Afterparty

Today, Im saying goodbye to this part of my life. This is the last day, that is my new normal. Tomorrow, everything is going to change again. Tomorrow, we are picking up my family from the JFK airport, NYC.

I feel so incredibly happy to have been able to do this. The good times and the bad times, all mix in to one year that I can without doubt call the MVP of my life so far. I am not who I was when I came, but at the dame time, I am exactly that.

The last week of school was celebrated with the Lawn Ceremony, where all the upcoming seniors aka my class get pulled onto the “senior lawn”, the lawn on campus that only the seniors are allowed on. It symbolizes the official transition from junior to senior. Then, the graduating seniors line up in one long line and the rest of the school in another. Then, you go through the line and hug every senior at the school, all of us. It takes a while, but at the end, everyone in the school has hugged every senior goodbye.

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This was when it hit me, I am not coming back. I am leaving all this, and even when I visit, it will just never be exactly the same. It would be a blown out lie if I said this year has been a dance on roses, it took me what felt like an eternity to built what I had in the end, but what I had, because of all the people around me, ultimately felt like a twisted kind of perfection. I loved every day of it, and cherished every second of my last weeks. During lawn ceremony, I cried and cried out of love and gratefulness for all the people I have been lucky enough to get to know.

It has been bittersweet, seeing the seniors graduate and leave campus, taking my final exams, packing up my room, all the while watching the population on campus become smaller and smaller. I left campus two days after my last exam, so that I could spent some time just being with everyone close to me before I had to go. All the goodbyes I said the last few hours, were happy ones. I decided that no tears would run down my face this  time, all these were going to be “goodbye-for-nows”. I am determined to come back to visit all my looooves again.

I packed up my whole room, and left on a Friday to go home to the my host family, the Marencos. It was odd, being my room for the year striped down to what it looked like before the chaos that was me and my roommates incredible mess.

My year is not over yet, but the afterparty has started.

Much love,
Your Jo

 

Formal and Prom

I was lucky enough to get to go to both. For anyone who does not know, formal and prom are dances that schools organize but they are slightly different. Prom is fancier, usually with long dresses, professional hair and makeup, fancier suits, sometimes dinner, so its basically an all-day commitment. Formal is just a dance, at Westy with shorter dresses and more causal suits. Westy does not have a prom but a formal, which was this monday. I think they have it on mondays to make sure students don’t stay up too late or do anything stupid. I was asked to formal by Chris with this awesome sign

 

 

Going off of me and Becca’s song for Cabaret, take a chance on me by ABBA. My music teacher made us sing it in chorale class and suddenly Chris pops up singing the chorus with the sign! Anyway, it was a fun time, pictures and then a dance. I love the flowers he got me.

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I was lucky enough to get asked to prom at Canterbury School, another coed private school, by a guy who is friends with the guys who asked Becca and Indy. The six of us ended up having a really great time together, and “American prom” was pretty much what I had hoped and expected it to be. Me, Becca and Indy got our hair done professionally which I’ve never done before and I was more than happy with the result!!

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I got to borrow this absolutely gorgeous dress from Ally’s friend Cara, who I’ve gotten to know. I am extremely grateful to her for that, it really is a dress of my dreams. I bought shoes and jewelry that I loved, and then a rose boutonniere for my prom date Lenny. When we met them, they had corsages for us, matching the color of our dresses, which is the only thing we told them about our outfits. It was all so formal and really special, those little details! haha

It started with pictures, of which we took a bunch, then we had a cocktail kind of mingling with the other people, I think we were about 150 in total. All the dresses were absolutely stunning like individual pieces of art. We then had a dinner and a dance for hours with a DJ who I must admit crushed any and all of the Westy DJs… At 11 PM we went to a place called bounce, everyone took their heels and dresses off and but their sports clothes on, ready to jump around in an indoor trampoline center! Good end to the night! We stayed the night at Beccas and returned at 6am in the morning to Westy with approximately four hours of sleep. Luckily, I had a double sleep in the next day.

Thank you so much to everyone who made this possible for me to experience. I will remember the formal and the prom forever! Thank you to Mr and Mrs Gavel for driving us and putting up with us so much! It is much appreciated and never goes unnoticed.

