JOURNAL

Day 1 – Tuesday 22 nd October Impressions Today was the first day here in Sweden and we did lots of activities. First of all, we went to school and we gathered in the Auditorium, where we Italians presented our school, our town and ourselves as well. Then some Swedish students had a sort of debate about Brexit. After that we went to a classroom, we divided into groups and a teacher explained to us what we had to do: we had to reflect on the two poems we had studied before, trying to understand what the purpose of the author was and what message she wanted to convey, and share the one that we had chosen individually. Later, to get more inspired we had a walk around the city, Örebro, so that we could take pictures of an artwork to link it to the poem we thought was the best. Then, we gathered in a park and we had lunch all together. In the afternoon we went back to school so that we could continue working on the posters and at about 4 p.m. we went home. Later Kelli, her older sister Millie, her mother and I decided to go to IKEA, where we had dinner together.

What I’ve learnt I think today I've improved the way I speak in public: indeed, even if I was really nervous because I was afraid not to give my best, I tried to be more confident to give people a good first impression of me. Moreover, I've noticed that the Swedish are much more interested than us in certain issues like climate change and feminism. Indeed, for example, my host family told me that in the Swedish language they have a neutral pronoun, neither masculine nor feminine, to indicate a person without referring to his/her gender.

Day 2 – Wednesday 23 rd October Impressions On the second day of our trip we went to Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden, so we had to take the bus from the central station at 8 am. Once we arrived there, about two and a half hours later, we had a guided tour at Livrustkammaren , the oldest museum in Sweden, founded in 1628 by Gustave II Adolf. Then we had some free time before lunch, during which we could go shopping, have a snack or explore the city centre. At about 3.30 p.m. we had lunch in a very nice Thai restaurant. I ordered chicken curry and some vegetables, but to be honest I didn't really like it because it tasted quite spicy. Anyway I liked that restaurant because of its atmosphere and also because the staff was really kind and helpful. In the afternoon we walked to the Vasa Museum, where we saw the biggest Swedish military mistake ever, the Vasa ship. After that it was time to come back home, so we took the bus to Orebro. What I've learnt During this day I learnt a lot of interesting things about the Swedish history. For example, I found the visit at the Vasa Museum very interesting. There we also saw a short movie about the ship. It's amazing to see how it could have remained intact after 333 years under the sea! At the same time I really appreciated the Livrustkammaren museum: there were thousands of weapons, beautiful dresses, coins and many other things. I think the guide was really good at keeping our attention high, because he spoke slowly and clearly, so that everyone could understand what he said and he also told us some funny stories about past events.

Day 3 – Thursday 24 th October Impressions This morning we had regular lessons at school with our hosts. First I attended the rethoric class with my host Kelli, where the Swedish students had to prepare a speech about a topic they were interested in, for example euthanasia, terrorism or democracy. I think this subject is pretty similar to Latin literature, because they studied how to organize their texts to attract people's attention and to persuade and convince them. Then we had a Maths lesson all together, during which the teacher, Pernilla, gave us some simple exercises we had to do. We worked in pairs and I have to admit that we Italians were much more prepared than the Swedish students, so we had to help them to solve the problems. Later we went to the Auditorium because there was a peace concert, where some students played instruments or danced on the stage and they were really good. At about midday we had lunch in the school canteen, and after the break, we had a P.E class in the main gym. In the afternoon we had to prepare some cookies for Friday's Halloween party, so Kelli, and I baked them together, as did other Italian students with their hosts. What I've learnt I think that the Swedish school system is very different from the Italian one. The first thing I noticed was that they are much more progressive: indeed, students have lockers to put their stuff in and personal computers that they can use to study and to do their homework. Their lessons are different as well: indeed, they are longer, because they last about one and a half hours, but they have more breaks in-between. Kelli also told me that they are paid to go to school, about 1500 Swedish crowns per month! Anyway, today I've also learnt something more about their typical food: indeed, for the party we baked some chocolate balls with coconut, which are really popular in Sweden.

Day 4 – Friday 25 th October Impressions On the last morning of our trip to Sweden we walked around the city centre with some students of the third year. We started from the school and we stopped in five different places: the Castle, the main park, the town hall, the church and a neighborhood with a museum and some shops. Between one stop and another, they had planned some games to make the walk more pleasant. After that, we went back to school and we had lunch. In the afternoon we finished the posters we had started on the first day and then each group had to present theirs, explaining why we had chosen that poem and how we linked it to a certain artwork. Later we had to fill in a questionnaire, which was a sort of evaluation of the week we spent there. Then we went to the library of the school and we had fika time together. Since we still had time, we decided to go to the gym so that the Swedish students could teach us some typical dances, such as the penguin dance. In the evening, the Swedish students had organized a Halloween party, to raise money for their school, so that they could go on a trip, so we went there and we helped them to decorate the venue. The party ended at about 1 a.m., but we had to clean up the place, so we went back home pretty late. Main church in Orebro

What I've learnt Thanks to this project I've learnt a lot of interesting things about Sweden, especially about its culture and its traditions. Furthermore, practicing English the whole time helped me to improve my pronunciation and my speaking. In the end I think that this experience helped me to become more confident, more extroverted and also more responsible because I could count on my abilities.