Adventure to Gävle!

Week 5:

Hej Everyone! Sorry I have not posted on my usual Monday or Tuesday. This week has been a very busy and tiring week and I did not feel like writing a blog...because blogging takes a lot of energy. You have to remember everything you did the past week, then you have to write about it in an interesting way, and have someone edit it since I am not good at englishing. I forgot how to spell ankles and shins this week. Kind of embarrassing when you have to google it O.O!
I will get on with this post since I am not too tired or have Innebandy (Floorball) tonight (finally a day off). So last week was just the usual practices at night and school in the day not too entertaining. But on Saturday (Sept. 12) Maja, Åsa and I took a trip to see Martin & Emma at their new apartment in Gävle.  They moved into their apartment recently. Gävle is about a 2hr drive from where we live in Kräkberg. The reason Martin and Emma are in Gävle is because Emma is going to University there and it is more convenient for them to live there. We left early in the morning (about 9am) and first stopped at Ikea and the Mall so the girls could shop. By the way if you are ever thinking about coming to live in Sweden for 10 months pack a lot of jeans, because the average pair of jeans are 1,400kr which is equal to $223.00CAD. Just a little expensive for me...and a lot of other Canadians! So love the retail stores in Canada because our clothes are really cheap which I miss </3. After spending about 2hrs at Ikea and the Mall we headed another 20min to Gävle. We saw the apartment and had lunch with Martin and Emma. They made us lasagna which was really good! And after we had Coffee and a desert (I had tea since coffee is not my thing). We then went on a walk through Gävle and they took us to see the river that flows through the middle of the city (I will post pics when I upload them on my other laptop). It was awesome to see because of the way they built the city around the river! Then we returned to the car and went on our way. But on the way home we switched cars to Emma's parents car. If you know anything about Europe they have small cars...and the car we were in... 6'3 Tucker's legs didn't quite fit into so I had to lean them to the middle where there was space! Remember it was 2 hrs to home, making it a little uncomfortable!
Last week I bought my first Innebandy stick. It was only $230CAD! It was one of the more expensive ones. Since you gotta look stylin on the rink. Just kidding does not really matter if you're styling or not, it's how you play the game that matters.
So this was my adventure last week/weekend! More interesting things to come in next weeks blog...only 3/4 days for that one now :P Have a great weekend everybody!
(Pics will come later tonight...which is soon) 

Dalhalla Concert

Week 4:

Hello Followers & People who are not followers(those popping by for a quick visit),

The past week was a pretty awesome one with a concert to remember and something else too. The start of the week saw more floorball practices. I have three practices each week and most of them are two hours in length. At Tuesday's practice (I think it was Tuesday) I scored a goal in a scrimmage. It is a pretty awesome thing to do when playing with guys who have played since they were 6, and you just started 2 weeks ago! So that was a highlight of the floorball practices last week.
School is going good.  English class is pretty easy considering it is a repeat of Grade 3 English. For example, how to make a word plural!   Math also has me doing stuff I learned in Grade 7 or 8.  So you now know the struggle I am facing in school, in some subjects things are a little too easy!
Finally, one of the things I had dreamed of doing in Sweden happened this weekend. Going to Dalhalla. Dalhalla is an amphitheatre located in a former limestone quarry, and is used as a summer music venue. It is located 7 km north of Lake Siljan and the town of Rättvik in Dalecarlia in central Sweden. The quarry is 60 metres deep, 400 metres long and 175 metres wide. The open air theater was opened in 1995 and currently has 4000 seats. The acoustical qualities are comparable to the best outdoor stages in Europe.(Source: Wikipedia) After watching the year end show which included an amazing fireworks display, this is something I would like to do again! Pictures are posted from the concert below. Be sure to check them out since they are pretty sweet. By the way...I was not suppose to take pictures where we were sitting. But rules are meant to be broken! That's why they make them right?! I would also like to thank my amazing host family for taking me to this awesome concert & venue.  I am very thankful for the opportunities The Nilsson's are allowing me to have.
As you can see I need to get out and do more things or just get injured since all of you find my pain enjoyable...and also so I can write longer blogs :). I am going to bed now so I will write an update again next week...just hope something crazy happens so the post can be longer :D. 

Top of Dalhalla...again

The Stage 

From the entrance to the seats 

Each song had different lights 

The Orchestra 

Two of the Singers were in a row boat performing 

Candles and Fireworks about to start 

Some of the Firworks

Last performance (I actually forgot what this was)

Top of Dalhalla

The view as we were leaving

Something New....

