Un français en Suède...

Flying around Stockholm...

2012-06-24T04:56:00.003-07:00

Hej everybody!

I’m so sorry I haven’t written for a so long time but the time is running out so fast… I’m leaving Sweden in 5 days and my schedule is entirely full. Anyway I still have 4 or 5 articles to write so let’s start with the first one today and let’s go back in the time, 3 weeks ago!

For those of you who don’t know my dream, my passion and my project are to become a plane pilot, a civil pane pilot. Thanks to that my host family offered me for my birthday (in October) a flying lesson around Stockholm. Unfortunately every time we had an appointment to fly the weather was bad… And finally 3 weeks ago, a Tuesday evening at 8 o’clock an appointment was taken and the weather was perfect so I took the first flying lesson of my life.

The instructor was (and still is) a pilot for Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) the biggest company in Scandinavian countries. He was a real passionate and it was real pleasure to fly with him. After a theory part we took off from Bromma airport, the second airport of Stockholm. Contrary to Paris we were allowed to fly around the capital and the view was definitively awesome! We flew around Stockholm and the Archipelago of Stockholm and the pilot let me do absolutely everything! He was just explaining to me how to act and it was me who was flying the airplane, from the takeoff to the landing! It was definitively one of the most magic hours in my life!

After this experience I am 200% sure that I want to be a pilot and fly my entire life.

I would like to thanks my host family for this amazing gift; I will never forget that…

Despite the few time left I have in Sweden I will try to write all my articles as fast as possible.

See you soon, take care!

the airplane i flew with: a piper PA-28 Cherokee

YFU re-entry camp

2012-06-03T06:02:00.000-07:00

Tjena Tjena!

As you saw I didn’t write any article last weekend. Not that I didn't wanted to, I just couldn’t. I was actually at a YFU weekend. For those who don’t remember YFU is the organization which takes care and organizes my year in Sweden. This weekend was the “Re-entry” camp, a weekend supposes to prepare us, the exchange students, to leave Sweden, to come back in our countries, to make a small check-up of our year and other stuff like that!

For the first time since the “arrival camp” in august we were all the exchange students together, we were about 60 students plus maybe 10 YFU volunteers and we met in the island of drottningholm, a place next to Stockholm, where live the royal family. This place was exactly the same than nearly 10 months ago when we arrived in Sweden. It was a strange but great feeling to meet once again here, all together but this time to “finish” the year.

Many of us didn’t really know each other as we hadn’t really meet for nearly 10 months but this weekend was just awesome and will probably be one of my best memories of this year! We all lived the same experience, the same type of adventure so everyone had something to say, something to share with the others and there were not anymore the language problem. Now we all speak at least English and more or less Swedish! We were all different but no one had been alone this weekend, we were all like a big family, understanding each other, listening each other! Contrary to what I had imagined before, we didn’t really stay with the people from the same nationality or the same languages. Everybody was 100% open to the other and it was something really strong and beautiful to live. It was exactly like if we knew each other before meeting each other. We all became really good friends.

YFU volunteers

The camp was from Friday to Sunday and hopefully we had the best weather ever! Around 28 degrees with sun, sun and sun! We were living in small houses, in the middle of the “nature” with a river around us, it was just the perfect place to be!

We had some activities like groups discussions but also a lot of free time which was the occasion for swimming, making some sauna, watching the Eurovision, playing games, basketball, baseball, volleyball or “catch the flag” all together! The weekend was just perfectly organized thanks to all the YFU members and volunteers. All the YFU volunteers’ presents during this weekend were between 19 and 23 years old, all old exchange students and really taking care of us, understanding us, they were like friends and it was absolutely perfect!

The last night we were so sad to have to leave each other soon that a group of exchange students and I decided to not sleep to watch the sunset (10.30-11 pm) and the sunrise (2.30-05 am). So we spent the night on the dock, speaking and laughing all together a last time.

Sunday was the time for cleaning everything and saying goodbye to each other… It was really sad! We made a huge circle and one by one made a big goodbye Swedish hug to each other. This is how the year “finished”… It isn’t really finish, I am leaving Sweden the 29^th of June, will spend 4 days in Berlin with 450 other exchange students from Europe and then come back in France. I still have a small month of Swedish holidays to enjoy, spending my time with my friends… just enjoy!

I am not sad to leave Sweden because I have such good friends here, I know that we will keep in touch and it’s not that hard to come back, I’m actually pretty excited to come back and see “everyone and everything” again. But in the other hand I’m gonna miss a lot my school, the exchange student life, the fact of speaking English and Swedish everyday and all this human adventure with all the exchange students… Being 60 persons from EVERY part of the word, being all together but totally understand each other and feel like a family thanks to our year was something really strong to live! Otherwise SOME of my really good friends come from Ecuador, Australia, United States, Canada and I don’t know when I will meet them again… Hopefully some other live close like Estonia or REALLY close like France and Belgium.
We also plan to all meet again in 5 years at the same place... will see!

Otherwise I would like to thanks all the exchange students and YFU volunteers for this amazing weekend and year! It was maybe the richest experience of my life which gave me much more than just a new language and a new culture. I’ve been really happy to get young, active, understanding volunteers to take care of us, help us and guide us. Now I feel like it’s my turn to help the future exchange students and keep feeling the magic of this experience but in another way, that’s why I definitively want to become a YFU volunteer in France.

3 AM

I will try to put a video of this weekend that I made and also some great pictures. Otherwise in two weeks I will travel once again to the North of Sweden, to Umeå. I will visit an American friend and see during 8 days a city where the sun never goes down during the summer.

Thanks for reading, I hope that this article isn’t too much a mess, I tried to express everything I feel.

See you soon!

All the YFU exchange students in Sweden 2011/2012

My video (if the quality isn't good, watch it on youtube):

(I took the movie of the water at 3 AM, check out the light!)

