It’s been awhile since my last blog post. The last couple of weeks here are crazy. I have so much stuff to do (especially as a Senior in High School.) My friend texted me earlier today and said that we only have 4 more mondays. Isn’t that crazy?? I’m leaving cashmere in 5 weeks from today… I can’t believe it. I am just trying to enjoy everything right now, because I’m definitely gonna miss this!

This weekend I went to Mia’s house. We basically spent every day together this weekend. I stayed the night and we spent the night down in her basement. Earlier that day when I walked down the stairs by myself to put my bag in the basement where we were staying, I got goosebumps as I was walking through the hallway before their TV room. When I got into the room, I felt completely fine again. It was weird. I didn’t think too much of it, it just creeped me out a little. Later that night at the dinner table, her mom told me that their basement used to be haunted. I then told her that I felt really uncomfortable walking down the last part of the stairs and in the hallway, but when I got into the TV room that feeling disappeared. She said that that is exactly where the “ghost” was. Now THAT freaked me out. Scary, huh?

The next day we went to Wenatchee. There was a fair there, which we went to. We didn’t stay for very long, maybe an hour or so. It wasn’t that big, so an hour was definitely enough. I think it was called a food fair, so we basically just ate. Haha! After that, I got my hair done so now I’m blonde again!

I told you the other day that I took pictures of the school one day in class, and was going to upload them here! So here you go 🙂

The bulldog in front of our parking lot.

The from of the school.

The first hallway. This is what you see as soon as you walk in.

The community center is on the right is you walk straight through the first hallway. This is where we have lunch and special activities (such as school dances and such). There is a stage, so we can have performances as well!

The community center from the corner next to the stage. Across is the office.

The end of the first hallway. Library is ahead. Second hallway is to the right.

Second hallway.

OKAY, lets go outside to the tracks. This is where I spend time practicing every day.

You can see that the school is very close to the tracks. Just across the road! The mountains in the background are absolutely beautiful and I’m so lucky to get to live in such a gorgeous place.

Friday night was MORP, which is a school dance where girls ask boys. Morp is Prom backwards… Me and my two best friends Julia and Peyton asked our best guy friend Kendall to go with us. We wanted to go in a group of friends, so the four of us went together. The theme was Beauty and the Geek. Me and Kendall went as beauties and Peyton and Julia went as geeks.

The dance was probably the best so far this year! It was so much fun. Before the dance we went to Peyton’s house in Wenatchee to get ready. Then we had ice cream at McDonalds… Haha! After that we went to Kendall’s house and took pictures. We arrived at the dance at around 9, and we danced non-stop for 2 hours!

Yesterday was Kailena’s (my host sister) 17th birthday! We went to Olive Garden and had dinner. It was nice, we had fun 🙂

Today was such a fun day! I had a photography class in the morning and we took pictures of the school. I figured I could put them on here to show you what my school looks like. Unfortunately, I left my camera and my phone in my friend Peyton’s car, so that will have to wait until the weekend! 🙂

In my CWP class, we are currently talking about education and raising children.  The teacher asked how many people got spanked as a kid when they did something wrong. EVERYONE but me raised their hands… I was the only one in that room of 30 people that hadn’t been punished like that as a kid. I couldn’t believe what I saw. How awful is that?! How can it be okay (or even legal) to hurt your children? At first i was surprised… But then I got very angry! I caught myself tearing up because I was so mad and disappointed. We’re human beings!! We should know better! I am still upset. The teacher called on me and asked if he could ask me a hard question, and of course I said yes. He asked “are you planning on spanking your children?”. I couldn’t believe it. I just gave him a big NO! I almost started laughing at the question. I was thinking “did he seriously just ask me if I’m gonna hurt my kid’s? This must be a joke”. But then I realized that that’s a thing here. Parents do that! He asked me “But, how are you gonna teach them what’s right and wrong? How are you gonna punish them then?” I got really upset and said: “Well, I turned out fine, didn’t I?”. The class started laughing and said I was adorable. My teacher said “Whatever your parents did, they did a great job!”. So that was a good ending to a tragic subject though. He complimented how my parents raised me, and agreed that I DID turn out fine without spanking. I definitely DON’T think spanking, hurting, or even punishing your children is going to help. That will only make your children scared of you. And as a parent, do you want that? Do you want your kid’s to be afraid of you? Or do you want them to trust you, and feel loved? So whoever’s reading this: I can’t change how you want to  raise your children, but love will take you and your children further than pain ever will!

I respect cultural differences! I really do. I never think that Americans do things wrong just because they don’t do the same as Swedes. I accept it. But I will NEVER be okay with a human being hurting another human being. That will always be wrong to me.

Okaaay, that was long. Sorry, I just needed to write about it so I could get it out of my head… MORP (a school dance) was tonight, but once again, my camera is in Peyton’s car so I’ll upload a post on that tomorrow! It is now midnight and I have a track meet in the morning, so I should probably go to bed haha! I’m a varsity long-jumper and tomorrow is an important meet… GOOD NIGHT!

