Thanks Canada!

So I thought I'd finish this blog. It's really about time, I've been home for 8 months already. Mom and Dad came to visit me in June, they were there when I graduated, on the 18th of June. And for prom on the 16th. We also took a trip to Prince Edward Island and to Nova Scotia to see Cabot Trail. It really was one of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever seen.

Both PEI and Nova Scotia felt so peaceful, the atmosphere was so easy going. I'm going to move there someday when I'm older, or retired or something. I went home on the 25th of June. Met a nice Russian girl on the plane. Ate at McDonalds in Frankfurt. Met Mom and Dad in Copenhagen. Went on the train home, where I met some of my friends at the train station. I was so great to see them again!

And now I'm home again. It's quite hard at times. I miss Boundery Creek terribly, and every day I think about Canada and the people I got to know there. You are nothing like anybody else I know. And I miss the person I "became" when I lived there. I belive that a person is partly shaped by her surroundings. Or maybe different part of you become visible at different stages of your life, depending on where you are at the moment. That year helped me discover a lot of things about myself.

It made me see that I can do whatever I want, and I can make it through rough times. Unfortunately I'm starting to lose that feeling though, I have no idea what to do after Ive graduated here in Sweden, and sometimes my self confidence isn't on top. But at least I've realized this: I'd rather make one or two mistakes sometimes, than do everything in perfect balance. Contrast gives life meaning, even if I'm too young to be speaking of meaning. But without contrast, it seems to me that life might be like one of those books with a beautiful cover, but without any real interesting story line.

Last but not least: Canadians and Dutch people: How do you measure a year in your life? Well, for me my year with you was one of the best. Thank you everyone who helped making my year in Canada such a success! It was a success, I wouldn't have wished anything to be different in any way. I've learned from every minute of it, and that was why I came there in the first place. I wanted experiences, and I got them. I'm going to try to use them well. By the way, everyone in Canada, I'm going back there sometimes, and then I'll want to see you. Just saying =P

I sure do consider myself part Canadian. Like Robert said, it's in my blood now, I can't change that. I don't want to change it either. I'm proud in many ways to be "canadian". I won't say that we're better, it's just that we're less worse.

Graduation times

Grattis hela SP3C och alla andra som tog studenten igår! Fy fan vad ni är bra :D Om ett år är det min och Linneas tur att springa ut på skolgården i våra vita kläder och snygga hattar. But fact is, in only 5 days it's time for me and my fellow grad class to spend 2 hours in the gym (gympasalen), dressed in our awesome gowns and cool grad hats. I'm excited to be able to experience a North American graduation, I mean, I've watched it on TV so many times, so it feels cool to do it in real life.

Monday is prom. It's probably going to be a quite busy day, with hair appointment and pictures here and there. Prom itself starts at around 6 pm I believe, with arrival and Grad Marsh. Sunday is Grad dinner at church, I wonder if my dear parents are gonna make it in time =P Oh yeah about that, they're somewhere in between Montreál and Quebec City right now, following the St Lorenz River. With is supposed to be a very beautiful trail. So I hope they're enjoyoing it, I'm sure they are.

This week was exam week. That means if you didn't have any exams to write it was a week out of school. I had to write Bio 122, which was quite a challenge, first of all because I'm not a bio/physics person, and then the fact that it was in English didn't exactly make it easier. Other than that I also had a couple of Grad Practices, yeah, they want us to know when to enter and how to walk and when to stand and when to sit and tell us not to talk and not to wear flip flops... You get the point, they want us to be well prepared for the big days. Yesterday we also picked up our gowns and hats.

Yesterday night I went in to help finish the Grad Wall. The grad wall is just a wall in the hallway where we trace and paint all the names of the Grad class, the year and paint a big picture of some sort of a cougar. This year's grad class is very big compared to previous years (about 100 people) so naturally it takes more time to paint. We're far from done and it has to be done tonight, *gulp*. Anyways, I'm might go in today, and we'll see if we can finish in time. Tonight is also Mandy's party, I'll see if I'll go there, need to arrange with drives back and forth. One thing I really miss about Kalmar, I could get anywhere anytime all by myself, freedom! It's funny how many things you don't appriciate until you don't have them anymore.

