Day 25, January 25th

Bored waiting for the bus!

More pictures to help time go by

Today was a girls day out!!!  Kelsey and I were able to sleep in a little bit today, which was nice.  We then got ready and headed to the bus stop, this turned out to be a very long and cold wait thanks to Kelsey's paranoia of being late. :)  She was so worried about us missing the bus and not being able to meet Sara on it that we got there and had to wait outside in the cold for a whole half an hour!  Once the bus came we met Sara on it and headed to the mall.  We weren't looking for anything in particular just went to have fun and enjoy the last chance we had to go shopping and hang out with Sara before we leave.  We took our time and went in pretty much all the clothing stores in the mall!!  We stopped at a great place for lunch!!!  All three of us had great sandwiches and lattes.  After we went into H & M and had tons of fun trying on all sorts of different outfits, even matching ones! :)  After a bit we wrapped up our day, said bye to

Sara and went home for dinner and a little bit of relaxation then bed. 

Tomorrow we are going to an elementary school and it should be tons of fun!!!!!!!

A pony at the shoe store!!!

Aren't they just so cute?..Not lol

Day 24, Jan 24th

Our time here is defiantly dwindling! I don't want to leave just yet, I'm just starting to feel at home here!!
Today we went to Internationella Engelska Skolan, which is the English profile school here in Orebro. It is actually a branch of a school that is all over Sweden, with around ten schools! You can learn more about it here. 
We met one of the English teachers, Eva Erken, in the school, whose class we would be working in. First, we went to lunch with her... the lunches here are so different than back in The States! They were A) Really good!!!!! B) FREE FOR ALL STUDENTS AND STAFF! C) Tons of options, including a vegetarian dish and a salad bar with more stuff on it than imaginable. Basically it rocked. During lunch we talked with Eva about the school system in America, especially about the lunch differences. We also learned that in Swedish schools they like to develop a sense of comfort with the teachers by allowing the students to call them by their first name. We had about 45 minutes to eat lunch, way more than I had when I was in school! From there we went to the English class... I was worried that we would run out of things to talk about for the hour long class, but the kids had tons of questions!

The science teacher (in the black) is explaining molecules!

The first question posed to us was "Do you like Justin Bieber?" i knew this would make or break us, so i was kinda worried to say no, but we did anyways. It was the right answer, the whole class cheered! We continued to answer questions about ourselves, where we were from, the reason for us being in Sweden, our school system, ect until we ran out of class time! It felt like the time flew by!
After class we went into the lounge area for the kids, where we answered more questions and asked a few in return while we enjoyed a coffee! Then we were given a tour of the school until it was time to follow the same 7th grade class to Chemistry. Some of the girls from the class dragged us to their tables yelling "Kelsey, Brittany! Sit with us!!" which was followed by a small argument about which side of the table I would sit on. In this class we did more observing rather than presenting. When the class was over we got a group picture to help end an absolutely wonderful day!

Here is us with "Our Class" 7th grade! 

Day 23, January 23rd

Today we slept in a little and then got ready to go to a GREAT Hockey game!!!!!  Marcus' (Kelsey's younger cousin) Hockey team was playing the number one ranked team in the division two league.  The team Marcus was playing for is ranked number six.  We knew going into this game was tough and it would be a battle but it turned out to be a great game!!!!  For the longest time it was zero to zero but eventually we got ahead 1-0 with MARCUS SCORING A GREAT GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Everyone was very excited and it made for a great game, even though in the end it was tied 1-1. :( 
The night finished off with Marcus being very happy and in a great mood and Kelsey and I watching a movie until we fell asleep.  



