Tori's First Impressions

Dear Family, Friends, and Teachers,
For the past week, I have been in Stockholm Sweden and it’s pretty cool. The family is very nice to me, even though they don’t know me that well. They helped me unpack things and settle in. So I’m settled in quite nicely, and the house is really cozy. The house has five bedrooms, one for me, and three bathrooms. I love it here, and I am starting to feel like family and I definitely feel safe in here.

In my family, they treat me like a daughter/sister. On the first day, there was a little family meeting were they told me their name, age, and career. There are five people in the Larsson family and they all had a bright smile when they saw me. The first people I met, were the twins, Gunnar and Gabriella Larsson who are both 12. They have straight, light brown hair, with water blue eyes. They greeted me and let me inside to see their home. Then they took me to see their older brother, Isak Larsson who’s 15 and has straight, blond hair and chocolate brown eyes, and their parents, Albert Larsson, 36 with blond hair and brown eyes like Isak, and Gala Larsson, 35 who also has brown hair and blue eyes just like Gunnar and Gabriella. They both came over and gave me a hug and some food. At the family meeting, I learned that Albert is CEO of Europcar and Gala is a singer. I was shocked that they were both really rich because they didn’t seem like they had a lot of money, and their house wasn’t fancy looking. All the kids play at least one sport. Well except for Gunnar. He plays every sport in the school year. Gabriella plays tennis and Isak plays ice hockey.

In Stockholm, they have weather like we do. In the winter, the warmest weather they had was 54 degrees fahrenheit, and the coldest was -17 degrees fahrenheit. There is snow on the ground and it is really cold. So I would be wearing my new sweatshirt I bought here the first day. The view here is beautiful. I watched the sunset, and it was amazing. In Sweden, I saw a huge bridge, a statue, a lot of boats, and their flag. I love it here in Sweden, but the only thing is that Stockholm is almost all city. I am looking forward to walking around and shopping some more, because they have some pretty cool things here. I also want to see the Turning Torso and the Ice Hotel.

Now that it’s the first week here in Stockholm, I will be having fun here and hanging out with mostly my family. I think I will love it here more and make new friends. Hope to write you soon!

Love,
Tori Lynn

spain

FOREIGN FRIDAYS PIECE THOMAS 1/8/10

My family’s name is Perez. And the family members are: David Perez(father), Maria Perez(mother), Leslie Perez(daughter), Joshua Perez(son), Joseph Perez(son), Ocian Perez(son). i will be staying with this family in madrid,spain. our house is amazing and how they can a ford it is: the dad is an architect, the mom is a doctor and she owns the hospital she works at, leslie works a lemonade stands with some friends of her, and joshua and joseph mow lawns and help there aunt with her real estate and they also help their uncle in his lot/car and auto supplies car shop. This family is very rich and helpful to anyone who needs or wants it. The house is a four bedroom house with three bathrooms, and a huge family room, and a huge kitchen too!

Berlin, Germany

Germany

Berlin, Germany is amazing! The sights here are so gorgeous like the Wurlitzer Park. The parks are just so amazing beautiful and clean. Unlike some parks that people just throw trash on the ground! But in Germany the parks are so clean and well taken care of!

Unlike other parks and sights here in Germany, are so different then sights back home in Maine where people are just to lazy to pick up there own garbage! But in Germany the people are just so kind to there sights and use their resources better than the people back in Maine!

My home in Germany is just so welcoming but my family is just so kind then normal they are treating me like I am part of their family in Germany!

Like, for example, my new mom Julia who is 30 years old! Who is just so kind, even though me and the others have to do chores because she doesn’t want to spoil us to much with her yummy cooking or being to nice and giving us what ever we want like she normally does! But then it comes to her job, which is a computer specialist!

Then their is my new dad Jorg who is also 30 years old but he is the opposite! He doesn’t like to spoil us with yummy treats! He is more of the “lets go outside and play some fuseball (soccer) or a good game of basketball” type. And if we do have a basketball or fuseball game we will be outside for like about 2 hours which is not normal for me! But most of the time he is at his job as a air traffic controller! Which is like supper amazing cause he loves to buy us children new things!

Then there is my almost sister that I never had back home! Lulu is 13 years old like me! She loves to do almost every same thing as I do basically. She loves to play her volleyball and basketball! And she is the most funniest person I have ever met always making people laugh like me and my friends usually do back home! But she is like me in many ways! She likes the same American bands that I do! In away I somewhat consider her as my actual twin!

Then their is my other new sister Gabi which is only 8 years old and she is also our little sister who loves basketball pretty much like the rest of the family does! But she is also the most carefullest person I have ever met, she is like cautious in everything that she will do! But then when it comes to learning she is very serious about learning, unlike her classmates, sisters, or brothers!

