Spring Cycle

Spring is just around the corner as we reach the end of April and the snow has almost disappeared in Piteå! My host parents took a trip off to Spain, so this left me to stay with my lovely counsellor and her husband in a small town known as Hortlax. From here it is aproximately 10-15km away from the town centre of Piteå. With the warmer weather approaching, the latest fashion now seems to be bike riding, and of course, I didn't want to be out of style. This meant early mornings and long bike rides each morning to school, and it was lovely! Cycling is most definitely much more efficient than walking everywhere, and it let me see some new places of Piteå which I hadn't discovered yet.

Something different from the bikes here in Sweden which I have noticed is the locking system. It is rather different from anything I have seen in Australia. Most bikes do not require a chain lock that needs to be carried around seperately from the bike - unless you want ultra safety for your bike. The bikes I used had its own little contraption on the wheel which prevented the back wheel from moving. You would then need a key to unlock the wheel and use the bike. Smart stuff, Sweden.

So this week has been rather everntful! I have kept myself busy with some cooking - lasagne with the Piteå exchange gang, then ANZAC biscuits for fika with my choir here and finally creating an awesome oreo milkshake with my great buddy Marcus! The lasagne was great, making it vegetarian style since Dora (from Turkey) is a vegetarian. As for the ANZAC biscuits, I once again reminded myself that cooking alone is not a smart idea. While the taste wasn't so bad, they sure didn't quite look like they were meant to. I guess not everyone can be professional cooks. At least the milkshake with Marcus turned out great and was an awesome treat! Hopefully if I try to remake that one at home I won't mess it up. No promises though.

Tomas made sure that I wouldn't miss out on anything this Spring as flocks of birds arrived in Piteå as a stop on their travel up north. This meant an upportunity to see swans, lapwings, ducks, seagulls and more! My favourite was the lapwing, known as a tofsvipa in Swedish. This cute little guy has something like a small tuft on his head which makes him easy to recognise. When flying, they are also well known for their somewhat unusal and slow, irregular flapping of their wings. Anyway, we travelled to several destinations throughout the morning to see all the different kinds of birds, and it was very lovely for Tomas to organise this! He also brought along one of his friends who is very good at bird watching, and knows a fair bit about the different types of birds. Eva, my counsellor, also came along on the trip, and helped me learn the names for some of the more common birds which we saw during the day. These three were lovely company, and it was a great day!

This week I also got the chance to have a barbeque with Marcus and his family next to Piteå lake. Here we created a fire next to the water side, surrounded by forestry. They had brought along marshmallows for roasting, steak, potato salad and dough which was then cooked on the fire to make bread. It was wonderful! It's exciting to finally have weather that allows you to experience the outdoors a bit without freezing almost immediately. I'm definitely looking forward to the Summer! The food was great, and then Marcus taught me some tricks with longboarding - although yet to be mastered, who knows, I might get there someday. So now I have another mode of transportation, longboarding! It's actually really fun, and it's so cool to have learnt another new skill while here in Sweden. This year is seriously all about the learning. I didn't realise how much I would pick up during my stay here, but it's super exciting and I love it.

Rehearsals for the concert :)

The final thing I would like to mention is my class concert! Now that school is back on, the week has mostly been used to focus on the class performance which finally occurred tonight! Swedish school definitely come equipped - fancy stage lighting, amplifiers, recording equipment and everything. There was even a smoke machine! Can't get much more professional than that, right? The class is filled with so many talented musicians, and I think the concert turned out great! Gunilla, Ebba, Eva and Tomas turned up to support me, which was very sweet of them, and I'm so glad that they could come and see what I've been up to with my friends at school! I really love my class and the people in it. They are all great people to talk to and have a laugh with. I know classes will always be good with them! I would also like to mention that today was my 100th day here in Sweden, so it was awesome to celebrate it with a fantastic class performance! Couldn't ask for a better 100th day :)

Anyway, so that's my weekly update on my life in Sweden right now! I have some exciting plans coming up soon, so make sure to read all about it in the next coming weeks. Until then, hej då!