Back at School

I just realized that it's been a while since I posted anything so here goes. Everything has been good at the school since I've been here. Lectures, for the most part, are very interesting. I like the apologetics course the most, it's very interesting. Everything is really busy right now. In a few weeks we're all going on an outreach week (small groups to different places). Im going to a placed called Habo about 2 hours away from here with a group of 7 other girls including the leader. We'll be doing things like English classes, confirmation groups, youth groups, and hanging out with the kids. So we have been having meetings twice a week for that. On top of that there is also the homework, which isn't too bad but im still trying to keep on top of it. Last week I had a photoshoot with one of the girls, so we could get a picture for the yearbook. It was a ton of fun and they all turned out really well! Also I got Tim Hortons coffee on Sunday night! :) My RA, who is also in my family group, got some of it sent here for Christmas. Not having it for a while makes me very thankful for it and realizing how good it really is. Even the germans, americans and swedish people liked it! I've been having fun. Miss home and such a ton, but still having fun out here. We've been having more and more days with sun and blue skies! It is very exciting cause our winter consisted of hardly any sunshine, grey cloudy skies, and hardly any snow. Now that the days are getting longer, the sun is coming out makes me very excited for spring. 

Back in the Grind

I made it back safe and sound to school here in Sweden last night. My first flight out of Toronto was delayed by 2 hours. That made me miss my connecting flight, so i had to book a new one. And it also made me miss my trains that I had paid for. So I had to get new tickets for that :( But I made it safely. Thanks to the delay I met up with a friend from this school at my transfer in Frankfurt, so we travelled the rest of the way together. It was nice to have someone else that I know with me, and he carried my bag!! :) That's always nice, especially since it would have been too heavy for me alone. One of my roommates came today so I'm not all alone in my room anymore. Its nice to be back. I miss everyone back home like crazy, and im very happy I got to go and see people. Home was amazing, no regrets and I wouldn't trade it. The best decision i could have made. School starts again on Monday with the new guest lecturer, so we're getting back into the grind of things. Its really nice seeing everyone again, and everyone is excited to see each other. I miss home, but I'm happy to be back. I will see everyone soon!

Almost Home

Its crazy to think that in 48 hours I will be on a plane to Toronto. At the same time it is very exhilarating! I am very excited to go home and see everyone. I definitely feel like I need the break from things. All of our homework was due this morning so now I have nothing to do really. Our things are packed up and moved out of the rooms so that they can be thoroughly cleaned tomorrow during work day. Basically all I have left at the school is workday, moving into new rooms, unpacking, Christmas banquet, then the next morning i get up nice and early and head home. A full day of travelling, I am going to be very tired when I get home. And it will all be fun with a little added jet lag to go along with it :( Not exactly looking forward to that part, but at least I'll get to sleep in and hang out with friends and family. Very much looking forward to it. My friend and I can't wait, we think it's crazy that it's actually here already. I does seem weird to go home, only because I feel like I've been waiting for it for so long. Now that it's here and I know it's gonna happen it almost doesn't seem real. But none the less in about 50 hours I will be comfortably in my own home and in my own bed. It will be an adjustment not having 20 other girls around and not waking up with other people in the same room. But it will be a good change for a while. 

Christmas Concert

This past Saturday was our Christmas Concert that we have been preparing for for a couple of months. It was awesome, the entire bottom of the church was filled with people. We sang in a really old church that is older than Canada. It was gorgeous and big and the acoustics were just amazing so we sounded amazing. Preparing for this we had a lot of choir practices. Everyone had to be in the choir, and on top of that you could choose to be in an ensemble as well (which students organized). Everyone worked really hard and it turned out great. We sounded great and it was just loads of fun. But the actual concert was so short that many of us want to do it again and are sad that its over already. We even got filmed and it is going to air on TV here in Sweden next year (they don't have enough time for editing to show it this year). We are also in the newspaper, it's really cool. The choir sang a total of 2 songs, one was a "choir piece" that the choir sang on its own which was Come to Us. As well we had a band that played Who Am I, and then the choir joined them to sing Mighty to Save. There were all sorts of ensembles as well being singing and the Everything skit which went really well. There was a small devotion right after the skit. After the concert was over we invited the guests back here to the school for Fika, so we got a chance to meet some people and talk to them, it was a lot of fun. 

