One Year Abroad

You heard me right! Next saturday I will leave for USA! And stay for 3 weeks, I would love to meet as many for you as possible.

Here in sweden We just have two weeks in high school, but I will just get out earlier to be able to go to yall.

Two weeks ago we got the last snow here, but now it is just snow up in the mountains. You remember how I wrote before about dark all days and just a few hours a day with light. Now it is the opposite, the sun goes down at 11pm and up at 4am. 23rd of june we will reach a turn, that day it will be light all day and night with the sun up entire day!

It is not cold anymore either, today we had graduation and we had 70 Fahrenheit so that was wonderful!

So you all next weekend!!

Today I got the real drivers license, I am happy to have it and now it is over with all studying!!

Here we still get snow everyday, almost over entire sweden, not just here up in the north.

My class and our teachers are going on a field trip tomorrow, we are going away 3days, we will go up in the mountains and do some cross country skiing and have a (hopefully) great time! ;)
I am going to take some pictures for yall, hopefully they will be good!!


Here is a swedish drivers license, mine as well

Since last I blogged, I have now my drivers license! It was not easy, wish it was like in Usa and definitly for same price. To take a drivers license here cost like $1500-2000 But I guess it is worth it.

Last week we went on easter break here in sweden, we are out of school for 5 days, but my class got it earlier, so I went home to my parents a few days and then I went back to Åre to stay here the rest of the break. I have now worked every day  from saturday to Saurday, and then I will be off on sunday before school starts again on Monday.

I work at the destination company; Skistar. We rent out skii equipment, sell the skipasses, have skischool and take care of the slopes and lifts, we also have weekend apartments the tourist can stay in, basicly they own everything here in Åre. But I work at the shops where people rent skiis and buy the skipasses. 

Here we still get snow, Last week it snowed for 5 days almost continuous. So it is still winter here, but not less then 20 F. 


Here are some recently taken picture from Åre




On the top of the mountain.


The top station of the cable car.

Åre Village in February

A few months ago we did just have a few hours daylight, in late december it started to turn around and get lighter. Today it gone the half way, 12 hours the sun is up and the other 12 hours they will be down! In june it will have gone so far that it will be only dark and not even dark dark, just like crepuscular or more light/dark! This day is called vårdag jämning translated to springday even (not a very good translation thow)

My grandmother and parents are up here in Åre this week, my grandmother turned 75 today so we went to a ice globe, made out of snow and it was made like a church. It was very cool!!
It was built right next to a waterfall and it was very beautiful!!

In 100 days I will be going to Usa, june 2nd I arrive at Memphis Airporn and I will stay until june 23rd!! I am super excited!! I will be great, but also very hard and not as fun and great as it should be! I will stay at jennifer marlins house the first two weeks and for the last week, I am still looking for somewhere.

Here in sweden life goes on great, school is good and I make almost straight A's. I really which our school system were more like yours in MS, but thats not the case, at least we got a new grading system now!! I guess thats a start...

When I don't go to school, I work! 50-60 hours a month. Most at the ski resort company, we sell ski pass and rent out skis! We have many foreign tourists and if I can hear on their accent that they are from the states, I use to ask them and it is very fun to talk to them and some can hear my southern accent, not that it is very clear that I have one, but it makes me very happy to talk to them!!
I am saving the salaries to spend them this summer in southaven, and I will buy a iPad! :)

Today we got a Princess in the Swedish royal family, Estelle is her name and she is the king's oldest daughter's (that got married two years ago) first child.

I hope to see as many people this summer! Until then..
Take care!

Much have happend since last update here, for Christmas I went home to celebrate my 18th birthday and Christmas with my family. For christmas I got a trip to the states!!! I´m coming over this summer, just looking for a place to stay. My parents and grandmother came back with me to Åre, they stayed here for a few days and then went back home. I worked the rest of my break before school started. 

The winter here in Sweden have been warmer then regular, no nights have been below 14 fahrenheit and daytime have been around 25-30 and sometimes even above 32 that is very unusual. But today, it is 14 F outside and it was a chock for me this morning when I was going out skiing, but up on the alps/mountain it was just 21 and sunshine, so we stayed up there!!

I am working on my driver´s license as well, but it is talking much time and it is very expensive compared to Mississippi and the states! 40min driver´s lesson her cost between 60-70$ and you have to add books, fee for certian classes and here we also need to learn how to drive safe on ice, so next week I have a class where we drive on ice and need to do certain movements and take action in high speed. That cost 250-300$ depending on where you live in sweden and how much they take, but it is mandatory for everyone that is taking a driver´s license. Hopefully I will be ready soon to take the tests.

Glad to see that you are many out there that keep reading my blog, I would enjoy a comment if someone have anything they want me to write about, it could be about sweden or my life here, anything! Just click kommentarer (0) and there you can post a comment anonymous.

Here are some pics from this morning when we went skiing! enjoy

Tomorrow we will go up early and skii before school starts at 3pm, evening classes tomorrow!

I have now been away from Åre for four weeks and three of them I spend in Stockholm, our capital. 
Stockholm Open is a big tennis tour and my school was there to work, the other weeks i was my dad at a hotel in city of Stockholm where I had a  "work practice" it is something that the swedish Gov't have made up, but it was fun! I will post photos later on facebook!

Now I am home with my parents for 1 week of fall break, I will go back up the mountain next weekend, back to the snow!

Hopefully next post will be soon!

Take care my dear friends.

This week I have applied for a few extra work, that I can have outside school.
Since Åre is a big turist area and many people come here and "spend money" and in winter time they ski since this is the biggest ski area in Sweden. Lets say it is like smoky mountain, gatlinburg  TN but much more skiing!!

