I can’t believe I have been living in Sweden for the last 10 months and now it is time to return to the United States.  The last 10 months have been wonderful and I wish my time in Sweden wasn’t coming to an end, but it is time for me to go home.  I just wish I could be in two places at once.  Saying good-bye to all of my new friends has been hard, but hopefully returning to my old friends will help ease the pain.  Hopefully this is not a permanent good-bye, but a see you again soon.  I will always consider Sweden my second home and hope someday I will be able to return.  I’m really going to miss this place!

This week I have been busy packing and cleaning my apartment because I leave on Sunday!  Hope to pass my cleaning inspection tomorrow!

My time in Sweden is coming to an end and I leave the country in only 18 days.  Today was the end of the year fika for all the international students.  It was nice getting to see everyone one last time before we all part ways and return to our home countries.  I’m going to miss all of my new friends!

Friday night I had a party with my corridor roommates to celebrate one of their birthdays and to celebrate three roommates moving out, I’m one of the ones moving out.  We ordered pizza and a played a number of drinking games.  I had a great time and there were lots of laughs.  I’m really going to miss my corridor roommates!

This weekend I worked on Friday and Saturday at Uplands.  I was responsible for guarding the staff door that separates the upstairs from the pub to make sure no one was able to sneak upstairs or sneak downstairs.  It was nice getting paid to watch a movie with my friend, sit around talking, and getting to read a book.  Working two days in a row this weekend was the most fun and it was the easiest money earned while working at Uplands!

I had an exam on Friday for my  Biology and Production of Agricultural Plants course.  I will post again once I get the results.  I hope I passed!

Right now there is not much new other than recovering from being sick and studying for my final exam for my Production and Agriculture of Crops course.  The exam is on Friday, so I will post again once it is over!

Unfortunately I have not posted in a while because I was sick from Friday until Monday.  This wasn’t the first time I have been sick while being in Sweden, but it was the worst illness I have had since I arrived.  To make matters worse I missed work and school due to this illness.  Luckily I’m feeling much better now!

Valborg is the celebration on the last day of April that celebrates the arrival of Spring in Sweden.  The festivities start with students racing wood/styrofoam boats down the river.  Each boat was decorated to suite a particular theme.  Some examples of themes included Aladdin, TMNT, Portal, Reddit/Memes, Minecraft, and a SpongeBob.  I decided to walk from the finish line to the beginning of the race to see exactly how many people were celebrating and I couldn’t even give an estimate of how many people were out running around and getting drunk throughout the day.  After I watched the last boat get loaded into the river I had to head to Uplands because I was working that afternoon.  I was forced to work as one of my “punishment days” for being a pubhost.  This is one of the requirements for being a pubhost because it is too hard to find staff for a day like Valborg.  The environment in the garden was fairly calm compared to the rest of the city.  Luckily we only had to set up from 12-15, were open from 15-18, and were finished cleaning by 19.  Once we finished cleaning it was time to have a barbeque of our own.  The food was absolutely delicious and it was the first time I’d grilled out since being in Sweden (this is probably due to the fact that the weather up until now has not really been appropriate for a grill out).  For dessert we roasted marshmallows and made s’mores.  It was funny watching Swedes make marshmallows over the fire because they were unsure of how long to melt them and were not sure what they were suppost to look like when finished.  Only one other person attending the barbeque and myself had previous had s’mores so it was nice to introduce one of my favorite desserts to my friends at Uplands.  Even though my day didn’t consist of drinking alcohol and getting drunk like almost all of the others students I still had a great time!  Hope I will be able to return someday to experience another Valborg!

The student radio of Uppsala hosts a trivia contest between the 12 nations called the Battle of the Nations.  Uplands won the first round two weeks ago and tonight they faced off with their rival nation, V-dala.  My friend Texas represented the nation in the Battle of the Nations and has done us proud by winning last week and again tonight.  Now we will move onto the semi-finals, which will take place in about two weeks.  Hope Texas can continue to remain victorious and that Uplands can win the battle to take home the title of “best nation!”