Speedos

I can now die knowing I have seen European men in speedos, not. I think scarred for life would be a better statement. Last weekend I was able to go on the Archipelago Trip with the other exchange students where we went to the island of Kluntarna. Most days lately have been pretty rainy and cold so a lot of people have been using the sauna, except me. I refuse to decide to sit in a 100 degree room for fun. Everyone in Europe loves the sauna and one of my roommates, Pierre, actually has one in his home back in France. So when everyone found out there would be one on the island they had to use it. After everyone explored the island we all ended up at the beach with a bar-b-que and sauna. Soon after we were finishing eating guys just starting stripping in front of everyone to their speedos or boxers. There were half naked men everywhere just talking to their friends like it was normal. I have forgotten or I guess have learned that Europeans are a lot more comfortable with nudity than Americans are. Thank you Jesus I did not have to witness any nudity, but at one point I looked behind me to see a stark naked white hairy French butt changing in the bushes. I didn't realize how unattractive a man can get when they're wearing a speedo.

I have noticed lately everything that is different than Tennessee and it's a long list. The list begins with my current pet peeve their paper is not 8 by 11 it is about 8 by 12 so when ever I have things to put in the notebook I brought it always sticks out and gets crinkled. They do not have post offices here to send packages you go to the grocery store to send and recieve packages where they also have stamps and special envelopes to use. Everyone rides a bike everywhere they go into town, to school, and shopping. It's very common to see someone lugging something on the back of their bike. The other day I saw a women strap the new printer she just bought to her bike. The way to say hello in Swedish is hej, but j's in swedish are pronounced like a y so you say hej like we say hey. So where ever you go people will say hej to you and it took me a while to get used to people saying it to me because you only say hey to people you know well in the USA. Their bathrooms here are rooms to themselves with their own toilet, mirror, and sink even if it is a communal bathroom. The toilets also have the flusher on the top of the toilet instead of the side and you pull up on the flusher. Whenever you flush the toilet a whole monsoon of water comes in the bowl. I have yet to eat out at restaurant other than a small little shop because it is so expensive to eat out here. When you do eat out though every meal includes the main course of your choice, drink of your choice, salad, bread, and coffee no matter where you go. Also no matter what grocery or conveince store you go into there will always be a very extensive candy isle with every kind of candy you could ever imagine and then some. The same is also true with cookies. Another thing that gets me is Sweden food packaging have not got the concept of servings. Whenever you buy something no matter what it is or how big or small it is it's weighed in grams. It will not tell you on the back how much a serving is although it will tell you how much 100 grams of the food is even if the package doesn't have 100 grams in it. You could imagine my surprise when I looked at the back of a bag chips and it told me there was 540 calories of what I thought was a serving. The milk here is a whole nother story. There is enough types of milk in the dairy isle to sink a battleship. There is 2%, 1%, skim, and then it gets iffy because then you have a choice whether you want your milk to be half yogurt and then what flavor yogurt. The milk containers are a phenomanam of themselves because you can only buy 1 liter containers which is about 1/3 of a gallon. So at the store you'll see people with 10 boxes of milk in their cart. Yes, I said boxes their milk comes in containers kinda like school milk but not with the contraption at the top to open it. You have to flip a flap on the side and then cut it with a pair of scissors. Everyone recycles here and if you don't then it doesn't matter because everyone does. It's not paper and plastic in Tennessee its ten times as complicated. When we first moved in we where given three pages front and back of what articles go were in the recycling room. There is things you can burn, compost, paper you can't burn, clear glass, colored glass, plastic, colored plastic, then special plastic, and lastly cardboard. Lastly, the ovens are the hardest things to figure out if you have no idea what your doing. First you have to decide if you want to use the oven or burners, then you must pick the temperature for the burner, then which one, then you have to set this little timer on the wall. I can't tell you how many times I have put water on a burner to boil and sat there for 10 minutes wondering why it wasn't boiling and had forgot to turn the timer. There is many more but that's all I can think of a the moment. Another thing I can't stop thinking about is Barberitos and El Torito and any other type of food in America because they don't have anything I want here. I am probably considered a vegatarian because chicken is to expensive and I don't eat any other meat other than that. Peanut Butter has become my main food group.

As far as the experience is going I love Sweden the nature is amazing and the sunsets are beautiful. I am anticipating winter and the snow. I can't wait, I was talking to one of my Swedish friends and she said that a little bit of snow on a off winter is 3 feet! I need to find some good snow boots soon. The darkness is coming though pretty quickly. When I got here the sun was setting at 11:30pm and rising at about 3:30 am. Now within just a month the sun is setting at 7:30pm and rising at 6:00 am. It should be only 3 hours of light by mid october. I'm not looking forward to it, but now I will be able to sleep a lot better.

