I apologize, I apologize

Hey All!
I'm sorry that I've been slacking in the blog department lately - it's been very busy around here this past week. It was my last week of Swedish class, which we wrapped up with a good 'ole exam on Saturday. I'm not sure how I did yet, but I'm pretty sure that I passed and therefore, will get credits for the course. (It's weird to think that I already have some credits before my friends back at UMass have even started their courses.) Other than finishing up Swedish course, last week wasn't very eventful other than what has become the "normal" weekly schedule - "family" dinners, Tuesday & Thursday night dancing, corridor parties & fika. Speaking of "fika," I don't think that I have explained what that is.
Here is your Swedish lesson for the day:
In Swedish the verb "fikar" means "to have coffee." It is tradition in Sweden to have "fika," or to sit down and have coffee/tea/pastries with friends either during the afternoon or evening. Not only do we have fika at home, but many of the nations also have fika where you can purchase the aforementioned items. It's a very relaxing experience and you have an excuse to take a break and socialize with all of your friends. I think that you all should implement fika into your daily lives. ;) (It's great stress relief.)

But anyway...other than fika and my exam, everything else has been great as well, as usual. Now that our course is over it's going to be more difficult to continue seeing all of the International friends that I have made, but I think that we'll all make it work. I've made some great friends that I hope to keep for quite some time (this way when I travel, I'll always have somewhere to stay!). We've had some pretty great experiences so far - take, for example, our post-exam barbecue. This Saturday, after our exam, a bunch of us got together for a barbecue at Niels' (New Zealand) house. We had some very good food, played a little Frisbee (thanks Mom!), and as has become tradition here, started up a bit of a karaoke session. Luckily, some songs ("Livin' on a Prayer" and various Justin Timberlake, for example) are multi-cultural, so it is quite entertaining. I'm still trying to spread country music to the rest of the world...and it will definitely happen, just a bit more work.

Other than that, my classes are starting up this week. I currently am taking two classes (one is half speed for 8 weeks and the other is full speed for 4 weeks - usually you only take one class at a time), one is "Organisations in a Global Society" and the other is "Swedish Politics." The Organisations class seems very interesting, and is mostly seminar/discussion based which is nice, but I haven't had the Politics course yet, but hopefully it will be worthwhile and maybe go toward my International Relations Certificate. I'll keep you updated.

So pretty much class is going to be what my life is (supposed to be) about for the next few months, though I hope to do some traveling. We're already planning a trip to visit Malmo, a city in the South of Sweden near Copenhagen, as well as weekend getaways to Switzerland, Finland, Ireland, and London. Hopefully all of them will pull themselves together because it would be amazing to get to travel to all of those places.

Well, that is all for now. I promise I'll keep up on this more.

Love you all!!!
Amanda