(You can clic on the pictures to see it bigger)

Läroverksfejden

2012-05-20T04:50:00.000-07:00

Hej Hej,

I hope you are having a great weekend, mine is perfect: long, warm and a lot of sun!

Otherwise let’s talk about the event of last week: läroverksfejden. You might probably not know that so let me explain. This event is an annual competition between the 4 best schools in Stockholm: Sodra Latin, Ostrareal, Kungsolmen and mine: Norra Real. This competition (100% organized by the students) is divided in many days and many different categories like soccer, dance, running, singing, general knowledge…

just a small picture of my school

So last week was the “final day” which is usually the soccer competition. So for this day all the schools had rented a stadium, a real one where the police was guarding the entrance and where we needed a ticket to get in! Every school arrived with his colors and huge flags, I think that we were maybe 1500 students here, even more! The entire school walked together from the school to the stadium, dressed in black and white (my school color), singing, screaming… it was really a huge and great feeling! My school didn’t win, we arrived to the final and loosed at the penalty. But it was just amazing to see how the students are free to organize this type of event.

(you can have a look at the small video that I made to have an idea of the ambiance)

Otherwise as I said the weather is now so nice in Stockholm, warm and sunny! Maybe too much sunny, the sky is now blue until eleven and starts to be blue again at two o’clock in the morning as you can see on the following picture. Last night I forget to close my curtains and the light woke me up around ten past two and I took that picture by my window. (The sun is up in the sky at 4 o'clock!)

Stockholm in May: 2 in the morning

We can also notice that in the North of Sweden, there is now light all of the time! Anyway I really enjoy Stockholm during the summer; it’s so nice with the water, the open flower and the great number of trees and parks.

In 6 weeks I won’t be any more in Sweden but I’m totally enjoying those last weeks, I hope you are all having also such a great time!

See you soon!

Welcome!

2012-05-13T08:36:00.001-07:00

Hejsan,

me and my girlfriend

I’m sorry I didn’t have a lot of time to write this week because of the National Exams (The Swedish “equivalent” for the French BAC). So today I’ll talk about the recent visits that I received from France.

The first one was three weeks ago and it was my girlfriend from France who came for the first time. I know that it can seem totally crazy to have been together for 8 months without meeting but… we did it! I was a little stress and anxious before the weekend because I really didn’t know how it could be after 8 months but finally it was nearly like if we hadn’t see each other since the day before. We weren’t stranger to each other and it was really nice. It was really short, only 2 days to visit Stockholm and furthermore we had only rain and snow. Anyway the principal was to be here together!

The second visit came one week after the second one, and it was from my family. Victor, Segolène, Marine, Camille, Mum and Dad came for 5 days in Stockholm where they rented an apartment. Here again I had the same feeling as one week before with Marie: it was nearly exactly before I left. It’s actually a hard feeing to describe but let’s say that: before meeting everybody I expected a big change or whatever in everybody’s behavior and physical appearance. But finally it was still (which is really good) the family and the girlfriend that I knew before. Of course everybody has been growing up a bit but we weren’t stranger. Anyway, I’m digressing from the original subject. When my family came the weather was much better than the past days. It was sunny every day and the temperature was around 15 degrees. The week also happened really fast, we had been visiting Stockholm together ans just enjoying that time.

Now everybody is back in France, I was so happy to receive those two visits; we had such a great time. Now the end of this year is approaching, in 7 weeks I won’t be any more in Sweden but in Berlin for 3 days with 450 other European exchange students, celebrating my year before my come back in France. The school is soon over too, I will just enjoy those last weeks with all my friends, Swedish and exchange students, and then… lets the life continue! I start to feel slowly this strange feeling divided between the excitation of coming back and this small sadness that this exceptional year is soon over. But I know it’s the way it’s supposed to be and I still have a lot of adventures to leave here in Sweden and also in the following years!

I still have many things to write so I’ll have to do it soon.

See you.

me and my family

Weekend in Copenhagen

2012-05-06T08:56:00.003-07:00

weather in stockholm before leaving

Okay so let’s go back in the time, 3 weeks ago, Saturday 21st of April. My host grandmother received for her birthday, in November, a family weekend in Copenhagen. That’s the reason we went there.
The trip began Saturday morning with a heavy snow storm in Stockholm which delayed the flight of 2 hours. Fortunately the weather was much better when we arrived in Denmark. After having drop the luggage at the hotel we met the family for lunch. We were 15: aunts, uncles, cousins, everybody.
The weekend happened really fast, it was only 24 hours here but it was really nice! We visited many museums, had some walks and “fika” (* see my first article in Sweden) in the city. We also spent the evening at Tivoli which the amusement park of Copenhagen, it's not a big one but it was actually really funny, we had some great time!

This weekend was small but I really enjoyed it, I discovered a new capital, I’ve been in a new country, I'd like to thanks my host family. However I still prefer Stockholm which is according to me more characteristic of “Scandinavian Cities”.
It’s not a big article but I’ll try to write more this week if I have enough time because I still have many things to write about.
Enjoy the pictures and see you soon!

Many news soon!

2012-05-05T10:42:00.001-07:00

Hej everybody,
I'm so sorry but due to a virus my computer had been out of service for some weeks. I will soon write one or some new articles because I have many things to talk about: differents visits from France, Visit in Copenhagen, the arrival of the spring and the time which is running out so fast...
See you soon!

Roma and Easter at Fiskebäckskil

2012-04-11T04:29:00.001-07:00

Hej Hej,

After 8 days in Roma, 4 on the Western Coast, I’m still in Holidays and about to visit Copenhagen this weekend.

There are so many things to say but let’s start with Roma.