Week 3:

Hello Everyone! This post will mostly be about my amazing first experience with Floorball and Phys. Ed! It was something my body and I will never forget. <3
On Wednesday (August 26) I decided I would try something new and play floorball. Floorball is a very large and well known sport in Sweden. It is like hockey but without all the equipment and ice.  You do have a stick and net and you run...a lot (I will have a picture at the bottom). So Wednesday night comes and I get ready to practice with the team.  I arrive and we start with a 1.5km run. If you know anything about me and my love for running our relationship has always been rocky but I manned-up and ran the whole 1.5km feeling it a little afterwards. Next we were split into 5 teams and we played a few mini games (4 on 4) for the hour of practice. After the practice I asked the coach when the next practice was and he told me Monday. He also invited me to training Thursday (August 27). I went home and told Åsa & Tomas that I liked it and would like to go again.  I also mentioned that there was training the next night. I then sat and watched TV before taking a shower and going to bed for the night. Thursday morning came around and my alarm goes off.....at that moment I knew something was wrong. My body was definitely not feeling right and holy sh*t did it hurt to move. As I lay there strategizing a plan that would give me less pain and hopefully lessen my struggle, I think about all the stairs I need to go up and down today. Yes, STAIRS...there are the ones in the house to get down to the main floor, then there are the small but killer three steps to get to the kitchen (I will need to go up and down about 2 times) and then about 9 sets (a lot of stairs in each set) that I need to go up and down to get to classes. As I struggle getting out of bed I know this day will not be good...at all. But wait! I have floorball training again tonight which I am now leaning towards not going to since all of the stair climbing throughout the day will be enough of a workout. I almost do not make it through the school day because of the pain I am in going up and down the stairs.
When I got home Martin was asking me why I was not going and after a talk with Åsa & Tomas, I finally chose to go...WORST IDEA EVER!!!!  Training starts with stretching and then we move onto our exercises. Now I have to be honest, during training my muscles really did not even hurt. After training I got changed, walked out to the car and my muscles slowly start hurting again. I get home and Maja leads me through some stretches that should help me with the pain...NOT!  It did not do anything to help me! So I get a shower and literally crawl my way up to my bed for the night. As my alarm went off Friday there was hardly any movement coming from me. Not only did my legs hurt A LOT, but now my whole torso area also hurts. My thoughts immediately take me to what we might be doing in Phys Ed class. My inner voice tells me, "it should be easy today since we are just starting!" So I get out of bed, walk awkwardly down the stairs (as my legs scream out in pain), eat breakfast and head to school. Phys. Ed class slowly rolls around. We are in a classroom talking and the teacher announces that  we will be doing a 2km run. Oh, did I mention this is like a cross-country run that has trees you have to jump over and obstacles you should put in front of a teenager in this much pain. The first 200m hurt but then it got better as I ran. Now of course, the run had to end and OH MY GOSH....the PAIN!!! I walked...well, not really walked because my walk these days were not walks. I was like a fricken penguin waddling to his little clan in a snow storm for the rest of the day.
So I go home that night and ask Åsa & Tomas if the Sauna would help. They said it might so I gave it a try because what do I have to loose at this point! After 30 min in the sauna I had some relief and was a little more agile but the stairs were still my enemy. On Saturday night I went in to the sauna again and felt a little better. Sunday morning I finally could move again and the pain had subsided! That pretty much concludes how my first days with Floorball and Phys. Ed went.  A time in my life I will soon not forget!
On Sunday we went to visit Åsa's dad. His house(which he built himself) sits on a large property with a pond he dug beside his house.  The pond is stocked with Trout. It was nice to meet him and see his house.  Asa & Tomas brought along the maple cookies I had gifted them and everyone quite enjoyed them. The rest of Sunday I just relaxed.  Monday(yesterday), I had Floorball practice again and I am thrilled to report that I am not that stiff today! Thankfully!
This wraps up this blog post up for now. I have posted a few pictures below to give you an idea of what Floorball is about.

Mora's team name & logo

Floorball stick and ball 

Pro Match (Goalies do not use sticks)

     

Getting into the Groove!