Today was a really bad day for me. My stomach hurt all day and I felt sick most of the time. I woke up at 6 to take the written drive test but something got in the way and my host sister told me his morning that we’re doing it tomorrow instead. So I woke up an hour earlier for no reason… haha 😛

After school I had track practice, and I felt like I was going to pass out. I hadn’t even started running yet at that point. I pushed though the workout and completed it, but oh, it was hard. I had no energy, and I could barely walk up the stairs to my room when I got home… I think I’m about to get sick. I guess it’s about time since I haven’t been sick since october last year!

I have a home track meet on Saturday, so hopefully I’ll stay healthy and will be in good shape for that! But after today’s practice it doesn’t look too bright… Oh well! Tomorrow is a new day!

Today was just a normal day for me. I went to school and then had track practice. My ankles felt really good, it didn’t hurt too bad and I was so happy that I could run today at practice! I have gotten to the point where I ENJOY running. Isn’t that crazy? Running used to be my worst nightmare, and now I like it. I am not a distance runner or a sprinter though. I do long jump, but I have to run a lot during practice. I am currently tied the best long jumper at my school! This also means that I am on the varsity team. That’s super cool for me. I just really hope that my ankles will stay healthy throughout the rest of the season so I can improve my personal best. But I will keep you posted on that 🙂

I have lots and lots of homework for tonight… I usually don’t have any homework at all, but since I’m a senior I have quite a few things I have to finish before graduation. The last 2 months will be crazy with all the school stuff!! I am also planing on taking my drivers test (the written one) tomorrow, so I need o study for that!

I honestly forgot about my blog… my host sister just reminded me about it, and now that I only have 2 more months I will try to post every now and then!

Life is good over here, everything is going great! I’ve made some incredible friends and school is good! I am doing track after school, and I really like it. I had some problems with my ankles before spring break that made it hard for me to do 100% at practices, but I feel better now! 🙂

I just got back from spring break. Only 7 or 8 more weeks of school… I can’t believe it! Time has gone by soooo fast!!! It’s almost time for me to go home again… I have gained so much from this experience and the fact that I have to leave all of his in less than 2 months truly breaks my heart… I already cry about it! But all good things must come to an end, right? So I’m going to live my life to the fullest now and just enjoy t he time I have left!

On friday i went to the movies and saw Mockingjay. It was such a good movie! The best one in the hunger games series so far in my opinion. I wasn’t a big fan of the first 2 movies, so i didn’t expect to like this one either but Mockingjay was just amazing! I can’t wait for part two… About halfway through the movie I realized that there were no subtitles like I’m used to. Im so used to english now that I feel like english is my first language instead of swedish. The only reason I even noticed that there were no subtitles were when people around me started talking or something and i couldn’t hear the movie. When that happens in sweden I just read the subtitles so I don’t miss out on whats going on in the movie.

People at school often wants me to speak in swedish or teach them some words, and Im no longer comfortable speaking swedish. I’ve forgotten a lot of words and I’m not used to the pronunciation so sometimes when I speak I mispronounce the words, haha! And I always get really nervous when people ask me to speak swedish. Weird, huh? I guess that that’ll change and go back to normal when I move back in a few months though!

It was snowing yesterday (friday) and I had my first small snowball fight, haha! The weather here has been really strange, 2 weeks ago I wore skirts and dresses and now theres 3 inches of snow on the ground and we have to wear winter coats and mittens! I love snow, so I’m definitely not complaining! haha. All the snow makes me feel like home.

WHERE HAVE I BEEEEEN?!?!

I’m really sorry, haha! I honestly don’t know why I haven’t updated my blog in like a month. I don’t spend a lot of time on my computer over here, so I guess I just forgot about my blog.

Not a lot has happened since my last post. We preformed the fall play, and then I auditioned for the Musical. I ended up getting a lead part in this years musical and I’m super happy! Our musical has 4 lead singing parts (2 girls and 2 boys) and 2 lead dance parts (one girl one boy). I killed the dance audition and got the girl dance lead! About 40 students from our school attended the dance auditions so I’m so happy that I got the lead!

Other than that I haven’t done much… I go to school and do my homework like everyone else, so there’s not much to write about. OHH, my battery for my camera died and I don’t have a charger! I had pictures from the play on it that I would’ve liked to show you, but that’ll have to wait!

Friday was a loooong but exciting day for me! We didn’t have school today, so me and my friends got up early to help decorate for the football game. We basically just put orange and black decorations all over the bleachers and around the football field. And after a while when we got tired of decorating we were just hanging out and laying on the tracks, haha 😛

After that, we went to a beauty salon and got a pedicure. It was my first time getting one, and it tickled so bad, haha! (Kailena and my host mom Jamie in the picture to the left, Ellie and Carmella in the picture to the right)

I also had drivers ed today, and this time I wasn’t hit by anything haha! After my drive I went back to my house and got ready for the game. One of my best friends here, Dennis, is a football player and wanted me to support him a little extra at the homecoming game, so I put his number (#60) on my cheek.

The game was AMAZING! Cashmere won. They also announced the homecoming king and queen at the game, and Dennis won 🙂