Now, there’s not much left. It seems totally irrational, but I’m slowly trying to take that in.

To be continued…

Jo

 

 

 

 

More pictures from Florida

Found these gems

Arts and Music

This might sound weird to some Westy students, but I used to be mainly an athlete. I suffer from a knee injury that does not allow too much physical activity right now, which is why I have let my other interests really flourish on Westy campus. I play golf right now which is a ball, but I have really made a huge effort to let my artistic side come out here. Arts and music, it is. And I have really loved it. They have both been huge parts of my life since as long as I can remember, but maybe not to this extent.

Last week, we performed for SPACE, which stands for Student…. pomthing aomthing comething eomething I really can’t remember, but its basically student organized plays, songs, performances etc. I acted a little bit in one of the plays, written by my peer Julia (Jules you are amazing), and I sung in one of them, written by Mr Aber, a teacher at the school. I keep doing these kind of things, even though I’m used to being on stage, I really have not performed solos, acted, or anything close to dancing on stage, but what better time to try it that here?? Am I right! It is really a great time, especially working with such passionate people. Thank you so much to the SPACE crew, it was a great time working with you.

School wise, things are really slowing down now. A bunch of “lasts” are happening, last game, last test, last chance to do this and that. They have now put up posters in our bathroom with what to think about when cleaning out your room before leaving for summer vacation. We 5th formers still have the exams left though, so I’ll be completely done around June 3rd. And then my brother and mom are coming here from Sweden June 4th!! It’s so soon!?

I have started preparing for hanging up my art pieces for a spring exhibition here at Westy. I do not know how I have had so much time to paint, but I have painted more than ever here! I think I have just been more inspired than usual. If you’re reading this, and are on Westy campus, make sure to come check out the exhibition on May 27th, the graduation day!! I might put some of my pieces up for sale, it depends on the permanent exhibition I’ve been offered to hold in Gund (!!!) and what pieces they want to hang up there. So if you are interested in owning any of my pieces, make sure to come take a look! Here’s a sneak peek…

I include down below a ton of photos, mostly from Cabaret but also from SPACE, the musical and the play. I look terrible in some of them but I included them anyway, its for the memories!!

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Cabaret Week

 

Cabaret was one of the most challenging performances I’ve ever been a part of. I am very  well educated in choir singing, especially classical music, but this time I got to sing several solo pieces in front of a crowd, and I had soooo much fun I can’t even explain it. Me and my roommate Becca together sang Take A Chance On Me by ABBA, so I got to spread some more Swedishness! We had a blast on stage, and we also went dancing with some people in the audience. I got to sing a solo from the musical Pippin, acting out the scene of the manipulative mother in the song Spread A Little Sunshine. The dancing went pretty well, and even tough I had a tough cold I managed to sing most of my tunes ok. To the Cabaret crew, thank you all so much! It was a blast working with you all and I will forever remember it! All the rehearsing was so worth it and I hope you had as much fun as I.

I spent this weekend at my host family’s, to watch the Kentucky Derby! It is the worlds most famous horse race and personally I don’t think I’ve actually watched one ever. The race was over soon after it started, and everyone was screaming and cheering. We had about ten more people over and tons of great food. I got to talk about my Swedishness again, since whenever I met new people they’re always so curious. So, what country do you like better? Johanna, how do you pronounce your name? Are you happy to be going home soon? I don’t know I dont know I don’t knowwww. Hard questions. But it was fun mingling with everyone since everyone always has something to say or ask me.

This weekend was reunion weekend on the hill, which means former students can come back to Westy and say hi to current students and faculty. I was however busy taking the SAT on Saturday. I think it went well! Comparing my feeling after the PSAT to this one, I think I did good! If you do not know what the SAT is, it is sort of the American equivalent to Högskoleprovet.

That is all I can think of at the moment!

Much loveeee

Jo

 

Assist Dinner and Hill Holiday

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This Saturday was the Spring Assist Board of Directions dinner, and if I remember correctly I wrote about the fall one on my blog in.. was it October? Time flies, and this time most conversations went towards what we liked about our year and what we hope for the future. I was asked, “How has your year been?” On which I replied, “Don’t say it like that! Like it is already over!” It was a great time and I got to meet so many people I haven’t seen since the beginning of the year. The students that are invited to the dinner are the ones who happen to be close to the Assist headquarters, and the dinner is more for the board of the organization. Speeches were held and good food and drinks was served. We students who were there got to answer a few questions about diversity, and the core ideas and hopes for our exchange year and the time after it.

