, cheese, cucumber, hardboiled egg, and homemade bread. In America this would appear to be lunch, but here Sweden this is what a typical breakfast looks like.

After Breakfast it was off to the gym for a nice work out. This is one of the many different rooms at my gym and I was lucky enough to have it all to myself.

After the gym I walked over to the library, got a few books, and picked out a movie to watch with the fam tonight. Here is a glispe inside the awesome library. It was hard to take a picture because everyone was looking at me like I was crazy, but I did it for the blog. Your welcome guys.

As I was walking home from the library I passed through the market. Every Wednesday and Saturday there is a big market in the middle of town. They sell foods, clothes, jewelry, flowers, you know it. However, right now it is not all that good because it is winter, but when summer comes the market becomes packed with people and huts.

At around 1 I came home and had lunch – porridge! It is basically oatmeal with milk and Lingonberrys on top. Super yummy and easy to make.

In the afternoon I had he pleasure of going to a play with Bea, Mur Mur, and Douglas. It was super fun and the theater itself was gorgeous. Best part was the play was in English, so I could actually understand what the heck was going on!

Dinner was an AMAZING vegan curry soup. Filled with tons of veggies. I was in heaven and am so grateful to have such a great chef for a host mom.

After dinner we are going to relax and watch a Swedish song competition show or something like that. It sounds similar to American Idol, expect they are competing based off of their original songs, rather than their voices. Then it is off to bed.

Tomorrow it is suppose to rain, so bye bye snow! Hope everyone has a good rest of their day.

-Hannah