Vancouver

So I am back in Canada for a few weeks over winter break. It's great to be back in the city, I must say.

The trip back was super stressful as every plane I was on got delayed. The whole trip started on a bad note, though. My train heading into Malmö got stuck in traffic and was sitting just outside the train station for about an hour, causing my friend and I to have to take a taxi to Copenhagen. I had to take a taxi instead of waiting for the train because the next train to Copenhagen was at 12 25 and my flight was scheduled to leave at 1 20! By the time I got to the airport I had 45 minutes to check in and get to my gate for my flight. When I got there the people letting us into the gate took forever so my flight was delayed about 40 minutes. This stressed me out because I only had an hour and a half in Reykjavik (Keflavik) to get to my next flight. By the time we had gotten to Keflavik I had 50 minutes to find my next flight. I got to the gate to find that it had been delayed an hour, leaving my only 1 hour in Seattle to find my flight to Vancouver. We got to Seattle, with an hour and a bit to get through customs, pick up our luggage, re-check it in, and find our next gate. I, of course, took the wrong train and went to the wrong terminal. The only reason I actually got onto my last flight was because it was delayed 10 minutes. It was scheduled to depart at 6 30 and I got to the gate at 6 35. The last one to get on the flight, we took off, and an hour later arrived in Vancouver! Vancouver went quickly to get my bags and find my mother, and we were off to our house!

While I was away my parents were renovating our house, kitchen among other things. At 8 30 at night I was taking the grand tour of my new home, and it looks great. I will have photos up soon enough, I have a new closet that I am in love with! My mum now has an en-suite bathroom, and we have a powder room just outside the new kitchen. We have also acquired a back porch and the small driveway in our backyard was taken out making our backyard that much bigger. Many of the walls have been re-painted and light fixtures have been changed making the whole house look like new.

Last night I went out with a friend to a movie, Black Swan, downtown. I was reminded of how much I like being in the city. Being at Bollerup is great, but I don't think I will be moving permanently to the country in Sweden. If I do end up moving to Sweden it will definitely be to a big city.

Now I am just procrastinating un packing, or taking a break, whatever you want to call it. My room in half way unpacked but I have to figure out how to put all my books and things away, I have a new desk area. I also have to do laundry and then put it in my new closet, after being in Sweden with not too much clothing I realize just how stupid an amount of clothing I have. It is quite nice to have more options for clothing!

Upcoming Break

Sorry I haven't been updating recently, I have been quite busy. Last time I updated was right before a friends 18th birthday party. It was really fun, parties are different here than I expected. When I got there we first hugged the hosts (my friend was having a joint birthday party) who were waiting at the entrance. After the hugs we picked a number out of a pot, one for the girls with even numbers and one for boys with off numbers, for the sitting arrangement. After that we had to go around the entire room, for some reason everyone was arranged in a circle around the room, hugging everyone or introducing yourself to those you don't know. The circle led to the bar where there were drinks for everyone. After a while everyone was called to the dining room where we were all sitting boy-girl-boy-girl. Every 2 placements had a package of songs between them. During dinner people would periodically stand up as if to make a toast and everyone would break into song, each one ending with a drink. After dinner the tables were cleared and the dining room became a dance floor. The dancing was another thing that I am not used to, it was like what you see in old movies. The ballroom partner dancing instead of what you normally see at dances.
The past week has been a bit of a blur, I was sick on Tuesday.
This week started with Sankta Lucia on Monday. I am in the choir here so I was part of the winter tradition. I would spend time explaining it but you can google it.
Yesterday I spent time with the class that is here from France. First I was with them while they made posters about their life in France and the swedish people spoke about Sweden to them. Last night we did some swedish baking with them to share the christmas traditions. We made Papparkakor, gingerbread cookies, marzipan things, knäck etc. After we ate them and sung swedish and french christmas songs. It was great to speak french again, though now when I speak french I mix in swedish. The opposite of what happened when I first got here when I was mixing french into my swedish.
On top of the french people I had riding and unghäst yesterday. Tigris has proved to be quite difficult when it comes to the riding. He is perfectly fine with the lunging and everything on the ground, even having people try to get on him from the ground. He is fine with all that but as soon as you try to get him to move he gets worried and refuses to do anything until he explodes.

That is the news so far, today I will be working with Tigris and then playing innebandy against the french people. Tomorrow I will be spending the whole day with the french people visiting other cities: Glemmingebro and Helsingborg
And then on Friday I will be heading back to Vancouver!

Coming Around the Mountain

Christmas is just around the corner, I will be home in two weeks!!
I last wrote on November 30 the night of our pre-Naked Run. December first here is the Naked Run, a run where you run around in your underwear (or less if you want ;P) for a mile. We did a lot less then a mile, as a mile here is 10 km. I did participate in this event, and it was only my house that really did it (there were 4 people there who weren't from my house). At midnight of the 30th a few friends and I ran around with pants and a bra on to promote the run which would be happening the next night at the same time. To get an idea of how it was for us you have to know that it had been snowing and storming all day, luckily it had stopped storming while we were running. We did a loop around the stables and I was one of the first to get back to the start! Next was sitting on the couch for a couple hours with friends wrapped in blankets to warm back up.
It has been snowing everyday here for a while now, it is very beautiful here when there is no wind. Here are a few photos:

These photos are taken in the rare moments when the wind has died down enough that you can see where you are going...

