So, the sun rises between 4:30 and 5:00 in the morning here in Ljungby. My mom would NEVER be able to sleep in such bright conditions, and apparently after my relentless mocking, I had to learn the hard way that payback is indeed a b****. Last night was the first, and only, night that we left the blinds open in our room – yes, Jo and I are still sharing a room at the moment. Due to the beaming sunshine, I woke up at hourly intervals beginning at 5am and continuing until our alarm went off at 7:15. There is absolutely nothing worse than waking up a few minutes before your alarm is about to go off. After breakfast, we headed across the “banana bridge” to meet Daniel. We would spend the morning at Astradskolan (a local school here in the Ljungby community) where both Daniel and Johanna work. We signed in at the front desk for our visitor badges and then went into the exclusive teachers’ lounge. Daniel showed us our article in the local newspaper, complete with a full-color, half-page picture of Jo and I. I’m going to try to get a picture of the article to show everyone, and hopefully can mail a copy of it to my parents; unfortunately, its 100% in Swedish thus very unlikely that any of you can read it, but best of luck to you all. Daniel also told us that there is a new American coach at Lindesberg, Matt Botsford, former assistant at University of Miami, who knew both Jo and I. Such a small world!
Back to the main story: school. Our first class of the day would be with the English teacher, Lena, with a group of 13 year olds. After a brief somewhat awkward introduction of who we are and where we’re from, we distributed sheets of paper for the class to write down a question for us to answer. These questions varied from “do you watch Family Guy/Simpsons/South Park” to “how long have you been playing volleyball”. This first class was fairly reserved, partially due to this being their first class of the day and partially due to their hesitance about speaking English out loud. There is a ten-minute break between the first and second class, just enough time for students and teachers to have a quick sandwich and coffee. Johanna arrived just in time to take us back to the English teacher for another class. This one had the same routine of “hi, my name is Meghan, I’m from Florida” followed by question and answer time. This class provided us with a few new questions such as “have you been to Europe before”, “how long have you known each other”, and “do you have a boyfriend?” The last question was followed up by Lena asking me “will he come to visit?” Hint hint ;) We spoke a little more to the class about our trip here before we had a 20-minute break. Back in the teachers’ lounge, we had an interesting conversation with Johanna about the death penalty and Bush vs. Obama, exposing some of the fundamental difference between our two nations. We had to rush back upstairs for our final class with Lena, her mentor class that she has been with for the past two years. They were a year or two older than the previous two classes, providing the necessary confidence boost to allow them to voice some of their questions aloud. Finally it was the end of our classroom experience and we went with Johanna to eat lunch in the cafeteria. On the menu: ham and potato soup or vegetable soup, served with 2 slices of bread, and followed by ice cream. We decided we had had enough of school for the day, and would go to Maxi for much needed groceries before heading home to rest before workout and practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment