Will update my blog instead
Hi dear reader!
I will not use this blog to post anything more Borlänge-Wuhan related. Instead visit my personal blog at: tobiaswestman.blogspot.com
Made in Sweden
Today we went to Tällberg for the christmas market! I think it was a success! :-D
We got there by bus, just a quick ride of ~60 minutes from Borlänge to Tällberg.
We parked by the big julgran (christmas tree) and went down to the village and started exploring the different shops. All with home-made products – made in Sweden :-)
Some of the girls wanted to paint their own Dalahäst (Dalahorse) after they had seen all the beautifully painted ones that the store sold :-)
We had to take a break in painting the horses so we could get something to eat, on the way up to the restaurant there where these stone-babies playing around in someones garden, and Rose :-D
Julglögg, dinner and friends making faces ^,^
Ice-skating works even if you don't have any ice-skates on.
Time to finish those Dalahästar and to let the girls know how long it takes for a professional to paint one horse just like they did.
It took the girls about 60 minutes to paint their horse. In the picture below we tell the girls it takes a professionals 1½ minute to paint one horse.
Time to get back to Borlänge!
We got there by bus, just a quick ride of ~60 minutes from Borlänge to Tällberg.
We parked by the big julgran (christmas tree) and went down to the village and started exploring the different shops. All with home-made products – made in Sweden :-)
Some of the girls wanted to paint their own Dalahäst (Dalahorse) after they had seen all the beautifully painted ones that the store sold :-)
 |
| Concentration is the key for great details |
We had to take a break in painting the horses so we could get something to eat, on the way up to the restaurant there where these stone-babies playing around in someones garden, and Rose :-D
Julglögg, dinner and friends making faces ^,^
Ice-skating works even if you don't have any ice-skates on.
Time to finish those Dalahästar and to let the girls know how long it takes for a professional to paint one horse just like they did.
 |
| Yes, really. 1½ minute. But you painted your horses beautifully :-) |
Different days, different work
So this was the third and final day of this weeks field study. I went with Mimi to Hessegården where we met Marko who showed us around. This was also the second day with snow, and a lot of snow.
The area outside Hessegården was very white and beautiful and Mimi really loved the snowy landscape but not the cold winds that blew in our faces when we walked from the car to indoors :-). In Hessegården Mimi meet the elderly living in one of the wards, they where all just as friendly to her as they had been with Rose and Season yesterday and the day before.
Mimi asked a lot of questions and me and Marko tried to answer them best we could in English, some Swedish words are just hard to explain since they don't have any perfect English translation. But Mimi did great and even understood when we couldn't find the words!
Mimi was truly really impressed with how we take care of our elderly with dementia in Hessegården, and I know she will take the experience and knowledge she got here and put it in good use when she gets back to Wuhan. :-)
In the afternoon, after lunch at Oktaven we went to Kupolen mall to shop. The girls bought some watches, a lot of chocolate and a few other things like tea and cosmetics. One thought thou; It is really hard to find products beside from cosmetics that are not 'made in China'. A lot of the stuff in Kupolen is made in China. We told the girls that on sunday when we get to the christmas market in Tällberg there will be handmade products from Sweden. Hopefully they have some money to spend on that too :-)
Tomorrow we all get a visit from one of our Chinese friends at our home. And we get to show them how we live, treat them to typical swedish 'husmanskost' and do some fun activity with them. But I'm not gonna spoil what the plan is exactly, that I'll tell you when we've done it. But it involves snow :-D
Have a good night and a good sleep, I know I will. Peace!
The area outside Hessegården was very white and beautiful and Mimi really loved the snowy landscape but not the cold winds that blew in our faces when we walked from the car to indoors :-). In Hessegården Mimi meet the elderly living in one of the wards, they where all just as friendly to her as they had been with Rose and Season yesterday and the day before.
Mimi asked a lot of questions and me and Marko tried to answer them best we could in English, some Swedish words are just hard to explain since they don't have any perfect English translation. But Mimi did great and even understood when we couldn't find the words!
