Sweden

After three long flights and one long train ride, we finally arrived in Linkoping on Monday evening.  I've had some difficulty getting on to my original blog, and I had to create a new one. We also haven't had the Internet like we thought we would.  Yesterday we met our teachers and students for the first time. Getting on the bus alone for the first time was nerve wrecking and terrifying, but luckily I got to the right place. I've been very tired and definitely missing home.  I have to take one bus to a bus stop and then walk the rest of the way to the school.  It takes about 20 minutes to walk from the bus stop to my school.  It's name is Tornhagsskolan.  It goes up to year 9 (9th grade), but the older students (they call them pupils) are in a separate building.  Today was our first full day in our schools. The majority of the day was in Swedish, and I felt mostly useless since I cannot speak Swedish.  I noticed several things during my day today and yesterday.  The students do not wear shoes in class, only socks.  They get at least two recesses per day, but they call them breaks.  The time they're in school varies from day to day.  Some days they get out at 2:30, and others they get out at 1:10 or 1:30.  School begins at 8 am each morning.  The students all receive free lunch, and they all walk to and from school.  My teacher has never seen a school bus.  My students don't speak much English, and the teacher has to translate what I say.  Swedish people drink coffee, or fika, all the time!  Coffee is very big in Sweden.  I'm trying to learn to like it.  We went on a tour of Linkoping this afternoon and got to see the cathedral, which is the 2nd largest cathedral in Sweden.  It was beautiful.  Then we went to a meeting where we got to talk to other teacher students from various countries.  It was good to be out of our rooms and talking to other student teachers about teaching and other things. I'm looking forward to the weekend. Hopefully we'll be able to explore Linkoping more.