Then their is my new brother Max who is also 13 years old and when it comes to play basketball with him you have to fight back cause he is very serious when he plays. But he loves to be around his friends!

Lulu who I share a room with right know is like three times the size then my room back in Maine. The walls are a blueish color with two big windows, probably the size of a small car! And everything in the room is like oober awesome, comfy, and blue!

Me and my new family live in a house with like 20 rooms but they turned a couple of the rooms into 2 more bathrooms so we didn’t have to wait long and so we didn’t have to go to the other side of the apartment floor that they own! Even though the whole floor that they own used to be a whole bunch of small hotel rooms! All I can say is the floor that they own is very welcoming and cozy!

FRANCE DAYS

Dear mom,

I’m having a great time in Paris France, the house and people I’m staying are great, the kitchen is neat and the dinning room is clean and is nice to eat in. By the way the food in france is great, Marshall is a chef and makes the best I food ever tasted. the schools are hard to understand because everyone is speaking french, even the teachers. Overall, I love it here and There is so much to see and do I can’t possibly be homesick, like camp kieve.

In case you don’t know who Marshall Legrand is, he is Roy’s father,( Roy’s the kid I’m staying with) Nadia is Roy’s mother. They have a dog named Rey, he’s nice and friendly and goes to his dog restaurant, yeah they have dog restaurants in France. Nadia is a waitress but works at a different restaurant than Marshall. They are all kind and friendly and we are all having a great time listening to each others stories of experiences. Marshall as you know is a chef and is a good one at that, so far I haven't got to talk to him much but he does seem happy about his job. Roy is the person I’m going to school with and he likes to play active games outside or inside, alot of times with Rey. Roy is a fun person who understands english the most but his parents knows it too. Nadia is a waitress as you know and knows the least english but she is kind and friendly like the rest of the family.

I am happy so far here and look forward to see the Efel tower and learn more about the children in France, and more about France in general.

Sincerely,
Andrew

Letter from Austria

Dear Bloggers,
I lasted through my first week in Austria, and guess what? I LOVE IT HERE! Everyone is making me feel like part of the family, especially Cari, my host mother. Every night before bed when Gerry isn’t home yet, she gives each of us kids a small piece of apple strudel. Cari is an amazing cook, almost as good as my mom. You would never guess by just looking at her. She’s thin as a twig and her blonde curls fall around her shoulders and cascade down her back when she wears it down. Most of the time she wears it up though in a tight little bun. When I asked her why, she just shrugged. Of coarse, either Axel, Rose, or Gerry have to help us converse. I think I’ll try to teach her English and maybe she can teach me some German. I’ve already picked up a few words. They are Willkommen(welcome), du(you), angelangt(arrive), and unbedenklich(safely). That would be nice. You can tell she’s a lawyer, though. Whenever someone takes a second strudel when no one is around, she can always find out who did it.
Then there’s Gerry, my host father. Gerry is so much fun to be around. He always takes his work home and asks us what we think would make a good video-game. Of course, Nanda has the best ideas because she has a wild imagination. Gerry has quite an imagination, too. That’s probably why he tells each child a story before bed. He saves me and Rose for last because he said we’re special and he thinks we deserve it cause we share a room. We are the only ones who do that. So far, I think Gerry is a lot like my real dad, funny and playful. After our story, Gerry has us recite this prayer:
Thank you, God
for today,
You blessed my work
you blessed my play.
I really think it is a sweet prayer to say at night. I like it.
There are two girls in my family, Rose(Roselyn) and Nanda. Rose is 13 and is my main translator in the family. She can be a couch potato at times but otherwise she is pretty awesome. She likes to play around with cosmetics and I’m usually her mannequin. Not that I mind. I like to help her out and let her play around with the stuff I brought with me. I guess it was a good thing to. The only problem is that she does her make-up really, how do I say this, unique. She like to cover her eyelids till you can’t see any skin anymore! She does all this to Nanda, too. Nanda is even more willing then me. She lets her do her hair. I made the mistake of letting Rose do mine when I first got there and ended up with having to get my hair cut shorter. Trust me, you don’t want to know. My hair is still long, though. Nanda will never learn. She is only six after all. She’s real sweet to me. She gives me kisses before bed every night. I like it. It reminds me of my brother back at home. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I really miss that kid.
Axel is, how do I put this, Axel. He’s kind of a brainiac really. He’s trying so hard to learn about me that it’s kind of touching. He doesn’t really like to talk about how school is for him. I can’t seem to figure out why, though. He keeps his life to himself. I can’t say as much about me. He pries for more and more info on me and my life and everything else, especially my family. I’ve told him everything I can without being to personal. I fight the most with him. It’s like we’re actually siblings. I’m not even kidding. We fight about food, his sisters, what I teach him, about my brother, we even fight about whose socks are whose. But I still think he’s pretty awesome. He likes to teach me the games they play in Austria, like cricket. Some of them are pretty neat.
The house is really cool, too. There are four bedrooms, meaning Gerry and Cari share a room, Axel gets his own, Nanda gets her own, and Rose and I bunk together. The only problem is that there are only one and a half bathrooms which is hard to handle with three teenagers in the house. The dining area is also the living room. It is actually a really big room and I think it’s my favorite. There is where we discuss family issues. I like how they include me in the decisions they make. The coolest part of the house is the...wait for it... POOL! I wish I’d brought a bathing suit. Cari says she’ll buy me a new one, though. The outside of the house is like a mixture of modern and older style. It has a tan coloring to it, a lot of shades of brown. Since we live in the suburbs of Vienna, there is a lot of beautiful forestry and really clear skies at night, the kind you don’t see in the actual city.
So far, everything is good. I love all of my family(although I really miss others speaking fluent English). I’m looking forward to starting school. Thanks for blogging with me.
Your Friend,
Haley

