Report by Mitchel Hoogeveen:

Sweden exchange:

Monday:

Our trip started on Monday. We just went to school like any other day but went home a little earlier. That was because we had to back at school with our luggage at 16:45 to catch a bus which took us to the airport. There we got on the plane and took off at about 19:00. CheapieCheapie Ryanair brought us to Stockholm Skavsta airport in 2 hours. Still we weren’t at our destination. We had driven by bus for 2 more hours before we were in the city of Örebro. We got out of the bus at the school, Ribergska. There all the students had gathered to meet us and to take us to our “new home”. We all straight went to bed because were exhausted.

Tuesday:

At the first day had to wake up early because we were joining our host during some ordinary school lessons. The first lesson I joined was “Italian”. It didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that the lessons in Sweden are a bit different than they are in the Netherlands. Some students came in late; no problem. That wasn’t all, after a few minutes they started playing on their iphones or listening to music. Still there wasn’t any problem. Then finally someone came to the conclusion that he forgot something. He didn’t have to tell the teacher he had to get it out of his locker, he just walked out of the lesson.

Next lesson was maths. Basically the same thing; nobody was working seriously. It was just a big mess.

For the afternoon the Swedish students planned a city tour through Örebro. We went to a castle where we had a guided tour through the castle. After that we were going in to the city centre. At first we stayed together but after a short while everybody was scattered around the city. When we all got back together after a few hours, we went to giant a water tower, shaped like a mushroom. We went all the way to the top and had a great view of the city. It was very windy that day and on top of the mushroom the effect was even bigger. We had to stay low to prevent us from being blown of the tower. Seconds later we weren’t allowed on top of the tower anymore because security thought it was too dangerous. (it was!)

In the evening we all went to a Pizzeria because we were all hungry of a very tiring day. we all had a great meal and went home. There we all watched some Swedish tv or did some things for ourselves.

Wednesday:

On Wednesday we left early by bus to a place called Annaboda. Annaboda is a place up in the mountains near a lake/river. It was a beautiful place. We had a barbeque and played some games. We won a game of soccer and a game of slagbal. Later we went back with the bus to school to go to a PE class. We were going to play floorball, a Scandinavian sport close to unihockey. Here they beat us for the first time because they all have played this game since they were born.

In the evening we had a “party”. We sat in the a forest, near a fire, eating some crisps and drinking something. All the Dutch felt the same; we have better parties!

Thursday:

Thursday was probably the most fun day of the entire trip. We went to a place callad Boda Boga. In this building there were a lot of different rooms. You could only go to the next room if you completed a task. Otherwise you had to start all over again. All rooms had a different theme and when you completed one theme you would get a stamp. Most of these rooms where easy at first but when we got to the final room we all screwed up and had to start again. We didn’t collect many stamps. Luckily some Swedish people who had been there before could help us out!

That afternoon we had lots of free time for ourselves, so went to a supermarket and bought some candy, then watched some tv and/or played some games. That evening we went to school to watch a movie in their school’s cinema. It was an old movie, but we enjoyed ourselves. Then we played some games and went home again.

Friday:

On the last day we went to Sweden’s capital; Stockholm. We had a lot of free time there so we spread around the city again. Some people stayed at one spot, the nearest Macdonalds. Others walked around the entire city and had a great tour. There were lots of things to see in Stockholm and there were a lot of shops to visit. After a few hours we had to go back to the bus, which took us to the airport. There we said goodbye to the Swedes and flew back home.

We were all exhausted when we got back in the Netherlands, but we all had a great time in Sweden.