Monthly report - March

Åre is an amazing town. The Åre and Duved mountains are…indescribable.

40 Rotary students currently on exchange staying in Sweden were chosen to attend a ski camp in Åre from the 22nd – 26th of March. I was picked as one of those lucky few. On the Sunday (22nd) because the ski/snowboard hire wasn’t ready yet, the students went to a big indoor swimming centre in the middle of the snow in Åre. I wasn’t feeling well so I stayed as dry as I could and I took photos, there was also a gym, bowling lanes, mini golf and a few other pretty cool things. There was a small pool in one corner of the centre which led to an outside pool, some people were even crazy enough to get out of the nice warm water and run in the snow. Me? I was just as happy taking photos of the crazy people.

On Sunday night, everyone got fitted up to their boots, helmets and skis or boards, then we kept our boots on and went wild in the snow, had a LOT of fun and played some games as well.

On Monday we all trekked to Åre, where we had our first out of two lessons for the week. It was my first time snowboarding. And I wasn’t doing so well to begin with, but about 1 and a half hours (out of 2) into my lesson, I started actually being able to move around without having someone next to me the whole time, then I fell. Bad mistake, when I fell backwards I put my hand back to break my fall and it started hurting really badly. I almost fractured my wrist. An hour and a half is all it took for me to hurt myself, haha.

I got a bandage for my arm and went back to the hotel we were staying at. There went me going snowboarding for the rest of the week, it hurt so much so I took it easy for the rest of the week. On Wednesday everyone went to Åre and took the ‘Gondola’ up to the top of the mountain, it was a tad chilly up there. Negative 25 degrees to be precise, And I was in jeans, a thermal top and a jacket. Not the warmest clothing for -25 degree weather, I was freezing.

I did however meet a very nice girl, Louise, who lives in the Bentleigh/Brighton area in Victoria. Who I’d only seen once when hopping on the plane to go to Singapore airport, and in passing I asked her what footy team she goes for and she replied with ‘When I say I go for this team, I stick with them even when they’re doing really badly, I go for Melbourne’ (which is the best team in the world :D) and I was so happy I’d finally found someone who goes for the Demons too. We got very…energized and stayed that way for the rest of the night, we plan on meeting up when we get back in Australia and going to the football together.

On Wednesday night, there was a Rotary club of Åre meeting and all the exchange students got into their country groups and had to do a presentation in Swedish, about a different country. Australia’s presentation was about Taiwan, and all 19 of us said about 1 line each.

Everyone had a blast.

The train rides were a long, dull and boring 13 hours, so we passed the time by talking on the way there and there was a lot of sleeping on the way back.



Before the trip to Åre there was a District 2360 Conference in Göteborg on the 21st. All the students in the district met in the city and we each did a performance or talk on our country. Daisy (the other Aussie in my district) and I did a 5 minute ‘mime’ of Australia’s history. Everyone loved it.



I’m still with the Arveståhl family, Rotary are still trying to find me a family.

School’s the same as usual confusing but fun, my Swedish lessons are coming along pretty well too.

There’s going to be an ANZAC day commemoration in Göteborg on the 25th of April. All the Aussies and Kiwi Rotary students in Sweden have been invited to go. So I’ll be able to see a fair few exchangers again then.

I’ve had a cold but I’m getting better from that.


Hey då!


Corinne