Hej Hej från Jokkmokk

Hey all,

Well as most of you know, we finally made it to Jokkmokk last Tuesday around 3:30 pm Swedish time, so about 8:30 am back home in the states. The flight here was good, extremely long though about 8 1/2 hours and I think that I slept for a total of 30 minutes because I was so excited to finally be heading to Sweden. Since I couldn't sleep, I think I watched about 3 movies and listened to some Swedish techno that the plane provided. The only thing that bothered me was that everyone spoke Swedish, so I got really confused. Thankfully the female flight attendants realized we didn't understand Swedish, so the would speak to us in English, except for the male flight attendant. He refused to speak to me in English, so I would give him a really confused look and he would proceed to point at what he was talking about and continue to rattle on in Swedish. Thankfully we had made some friends in the form of an elderly Swedish couple, and thankfully they sat behind me, because they would translate what he was saying for me. I'm pretty sure that he thought I was Swedish and that either I just did't want to talk to him or that I wanted to be incredibly difficult. We finally landed in Stockholm around 7:45 am, so 12:45 am back in the states. The airport was kind of confusing and once again everyone spoke to me in Swedish, so I got a little bit frustrated. Finally after much confusion and aimless wandering, we reached our terminal. It was at this point we decided to take a nap. When we woke up it was time to board the plane that would take us to Luleå, so at 11:10 sharp we boarded. We landed in Luleå around 12:10 and Tom was there to greet us. We collected our baggage and made the trek to Jokkmokk.
Jokkmokk is the most beautiful town I have ever seen, as soon as I get some more pictures of the town I will post them. It is located in between some mountain ranges and is about 10k above the article circle. The weather here is cold. The on the first day we were okay just wearing light jackets, but one day two we had to bust out our winters coats, gloves and scarves. One day I mention that it was a little bit cold outside, and they all told me that I was in for a big surprise when the winter season starts.

Any who... here is a summary of what we've done so far.