Hope everyone is doing well and sorry I haven't posted in awhile! I will post pictures soon on here or facebook of the weird things here.

I know now that it will be a good year

So, I have been in Sweden for 11 days now and have loved every minute of it. Even the hard times I have had to go through to do things I didnt want to do to know I could do them alone. And I am alone and its an amazing feeling and I get to do it for a whole year. I have no obligation to anyone here and for once in my life I get to be selfish. I get to have my things, my feelings, and my life. No one I know back home will ever have seen or experienced anything I have here or known how special little things here have meant to me. To me that makes the experience that more amazing. This past year I believe we all lost sight of what was truly important. We all let the friendships/relationships that didn't last define us instead of the many we still had and had gained. I'll be the first to admit that through the friendships that I lost, I became paranoid about the ones I already had and knew deep down would last. Anyways, quote time from One Tree Hill,

" When Hansel said to Gretal let us drop these bread crumbs so that together we find our way home, because loosing our way would be the most cruel of things. This year I lost my way, and loosing your way on a journey is unfortunate, but loosing your reason for the journey is a fate more cruel. The journey lasted eight months, sometimes I traveled alone sometimes there were others who took the wheel, and took my heart, but when the destination was reached it wasn't me who arrived, it wasn't me at all. Once you loose yourself you have two choices find the person you used to be or loose that person completely, because sometimes you have to step outside of the person you've been and remember the person you were meant to be, the person you wanted to be, the person you are."

Through being here I have seen that every place is the same, just in a different language. Everywhere has their clicks and problems, you just have to find your place in the whole mess of it all. I live with Alexia and Pierre from France, Jose from Spain, and Mayya from Russia. We all come from very different places, but I believe we will soon become like a family. We have a lot of things in common and I found it amazing how we have been able to come together. Mayya speaks very good English and loves the boys, Pierre loves to talk about the American music and tv series, Jose speaks terrible English and it's hilarious for me and Mayya to try and teach him, and Alexia I have yet to really talk to or hangout with, but I hope to know her soon. I still have a lot of things to get used to like walking everywhere, the food, and taking a shower in the middle of the bathroom floor only to have to squeegie it afterwards. I won't have to get used to the weather, beautiful scenary, and having my own space. I know now that it will be a good year, I feel through this year I will finally define myself and not my friends and what they are or aren't doing in my life. All of us are starting something new this year and all of us are separated from at least one of our close friends. We will be better for it though. I know I haven't really been talking to many of you and it's not because I don't love you or miss you. I just feel I can't do it, because soon it would go back to what it was and I can't miss it more than I already do.

Fresh Start

So, I leave tomorrow to go to Sweden for a year and I'm having a lot of mixed emotions right now. I'm really excited, but I'm also really scared and nervous. Even then it's almost as I think about it like I get to start another life or get a redo for a year. No one will know me at all or know that I'm a twin and instantly start comparing me to her. That's what I've realized over the past week of thinking things over and preparing myself to go, I now no longer have the stigma over me of Erin and Alyssa. I am now just Erin and it is scarier than beep, but she has defined me over the years as I have defined her. Now that's over and I've realized that I don't really know who I am without her as cliche as that sounds. Even more cliche that technically I'm going to Sweden for a year to find myself, but felt lead by God to go because I don't tend to trust him as much as I should. We all know that I am the least likely candidate to move away to an unknown place with no friends awaiting, but even more to trust Him and know that he must have great plans for me there. I know it will be bad at first and I'm gonna wonder why I was so insane to move across the ocean for a year, but then it will get familiar and I'm gonna wonder why I ever doubted coming. A lot of my thoughts have been goin towards finding as good of friends as I have at ETSU, but I was talking to my Momma (grandmother) on the phone the other day and she was surprised that I was going by myself and had thought I was goin with a group from ETSU. She then went on to say " ya know Erin, I've moved to a lot of new places, started new jobs, and gone to new schools over the years, it's always nerve racking at the beginning, but eventually you make friends and it becomes just like it was at the last place." It's exactly what I needed to hear from someone that didn't know I even needed to hear it and since then I have just been worrying mostly if I'm gonna throw up on the random dude sitting next to me on the plane, maybe I'll just use some dramamine to knock myself out we all know how well that works for me, haha.
Anyways, I'll probably try to post something every couple of weeks on here and maybe some pictures too. Gotta go to bed got a long day and a half of traveling ahead of me.