Autumn and a New School Year

...sounds like I've traveled back in time to grade school!

You could say Riskutbildning 1 was a success. I got through it and understood most of it, although when I realized I was sitting in a room with about 11 other people, all of them Swedes, and most of them about 18 years of age, I started to get super nervous. What if the teacher decided to call on us randomly since she had us make name tags? Then what humiliation would I suffer because my Swedish was so clearly not authentic? It all turned out okay though, as our teacher posed questions to us then made us talk with our "neighbor." I happened to be sitting next to a really nice 18 year old girl from the next town over. I told her immediately I was from the U.S. and sorry if I sounded terribly! To my happiness she told me she understood me just fine. The hard thing throughout the day was that she spoke so quickly or would speak quietly that I couldn't catch some things she said. All said and done, I walked home last Wednesday extremely tired.

I began Korta Vägen this Monday. We have a whole week of introduction, basically, before they divide us into two smaller classes to put us with people who are more at our level. It's good to feel productive the whole day, but it's been a tiring week. Going to school (and not in your native tongue) from 9am to 4pm wears the brain out! I believe once the course gets going it will feel more useful than it is currently. There are several people in the group with little to no Swedish skills (which confuses me because the course supposedly requires at least SFI D to be completed to enter). So right now it feels a little bit like intro class to SFI, which for those of you who may not know how that is, it's very simple Swedish. I do suppose they need to get a feel for which class to place everyone in. Hopefully I'll be able to improve my Swedish even further and do well at whichever praktik (internship) I get and eventually be able to work alongside Swedes without a hiccup. After all, that's the entire goal of the program.

Just a side note, Bonde Söker Fru (Farmer Seeks Wife) had its season premier tonight and it's the first time I've ever actually watched it. I think it's such a cute show. Maybe it's how they go around to these different farmers' farms and you actually get to see how they live and that they're just normal every day Swedes. They seem to speak from the heart. I'll be interested to follow up on some episodes to see how things pan out.

The rain hasn't really let up much, and neither have the chilly temperatures. I suppose I'm slowly adjusting to the fact that it is indeed autumn time. Where did this year go? It's almost unbelievable I've been living here for 10 months already. Pretty soon I'll be saying a year!