As I said I moved there with my class for 8 days, we were 32 students, 2 other “help students”, 2 teachers and this trip was probably one of my best scholar one. We visited so many places like the Coliseum, the casa Romani, the Vatican, Trevis’ fountain, the Forum Romano, the catacombs, St Peter’s church and we’d also been to Pompeii to visit the city destroyed by the volcano a thousand years ago. We also saw the Pope when we were in the Vatican. Every mid-day and every evening we were totally free and it was the occasion to eat with the class, with some friends in restaurants to degust Italian pasta and pizza! I loved this trip because it was my second time in Roma and it’s a city I really like but the most important thing in that trip according to me was the atmosphere and the relationships between everybody in the class. It was the opportunity to discover more and more the class and it was just fantastic! I really “love” my class!!! (Thank you to all of them) Furthermore during this week I also talked a lot of Swedish, I think that I really made some progresses! A last point is that it was the first time that I enjoyed so much going to a warm and sunny place. In Roma it was 25 degrees and a huge sun everyday but in Stockholm it’s now really cloudy and we had a little bit snow some days ago.

Anyway I will never forget this trip and I will never forget my class… never ever!!!

The day after Roma I directly leaved to the West coast with Alex’s family (my Canadian friend). We were in a small fisherman village: Fiskebäckskil. It was actually a really cute place. Melodie from France also joined us for two days. It was a kind of “break time”. Being in the country side, speaking some French and just having fun, talking, having some walks on the beach. It was really nice.

This weekend in Fiskebäckskil was also the Easter weekend so we ate some typical Swedish Easter food. Not that different than Christmas food, the Easter one is also really simple. As well if you spend an Easter to Sweden you will probably eat some (real) eggs, some salmon, some potatoes, some meat bowls, and some lamb meal. You will also probably drink some special “Easter juice” as for Christmas and some “snaps” of strong liquors.

I would like to thanks Alex and Alex’s host parents for welcomed me at their summer place.

I’m now in holiday until Monday and I’m spending some calms days in Stockholm. This weekend I will visit Copenhagen with my host family. I heard that it’s a really nice city, will see that!

Fast news before Roma!

2012-03-25T10:47:00.000-07:00

Hej Hej!

Sorry for those two weeks without news.

First of all let’s go back two weeks ago on the Thursday. Every year in Stockholm there is a little international skiing competition in the middle of Stockholm, around the king’s place. That’s the reason why two weeks ago was surrounded by artificial snow whereas the weather was around 10 degrees. I watch the final with some friends, it wasn’t a huge competition but it was really fun to see all that snow in the middle of the city with this nice weather. A Norwegian athlete won the competition.

Two days later, on the Saturday, a movie was played in my street and in my school, for this occasion there were false snow and cameras in a part of the street and the school as you can see on the pictures. The movie’s name is “hypnotisören” and it’s a story from the same name’s book wrote by Karl Kepler. (“the hypnotist” in English, “l’hypnotiseur” in French) A famous Swedish actor was also there: Mikael Persbrandt.

On the following Sunday I’ve been watching my little host sister playing soccer and she plays really well!

Concerning the weather, the nice days start to arrive: More sun and between 5 to 15 degrees even if we had a “last” small snow storm on Monday.

Anyway Wednesday I’m going to Roma for 8 days with my class and I think that it’s gonna be awesome!

See you in 2 weeks so and enjoy the nice weather!

Snow rugby in Finland

2012-03-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

view of Jyväskylä

Hej hej!

After one week I finally find the courage to write a new article about my rugby’s tournament in Finland.

So on Thursday evening (2 weeks ago) we were 9 guys of my team reunited in order to take the ferry boat to Finland to play a 7 player’s rugby’s tournament. After a wonderful and small night on the ferry we arrived at 6 o’clock Swedish time in the harbor of Turku, situated in the North on Helsinki. From there we had to take a bus to go to the city of Jyväskylä (middle of Finland). After 5 hours of sleeping we arrived at our hotel and had some great time at the sauna and at the swimming pool.

preparation before the match

Friday morning, after a good night and a great breakfast we took the bus to go to the tiny skiing station of the city where the two rugby’s fields were situated. Here the weather was perfect and the temperature was around minus 2 degrees.

Many people were there, maybe 200. Our first match was at 9.20 so we get prepared, trained and then we played our three matches during the morning… And we loosed everything. But I should say that we were all 18-19 years old and it was a Senior tournament so we only played against some 25-35 years old guys! Anyway, after a cold afternoon to wait to watch the final we’ve all been to the tournament party in a night club of the city and it was pretty cool.

After a short night we took the bus on Sunday morning to get back to the harbor and take the ferry again. We arrived at Stockholm Monday morning at 7 o’clock local time, one hour before starting school. Obviously Monday was a tough day and my bed was really welcome after school.

Thanks to this tournament I discovered Finland and it’s also really beautiful! (But I prefer Sweden!)

Those days with my team also created a real team spirit and cohesion in our group which will be, I think, really important for next season! Thank you very much to Hammaby rugby and to Johnny for this trip!

Otherwise we now have nice weather in Stockholm (5-10 degrees) and the following weeks (in two weeks and after) will be really full especially by my trips to Roma, to Copenhagen, the visit of my family and the visit of Marie!!!

To finish this article I just would like to wish a Happy birthday to my little sister Camille who turn 15 tomorrow!

See you soon!

Vi älskar Luleå!

2012-02-29T09:42:00.000-08:00

Hej Hej!

this is a "spark", you can go really fast with that

So I’m now back from Laponia and it was just… AMAZING!

From the beginning to the end it was just perfect, I couldn’t expect something better!

First of all the arrival by plane gave me a first nice feeling when I discovered the frozen sea and those large areas of snowy forests. When I landed on this décor I just had the feeling to be totally cut from the rest of the world, it made me think about those pictures of Northern Alaska that you can observe sometimes on television.

The first day was simple but it was the beginning of a “dream”. My friend Annelie, who I thank a lot, came at the airport to take me by car, there I discovered the wonderful landscape of the north with huge snow wall everywhere in the streets and the garden, between 1.5 and 2.5 meters. Directly after we’ve been to her school because she had one small lesson. So I’ve been with her class and met some of her friends (that’s the way they do in Sweden!). The second part of the day we’ve been walking for a while on the frozen sea and then we made a huge cake cause it was her birthday and after a dinner with her family we’ve been to a small party where I met her friends, after what we moved to a night club where there where a university party. There were more French people than Swedish people at this party.

After a long night I met Annelie’s friends to make a sauna together and then jump in a hole in the ice as you can see on the pictures. The temperature of the air was about minus 10 degrees but it was one of the best experiences of my life! After this crazy bath, I followed my new friends to see a hockey match a the stadium: Luleå (one of the best team in Sweden) against Färjestad. The atmosphere here was crazy, I loved it! After a wonderful victory of Luleå we moved back to Annelie’s place where there were her birthday party and here again, a lot of fun!

The third day began with a walk on a small mountain with Annelie and her father. Arrived on the top of this mountain we had a wonderful view of Luleå and the entire region, the landscape was wonderful! Here we made a fire and ate some typical Swedish sausages, it was really good. As it was late in the afternoon and we were I little bit tired, we stayed home the rest of the evening.

Alfer a calm evening in front of TV and a great night we had a ballad on the ice with ice-skates and a “spark” (the red thing that you can see on the picture). We’ve been by foot to a small island, it was really nice. At the beginning of the evening we moved to Annelie’s friends and there the most wonderful in the world happened… NORTHERN LIGHTS appeared in the sky!!! It was the last evening, a snow storm was about to arrive some hours later and I was afraid to not see it but finally it appeared and it was just… MAGIC! Those big green lights in the sky moving slowly, like some water, stayed there about 20 minutes. And during 20 minutes I stayed out in the cold air, observing the sky. (The qualities of my pictures are not that good because of the strange “night mood” of my camera but still…) So to celebrate this event and my last evening in the North we had a small party with my new friends.

I was kind of sad to leave the North so fast but I was also really happy. I discovered there a wonderful place with fantastic peoples. I think that I couldn’t expect better days up there; it will probably stay in my memory as one of my most exciting moment in Sweden. I’ll be back there, I swear!

I really would like to thank again Annelie, Annelie’s family, Robin, Johan, Elias, and all those that I met there! It was unforgettable!

TACK SÅ MYCKET ALLA!!!

I also would like to noticed that the weather was very nice and thanks to Annelie’s father who is a hunter I’ve been eating elk, moose and deer every day and it was really delicious.

Otherwise tomorrow I’m taking the ferry boat with my rugby’s team for 3 days to go in Finland to play a rugby tournament.

So see you next week to talk about it.

Take care!

the island we walked to

view of Luleå from the ice

fast news

2012-02-23T12:12:00.000-08:00

Hi there!

Here is luleå: the red point

I'm sorry for this time without news but nothing really important happened! But don't worry the 2 next following months will be plenty of "special" events! Actually tomorrow morning I'll get up at 5 to take a plane to visit a friend in Luleå, a town in the real North of Sweden and i hope that i'll be lucky and that i'll have the opportunity to observe "Northern lights". The answer next wednesday!

Otherwise next Thursday I'll move to Finland with my Swedish rugby's team in order to play a "snow rugby tournament".

To finish, in the following weeks I'll visit Copenhagen with my host family and Roma with my class!

Now just a few weather report to say that the snow is leaving Stockholm a little bit more everyday and the temperature is kind of warmer, between minus 1 and plus 6 degrees. The days are also longer and longer with the sun from 7h30 in the morning to 17h-17h30 in the afternoon. It's just nice to have nice weather with more sun.

See you next week for a new article about my trip in Lapland.

Swedish Winter!!!

2012-02-05T09:01:00.000-08:00

Hej hej!

So this week the "real" winter arrived everywhere in Europe and also in Stockholm!

It has been now more than 3 weeks that the snow is in Stockholm without leaving and this weekend we have around 15 centimeters in Stockholm. The weather is pretty cold, it was around minus 15 the howl week, and the water in Stockholm is finally frozen. (A part has been broken to let the boats move as you can see on the pictures)

Nothing really special happened this week except this cold weather, so i'll just put some pictures that i took this weekend.

Idre!!!

2012-01-26T02:39:00.000-08:00

Hej hej!

I’m sorry for this “long time” without news!

view on the morning from our houses

I’m using some free time at school to write this article, I’m on the library and outside I can see the snow falling behind the window. It has been now a little bit more than a week that it’s snowing every day! More or less of course but the ground is always white and it makes me happy! The temperature is always between 0 and minus 5 degrees outside. Some people in France might think that it’s really cold but let me say that it’s absolutely nothing if you compare to the minus 15 that I had this weekend in Idre.

Idre… What’s that?! Maybe you can remember that at the beginning of the year I bought a ticket for the annual skiing trip with my school? This skiing trip was this weekend and the name of the skiing station is Idre. Even if I was sick after that, I can say that it was probably one of the best week-end in my life!

Idre is situated in the North-West of Sweden, really close to the Norwegian border. We were 380 students from Norra Real (my school) to go there. After a 7 hours bus trip, we arrived in Idre around 00.30 in the night from Thursday to Friday. The journey to go there as really nice because it was the opportunity to discover the land of another part of Sweden: the North. Imagine driving in the middle of a forest for 2 hours with only darkness, snow and firs without seeing anybody, any cars or any houses. It was just wonderful!