Can't wait until tomorrow we are going into a local middle school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 22, January 22nd

We were boring today and layed around doing nothing but reading and watching TV all day. :(

Day 21, January 21st

Today we didn't have very much planned so we took a bus into town and did some shopping.  We were able to find a cute pair of heels for me on sale and while doing so Kelsey was also able to find a very cute pair of cheap boots!  Before the excitement of our finds we were very tired so we enjoyed some fika at a cafe in one of the malls.  It was very good we both had a Swedish brownie and latte's.  We then left and both became very ecited to find our new shoes!!!  After the shoe store we tried to find a bus stop but were very unsuccessful so we started to walk back to what we thought would be the castle but we shortly found out that we were walking in the wrong direction.  (ok so we aren't the greatest with directions even after three weeks)  Once we got made it back we had a great dinner from Rosalis Deli!!! 

We then started to get ready to go over to Sara's apartment to meet some more of her friends and hang out for a bit.  While there we introduced her friends to some of the styles of music that American's our age would listen to and they showed us some typical Swedich music.  One song was "mikrofonkat" by September.  The night flew by with tons of laughs and everyone one had a great time!!!!!!!

Day 20, Jan 20th

Today my Aunt Eva took us into town! First we went to the Orebro Theater. We couldn't get a tour, but the lady who worked there let us walk around and explore on our own. They are practicing for a play about the guy who started Ikea, but it wont be showing until after we leave. =[

After we went to the theater we went to the museum we went to last time, the Orebro Lansmuseum. When we went before there was a special exhibit, so the rest of the exhibits were closed. This time we got to see the whole museum!! It was really interesting.

The first room was filled with modern art... i thought it was really cool because the artist works in Orebro.

They had a huge exhibit on the stone age that I loved. We learned to spell our names in the viking language!

Then we went to an exhibit filled with statues, paintings, and other art from old churches in the area.

Lastly we went to the section on Orebro's sport history.

Day 19, Jan 19th

We were really drained today and felt a little under the weather, so we decieded to take a day off and relax...

We felt weird taking pictures on the tour so i stole this of the internet

Scratch that, we actually didn't take the day off! We were behind on the blog and i guess we forgot that we actually did do something today... thats what you get when you are so far behind.

Anyways, today we got a tour of a Swedish university. It was here in Orebro, so my Aunt drove us there. Two Swedish girls from the University met us at the main entrance... We found it funny that they spotted us right away as Americans. I hope we don't come off that way to everyone!!

The girls who gave us the tour were really nice and we enjoyed talking to them! (you can view Sandra's blog here: there's even a post about us!) They both spoke perfect english! 

The University was nothing like ours! Firstly, they had little cafes in each building there are classes! The food smelled great! They also get paid a stipend for going to school!!! In other words, instead of paying to go to school they get paid!

Dorms aren't as big here, the school has apartments that students can get (we didn't get to see them :[ ) but according to my cousin they have a really long waiting list, she didn't get one! They also don't have to take general courses like English 101 or psychology like we do because they take them in high school!

After the tour we took the bus home... we were proud to make it home because it involved switching buses!

Day 18, January 18th

Today we went to a water park!!!! Yea I know a water park in Sweden during the winter don't worry though it was an indoor park. :) Unfortunatly it was very hard to get pictures and Sara forgot her waterproof camera at home. :( The place wasn't very big but it is more than anything Kelsey and I have at home and we had a lot of fun! The park consisted of a big red slide, two different yellow slides, a blue one, a wave pool, hot tubs, and a regular pool. 


 The red slide was very cool because it started out dark and then had flashing lights as you went further down! The one yellow slide was like the red one except some of it went outside for a short bit. The other yellow one was like a big toilet bowl. Finally the blue one was like rapids with a bunch of little slides put together as one whole opstacle course of water slides, and I think it is safe to say that this was our favorite! After a fun-filled time on the slides we decided to sit down to eat and relax some. Afterwards we left to go change and it was here that Kelsey and I got to familiar with some Swedish culture. The two of us were very shocked when we walked into a locker room full of naked people walking around like it wasn't a big deal at all! That is when we both learned a huge difference between the Swedish and American culture!!!! After what turned into a very eventful day we went back to Kelsey's aunts and finished our day with a nice family dinner.