About that, in less than 2 weeks it's time for me to go home. I'll be leaving Moncton on June 25th, 5.30 pm. Then I'll fly to Toronto - Frankfurt-Copenhagen. In Copenhagen my parents'll wait for me and we take the train home to Kalmar. The train leaves at 18.44 on Thursday June 26th, to arrive in Kalmar at 10 o'clock the same night. I'm going to miss this place terribly, but at the same time it feels good to come homw and meet all the wonderful people, and slowly readjust to my old life again.

Even if nothing's ever going to be the same =D I don't know if i necessarly changed that much, but I'm older now, have a lot of new exciting experiences, some bad but strengthening, more confidence in myself. Maybe I changed at some point, I probably did, somehow. I guess that's up to the people at home to decide =P I know how to handle times of stress, homesickness, bend my attitudes and to never stop fighting. Light awaits just around the corner, even if you can't see it right at the moment. As long as you don't give up =P Haha, it sounds so much cliché, but it's true. I guess we tend to become sentimental at times like this. But that's okay.

Linnea's home soon, if she's not already. Good luck! I have no clue what it's like to come home after a year like this, I'll find out soon enough. I'm sure it's great, but maybe a bit confusing at the same time.

Well, congrats again SP3C! I'll see y'all very, very soon!

Save the best for last?

Sorry, I'm not that active in writing you nowadays. It's mostly because I don't feel like I have that much to tell. The end is getting closer and closer, today in a month I'll be home again. And it feels good, sort of. Of course it's going to be hard to leave the family, who definately feels like my second family by now.

But then again, I feel more and more like I've done my share here, I did what I came to do. And since it's so close to the end it's kind of pointless to start something new anyway, all I can do is to keep going and do what I've been doing. Also when you're so close to the end you sort of realize all the things you've missed, at least I do. I find myself wanting swedish food again, or wanting to go shopping in my town. Small things like that. And I can't wait to see everyone!

The pictures you see are from me and the outdoor pursuits class going to a thing called Treego (tree go). As you can see it's a coarse in going in trees, or between trees. It was so much fun! But Dad, I wonder if it would be a good idea for you, cuz it's quite high ;) 70 feet at some places I believe.

The normal school days are over in 12 days. Then we have exam week, and then prom, and then graduation. I know I'll need to write some exams, but that's nothing new. I didn't exactly try my hardest so to speak. Surprisingly the days seem to be going slower, probabely since we hardly have any of them left.

Last week the house was filled by Dutch relatives. That was nice, even tho they didn't speak much english, but that's okay. It was only sometimes by the dinner table that I found it quite boring, haha. But then I could go off to my room so that worked out fine. Friday was the big anniversary party, which was a ood time. I hung out more with the english people logically :P It was a good time!

I have my prom dress, or, I'm borrowing one from Baukje. It's nice I like it a lot. It's in two different shades of blue and glittery, you tie it around the neck and it's sort of figure shaped. It goes nice with blond hair, as we said it's going to be a good representation of Sweden ;) My parents are coming for prom, I'm really looking forward to it. After all I havn't seen them in almost a year. Then when I come home I hope noone has any special plans for thet Friday night. It's a good night for a Elin-is-home-again party or what do you say? =P Don't make plans!

I'm so excited for next year at home. Can't wait to get to know new people at home, and to hang out with some old ones of course (the ones who don't leave town too fast that is)!

See you in a month!!!

Camping

Last week we went camping with the outdoor pursuits class. I'm not in that class, but they only had one girl who was going to come so they invited me. It was really fun; The first day we walked for about 2 hours and then we put our tents up and went out wood hunting (At leas me and Tommi did, the guys... hrm ;P). The second day was the work day, we walked with our backpacks from 10 o'clock in the morning and we reached the camp at about 7.30 at night.

I'm quite proud actually, I mean, we crossed two rivers and had some crazy uphill parts. Guess if I was tired that night, I slept like stone (doesn't make sense in English but anyway). The last day we walked for about 2 or 3 hours.It was really fun, Fundy National Park is so beautiful, it's how you picture Canada with the river and the forrests, the "redish" soil and the hills. We even saw some traces of the old wood industry, you know when they let the stocks flow down the river.