This weekend I spent at my host family’s house, after the dinner. As time is slowly running out (!!?) I’m trying to spend as much time with them and just doing more things than usual, (which hardly is possible but anyway) and we spent it just chilling in the house and went out to breakfast. I had a great time with them as always.

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golfing
I have not been golfing a lot this week, because my knees are just not feeling up to it. I don’t know if Im getting worse or better or it stays the same, but I’m doing everything to get rid of this as fast as possible. I really want to get back on the team and start playing every day again, so I’m trying to rehab hardcore instead of half- doing it and never really get better.

 

This past week we had a hill holiday! I spent my hill holiday eating, mostly. Because there is nothing better on the hill than the hill holiday brunch. I then went with two friends to try a 90 minute bikram yoga class, since there was a van from weedy driving there. One of my teachers swears by it, so I thought I might as well try it out. I enjoyed it more than i thought I would. apart from that I was nervous I would get dizzy and faint or something, I found it a relaxing experience. The day after my whole body was aching. That’s when you know you gave it your all! It was a great day and I had dinner at a friends house so I basically didn’t spend any of it on campus.

 

I have watched some games, but way too few so far, this spring. I’ve tried watching lacrosse because it’s such a big sport here at Westy, and I’ve never seen it before ever. It’s confusing but fun to watch, I’m starting to get the hang of it. I also really want to watch a baseball or softball game cos I haven’t really seen one of those either.

This week we have cabaret and I’m very exciteeeed and a little nervous but its gonna be a lot of fun if I don’t screw up my lines!

My family is coming to the states to pick me up before I go home to Sweden, they are staying from the 4-11th of June here in CT and then were going to NYC. We have started planning for fun things to do, if you have any suggestions, please don’t hesitate to tell me!

My best wishesssss

xoxo gossip girl

grass and music

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Spring has finally come to the hill, and the snow is definitely gone by now. The weather is getting warmer and warmer and I have spent more time outside this week than I have in months and months. Me and my friends have found many new favorite hang out places on campus, now that the grass is green and dry and we can study outdoors. Stickball tournaments have started, where all the dorms play against each other in a game very similar to Swedish brännboll.

Me and two friends took a long weekend to my roommates house for easter, and we all got a haircut. My hair is shorter than like ever and it’s a little weird but I think I like it. We played golf, went to the mall and looked for prom dresses, because they both got asked to prom at another school where they have friends. Westy does not have a prom which is a little sad but we have formals at least. we also went to easter brunch with my friend’s family and got easter baskets which I never have before! We stayed out in the sun for most of the day since the temperature reached up to 28 celsius, it was amazing.

We also went to the movies and saw A Dogs Purpose. Midway through the projector stopped working and we got refunded but the first half of the movie was really good and we all shed a few tears. To every dog lover, definitely go watch it!

This Tuesday, a theater duo came and preformed on the Westy WCC stage, a play called Murder For Two. The actors in it were amazing, I was so impressed. The play included over ten characters, all played my two people. They were so talented. I have a small part in one of the upcoming spring plays. When watching people this good at what they do you realize how crappy you are yourself! But you can also learn from it I guess.

I have never played golf this intensely in my life for a longer period of time, and my brain feels kind of mushy from all the golfing but at the same time I am getting a lot better every week. It’s nice spending a lot of time outside.

Yesterday some students from Westy got to go to the Student Diversity Leadership Conference, SDLC, held this year at the school Loomis Chaffee. SDLC is a big event were over 600 students and faculty come together to discuss important topics to do with school and societal atmosphere. There were speakers, slam poetry, music and food. We were divided into small groups to bring up detailed questions. My group existed of people of different skin color, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic background. Every question we brought up, was discussed immensely and passionately. We discussed heavy topics such as race, abortion, mental health, money, privilege and discrimination. I really enjoyed the experience, to be in a place with so much love. Everyone was there to spread the message and promote a more accepting future. It was powerful and beautiful.

