Mora my Mora
This will be the last update on my blog. Maybe I'll start a new one, I'll let you know. Anyways, thanks for checking this terribly unoften updated blog. I wish you the best with everything :) And I want to end this with a picture from my confirmation two years ago. It was life changing and something I always will have with me, and I am so happy that John has experienced it too :) Good bye!
Jag och min fadderpappa Mats
Hej då!
Last Track Meet
There are so many things going on, trying to fit in as much as possible in my schedule before it is time to go home in 1 month and 2 weeks. I am excited to see you all back home, but I will miss Portland, a lot. Especially my host family and friends, but Sweden is ma home :)
See you guys soon, enjoy the summer that is coming up and finish up school nicely :)
hejhej!
I am in school right now, the sophomores are having a test and because of my maturness and awesomeness as a junior I am not forced to do it. Track after school, this week we'll have two meets which is exciting. And Culture Night is coming up on Saturday! Sadly John will miss it though, he is going home earlier the same day... I will play guitar and sing Swedish songs, provide some Swedish culture :) If anyone has some good suggestions of classical Swedish songs I should sing, bring em' in!
Class is over now, I will write more later!
Hej da!
Hulda :)
Spring break in Minnesota
* Went to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas in late Febuary, what an experience!
* Sakko, a Japanese lady who lived with my host family for 1.5 years came and visited for 10 days. We cooked Japanese food (I made eggrolls!), saw Wicked, laughed and had a great time. The week was allover very Japanese. Saw a Japanese movie at English, read about Pearl Harbor and the atomic bomb in Japan in US History and I got a new Japanese friend in school. Strange how things happen like that...
* Running! Track is rolling, every day after school, it is fun :) And tiering...
* Culture Night is coming up at Wilson, and I will play guitar. And. I might play guitar for the whole school at the assembly. I think I will do it, but no for sure yet.
* JOHN IS COMING APRIL 3rd! I am so excited :D
* And this week in Minnesota! We went to Mall of America yesterday, memories... Camp Snoopy is not the same amusment park anymore, new rides and new name... Aw well, we had a good time. Went to H&M which was amazing.
* I started a praying group in school, we meet every morning to talk and pray. It makes me feel more secure throughout the day and gives me strength, it is it is, reviving :)
Another cool thing that I have done is IKEA-day. Me and two of my great friends invited a bunch of people to come with to IKEA and explore exclusive Swedish design. They were in different teams and got a list of assignment that they had to do in the store. Every team had a camera and documented their participation and accomplishments. It was great! Swedish meatballs and candy afterwords completed a successfull day.
Only 3 months left now, these 7 months have passed by so fast! Time to go home soon, I will be ready, but oh I will miss Portland.
Bye bye lingonpaj, Hulda :)
Send Me On My Way - Rusted Root
Here is an update from Hulda! The news are:
* I have been sick since Thursday night, I am a lot better now but my throat is still not well. So I can't run :(
* My weekend was besides from that pretty fun! I saw lots of movies, went over to Sara and hang out with her and Lakin, saw some Super Boowl, had amazing Youth Group (I talked to Mathilda dooda while I was there too :D) and knitted a white hat.
* 2nd semester has started, and i like my new classes! We'll see about French though, the teacher does't really have any control... So my new schedule is:
1) Study Hall
2) Franch 4
3) AP US History
4) Earth Space Science
5) Ceramics
6) Geometry
7) English
Tomorrow will be really fun with odd Block Day, will start on the wheel in ceramics and the other classes I have are pretty sweet too. And Youth Group in the evening!
Bye Guys, be thankful that you're not sick!