In Idre we were leaving in 6 huge houses all divided in 5 big apartments with each a capacity of 12-17 persons! The night was party time, the time where you can meet many people that you never talked with before, it was just amazing! And during Friday and Saturday it was skiing time. We were free of what we were doing: Skiing when we want if we want, sleeping when we want, eating what where and when we want.

Friday was a really nice day, not that much cold but Saturday was really horrible: minus 15 degrees, snowing, windy… But we all had so much fun! When the weather is that much cold the funny thing is that the snow stay absolutely EVERYWHERE! On every part of the trees, on the clothes (my scarf and my ears were frozen: hard and impossible to feel it) on the metal, on the vertical surfaces, everywhere everywhere everywhere!

Idre is one of the biggest skiing stations in Sweden but it is totally different from the station we can find in the Alpes. It doesn’t look like a big town with huge buildings, but like a village with many typical Swedish wood houses, really nice! Furthermore the station is not on a big mountain but on a really small one in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of a flat land with only firs forest covered of snow! In this country you don’t have to go high to find snow, and this one is just perfect to ski!

So from this station you just have a wonderful view of the North of Sweden…

We came back to Stockholm on the Sunday evening, many people were tired and sick, sleeping in the bus, but I think that for everybody this weekend was just legendary…

our houses on the morning

view from our houses

Snow is back!

2012-01-05T08:16:00.000-08:00

Tjena!

After a rainy Christmas, snow is finally back in Stockholm! Here are some pictures that i took this afternoon (5th of January):

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2012-01-02T09:32:00.000-08:00

Hej hej GOD JUL och GOTT NYTT ÅR!

I hope that every of you had a nice Christmas and I wish you a happy new year plenty of happiness.

Mine was a special one but obviously a really good one. As I said earlier I was in Gothenburg (picture from a lake behind the house) with my host family’s family who is really kind. If this Christmas was special, this is because it was my first one without my family and therefore a Swedish Christmas is a little bit different than a French one. But hopefully “special” doesn’t mean “sad” because it was really interesting to discover how to celebrate Christmas in another way and I also had really good moments with my host family. Moreover this type of experience happens once in a life time so the minimum to do is to be happy and enjoy it!

Now what could I say about Swedish Christmas… Mmmmh first of all let’s talk about the food which is kind of different than in France! The typical Swedish Christmas meal is very simple and it comes from hundreds years ago, when Swedish farmers and people didn’t really have the time and the money for special food, they were used to cook really simple things. That’s the reason why for Christmas you can eat meat-bowls, a type of ham with Swedish bread and butter or moreover salmon. But it was very good! Concerning the drinks, Swedish people usually drink some “snaps” (strong liquors) with Christmas beer but it wasn’t the case in my family. Swedish people have another special Christmas drink: “julmust” which is a kind of coke but better! Every Swedish children (and adults) love drinking that around Christmas time. Otherwise I don’t know if for Christmas you usually spend 3 hours or more around the table, but here in Sweden it is not the case, it’s less than an hour then sometimes you come back for a little coffee or Fika (*see my firsts articles in Sweden). During the “free” time the children usually play with their games and watch TV and the adults talk together. Concerning the presents, everybody receive it the 24^th of December. Usually, the morning you receive a small one in a Christmas sock and the “real” ones, “important ones” during the afternoon. One “important” tradition at Christmas happens just before the presents. At 3 in the afternoon, every year, there is on the TV a cartoon made especially for Christmas and which is a mix of Walt Disney cartoons. Swedish people watch it every year and after that, around 4 o’clock the “Christmas presents time” can start. Traditionally a Santa clause comes and gives some presents, and then it’s a kind of distribution. One person gives the presents, one after one, to everybody. Then the evening continues with dinner to late in the evening.

Now, what about New Year’ Eve? Despite a cancelled party, I had a nice evening. Usually Swedish people (children and teenagers include, most of the time) have a kind of “traditional” dinner (but without traditional food, just good food) with their family or friend. And AFTER that (not so late thanks to Swedish meal time), party time can start. Concerning me I have been with my host family to their friend’s house, next to Stockholm, and we were 6 “children”, it was quite fun! Usually every Swedish family buy some big fireworks for New year’ Eve and around 12 everywhere in the sky you can see all those lights, it was really nice.

This Christmas and New year ‘Eve was really special, but really nice. This year is plenty of strange feelings that you can just feel in this type of experience I think… I’m thinking about before the departure: you really want to be there, to discover everything but you are also kind of afraid and you want to enjoy time with your relatives. At Christmas time you feel strange to not be with your family but you are also really happy to discover and to leave this experience and I guess that before leaving I will also be really excited to see all of you again but really sad to finish this trip, this type of life. I think that if one day you or your children have the opportunity to be an exchange student, just to it! Go for one year because it will be the best experience of your life! And every day, every single moment, just keep in mind that it happen only once in your life, so enjoy it!

BONNE ANNEE 2012!

just before Christmas

2011-12-22T07:30:00.000-08:00

Inez my little host syster, building
a ginger bread house with me

Hej hej !

I’m sorry for didn’t write on the blog last weekend but I was quite busy. The think is that in this time of the year, just before Christmas there is a very important tradition here which is to build “ginger bread houses” in order to break it 20 days after Christmas in order to eat it. So last Saturday many exchange students met at the YFU office in Stockholm to build, to “cook” ginger bread houses.

view of my school from the appartment

But this day was also a very important and fantastic day for many exchange students because the snow really came and stayed on the ground! Some students who come from other parts of the world never saw snow before. It was the occasion to build their first snow-men and to make their first snow battle! The snow is still a little bit here but everything should leave this weekend. Otherwise tomorrow I will go to Gothenburg (by train) for 3 or 4 days. I just would like to notice you that in Sweden Christmas is the 24^th of December instead of the 25^th. But I must be able to talk a little bit more about it next week!

