Back to good old Ängelholm

(-8 degrees on our last day in Helsingborg)

To finish off our last night in Helsingborg, Rotary took us out to dinner and then 10-pin Bowling before our lovely host mother Lena picked us up and took us to a friend's place, where she had organised for us to use her friend's jacuzzi. This turned out to be quite an experience as the jacuzzi was a balmy 38.5 degrees Celsius whilst the outside air temperature was -11 degrees resulting in just a minor 49.5 degree difference between my head and the rest of my body. The walk back to the house across the cold stone footpath wringing wet and in nothing but board-shorts could only be described as painful but the jacuzzi was well and truly worth it.

It has now been 3 weeks since I arrived here in the majestic land of Sverige and my English skills are starting to disappear. I think my brain is slowly switching over to Swedish but leaving me in a sort of Language-less limbo for the time being. My understanding of Swedish is improving; I can now start to discern words and give a general contexts to things being said around me but still can't construct complete sentences.

Arriving back in Ängelholm by train, I was greeted with 5 days of school finishing with a Rotary meeting on Friday, lunchtime. This turned out to be quite enjoyable as the speaker for the meeting was Lars Linström an Aero-consultant who spoke to us about all sorts of cars that he had been involved with throughout his life. He reminded me of my cadet captain Peter Marosszeky through his mannerisms and the way he spoke to the room. He was really quite entertaining given I really didn't have a clue as to what he was saying.

(down at the beach at Skälderviken, The water completely froze 2 days later)

 (Sunrise on my way to school. My headphone cable got in the way)

(Swedish foosball except instead of soccer you play Ice Hockey)

After 3 weeks it has finally snowed.

 (view from my room this morning)

 (we got a good inch and a half of snow)

 (tree looks better with snow)

(snow capped Audi A4)

Helsingborg

So without any real warning I have been temporarily moved to a new host family in Helsingborg, a town 20 km south of Ängelholm. This is due to the language camp that I only found out about on Söndag (sunday; pronounced Soon-dog) and started at 10am on Måndag (have a guess which day...).

Arriving at Helsingborg station at 10am, I was introduced to 4 fellow exchange students from New Zealand; David, Alessandro, Melissa and Kimberley. First thing we did was walk to the nearby school and have lunch followed by a few hours of ice skating...

(The view from Niclas' office)

(An arch at the base of Helsingborg's castle. You can see Niclas' office in this pic, is on the first floor of the corner building overlooking the harbour)

Then came the best part; After an exhausting day of ice skating the other two boys and I were picked up from the school by a wonderful lady by the name Lena. The first thing Lena did was drive us to the movie store where she bought loads of chips and coke and told use to fill a bucket each full of swedish lollies and chocolates.

She then brought us to her home, a beautiful 4 story house, surrounded by snow. Inside we met her husband Morgon and beautiful daughter Isabelle.

Lena then proceeded to spoil us, letting us watch TV with coke and chips before a lovely dinner of Swedish pan-beef and a variety of chocolate, blueberry cakes and glas (ice cream). The three of us were given the attic bedroom which looks out over Helsingborg and across the water to Denmark (yes I am looking out the window at Denmark as i write this)

(Denmark in the distance)

The next night David, Alessadro and I enjoyed the Sauna before jumping on the families trampoline soaking wet in our swimmers at -5 degrees C (to the obvious shock of the neighbours). In retrospect the ensuing snowball fight really wasn't a good idea.

Week 1...

So after being here a 5 days I am beginning to understand about 3-5% of what people are saying, which is suprising considering I have only had 1 full day of school. I am yet to start speaking Swedish beyond single words here and there.

The weather isn't too bad, -4 degrees in the morning and warming to +3 mid afternoon. Usually a bit of sun in the afternoons which is nice. The students and teachers are friendly and my host family is lovely.

Last night my host father Niclas got tickets though his work for Victor (my host brother) and I to see Ängelholms B-Grade Ice hockey team play at the local arena. Unfortunately our team lost (4-3) but it was fun to watch and good to see Ängelholm go down fighting til the very end.

 Today being Australia Day, I have baked a Pavlova for my family to have after dinner. The students were also very interested to listen to Triple J's Hottest 100 which I had streaming at school for a little while.

Henrik Ejlertsson, my host brother from my second family and school mate showed me around the town today after school.

Henrik was on exchange in Perth, Australia up until last july. He is very friendly and has already organised for me to join him at a few partys in coming weeks.

 (this is the old court house which is now a school)

Ängelholm

Greeted by snow I arrived into Copenhagen early in the morning and was welcomed by my host Father Niclas Ekvall who drove me across the bridge into Sweden and up the highway to my new home in Ängelholm. I was greeted at the door by his lovely wife and my new host mother Cia who had a beautiful Swedish breakfast waiting for us.

After settling in we drove to Välacentrum, a shopping centre 20km from Ängelholm where I purchased some clothes and Niclas and Cia where kind enough to buy me a phone as a welcome present to help me keep in touch with people I meet over the next year.

Here are some photo's of the house that I took using my new phone: