Gothenburg

me and Mia

I have had the best week. It has been really fun to just hang out and talk and eat and not be any sort of a tourist. The weather was miserable the first day... hail and snow and rain and all of it came down almost horizontally with the massive winds that swept the city, but since then it has been perfect weather.

Mia teaches middle school English, French and German at a school in Gothenburg, so I went to school with her all week. Some of the students at her school are pen pals with some of the students from my school in Yang Zhong, so her kids and I were mutually thrilled to be able to meet each other and Mia was excited for me to get them to speak English with me.

Her school is new and gorgeous, and her kids were really fun and sweet and excited to have me. I do have to admit it was strange to be someplace where kids are kids and have a say and some attitude, instead of being ruled by the iron thumb of their teachers and parents. I just hung out essentially, chatting with kids on couches and helping out Mia however I could. I gave some slide shows with my photos from and we spent a lot of time talking about China and their pen pals. We did this hilarious activity where her kids had to think of things about the US, China and Sweden... like what was typical to the USA (the general opinion was fast food, fat people, sports stars and television shows) and who from Sweden was famous in the USA (this one was harder... Bjorn Borg, ABBA, Peter Forsberg). We ended the week learning how to use chopsticks and eating rice. It was really great because quite a few kids got letters from their pen friends while I was there. We also attempted to fly some kites, took the kids to the pool for their gym class and ate some really good school lunch food (no joke. good food)

A few of the little girls thought I was very cool. I am definitely missing being a rockstar. It was great for my self confidence at school in the YZ when I got hugs and smooches and signed autographs on a daily basis, and then I did pretty well impressing the Eastern European men... but in the West I am definitely dragging... maybe it is wearing the same clothes for 5 days in a row that is unappealing... Anyhow, the kids were awesome and would knock on the office door looking for me to talk. One of them told her mom that she wanted to be my pen pal... so here is me and Amanda, my new 9 year old pen pal.


Ate a lot of food too. Lots of candy. Sweden makes some great candy. Ironically enough though, there are NO Swedish fish... hmmm... I am not really sure about that one but I have been looking all week. And a local specialty, a grilled hot dog with a huge mound of mashed potatoes on it. One of my hero's of the week is Louise, Mia's longtime friend who is a massage therapist and hooked me up with a fantastic massage as well as a tasting of lots of fish and caviar and random tubes of different Swedish spreadables.


hot dogs with mashed potatoes

I leave tomorrow afternoon for Stockholm, where I will meet Ems at the central station. I'm really sad to be going, because it has been so much fun, but I know I will be back because I have had such a blast hanging out.