It looks like there isn't much snow on the ground here but it is actually that the wind has moved in somewhere else, we do have a ton of snow! 

This is the courtyard of my house: Äpplet. We have a little christmas tree that has lights on it:

The snow has cancelled most of my classes because the teachers can't get to school, which is kinda nice. This leaves me with a lot more free time than I know what to do with so I have discovered some fashion blogs that I am getting into. One of such blogs is lookbook.nu, I am setting up a widget on my sidebar for those who want to check it out. I spent some time with Tigris this week but I keep forgetting my camera which is not very good. I also spent time in the breeding stable yesterday helping out with stable duties as that class was cancelled. Foals are the cutest things! Photos of them are to come as my friend, Alice, got some cute ones of me with the babies. I also went into Tomelilla with the school and ICA, our grocery store, is now supplying Julmust for the holiday season:

Anyway I am just excited about everything going on and how close I am to coming home (17th!!) to see all my friends and my family!

Can't wait to see you all

Enjoy life!

Coming Up

The weekend wasn't very interesting here.

This week has so far been quite nice.

Yesterday I had biology for only 45 minutes because it was a review class, and my chemistry class was cancelled. The snow is making things very pretty, but is also making classes harder to get to. I then had soccer in the evening. Next week is the last week so we are having a tournament against the teachers. This week all I can say is I wasn't playing worse then I was playing last week.

Today was also good. It started with Unghäst at 7 30 AM. Tigris was much better with the bridle, and with picking out his feet. He was also much better with lunging, we tried side reins today. The other horse that was in the ring with us was having a melt down with the side reins. The other horse, Fresco, was rearing and twisting around so the the lunge line got twisted around his head. I made sure that Tigris kept moving so that he didn't focus on Fresco. We then tried having my weight on his back. We started just making his feet move with me hanging on his back, and worked into doing small circles. We got him moving forward in small circles and then we got me up on his back quickly so that it was almost like we were getting me up on the fly. This worked while Hans was holding me but then Hans let go so that I could hang on Tigris' back. To this he exploded again. It was a smaller explosion than last week, but he still did a little bucking and bolted around a little. We then went back to just having the weight on his back and moving around a little. Right after Unghäst I had Ridning. We did jumping today because we have a jumping test next week. Ruzzin was much more loose and willing to go forward today then she was last week.

A few people didn't come to class today for riding, because of the snow, so I got to ride another horse today as well. In the afternoon I rode a horse named Wera, pronounced Vera. She is a horse that you really just need to sit on and think about yourself which was really nice. I got to really focus on how I was sitting on the horse and my position. The instructors were really happy with my ride on her because I could focus so much on my position and it really improved. I also did the whole ride with no stirrups so I worked a lot on my legs.

After my ride they said that if I ever had time off that I should come and ride some horses because there is almost always a horse that needs to be ridden. I gave them my phone number so that I may be able to ride more often!

More photos to come!

Let it Snow

So I have been looking back at old posts and I really need to start reading what I am typing before I post it. I will try to be more aware of grammar, it is flying out the window as I am so focused on swedish studies. I have had some interesting experiences lately; Lady Gaga concert, my 2 year old exploding, eating chinese, Dressage test, and restarting swedish lessons! I'll start with Lady Gaga.
My friend Alice was supposed to go to the concert with one of her friends for her birthday. Her birthday was last week on Wednesday so as a present she got to go to Lady Gaga. Her friend unfortunately backed out a few weeks ago so Alice asked me to accompany her. After classes on Friday of week 46 we left for Malmö. We had dinner at a little café in the area called Gustav. Gustav is also the area in which H&M is so of course we went in there. I got some super cool bright green lace tights! After this we went back to Centrall so that we could catch the bus to Malmö Arena. At the concert I was pleasantly surprised by how good a singer she is live. The show was, of course, extravagant and she wore all her strange costumes. She was actually quite inspirational when she was speaking between songs. The theme for the concert was be your inner little monster and cherish who you are. Her next album is going to be called Born This Way which embodies what she was trying to push throughout the concert. That you are who you are and you should be happy with that person. She was also very big on anti-homophobia which I think is great.

The next night we went out for dinner in Ystad. Again it was in celebration of Alice's birthday but it included Ida and her family. We went for chinese which was an interesting experience for a Vancouver-ite. The food was good, and the chinese are no better at swedish than english.
On Tuesdays, as you know, I have Unghäst and Ridning. This week I started the day with Unghäst at 7 30 am. Unfortunately people were outside my room until 1 am as the girl across the hall just got a boyfriend which needs to be discussed late into the night, of course. I overslept and ended up waking up at 7 40! So I sprinted up to the barn and managed to be grooming my 2 year old, Tigris, by 8 am. When I finally got into the ring to work with him he was great with the lunging, and again with the mounting block. We are showing the 2 year olds the mounting block so that they get used to it. We put it on both sides of them and step up on it, making as much noise as possible so they learn not to be scared. After the mounting block we try to put some weight on the back. This is done by one person holding the horse and giving me a half leg up so that just my arms and chest are on the horses back. This allows the horse to have some weight on their back without the full weight of the rider. on the left side he was great, then we switched to the other side... We took one step on when I was on the right side and he just exploded. He reared up, bolted, reared and then proceeded to bolt around the ring and buck. It was quite the show. After we finally caught him when he calmed down we tried again, this time he didn't explode but he didn't walk forward, just backward. Backward was better than nothing so we took it. Next time we will get him to go forward.
Here is a photo of him:

He only has one good side... His left eye always has white around it so it looks like he is scared

At least his right side is cute! He is a little cutie boy, my mum thinks I should nickname

him Tigger!

I then had Ridning, which was a dressage test. It didn't go as well as I would have hoped because I had not had breakfast yet or anything, plus it was cold.

Yesterday I had swedish again for the first time since break, I am so happy to be back at it because I really enjoy working at swedish. This week has been a great week for me and swedish as I am starting to really feel that I can have more input in conversations and I am getting along a lot better with people because I can communicate better! This week I am feeling so much more confident with myself and my swedish. I have a 12 page booklet of homework for tomorrow that I am actually excited to finish.

Today was a full day again. I had chem, and directly after that I had djursjukvåd. Djursjukvåd is my vet course. Once that was finished I went with Alice to the smådjur klinik (small animal clinic) so that she could interview the vet there. The vet who works that is actually from New Jersey, New York. He wasn't there though, he is on vacation until next week. This was okay because then we went straight to Tigger to do some more work with him. We worked with lungeing as well as the mounting block. Before we got in the ring though we went for a long walk around in the snow. He is super cute and curious about everything, and hides behind me when he is scared. He also likes to hide his head in my chest when he is a little nervous like a small child, very cute. From this I went straight to Buggikurs. Bugg is the jive but swedish. I am not very good at following, but it was really fun. I was dancing with a guy who lives in the same building and we both couldn't remember too much from previous weeks (it doesn't help that I wasn't there last week). We had fun figuring out what to do! Directly after that was Innebandy. I had about 5 minutes to go home, change, and get back to the gym.
My innebandy skills are getting much better. I am starting to not play as much field hockey and do it properly but I am incorporating more of my field hockey skills (other than only using one side of the stick) into how I maneuver around people. I had a great few games and made some great plays that got us goals!
I am now sitting in my room, looking at photos that I have taken the past two days and I will share a few with you:

 

 

There is snow here!! It's great!! It's also supposed to snow for the next week as well!

Everything is so pretty doused in white.

Enjoy!

So I am having a nice leisure day as on Wednesdays I no longer have any classes until night time. Today is also a friend of mine's birthday! So Happy Birthday to her. The weekend was pretty normal, I was taking care of Jamarra and I think I'm finally starting to get through to her but she is very inconsistent under saddle right now, but she seems to like being ridden so yay for me. Monday I had soccer in the evening and I think that sport is rejecting me. I feel as if I am getting better, I am starting to get the ball to people better but I am still having difficulty traveling with it. I also was getting quite the beating! Indoor soccer is much more aggressive and hands-on than outdoor soccer, but keeping that in mind I still feel like I was getting the most beating there. I was hit in the face with the ball (by my own teammate, mind you) and I also tripped on the ball and fell backwards, hitting my head on the ground, and later when we were doing shots on net I was nailed in the back of the head (same place I fell on earlier). On top of that beating I was slammed into walls and elbowed a number of times, on top of being kicked in the hand. Of course that last sentence about my beatings comes with indoor soccer, just saying it was more than my head getting hurt. After that I also decided that it would be a good idea to go to the gym with my friend to do a little core work out right after being beaten up by soccer. I didn't stay too long because I got a headache and I didn't want to push it.

Tuesday was a lot more relaxed. Unfortunately I missed my stalltjänst, work in the barn, because I overslept and my head was still a little sore. I then didn't start until 1 PM which was Unghäst! I met my 2 year old, a young gelding by the name of Tigris. That went a little interesting because he was being very testy with Hans and I, Hans being my instructor. The horse kept bolting forward and then stopping and turning towards us so that he didn't have to move forward. I had the job for most of the time to be sprinting around the circle with him chasing him with the whip so that he would continue to go forward. I then had Ridning, I was feeling a little dazed so it didn't go quite as well as I had hoped, she was being a little stressed as per usual but my temper was a little shorter because I was sore so I had to walk a lot to make sure I stayed calm and worked properly.

Today is an easy day, I have choir tonight and I have to take in Sydney and muck but I don't have history because it was cancelled.

Here is a photo of Bollerup in the mornings, it is getting darker and foggier!

Enjoy!