Day 17, Jan 17

Well, another day lost in Orebro! We tried to go to a museum today, tried being the important word here. For some strange reason we, mostly just me, thought we could find the museum on our own, with no map. In my defense however, we did drive by it with Aunt Eva and it seemed to be right by the castle, and we know how to get to the castle!! Yet, we still ended up walking around downtown Orebro with out a clue where we were. We saw a pet shop and decided to go in to warm up and see the animals... I fell in love with this mini greyhound! She was super cute and would follow you around the store and try to jump on you!! i wanted to buy here but i figured even if i could get her on the plane, my mother would kill me and im pretty sure campus housing would too.I saw a church steeple in the distance and mistook it for the church we went to with Aunt Eva. It wasnt. We ended up in like the Swedish Ghetto... we walked with our heads down and avoided making eye contact and THANK GOD we made it back to a place we recognized!

Walking in the cold for hours works up quite a hunger so we stopped at Paco's ( the mexican place we went to before) and spilt a quesadilla. Note: food is so much more expensive here!!

Then we took the bus back to my Aunts and had dinner with Sara, who made awesome salmon for dinner... and, of course, watched America's Next Top Model... haha

Apologies...

Yes, yes we know... we're behind on the blog! Unfortunately, we have been pretty busy with stuff here and crash at night instead of writing the blog! My goal is to be caught up by this weekend... it may happen it may not! lol

We are only 2 days behind so dont hate!

Look forward to "Tales from the Water Park" on day 18...

Day 16, January 16th

Today we planned on going to see the Runestones but the weather stopped us. Runestones are raised stones with inscriptions on them. These stones dated back to the begining of the 4th century up until the 12th century, but the ones we were going to see were particularly from the Viking age. An easy way to describe them is a gravestone. They were typically stones dedicated as memorials to the deciest. This trip would have involved a lot of walking outside and it was unfortunatly a rainy slippery day out so we decided it would be best to not go and fall on the ice.

Our new plan was to go to a Swedish movie theater! For Swedish movies you go online and buy your tickets so you can pick out your seat, because they fill up fast. So we ordered our tickets online and then went in what looked like and ATM and out came our tickets. We then waited in line to get "the Hollywood," which we shortly found out was too much popcorn and way to big of drinks! We were then ready to make our way to what they call our gate and into our theater. The theater was very nice and seemed different than the ones back home, they had a curtain infront of the screen that folds back right before the movie started. It felt like we were in some big fancy theater production not just sitting down to watch a movie. The movie we saw was "The Tourist." It was great because Kelsey and I were both able to understand it because the movie was in English with Swedish subtitles! :)

Day 15, Jan 15th

Today we went to see my cousin, Marcus's hockey game. (His team is in the black.) They played the number one team in their league, but still held their ground. Marcus got a lot of ice time and played GREAT! He had a great scoring chance and shot on goal and a couple of good hits.

One of the players on the other team seemed to have it in for him though. He would shove and push Marcus after the stoppage of play! Marcus was really good about not retaliating and the other player ended up getting 2 penalties! Ha!

The Orebro team (they didnt have a mascot) that Marcus plays on lost despite playing really well, 5-3.

Watching hockey in Sweden is completely different than in the States! People really didnt cheer much at all! They pretty much just clapped when their was a goal. Back home when i played hockey my mom and dad would scream their lungs out every time i was on the ice. I had to be careful because i got really into the game and yelled a few times without thinking... I didnt want to embarrass Marcus!

In between periods we went inside to the consession stand to get hot dogs and hot chocolate. there was a little boy (maybe 5th grade) that was working it with his father... he was able to speak perfect English with me! His father was so proud! I thought he was so cute!!

Day 14, Jan 14th

It was freezing and winding out today and, of course, icy as usual. We went to Wadkoping (pronounced wod-shopping), which is an open-air museum in Orebro by the River Svartan. It is compromised of original buildings from the 17^th and 18^th centuries. The buildings house craft places and shops.

First we went to a woodshop that made all the produces by hand using the old techniques. Aunt Eva even got to try it herself! The man who taught us knew no English, but Aunt Eva translated for us!

Then we went to a silversmith that made jewelry and the Kings Cottage where King Karl IX stayed.

We also visited the School Museum (Skolmuseet) with showed a 1920s one-room schoolhouse.

Then we went to fika with Aunt Eva at this amazing Italian place called Rosalie’s Deli. All three of us had great chicken alfreado!

From the restaurant Aunt Eva dropped us off at the local hospital. It was so different than American hospitals that at first I didn’t even believe it was a hospital! I turned out to be really amazing though. It was like 10 times quieter AND cleaner. In the lobby there was a hairdresser for the patients and a really nice restaurant. We walked all over the first building (we didn’t realize there were multiple buildings connected by walkways, prolly because we couldn’t read any of the signs) and ended up in what we think was the psych ward. All the doors to the patient rooms had big red signs and locks with keypads. It was pretty scary… we kept circling back to it by accident too! After that we took the bus back to Aunt Eva’s!

Day 13, January 13th

Today was a little bit more eventful than yesterday. I am still not feeling that great but I thought it would be best to get up and out of the house for the day. Kelsey didn't think being outside would be the best for my cold so we just went to the mall for the day. This may not seem that interesting but we were able to learn a little more about Swedish style and we tried a new dessert. After our feet became tired from walking we decided to sit down and have fika. Kelsey saw this green cake thing and decided she wanted to try it. To our disappoinment it turned out to be the first thing that we have tried and not liked while here. It was a cake like thing but the cake was very dry and the frosting was almost like plastic. We still enjoyed our tea and the rest of our fika even though we didn't really like the cake. We then got picked up by Kelsey's aunt and went home for the rest of the night. I begain to feel better and was able to actually get a full nights sleep for the next day!

Day 12, January 12th

Today wasn't a very eventful day for me :(. My cold has gotten worse so I just stayed in bed all day. Kelsey and her aunt Eva went to IKEA. While they were there they picked up some cough drops for me and they also went to the pharmacy and got me some medication. The only thing is here in Sweden people don't really use medication so there weren't very many choices and all they were able to get me was some cough stuff. It was very nice though because it helped my cough and made it eaiser for me to sleep at night! Hopfully after a day of sittting around doing nothing but watching movies and taking medication will help me be ready to do something tomorrow!!!

Day 11, Jan 11th

STOCKHOLM

Today Brittany, Sara, and I went to Stockholm!! Britt and I got up at 6 in the morning and got ready. Then my Aunt drove us to Sara’s apartment and the three of us walked to the bus stop.

The bus was so cool! It was a double-decker and we sat on the second floor. It took 2 and a half hours to get to Stockholm, but I slept almost the whole way. The bus seats were more comfortable than the plane was by far!

When we got to the bus station we each bought a Stockholm Card, which got us into all the museums and transportation in Stockholm for free… After that, the first place we went to was the City hall. It was beautiful! We were able to get a tour and see the prettiest rooms.

The first room we saw was where the Nobel Prizes are awarded each year.

The other amazing room was the golden room!! It was completely covered with gold mosaics! This is where the dancing is held after the Nobel Prize dinner!!

Then we walked to the Palace where the current King and Queen live! It was beautiful, but we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside… =[ we

I really like the guards! They had machine guns with daggers on the ends of them!!

After the Palace we went to lunch in a 700 year old prison!! It was underground and really reminded me of the dungeons we saw!

But the food was good!!!

From lunch we went to the Vasa Museum. It took a hour to find it though because we got a little lost.

The Vasa ship was built in the 1600s… it sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 in Stockholm harbor because it was built wrong. After 333 years under the sea, the wreck was salvaged in 1961. It remains 95% original! This was my favorite part of the trip!

Brittany and Sara with the ship!

The Ship was covered in the beautiful statues!

After the Vasa Museum, we met Sara’s friend, Alex, for a Fika! From there we went back to the bus station and took the 2 and ½ hour trip back to Orebro!

An AWESOME day!

Day 10, Jan 10

Today we stayed in...