I wish everybody a GOD JUL!!! (merry Christmas) And see you next week!

4 Months and one day later...

2011-12-11T10:21:00.000-08:00

Tcha !

So, I’m sorry for those 2 weeks without news, but it mean that I have many things to say!

So last weekend was my host grand-mother’s birthday, it was the occasion to move to Gothenburg (where she lives) for the second time, and to meet all the members of my host family. (Uncles, aunts, cousins...) That time I travelled by train, with the X-2000 (the equivalent of the French TGV) and we crossed Sweden in approximately 2 hours and thirty minutes.

My host relatives are also really kind and I have really young host cousins who are really cute! Except my “new relatives” I also discovered a Typical Swedish fika for special occasions and this is just… AWESOME! As you can see on the pictures, my host grand-mother cooked so many different cakes and all of them were just sooooo good! Now I’m really looking forward to come back for Christmas time in 2 weeks.

Otherwise this weekend was the Nobel Prize Ceremony in Stockholm. Due to this occasion, many people, tourists, where in Stockholm this weekend. Furthermore the Swedish flag was on every important building, every bus, everywhere! Four exchange student have been selected by hazard to go there but I wasn’t in. However I went in front of the place where the Nobel Ceremony was, and I saw the arrival of the “official” members of the Ceremony.

For the fast news, I have been sick this week for the first time but now I’m okay. I also went Ice-Skating yesterday evening, it was quite cool! Concerning the weather, NO SNOW IN STOCKHOLM! The limit for the snow is in the north of Stockholm but here we have nothing! The few times that snow came, it didn’t stay… This is the hottest year since 1943 and last year was the coldest for 50 years. What else?! Ho by the way I’m in Sweden for 4 months and one day! And this is now 13 days before Christmas and one week and a half before holydays!

To finish, let me just remember you that you can Write to me, ask questions or just let your impressions on myswedishyear@gmail.com

Puss Puss

Video

2011-11-27T09:18:00.000-08:00

Hej,
So this week nothing really special except this weather which is now around 10 degrees. But i'm still so so so happy here!
Otherwise just after our trip to Gothenburg maybe one month ago, I made a small video just for fun and as some people find it cool, I'm puting it on my blog! I didn't have a lot of photos so it's not a very good one but it's (maybe) fun. (And those who know me will find a big aspect of my personality and hobby in this video! ;)
In this compilation you will see Alexandra from Canada, Melodie from France, Gilles from Belgium, and me. Ho, you can also visit the blog of Melodie, who is in Gothenburg, to see this video!

Bye Bye!

Ferry trip to Tallinn

2011-11-20T10:47:00.000-08:00

Hej Hej!

Bon aujourd’hui je vais écrire en Français. Comme je vous l’avais dit la semaine dernière je devais peut être aller à Tallinn ce weekend… hé bien c’est chose faite !!!

petite escale en Finlande vers minuit

En effet j’ai embarqué vendredi à 16h30 après les cours sur un « ferryboat » (voir photos), destination l’Estonie. J’ai voyagé avec la famille d’un ami : Jacob et un autre ami nous accompagnais : Rasmus. Nous avons donc partagé notre cabine. Le voyage Stockholm-Tallinn se fait en 17 heures avec une courte escale en Finlande en plein milieu de la nuit. C’était la première fois que je prenais ce type de bateau et je n’ai vraiment pas été déçu ! Le bateau s’étend sur 8 étages, les 2 premiers étant réservés aux camions et voitures.

voila à quoi ressemblent les bars du ferry

A l’intérieur on trouve des supermarchés, des restaurants, un sauna, un jacuzzi, une salle de réunion, des bars, une télé dans chaque chambre, une salle de spectacle s’étendant sur 2 étages et même un casino et une boite de nuit (en libre accès). Le bateau peut héberger aux environs de 1000 personnes. La partie arrière du bateau dispose d’une énorme terrasse d’où l’on peut admirer « la vue ». Je peux vous dire que lorsque l’on est au bord de cette terrasse, à une certaine hauteur, en quittant le port de Stockholm on ressent une certaine sensation de puissance. Ce « séjour » sur cet hôtel flottant m’a vraiment fait penser au Titanic. C’était juste fantastique !

de droite à gauche: Jacob, Rasmus, Moi

Le samedi matin nous sommes arrivés à 10 heures à Tallinn. Après avoir déposé quelques affaires dans l’appartement de la famille de Jacob nous sommes partis, Jacob, Rasmus et moi, visiter Tallinn tout en faisant un peu de shopping. Cette ville est plutôt intéressante dans la mesure où elle est très contrastée. En effet on y trouve des bâtiments tels que des centres commerciaux ou des hôtels très modernes, mais on y trouve également des bus, par exemple, qui donnent l’impression de sortir de la seconde guerre mondiale. Il y a notamment un type de transport en commun qui m’a marqué , c’est une sorte de bus « électrique » qui est relié à des fils électrique par une longue perche et roule grâce au courant qui y passe (voir photo). Ces fils sont suspendus un peu partout dans Tallinn, y compris à l’extérieur de la ville. La vielle ville, entourée de remparts, en plutôt belle et agréable à visiter.

Voila cet étrange (et ancien) bus

Même si les prix ne sont pas extrêmement bas, ils restent moins chers qu’à Stockholm ou qu’en France. Raison pour laquelle on trouve énormément d’ « alcohol store » dans Tallinn avec beaucoup de « touristes » achetant en grande quantité ! (ainsi sur le bateau nous avons pu croiser au retour des dizaines de personnes transportant parfois 15 gros packs de bière)

Après une journée à marcher nous sommes donc retourné sur le ferry à 16h30 (17h30 heure locale puisqu’en Estonie il y a une heure de décalage horaire) pour un départ à 17h. Puis après une nuit de traversée nous sommes arrivés ce matin à Stockholm à 10h. Il nous a ensuite fallut plus de 30 minutes pour sortir du bateau étant donné le nombre de personnes à bord.