Back to School

So here I am back at school. This week has been such a blur!
I missed a couple tests by going to Luxembourg a couple days early (which I did inform my teacher and mentor about so don't worry mum!) so this week has been a little busy studying and making sure I went to all my classes and evening activities. I am finding it very difficult to fall asleep before 12 or 1 AM here so I spend much time at night doing my catch up with friends on facebook or skype, and of course studying.
So far this week I have started a few things but I'll do a review of the whole thing. Monday I had my regular biology and chemistry classes and my soccer (fotboll) at night. The change this week is that my soccer is now indoor as it gets dark at 5 PM here and practice starts at 5 30 PM. I very much enjoy having soccer inside because it means that there is more time playing because we go 4 on 4 so everyone needs to be engaged in the play the whole time. I am starting to not be a complete fool when I am playing and am actually beginning to make some smart plays.
Tuesday was my normal waking up at 6 so that I could make my first class, which was stable work. Fun times, mucking out at 7 30 AM. Next came Unghäst. We looked at all the 2 1/2 year olds that we will be working with this year. We brought them in 2 by 2 to watch them running around and then put them back. By the end we had seen all the 2 year olds that are to be broken we had the chance to say which ones we liked and then the instructors told us which ones we would be good on. The instructors thought that two different horses would be good for me but I would have to try them out. Later was riding when we did jumping. Ruzzin is still really stressed out when other horses are going faster then her. The only time when she is calm and I can really ride her is at the very end of the lesson when everyone else was walking. My last class was again working at the barn. We were taking horses in from the fields but as there are 3 different barns to be working at me and 2 other girls went up to the breeding barn. There we brought in the foals and the mares with their foals. An afternoon hour full of cuteness!
Wednesday was pretty boring as I no longer have my swedish lessons, we are trying to fix that. Also I have dropped photography as I am not in the least bit as interested as I thought I would be.
Thursday I had chemistry, and then my vet class. The days are usually not very interesting. The lecturer for my vet class was the small animal clinic vet who is from New Jersey in the USA. It was fun. At night I was supposed to have unghäst again but there were no times left available. Then I had my dance class. I thought it was going to be different but it turns out that it is a partner dance called Buggi. It was really funnily fun. I then was supposed to have Innebandy but it was cancelled so my friends and I went to the gym instead; I did 300 situps, 300 jumps on the rope, 2 minutes of forward plank, 30 seconds each side of side plank and some other core exercises. I am stronger than I thought I was so I am talking to my brother as I type to get more interesting variations on core exercises.
Today, Friday, was supposed to be a more interesting day as well. I was asked to be in a BBC documentary about the swedish school system. A woman from London was supposed to come and film us talking about the school. Unfortunately the film crew got stuck in Stockholm so filming will be delayed until January/February of next year. I then had a test on Biology which as I said before, I had missed due to leaving to Luxembourg early.
I then rode Jamarra and ate dinner. Starting to relax for the weekend.

No pictures today but
Enjoy!

Höstlov

Again I haven't been on in a while, since my break. For the past week I have been in Luxembourg, but I also spent some time in Antwerp in Belgium. I now have many photos which if you are a friend of mine on facebook you can see, but I will be posting some photos here. Luxembourg was great, really cool history and architecture. My first day there we went to ride Ida's pony (the friend whose house I was visiting in Luxembourg) who is a 25 year old 13.2hh pony. Here is a photo of her:

Dianne

Cute little pony who is old enough to have her stubborn opinions and stick with them when you are riding.

The next day we went into town and it was really cool, we walked around and did some shopping which was nice. I am starting to have a better wardrobe. All I need are some better tights! Here are some photos with explanations: 

    This photo is of the cathedral of Notre Dame                 This house is built into the rock face, it's really 

                                                                                           cool how many of these you can see in the 

                                                                                           valley!

This is a photo of one of the streets in Luxembourg

My friend Ida is the one in the Bollerup jacket,

 it is one that I am also getting once the packages get here

The next day Ida's uncle came to visit her family for a day and he was from Bruxelles which really helped me the next day, but back to Sunday. As Ida and I went out on Saturday night, fun to see the town at night, we stayed at her friends place. We quickly went home before heading off to Ida's brothers hockey game. His team won 3-0 against the other team. On the way home we went for a drive across the border into France, so I was in France for about 5 minutes that day as well. After this Ida's mum thought that I hadn't done enough touristing, which I agreed with so we went to the American World War 2 Memorial. Here are some photos:

This is what you see when you first walk in, unfortunately it was getting dark and my camera did not quite register how beautiful the trees were. The colours on the trees were so vibrant with oranges and red! Here is what it says on the side: "In proud remembrance of the achievements of her sons and in humble tribute to their sacrifices this memorial has been erected by the United States of America."

These are the crosses of the soldiers. There is one cross for every soldier buried in the cemetery, each one with their name and placement in the army as well as the day that they died. This memorial has 3000 soldiers compared to the 17000 that they started with, the soldiers not buried there were brought home by their families. The crosses are arranged to all lead to General Patton who was extremely dedicated to his men during the war.

