Hi everyone!
How have your summer holidays been so far? I hope that they have all been relaxing and fun and filled with many warm, sunny days. I must admit that I am actually a little bit disappointed myself in the weather that this year's Swedish summer has had to offer so far. We had one week at the very start that was almost too hot for my taste, with temperatures above 30 degrees at times, but apart from that I have pretty much only seen clouds and rain in different constellations since... That does not qualify for my approval.
Anyway, I feel that I might just slightly be on the point of drifting away from the subject, so let us leave the Swedish summer weather for now. After all, this post was not intended to be a summarized weather forecast for you. Instead, what I actually had planned to share with you today was some of all the small and final preparations for my year in Germany, that I gradually have worked my way through this summer.
First of all, we have the process of updating my wardrobe, which I would say has probably been the biggest task on my list of necessary preparations, hence why it is also one of the few yet there to tick off. It's funny how, no matter how many clothes you feel that you have lying around, you still find that there is something missing when you sit yourself down to look at what you will need for a year abroad. I mean, very few things on my shopping list are super critical to buy prior to take off, as I can always find them in Germany if I need to instead. However, since YFU Germany actually gave us exchange students a heads up in their introduction letter, that clothing is quite expensive there, it would feel nice to get as much as possible done now, before I leave Sweden. So, with that said, I have made some trips here and there during the past weeks to different stores to buy the clothes and other small stuff that I need, with the biggest one probably being yesterday's adventure. Dad and I spent almost the whole of yesterday in a shopping mall but still didn't manage to find some of what I need. There were far too many people there and as everything was on sale the chaos just increased.... Though, I bought some things that I really liked, and I'll show them to you further down in the pictures.
Moving on from my wardrobe, I have also spent some time (two full days to be exact) making a presentation about Sweden and our culture. I was asked by YFU to do this in order to be able to show the exchange students from other countries at my "On Arrival Camp" in Germany, as well as to have ready for other occasions when I would be liked to talk about my home country, like in my new school for instance. As my "On Arrival Camp" will be held in German, just like everything in my new school will be too, I felt that the only right thing to do was to make the presentation in German. Although fun, it definitely was somewhat of a challenge, now with five weeks since my latest German lesson in school. Though, I manged to finish it after all and apart from the benefit of freshening up my language skills, I also learned a lot of interesting things about Sweden which, according to former exchange students, will come in handy more regularly than you might imagine.
So, apart from the major thing still left to do, that is packing all my belongings for a year into the cramped space of a bag, I am approaching the stage where all the preparations are as good as done. Though, I am almost a little bit overwhelmed with all the different feelings at the moment. I am so excited for this whole adventure to begin and to finally meet my host family and to not be over hundred miles apart, but at the same time I am beginning to realize that I won't see my parents, my sister or my little dog for almost a year. I will definitely miss them all a lot, but even though it might start to feel a little bit sad now, I am at least sure of that it is worth it. I am so happy that I took this decision to become an exchange student and I am looking forward to a unique year which I would never have been able to experience otherwise.
All the best,
Louise