Pour continuer ma journée, mes parents d’accueil ont des amis qui ont chez eux un étudiant d’échange Néo-Zélandais pour un an (mais pas avec yfu), ils les ont donc invités cette après-midi pour fika. Après un court débat sur la coupe du monde de rugby, je me suis finalement fait un nouvel ami Néo-Zélandais.

Sinon petit retour en arrière puisque mardi yfu a invité quelques étudiants d’échanges se trouvant sur Stockholm à aller boire un verre à l’ « Ice Bar » de Stockholm. Comme l’indique son nom ce bar est un bar entièrement fait de glace, même les verres, tables et chaises sont en glace. Il fait -5 degrés à l’intérieur et manteau et gants sont fournis à l’entrée. Voilà pour ce petit moment très sympa !

Pour terminer, à Tallinn comme à Stockholm la neige n’arrive toujours pas, on en parle même aux infos ! En revanche à Tallinn comme à Stockholm il fait nuit à 15h30 ! Voilà pour le petit point météo, j’espère que vous allez tous bien !

(Tallinn)

(cliquez sur les photos pour les voirs en grand)

A bientôt !

fast news

2011-11-13T07:30:00.000-08:00

Hejsan,

So this week nothing very important happened except that now it's sure that next weekend I will go to Tallinn!
I will travel with a friend's family, we will take the ferry boat friday evening, arrive saturday morning and leave saturday evening to arrive sunday morning. We will just stay the day in Tallinn but I think that it will be really nice.
Otherwise the winter seems to really arrive (one month late), the weather is sunny and between 0 and 5 degrees. Snow is back in the North of Sweden and we still have less and less sun. Right now it is 4.20 in the afternoon and it's the night here in Stockholm. The sun is never really hight in the sky so we (nearly) always have a sky with "yellow-orange" colours in the clouds, like in an evening. To give an example I took the following photo today at 2 o'clock:

the photo seems a little bit dark because i'm in front of the sun, so just focus on the sky!

I hope you all have a great time. See you soon!

Göteborg

2011-11-08T09:25:00.000-08:00

Hey !

So as I promised this weekend, here is a new article!

Last week was holidays time for a major part of Sweden (The schools choose the dates, but it’s always (nearly) at the same time) and I have been to Gothenburg. Actually, Alexandra, Gilles and me had flown here to visit Melodie!

We had to get up at 3 in the morning on Monday to go to Arlanda’s Airport where our plane was at 7 o’clock. We traveled with Norwegian airlines (cheaper and faster than the train and excellent company, I recommend it!) and arrived at 8 at Gothenburg Airport where Melodie was waiting for us.

She doesn’t leave in the city but in a small and cute village next to it: Askim (pronounce “Ahrouim”).

Let’s say a few words about Gothenburg now! This city is not a really big one, around 550 000 inhabitants but this is the second biggest city in Sweden after Stockholm. Gothenburg is obviously a really nice town with a harbor, many commercial streets, water canals and paved roads. I really like this city because it is a beautiful one, not to small, not too big and there is an atmosphere of confidence. To give an example, in the bus or in the train everybody should register his electronic card but nobody will check if you do it or if you don’t have one. Furthermore the people look very kind and polite. The only “negative” point is the weather: often raining, but according to me it confer a certain charm to this town.

Otherwise we have been visiting Gothenburg, the west coast, we have been to a kind of park where we saw elks, and we have been to a big night club!

It’s always really nice to spend time together and here it was the occasion to discover Melodies’ family and city which is, moreover, in another part of Sweden!

To conclude it was a really nice and funny week, and I really like Gothenburg but I still prefer Stockholm! ;)

A few weather Summary now… After 2 terrible winters, the last month has been the hottest in this season since 1943! The snow has also disappears in the North but it should come back soon! The temperature in Stockholm is around 7 degrees but it should be 4 next weekend. Concerning the sun, in Stockholm the Sunset start around 15h45 and it is dark around 16h15.

And to finish, THE news of the day, I will probably go to Tallinn (Estonia) for the weekend in two weeks with one of my friend’s family! But I’ll give you more information later.

Ho I was about to forget to say that now I decided to try to speak only Swedish with my friends and my host family so I start to have real (but small) conversations in this language!

Så, vi ses nästa helg!!

Ja, må han leva!

2011-11-06T03:13:00.000-08:00

Tjena Everybody !

Pardonnez-moi pour ces trois semaines sans nouvelles de ma part, d’autant plus que beaucoup de choses se sont passées récemment.

gateau arc-en-ciel

Pour commencer retournons deux semaines en arrière pour le weekend de mes 18 ans ! Pour célébrer l’anniversaire de Mélodie (autre Française en Suède à voir les liens des blogs sur le côté) qui avais lieu trois jours avant et le mien, ainsi que pour faire visiter Stockholm a ceux qui ne connaissent pas, nous avons organisés une petite réunion entre Francophones. Si tout le monde n’a pas pu venir, nous nous sommes tout de même retrouvés Alexandra (Canadienne), Mélodie (Française), Charline (Belge), Alexis (Français), Gilles (Belge) et moi-même pour le weekend. Au programme : Visite de Stockholm, Sauna, puis diné et soirée ensemble (avec le magnifique et délicieux gâteau « arc-en-ciel » d’Alexandra. C’était vraiment super sympa de pouvoir tous se revoir et passer ces moments très agréables tous ensemble !

Un petit mot sur les 18 ans et les « anniversaires Suédois » maintenant !