As I have mentioned I went to Antwerp. I got a ride with Ida's uncle up to Bruxelles so that it would be cheaper to take the train. I arrived in Antwerpen on Monday at 5 PM. I visited my Aunt Charlotte at her home in Antwerp. There were so many great photos that I took those few days that I was there but I'll put up some street views and a few others:

This is a very traditional Antwerpen street, with all the little balconies

This is a photo of the Cathedral in Antwerp

More Photos are on facebook, I couldn't decide which other I would put up here 

because I took over 80 photos in Antwerp

After a few great days of touristing (and of course a little shopping) I headed back to Luxembourg on the train. I arrived back on Thursday at 5 PM and we went straight home for dinner. On friday we had a pretty relaxing morning and then Ida and I went to a movie, Due Date, with a couple of her friends. We had dinner at her friend, Elise, house for dinner and then had another night out on the town. We were at Elise's house until about 11 the next day. Ida's mum's birthday is this coming Saturday but as Ida was home last week they decided that they would celebrate her birthday while Ida was home. Again we felt that I needed more touristing so we decided that I should go to my fourth country that week and went into Germany. We went to a city called Triers and here are a few photos from that adventure:

There were so many cool buildings, I think that in Germany I saw the 

most varied and interesting architecture that I had seen all week.

Here is the oldest building I saw, the Porta Nigra, which I need to do a little more 

research on to give more information on it but it was old and interesting.

Thus ends my week, again all the photos are on facebook which you can see if you are a friend of mine. I had a great time, hope it was fun to read and I will be updating again regularly as I am starting with the 2 1/2 year olds this week!

Enjoy!

Luxembourg

Hello all,
It has been a couple days since I last posted, I have been busy with travels and before that school. I am in Luxembourg right now staying with a friend from school. So far I have ridden her pony which was an experience on it's own, and done a little shopping. She is this small pony, around 13 hands, who is quite stocky and stubborn. I will have photos soon but I do not have internet on my computer where all my photos are. Today we did  a little shopping in a town called Hamilius. It was a really cute, very European town. I visited a nice old cathedral there as well as looked down into the valley where people actually lived in houses carved out of the rock face (very Lord of the Rings). I bought a couple things like a skirt and a sweater but I am saving my money and shopping as I am still traveling for the rest of the week and I have a limited amount of space in my bag. I am heading off to Antwerp, Belgium on Monday and will be visiting a distant aunt, Aunt Charlotte. I am having fun so far being a tourist with my friend. I get to be a tourist on my own and I am quite enjoying being the only one who is taking photos and being shown around. I will have photos up as soon as I have internet on my computer but the internet is not wireless here and I don't want to make a fuss about plugging into my computer. Tomorrow one of  Ida's, my friend, uncle is coming over so that will be interesting.
When I put photos up I will be able to explain more why the houses are so cool and their significance to Luxembourg but for now you will just have to believe me when I say that it is very interesting here and I am loving how old the architecture and history is here. Europe is full of history and interesting buildings! Loving it here!

Enjoy!

Lastning

I have been looking at my schedule on the internet for a few days, I usually don't know what is going on on Tuesdays because it changes every week.
My two classes that I am guaranteed are Unghäst (young horse) and Ridning (Riding). Today I had a new 3 year old to ride! Before we start with the two year olds everyone must skritt (walk), trava (trot), and gallop (canter) a three year old. One of the girls in the other group hasn't done so yet and apparently she is a little nervous. The instructors decided that Fay was the nicest mare so she had Fay today and I rode another horse. It was a three year old gelding named Gaston. He has a foot fungus so he has been a little lame for a while, he hasn't been cantered since the summer and my instructors felt that I could handle him. He was really nice, much bigger and stronger than Fay. Here is a photo:

He was a little uncooperative with the camera.

I also rode Ruzzin again today, she is a little bit of a strange one to ride. But fun.
First thing we did this morning was called Lastning. Hence the title of this blog post, which translates to loading. We had a test for loading horses onto a trailer.

I'm off to Luxembourg, and Belgium at the end of the week!

Enjoy!

Open House

I haven't updated again in a few days, wasn't quite as over my illness as I thought but I am sure now that I am pretty much back to full health. This weekend I am back in full swing as well! My friend Ida is working at an international horseback riding competition this weekend with many other Bollerup students. I am not participating because I wasn't aware of the potential to volunteer, also I was too sick during the week to go (they went all of Wednesday as well as this weekend), and someone needs to stay home and take care of the horses!
I start my days by taking Sidney, Ida's horse, out to the paddock and then veg at home for a while. In the afternoon I head back up to the barn and muck out his stall as well as Hera's. On top of mucking I had to set up Sidney's feed for the night and tomorrow morning, as well as his evening food. I also realized that because of being sick I have not spent any time with Fay in over a week. I went to check on her after I was done in Hera's stall and she was just as cuddly and happy to see me as ever. I finished up with all the mucking tools and decided to spend some time with Fay before getting Sidney in from his field. I spent about half an hour grooming her and making her pretty again as her tail and fur had gotten into quite the mess in my week of absence. I make sure to pick up her feet every time I see her even if I do not have a hoof pick as she starts to get fussy with picking up her legs if I haven't done so in a while.
Once Fay was back in her stall it was starting to get dark so I headed out to the fields to get Sidney in. He gladly walked back to the stable, awaiting his food. Now Sidney is lame right now because he has an infection in his left hind leg. Last year he had an operation on this leg because he had a bone chip, and I guess it took a long time for infection to set in or he got a cut and the leg was more susceptible to infection because of the surgery. I'm not sure. Anyway he is on antibiotics now for a couple weeks and since he is so big it is a little difficult for many to give him his medicine, hence me taking care of him and not another. Thus ends my day with the horses.
Another fun thing about this weekend is the title of this blog post. We had an Open House at Bollerup today for future students and their parents to see what the school is like. Last night we had a meeting and everyone had to take one aspect of cleaning to make sure the house was nice and clean for the visitors. It was kind of cool to have people walking around the house while we were watching, like we were on display.
Anyway, that is the weekend this week. Tomorrow will be much like today except for the Open House. Here is another photo of one of the foals just for fun:

Enjoy!