Otherwise not much has changed. We have 18 more days of school, it feels really wierd, but at the same time I'm relieved. Not that I can't get by school, I like it, but I love Stagnelius and all that comes with it. It's really not fair that I compare this school to my old school, but I can't help it, it's subconscious.

Mom and Dad come here June 11th. It's going to be so much fun to show them around at let them meet the Leenstra family and all. Now they can see for real where I've spent these 10 months. I'm so bringing them down to Fundy National Park, and to that island that is one of the most photograohed islands in Canada or something (unfortunatly I don't remember it's name.)

That was all for now. Oh by the way, I've found the most awesome Canadian group, The Arrogant Worms. They're so anti-patriotic, it's sweet!

The beginning of the end

Time flies by so fast, it is already the end of April, then comes May, and after that it is almost time for me to go home (June 25th). I've been doing some thinking this week, a big change like this coming up is hard to ignore. The feeling is mixed; Confusion, relief, sadness, and oh so much more. I believe there is only about 23 days of school left, or something like that. This week we have three days off, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Other than the weather, not much is changing here in Boundery Creek, New Brunswick. The fields are of course getting greener and I think the trees will explode anytime now. It feels very much like summer, I must say. We run around in t-shirts and mini shorts. It's a good time =P

I don't do very much in school right now. My schedual is a blast to begin with, plus I've reached the point where I don't really care anymore how good my marks are, all I want to do now is enjoy the time I have left in Canada. The social life in school is going so much better now, I feel much more confident than I did a month ago.

Guys and Dolls is cancelled so now I go home every day after school. It was for the best, with our time limit we wouldn't have been able to pull it off. At home I usually try to do something outside, like walking, playing basketball or badminton or something like that. They have lots of stuff to do here, so you won't get bored.

Yesterday Auke, Baukje and I went canoing for two hours or so. It was really nice, we saw some animals (I'm pretty sure we even managed to see an otter). It felt very much like Canada, you know, go canoing in the river, with the fields and the banks covered with red sand. Here and there were some tiny spots of snow, but that should be gone in no time.

We've also painted the deck by the pool and the staircase. We did most of it last weekend and finished that side off this saturday. Now we got to do the veranda in the front too. I like painting, you're outside and it feels like you're doing something good and you don't have to think so much.

Prom is in six weeks. That's pretty much what people are talking about right now. What dress, hairstyle, makeup, Safe Grad... Oh my, it's apparently a lot to think about. I'm borrowing my dress from Baukje, It's a nice dress. The blue colour in combination with my hair makes a good representation of Sweden =P

I think I've figured out my project for next year: A little book about Women's Rights in Afghanistan. I just read A Thousand Splendid Suns so i'm a little into that now. Find it very interesting. I'm gonna try to start off some researching and stuff soon. The more I can do now, the less I would have to do t home, right? ;) We don't want any procrastination here!

San Fransisco and LA

Hello everyone! So comes the time for a new blog post, a time you have all looked forward too, I'm sure =P This week has been spent in San Fransisco and Los Angelos, California. It was, of course, awesome, undescribeable, perfect... Whatever you want to call it, it was great.

The pictures I have now re all from the first day, after that my battery died, hehe. But I'm going to try my best to get pictures of peoples' facebooks. So in a while it should be more accurate.

Day 1, Saturday.
After nearly having missed the flight to San Fransisco (it was nerv wrecking, I tell you) I arrived at the Airport at 12.40 local time. I was immidiately met by an EF Representative and she brought me to a group of other exchange students, like me waiting to get to the hotel.

The first day was not that exciting. Everyone arrived at different times so all we could do was to get comfartable in our rooms and get to know each other at the hotel. The smart ones who brought swimming suites (apparently not me) took a swim in the outdoor pool. The weather was cold and windy, as it so often is in San Fransisco, which is located in the northen California. I would say we had an average temperature of 16 degrees while there.

