Hey Guys! I've finally been able to post a journal entry on this site.... my internet has been so goofed up here I haven't been able to be on any websites for more than two minutes without it going out on me. I am now in my dorm room and we are about to leave for the day for an all day orientation on campus. I live downtown in student housing, it is called Seminarievagen... how you prounounce it? No idea! I am meeting a lot of people who are also exchange students and they are exploring the town with me... learning how to get around. Since I am downtown I am about 45 minutes walking distance from campus... I learned that the hard way by walking with a Finnish girl to campus a couple of days ago, we were exhausted by the time we got to campus!

On our second night here, Giada (from Italy), cooked about 8 of us an Italian meal... it was so huge, a large plate full of pasta! We were good to go for the next few days, it was fun hearing how she lives in Italy and it's so different from my regular lifestyle.

Orientation was two days long, so much information. We took a bus tour of the city and did a walking tour of the campus. There are 175 new exchange students this semester and 350 total including the students staying from the fall. People are from United States (6 Minnesotans!), Canada, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Germany, Mexico, and Spain... thats not even everyone!

 The weather here is very similar to Minnesota, although Northern Europe (mainly Vaxjo) had a huge storm a couple weeks ago and it wiped out a lot of trees and the trains were down coming out of Stockholm, so the buses were operating instead. It's been nothing but rain. Luckily on our second Orientation day it was nice out and about one hour later it was a snowstorm with about two inches already on the ground! I say it's just like Minnesota because that night, when we were making dinner, it poured rain and the temperature got warmer... the 4 inches of snow or so was gone by 9 at night!

Yesterday we had coffee on campus with other exchange students and then went for a walk around a lake they have here... one of the many lakes that is... Today is the first day of classes where I will find out the rest of my schedule for the semester. I don't think it will be too difficult. I haven't bought a bike yet so my main mode of transportation is the bus. Since I have never relied on buses before it is quite tricky! I am getting used to it though and with the help of other Europeans who've used it it's making more and more sense to me! It's kind of cool!

 I signed up for a trip to the original IKEA next weekend and I'm going to STOCKHOLM for a weekend with the exchange students! There are so many opportunities here to travel and I'm taking every change I get! I hopefully will get to make a trip (on a ferry) to Russia! ... St. Petersburg and Moscow!

 Well, that's it for now! I will try and post some pictures if the internet allows me to... Until Next Time!