Week 2:

This post will be a short post since I did not have a lot going on last week but it was still a good week with fabulous weather!
The first week of school is complete! Only 39 weeks to go...that is if I counted correctly. Tuesday and Wednesday (Tisdag & Onsday) were very easy days since the teachers just talked to us about St: Mikaels and the classes we will be attending. For myself the Math, English and Science are easy and I should get through them without any problems! But Swedish is a different story. :) It might be a little more difficult than those other subjects! Thursday was the first day on the real schedule which was a breeze and I did not have any troubles finding my way! Friday was the day all the grade 1 students were waiting for :). It was the day we got our Macbook Air Laptops! All student's at our school receive the MacBook Air to use for school.  It's a great tool to have for the year and I may be able to purchase the laptop at the end of the semester for a relatively cheap price.  Mine still needs to be updated, but I need to add it to the wifi at home. Only three of my devices need wifi which is not that bad until it comes to movies when  it goes slow :(.
On the weekend Martin ran in the Vasastafetten which is a 90 km run, but it is split distances between 10 men on the team! On the same day at 5:00 am it was the start of the Ultravasan 90, which is a 90 km which one person runs (website link will be posted so you can see). That night we went to a family friend's for a BBQ party for the runners on Martin's team. The bbq made for a fun night and I met some new people. Sunday was a pretty chill day. Emma and I went swimming in the lake and managed to find 80 golf balls! That night we had a family movie night...sort of.  Sort of because Tomas(my host dad) and Maja(my host sister) headed off to bed.
That concludes a short post about Week 2 in Mora or shall I say Kråkberg, as that is the actual name of the town I live in!
Here is the link to read about the race:  ( http://www.vasaloppet.se/en/#?race_type=92&race=106 )

My Bed 

A little couch (With the wrong flag, oops!) 

My desk 

Balcony with my awesome view

My whole room (sort of)

Some photography from Sunday 

Some photography from Sunday 

Some photography from Sunday 

Some photography from Sunday 

Some photography from Sunday 

Some photography from Sunday 

My School Schedule 

The Beginning...

Hej everyone,

To begin my blog I should introduce myself. My name is Tucker Campbell.  I am 17 years old and I am from a small town of Palmerston, Ontario where I have lived all my life. I decided (after a long self-debate) that I would go on a 10 month exchange to Sweden. Since my family has hosted 7 exchange students from various countries, I thought it should be my turn to go to a foreign country and experience an exchange first hand.  I created this blog for all of you to follow me on my crazy adventure! So let's begin!!

Week 1:

On Tuesday August 11, 2015 at 6:40pm (EST) I was on a plane headed towards Frankfurt, Germany which is just over a 7hr. plane ride! Thankfully my parents got me extra leg room, but it was not a great spot to sleep (I also did not want to miss the food). Beside me on the plane was a young English man who now lives in Australia, and had an awesome Australian accent. He was on his way to visit friends in England. When I arrived in Frankfurt Airport I had a little trouble navigating the airport, but the real trouble came when I got to security. I took all of the items out of my backpack and pockets........I thought. I went through the full body scanner which detected something on my chest area. After a pat down there was nothing. Then came picking up my items! I could not find them because they were beside the Security Officer...Again she asked if I had any liquids in the bag and I said, "no there are not any." That was the wrong answer. I completely forgot that I had the travel sized male toiletries bag! Whoops! She proceeds to take everything out of my bag and tells me I need to pull the shaving cream out next time. After explaining that to me I had to go to a secondary security point to be checked for narcotics. Since all of you know I am Palmerston's number one supplier :'). Anyway, the test came back clean and I proceeded to my next flight from Frankfurt to Stockholm where I was thankful to be! It is also where I began a 4 day camp with YFU Sweden volunteers, and lets just say day number one of it was me walking like the living dead because of the lack of sleep! However, I did get to see the Swedish Royal Castle. The next few days were full of Swedish language lessons(which I forgot everything) and Fika. Fika is basically a coffee break.  On Saturday I got to meet my second family, the Stenis's (not my host family but my exchange brother Johan's family). During my short stay with them they made me feel welcome and right at home in this new country of mine, Sweden. We also went into the backwoods and visited a family friend's cabin and had fika!  Monday came around and I was a bit nervous but not too nervous. Inez(Johan's youngest sister)came to school with me in the morning, gave me a quick tour and translated the assembly... I would not hire her as my translator again because  she only translated one sentence translated through the entire assembly! I am in the Ascetics Program but more specifically Music! Once my first school day was complete I met my host family the Nilsson's and I am now living with them!

Fun Fact: In Swedish High Schools, lunch is a free hot meal!

(Pictures will be posted tomorrow)

On the flight

Drottingholm, The Royal Castle

Frankfurt Airport

Drottingholm, The Royal Castle

Drottingholm, The Royal Castle

Drottingholm's Gardens

Drottingholm, The Royal Castle

Drottingholm, The Royal Castle

Drottingholm, The Royal Castle

Drottingholm, The Royal Castle

Meeting Area at Camp

Foyer 

Looking out from the Foyer

The river at the Camp

The Garage (Martin & Emma's Apartment)

The Nilsson's House

The Nilsson's House

Looking to the backyard (with a lake) 

Panorama behind the house

Living room (A little of the kitchen)

Dining Room

Main Hall