Day 2, Sunday.
This was the day the fun begun. We took the bus to down town to pick up a tour guide at the Pier 39. The guide took us around San Fransisco by bus and we saw the bay, the beautiful park with a name I cannot remember, the city, the hippie district and of course the Golden Gate Bridge. Wow, that bridge... it is amazing. We had to stop there to take pictures of course, so that everyone can see that we were really there. Other than that we saw Mrs Doubtfire's (how do you spell that?) house and the house they used in the tv show Full House.

In the afternoon we went back to the pier and everyone was let free to go and eat lunch, do some shopping and look at the street artists. I went with the three other swedes, to guys and a girl, and a german guy. I am glad he went with us, case it made us speak english. I mean, we can speak swedish in Sweden, now we are here. We saw a street show with a fake Jack Sparrow. He was quite goos actually, better than I expected. And we met a black street singer who could sing Min älskling du är som en ros by Evert Taube. He was amusing, haha. In the evening we went to Union Square and had dinner in a chinese restaurant. After that we strolled around in China Town. That was sweet, I bought that little red book, "Quotations from Mao Tsetung" or something like that.

Day 3, Monday.
This was the day we went to Alcatraz, the safest and most famous prison in the world I believe. Al Capone was once a prison there, among others. Noone has escaped as we know of, but a few have been close. Three prisoners even managed to get in the water, but we do not know if they survived or what happened to them. We took the farry to the island and then went on an audio tour in the prison. It was really interesting.

The third day was also the day we were supposed to walk across the Golden Gate bridge. But as we went over by the bus we noticed people climbing the wires, and well on the other side we heard that the bridge was closed for pedestrians. The people climbing were protesters carrying a big bandana saying that China should liberate Tibet before hosting the Olympis Games. You might have seen it on the news, I know they did in Norway. So you might have seen our bus go by =) We also walked the steepest most winding street in San Fransico and hopped on the trolley. In the evening we had dinner on Pier 39.

Day 4, Tuesday.
Not much happened this day. We spent the entire day on the bus and arrived in Loas Angelos around 12 o'clock at night. We stopped, however, in a small coast town and had some lunch. It was really nice with the beach and coastal line.

Day 5, Wednesday.
Finally, we were in Los Angelos, the world's capital of movies and movie star. We started off by picking up our tour guide at the farmers market. The guide took us around LA, showing us the Hollywood sign, and different places were they'd shot movies, among other's Richard Gere's hotel in Pretty Woman. We went to Beverly Hills, although we were not aloud to ge in and see the movie stars' houses and stuff.

We went to the Walk of Fame, that was the coolest part, for sure. With all the hand and foot prints of famous people. There were a lot of fake Spider Mans, Marilyn Monroes and even a Jack Sparrow (he sucked, thogh). They want you to take pictures with them and tip them a few bucks. Then we went back to the Farmers Market to have some lunch and do some shopping. It was a lot of fun.

Day 6, Thursday.
This was the Beach day. We got an oppurtunity to sleep in in the morning for the first time, so we left the hotel around 10 am. Nornally we left around 8 so it was nice to sleep a little longer. Basically we just spent the whole day at the beach. It was quite windy but that did not stop me from getting a bad sun burn. I know some girls had it so bad they could not bend down and needed help to put their clothes on for like two days afterwards. I'm glad I didn't get it that bad.

We left the beach in Santa Monica (by the way, it's were they shot parts of Bay Watch and other movies and tv shows) around 5 pm and went to Venice Beach which is the most famous beach of all. Countless movies were made there. We didn't stay there long though. The tour leaders were afraid to loose us among all the wierd people and drug dealers and such. After that we went by the Paramount studio and finally to the Universal Studios. We didn't go in, it costs too much. We walked around and did some shopping in those strange theme park streets. Later we had dinner in the Hard Rock Café.

Day 7, Friday.
Disneyland! And easily the warmest day on the whole trip. It was so hot, I just wanted to lay down. And of course the sun burn didn't get better, even though we used sun screen (yes, we did). It was a fun day, but I wish I'd been younger, I would have enjoyed it more. But well, we went on a crazy Indiana Jones Ride, it was so much fun, we even came back later to do it again. Yeah, there isn't much to say. We jumped into lines for random lines we didn't even know what they were, haha, for example a submarine tour in Nemo's world, and a boat tour in Pirate of the Caribbean-land. We had mexican food for dinner, Soft Tacos Monterray. Obviousley I had to get that, right Linnea?! ;) It was so spicy, my mouth was on fire, is that what you eat all the time? You're probabely used to it by know, eh.

