Week 1 At SVF

The first night at SVF was busy busy. I settled on the right side of the room in a bed that had a mattress built into the bed with no frame and a mattress pad on the top. My ugly yellow stripped pillow with matching duvet cover that the school provided for me was all set up ready to be slept in. My loved ones in their corners of the pictures on the walls smiling down at me as I was prepared to start my life in Jönköping. I quickly decided to FaceTime my best friend Kyle. We talked for a little bit before I decided to FaceTime with my family too. I got to bed around 11pm (23) that night. I got up early the next morning for breakfast around 8:30. There was yogurt, granola, apple sauce, jam, toast and this type of bread that I had at Emilia's with butter, cheese and cucumber. Breakfast, still to this day, is my favorite meal and Swedish breakfast just increased my love for the meal. After breakfast we had two meetings with the rest of the school before a tour of the area. The school is surrounded by nature. Trees everywhere you looked and a pathway with llamas, chickens, pony's, and even peacocks in cages. After we had introductions with our College Line Program we started to have class on Wednesday morning at 7. The students in our College Line Program are Linnea, Klara, Jon, Malin, Axel, Singne, Kristin, David, Louise, Calle, Lukas, Jonaton, Mimmi, and Elin; there are three more students from India coming to the program but they are having trouble with their visa's so for now these are the only students in the College Line Program. Tuesday was sports day. We met in each Line (College Program line, Music line, Bible line, and General line) and did team activities as ice-breakers almost. Classes didn't start till the next day. We started our first class called Comparative Politics and studied the differences between US politics and Swedish politics. So far in this class we have discussed the voting system in America and how to apportion the votes mathematically. After this class we had Lunch and then the Swedes had a class called Introduction to the USA which the Americans (Me, Kajsa, Olivia and Jack) were asked to join. Thursday classes we started bright and early with the Americans in Scandinavian History and the Swedes in English at 8:40. After our first class we had Fika, then Comparative Politics again before Lunch and then our last class of the day which was either Sports or Creativity. Some people decided to pick sports while I picked Creativity. We laid out a giant white piece of paper and just had everyone in Creativity draw whatever they wanted. I (being more technical than abstract) decided to just draw a future tattoo idea that I want. This has continued to be one of my favorite classes so far. Friday came and early in the morning at 8:20 there was Chapel. I wanted to go so I decided to eat breakfast quickly then head down to the courtyard where the chapel would be held. It hadn't occurred to me that the chapel would all be in Swedish so it was rather hard for me to understand the message and the choir. It started to rain while we were in the courtyard but nonetheless, chapel continued and the choir finished their song. After chapel, the College Line Program had Physical Education. We met in the gym and wrote down in groups what we wanted to do during this time. My group wrote things like dance, yoga, frisbee, basketball, and floorball. We put them all together and came up with a list for how the class would be run. After P.E. we had Fika and then starting at 10:40 we had Mediterranean World class and then Lunch. After Lunch we were completely free for the rest of the weekend. The first dinner that I needed to make on my own was a small cup of noodles with a sauce that is easily made in the microwave (typical college student dinner). The next morning we all decided to go to pride! There was a pride parade happening in Jönköping and some of the people in our College Line wanted to go. We woke up early and decided to pain our nails in bright rainbow colors for pride. Then, we got on a bus and went down to the city for pride. We marched and everything was welcoming and beautiful. When we reached the end of the march there was a man shouting insults and everyone and even ended up throwing his beer can at a young girls face. I, of corse, could not understand what he was saying but knew that it was hateful. The police later showed up and told the man he needed to leave and the girl was helped by her friends. Later, we all decided to walk to a coffee shop to rest for a little bit after walking a ways. We sat in this coffee shop for at least 3 hours. We played games, told stories and Kajsa showed everyone this agonizing game with numbers and flags that took me literally 45 minutes to figure out (Still bitter Kajsa). After we all decided it was time to leave, Jack, Kajsa, Olivia and I all wanted to buy our first legal drink. We decided to go out that night. We had rosé, and a coconut shot which was amazing and later came back to the school around 11:30. Needless to say, my first week at school was different. Education seemed fun and worth the studying and stress. I liked that everyone was in all the same classes. I liked being apart of something again. I like education; discovery is exciting. It's the memorization, due dates and percentages that make me want to run away. However, I found myself writing notes and liking what I was writing. I found myself wanted to glue my feet to this country.