This is my time in Denmark

Dear family and friends at home, 

 I’m here now, and I’m still a little nervous. I don’t know the little rules, and I don’t want to do something that is frowned upon in that country. Or say something that is again their religion. I’m sure that once I get more settled in, I’ll be more comfortable with this. They have a nice home here.  It has most of the comforts of an American house. A television,hardwood floors, many plants in the house, and, they have a fish. His name is Jecka, he’s pretty cool, and he was the first thing that I noticed, other than the cobblestone streets. Over all it’s pretty nice here. the people a really nice, all through the town, and the people in on our street, all waved, and said something, that was hard to understand for me.  Copenhagen, is a nice city, is not to bus, and bustling, like New York, but quieter, more laid back. It’s easy to get settled here. 

I have my own room now, on the first night, i had to sleep on the floor with their oldest child, Nikolaj, he’s 14. I learned allot about him that night. He’s really quiet, i found that out early on. But, i also learned that he’s really involved in sports. He likes wrestling, and says he’s really good at it. I didn’t believe him, until I told him to prove it. Yeah he took me down in about half a second, and pinned me. And he is on a swim team. He told me that he didn’t like it that much, but everybody says that hes got potential. He says that he does it because his friends do it, and thats the only reason he does. He’s allot taller then me, maybe 5’9, with dirty blonde hair that curls above his eyes. 

He also has a sister, he name is Naja, which is pronounced (Na`sha). Shes a cute little girl, and she’s quite interesting. I thought she would be shy like her brother, because when her family picked me up from the air port, she hid behind her mother, and father. But after a couple of days, when she got to be around me more, she was a bursting ball of energy.  She loves animals, and people. Pretty muchlike any girl in America, but, ten times that. She does gymnastics, and wants to be a dancer when she grows up. 

The parents, are allot different though. The father, Jesper, is very, very, artistic, and loves shapes, and sizes and colors. He works as a photographer for a magazine in Denmark, and has his own painting business. Well, its not really a business,as much as, he paints things, then he sells them.

The mother, Pernille, is a very quiet, and generous school history teacher. She is very smart, and knows more about her country than anny other person in he world (just a guess).

They All live in a modern house. It looks like something that you would see on a sub-urb, except two stories, not one. Its white, but very detailed on the inside.hardwood floors, a ceiling fan hat looks like palm leave. And more of a “jungle” type house. (jesper’s idea).

They live on a street near a park, and its only about a mile to the ocean. It’s pretty quiet, and really green, theres trees everywhere, but it oes well witht the buidings and such.

I think that all I really want to do now, is just take a walk around town, to see where everything is, and where I’m going to be for the next 6 months.

Finland

My name is Bryce Scott and I am an exchange student from the U.S.A and I am living with my host family in Finland. This is to all the people in America. This is my experience in Finland.

My family is a family of 5: The dad Axel is 35 and he is lawyer in Helsinki. He loves music and spends time with his kids,likes camping in Koli National Park in Finland.

The mom Emma is 32. She teaches English and she loves tubing in Lake Pieilnen.

The brother William is 12. He is athletic and loves playing Pesapallo. It is a similar to American baseball. He and I are a lot alike. He loves to play sports and when we have the house to our self we love to watch T.V.

The sister Sara is 14 and she is laid back. She loves music. Her favorite artist are Linkin Park,Skillet,Slipknot,Pitbull and Flo Rider.

The brother Jonna is 10. He loves to pull pranks with the whole family. His favorite sport is soccer.

We live in a 2 story house outside of the capital Helsinki. It is a 4 bedroom. I share a room with William. We have bunk beds. And Sara and Jonna have there own bedroom. The family loves to spend time in the family room. It has a 40 inch T.V.

I am looking forward to living with my new family and finding what kind of food they eat. And what the time is like in Finland. I never knew what it was like to have 2 brother that love me.