So, good afternoon?? Who knows, it's always sleeping time for me. I am honestly constantly tired and drowsy, it's a struggle. My mind is working so hard to understand things! My mind is really fuzzy and slow and I think my initial adrenaline rush is starting to wear off.
For those worried about my safety, I have safely gotten to my host family and I am not settled in quite yet, but I am getting there. I took a fairly long train ride to the Gothenburg central train station with a few other students and met my host dad, Lars, and my host brother, Vegard on the platform. It was a pretty exciting moment (one of the most exciting according to YFU). I got to meet my host mom, Eva a little later when she came home from work. Dinner was fun followed by a short walk. My new home happens to rest on the top of a very large hill, so yay for that.
My host family also has a cat, which I was pretty excited about since I have never lived with a furry animal before. It turns out that she is quite the free spirit and lives mostly outside, but when she is in, she will beg for attention and let you pet her for a while before attacking. Don't pet her if she is laying on her back purring, it's only a little bit before she bites and scratches you for no reason. Sometimes it's fun to provoke her a bit and pull your hand back fast enough to get away. Just trying to see how far it goes. But in general it's playing with fire and the conclusion is I am very scared of her. I have some cuts already!
The next day, Sunday, I was pretty tired when I woke up and my family went to church. Since Lars is the bishop, he left earlier and the rest of us went about twenty minutes before it started. In this ward, Sacrament Meeting is actually at the end of the day, so I started with Young Women's. There were only a few girls there, but about 10 boys that later joined us for Sunday school. Everything was in Swedish, and a lot of my energy was exerted trying to understand it or at least getting a good idea. Every once and a while someone would translate something for me, but generally throughout the day I was handed a lot of papers and included in lots of challenges and expectations set. It was pretty overwhelming. The congregation is pretty small, but I suppose a little larger than you would expect. It is apparently one of two wards in the Gothenburg area.
Later that night Lars's daughter Mette, who has moved out of the house came to visit for dinner. She is so sweet and also made us a dessert which was much appreciated. We played Ticket to Ride, Europe version, which I won of course. I got to practice my colors in asking for different cards.
Today, Monday, Mette invited me and Vegard to play volleyball with her and the missionaries, as it was their P-Day. Vegard and I set out and saw a bit of the city as we used the public transportation (which is so nice) and found our way to the main park which is also something of a zoo as well. It was pretty fun and we spent a few hours there. On the way home, Vegard and I stopped for some cinnamon rolls which were delicious and I went to the closest pharmacy to buy things like conditioner and mouthwash. Apparently no one in Sweden knows what a loofa is and I'm so sad (next care package? Yes?) I will be sticking with my small travel size for the time being.
It's funny that my host brother knows so little about this country that he grew up in. I tried to get him to explain fika to me and it turned out that I knew more than he. So we went home and had a "fika" and I showed him and Lars my favorite Japanese tea as well as some Reese's. It's interesting that many Swedes don't like them, or at least peanut butter. I guess the whole salty sweet thing doesn't sit well with them.
I have been learning a few more words and such in Swedish throughout my past few days. My family is good about stopping every now and then to point out a word to me. I need to buy a small notebook or something to start writing them down. What's interesting about my family is that my host dad and his kids moved to Sweden from Norway about ten years ago, so they speak both Swedish and Norwegian in the house. It's going to throw me off quite a bit, as I'm here to learn Swedish...
Bye!
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