Foreign Experiences: 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: