This week has been a bit of a roller coaster of emotions – literally. For a while now, I have known that my grandparents haven’t been doing too well and being on the other side of the world can be quite difficult knowing that you may never see them again.

On Saturday I had a mini breakdown for the first time in a long time, I guess the stress just got to me. I wanted to be with my grandparents and make sure that they were okay. I knew something like this could happen, and as an exchange student you need to be prepared for it. Fortunately over the next two weeks they all improved greatly and it’s looking up:)

My host family and I spent Sunday at a theme park called Walebe, where we did all of the family friendly activities – I was going to do the scarier roller coasters but I chickened out after one of them broke down and the people dangled in the air for a good 15 minutes or so! We joked around a lot and it was exactly what I needed after such a hard day the day before.

Monday was the day I had been waiting for – a 10 day trip in Sweden spent with Sophia Marcusson (a friend from NZ with a batch in Sweden) and her family. I travelled alone to get to Sweden and it went a lot better than I thought it would, I have developed an irrational fear of planes (thanks aircraft investigations series) so the whole ride I was freaking out! The change in scenery was incredible. I had a window seat, France didn’t look very interesting – it was flat and yellow with heaps of vineyards- Sweden however was amazing, it looked like the whole island was sinking, there were tiny islands everywhere and the whole thing was covered in bush and pine trees. Unlike France there were barely any towns and settlements- it looked a lot more natural and it was love at first sight!

As soon as I got off the plane I ran around the airport like a headless chicken looking for the train station. The airport was way bigger than Auckland’s, but I found my way pretty easily. The train was so flash, there was wifi, charging sockets and a cafe ( I got pancakes!). All the surfaces were immaculately polished and the toilets were huge – it put France to shame! On the way I talked to a Finnish man next to me (everyone there spoke English), who was visiting his grandchildren. He told me that sometimes during the winters in Finland he would driven across the frozen sea!

At Söderhamn train station I was crushed by one of Sophia’s bone-splitting hugs the second I left the carriage. It was so great to see her again. It took me a while to flick back into English speaking mode and I went to give her a french kiss out of pure habit – she was so confused! XD I then met her parents Ulrike (her mother) and Ake (father). They were so nice and the family was very multicultural. Ake came from Sweden and Ulrike from Germany. The two spoke English to communicate but both are nearly fluent in the other’s language. This meant lucky Sophia was fluent in three languages from birth! I’m so jealous!

We had a half hour drive down a dirt road to where we were staying. It was a small village called Våtnäs located right beside a stream with the sea on either side. All of the houses were built next to the stream and 2 stories high. The red and white design of the houses were very Swedish. The top story was the living quarters and the bottom was a built in boat house, we could literally jump into the water from the bottom story! The houses were all solar panelled and we couldn’t use anything to charge our phones because all the power went into the fridge, we had to collect water from the stream or one of those old pumps before we could boil it, there was a composting toilet and we only used candles for light. I loved it!

The strange thing that I noticed straight away was that it didn’t smell like the sea at all; there was barely any salt in the water! The forest was a playground for trolls and fairy’s, there were huge beds of moss and giant boulders everywhere – it was truly picturesque!

Sophia and her family gave me the true cultural experience. The first night I was there I had a special local cheese pie called Västerbottenost which can only be found in the region. That night Sophia took me to the point to watch the sunset over the sea, I almost forgot that I was in Sweden. It felt like I was back in NZ again, I had really missed the wild scenery. It was such a great start to my time there and I couldn’t wait for more!