Well and that was it folks. The night between Friday and Saturday almost all of us stayed up. Since we came back to the hotel around 10 - 10.30 and had to get up around 2, to go to the airport at 3 am. Brutal, but necesarry. Almost everyone's flight left around 6 or 7 in the morning. The trip back went all fine. I didn't go into the US this time, so I didn't have to fill in all the documents asking hundreds of stupid questions. I hate flying in the United States, it's so strict and uptight. The staff isn't even nice, at least not the people I met. Canada is so much more relaxed ;)

Montréal and Quebec City

I feel like I am a little behind in my blog posting, I apologize (as always) for that! De senaste dagarna har varit sorgtyngda, detta på grund av en bilolycka som inträffade på vår väg Salisbary Road på onsdagseftermiddagen. Två killar kom körande i lite för hög hastighet och kolliderade med en mötande bil i en "blind hill" (svenska?). Passageren, en 16-åring som gick på vår lilla skola och åkte på min buss, omkom. Föraren ligger fortfarande på sjukhuset, men är numera ansedd att vara i stabilt läge. Denna incident har förstås bringat stor effekt på Salisbury, och framför allt på JMA. Vila i Frid Josh, vi tänker på dig!

On Friday last week I left by plane to meet my brothers in Montréal. From there we planned to drive back to New Brunswick via Quebec City. Everything went as planned, we spent the Friday afternoon/night by walking and eating in Montréal, a really nice city.

Saturday we headed towards Quebec City and after a couple of stops we arrived there in the afternoon. In Quebec City basically we explored the Old Town a bit and on the second day we went to an activity center about 45 minutes from the city by car. It was fun, we visited the Canada's only Ice Hotel, which I found impressing, and tried archery (I rocked the first round, but then my dear brothers unfortunately figured out how to use the bow and quickly passed my skill level =P)

Monday we left Quebec City and drove all the way to Fredericton, New Brunswick. We made some stops on the way of course, for example we had some Subway coffee in Edmunston. We spent the night on a very North American Motel, and next morning after some restuarant breakfast and some tea and scones we drove to Saint John, the biggest city in the province. I like Saint John. It might be because it was a really nice and sunny day, but I think it is my favorite town in New Brunswick. After watching the reversed falls, also located in Saint John, we headed to the Fundy National Park. It was a long and winding road, but I think we all enjoyed it, the landscape down there is lovely.

We arrived in Moncton and Boundery Creek Tuesday Night. Wednesday my brothers came here in the morning to join the morning coffee break. After that I just quickly showed them the house and then we went to see Moncton. We walked down Main Street and visited some shops there. We came back here for lunch, then we started our day trip to Prince Edward Island and Charlottetown. I agree with Ante, it reminded me of Öland, but I can't really explain why. Maybe it's just because it's an island with a long bridge (The Confederation Bridge) that you have to cross (and pay big bucks for) =P

I am happy about this trip. The weather could have been nicer obviously but come on, it's March, what can you expect? Speaking of that, we've had a couple of warmer days but today it is snowing again so... there you go, hehe. It is not spring yet, apparently. Nowadays I also now, by the way, that I'll be coming home on June 26. So now you know that.

That was all for today, pictures might follow. I think I forgot my camera with the boys, otherwise it is in a hotel room somewhere. That would be sad. Anyway, I am going to give them a call and see if they found it and can send it to me from Montréal, they're leaving tomorrow so they should still be there.

Vad gäller läget i skolan så känns det bättre nu. Dagarna går fortare för jag ägnar dem åt att prata med alla möjliga konstiga människor, istället för att bara fokusera på några få. Även om jag inte skulle kalla några av dem mina bästa kompisar direkt så känns det ändå mer avslappnad, jag är mer mig själv. Dramat har hjälpt lite också, dte blir lättare när man har något gemensamt att prata om.