Off to the North Pole.

Today I am headed to the North Pole, well, almost.
Today I am taking the train up to Kiruna, Sweden for a short trip. I will be going to the Ice Hotel, touring around, going to Norway one day, and more. Mostly, I will be freezing again. Here in Västerås the weather has changed and we are having a nice warm spring. However, Starting tomorrow I will be back to 0 degrees, and snow. But I have hope to see the northern lights!

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Another reason Swedes are the best.

Today I went to Coop Konsum to shop food for tomorrows train ride to Kiruna over night. I figure I wont have enough time in Stockholm to really stop and eat. I looked at sandwiches and other prepared foods, but did not find anything that I fancied. I decided to just get a Risifrutti and worry about real food tomorrow. I went to the self check out. I paid with cash, got my change and recipt and left. I was busy thinking about the few other things I needed to get before going home to finish packing. I headed to the shoe store to purchase shoe laces for my boots. My laces had almost fallen apart. When paying for the laces I realized I had forgotten to get  the paper money at the grocery store. I was debating weather to go back, or leave it go. It was only 20kr, about 4 US dollars. I decided it couldn't hurt to go back and ask, so that is what I did. The lady knew exactly what I was talking about, she had even wrapped it in a note describing who's it was. I could not help but think that in the US at self checkout, the next person would have taken it as free money. They would have thought nothing of it. Finders keepers losers weepers. But in Sweden, even that 20kr, was right there waiting for me.

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Why I do want to go home.

Despite all the feelings of not want to go home, a part of me still wants to go back.
I want to see my family. I want to walk on the beach in Florida. I want to see friends. I want to eat cake. I want to go to Dizzy's. I want to go see a movie without spending $20 on the ticket. I look forward to new adventures, growing even more, seeing even more places. I guess it is kind of melancholy, there are things that I will miss about Sweden, and things I have missed from the States.

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Blogging.

Not only do I feel like a bad exchange student because I do not manage to blog with regularity, but I also feel like a bad Swede. Many Swedish teenagers have a blog. And they write every day. I don't know how they manage to make their life interesting. They turn shopping into blogs, eating into blogs, everything that they do can be documented in a blog post. And, they get paid to do it too. But here's a photo for the day.

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I have been gone for a week.

A snapshot from the car window on the way up.

I got back on Saturday from being on a week long sport break. On the break I traveled with my host family to Sälen to go skiing. It was, to say the least, AMAZING. I could not have asked for a better week. I have documented the whole week in photographs.

Driving into town on the first night, yet another from car snapshot.

Cross Country Skiing to go feed the birds. (another post all about that)

Up into the hills of Sweden.

Little Brother, Joar, playing in the snow.

Skis sitting outside ski house.

Brother, Agaton, posing as a model. 

Cousins Alexander and Simon with brothers in snowmobile sled on the way up to the top of a mountain.

River passed on the snowmobiles.

Grandmother making emlor

Selma. Yummy!

Agaton thinks they are good too. 

Sunset from the mountain top.

more sunset

and more sunset.

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