Sweden-bound

Here I am in Holsbybrunn, Sweden. How did I get here? It hardly seems real.

I left Canada on Tuesday to drive down to Seattle with my mom and Nan. On the way, we stopped at Cosco and REI, where I discovered I had forgotten to pack camping dishes so I picked up a cool little kit which was designed for camping and will hopefully work well. We stayed overnight with my aunt and uncle and I flew out of the Seattle airport at 12:30pm. From Seattle I flew Alaska Air to Minneapolis. When I got to Minneapolis I asked someone where I had to go next. They told that I needed to follow the signs for baggage, then the ones for ground transport, then take a tram to the light rail which takes you to the other terminal. It's a good thing she wrote it down for me because I never would have remembered that all but it actually wasn't too hard to follow the signs. From Minneapolis I flew Icelandair to Reykjavik, Iceland, transferred planes and flew from Reykjavik to Copenhagen.

In Copenhagen I had arranged, via Facebook, to meet Katy, another girl going to Holsby. I arrived about half an hour before she did. I waited at the baggage carousel where her luggage was supposed to come and thought I spotted her, but I wasn't sure because she was talking to an older couple. After she picked up her bags and headed out, I realized that I was going to have to take a chance and ask her or I was going to loose track of her. It turned out that she was the person I was looking for :) . After a few attempts, we managed to both purchase train tickets from Copenhagen to Vetlanda. We had some extra time so we wandered around the airport for a bit before heading down to the train station. We needed to change trains in a town called Nässjö, but none of the trains had that name on the display; I was pretty sure we should take the one bound for Stockholm but due to a series of events, we just about missed the train. Then, when we got off in Nässjö, which isn't pronounced at all like it looks, we were told we needed to get on our next train at track 1a. It sounds simple enough, but it took us almost the entire 15 minutes we had between trains to find it and then we ended up having to run to catch it. When we arrived in Vetlanda, Katy phoned the school to send someone to pick us up. We were picked up by the Resident Assistents (RAs), who were very friendly and helpful. We arrived at the School around 6:30 p.m. Holsby time, which is around 9:30 a.m. BC time on Thursday morning. We met at few other students and talked for a while, trying to stay awake until bed time.

This morning a few of us explored the chapel and one of the many trails around the school. I unpacked a bit, too; it looks like it's going to be a tight space for clothing. I am sharing a room with three other girls: Bethany, Linnea, and Sarah. Bethany arrived yesterday too but I haven't yet met Linnea or Sarah.

There are 44 students at Holsby this year, 20 boys and 24 girls. There are eight students doing Discovery.

It's almost lunch time now, and I'm interested to see what they'll serve us :)