Hulda
The end of 1st semester
This week is the last week of the semester. Here in the US the semesters don't end before winterbreak like in Sweden, instead we have a week in late January when we finish up the classes with finals. You have finals in 2 of your periods every day for 1.5 hour, some teachers count them more than others. I have very easy classes so this week is not stressful at all. Next semester will be harder though, I am switching into AP US History and French 4. And I will get ceramics to! Exciting :)
Another update from Ms. Hulda is the Talent Show! :D
We had a talent show at Wilson last week and I was one of the performers. I sang Nalens Oga by Kent and played guitar. I have never done anything like that before, it was very special and a lot of fun! If you would like to see my performance go to my profile on facebook check it out :)
AFS camp;
AFS skii trip last weekend, that was really fun! But the planning wasn't great... They woke us up at 5:15 and the bus left at 7. We came to Mt Hood at 9:20 and had to rent skii equipment. Then we skiied and snowboard for a couple of hours and around 3 we went back to the bus again. That bus journey took 3 hours... But! It was a fun trip anyways, always nice to see the other exchange students :) Me and Andreas from Denmark went to Sunriver and skiied at Mt Bachelor the weekend before. As you can see, I'm getting very spoild with snowboarding... I've never seen anything like Mt Bachelor and Mt Hood before, it was amazing snowboarding up there. Some runs are 2 km long!
I should sign out on this computer now, will have US History in a couple of minutes.
See you in 5 months! :)
Bye byee,
Amazing.
Here is the story:
-I was supposed to meet my friend at the bus stop so we could take the bus together to crew practice. Did he show up? No. And it was because I was at the wrong bus stop, but that's another story... So, I decided to go over to Lilli's house, and we went to the exclusive coffee store Starbucks. At the table next to ours, a man and a women in their late 20-ies were sitting and reading the Bible. I was thinking:
"Hmm, I should go up and talk to them!"
But I didn't really dare... Until it was time to go, I thought now or never, I have nothing to lose. I went up there and asked if they were reading the Bible, and yes they were! It turned out that the girl; Abby, has a Swedish grandmother! She said this Swedish sentence;
"Svenska pojkar med stora huvuden"
Haha, I have no idea why her grandma tought her that one, a funny quote though ^^
Anyways, she and her husband Tim, who were there also, had gone on their honeymoon to Europe together not long time ago :) I also asked what church they are going to and they told me about their church in Beaverton. It is called "A Jesus Church" and about 2000 people between 18 and 28 come there every Friday to sing worship songs, listen to sermons and hang out.
Next day was Friday, so i called Abby and told her that I would like to come to the worship evening. So I went there and ohh, it was so amazing! 2000 people singing worship songs together, the sermon was really good and I got a English Bible there :) Abby and I talked for hours and it was just an unforgetable evening. I loved it! :D
I am doing very well here :) We are going to Sunriver for skiing and snowboarding this weekend, very excitng :D
AND! The talent show is on next week on Wednesday! They resceduled it and well, here I come. Rehersal tomorrow, so I better go and practice now.
And here is a picture from fancy Disneyland! 
Peace!
Hulda :)
Hey hey I am happy :)
Write more later, don't forget to smile! :D
Hulda
Disneyland!
The rides were exciting, so well made and cool. They were not scary at all, but what can you expect from Disneyland? It was Carolyn and I who went with uncle Jon and the twins, Ulrice his wife came later also. I didn't really enjoy having the twins around though, they are seven years younger and are just very tiering to have around. Luckily I had Carolyn, we went on our own adventures :) So it was a very good day afterall! Pictures will come later...
Today hasn't been very good though. It started a little bit yesterday, I was really cold and had a bad headache. This morning I woke up and was very dizzy. I fainted, fell into the wall and hit my head. It sounds very dramatic doesn't it?! But it's not to bad, I feel much better now. Hope I get over this fast because Carolyn and I had plans to go to Universal Studios.
Hope everyone had a Happy New Year and will continue to have it! :)
Hulda
The most Swedish experience since I came here!
How I met Karita:
My mom was looking in Mora tidning and it was an article about a girl who had a grandfather in Mora. She was living in Oregon, Lake Oswego, about a mile from where I live here. She goes to Mora every summer and her dad grew up there. She was elected "Lucia of Oregon" this year and that's why she was in the newspaper. My mom told me about this and thought it was amazing, and it is! So we met a Sunday when the snow had started to fall and baked gingerbread cookies and ate lussebullar :)
And yesterday I went with her for a Lucia dinner! :D And yes, that was the most Swedish experience I have had since I came here. It was fantastic, no kidding! The old man who owned the house had 30 boxes of Christmas decoration all over the house, it took him and some friends a week to put it all up! Adventsljusstakar in all windows, julbockar all over the place and Swedish flags in the Christmas tree. We ate julbord with ham, potatisgratang, knackebrod and ostkaka for dessert. Spoke Swedish, sang Lucia songs, danced around the table singing "Nu e det jul igen!", it was like jumping back to Sweden again, childhood memories and oh I can't explain this with words, it was fabulous! :D Made my day :)
Karita is 16 like me and has two brothers, same age as mine and super similar to them too. It will be so fun when John comes over and he'll be able to meet them! :)
I better do some packing for California now, but yes, Happy New Year everyone!