Comme je l’avais déjà évoqué dans un précédent article, l’anniversaire des 18 ans en Suède est surement l’un des plus importants car c’est celui qui offre le plus de possibilités. 18 ans c’est l’Age où un Suédois peut (non pas théoriquement mais matériellement) rentrer dans un bar pour la première fois, aller en boite pour la première fois, voter, être considéré pleinement (ou presque) comme un adulte à part entière ! En plus de l’importance des 18 ans en Suède, j’ai pu expérimenter la manière de célébrer un anniversaire Suédois. En effet il est de coutume en Suède de Rentrer très tôt le matin (toute la famille) dans la chambre de la personne concernée pour le réveiller en lui chantant un joyeux anniversaire (grattis på födelsedag) et en lui apportant ses cadeaux et son petit déjeuner au lit ! Cela quel que soit le jour de l’année et de la semaine. Mon anniversaire a donc eu lieu un dimanche, celui de ma petite sœur d’accueil quelque jours plus tard un mardi matin avant l’école.

Je ne situerais pas les cadeaux de chacun puisqu’ils sont nombreux mais je vous remercie tous puisqu’ils TOUS énormément fait plaisir ! En revanche je tien a vous faire partager l’étonnement (et la joie) que j’ai ressentie lorsque ma famille d’acceuil m’a annoncée qu’ils m’offraient pour mon anniversaire une lecon de pilotage dans le ciel de Stockholm ! En effet je ne m’attendais pas du tout a recevoir ce genre de cadeau et ceux qui me connaissent bien comprendrons ma joie ! (Tout cela sans oublier les cadeaux des un et des autres qui m’ont tous fait plaisir et qui me permettent de vivre cette aventure de cette manière.)

Un dernier petit mot concernant le joyeux anniversaire Suédois. L’air de la chanson est complétement différent de celui que nous connaissons en France, Angleterre ou encore en Espagne. Meme si je crois que l’air est le meme qu’en Allemagne, quand on entend (au lycée a la cantine par exemple) cette chanson, on imagine facilement une bande de Vikings blonds et barbus chanter sur cet air en buvant de la bière dans des cornes il y a quelques centaines d’années. Néanmoin ce chant a son charme et pour ceux que ca intéresse, voici une partie des paroles :

Ja, må han leva!

Ja, må han leva uti hundrade år!

Javisst ska han leva!

Javisst ska han leva uti hundrade år!

Och när han har levat

Och när han har levat uti hundrade år!

Ja, då ska han skjutas.

Ja, då ska han skjutas

Ja, då ska han skjutas på en skottkärra fram!

Bref un excellent weekend marqué par cette rencontre entre francophones, mes 18 ans suédois et l’arrivée de deux colis (un de 10 kilos et un de Verlinghem).

Encore merci à tous et a très très bientôt pour un nouvel article !!

Hej hej !

preparations for the winter

2011-10-16T08:26:00.000-07:00

Hej!

      So today I will speak about the winter which is really soon now! This week I went in different shops with my friends to have a look on the winter clothes. So here in Sweden there are two things that you really need to buy for the winter: special shoes and special jacket. The 2 last winters in Sweden were particularly cold, long and strong. From half November to half April, the temperature was between 0 and -20 degrees with one meter of snow in Stockholm.          That’s why you need to buy warm and long shoes and jacket.
   Otherwise today I went to our country house with Lars, my host father, in order to prepare it for the winter and the snow. So we covered the boats, put everything (garden chairs, garden tools…) inside, turned the water and the electricity off and take care of the plants…
   Concerning the weather here, the temperature is between 5 and 10 degrees the day and around 0 during the night. The sunrise is around 7h45 and the sunset around 17h40.

   To finish I just will evocate few anecdotes that I noticed this week:
     First I went to the cinema for the first time (to see “abduction”, good film). So the cinema here is very confortable but so expensive! Nearly 11 euro to watch a simple film and 15 if it is in 3D. But you are placed in the cinema and you can choose where.
      Secondly I saw that if you put your empty bottles or cans in a special machine, this one give you (few) money.
      To finish, yesterday I had dinner with my family in a brasserie at… 17h15!!!

     To conclude for today I just would like to thanks the rugby’s French team with offering me the best birthday present: going to the world cup final!

Bye!

first snow in Sweden

2011-10-09T04:26:00.000-07:00

Hej! Salut!

J'espère tout va bien en tout cas que de bonnes nouvelles ce weekend!

Commençons par la plus importante: La qualification de l'équipe de France de rugby pour les Demi-finales de la coupe du Monde de rugby! (Ce n'est pas une nouvelle pour tout le monde mais dans quelques années quand je relirais ce Blog, je serais content de lire ca!) Nous jouerons donc la demie finale weekend prochain contre le pays de Galles! Aller les bleus!

Autre bonne nouvelle (pour moi en tout cas) Vendredi les premières neiges sont arrivées dans le Nord de la Suède. (Voir la photo qui a été prise hier a Kiruna, dans le grand Nord Suedois) Cela signifie que d'ici un mois nous devrions voir apparaitre les premiers Flocons a Stockholm.

Les températures ont également pas mal chuttées, il faisait en effet 3 degrès cette nuit a stockholm, 5 ce matin et la aux alentours de 8. (la météo annoncait 12 degrès)

Sinon hier aprem' j'avais une réunion YFU ou j'ai pu discuter avec pas mal d'étudiants d'échanges, ce qui été plutot sympa! Et puis Vendredi soir et Samedi soir: sorties!

Voila Voila... Si il y a des sujets dont vous voudriez que je parle ou des questions n'hésitez pas a me contacter!

Hej da!

New blog email address

2011-10-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

Hej!
As I said, I have created an Email address specially for thi blog, so please feel free to contact me (even if I don't know you!) just to let your impressions or ask questions!

myswedishyear@gmail.com