Countdown to familiar sounds, sights, and daunting expectations

I’m looking ahead to reentry.

Spring semester is drawing to a close back at UAF, along with my own experience studying abroad at Mid Sweden University. A month from now I’ll be departing Sweden. That prospect has me thinking about my return to American culture.

I long to be free of the need to pack my pocket dictionary on grocery store visits, so I can read the ingredients on food.

I look forward to hearing my own language in the background. I miss understanding every thing in that goes on around me, from what the bus driver says, to the person in front of me, to what my friends say on the phone. It will be a relief when I no longer hear my country as the butt of jokes about fat people or the political blunders of head political officials. No matter how much agree with these jokes they still wear on me.

Flying from Stockholm to Ostersund a few days ago, I received a copy of the New York Herald Tribune. The pleasure the gift delivered had less to do with the international news, but in knowing exactly what was being reported. I’m now well accustomed to looking at books and newspapers in Swedish. I can piece together the meaning of the foreign text, but nuisances and intricacies in the writing escape me.

I had all most forgotten what it felt like to read something easily.

My departure form Sweden also marks the end of my collage career. This astounds me: after five years of effort, spanning three universities and a semester abroad, I will be done.

Finishing school is bitter sweet. Part of me can’t wait. There is feeling of accomplishment that I can’t fully describe. At the same time, it’s terrifying.

I’m expected to take what I’ve learned and apply it in work place. Fear about what comes following collage has been creeping in on me for days. I am caught between worrying about this looming transition in to the “real world” and excitement about being done with university life.

I want summer so bad I can taste it. A Rare call from a friend back home coupled with a care package containing BBQ sauce left me longing for the laziness of American summer. Endless days of swimming at local lakes and Back yard BBQs with cheep American beer. In the last few days I have realized that it’s not this summer that I’m longing for, what I really miss is something that doesn’t exist any more. Times are changing among my friends; the coming of careers and in some cases families had brought an end to the lakeside debauchery that once meant summer.
I want this next month to go slowly, allowing me time for savoring Sweden’s language and culture. When I think about things I’m really going to miss it comes down to people. It’s the people here who have taught me the most about this country. People who have opened up their homes and hearts to me, helping me to feel like an insider instead of an outsider. I have made amazing friends I wouldn’t trade the world for.

This past semester opened my mind. It’s helped me to understand how the world works.
Humans tend to assume the way we are used to doing things is the only way. Living in another culture forces you to realize this world supports many different views.

One thing for sure: Sweden hasn’t seen the last of me.