I made it!

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I made it to Stockholm! I left Tuesday afternoon and arrived Wednesday morning at 7 Stockholm time. I hardly slept at all on the plane, so I was awake for 30 something hours! The plane ride was excellent. I got to sit in a window seat, and the guy next to me was very nice. He kept talking to me in Swedish though, so eventually nodding and smiling didn't work anymore, and I had to admit I had no clue what he was saying. I had my own TV on the seat in front of me, and it had games, movies, a catalog of stuff you could buy on the flight (weird stuff for airplane shopping), a map that showed how far we had gone, and cameras that let you watch what was happening in front of and under the plane. Unfortunatly, it was dark the whole way so I couldn't see anything.

A very nice girl named Nina picked me up from the airport and brought me to my friend Kenneth and Helena's house. they run the swing dance camp that I am here for, and I am babysitting their daughter, Alexandra. I'm also babysitting Mikey, the son of two other instructors, Ryan and Jenny from London. Alexandra is two, and Mikey is four. I have babysat both of them many times before, but they are getting easier, and easier to handle. They are so cute!

The house is really nice. It isn't right in Stockholm, it is in the countryside outside the city. It's yellow and looks out over a bunch of farm land. Staying in the house with me are Ryan, Jenny, Mikey, Steven (another friend and dance teacher from LA), and Anne-Helena and Bernard (I haven't met them yet...I think they are from Noway or Russia).

I keep forgetting that I'm in Sweden because so far I haven't done much. It's the little things taht are different, though. The toilets are different, the dish washers are different, the microwaves are different - everything is different. The coolest difference was the grocery store. All the tags on the shel telling you how much things cost are electronic. When you first walk in, you don't just get a cart, you get bags and a scanner. You scan things as you put them in your cart and then when you go to check out they hook the scanner up and you pay them. It's really fast and efficient but doesn't allow machines to replace humans completely.

Today Mikey, Alexandra, and I went on a walk in the woods. We found a path and it took us to a big feild that was really pretty, but also really, really muddy. Poor Alexandra couldn't even walk her boots got so caked with mud.

I'm having a great time, and I haven't even done anything yet!

Much love,
Sarah

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