Höstlov

So, sadly my fall break is at an end and I am to return to school tomorrow...however, I had a great break so I'll fill you in on it starting from the beginning.

So, on Monday I went to Sala to meet up with my contact family and I was a little anxious about getting there because I had to take a taxi two buses and a train...and from my previous experiences I have learned that public transportation simply does not like me. Although, luck fully I arrived in Sala without any major hiccups! So, I meet up with my contact person and her nine year old son and they showed me around the town we went out for lunch together to chat and then we went to the silver mine. Sala was originally a town that was basically built around this giant silver mine. And because it was Halloween week they were offering a special tour of the mine - a ghost tour (only for kids ten and up). And it was really great, I have never been so far under ground before (150 meters) so it was a really neat new experience. However, I expected the tour to be scarier however, an old mine is a great place to tell ghost stories because it's extremely dark, the tour guide's voice echoed off the cave walls, it's really cold, and you can hear the sound of water dripping / the occasional rock falling. There were  some really amazing things to see so far down in the earth! And afterwards we went back to their house and I helped the carve a pumpkin (I don't think they have ever done it before... I am not too sure). We ate dinner together and they drove me home! So it was a really long day, with a lot of Swedish. But, it felt really good when my contact person would introduce me to some of her friends in the town and she would say I was an exchange student, then they would immediately ask if I knew Swedish and she would respond with, yes she is actually very good she can understand most everything!

Then the next day my host family and I drove an hour away to one of the "bigger" cities called Borlänge. Which people think is a funny name for a city because it literally translates to "live long" so it's weird to say in Swedish, "I am going to live long". But, the reason we had to go there was, of course, because a new IKEA had just opened there so we had to go check it out (my host mom loves IKEA). And now that I am a seasoned IKEA costumer I have have come to the conclusion that until now I had no idea what a busy store looked like until you go to IKEA - and it's a daily occurrence. IKEA here is almost always packed full of people. Swedes take their IKEA seriously. However, I must confess that I too really like IKEA and I am defiantly going to have to go shopping there for some new things for my college dorm when I get home!

Then on Wednesday I went to Borlänge again, but this time with one of my really good friends from school. And we went to a big indoor swimming park (which I am starting to get the impression that indoor swimming houses are a rather popular thing here in Sweden) which was a lot of fun, then we went and saw the new Thor movie!!!

And for me Thursday was honestly extremely depressing because we did absolutely nothing to celebrate, and I am a little crazy about Halloween - I love it. So, that was hard however I think what happened next defiantly made up for it!

The following night my host family and I went out to go pick up a package that my loving family sent me (thanks guys!) and on the way home we stopped by a near - by church. It's a beautiful church and parts of the church are around 400 years old (the newer parts were constructed in 1832 so still old). And my host father has a few family members buried in the cemetery there so we went and light candles by all of his relatives graves. And it was absolutely magical to look out and just see a sea of candle light in the dark. And in addition, the night sky here is stunning - and that's not really a Swedish thing I think it's more of a country side thing but I love it, it's remarkable how many more stars you can see out here. Then after lighting the candles and walking through the cemetery we went to meet up with my host dad's mother and we had a short fika then she showed us around the church! It was absolutely magical, however, sadly I was completely unable to capture the beauty on camera but here are some of the attempts.

 This candelabra is an original piece from the church 

that is estimated to date back to the 15th century 

And I light a candle there for some of my family too! 

Interesting fact: this room was originally a

weapons room where people would leave

their weapons while they went to the service

The Church at night

The sea of candle lights 

So, overall I had a great break, I relaxed, saw some more of Sweden, and I finished four college applications.  However, I think that this time in Sweden is...awful, and that is due to the weather. The fall weather here is basically cold, rainy (and/or overcast), and extremely dark. And I have noticed that this weather has really effected me it just makes me really depressed and easily agitated and it's cloudy/dark all day and the sun sets at around four or five right now. However, my host family assures me that once the snow comes it will get better.

Hej då,
Bryana Shook