My New Home

Finally! After 11 hours of plane rides I have arrived in Uppsala and am settled in with my first host family.  My 9 hour flight to Amsterdam went smoothly.  I sat next to a guy from Croatia (I think?) who, when he was 16 came on an exchange to Missouri!  It was fun to talk to him and learn about his experiences.  The second flight I rode with three other exchange students from the US coming to Sweden but don't really remember it...I slept through the entire thing :)
I was greeted by a huge sign saying Welcome Annalise in Swedish along with a Swedish teddy bear, flowers, HUGE bar of chocolate, and a traditional Swedish horse souvenir.  My host parents and Anna (my host sister) were there along with my host aunt and two host cousins (age 15 and 11? and I forgot the names already) Who I discovered are my host family for the last part of the year!  We went to eat lunch in the "center" of Uppsala where my host brother (Johan) met up with us.  After, we walked around town which is absolutely adorable.  It is a university town and there are more bikes than cars and half the streets are closed off to cars completely. 
My host family knows English pretty well and have been guiding me around.  But they said today was my only free day that they would talk English to me and tomorrow was begins boot camp :)

 on left: town and church in background
on right: river flowing through town

 Left: church (same one as first pic)
Above: heading into town

 Top: arboretum
Middle: view of town from pink castle
Bottom: PINK CASTLE!!!