To the point, yesterday when me and my friends had lunch at a lunch/coffee place the manager asked me if I was Albin and he remembered me from the application so he asked me if I wanted to work extra at weekends and next weekend it is "Åre Höstmarknad" the annual fall fair/market place of åre and many people will come here and stay over so they wanted me to work then. ofcourse I said yes and Im very excited over it :D wish me good look :)

I took a walk up in the "low part" mountain yesterday with a friend and I took some photos over Åre and the nature so I could share it with yall.










one of the 15 hotels in Åre


 
Summer time it is downhill bicycling instead of skiing.



Åre Village


Soon it will be snow all over here :D

 
and here as well.

That was the last I had to share with you guys this time and I hope be back soon with some more interesting next time.

Fall is here and it is great, soon the snow will be here too and the winter so. Hopefully not before October.
The School is rolling and my new class is great! Not that I had a problem with  the old one  but this one is awesome!
if yall read the last update you probably know by now how the swedish school is working, here we just have one class of students for each grade and we are the same group at all time in all classes, almost at least.
most of us is born 1994, but Im a 93 and Im attendeing their class now since I came to the states. 

This past weekend I went home to my parents in the south, I have a friend from school and her mother was here and they asked me if I wanted to ride with them and then they could just drop me of since they pass bu where I live and so we did. I was home Friday evening and took the train back up this Sunday, TRAIN! yall how know me know how much I love trains and it was a wonderful trip!! :D It was great to be home a few days and see my family, next time I will come home is for fall break in late october/ early November.

I dont have so much more to tell, If yall have some ide what i can explain or tell, in the comment area down below here  you can comment and I will do the best to learn yall some swedish stuf! 

Take care!

Im now back in Åre, where I go to high school.
My parents and I drove up here last friday, I drove! It is a 5 hours drive north in Sweden, the mountain part.
I moved in to my new dorm, but it is more like a apartment. I have my own kitchen and bathroom with 1 big room there I sleep and have a tv.

It is in same building as the school and all the students have there dorms here, but not all live by the self like I do. 

My parents went home yesterday and today Monday I have my first day of school, we had 2 hours of information this morning and that was all. I have also a new class and they are one year younger than me and my old class that I had before I went to the states they are still here but they are seniors now but I am still junior :) so I start where I ended before the Usa trip.

For yall that did not read the last update about the Swedish school system, please read it and learn some more about Sweden.

Here are some photos from Åre, Sweden!


Green is my hometown and yellow is where I stay now at my school.



the school and where we all stay. 


 
the view from my room over the mountain.



and the lake.



My room...



.. the bed with the great flag :)



 
souvenirs from the states!



my kitchen.



Åre and the lake.



the ski resort.



Åre

Yesterday, Friday I did my last day of work at the swedish public employment service.
It have been great weeks there and a lot of fun too.

I have now 1 more week of holiday till I start school again, I start the 29th of August.
But all my friends here in this region start now on monday the 22th.
Since I took a break from the Swedish school to come to the states I will now start with students 1 year younger than me. Here in Sweden you only have classen with kids in same age, we dont do like yall in Mississippi and mix the ages. We have one group of kids and that is your class and is of same age as yourself.
So my new class will be born 1994 while my old class is still at same school but 1 grade higher.

Here in sweden we go 1st grade to 9th grade in our town or the closest school from where you live.
and we call that elementery school 1-9 grade.
After that u have High school that is 10,11, 12 grade but we call it 1,2,3 grade in High school.
And our High school is just one big school in every county and when you live on the contry like most people in sweden do and as I do you have 30min to that school every morning and then we ride the public transportation.
So this is not same as Southaven, sweden have just 9 million people in a big area, so we are very spreaded.

And out high school we start the year u turn 16, so thats diffrent to from MS. In high school here is like your College, you can read work profiled classes and work after high school. But u can also have just regular classes and go to University and most go there anyway to have a top education.

Now you know some of the swedish school system. 

But I dont go to my community high school, I go to a high school 220 miles north and it is profiled high school in the biggest ski area of scandinavian, so it is very beautiful nature and town. I will show yall picture of it when I move up there next week again. I did my fist year of high school there with my age grade and then I went to the states and now I will go back to school and do year 2 and 3.



This is the ski town, named ÅRE

Glad that so many people read my blog, thats great but Im sorry that I dont update more, but soon I will!
Now it will be some about my work


I work at "Arbetsförmedlingen" that is a federal department and is named: Swedish Public Employment Service
and we help people that is unemployed and also people that have a reduced disability to work 100%
this is the main information:

An introduction to the Swedish Public Employment Service

Our task is to get employers together with people who are looking for work, in the most efficient manner possible. We are Sweden´s largest employment agency, and our services are free of charge. In the assignment given to us by Sweden´s Parliament and Government, we give extra attention to people who are at some distance from the labour market. In addition, we organise recruitment drives and establish temporary Public Employment Services at companies facing redundancy.

We are now employing more employment counsellors and job coaches as well as forming new collaborations with private actors. We are where there is a need, all over Sweden.
Even at the lowest turn of the business cycle, people need to be hired. In the next few years many people will be retiring, and you will need to find people to take over in the generation shift. All available people will then be needed. We want to be a meeting place for opportunities

Now yall know some about my work.
I work there for 4 weeks now and than I will start school Aug the 29th.
I start at wrok 8am and is done 4.30pm and it is located in my "town" since I live on the side I have a 25min drive, at work I help customer and do a lot of administration.