Innebandy

Sorry for the dead air on my part. I have been quite sick, back to school sickness. Not too much has been happening with me, not surprising considering I was sick and spend most of the past week in my room. Most of my time outside of my room was spend in the barn mucking out.
Tuesday I attempted at Friskis & Svettis (aerobics) but my strength was still quite low from being sick. Today was the first day that I have been feeling much much better, I have more energy but my throat is still a little croaky so I can't quite speak like I usually do. Considering me energy was better I went to the first session of many sessions of Innebandy.

Innebandy is like a mix of indoor field hockey, real hockey and that strange sport you play with the whiffle ball and a "banana". The ball obviously has holes in it, it's a whiffle ball, but the stick also has holes in it. It is shaped like a normal ice hockey stick except the part that you hit the ball with is just a hard plastic "net". Rules are different from field hockey to, especially regarding the foot rule. I kept stick handling the same way you would in field hockey (having to flip the stick over to touch the ball as in field hockey you are only allowed to you touch the ball with one side of the stick) which I got a few strange looks for. I had tons of fun with this sport and I am feeling a ton better finally and much happier now that I have gotten some exercise!!

Enjoy!

Löshoppning

Tonight we did free jumping or löshoppning. This is when we create a barrier around the center of the ring so that the horse has a track to run around and on one long side is a one stride set up. We do this with the horses to see how high they can jumping with no one riding them. It's also a good way for horses to learn how to jump and learn to fix issues of striding and distance to the fence on their own. We did this with Fay today, as we did last week as well but I forgot my camera last week. This week I remembered it and she jumped 125 cm today, or 4.1 feet! Here are a few photos:

Unfortunately the quality isn't the best but at least you get the idea of how she jumps and what the height kinda looks like.

Enjoy!

History

Today I had a great day. It was one of those days when you just wake up on the right side of the bed, with the right attitude. I was feeling great about my hair, my body (I had a good work out last night), and my swedish as I have been working really hard on it. I first had a swedish study session where I felt great about my swedish, I had finished all of the work that my teacher had given me. This was impressive as she gave me a ton of work, she does so because this way I have a lot to do but she doesn't expect it all to get done. I also am almost finished my RosettaStone course. I'm on the last unit of the last level. Back to my great day, I had a good swedish study lesson and we are starting to read The Hobbit which I am excited about and she gave me many worksheets for swedish grammar. I mucked out Hera's stall after lunch and then I had photography, and my partner in photography explained more to me what the teacher was talking about (and she did all this in swedish and I actually understood so I was pretty proud of my swedish considering I have been studying it for less then two months). My last class of the day was an evening class, history. For the past few weeks we have been working on presentations on a piece of History, my partner and I chose Mayan Mythology. Today we presented and I felt great about my swedish, it was my first time speaking swedish in front of my class. Many people in the class were surprised at the level that I had (not top swedish, but most of them think that I can't speak any swedish) and I got thumbs up from quite a few of them. My teacher also was really happy with me, that I actually was clear with what I was saying in front of the class. This is the close to my great school day. My evening was also pretty fun, it is a friends birthday tomorrow so another friend of mine baked a cake for her and we sat around having cake and talking and having a good time. I'm starting to feel more like I belong here and I'm not so much the foreign girl.

Enjoy Life.

Great Riding

Today I had two great rides on my school horses. We did jumping in my normal riding class. The line we did was a bounce to a three stride to a three stride to a bounce with two poles two strides after the first bounce and two strides before the second bounce : I   I   |   |     I     |   |   I   I
At the beginning it was a little rough, I'm riding a 6 year old who is not used to being a school horse yet so she is quite wiggly in the line. We also had issues with getting a good distance to the first fence also which effected the whole line. When this happened, I simple thought about what my jumping instructor in Canada would say; "allow the horse to go forward out of the short turn". When I remembered this things started to go much better.
My next good ride was on Fay. Today we went outside (all of our rides have been in an indoor riding house) and it went great. Even when passing a car, which if I was walking beside her she would have freaked out at, she was great and didn't even look at it. here are some photos of her and I:

Enjoy!

Zumba

Tonight I participated in an activity called Zumba. Some of you may have seen infomercials on tv for it, it's an aerobic fitness class based on the use of dance. Monday's for the next few weeks will be intense for fitness as I have soccer (fotboll) starting at 5 30, and then an hour later I have Zumba for an hour. Two intense hours of physical activity. Most of what we did in Zumba was butt shaking, a lot of it.