This week I have been thinking a lot about home. I think I’ve been more homesick than usual. It’s hard to tell, because I don’t feel sad or anything. I just find myself a little nostalgic or melancholic sometimes. I think it’s healthy though because it makes you more appreciative.

Me knees have been worse than usual, and I don’t know why. I was fine during hockey season and spring break but now I am getting worse again. I keep icing them and I am going to start wearing my braces so thats not exactly good news. I am surrounded by people who want to help though, and hopefully it won’t get worse than this.

I have started planning for the summer and were I’ll be, Torekov and Stocholm. I’m excited, its gonna be a great one!

Hugs

Jo

A little bit of everything

It has been an intense week. A lot of fun things have happened, but terrible things too. Today, I volunteered to go, with a few other students, to a soup kitchen in Hartford, and help serve food to people not as fortunate as myself. It was a humbling experience and I’d definitely do it again. It got me thinking, and I’m sure I am not the only one who would say that. More than I thought of how great the act of giving back is (which is what I would guess most people would say), I realized how small I am, and how little influence I have, if I do not make to conscious choice to change that. When I got to hear about what has recently happened in Stockholm, I got scared for my life. I promised myself I won’t be too opinionated or political on this blog, so I won’t go into it as much as I would want to. I hope everyone is dealing ok with it, despite the circumstances. I think many must feel just like I do, as if there is a cloud of uneasiness just hovering over everything I do, and it is hard to know how to act. I am sending all my love and thoughts to the victims of the tragedy, and want to acknowledge all the people who helped, when this was all new. Something that has seemed so far away for a long time, suddenly feels so close, which is what scares me the most. We mustn’t forget that things like this happen all over the world, all the time, and I am just lucky (or unlucky) to get to know all the details this fast because of media and friends when it happens in my country.

My friends and close ones have really helped me with dealing with the helplessness I feel when I am so far away from home, where it happened. However, I will try to live on as normal, which is all I can do. Furthermore, this week has been full of rain and revisit days, where possible new students come and shadow a current student at west, so it’s been very crowded and formal.  We have also started rehearsing more for cabaret, the show where you can sign up to preform in front of the school with different musical numbers, which I am really looking forward to.

Today we got a full day of sunshine and most people spent it outside on the quad, tanning, chatting and studying. Yesterday was beautiful too and golf is going well even though it is the most frustrating sport in the world.

We had a dance this weekend, and my favorite part of any dance is the getting ready. So I thought I’d include a few pictures, on the outer space theme.

Spring and summer is approaching us on the hill, and I can’t wait for it to come, even though I with sadness write that I am realizing my time here is running out.

That is all for now

Love Jo

 

Back on campus

Hopefully campus will look like this in a couple weeks!!

Hello friends and enemies. Lovers and haters. I hope you are all doing well and that school or work is not stressing you out too much. Personally, I’ve been a little stressed lately, during this first week back after spring break. The last few days of the break I stayed at my roommate Becca’s house before we drove back to the hill and got everything ready for the school week. It was tougher than I thought to be to be back, but I am really enjoying my schedule right now, as golf is my new afternoon commitment. When the weather is nice we go out and play, and when it’s windy and rainy we either work out in the gym together or practice indoors with nets or hopefully in the near future, simulators (they seem really cool). It’s nice not having the stress of two afternoon commitments combined with the uninviting winter weather.

This Saturday, a hypnotist came to campus, apparently it’s a yearly tradition that he comes and hypnotizes some seniors while the rest of the school is watching. I personally do not believe in that kind of stuff, but the show he put on was very convincing, to the point where I think everyone started questioning what to believe. He hypnotized upwards twenty students to dance and sing among other things in front of the entire school, and not be able to recall it afterwards.

First week back from spring break means, the countdown has started. I am trying not to think too much about the fact that my new home here will soon for me become a memory. I am enjoying every day but am also realizing that now is when I should start reflecting back on some of the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year. Today, I received an email from ASSIST about what to think about during my last couple weeks here which makes the fact that I will be going home even more real. It is a scary thought.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about personalities. It sounds vague, but by chance I came across enneagrams, a form of explanations for different types of personalities I was very interested in a couple years ago. It got me thinking again about core values and specific traits in different people. We are reading about memory loss and amnesia in psych class right now, and what’s left of a persons personality when all their memories from their life is lost. Is what is left, what’s in the genes? I’ve also been painting more lately that usual, I’ve just been in the mood. I also created an Instagram page for my painting progress, so I thought I’d give myself a quick shout out- @jhultinpaints.