Hulda is happy :) 
California here I come...
Yes that's right, I'm going to California tomorrow! Carolyn and i will visit Jon and Ulrice and their children, I'm excited :D Disney Land, Universal Studios, Sandiego and it will be a good time! Starting the new year with a trip to Disney land can't be much better if you ask me...
My days after Christmas have been great! Went downtown with Lena, Lucia and Andreas and saw the new movie "Yes Man" with Jim Carrey, it was a funny one. Yesterday was guitar day :D Sara and I went to Lakin's house with some other guys and played for six hours... So I am very happy :)
And here is the snow castle we built, very spectacular.
Happy New Year! :D
Hulda
Juldagen
Julafton
Christmas is childhood. Memories are coming back; the exciting feeling when you wake up in the morning, looking out the window and see the white snow. Running to the Christmas tree to see all the presents, look for the ones with my name on, take them, try to figure out whats in there. Some presents I didn't even want to touch because I knew that it was a book from mom and dad in there... But there were other presents that made me excited, like the big one across the room which had a shape of a barbie doll that I've always wanted. And yes! When Santa came around sevenish and I was sitting there with sparkling eyes he gave me the present. It was a barbie doll! My world became heaven.
I miss those Christmases. When you were a little child and everything was simple. I didn't have to buy or make any presents, that was a parent thing, or as most children think: a Santa thing. I don't remember when I stopped believing in Santa Claus, maybe my parents do. Hmm, that would have been a fun story to tell, because I was crying a lot as a child, so I probably cryed when I realized that there was no Santa Claus. Or, I've always been a curious child, and I knew that it was uncle Bengt who came in with his fake beard every Christmas eve... After all, I probably never believed in Santa Claus.
Christmas shopping is an experience in itself. Seeing all these stressed parents running around looking for the video game their little swetiee wished to get from Santa. I have a hard time with presents, because I want to give the ultimate gift. And when I'm standing in the customerline waiting for my turn all these thoughts come up; does he really want this? Is this a good gift for her? Can I really afford this?
But! All of that is done now, and my Christmas presents are pretty ultimate so I'm happy :) I love Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus!
Fast update from my American life;
* We have SNOW! :D And thet is very unusuall here in Portland. People rather walk than taking the car because of it, you see all of your neighbors and everyone is super friendly and happy. Christmas + Snow = Happy Happy!
* So last week was no school because of that. Silly Americans...
* I'm getting new glasses for Christmas :D
* Sara and I build a huge snow castle, it's really cool.
* I'm nitting a lot :) And crchet too, and lots of guitar :D
My year has so far been amazing and I love it! I'm sorry for not writing in the blog as much as i should, but I don't really have the time on weekdays and on weekends I do other stuff. But I will try really hard to be better!
God Jul!
Merry Christmas!
Feliz Navidad!
Joyeux Noël!
From Hulda :)
In a Christmas Mode
No snow, but the Christmas feeling is still there! My fairy tale about the teddy bear Fidelio is very Christmasish, I have Christmas songs on my iPod, lots of lights around the house, pepparkaks deg in the fridge, lussebullebak on Saturday, Christmasbreak begins the 19th so yes Merry Christmas to you all! :D
I have been busy latly, as usually. Two Youth groups now, one better than the other, track after school, home and do home work and no Jonny lives in the house anymore :( But I am doing fantastic :D
Today I did something very special! I auditioned for the talent show at Wilson, how cool isn't that?! So I played my guitar and sang a song, Nalens Oga by Kent. And it was fun, pretty nervus but it worked out. We'll see what happens next, I have no clue, so this story will be continued...
Well, I have to finish my home work now.
Happy Lucia! :)
St Peter, Minnesota
Hulda was in Minnesota for a little while. And she was the happiest girl in the whole world :)
St Peter <3
