Two Weeks!

I will be in Sweden in exactly two weeks, and I leave my home and my family in twelve days. And everyone keeps asking me how I feel...and to be honest I am feeling so many emotions at once. I am so extremely excited, yet at the same time I am scared, sad, happy, nervous, and absolutely stoked. And I know that as much as I try to prepare for this adventure, there is no way I will ever fully prepared. I've done everything I could to try to prepare myself, but there are inevitably going to be occurrences during my year abroad that I could not have prepared myself for, and I need to accept that and stop worrying about it!

In other news, I started eating meat again! If you are unaware, I have been a strict vegetarian for the last six years and I just started eating meat again a week or two ago. When I sent in my application to Iceland I said that I would eat meat again (because Iceland does not accept vegetarians at all) and that transferred to Sweden (although Sweden does take vegetarians) and so my host family told me that it would simply be too difficult for their family to support my dietary needs as a vegetarian I began eating meat again because I said in my application that I would! And it wasn't hard on my physically (I thought my body would have a hard time adjusting but it didn't) however, the hardest obstacle for me was the psychological barrier. First time eating meat was by far the hardest, it took me at least five minutes to build up the courage to put it in my mouth and as soon as I did I burst into tears! But, now I am a full fledged meat eater.... which it's still weird for me to say.

Also, I've been talking to my host family recently and I it's just been making me more and more excited! However, I found out recently that I start school the day after I arrive at my host family's house! So that's a little intimidating but, I'm sure it'll be fine. And my host sisters have been sending me pictures of things and it's just such a beautiful area they live in, which I figured it would be being that it's Sweden and in the country side. But, again all of this is just getting me more and more excited!

So, now I'm just in the process of saying good bye to my friends and getting stuff together to start....packing. Ugh, I really don't want to start packing it's such a daunting task and packing is just so...final. But, good news, I got my new collapsible hula hoop so I can take it with me! And in addition, I finally finished the first level of Swedish on Rosetta Stone, which is what I have to complete before I arrive in Stockholm.

So, now all that's left is packing up my things and hitching a ride on a jet plane!
Bryana Shook