On the tuesday that we got here, Tom gave us a brief tour of the town and then we had supper at his house and met his family.
On Wednesday we got to "sleep in". I say it like this because I am still having trouble adjusting to the time change. I find myself going to bed at 12am and waking up at 2am ( 5pm and 7pm in the states) and not being able to go back to sleep because my body is telling me that nap time is over. Around 10:30 am Tom came to take us to lunch, they eat lunch really early here. After lunch we were brought over to the school and introduced to the faculty and staff. Once we had been properly introduced, we had some free time and got to use the computers. Then we headed home for a short period of time and then went to make traditional Swedish sandwichs for the Bingo players (bingo is the cool thing here...especially if you are old)
Thrusday we started our work. We helped out at the snack shop at the school for a while and then were told to mingle with the student. We ended up teaching them the only card game we know, SCUM. As it were, one of the students, Nicolas, knew how to play, so we would tell him the rules in English and he would translate it to Swedish for his friends. It was a little rough at first, but by the time the kids had to go to class, we were having a blast. They are very quick learns and they are very competitive. After that we helped teach English to a class of Columbian immigrants. I never thougth I would hear Spanish being spoken in Sweden, let alone use what little Spanish I know, but I guess you are shocked by something new everyday. It was at this time we recieved our first dinner invitation from a Columbian by the name of Andres. So our night was spent with his family enjoying a traditional Swedish meal (potatoes, cheese and sausage all mixed together).
Friday was our first time actually working in an English class with the Swedes. It was a little bit awkward at first because they are shy and don't like to speak English in front of their whole class. So the teacher decided it would be for the best if we took 4 students at a time and talked with them. The first group didn't turn out so well, but by the time the second group came in we a discovered which questions were okay to ask and the ones that weren't, so it went a lot better. After that we ate lunch with Melissa, Turcan and Emelie, some of the girls that have become attached to us. When we came finished lunch and came back to the school, it was like someone had flipped the "The Americans aren't weird, let's invite them to play ping pong and talk to them" switch. It was great. I got owned in ping pong. Turns out that they are all really good at it. Then evening came around and it was time for our first Grottan (youth center) experience. We were all a little nervous and didn't really know what to expect. The way Tom had made it sound was that there wasn't going to be anyone our age there, they were all going to be young and not many people came. All of these things turned out to be wrong. It was a little slow at first, but soon we had a least 30 people there. It was a blast. I spent most of my time playing a ping pong game in which there are 4 or more people, two on each side, then you serve the ball and run to the other side. The point is to not let the ball hit the ground or to be the one that messes up, because you only get 3 strikes and then your out. You continue this until there are 2 people left and then you play normal ping pong. Well the Swedes are very competitive, so things got pretty intense. After playing ping pong for what seemed like ages, I sat down and talked with one of the Afgan refugees, named Salin. This peaked the interest of some of his friends, so they would ask him questions for me in Swedish and he would translate for me, then I would respond and he would translate for them. After a while some two of the guys that would speak in Swedish decided to try English... it was a bit broken, but I understood enough to get what they were trying to ask without to many miscommunications. All in all I thought it was a good night, with a good turn out and I can't wait for the next one.
Saturday was spent helping paint Andres's parents new house. After we had finished Andres invited to watch a moive and eat pizza at his house. I learned 2 things about Swedish pizza that night 1. It's freaking huge and 2. It's the best pizza I have had, besides Giordano's of course.
Sunday we went to our first meeting (church service). It was all in Swedish, so we didn't understand anything, which was very frustrating. Finally Tom and Disa came to sit with us and translate for us, which was very nice and helpful. After the service, we enjoyed some fika (snack time, they have this all the time here). Once fika was finish, we were introduced to the congregation. Before the meeting they had us write 4 facts about us that are true, and then they would guess which fact belonged to who, it was fairly intertaining. After the guessing had finished, they all prayed for us and welcomed us into the church. The afternoon was spent at school watching the Jokkmokk floor ball team crush some team that I don't know they name of. Floor ball is basically floor hockey, but instead of a puck they use a ball. It's a very intense and vicious game, I love it. I found myself cheering when they would do good and wincing when someone would get slammed into the wall or hit with a stick. That night we ate a delicious meal of fish and potatoes at Tom's house. After dinner, we chatted for some time and Emelie and Elis, church kids and our new friends, came over for dessert. Once dessert was finished we chatted some more about our interests, for example Elis (Emelie's older brother) loves to play football (good thing I brought one with me). Then it was time to go home and while we were getting in the car, Elis comes running over and tells us that you can see the Northern Lights. So he took us to the spot where you could see them the best. Wow they were beautiful! I have never seen anything like them. Elis then informed us that the colder it gets the prettier they become, so I can't wait to see them in the dead of winter!
Monday we had our first Svenska (swedish) class. It was really confusing yet fun at the same time. We learned how to ask what someones name is, where they live and where they came from. We also learned the alphabet and how to respond to the questions we learned to ask, I felt like a little kid starting school for the first time, but instead of being terrified of the first day, I was super excited! After our classes were done, we ate lunch and then headed back to the school where we spent the afternoon playing ping pong and talking to the students. That night we had a free night, so I decided it would be a good idea to go on a bike ride. It was really fun, except for the fact that I haven't been on a bike in about 8 years, so I was a bike wobbley at first. The ride was good, but I couldn't really see much because it was dark out, which kind of sucked. I hope that sometime in the near future we get time to explore the town in the light.
Today we had Svenska class again. We learned animal names, for example lodjur is bobcat and gås is goose. We also learned how to count in Swedish and write out simple math problems in Swedish. Right now we have free time, so I decided that this would be a good time to finish my blog. Around 1:15 we have a meeting with Tom, then more free time. One of the girls asked us to hang out with her today and I think/hope she is going to cut Sam's hair!!! After that we have to go to a concert. As you can see we are very busy.
Well this is my life in Jokkmokk so far, and I try to keep you updated as often as I can.

Adjö

-alyssa