Babies at Bollerup

This weekend consisted of a little more than my normal weekend. I studied a great deal of swedish, I'm almost finished with RosettaStone Swedish (I highly recommend RosettaStone for anyone who wants to learn a new language). I have been going on some trips into Tomelilla, our closest town, and each time I go in I pass a couple paddocks and fields with foals!! Today I went up to the field to take pictures of the foals. Super cute little foals, less than a year old! 

A paddock with four little colts! One of the colts has a bandage on his leg, I'm not sure why. Poor little horse!

This is a field with foals and their mothers.

One of the colts with a bandage on his leg.

Other than the foals, I mucked out my stall (two students from the young horse program share a stall to muck everyday and my partner is not here on the weekends so I do it then), and I watched many movies with friends. Movies we watched this weekend include Black Beauty, Across the Universe, Spirit; Stallion of the Cimarron and Moulin Rouge. Hope you enjoy the pictures!!

Another Thursday

Today I had another day of waking up late as my classes did not start until 1 in the afternoon. These late days are good for me as I like to sleep and I don't usually get to go to sleep until late because the other residents of my house like to stay up really late and laugh and speak loudly. My first class was chemistry, we went over the lab that we did on Monday and went over a practice test from last year. After that was my vet course where we dealt with acute diseases.
My last course of the day was my young horse class. It's not really a class on Thursdays but we have to have a short lesson so that the horses get worked twice a week. Today I'm unhappy that I forgot my camera because we did loose jumping today. Fay looks like she really likes jumping, and has great form over the fences. Would have been a good entry to have a photo of her jumping!

Just Another Tuesday

I would have updated my blog yesterday, but alas my fatigue got the better of me before I had the chance. Tuesdays are always hard for me as I have to wake up much earlier than any other day of the week and I have classes all day which I am not used to. On this particular Tuesday I started out with my young horse program, Fay was great as usual. We did canter today and I'm very proud of Fay as she was the only horse to not break into trot the whole time we were cantering. There was also a women who came to look at the 3 year olds to buy, and of the four horses there she chose to look more closely at and ride Fay and one other horse. The little mare is also becoming quite the Houdini. 

When you tie up a horse you need to do a quick release know so that you can undo it quickly if there is an emergency, some older horses figure out how to undo it but we have a way of making it more difficult to undo. Fay actually undid my knot twice, she tugs and bits and pulls at it until it comes undone, smart little girl. Right after this I had my riding class, and now I finally have a picture of the horse I ride for my school classes; Ruzzin. 

This week I started to listen much better to the instructor (it also helps that I understand her better) and I am finally feeling like I am riding Ruzzin much better. She is a 6 year old mare who is not used to being a school horse yet. She is also difficult to ride because she is a little scared of the bit and tends to shorten her neck and tighten her back when you take any contact.

The next part of my day was a lesson on hay, or tractors, or how tractors harvest hay. There were a lot of photos of tractors being put up on the screen. What I mistook for föl (foal in swedish) was actually föder, which is feed. 

After I had dinner I spent some time with Fay and then went with a friend to do some join up with her horse, who unfortunately was lame. Finally I had my aerobics class at 7 15 in the evening, concluding my full Tuesday.

Weekends at Bollerup

Weekends here at the school are very quiet, not too many people spend their whole weekend at school. I spent the first couple weekends either in my room or on the couch in the common room.
As I my young horse program has gotten more serious I now muck out one stall every Friday to Sunday, and I time with Fay every day. One stall is not very much but at least it gets me out of my house.

More photos; these are three of the four horses I have going.

Jamara: The horse who hasn't been ridden in a year. She went amazing today, I'm finally realizing how much leg it takes to get her to really use herself and go well!

This is Sidney, my friends horse. He looks more lanky here than he actually is, though he is 180 cm tall (approx. 18 hands) and needs to fill our quite a bit more. He is really fun to ride and works really well, once he muscles up more he will be a fantastic horse!

And again, Fay! The cute little mare whose mane I'm in the midst of pulling her mane. For those who don't know; pulling the mane is thinning it out and shortening it by pulling it out from the roots. This process doesn't hurt horses because they don't have any feeling in their crest (the part of the neck from which the mane grows).

Crazy Evenings

I find it is nice to get a day when you can sleep in, relax and not have to worry about what is going on that day for a while longer. This is how most of my days start out. I don't usually start classes until the afternoon which is nice until I start getting piles of things happening in the evenings!

I woke up this morning excited about a full afternoon but also trying to figure out how I was going to do everything. I was supposed to have a chemistry lab this afternoon, but for some reason the class was cancelled (again my understanding of what is going on here is limited sometimes). This was at 1 PM so I had another 2 hours until my next class, and my next class was one that I was really looking forward to.

My second (technically first) class of today was my veterinary class! Or, in swedish, Djursjukvård. Today we saw a practical of floating horses teeth, or for the non horse people: filing them down, as well as a horse castration. Horses chew in a circular motion, as do cows, so they develop sharp edges on the sides of their teeth. If these edges are not filed down they can cut into the cheeks of the horses which is very painful. This causes the horses to try to cushion the tender area with chewed hay which can cause infection as the hay starts to rot in their mouth. Next was the castration of a frightened little stallion by the name of Highlander. I will not get into details with this but it was interesting and gross at the same time.

Right after my veterinary experience I was off to ride a horse. A friend set me up with a girl here who can't ride and so uses her horse for driving but wants it to be ridden. I have the pleasure of helping her out! When I first sat on Jamarah she had not been ridden in a year, and she is 7 so her riding experience has been slim even before her year off. I'm having fun teaching her how to be ridden and be under saddle. I can't ride her for too long because even though she has great endurance for cart driving she is not used to having the weight on top of her instead of behind her. I also had to cut my ride short today for I had to rush off to the matsal (cafeteria).

Here at Bollerup the students can purchase apparel with our name on it, so at 6 30 tonight I had to rush from riding to try on clothing. At Bollerup also we don't just get a jacket, there is a whole package! This package includes: a jacket with my name on it and the Bollerup logo, a long sleeve shirt with my name on it, a polo with my name on it, a pair of steel toe paddock boots, a pair of gloves and a sweatshirt with my name on it (and the Bollerup logo on everything except the boots and gloves)

From this I had to rush off to Gammal Ko to spend time with Fay before we went out riding. I had to rush because I was supposed to be out at the riding ring at 7 25, and at 6 55 I was just on my way back to the barn from trying on clothing. The lovely little mare is calming down nicely, and was really sweet and cuddly again. Today we did more riding then we have before. She was the best today then she has ever been before, listening to me nicely, moving forward when I ask her and we did canter today as well! She did everything without much hesitation or complaint, like a little lady. The little mare got quite tired though!

Finally at 8 30 PM I was done with everything and could finally head back to my room. Exhausted from going none stop for 5.5 hours I write to you. Now I will be up for a little longer to study some more swedish to try to catch up and maybe understand a little more of what is going on tomorrow!

Looking at my School

I was checking out my brother, Sebastian's, blog and I realized that I have no photos of my school up. So this first photo is of the barn. The central part with the big doorway leads into the courtyard and to the right of it is the horse veterinary clinic. To the left of the doorway is the barn, its called "gammal ko" or old cow.

This next photo is of my house. It's called Äpplet. It's not super nice from the outside but I will have more photos of the inside soon, it's not that special either but it looks better than the outside.

This last photo is of the castle at our school, my brother and I are standing there by the door. It is really old, not sure how old (I can look that up) and is surrounded by a moat. Yes, a real moat.

That's all for now, today was normal. Wakeup for swedish lesson and then photography at 3 followed by history at 5 30.

Fay

This here is a photo of the 3 year old mare that I'm working with right now, Fay. As I was taking her in from the field that her and the other young mares live in she was biting and chewing at her lead rope like you see young puppies do with their leashes, super cute.

Turning Experience

So I used to think that having a blog would be really lame and no one would read it, but today made me think that I have people at home who might appreciate to know what I'm going through here in Sweden.

It started with a 6 AM wakeup from my clock, followed by half an hour of avoiding getting up for the day. At 7 I needed to be out and heading to breakfast as my classes started at 7 30. I'm used to not knowing fully what is going on now, and I usually can understand what will happen through context, but today I was standing in line (and I didn't realize I was standing in line until it started moving in one direction) because someone was doing "blåsigt". To me that meant that they were going to blow the isles so that it was clean, soon did I discover they were doing alcohol breathalyzer tests on us... at 7 30 AM on a Tuesday. Just in case we were out partying on Monday night, at school. After this, and yes mum the alcohol level of my breath was 0.00, my classes started.
Finally my class started, it was my young horse class where we are working with the 3 year olds who were broken in last year. In a few weeks we will be starting with 2 year olds who we will be breaking in ourselves! The 3 year olds we are working with now are just so that they remember how to do everything and so that we learn how to train young horses before we are left on our own. I am working with a super cute little mare named Fay who is really snuggly and is quite spooky. She loves being touched and groomed and petted, but she is scared of most things and I like to show here everything I am going to use/put on her, otherwise she shy's away from it. This went well, we were doing lunging where you have two lunge lines (one on each side of the horse) and they go through the training roller so that it simulates having two reins (if anyone can remember what this is called I would appreciate a comment). After that we got on and Fay did really well and she is coming along great.
Then at 10 AM and I started my second class which was hästkunskap, or horse knowledge, in which we went over the conformation of various horses in the barn. This was interesting for me as we had really detailed cards and I could look at them and compare how we name things in english with how they are named in swedish (we have more interesting names in english).
Riding lesson started at 1, I'm riding a 6 year old mare who hasn't been a school horse for long so is still getting the hang of things. We did jumping today, though we just only 2 ft. I need to work on jumping small fences.
After this I had to help muck out the entire barn and sweep the isles and fill the stalls (they use straw here which I find really annoying to muck out).

Now I'm off to ride a friends horse as she somehow got a concussion walking into a pole, and then I have Friskis och Svettis (basically aerobics) at 7 15 tonight.

This will be my Tuesday (basically) for the rest of the year! Hope this was an interesting read, if you have any questions leave a comment!