Mimi was truly really impressed with how we take care of our elderly with dementia in Hessegården, and I know she will take the experience and knowledge she got here and put it in good use when she gets back to Wuhan. :-)
In the afternoon, after lunch at Oktaven we went to Kupolen mall to shop. The girls bought some watches, a lot of chocolate and a few other things like tea and cosmetics. One thought thou; It is really hard to find products beside from cosmetics that are not 'made in China'. A lot of the stuff in Kupolen is made in China. We told the girls that on sunday when we get to the christmas market in Tällberg there will be handmade products from Sweden. Hopefully they have some money to spend on that too :-)
Tomorrow we all get a visit from one of our Chinese friends at our home. And we get to show them how we live, treat them to typical swedish 'husmanskost' and do some fun activity with them. But I'm not gonna spoil what the plan is exactly, that I'll tell you when we've done it. But it involves snow :-D
Have a good night and a good sleep, I know I will. Peace!
Labels:
china
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chocolate
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experience
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hessegården
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knowledge
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shopping
Jättebra!
We had lunch at Cozmoz after todays welcome-meeting. We ate christmas porrige with cinnamon and sugar, ham on bread with mustard and the chinese girls drank Julmust for the first time. I think they will get used to Julmust but some of their first reactions to the sugary soda was priceless :-D
There was also a performance at Cozmoz with violins which I think our new friends enjoyed very much. Below is a short movie from the performance.
During the performance the three chinese girls at my table, Rebirth, Bubble and Season wanted to know how you pronounce 'very good!' in swedish (jättebra!). It was a gag to hear them practice saying it for the rest of the performance. I think they practiced it till they put their tongues in a knot, jättebra, jättebra, jättebra, jättebra! :-)
Meeting time
I was all calm and smooth sailing yesterday evening, not a worry that things would get real and we would meet our Chinese friends today.
But during the night I had a very light sleep, waking up with an uneasy mind, like there was something I had forgotten, then falling asleep again. To repeat the pattern.
15 minutes before the alarm went off a realisation startled me:
- How would we - me and my chinese student friend - get to our assigned field study on wednesday?! I started checking the bus time-table in panic! Since we have to be on field study at 08:00 am we would have to either ride two busses for a totalt time of 58 minutes, or, walk three kilometers in the dark into town and get on just one bus for 15 minutes.
"Who would walk three kilometers in the morning darkness with someone they just met?"
I asked myself.
Luckily when we meet up at school and the welcome meeting, my classmates Frida and Doris had av solution. Why not borrow Doris car and drop off her and her chinese friend in town, then take the car to our field study outside of town?
That's perfect! It's faster and more practical for everyone, even Doris who doesn't have to pay for parking since I am taking the car.
A trivial problem, but an stressful start on two well-planned weeks with our chinese exchange students. :-)
On a airplane
Well, not me.
But our chinese friends are on the plane traveling 800+ km/h towards Arlanda as I write this.
In a couple of hours they will be met by a small swedish delegation at Arlanda and then escorted to the bus that will be taking them to Borlänge. I know they might be somewhat jet-lagged from traveling back (clockwise) 7 hours and not getting any real sleep until they get to the hostel in Borlänge.
Hopefully they will be somewhat rested when me and Doris pick them up and take them to the inauguration ceremony at Komvux tomorrow! :-)
The blog about
In my studies to become and Nursing Assistant, I have had the opportunity to participate in an student exchange program thanks to my hometown Borlänge and Borlänges sister-city Wuhan in China. We are twelve swedish students that are taking care of twelve Chinese students from December 2-16.
Then in the spring of 2014, us twelve Swedes will get the chance to travel to China and Wuhan where we will study, experience and learn from the Chinese youths in matters of education and healthcare.
I hope you will follow this blog as I intend to keep you updated on the latest happenings on the Borlänge–Wuhan cooperation that I am a part of. :-)
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