Much love,
Jo

Adventures pt 3

I’m currently looking out the window of the plane, watching the setting sun show itself again as the plane elevates in height. I’ve had the greatest week golfing in Tampa, Florida. The weather has been what seems almost a little too warm and sunny for a swede like me, but I wont complain.

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We have woken up very early every morning, had our breakfast and then been coached on the ranch for about three hours every day during the sunrise. After lunch, we went out on the two different courses connected to the resort, for about two hours, followed my pool time and various afternoon activities. I have been spraying spf 50 like crazy, and still managed to get pretty burnt, with sock tans and golf glove tan included in the package deal.

coach thomas

First day, I learnt only one thing in those three hours. That I knew nothing. Second day, I got so frusterated that I could cry. Third day, is when I started getting a hang of my new, remodeled swing. Every golfer knows, that too much information just screws with your brain and you feel like you loose more knowledge than you gain. The golf coaching at Saddlebrook Resort was of world class, literally. We got to practice with some of the best coaches in the country, even ranked in the top 40s of the United States. I learnt so much and after these few days my hands are bruised and covered in blisters. But hard work pays off, and I have already gotten noticably more confident on the course.

We got several tangible and intangible things to bring home, so I thought I’d write some down, so I can look back at this post and be proud of my progress. These are personal things, so they might no apply to any other golfer reading this.

• Distance from the ball
• Straighter left arm and more upright, dont get influenced by your tennis swing
• The arms- shoulder tringle- dont lean forward, drop your right shoulder instead
• Lean slightly more forward
• Don’t straighten during downswing, it will mess up your posture
• POSTURE- straighten your back
• The square- parallell shoulders and feet
• If you start topping- it’s likely that your upswing isn’t high up enough
• If you start slicing, your club is too open faced- adjust posture, alignemt and distance to the ball
• If you start missing, you’re likely too far from the ball
• Practince not topping on tees

The flora and fauna made me want to go paint. I’ve seen several alligators, storks, lizards and even a snake on the course. Not to mention all the different type of palm trees that just make want to take a million photos of them, print them out, and put them up all over Sweden. If only there was enough paper. The golf courses were truly beautiful, to the point where I almost lost focus on my game.

The rooms we stayed in were more like apartments, with two large queen beds, a kitchen, living room and the whole shabam for me and my roommate to share. Big windows, with the palm trees on the other side of the glass.

I was so lucky to get to go on this trip, and I enjoyed every single part of it. Sometimes, it was even a little overwhelming and I declined some afternoon plans to just sit down and take a breath and watch the clouds pass. I’m the kind of person who just needs some time like that every once in a while, even though most people tend to take me for the happy, hyper person that I aspire to be.

To conclude, I have got to experience so much and see so many new things, and I am so thankful to Westy and Assist for all the opportunities I get.  My absolute favorite part of the trip was probably the coaching, I’m such a competitive person and I’ll easily start thinking about breaking my clubs in half on bad days, and googling what colleges offer golf scholarships on god ones. It’s ridiculous.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about weather. I have come to the conclusion that I might be the rare kind of person who really enjoys a four season climate and would not want to live permanently in a place like florida or California, I get so tired of the warmth. However, when i get to travel to it like this, I reach a kind of euphoria. But I Iove falling asleep to the sound of rain against my window or taking a hot shower after being out in the snow, just as much. The seasons give an appreciation for whatever weather I’m in. I doubt I’ve ever written anything so cliche, but it’s true. I also have come to realize that I am not the person who enjoys resort trips just for the sun and the pool. I need stuff to do and things to explore. Golfing, touristing around, getting inspired, walking new streets and experiencing new cultures. The sun chair is usually not one of my top 10 activities.

Also, I’ve now reached the point where people stop noticing my Swedish accent, which is a little freaky to me. I’ll small talk with someone new, and they’ll be surprised to hear I’m not a permanent resident. I’m considering att tenta av engelska 7, but we’ll see.

 

Thats all for now. Hope you’re all well.

Love