Christmas at Holsby

Well there are only 19 days until I go home. Here at the school we are getting right into the Christmas spirit. We have our Christmas tree (one in the main building as well as another outside the main building). We have decorations (at least in the girls dorm) and everyone is excited about Christmas. This next weekend we have our Christmas concert for the people around this area to attend. It will be tons of fun and really good. Everyone is working really hard for it to be amazing. Class work is slowing down, we had a lot due this past week so now we find ourselves getting bored or not knowing what to do exactly. We are all either excited to go home for Christmas or go on our adventures. Looking forward to seeing everyone

(For anyone getting these emailed to them, there are pictures on the actual site that don't get emailed so make sure to check out the site too!)

25 Days to Go

There are only 25 days till I go home for Christmas. It seems crazy. I still have a lot to do before then. This past little while has been full of lectures, outreaches, and trying to finish my homework on time. I still have a lot of reading to do before its due but I'll get it done or way or another. I booked my train ticket to the airport for when I leave, so I am all set to go. Its very exciting knowing ill be seeing a lot of people in less than a month but at the same time crazy. I went Christmas shopping although I didn't get very much. I still have another month, but I know that will be gone before I know it. Although going home is very exciting i have a lot to finish before then. A lot of reading! 

This past Friday I went with my outreach to a youth group so we make a program for it. We did a lot of games, one of the girls did a devotion, we did worship, then we just had fika (food/snack) with the youth and just hung out with them. It was a lot of fun. Some of them go to the school we were at a couple 

weeks ago so I recognized them and that was very cool. Its nice knowing Swedish people around here. Makes it feel more homey. In February we have a week of outreach where we go somewhere else so there are a few different places you can go. So we will have to decide where we want to go for that and start to raise money for it. That will be fun. This place is a second home for me, since I've been here for so long. It will be weird going home but I still cant wait to. I miss everybody a lot. 

We got snow here finally...but its not very much at all. But it's nice cause it feels more like winter then and more like Christmas. 

We are also in the midst of practicing for our Chri

stmas concert. Its fun and going really well. We are doing one main piece, then we have two other worship songs that we are changing up a bit. In the two worship songs they're are duets for verses, done by students, and then the choir singings the chorus. Its going really well. We have only started two songs though...and the concert is in two weeks! Its crunch time. Lots to do and not a whole lot of time to make sure they get done.

London England

I just got back from my London adventure today which was amazing. So many things happened! The stories start off right from the beginning when we almost missed our first bus. We thought we were taking a train but my friend noticed it was a bus and that bus was about to leave. So we had to run in order to catch it, but we did. When we got to our hostel in London we found it to be very very sketchy! When we walked in the door there were two cops there with some people reporting a theft. The people were just sketchy. So one of the girls told her mom about this hostel and her paid offered to pay for a hotel for us girls to stay in since she didn't like the hostel either. Our first full day in London we went to the movies along with other things that I cant remember. When the movie was over we came out and saw a huge crowd around and we heard someone yelling about Leonardo DiCaprio being a normal human being. It was his movie premier for his new movie and we were there! We saw Leo DeCaprio in person, it was awesome. 

The following day was taken up mostly by trying to find our hotel. At first we had gone to the wrong hotel in the wrong part of town. So we had to find out were the hotel we were reserved for actually was. By the time we actually got to the hotel we had missed the walking tour and changing of the guards that we had wanted to go to. That afternoon we toured around England, saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, St. Paul's Cathedral, and Buckingham Palace. We spent a lot of time walking and taking the subway. Then we went to a restaurant and ate Fish and Chips, thats right. It was pretty good too! And no we didn't end up riding in a double decker bus, we just took the subway. That evening we shopped a bit, we couldn't spend too much money, but I bought a European scarf and shoes! It was fun. The next day we went on the free walking tour around town that took us by Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the home of Prince Charles and Lady Camilla. However that day it was raining so after we lost our tour guide on the tour we just went back to the hotel and hung out and watched movies the rest of the night. Overall it was a ton of fun!