News from September 10th

How is everything there? How is Dad? David? Bosco? The houses? Your odds and ends jobs? The weather? Your flowers? I wish you could see the orchid the Slättorps bought me for my birthday - it has 13 white blooms on it!They are so exotic: white with grey and yellow and pink speckles on them. I wish I could mail you all our plums and apples too. I am getting sick of eating fruit for every meal already.Things are plenty busy here. I had the day off, so I slept in until 9, but then I got up and scrounged the Internet on campus for my list of Swedish language books for class tomorrow. The bookstore only had 2 of 4. I have Swedish class then (Thursday) at 10:15, and I'm super nervous as I have been told that I really should be taking a less-advanced class, but it isn't offered this semester. Oh, well, at least it will be challenging! I wish I did have my syllabus with information about what we will do or read for tomorrow, though. They are so disorganized at the college here! Otherwise, my education class is going well. I think the instructor will be a tough grader on the English students (and she's sort of a self-righteous crock...), but I am learning so much about different cultures, and the class is not nearly as stressful as my ones in the States! Anyway, I am trying to set up my internship too. They switched my supervisor again, so I am trying to explain to the new one why I am not teaching. It seems that no one here understands what an administrator is! I am also thinking of trying an advanced Tae Kwon Do class in the community,but it is held on Tues, Thurs, and Sat, which I am afraid might conflict with evening and weekend plans for Jordö and my social life. I decided to take aerobics with Malin and Gunnar twice a week. It's the intensive class, so it is a good workout, and it forces me to set a schedule. Also, Maria and Malin (who is 54!) run with me on the weekends at Jordö (an island in Blekinge on the Baltic Sea between the towns of Karlskrona and Ronneby - you should all Google it).

I went to another aerobics class this week for more exercise and because it was my last free trial week. We swim also at Jordö still, you know, the penguin plunge! Just in and out. Malin says that she has been doing it every weekend since she visited Finland and they told her there that it was really healthy for the body to learn to adapt to different temperaturor. Too bad it rained and my allergies were terrible last week, so I didn't participate. Oh, andMalin said that whenever I am with them, I do not pay for food, transportation, or special events! We are going to the spa this month in Ronneby - their treat!!! We also had coffee last week in a fancy coffeeshop in an old church last weekend. I had an amazing capaccino that had a flower swirled into the foam on top. I told you also that Håkan set me up with a phone, right? I like to tease him, and he is ridiculously sarcastic with me. Malin thinks that we get along because of it. Maria and Håkan are really like siblings to me. They hug me when they see me, and they laugh at me when I am stupid. Håkan tries to teach me about Swedish technology in the mornings at jordö, and I share his interest in news of the outside world, like American music and movies. He eats Pringles chips too, haha. Unheard of for the rest of the Slättorps. Except maybe Gunnar. He has a sweet tooth.

I am getting invited to more parties and events now (unfortunately not with Swedish students; they tend to avoid foreigners), so I do have much more to do. I think I will ask a classmate of mine from Spain to coffee on Friday morning, and my friend Lindsey, from San Jose California, asked me to a party tonight. She is also hoping to go to Norway yet this month. Perhaps I will tag along.

David, do you want to go to Norway?Stockholm? Göteborg? Copenhagen? Russia? Kiruna to the ice hotel? I have options to take trips to any of these places this fall, so if you are not sure if you want to go to them, I want to make sure to register ahead of time so at least I can get to all the places I want. I really need to start planning where I want to travel this fall, and I don't want to spend several hundred dollars now to see a place that you might want to go to again. Oh, Malin officially invited you and I to stay with the family at Jordö for a couple days over Christmas. It will be hard to travel until the day after the holiday, so I think we should take them up on the offer!!! However, I am only planning to pay for 20 weeks with the Slättorps, so that means that you and I can stop and go again! We will have to share my room at Jordö, but it is large and they will feed us for free, and it's a great, warm, house on an island in the Baltic Sea! You would love it, I think!

Anyway, I should go to the bank to get money for Malin now and then try to print and mail my absentee ballot request form. Did you know that the postoffices here are in the grocery stores? Haha.
Love you tons. Hope all is well.LeAnn