First off it was FREEZING cold outside, second we both felt under the weather! I had a headache and Britt is coughing up a storm =[

We hung out with my cousin, Sara, and watched T.V. and read for the better part of the day.

TOMORROW IS STOCKHOLM!

Day 9, January 9th

We were able to get a tour of the castle today! It is extremely beautiful on the outside but even more amazing on the inside. We toured three rooms; which included a dinning room, parlament room, and the dungeon. I have to say that my favorite was the dungeon! Even though the other rooms were particularly beautiful and had amazing paints on the walls the dungeon was very interesting. I found the old stone to be fascinating to look at and just seeing the shackles in person really brought the room to life. We learned that the castle is 700 years old and the king had a hard time liking things so he changed parts of the castle often, this included the color. In some part you are able to still see the old color. He wasn't very fond of the stone so at one point he painted the whole outside of the castle white. We were also able to learn a little information about the royal family while on the tour. We then went to leave when Kelsey managed to bring her "slip on ice count" up to four! She fell so hard that I thought we would finally get to see a Swedish hospital! She became very lucky and was able to laugh about it after she realized she was okay and only one lady was around to witness it. We then were able to venture around the town and came across a Mexican resturant for lunch. The food here was very good and extremely filling. We then walked around and enjoyed the town for a bit until we decided to go home in time for dinner. At first we became very scared because we decided to take a different bus and it didn't go the same route we are used to. After realising that we were back in town and not going to a different city like we thought we made it to our bus stop and became very happy to continue to have a good day and make it back safely.

Day 8, Jan 8th

Today we went into downtown Orebro on our own again…. This time we got on the bus with no problems AND got off on the right bus stop. Quite the feat! We were planning on going to the Orebro Slott, the castle in town. They only have one tour a 1:00 on Saturdays and Sundays, but we were a few minutes late so they wouldn’t let us on the tour.

We did get to go into the gift shop though, where I got postcards to send home and two little Swedish keychains. The man who worked at the giftshop gave us a free map because we told him about getting lost the other day and let us look at a small section of the castle.

We found a hat shop right across from the castle… the lady who owned it was so nice. She didn’t speak much English, but she tried. I think she got a kick out of us trying on different hats.

Brittany found some interesting ones.

It was hailing so we decided to have a fika to warm up after the castle. I asked the guy running the café what he would suggest as a traditional Swedish dessert and he pulled out the oddest-looking food and gave me a latte. I was pretty skeptical at first, but it t

urned out to be absolutely amazing! I would describe it but there’s nothing like it back in the States.

When we got off the bus on the way back to my Aunt’s we tried to take a shortcut… we got lost. We walked around her neighborhood for half an hour before we stumbled upon their street by accident.

Day 7, January 7th

Today we explored the Watertower!!! By going all the way to the top we were 58 meters or 190 feet in the air. This was particularly beautiful because we were able to see the entire city of Orebro. We walked around the entire top or the tower and we were able to get tons of amazing pictures of us along with incredible view. After our photography session was over we decided it would be nice to go inside for a fika! That is when we had our first julmist, this is a Swedish drink that is very hard to explain. It is like soda but with more bubbles and it doesn't taste like any of the types of soda we have back home. but it was VERY GOOD! After we left the watertower Kelsey and I learned a lot. We went with Eva, Kelsey's aunt to the recycling center. Kelsey and I found this very interesting because in Sweden they take there recycling very serious and seperate EVERYTHING! We had to even seperate our glass from clear and color. We learned that you don't go to the dump either they have actual recycling places. After finishing with our recyclables we then ventured into the grocery store. Here we learned that they even get their jelly out of a tube so they don't have as many jars to recycle. We also met a very nice gentleman while having fun with their baskets that are on wheels!! Later that night we went to Marcus' Hockey game. This was very exciting for me because it was my first hockey game!! They lost but I learned a lot about Hockey and enjoyed it. Not many people cane say they have went to a Swedish Hockey game and I can say that is where I saw my first game!! Both of us can't wait to see what is in store for us tomorrow!