Day 1

Day one was amazing! I love this town sooo much! I arrived at about 12:35 and Veronika Elg was waiting in the airport to pick me up. We then went to the school which has the most incredible scenery I’ve ever seen on any campus! The view from my prospective classrooms is that of a sparkling like and little foliage-covered mountains. The town is a perfect mix of a busy city with deep historical value. Each building has some story behind it, and although I normally reject buildings that are so ornamented, I am fascinated by the infrastructure in this city. So, I had to huge suitcases and no where to stay when I arrived! I went to some meeting that a man told me about for the exchange students where I was then redirected to the accommodations office to find out where I had been placed. I lucked out big time! I live in what’s called Raslatt and it is like its own little community. There are about 10 apartment buildings in the area but not all are filled with students. It’s easy to find groups of children playing on bikes and scooters all around the area. While in the accommodation office I met 3 Canadians! We could all identify each other by our (apparently) distinct accents. It actually turns out that the one girl I met, Shannon, is a member of Golden Key in the Montreal chapter and attended the international conference this summer where some of our executive GK members went to advertise the South Africa Golden Future Project to other Golden Key chapters. She even knew my good friends Jacqueline, Nick, and Gary! Talk about small world. After I got my keys I was dropped off at my apartment. Despite the fact that I was only running on 4 hours of sleep and had lost 6 hours during the flight, I was still determined to scope out the area. So I unpacked my things and then just started roaming around my area. I think found myself on a bus and decided to go get a cell phone and some things for my apartment. Oh ya, I’m rooming with two other girls who are from Sweden—and we each have our own rooms!! On my way home from IKEA and the mall I thought I was so coy because (and I actually thought this to myself) “I could now go anywhere I wanted in Jonkoping because I know what bus to take to get back to my apartment”. Shortly after saying this to myself I realized I was on the wrong bus. I asked the busdriver if this bus was going to Raslatt, and he said “no, the one across the street that’s about to leave is going to Raslatt”. So obviously, I made a run for it. I now know which bus gets me to my apartment. When I got back I started unpacking all of the things I got for my room (bed sheets, comforters, organization bins, groceries). Then I thought that I would try out the converter that Jennie lent me to bring. So I plugged it in, and decided to plug into it the only thing I didn’t really care about---a powerbar. Super smart, because it blew up right away and so did my half of the apartment immediately after my roommate mumbled “what’s the worst that could happen—it blows up?” After a lengthy phone call with the horribly unhelpful electrician, I figured out how to turn on the breaker. I felt so accomplished after that! Until I went to barge into my room, and realized I had locked myself out. Strike 3 Atkins! The Security wouldn’t unlock it because my ID was inside the apt, so they told me to call the police. The police didn’t answer for literally 5 minutes, and when they did answer they told me it would be a half hour wait. When they arrived they informed me that we had to wait for the security guard (the same one who wouldn’t help me in the first place) because he had the key. When he FINALLY came I thanked him (IN Swedish might I add!) and waited for him to be on his way. It was then that he slapped down a bill for 500 SEK (about 70$ CDN) with an almost evil grin on his face. Of course, I tried to protest asking how he could do this to a student—but “Rules are rules”. Rules are bullshit! After this I had a little chat with my roomies and they attempted to teach me how to CORRECTLY speak Swedish (they were mostly unsuccessful since I already forget almost all of what they taught me).



I really do love it here though. I feel happier than I’ve ever been in m y entire life! Even after all of the things that went “wrong” today, I just laughed, because right now all I’ve got is time. Taking the wrong bus allowed me to see the whole city and scope out places I wanted to go! I feel happy here not because I’m away from my life at home, because I love my life at home, but because I truly get a chance to experience who I really am and how to be truly independent in a way one couldn’t even have anticipated. This has been a true test of putting my problem solving skills to work, and so far, I think I’m doing pretty well!