A Prolonged Update from Växjö Sweden (weeks 11 & 12)

Wow, time does fly when your having fun or atleast when you have a jam packed schedule. The picture to the right is one Mariah took after our shopping day last week. Mom sent me money for my birthday, early so we went shopping. I got the sunglasses, the scarf, the necklace, and the brown leather belt that doesn't show. The belt and sunglasses match my purse I got a few weeks ago and the necklace matches the earrings and bracelet I got in Gothenborg. The belt was a must though...I couldn't keep my khakis up anymore, they were falling off. The past two weeks have been really crazy. I have had a busy class schedule on top of a full time field study schedule. My classes are quickly coming to an end. All the lectures and seminars are over, with the exception of my last to Swedish classes that are this week. . Now we are down to the final examinations, which here are not test like at home. Here the final examination is turning in your research report and presenting it to the class. During the presentation, your classmates can ask questions, debate your research methods, or try to dispute your research results. These are also not small papers. I am still in the processs of writing them, however my shortest one right now is 9 pages. The minimum is 6 pages, but the average we were told is 10-15 pages. Lots and lots of work, especially since the papers have to be thoroughly research from the US perspective and Swedish perspective. My first presentation is Wednesday and my second presentation is on Friday. Please keep me in your prayers those days, pray that I will do good and get a passing grade! . Now to what has happened in the past two weeks. On Saturday, Oct. 21, we went to Malmo Sweden. It is the third largest city in Sweden and it is on the southern tip, the beach! It was just way to cold and rainy to try and find the beach. Oh well. We did have fun. My friend, Gina, went with us. She is studying abroad here from Charleston Illinois. She is working on her masters in business. She is also the youth minister at her home church. On this short day trip, we did a lot of walking and looking at buildings and the castle. However, our main reason for going was Gray's American Food Store. It is one of the 3 places in Sweden that we can find American Food. The prices are astronomical. We purchased bisquick pancake mix, pancake syrup, root beer, peanut butter, and goldfish. What a wonderful combination but you can not find those items at any local grocery stores and they were only twice what you would pay at the highest priced grocery store in the states. Just for a comparision: a small box of poptarts $9.00, a box of betty crocker cake mix and a container of betty crocker icing $15.00, a six pack of mountain dew $12.00 (you have to purchase 1 can at the time at 2.00 per can). When I get old and retire, I moving back to Sweden to open an American Food store....I would make a fortune at those prices!!! . On Saturday the 28th, we had our first snow fall. It was just a dusting but it was nice to see. On Sunday the 29th, we tried to make it to the moosefarm in Kosta Sweden. Its only just over an hour away by bus, so a good day trip. It just didn't work out. We waited until after lunch to leave due to the light snow on the ground. When we arrived in Kosta, we were informed that the brochure on was wrong about the distance to the moosepark from the last bus stop. It was a 3 kilometer walk. We started to walk it but it was very cold, windy, and beginning to get dark. There was no lights on the road to the moosepark just open forest with signs that say no pictures. I am not sure why, but the sunset was too pretty; I took a picture any way. . Monday, October 30th, I registered for my spring classes at ECU. It is not the schedule I had planned on. I am going to go ahead and take a tough spring semester, so I don't have to take classes over the summer. I will be going to G'ville on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 8am until 4 pm. I will be taking Organic Chemistry with lab, Physics with lab, Statistics, and two health classes. . Then it was halloween. Halloween here is not anything like the states. The Swedish are just now trying to bring in the halloween traditions we have celebrated for many years. So, no trick or treating. :( However, we purchased a pumpkin cake at the local bakery to celebrate in the Swedish class I had that night. Mariah wore here halloween outfit and carried the pumpkin bag Nana Shue sent her. . Then the other big event this week was the snow. It starting snowing on Tuesday evening late. When it finally stopped on Wednesday lunchtime, we had 3 inches in most places. This morning when the rain started, there was still some snow on the ground in shaded places. The picture on the left is during the afternoon after the snow had stopped falling. The picture on the right is from our walk to school in the morning when it was still snowing, the foggy look to the picture is actually the snow. . I am going to close for now. I will write later this week to tell you all about my hospital field studies. Its getting late and I want to add pictures. I hope you are all doing well. We miss you very much. We are counting down the days until we come home; eventhough Mariah did say the other day that she wants to stay. We send our love and we keep you all in our prayers. Only 47 days until we board the planes to come home!